Final Blog

I think I have grown as a writer fairly well from this Rhetoric & Comp class. I have more capabilities of keeping the audience in my mind as I write. I also have been staying away from writing contractions in my papers and been putting stories and anecdotes in. I probably will not continue to blog on this blog after this class is finished; I do not particularly enjoy writing. However, I do have a tumblr account. I mostly post pictures, but I write on it every now and then. The pros of blogging is that you are putting your thoughts and feeling out into the world and are giving them a little taste of yourself. The cons would be that it is very easy to forget to blog, and once you lose track it is hard to keep up.

Blog #9

Reading the poem three times and listening to the audio twice still gave me no clue to what was actually going on with the poem. I even tried reading the poem out loud. It is possible that this is because i do not know much about Pop-eye. The only thing I recognized in the poem was Olive, since my mom told me that she got made fun of as a kid. My mother is very skinny so all of the kids at school would call her Olive.

I think Ashbery mixes a technical form with cartoon characters to lighten up the mood and add humor to a serious situation. My favorite line would have to be “I’m taking the brat to the country”. This is a funny line and makes me think about my younger sister since I always call her a brat.

Blog #8

Halloween Dreams

Delicious and sweet,

Chocolate is my true love.

A great thing to eat,

Nothing will ever come above.

On Halloween I will go out on the street,

Trick-or-treating all night long.

Lots of people in costumes I’ll meet,

Singing the chocolate candy song.

Recees, Kit-Kats, Snickers and more,

There will be many different kinds to enjoy.

I’ll eat so much that I’ll crash on the floor,

To tired to even play with a toy.

Too bad I am eighteen and none of this will come true.

Probably good or else I’d turn fat and blue.

Blog #7

Viewing many films about the Vietnam war and talking with Veterans has brought me some insight on the war. In my mind, the Vietnam War was brutal. It was the first war that used guerrilla warfare and the soldiers were not even aware of what they were doing over there. The book The Things They Carried brought me more insight than anything else. The book was touching and explained the horrors that these soldiers went through. It showed it from their minds as well which gave even more insight. My mother was engaged to a Vietnam war veteran, Paul. He was an awesome man, but it was obvious that he has gone through a lot in his life time. Paul worked at a middle school as a social worker or something. He told me a story of this one time when he went into work and he had a meeting with many other workers. They were sitting in the meeting room when the school bell went off. This bell goes of many times a day, it tells the students when to switch classes. Paul had horrible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so as soon as the alarm went off he yelled something and jumped under the table.

I know very little about the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a war is still a war. There are families living their lives right now wondering how their loved one is doing oversees. There are soldiers watching their best friends get killed. The difference would be that technology has advanced greatly since the Vietnam war.

Blog #6

Although it is very hard, it is possible to break free of our cultural heritage. Finance is a major way that society uses to keep us in line. For example, the child of a rich family will grow up with money. He or she will never have to worry about not having food on the table for dinner. He or she will be involved in sports and activities that involve having a lot of money; skiing, horseback riding, piano lessons. He or she will be very intelligent because he or she went to a private school and traveled around the globe. It is very hard for an individual who grew up in that type of environment to just wake up one morning and say "I want to go drive a school bus" or "lets go to McDonalds today" even if they may greatly enjoy that.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, shows how difficult it can be for many people to break from tradition. The stoning of a villager is a pointless, horrible tradition. Just because "There's always been a lottery"(871) does not mean that there always has to be a lottery. It is possible to break free, but there is danger. The majority of people do not like change, therefore they blindly follow tradition. Once one person speaks out, then others might agree or they might not. There must have been someone who spoke up in north village because "they're talking of giving up the lottery". The benefits of doing this would be breaking away from the norms, and making new, better traditions.

Blog #5

Although what Jermey and China did was extremely foolish and sickened me, Boyle showed me how such an event could occur. If i ever heard about a baby being thrown into a dumpster i would automatically assume it was done by druggies, psycho people, or very abusive people. This story displayed how it could be done by two "normal" people.

