Author: Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

Final Reflection

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

This spring semester was my second semester in college, and I was still new to college writing. From this semester, I have learned many new writing skills which will be helpful for me in the future as well. From the first week’s assignment up to now, I believe I was able to write good essays and writing because of the feedback I received from the professor and comments from classmates. This course actually encouraged me to write an outline, write a draft version, and then revise and finalize my paper. Over these 15 weeks, I struggled on a few assignments, but I still made good progress.

The assignments that I did pretty well is the poem we wrote about ourselves called “Where I’m From” and the other one is Desiree’s Baby where I had to write an ending to the story.
I loved my poem even though it took me about a few days to write it. During the writing process, it helped me stay in tune with my thoughts and feelings and it caused me to find out more about my personality, likes and dislikes, passions, and interests. For the second assignment was my way of writing a good ending that came out just like I wanted. I was “in the zone” on both assignments because I was focused.

The greatest challenges I faced during this semester is not feeling creative enough, understanding, and focusing on the point. We’ve had a lot of writing during this course so being a writer comes with its own set of difficulties which can make the writing tough. Whether I had many years of experience in writing or not, I still overcome struggles. Since I took 5 classes this semester, focusing on each course was challenging for me, especially since understanding each is important. However, I made it all on time, and was valuable in the end.

Looking back at this course, I learned how to carefully consider my ideas and how to organize them in my paper. I still need to improve on some stuff, but I am happy with how far I have come as a writer.

Marriage Proposals

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

The cold approach to marriage that was common in nineteenth-century Russia, particularly among the wealthy, is the central theme of Chekhov’s “The Proposal.” As a dramatic irony on this type of money-driven marriage, the play depicts the two main characters as excessively high class and desperate to marry each other for economic security, despite the fact that they would not get along. Lomov is not really in love with Natalya but wants to marry her as he feels she is a good housekeeper, beautiful and well educated. He feels that it is the time he should settle down.

Based on my opinion, couples should build a strong and healthy relationship first, then get engaged which is a promise to marry, then if they want to, the man could do a proposal to show his love and how romantic he is, or it can be just a special moment that they want to save. For every couple, communication, honesty, and understanding must come first.

 

Student Opinion, NY Times

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

“What Role Does Religion Play in Your Life?”

As a Muslim, religion plays an important role in my life. I come from a family of Muslims and my parents are religious. To be honest, until the age of 17, I did not take religion seriously because I was raised around a variety of people, such as in school, with friends, and so on, of which only one or two were Muslims. Back in high school, I had this assignment that required me to read a story that was somehow related to Islam. Since then, I’ve been trying to educate myself about my religion and have asked my parents to teach me more about it. Today, it enables me to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with those around me, as well as to find the right balance between material life and spirituality.

According to Dr. Horwitz’s research, religious belief and religious involvement help working-class teenagers achieve academic success. That is something I am also familiar with because it has actually helped me with my studies. It may sound strange, but whatever I pray for is always answered. For instance, us Muslims always start everything with “Bismillah” (In the name of God) which we will put our trust in God. I am grateful for this and will continue to pray each and every day. Some people claim to be Muslims, but I’ve never seen them do what they’re supposed to do. For me, if I call myself a Muslim, I must follow the beliefs and laws stated in the Holy Book Quran.

Atwood’s Endings

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

I chose this particular story because the author provides hope in “Happy Endings,” establishing the faith that challenges can be overcome, love can last, fences can be rebuilt, and good can prevail. The main point of “Happy Endings” was for Margaret Atwood to help readers and other novelists understand the significance of the “how and why” conclusion is reached rather than what the conclusion itself is made up of because all stories end in death.
Once all of the story’s versions have been presented, a narrative view leaves to inform the reader that the ending of each version is the same, which is the true ending as follows: John and Mary will die. The tone, on the other hand, notes that the writer has more will to change in determining what to add in the beginnings and middles of stories. Is it more important to know how or why it happened because more how gives you a deeper understanding of why and more why gives you a deeper understanding of how.

