Documentary: Born Into Brothels

It is sad to see such poverty, such suffering, such society issues when we have almost none of them here where we live and its even sadder to see how they cherish what we may consider as "nothing" but for them is everything they have. It is also sad to see that the women are the one who suffer the most as they are the ones who end up prostituting themselves maybe to get a couple of dollars to maybe buy a small sack of rice, how the children get treated as stray dogs by their own mother. This documentary touched me very deeply even though I am very aware that people in India are living in the equivalent to Hell, is sad to know that most of the kids who got help from their teacher ended up leaving school but at least she tried to help them just like I would have done and would like to do if I ever get the chance to do so.

There should be something done and what Zana did for them I consider it a marvelous work that more people with the necessary resources should copy and should help the good people that need their help.

I know that if I ever get the chance to help out people in need I would gladly do it.

My view of literature have not changed much as I as an individual don't like to read much, this has nothing to with the way Professor Betty Medina presented the class, is just that I was never raised as a book worm and that is why I personally don't like to read, don't take me wrong I do read, I read about medicine, technology, art, history and music but I'm not the kind of person to sit on a chair and read a book from head to toes in a day or a week I simply find that boring, but of course the professor gave us some interesting stuff to read, I definitely learned about the caste system in India which I had no knowledge of, I learned that there are some terrible problems in Africa with the female circumcision, this class also helped me to think a little more when it comes to writing and analyzing literary works.

Since there was a HUGE problem in this class I would like to present it through this last entry in the blog, the professor was one hell of a professor she was kind and I personally never felt that I was in the presence of a higher authority which I loved about this class and I always feel that in other classes, this was a great experience for me, she was easy going and a great help in everything we as students asked her, but the problem in the class were us,  the students as it was a rare occasion when we would do our assigned homework or read the stories which Betty Medina assigned for us, the problem in this class was not the teacher but us, our irresponsibility as students. I know that Professor Betty Medina felt a great frustration because one could notice it, I mean I would have felt it too.

Today was the first day of the last week of class and there were only 5 students present including me, we had to do our oral presentation and nobody showed up. I would like to take the time to say that I'm sorry for that and I speak for myself, this in no way includes the opinion of my other classmates, but I feel that we were super irresponsible towards our English class.

Thanks Professor.

My favorite piece of literature has now turned out to be the poem "I found it" by Fadwa Tuqan since it tell us how one can truly found oneself, how beautiful life can be comparing it with nature which has no comparison with anything else in the world when it comes to beauty. I love how she portrays her life as a strong bough from a tree since I believe trees are the first most important living things in the world, they are the ones that give us oxygen after all and I too believe my life is like a tree, I mean I love nature and if it was for me I would live in the Tibet with the monks defending mother earth and helping our mother's creatures. I feel identified with this piece of literature because of what I mentioned earlier, I think it's a beautiful piece or literature because of the way the author expresses her feelings and her life through nature. Life is a wonderful and beautiful thing and I think she portrayed it as such, elegantly, with such passion and devotion which I think I wouldn't have done it any other way. Life and nature both are beautiful things that need to be respected by all living beings.

I Stand Here Ironing by Tilli Olsen

We can see here the classic mother oppressed by personal and environmental circumstances that laments the choices she has made as a mother, we can see her revealing to us the readers the heartbreaking story of her life as a mother that some mother still live today. The time spent searching for a job and actually working, night shifts and over time just to pay for a good day-care for their children is time wasted that could have been used into raising their children on their own, time that will never come back once lost. Sometimes first time mothers don't have the experience or just don't have the knowledge and try to take advice from the worst kinds of person there is, their kids end up in day-cares  that are worse than prisons, the children get abused or neglected. A lot of single mothers go through this same issue when the father decides to just leave the house  for unknown reasons just like my "dear" father who decided to leave my mother when me and my brother were still little kids, 4 (me) and 5 (my brother) to be more specific. Between studying and working, my mother had little time for us but she would never leave us at a day-care for she had worked at one and knew how other employees treated the kids over there, instead she left us with our grandma who treated us kindly and thanks to that neither my older brother nor me suffer nor anyone neglected us.