The actions these two teens were still not correct in any way. I don't believe they were exactly condemned by their peers. Teen pregnancy is very common in our generation. They have shows dazzling teen pregnancy all over the television. Yes, it is a burden and could possible mess up China and Jeremy's life, but if they had the decency to tell someone, anyone, than they could get help. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that can come out of unplanned pregnancy. For example, they could give the baby up for adoption; a loving women who is unable to have children could finally become a mother. They could keep the baby and find that they love being parents and could end up working hard to still be able to finish their schooling. Even going to the doctor and having a safe abortion would be a better decision than what they chose. Talking to someone would have given them guidance and take some of the burden off of their shoulders. It is true that it would be embarrassing having a kid in college, but it is even more embarrassing to be that random crazy girl. If they had talked to their parents, a doctor, or even a friend, they would be able to get it out of their minds and keep themselves from going insane. I understand they were very scared, but they are very bright teens and should have done the responsible thing.

Blog #4

Passing our essays around in our peer groups helped a lot. They gave me many helpful tips and help me cut down on my word count. Reading my peers essays reinforced my own arguments. Other students would either have lots of quotes from people or many facts; i had a good combination of both. My essay still needs much revision. Although i have a lot of good arguments, its very unorganized. I need to set out my main points and write about each in an organized fashion.

Blog Assignment #3

I do not believe that drinking can be a part of one’s cultural heritage. My dad’s sides of the family are all very Irish; they are also all drunks. I have not been to one family get together with them where they did not all get very wasted and do incredibly stupid things. My mother tells me that when they were young they would get kicked out of every place they went to. She tells me one story of how one of my uncles set off fireworks inside of the club and lit the whole building on fire. Although it seems that they like to drink seriously because they are Irish, this is not the case. They drink because they like to drink. I think it is more about the people than the culture.

My mom’s side of the family is very reserved and proper. They buy fancy things and care about what they look like; many of them are also drunks. They are Egyptian, European, and polish; none of which are places known for their drinking. Although they keep the presentation of being refined and perfect, they get trashed as much as my dad’s side of the family. They all love their wine.

I believe that it is all personal preference. Some people love to drink, and others not as much. Cultural backgrounds have nothing to do with think. There are people from every country and every race that love to get obliterated and there are also people from all different places that do not like to drink, or otherwise, only like to drink a little bit on special occasions.  

Free Write "Two Kinds"

-->

In "Two Kinds", the mother had extremely high hopes for her daughter. She was expecting her to become famous and a "prodigy". She was a lot like my own mother. I started diving when I was six years old. I had a natural talent and got very good very fast. At first, I only dove in the summers; every mornings from Monday to Friday. After I started wining first place every meet for a while, my mother thought I could go bigger. She had me try out for a club team. I made it on to the team and started diving every day, all year. My life became completely surrounded by diving. I would get home from school and go straight to practice, just as Jing-mei had to practice the piano everyday at four o’clock. My coach started having the same dreams for me as my mom; they were expecting me to go to the Olympics. I was had to quit girl scouts, I missed birthday parties, I could not have sleepovers. At the age of eleven I competed in nationals. It was an amazing accomplishment, but after I got home I realized something about myself. I no longer loved diving, I actually hated it most of the time. I was tired and worn out. I wanted to be normal and have a normal teenage life. Just as the Chinese daughter had her moment of defiance, I did too. I quit diving and did not care how much it upset my mom.  She would bring it up all the time, “Just go to practices once in a while so you don’t loose your skills”, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t dive for a few years until I went to high school. Although I was not as great, and no one thought I was going to the Olympics, I had fun with it once again. I was still mostly undefeated and went to state competitions, but in addition to that I also had a normal life. I was able to go out on the weekends and do things that are not involved with diving. In the end of the story, Jing-mei has an epiphany. My mom and I had one also, once we realized that I made the right decision.  

"The Man in the Well"

-->

1.    Children may fail to understand when an adult is in danger.

2.    Children may have difficulty sharing the perspective of another person.

3.    Even in their later years, people may have trouble forgiving themselves for bad things they did when they were young.

4.    Within groups, people may engage in conduct that is wilder, stranger, or more uncivilized than their usual behavior when alone.

5.    People project their fears or suspicions onto others, even those who do not actually pose a threat on them.

6.    We should be more compassionate toward people who are trapped.

7.    People need to see one another’s faces if they are to trust one another.

8.    When dealing with an adult, even a helpless one, children may have in their minds images of parental authority that affect how they treat the person.

9.    The psychological reality of children and adults is a deep well within themselves that they cannot see into.

10. Children are capable of conspiring with one another against the adult world.

When I read the short story ,“The Man in the Well” by Ira Sher, I was completely horrified and livid. An innocent group of children who play “hide and go seek”(116) and go to the “movie theatre”(118) turn evil when they let a helpless man die in the well. I was not as angry once I realized that possibly the children did not understand how much danger this man was really in. They knew that the man could die of starvation or dehydration, which is the reason that they brought him “bread”(117),”fruit”(117), and “a plastic jug of water”. However, when the man continues to ask the children “Do you think it will rain?”(117), they respond with a simple “no”(117) without giving it another thought. They did not comprehend that if it rained than the well would fill up and the man would drown.

