Reflection

Dear AP Classmates and Mrs. Day,

Today I type this blog to say not a goodbye but an extended “see you later.” Several of us have been together for over 4 years and surprisingly I’m not tired at looking at you! (Lol) We have all grown to care for and support each other and I’m not just talking about the American Way gang but also the new comers like Shemar, Sterling, and Timiki. We have had many fun moments together; we have had many struggles together. Now, we will all be walking on that stage together. We formed a big family with a variety of personalities. We have Black, Hispanic, White, athletes, nerds, chess geeks, book worms, Goth (Racheal lol), dancers, cheerleaders, and lastly Michael. (There is no one word to describe his crazy twisted pessimism.) Yet, with all these diverse personas we all came together and created great moments in room 311.

I think we can all agree that senioritis hit us and it hit us hard late junior year. This blog speaks for itself. I’m posting this on May 17^th, which means we not even in school anymore and it’s probably not going to be graded. Regardless, I’m still posting it because I wanted to and because Mrs. Day attacked me asking for her book and my blog yesterday. Anyhow, I regret letting my procrastination get in the way of many teachable moments.

Oh Mrs. Day, I just want to say that I wish you would have taught us when we still had at least 45% of juice left. We wasted so much energy on teachers who didn’t even deserve our time. You’ve taught us the ways of Mr. Mark Twain; you’ve taught us the ways of life. Thank you for using the last bit of juice left in you these past 2 years on us. (Hopefully you recharge once you go to Nashville.)

Overall, taking AP courses was a heck of a challenge. Though I do not want to sound like a cliché but it is the truth. We were never really challenged in our “honors” classes, especially not in our regular classes. It was a real challenge trying to complete the work. It was a real challenge coming to classes. (I had to go up the stairs from the 1^st floor to the 3^rd. It was always a work out getting up there. lol) We even had AP drop outs by senior year. However, I stuck around and now I’m ending the class with a C. Though that my sound awful, it sounds like an accomplishment to me because I know I became increasingly lethargic. I am going to pray I change my habits by the time I get to college.

Now I just want to give thanks to all my classmates and Mrs. Day for being part of my high school experience. 

PS. Don't be surprised if I use some of this in my speech! heheheheh

This is a "Tragedy and the Common Man" Does Nothing About It!

Playwright and essayist, Arthur Miller discusses the real significance and purpose of tragedies in his essay "Tragedy and the Common Man." Miller begins his essay about how there are less and less tragedies being written. He believes the cause is that there are not much heroes left. Also because people have stop believing in heroes and are now full of skepticism because of science. He continues by saying that tragedies are just about "individuals attempting to gain his rightful position in [their] society." This means tragedies are created based on the consequences of the protagonist trying to find his rightful place. Miller goes on to talk about how tragedies are known for their sadistic and "unhappy" endings. However, he says that tragedies actually focus on the "possibility of victory." Meaning that tragedies are about the "hero" trying to reach his goal yet never succeeding at the end. Mr. Miller ends his essay by saying that tragedies will stay forever only in the "heart and spirit of the average man" because tragedies were written when heroes and kings were still part of our lives, now they are just part of history.

I would have to agree with Sir Miller on his point of view of tragedies. I believe that we have generalized tragedies into brutal and somber pieces of literature. For example, Antigone can be pin as a tragedy of of woman dying in honor for her brother. However, have we ever stopped and thought that maybe Creon is not much of fault here? This play talks about Creon's journey into becoming a powerful and respected king. However, his greed for power overpowered his thinking and caused the death of Antigone, his son, and his queen. I realized that Antigone is the antagonist of Creon. She has challenged Creon and  his ruling. Creon, as any king would do, could not possibly stand for someone to go against him. He is trying to not only establish but also maintain his role in his society as king. 

Can I do "An Interview August Wilson" Too?

David Savran rakes playwright, August Wilson's mind with questions about the meaning behind his play Fences. In this interview, Wilson begins by talking about how children will share the same morals and/or values such as their parents. He continues to say that children wouldn't be their parents’ children if they didn't share characteristics. Wilson then shifts the conversation and talks about how African Americans' "assimilation to white American society was a big mistake." He states that Blacks have victimized themselves. They believe that they belong in the projects and poverty. They believed that mistreatment and discrimination from whites is a part of life but once they realize that that is not true, they can start pushing themselves into society. Savran then goes on to ask Wilson about "hostility between father and son" and if "it's a healthy and a good thing." Wilson responses with a firm "Oh yeah;" he says that it is healthy because the father is just preparing his son for a tough world. He states that a father has a sense of satisfaction when a son challenges him because he is strengthening his son for when he steps into the real world. The interview closes with Wilson talking about how everyone gets institutionalized whether they realized or not. The institution can vary from penitentiary, mental hospital, and even a church.

One of the things that caught most of my attention was when Wilson talked about African Americans victimizing themselves. I have met several people with that mentally; the belief that African Americans have been victims of the whites and they are owed something. Yes, I agree that Africans were victims of much torture. However, today’s African Americans shouldn't blame their negativity on the past. I repeat myself several Africans Americans think this way, not all. 