The Lottery

Another way of letting us know that tradition and rituals sometimes is wrong and damages society, I don't even know why it's called the lottery since when you talk about "lottery" you expect good things like money, fortune and a better life due to the money you win, but in here the one that "wins" is the one who gets stoned to death, I personally think that they did it to just kill someone since it says that they lost the original box and had forgotten about the original ritual. Sometimes some traditions are unnecessary like this one, why would you need to stone people to death? just for fun? This story somewhat represent ourselves nowadays since when there is a fight or argument in public or someone is beating someone else up we just flock towards and don't do much to help we just like the gossip to butt ourselves not to stop the problem or to try and help the others out but just "to fuel the fire" even more which is what we can see here in The Lottery, where not even the child were safe from such a nasty tradition, even the adults gave them pebbles to throw at Tessie, but no one seemed to help her as she cried out that the lottery was an unfair business, they just kept throwing stones at her until the very end of her life.

Poem: I found it by Fadwa Tuqan

Fadwa tells us how her soul found her soul, maybe in a way of realization, of groin up and becoming a mature and wise human being. I like this poem because it talks about life and about the soul and I think life and death go hand by hand, they are not the opposite of one another, they complement each other, one could not have died if one wasn't alive. Life and death are such mysteries, do you really live everything you were meant or supposed to live? and, is there something else beyond death? The truth is nobody knows, only the dead knows what goes on after life and they are not here with us to tell us what goes on beyond that point.

I remember the professor asking us how we pictured our lives after reading the part were Fudwa says "I found it after a long wandering. It was a tender evergreen bough were birds took shelter, a bough bending gently under storms." and I never got the chance to explain how I portrayed or see my life, well I portray my life to be a strong cherry blossom tree in full bloom, with flowers as beautiful as can be, with Cicadas making noises to cheer my life up, under blue skies with a white cloud here and there, supported by a small stone that never breaks, lit at night by fireflies that never stop shinning under the starry sky, with some storms seldom striking down and wetting the soil but the small rock is always there to support the tree. That's how I see my life that is what I think when I need to find myself, I think myself as that beautiful tree and how I have the support of that little but strong rock and I think I can also say that my soul found my soul.

Pizza in Warsaw, Torte in Prague.

This is the vivid example of how people take things for granted because they believe that that certain thing will always be available. One will have to live what other people live just to understand of how much misery the world has, like in this story that pizza was so scarce and who would have thought that piece of bread with tomato sauce and cheese would be so unavailable when it's so simple to have those three main ingredients. The narrator was used to having pizza and fast foods as he says in the beginning of this writing but when he the realized that this was not case in Warsaw he then realizes and tells us that even a lemon was a luxury to have at that time. One can only imagine how bad people would have been living in those times, we should call ourselves rich! we can go to our neighbor and ask for a lemon or just go to a lemon tree and pick up some lemons which is my case since my grandma has a huge lemon tree in her backyard. The other thing was the cake, who could have imagine that finding a cake would have been such an impossible task? Well it is mentioned here that even a cake was nowhere to be found in Prague in fact there were no pastries at all and today here in Puerto Rico you can go ANYWHERE and find a cake, muffin, doughnuts and such delicacies. This story will make you ponder and can actually make you realize that we are not poor at all, in fact we can consider ourselves rich compare to our distant neighbors across  the ocean far away or as close as in the Dominican Republic or Haiti which even water is a most needed recourse and is almost nonexistent.

