Author's Note: This is a reading response on the old story of, The Trojan Horse.
Not only were the Greeks and Trojans in war, but after that Greek Army departed an odd gift, a wooden horse, was left behind for the Trojans. This was the conflict of the story, the Trojans either thought that they should burn the wooden horse or praise it. After the priest stabbed the wooden horse the conflict was resolved by Sinon sharing his knowledge with the Trojans. The whole thing was so sneaky, because the whole time the Greek band of warriors were hiding in the belly of the wooden horse. This devious scheme could happen nowadays, because there are wars going on today. None of that could happen at a school or small work place, because today a tactic known as, compromise, is used in schools and work places. Lastly I haven't seen any thing relatively close to this story in novels, films, or real life of this century.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
What is True Beauty?
Author's
Note: This is a reading response on, Ribbons.
I've gone back and updated this piece and turned it into an essay for my
next conference.
Superficial beauty can be defined as the way our
country insists we carry ourselves to fit in with our society. In
this country people buy the most expensive clothes they can find, wear as much
make-up as they have, and invest in plastic surgery. All to
make themselves look beautiful to our current day society. Our
society doesn't allow people of all shapes and sizes in, which results in many
people not being able to feel good about themselves. People of both
genders and all ages have insecurities. In many cases people are insecure
about their weight. Sometimes girls are even concerned about how big
their feet seem to be. What they don't know is that in China girls go
through physical pain to have small feet.
Foot binding is the process in which a female child's
mother bends their feet backwards slowly when they are growing up. The
reason this occurs in their country is because their belief is that no man
would marry a girl with big feet. To them it may be tradition, but I see
it in from an awful perspective. While we Americans are crying over our
shoe size Chinese girls are putting up with the pain of growing up with
small feet. The worst part is that the gentlemen of America don't care
what shoe size you are, if they love you they'll marry you. Simple as
that, but the men in China actually refuse to marry a girl with big feet.
You can't put blame on these men because it's simple tradition, but the
first man to break this unwritten law I will bow down to.
As these ladies grow up with their feet being bound, they
are put through many struggles. Eventually they'll get used to the
certain way they have to walk, in order to cause them the least amount of pain.
Now imagine someone, with those conditions, trying to dance with bound
feet, you could practically feel the amount of discomfort they would endure.
Now think about how popular dancing is in America. Every dancer
knows that there's a price to pay when it comes to wearing ballet shoes.
They're tightly wound, which make them very uncomfortable to wear.
Yet we wear them anyways, because it's part of the dancing culture we
have. As different cultures teach people alternate ways,
their assumptions cause misunderstandings.
A misunderstanding is the conflict in the short
story, Ribbons. The
grandmother has gone through the foot binding process, which caused her to demand
the burning of her granddaughter's ballet shoes. In her eyes the ribbons reminded her of
horrific childhood memories. I assume
the grandmother would’ve reacted in the same way, even if she wasn’t her
granddaughter. It seems foreign to her,
the reason anyone would do such a thing to themselves. Although her granddaughter wasn’t self-harming
herself, other’s do to achieve superficial beauty. In China foot binding is not a choice girls have,
otherwise they will never get married.
We look at foot binding like it’s a crime, think about how people of
other cultures see Americans superficial beauty.
In China girls go through physical pain to have small
feet. This is something people don’t understand. All in all, the people that see how wrong
foot binding is, may be the ones that look at themselves in the morning and
wonder why they weren’t blessed with a smaller face and bigger eyes. Maybe there’ll always be some form of superficial
beauty lingering around, keeping people up at night, but I hope not. I wish for one day where everyone can get up
in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror and thank god for what he
has given them, because that’s not superficial beauty. That’s true beauty, no matter how other
people see it, it’s still true beauty.
Monday, May 13, 2013
What Will It Take?
Author’s Note: This is a text analysis essay that is
based off of the online, unpublished, story, Forever and Always His, by RiceLover. This is also an edited piece to help me improve in Text Analysis and score a 10 in body paragraphs.
In two years, I’ll be able to drive. In two years, I’ll be half way through with
high school. In two years, I’ll either
have my future decided or will be trying to figure out a plan for my
future. A lot can change in two
years. In the beginning of Forever and Always His, by Ricelover,
Everett loves Riley to no end, until one day his mother, Collette, dies. Throughout the next two years Everett builds
up so much hatred towards Riley, by blaming his mother’s passing on Riley, that
it takes Everett and Riley practically another year to become lovers again. Since, the book is written from Riley’s point
of view, readers have already have pity towards her, but if you were to read
the story in Everett’s point of view, you’ll also see how over-powering Everett
is, and gain more pity for Riley.
