FILS

To begin I want to start off by saying that I have truly enjoyed my time in this class. And really enjoyed  the different genres of literature we got to explore: from short stories, to navels, to poetry, I feel my reading horizon has really  expanded. Throughout my time in this class I’ve learned that patience and reading more than once is necessary to grasp an understanding of any literature. And that is a skill I can continue using throughout my journey of becoming more of a reader. Also since I am studying psychology I’ve realized that it is necessary to take things slow and not to quickly jump to conclusions. Also I’ve learned that dissecting a piece of literature bit by bit; paragraph by paragraph can give me a better overall understanding of what I am reading. Honestly I feel like I could have done better on all of my work in this class, I definitely was slacking, and I believe I could have done a lot better if I had put in more work. I’m not proud of how my essays turned out but I will use this experience to further develop my skills as a writer and reader and to do better in my next literature class. But something I can I was successful at was engaging with my classmates, that had really helped me when a reading was though, it give me new perspectives. And I hope to continue engaging more with people when I read any work of literature because I believe the more minds come together, the better our understanding will be.

Through the vignettes in The House on Mango street we’ve read in class one I feel I have a personal experience I can relate to is “My Name”.  In “My Name” The narrator Esperanza talks about how she doesn’t like her name, but for me it isn’t so much that I hate my first name Daverne, it’s more a feeling of identity. As his first son my dad named me after him. Growing up I didn’t mind the name but after sometime I started not liking the name so much. I felt like I was another extension of my father which isn’t bad, but I thought of other first sons who their fathers chose to give them a name other then their first names and I wished I could have that, a name that is my own. I think that is why I prefer using my middle name Fils as my official name. Fils is French for son, so instead of naming me Daverne junior, my dad named me Daverne Fils. If you really think about it since Fils mean junior I’m still technically an extinction of my father’s name but I do think the name’s pretty original so I like it. Whenever people ask me for my name I always say Fils, only at school and work do people call me by first name. Funny thing is at home I go by another name. In my entirety of me living my Family has never called me by my government name not even my father. They all call me Carvens. And if I’m being honest, Carvens feels like more like my name than Daverne and Fils ever did. Daverne would come a close second though since that is what people would always call me. Lately I have been feeling like […]

During the Covid-19 pandemic I remember people being in a constant state of worry and panic. WHO urged everyone to wear masks and gloves and limit contact with people as much as possible to limit spreading further the virus. But there was a lot of controversies about the methods used by the government to deal with the outbreak, and people were also putting blade at the government for even starting the virus, especially the Chinese government. A contrast between how the American people and the people of Thebes in Oedipus the King is an how they approached their plagues. In Oedipus the King the people turned to their government (the king) who they fully trust in to help them discover how to deal with the plague and get rid of it. “We have not come as suppliants to this altar 35 because we thought of you as a God, but rather judging you the first of men in all the chances of this life and when we mortals have to do with more that man. You came and by your coming saved our city, 40 freed us from the tribute which we paid of old to the Sphinx,7 cruel singer. This you did… it was God that aided you, men say, and you are held45 with God’s assistance to have saved our lives.” Whereas in America people weren’t really sure if they could trust what the government says, especially when it came to the virus. Another contrast is that when the Covid 19 pandemic hit health organizations were already working on health precautions to take to keep everyone safe and reduce the death toll as much as possible, whereas the people in Oedipus went to their temples acquiring of their gods on how to stop the plague from affecting them. […]

The quote about literature that I have chosen for my literature essay is “Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind” by Margaret Atwood. One of the reasons I’ve chosen this literature quote is because it reasoned with me. It’s true that in literature we can learn a lot about ourselves. For my second essay I’ve chosen the story Araby by James Joyce to focus on, and I believe that the quote by Margaret Atwood is embodied in that story. In the story Araby we follow a young boy who has crush on a young girl and decides to go to a bazaar called Araby to buy her a gift to impress her. Through that story I could relate tho the narrator; it was like I saw myself in that story. Like the narrator I remember having a crush and them being the only thing on my mind. I would daydream about them and always admire them. The story Araby was like a mirror and me looking through seeing my younger self who used to always think of ways to impress my crushes. Also the second part of the saying literature “is a map, a geography of the mind” is true because through literature you can scan thorough your mind and see what kind of person you are. You can learn things about yourself you didn’t know you had in you.

What I believe is ineffective about this student’s sentence is that it doesn’t give readers much information about the short story “Araby” by James Joyce to understand the statement made. I believe that a little bit more details describing the narrator would have been helpful to the sentence’s effectiveness. What this sentence is lacking is details; information to support the statement. The student mentions that “…the author encourages readers to examine the intricate character of the nameless narrator and the complexity of the human condition.” Upon what information is their statement made? That information should be included in their sentence to strengthen it. Here’s how I would rewrite it to offer specific details that would be informative to a reader: In the compelling short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the author encourages readers to examine the intricate character of the nameless narrator who’s only joy seem to come from fantasying of a young girl  from his neighborhood and getting her a gift  from the araby, and the  complexity of the human condition.

Something that I’ve found very interesting in the “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is he narrator’s attitude through the whole story. She’s very proud and loud, and what I mean by that is she speaks her mind no matter what. If I were to write an essay off of this story I’d title it “Coming of Age” because I feel like the whole premise of what was happening in the story was Miss Moore teaching the young kids about the reality they lived in and what their circumstances really entailed. You see that some the kids like Sylvia and her friend Sugar were sort of grasping what Miss Moore wanted to teach them. The essay would explore the ignorance and naïveté of the kids to them learning through Miss Moore what life really is like and them gradually gaining understanding and growth. An analysis of our life compared to Sylvia and the other kids could helps us also realize when was our Coming of Age” moment in our lives; When did childlike view of the world disappeared and replaced with an actual view of how things really are in the world.

One way I personally relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” is with his love for honesty and truth. That is a personality trait I can say I’ve carried on with me since childhood into my adulthood. If we look at the last paragraph of the story “Salvation”, we see the narrator crying and feels totally distraught because he lied to his aunt and “deceived everybody in the church” that he had seen Jesus. I feel I can relate to how he must have felt. There has been times when I’ve told lies that felt so wrong, I just couldn’t bear caring on the lie, I wanted to tell the truth. All the day long I’d just be thinking about the lie I told and think about how much better I’d feel, how much a load would feel lifted off my chest if I just admitted the truth. Also I can see how much he values when other people speak the truth to him. For instance his aunt had told him “that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on!” He felt it was all a lie because at the night of the big revival when the children were going to the altar “and were saved” he knew the kid Westley had lied; he knew he didn’t see Jesus but lied just to get over with the ceremony. The narrator wondered why God didn’t struck Westley right there and then for lying. In that moment the narrator felt like everything he had been told about Jesus by his aunt and all the old people had told were lies and that dwindled his faith in Jesus. I’ve had similar experiences where […]

I think the reason why professor Conway might have assigned the “Most Handsome Drowned Man” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the first story/reading of the course might have to do with the main idea of this story which is about change. In the story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” wee see the inhabitants of the village undergo a change of attitude and character when Esteban washes up shore their village. Esteban revealed their flaws and pushed them to be better; to do better.  I believe professor Conway is trying to invoke in us a desire to look into ourselves and see if there isn’t anything that demand changing. I think this story as the first story of the course can helps us to want set up goals for ourselves on what we can do to succeed not only at this course but also all of our courses this academic year. We should look for our “Esteban” so to speak to motivate and encourage us to change ourselves and become the better versions of ourselves we can be.