The Falling Girl

Reading this made me realize how short life was and how sometimes people make decisions which later they regret, like Marta when she for a moment stops and fears that she would have made a mistake in jumping off of the building. One can only imagine the fear and the desperation that Marta felt as she realized this, but for what reason she jumped off? I cannot know. When I started reading I thought "maybe she can stop and be ok" since it was mentioned that she stopped and talked with some people and when the author uses the word "flying" I thought that it was a world of fantasy where everything is possible, where you can never die, when reality doesn't exists, but how wrong I was when at the end the old couple mention the "thud" sound letting us know that all of this was real and that they actually would hit the floor even though it seemed that they were flying or floating and not falling. Perhaps this is just another way of how people portray their lives, as a falling abyss with nothing more than disgrace, fear and pain, I got this from the fact that as she was falling the people greeting her were getting older and older until the end where there was an old couple and they said "At these low floors only falling old women pass by. You can see beautiful girls from the hundred-and-fiftieth floor up. Those apartments don't cost so much for nothing." or maybe this was just life for some women in a certain place, nevertheless I really liked it because of the fanciful influence and almost like an unreal and unnatural world  which I personally love. 

Examination at the Womb-Door

Weird yet fascinating poem, I found death to be such a fascinating and mysterious thing since no one knows for sure what goes on beyond it. Do we still live on? Do we reincarnate into someone or something else? I personally don't know but I hope we do. Like Ted Hughes said everything we have is owned by death as we are not eternal beings and we can't live forever. I think this is what Ted is trying to say here, that everything that composes our body is owned by death, since we all have to face it one day, ones sooner than others but we will have to. If you leave something behind, something that everyone will remember you for, of course you will be stronger than death as you will forever live on in your poem, song, invention or whatever you leave behind that leaves a legacy behind for people to remember you.

My thoughts about death are contradictory as I find it amusing and mysterious but I don't actually believe in it, I mean why would believe that all you have fight to achieve will suddenly disappear, that being physically or spiritually. Why believe your whole story and your whole life will end the moment your body stops working?

"Death makes life possible"

Poem: Those Winter Sundays

From what I could get from this poem the author is telling us in a way of memories about the time when he had his father with him, he remembers everything that happened in their house, how his father worked hard, even though his hand were torn from work and no one ever thanked him. At the end of the poem the author then realizes that he couldn't understand how much his father loved and cared him because he was a child and thought his father was too rough on him even though his father loved him and worked his life off for him. Same thing happens a lot in today's world some parents work as mules just to give their children a roof to live under and sometimes kids don't or can't see it and think that their parents are too rough on them because they can't spend the time they want with their children and the time they can have together they use it to teach their kids whats good and whats bad but sometimes kids misunderstand discipline with punishment or with hate. That's is just nature's way, kids are immature and can't see all the sacrifices their parents have to go through just to buy that expensive toy they seemed to have fallen in love with.

Just a thought for the teenagers out there:

Don't take for granted what your parents do for you, we all live in different times and one day you will realize that that time your dad or mom forbid you from going out with that certain friend to that certain place, was for your own good and not because they hated you. Sometimes one realizes that too late and then all you can do is mourn about it.

The Question No One Would Answer

Horrible Essay about a reality that goes on in Africa. Female circumcision which in no fact resembles a normal male circumcision which is just the removal of the foreskin for medical conditions or problems such as Phimosis which is a condition where the foreskin is extremely tight at the end of the penis and sometimes is so severe that makes it difficult for men to have intercourse and sometimes is so severe that it limits the pass of urine. Those kinds of circumcision have a purpose but a circumcision just so a human being can't feel pleasure because it's considered a prostitute or a whore, that's just irrational, ignorant and idiotic and even worse, go to the exceed any logic and remove the entire vulva along with the clitoris, I'm outraged at the thought of it. Even though both of them are a mutilation they can't be compared since a male will never die from a circumcision but female do sometimes die and in some cases have to be "re-open" to have intercourse and to give birth, in my opinion this NEEDS to be stopped with haste! Women need to start living their sexuality to the fullest just like men do in all of these cultures, this stupid mutilation needs to be stopped!