Riley put up with taking Everett’s sarcastic remarks for two
years after Collette’s sacrifice, but only because she loved him. She may’ve thought it was unfortunate for her
to run into his dad at the grocery store at the time, but in the long run she
was grateful. She became closer with
Everett, but she still blames herself for his mother’s death. Unintentionally Everett’s father gets
remarried and it brings them even closer together, yet Riley is still
rebuking. Immediately after Collette's passing it was easy for
Everett to accuse Riley of the incident, he even had other things to hold against
Riley. After two years though, his personality
has changed drastically and it takes a mistake of his to notice how awful his
attitude had gotten, since he broke up with Riley.
Long after Collette’s death and Everett and Riley’s reunion,
their relationship is once again ruined, but this time around Riley can’t be blamed for what happened, yet Everett tries. In the following quote Everett proves
the control he had in their past relationship. “”You have to believe me Riley.”
Everett suddenly said, making my heart sting.” (Chapter 23, page 2) If this had happened during the time before
Everett’s mother’s passing, Riley would’ve believed him, because he was never
at fault in their past relationship. He was always right, never
wrong. This time a lot has changed
between them and even though what Riley says next isn’t forgiving, it still
hurt her. I don’t think it should’ve hurt
her, but she was and still is fragile and Everett knew it. It was easy for Everett to use that against
Riley during the two year period of him lowering her self-esteem. Reading this certain section of the book made me feel victorious for
Riley, for not only because she stood up to Everett, but for shutting him down as well.
Unlike the first quote, the second quote is taken from a
part later in the book where Everett is trying to regain Riley’s trust, once
again. ““Riley, one thing,” I heard a
whisper before I went into a deep slumber, “I don’t want you to blame yourself
for my mother’s death anymore. I never
wanted you to blame yourself.”” (Chapter
27, Page 5) For one, his apology is
quite late. Which leads me to suspicions
of other last-minute apologies in Everett and Riley’s past relationship. Considering Riley isn’t one to decline one’s justifications, this could potentiality be another reason why Everett considers himself the boss. The power Everett has doesn’t allow Riley any choice but to accept
his pleas. From my viewpoint I find this perverse for Everett to do, because he knows Riley lacks confidence, which should only lead him to question Riley's true feelings.
You’ll see how over-powering Everett is, and gain more pity
for Riley, if you were to read the story in Everett’s point of view. Even if he gradually changed back to the
Everett he was before his mother’s sacrifice, he still has his over-powering aspect. He will still expect Riley to buy his lies
and he will still expect Riley to forgive him and his late apologies, but she’ll
slowly put him in his place. After a
whole year of trying to regain his love, she deserves to have some say in their
relationship. Hopefully she will, and if
not I hope he loses her again and notices how much he misses her. Knowing that, they’d be a perfect match, and he
would be worthy of her as well.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
We Are All Humans
Author's Note: I was to write an analysis of how the story, After You My Dear Alphonse, relates to the topics of naivete and reverse racism. How it compares and contrasts to our city's society and other areas of the world, and also what lesson I thought Shirley Jackson was trying to teach us.
Back in the days, racism was common, now-a-days that isn't always the case. In our small city's society and other areas of the world, there are both older folks and younger souls. The younger souls are being raised into a non-racism world, while the older folks are the complete opposite. Less then 100 years ago, racism was not only taught, but preached through ministers of churches and educational teachers. The elders grew up learning this way of life, which effects their lives today. This seems to be the cause of mostly all racism that still occurs today. Since this was how their generation grew-up, that is how they act. Later racism disappeared, but some parents disagreed with the movement and continued to teach their children otherwise. I feel that this was the lesson Shirley Jackson was trying to draw attention to through his writing. I believe he wanted the next generation to have an idea of how unfair this olden day life style was. The naivete was cruel and I think Shirley was one of the few people that was against racism.
Back in the days, racism was common, now-a-days that isn't always the case. In our small city's society and other areas of the world, there are both older folks and younger souls. The younger souls are being raised into a non-racism world, while the older folks are the complete opposite. Less then 100 years ago, racism was not only taught, but preached through ministers of churches and educational teachers. The elders grew up learning this way of life, which effects their lives today. This seems to be the cause of mostly all racism that still occurs today. Since this was how their generation grew-up, that is how they act. Later racism disappeared, but some parents disagreed with the movement and continued to teach their children otherwise. I feel that this was the lesson Shirley Jackson was trying to draw attention to through his writing. I believe he wanted the next generation to have an idea of how unfair this olden day life style was. The naivete was cruel and I think Shirley was one of the few people that was against racism.
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