Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk

I'm not sure what to do about stereotypes. How can you diminish something that everyone knows about if you can't let them see another side? Chimamanda brings up an excellent point, the one sided story can create a lot of harm. It's hard to let others see another side if half of the world is so ignorant to others. That's what I saw when I told my best friend in Texas that I was moving to Colombia. To me it wasn't a big deal. I've live in Brasil, Argentina, and The United States, one more country couldn't harm my experience. However, my friend thought it was the strangest thing ever. She told me, "what's it going to be like to live in Africa?" That shocked me. I mean, I've heard jokes about people thinking that Colombia is in Africa, but to actually hear it shocked me. Then my Pre-AP English teacher told me, "You're not in the cocaine business are you?" A full grown man told me this! I couldn't handle this ignorance coming from people that I personally knew.
I decided to explore what it meant to hear only one side to every story. Stereotypes harm so many ideas, people, and cultures. For me, I never believe one thing until I either researched the topic or went to the place myself. Then again, I've had a lot more experience with other cultures; 14 other countries worth of cultures. Maybe it isn't a personal problem but more of a societal problem. It's going to be hard to get ride of one-sided stories, if it is even possible. People need to get out of their ignorance bubble and explore the world a little more in order to escape their single world.

Heart of Darkness Part 3

Response to Matt Alvarez

While I agree that we become obsessed with our objects that we want to obtain, I do not think it's the only way that people have wanted to gain power. I believe that power is also gained through the means of emotion. Kurtz may be able to gain power from Ivory and may be obsessed with it, but I also think he was able to gain his power through his means of emotion. I know that leaders from the past, example would be Hitler, were able to conform others into what they want them to do by changing and challenging what they know and feel. I think that this method is more effective into what Kurtz wants.

Heart of Darkness Part 2

Response to Camila Nieto

I agree with Camila, that we all think of another country with what we hear. However, I believe it's only because we are scared of what's outside of our own world. I know a lot of people who haven't even left their own neighborhood (this is back in Texas) and only believed the stereotypes of places I have been to or have lived in. While I do think that this is terrible, I do think that this is only a defense mechanism. Maybe we shouldn't blame people for being this way, or maybe we should teach people better. I do not think that this mentality that we have of other countries is our fault, but more of societies fault.

Heart of Darkness Part 1

What is darkness? Is it considered to be light, your surroundings, or even yourself? For me, I find that "darkness" is your soul. Heart of Darkness raises the question for me to define what darkness is. I feel that Conrad wants the reader to explore what happens to our lost souls as we explore the world, and soon they become dark.
 Darkness can be described as "no light". However, I feel that that definition can apply to humans. Our "light" could be how we precieve the world and what guides us. When Conrad introduces the darkness, I first thought it was to be the way that London is. However, I soon came to realize that darkness is the lost souls of the explores. How do we retrieve the light again? That's a matter of time that I feel that each of these characters have asked themselves time and time again. Then again, I could be completely wrong.

Song - Irony

The part that is ironic is "they're no use tryin to save them, there's nothin left to save." because eventually, in the US, they try to help save, or restore, the civilizations that they killed off but cannot because they were too late. 

The part  isn't ironic is "The Great Nations of Europe had gathered on the shore.
They'd conquered what was behind them and now they wanted more,
so they looked to the mighty ocean and took to the Western sea -
the great nations of Europe in the 16th century." The reason why this isn't ironic is because one, it isn't a what it says vs what it means, two it isn't a what we know vs. what the character/speaker knows and three it isn't a expectation vs. actual situation. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Character Change

Change isn't always positive, but it also isn't always negative. However, change can be so many things because it is never clearly defined to suit any one person. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there is one certain character that shows a dramatic change in the novel. He shows that fear can be masted into becoming someone's ally in a time of darkness. Chief is the one who is able to prove that "change", no matter what it is, can help anyone out when you need to become strong. The "fog", as explained in the novel, is ultimately the tangible exposure to fear. When Chief is able to overcome this fog, he regains his true self, as a leader, a hero, and as someone who can escape the nightmare of the hospital.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Women

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.  If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes."  They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."  ~Clare Boothe Luce