And We Sold the Rain

A similar situation with Bolivia's water system happens in this story. The Cochabamba protests of 2000, also known as the Cochabamba Water War were protests made from the Bolivian people against the government  of Bolivia and the United States because the government of Bolivia sold the water system to the USA by putting it up for auction and when the water service was privatized by the Americans the cost of the water went skyrocket and people couldn't afford to pay for their water service. The high costs for water services made the Bolivians furious and started protesting for the precious liquid which brought a state of emergency to certain states of Bolivia but nothing could be done about the privatization of the services since the government replied to the protests "There is nothing to negotiate."

I found this decision extremely foolish and selfish, why would you as a governor or as a president sell your own water to another country? Seriously how stupid can you be as to sell the life giving liquid to someone else? That's like selling your own life to someone else, nothing can survive without water and apparently the Bolivian Government didn't realized that or maybe greed was too big at the moment, besides when there's money involved people seems to get stupider and stupider when it comes to taking decisions, maybe the $2.5 billions  where greater than the town suffering. 

Eveline

A confusing story but a fascinating one indeed, still a common story for some people today who live with an abusive father and a submissive mother, in fact an example of learned behavior from Eveline. She shows how terrorized she is about the fact of leaving her bullying father to the point where she can't even take a step towards Frank and stays in the "dirty pond" she has for a life, her father aside from being abusive won't even let Eveline have her own money, talk about a father! I know that I am a male but I'm completely against the macho abusive kind of male figure that some people are used to live with, even though Eveline's father was a kind fellow when his wife was still alive but then he somewhat took it out on her daughter when his wife died, maybe because she resembled her dead mother too much and he was rebellious that he couldn't have his beloved wife and that turned him into the animal he became. The story should have ended differently in my entire own opinion, she should have left everything that was troubling her and making her life a living hell, if it was up to me I would have definitely gone with Frank and live my life and if things didn't worked out as planned well there is always a tomorrow and at least I wouldn't be in my house with my father as my biggest threat and enemy.

      Sackville Street Dublin Ireland 

Looking for a Rain God

A clear example of how far a human being can go when in need of something so precious as water. After all they all lived from what they could cultivate from the soil, without water there was no life. As everyone knows "desperate times call for desperate measures" but I think Mokgobja and the rest of the villagers were too far as to kill two of the girls even though it was clear that they care little for them both as they were always in the background, seldom said a word and also had sings of negligence from the older people in the house. The girls often imitated the adults going like "You stupid thing!" and such  clearly there was verbal abuse from their parents.

As far as the religious beliefs goes on this story I certainly can't agree with what they did, religious beliefs and culture are wonderful, should be respected and are part of what a certain country is, but to go to the point of killing a little girl so it could rain? That's just messed up, rain falls down from condensed water in the clouds not because of a human sacrifice or an animal sacrifice. To attempt against the life of a living being for a religious belief, that I can't agree with.

Short story "Paper"

You can tell the huge amount of ambition in this story and somewhat greed, the greed for money to buy the perfect dream house. Tay Soon and Yee Lian got so obsessed with this idea of a perfect house of living the good life that they risked everything they had in a unstable market such as the stock market not knowing that stocks can fall as fast as they go up. Personally I believe they should have listened to Tay Soon's mother and should had put their money to better use, besides what's so great about having such luxury clearly this is a case of "Experience and age make the devil wiser than his being a devil." Tay Soon's mother knew that being greedy and easy earned money goes away as easy as it came, easy come easy go. Sometimes is a very good idea to actually listen to the elderly as they are full of wisdom and may see problems such as Tat's and Yee's problem with more experience and actually see problems when they come disguised as money.

I found the title of the story kind of ironic because all the gains Tay Soon made in stocks were paper gains which he wanted to buy his "dream house" and at the end of the story he dies without a penny and the only way he can have his house is made out of paper bought by the woman he never listened to.