Opening up to "On Close Readings"

In "On Close Readings," Peter Rabinowitz talks about how close reading is not the only way to read literature. He states that close readers tend create a "distortion" of  works because they want to read however they want to . Rabinowitz says that there are many ways to read a piece. It depends on authors, genre, periods of time, and culture. You have to modify your reading style each time you read a different piece. 

I strongly agree with argument of Mr. Rabinowitz. I agree that you have to approach different type of literature in different ways. You can not use the same "template" for each piece. I would read and interpret differently my Twilight book from my Romeo and Juliet. The plots,setting, time periods, and even language is different. However, they are both pieces of literature. 

The Modifications to Fiction

John Barth, American novelist, in his piece "On Minimalist Fiction" gives us the new modifications to fiction. He entitles these type of works as minimalist fiction. He states the minimalist fiction is the most simple type of fiction. He says that minimalist fiction is stripped-down of all of its elements: vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric, and non-emotive tone. Also minimalist fiction has minimal material: characters, exposition, action, and plot.

When reading this piece it was hard to tell if Barth was towards or against minimalist fiction. Yet he is somewhat defending it when he quotes Hemingway, " You could omit anything if you knew that you omitted, and the omitted part would strength the story and make people feel something more than they understood..." I think he used to line to say that even though minimalist fiction can be lacking in many elements that you still get the whole perception of a piece. As well as, missing a part can mean that the reader can interpret or put the missing piece however they feel like. 

No More Reading Fiction....It's Dangerous

In his piece, "On the Dangerous of Reading Fiction, Thomas Jefferson expresses his distaste towards fiction. He uses a metaphor to describe fiction as a "poison [that] infects the mind." Jefferson makes this analogy to explain how he feels that fiction destroys the beauty of reading. He feels that when people read fiction that it results in "a bloated imagination." However, there are a few exceptions. The exceptions are pieces that model real life stories and have moral values integrated. He states that such fiction can be a "pleasure" to read and is a better "improvement" than unrealistic fiction. 

Even though Jefferson is one of the American founding fathers and he is the major author of the Declaration of Independence, I have to disagree. Fiction for me has always been a "happy place". Reading fiction takes me to a different world where anything is possible. Through out middle school years, my nose was always stuck in fiction books. I have read about princesses, wolves, vampires, zombies, ghosts, babysitters, and so many others things. I probably did not gain anything important, however they are just fun to read. It is fun to read about something different. As a student, I have a repeating schedule everyday. So being able to pick up a book and read about humans that transform into wolves is just a nice relief from reality. 

Putting words to Poetry and Prose

Poet, T. E. Hulme in his piece, "On the Differences between Poetry and Prose", points out the major difference between poetry and prose. He states that prose is a more concrete type of writing and less visual. However, he describes poetry as "visual concrete" form of writing. In his ending lines, he uses a metaphors to describe prose and poetry. He states that poetry "is a pedestrian taking you over the ground"; however, prose is " a train which delivers you at a destination."

What I think he meant in those lines was that poety is more of an  artist. Poetry helps you paint a picture in your head easier than prose would. Poetry does so through smilies, metaphors, personifications, and etc. Prose, on the other hand, goes straight to the point. It does not extend to give description like poetry does.  For example, in the piece says that describing a ship "coursed the seas" paints a better picture than the ship "sailed". In my opinion, Hulme was a bit bias. He didn't make prose seem horrible but boring. However, he did speak about poetry with admiration. I suppose it is because he is a poet himself. 

I'm not so great at "Figuring Out Metaphors"

In his work titled Figuring Out Metaphors, John R. Searle questions why do people use metaphors rather than saying what they really mean. He also questions the fact that some metaphors most people would understand and some are more difficult. For example, Sam is a pig: this metaphor probably means that Sam is an untidy person. However, if we said Sally is a prime number between 17 and 23, we would not know what the literal meaning of this metaphor is. 

I actually enjoy metaphors. I think it is a more creative way to say what we actually mean. Instead of saying, "Alicia is a young and beautiful girl," I could say "Alicia is the first ray of sunshine on a warm spring morning." Does it not have a better ring to it? Metaphors are just one more figurative language device to add embellishment to literature, even though they can be hard to understand at times.  

My Words On "On the Words in Poerty"

In his piece, "On the Words in Poerty", Dylan Thomas exclaims his passion for words. He describes how he loves the words and "the words alone." He states that he does not really care for the significance or what the words symbolize. He says he just loves the way words sound. Thomas uses a few figurative language devices to describe his passion for words such as: parallelism,  metaphors, and personification. He exclaims, "these words were, to me, as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments, the noises of wind, sea, and rain...." As he goes on he says that words are just plain but once you structure them and make a pattern the beauty of the words just come to live.

I agree with Mr. Thomas's belief. Words are just words and can be as simple as can be. However, once you put words together you can create something so beautiful no matter if it is  a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or a whole story. It is the same for an artist. An artist can have an array of colors and when he puts them together he creates a iridescent painting that is full of color and life.