Chopin

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

In my opinion, the race of the writer matters when the story is about race because the author has different complexation and without any experience. For instance, Kate Chopin’s story is great and well written but not very interesting to the reader because according to her biography, her family was actually a slave owned so in her point of view, she wrote it easy and simple in her story. In this story, Kate’s race matters because most writers will only have stereotypical knowledge about the other race. It is noteworthy to know that stereotypical interpretations are very problematic especially when dealing with sensitive topics in history like slavery. There would not be any dilemma if a white writer is willing to conduct extensive research and obtain information from sources about the black experience in America in order to reach a wider audience.

Armand

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

Armand shockingly read the letter again and again, his eyes wide open and full of fear. Thirty minutes have passed, and Armand is still at a loss for what to do because his mother’s words keep repeating in his head, “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” Sorrow and disappointment welled up in him, and he felt so bad for his wife and baby that he blamed Desiree for her skin color. In a panic, he stuffed the letter into his pocket and dashed off to get back his wife and baby from Valmonde. Before making a way to Valmonde’s, Armand cried as he burned the letter in his backyard. He realized he needed to make things right for the rest of his life by helping free the slaves since now he knows he is a part of them.

Feminism in Ichiyo

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

“The Thirteenth Night” particularly in terms of the late 1800s, where the role of women was to take care of the children, do the house chores, and surrender to their husband. Socially women were not equal to men, and they are considered weaker hence. In that period, people actually considered women as slaves which they had no control of their own lives. For instance, Oseki from the story was one of those women because she had no option but to remain with an abusive husband therefore her parents could not even help her. Another female is Oseki’s mother, she felt bad for her daughter but still encouraged to stay with her husband since “…he is still successful.” (Page 10)

Marxism in the Thirteenth Night

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

Based upon the story by Ichiyō Higuchi “The Thirteenth Night,” the two characters Oseki and Roku have similarities and differences. The similarities are that they are both unhappy in life, they both come from low-ranking families. Their differences are that Oseki is a wife of a rich man now, lives in a luxury house and Roku is just a rickshaw driver, does not have the house to live in. In my opinion, Oseki learns that she needs to stay together with her husband and child no matter what because she does not want to end up homeless like Roku. The significance of their meeting is that if they chose each other when they were young, they would both end up in a happy life unlike now, therefore through the lens of the Marxist theory Oseki’s husband is a wealthy man who mentally abuses her because she is from a poor family.

Government

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

The “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” and “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie imply a particular type of government in the stories, which is inequality and prejudice. Inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and that is being stated in both stories. In “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” Thomas Builds-the-Fire was charged for crimes that he did not commit and yet he was still sentenced to two straight lifetime sentences. In the second story “This Is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” poor Victor needed help from the government because his father died in Phenix, and the response of the government was right away saying “Now, Victor, we do have some money available for the proper return of tribal members’ bodies. But I don’t think we have enough to bring your father all the way back from Phoenix.” (Page 100) Because Victor was poor, the government did not care at all about his situation. At the same moment, prejudice (an assumption or an opinion about someone simply based on that person’s membership to a particular group) is also shown in both stories. While Thomas Builds-the-Fire was in a court, the judge was talking rudely to him as stated “The judge was red-faced with anger; he almost looked Indian. He pounded his gavel until it broke. “Order in the court,” he shouted. “Order in the f*cking court.”(Page 147) Thomas is only being arrested because he is attempting to inform people about injustices committed against Native Americans. Alexie engages Thomas to bring the tribe the truth and the government is frustrated because Thomas telling the true history of the United States.

Bambara

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

In my opinion, parents and elders in families should be very careful about what they say around children because it can affect the child. Basically, adults’ words can tear them down, hurt their feelings and steal their joy. No matter what, parents should be nice to their kids and explain everything to them kindly. Parents’ words build up the kids in the future, kids are very sensitive to criticism and have to be treated gently from a young age. Dealing with children is easy when adults know kids have less experience in life and they view the world differently. Words like “just teasin” can make them feel weak and insecure about themselves.