Dead Men's Path

By Chinua Achebe, in this story we see another case of how tradition, different religions and different points of views gets everything into a mess. Honestly I believe that Mr.Obi was wrong when he mentioned the words "The whole purpose of our school,is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic." I found it ignorant and almost childish that someone wants to destroy a tradition, I mean aren't traditions the foundation of a society? Isn't tradition what someone's great-grandparents used to do and how they raised our grandparents and so on until the day we were born? Besides Obi wanted to Christianize everything and everyone, stepping on top of everyone's beliefs without thinking about a solution for the problem, they could have both come to an agreement and not end up how everything turned out as the mess it did. Personally even if a cultural belief looks stupid infront of certain person or a different culture, it should be respected and show respect towards it. Old traditions have a special thing about them, a certain magic, mystic to a certain point and that is they should be valued and respected, since nowadays no one takes the time to find new ways to revive that special magic that our ancestor created.

The Grass Eaters

Sincerely, up until now the only short story I have really liked and actually enjoyed reading. The story was in some way a horrible way to see the reality that people in India live with the caste system, a horrible system I would say.  I remember the Professor asking me if Krishnan Varma was criticizing the government or the situation going on in India  personally I believe he is. Anyone that shows the entire world how badly people live in a country or a certain place is, how people die from starvation specially kids, how people see the killing of other human beings as normal or how  marginalized the government has his own people, is surely criticizing. Maybe the author is not doing it explicitly maybe he portrays it as normal so not everybody sees that he is criticizing but implicitly hes doing it. I mean I wouldn't write a story of how bad criminality, drugs problems and the government is  in Puerto Rico without the intention of making a critic, some people may see it as a critic and some may see it as something someone wrote because he wanted to. I liked the way he portrayed everything as it was, crude, without pouring glitter over his words and the situation to make it look pretty or maybe what it really isn't to suit the liking's of anyone.

Shinto marriage

Traditional Japanese marriage with the traditional wedding Yukata for the man and the wedding Kimono and veil for the lady from the Shinto Religion.

Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the people of Japan.

Marriage Is a Private Affair

Marriage should definitely be a private affair no one should tell you who you should marry, what religion that person needs to be or even that that person should have any religion at all to marry you. Sometimes people blinded by their religious beliefs or traditions judge other people like Okeke in Marriage Is a Private Affair judging Nene for being from another group or tribe and having different religion and a different lifestyle. I believe marriage should be kept a private affair between the couple because that way no one could interfere with whom someone loves besides they are the ones who are going to get married and live together till death do them apart, sometimes people meddle in things they shouldn't like in the story, Okeke shouldn't have judge someone for not being the same as him, personally I believe that religious beliefs and tradition should be respected but until a certain point, as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's happiness or true realization. Okeke is the classic stubborn, closed-minded, old fellow who wouldn't change his beliefs for the world which is wrong, sometimes religion beliefs and tradition are not everything and aren't always right, sometimes being a little flexible and a bit open-minded could change your world, the world of your loved ones in a positive way and maybe even let see the people surrounding you that you are not an ogre who only thinks about himself.  

Poem analysis

I Carry Your Heart With Me by Edward Estlin Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)



This poem is a beautiful piece of literature about deep, profound love, almost unreal love. It's very easy to read the poem and understand that the writer was madly in love with someone. The imagery could possibly be the way he describes the deepest secret nobody knows as the tree called life probably referring to the tree of life who imparts eternal life, showing the reader that his love is as eternal and never dying as the tree of life. The theme as stated before is deep profound love whom Cummings felt for a loved one letting that person know how dear she was to him, the setting is not really specified but since the words "I carry it in my heart" are mentioned, you can tell that these are the words of his heart and his feelings and therefore assume that everything takes place inside Cummings' heart. As it's Edward Estlin Cummings style his poems break the rule of the metrics and the poems go their own way.

The purpose...

    The purpose of this blog is for a project given to us by my English class Professor Betty Medina to help us understand better and reflect on several short stories, poems, plays and novels that she will assign us to read throughout our time being together as pupils and mentor. This is going to be a new experience for me as I have never done something of the sort in any other class in my life. 

    

    I hope for this to be a life changing experience since I barely read any books and I might take some interest in reading and actually make it a habit. I hope I make some good blogging that the professor and my classmates enjoy.