Paola Vasquez

Assess your progress during the semester. During this semester I feel that I was able to get in touch with some skills I haven’t used in a while so it was helpful to take notice of them again. I don’t think I considered any of my work successful because it was a constant period of learning for me. however, I feel that I could have done better on my essays just because it’s something I haven’t done in a while and I didn’t notice how my writing didn’t correspond with certain topics. I think a skill I picked up was sitting with my thoughts a bit more and dissecting what I’m reading is trying to convey.    

One specific personal experience that stuck with me from the house on Mango Street specifically was “Hairs”.I feel this way because while reading with my group we eventually came to an agreement that somehow the hair was tied to their personalities and who they were. Coming to this decision resonated with me a lot because not only is hair a big part of my identity because I’m a girl but also because I come from a certain culture that depends on hair to tell others who you are. Reading this specific vignette held a lot of personal experience for me and also reminded me how big of a deal hair is in my life. This Vignette reminds me of how differently I see myself and others because my hair looks a certain way.

during class when we read Raymond Carver’s work I noticed that his style of writing is simple and to the the point. the way he tells his stories makes it easy for whoever is reading because he writes casually almost as if he is speaking and telling his story out loud. This writer doesn’t describe his stories using words that have a sense of imagination or mystery to them when reading his story Cathedral you can see his simple and casual way of going through the story. looking through his work I’ve noticed that what he writes about has a sense of realism to it. comparing his work with the poet Robert Frost this poet’s work contains a sense of mystery and imagination especially when you look at his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Although this poem is shorter than Raymond carvers work it still requires thought. This is because of his use of descriptive language in a way where he’s saying something without saying too much.

my thoughts on fairytales after the reading this week have changed. before the reading in class and also in general I thought fairy tales were cute and innocent stories for children to look at. However, after doing some research on my own and also readings in class I found that these stories are a bit dark or at least have a darker origin and contain a lot of things that wouldn’t be ok if told and promoted in media now. for example when reading the snow white story it was mentioned that for revenge snow white and the prince made the evil queen dance with hot shoes on until she died.in terms of things being unacceptable by today’s standards in the story snow white also mentioned that the prince wanted to take snow white back with him despite not knowing her. noticing these things in the story made me think about how many other stories have weird or dark origins and how they have changed the stories to make them more marketable for today’s standards.

if I had to rate my ability to understand the play Oedipus the King I would rate myself a 5 or 6 out of 10. I think I was good at understanding what was going on to a certain extent however the way that the story is told and the vocabulary that is used makes it difficult to notice what is happening. the overall vocabulary and the way the story was written in really long paragraphs made it difficult for me to keep up with the story. if I had to be honest I didn’t like reading this play because it was confusing however taking the time to dissect each paragraph somehow still made the experience memorable. If I could play someone in a production of this play I think I would want to portray Creon because I found it interesting how he was content with not wanting to be king and found the life of being a king to be burdensome.

thinking back to the times during covid I remember everyone being distant and cold to each other due to fear of getting sick. day-to-day life was also more complicated and doing something simple like getting groceries took longer because of safety precautions. Having to stop our daily lives and having to focus on remaining safe is also somewhat of what the citizens in Oedipus the King had to go through as well. In the story, the citizens are told to stop praying and to focus on a cure instead. however, I do believe there are obvious contrasts between our epidemic versus the one in the story. This is because the story takes an unexpected turn and it gives us a plot twist revealing that the person who caused the epidemic was the king himself. comparing that to COVID-19  there wasn’t any sort of plot twist or one specific person in power that caused the epidemic to begin with.

in my opinion, my ability to read poetry has improved a bit these past two weeks. I feel this way because it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and read poems so it took some time for me to get used to decoding the meanings of poems. I felt this way especially when we were reading Stopping by Woods on a snowy evening by Robert Frost. although I feel like I’ve learned somethings from poetry this week I can still improve by keeping up with reading poetry in general to maintain that kind of ability to read.

For my second essay, I decided to choose the quote “Literature adds reality, it does not simply describe it.”I decided on this quote because I felt like it embodies the story of the necklace the most. In my opinion, the quote is describing what the story is doing to readers. The story The Necklace is not just simply describing a fairytale about something that wouldn’t happen. this story is talking about the reality of what occurs when you are preoccupied with gaining things that are out of your reach and how it affects you in the long run. this story could have also possibly been inspired by something that happened in someone’s real life. It also represents many people of today who are known for doing similar things the protagonist did in the story. I also believe this quote is in some way saying that literature adds to one’s life.

Read the following sentence from a student essay. In the compelling short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the author encourages readers to examine the intricate character of the nameless narrator and the complexity of the human condition. What is ineffective about this sentence? In my opinion, this sentence is ineffective because it is too general and the writer only mentions what you can learn from the story but not what it’s about to get you to that point where you learn something from it. How might you rewrite it in a way that offers specific details that would be informative to a reader? If I could rewrite it I would do it in a way where I mention what happens to support why I feel that way. For example In the short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the author encourages readers to follow the journey of a young boy who gets infatuated with a girl and what can come from it.