      It is also possible that the children could not see the situation through the man’s point of view. Maybe the children did not understand that he really was stuck down there. They would each go to their homes and go to sleep in their comfy beds while the man would have to sleep on the dirty, concrete floor of the well. They would each get to eat breakfast with their loving family while the man would have to eat whatever was thrown at him by himself. It is hard even as an adult to see situations from another person’s point of view, it must be close to impossible as a child.

      You can tell that the speaker of this story will never forget about what happened at that well, and may even have trouble forgiving herself about it when she is older. The last line of “The Man in the Well” is “I will never go back”(120). I have experience with this theme containing my step-sister. When we were much younger, we would compete in everything together; grades, gymnastics, diving ect. I would always win first place and my step-sister would always come in second. I continued to boast and brag about my accomplishments while I was unintentionally putting my step-sister down. I didn’t learn until recently how much this hurt and upset her. I made her feel like she was not good enough, which is why she quit sports and went to drama, an activity without placing or winners. Although she loves drama and it was good for her, I have trouble forgiving myself for putting her though that.

It was strange and uncivilized that these children did not help the man in the well. This may be because they were in a group. If any of these children found the man in the well while they were alone I am sure that the child would have gotten help for the man. The speakers says in the beginning of the story that “everyone, like myself, was probably on the verge of fetching a rope, or asking where we could find a ladder, but then we looked around at each other and it was decided.”(116) It wasn’t until after the group looked at each other that they decided not to help the man. This relates to the novel “Lord of the Flies” in which many boys were left on an island by themselves after a plane crash. They were all very civilized boys until they got into a group together and became wild and crazy.

When the man in the well learned the names of each of the children, they all became terrified. The speaker says, “I felt the water clouding my eyes, and I wanted to throw stones, dirt, down the well to crush out his voice”(120). The man in the well could have done nothing to any of the children; but they each projected their fears and suspicions on to him.

      “We should be more compassionate to people who are trapped”. I wanted to scream this at the children the entire time I read the story. These children were the man’s only hope for surviving and all they could think about was how hot they were or how they were scared of the man finding out who they were. They should care more that it is an actual human being down in the well and he needs help. I believe in karma, what comes around goes around, in the good and the bad. Everyone will be trapped sometime in their life and will need help, if you help them than you will be helped.

      The children may have felt that they could not trust this man because they did not know what he looked like, they could not see his face. This could be why they kept asking him so many questions including “What’s your name?”(118).  They were trying to find out more about the guy so that they could paint a mental picture. This thinking could have come up because in the world today people who try to cover their face are usually trying to do something bad. For example, people who rob banks use masks and people trying to abduct other people use the internet to cover up who they realty are.

It is possible that the children get angry with all adults when they are angry with their parents. Maybe the children’s parents yelled at them recently, or their teacher gave them detention, or the lunch lady wouldn’t let them get seconds; they are trying to get back at the adult figures in their life by keeping the man in the well. This could be considered stereotypical, which is present in many peoples minds. For example, when an Asian cut my grandpa off the other day he assumed that all Asians are bad drivers. This would be incorrect thinking. All people drive differently and it is not based upon the person’s background.

It may be that the story of “The Man in the Well” is a metaphor for how children and adults really are. They have trouble communicating with each other. It seems that adults have trouble telling children the truth, which may not be the best thing. If the man had told the children the truth of who he was, how he got down there, and why he wanted to get out then they would have had more reason to help him. Also, if he had explained how necessary it was for him to get out as quick as possible because he could die than the children would understand and get him out. Adults feel they are protecting their children when they don’t tell them the truth when they get laid off, get a divorce, or what sex is. In some cases it might be, but if children are treated with respect and honesty than they will display the same to others.

The children in the story were very capable of conspiring with each other against the adult world. As a large group, they decided to let the man stay in the well. Although adults have much power over children, the children moved past the norm and gained control of the man. The man was in the hands of the children and the children liked it.

Rhetoric and Composition

This course, Rhetoric and Composition, will be my toughest coarse this semester. I am not a writer, but i will need to try my best. I am trying to got into Cornell for my masters so I need to get extremely good grades.