Women have always been oppressed through out history. Even today, women are expected to fail. That's why women work ten times harder to make sure that they do not fail. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the person in power is Nurse Rachet. Though she abuses her power, she tries to not fail as a nurse. Cuckoo's Nest takes women's role into a new light. Usually women are portrayed as stupid, soft, and beautiful. However, not every women is like that. Is is stereotypical for women to be portrayed as this? Nurse Rachet is a perfect example that women can try hard, and succeed without falling into a stereotypical aspect of what women are considered. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - The Fog

The world is filled with people who try to hard to suppress others through fear. But what does fear do to people? Why is it that in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the nurse able to use fear to make the others in the ward conform into what she wants. However, it isn't just her that allows fear to drive the ward, but also this "fog" that the Chief talks about. The fog isn't something that you can see, hear, of feel, but rather the symbol of the fear that is controlling everyone. Chief needs the fear to be more tangible, that way, it makes more sense for the mind of a mental patient.

Waiting for Godot Video

In Waiting for Godot, the movie, you automatically see how the set is set up. It's very bleak, and dreary. Most of the color is gray, black, and white, and you see very little emotion excepts for the loss of hope. You get a sense of emptiness and also the hope that Godot will show up. Other than a few rocks around the ground, there isn't much to the set; however, the director makes sure that the tree is shown in every scene. He also makes sure that the angles are shown to what is seen by the characters and what they are doing. The director wants to make sure that you are aware of what's going on at all times, while still being able to understand the characters individually. The characters are ugly, and you can tell by their clothing that they are homeless or close to homeless. They've really given up all hope. The first scene is depressing, it's like the world had ended and they are waiting for a hero to come and save them. They are all simply suffering.

Waiting For Godot

Waiting for Godot raised a question for me, who is Godot? I believe that Godot is a form of God. He is the one that everyone is waiting for, but no one sees or hears from. This is a simple way of showing how God is waited by everyone and he doesn't wait on anyone else. There have been many books and forms of literature where someone is writing, or talking to someone who isn't there; just waiting for them. In the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie, the main character is writing to an unknown person, but he is hoping to hear from that person. In a way, the unknown is god, that people want to have a sense of comfort and that they don't want to be alone. Which makes sense, people do not want to feel alone in such a giant world. That's who I feel Godot is. He is "god", the one they wait for just to get some peace.

The Stranger Blog Response 3

From what I understand of The Stranger, I believe that Camus is trying to show the world how an existentialist lives. Meursualt's life is a constant struggle to just live day by day, yet we as humans plan for tomorrow and still ponder about the past by reflecting on memories. I believe that the discussion question that plays the most part in The Stranger is, "Life is a series of choices, creating stress." You see that no matter what, Meursault has a hard time deciding what to do and blames it on the sun. Especially when he chooses if he should kill the Arab or not, he starts feeling uncomfortable and emotionally and physically emotionally stressed. He has a hard time deciding what to do, and once he decides, he starts being an existentialist, and that he doesn't care from that point on. While he is in the decision making process, he can't figure out what to do and so he blames it on the sun and how it affects him. That's why this question relates so much to the novel. You see a way that Camus related his character to everyday people.

The Stranger Blog Response 2

In The Stranger, you never really know the underlining truth in the narrator's character. He doesn't know how to react because in "recent years, [he] lost the habit of noting [his] feelings, and hardly knew what to answer." (page  41, on PDF file) Since he doesn't notice his feelings, you don't know how he thinks and he himself doesn't even know how to relate to others or to react to the world. Within this quote, you can also see that the narrator is completely disconnected with himself. He cannot connect with the world and society because he cannot connect with himself. I believe that if it he didn't kill the Arab, then he would have eventually blown up because no one can really live in the world without being connect with themselves.

The Stranger Part 1 - Blog Response 1

The narrator in The Stranger has a curious way of reacting to the events in his life. He doesn't really care, and that's the way that existentialists live. They live day by day, and this is how the narrator lives his life. When he tells us that this mother has died, he doesn't seem effected by it. "Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure." He notices her death, but he doesn't seem to demonstrate emotion where others would weep over the death of their mother. It's strange how nothing effects him no matter how terrible his life may get. The reader can really tell that he doesn't care what happened in the past when he says, "It occurred to me that somehow I’d got through another Sunday, that Mother now was buried, and tomorrow I’d be going back to work as usual. Really, nothing in my life had changed." He's almost as if he has no soul or heart, as if he is a shell of a man.