The Things They Carried

Prompt: What was taken away from whoever went inside the tunnel?
The men didn't feel confident because they were labeled weaker than someone like Henry Dobbins. Henry Dobbins is bigger than the rest. I think the word bigger shows off manliness. Society views men with muscles and a six pack. They're not supposed to be scared of anything, but then what are other reasons why these men are so scared besides not being accepted into society?
Inside this tunnel, everything is taken away from them. From the beginning everything is already taken away from them, because they're at war away from their loved ones. But to put them in another unfamiliar environment where its pitch black. It's almost like stripping them completely naked and making them feel vulnerable and transparent. They also have no sense of direction, and having a feeling where to go always makes you feel ten times better. Just the fact that you know where you're destination is means the journey is over. You can get out of the stage where you feel butterflies and goosebumps. Losing sight is something unimaginable to think about. The thought that you can't see the people around you, what's coming ahead of you, and also the thought of anything can happen in a flash is unsettling. All the men have is their bare two hands, but it won't help them with their fears. Feeling their way out is another frightful process. It's like the feeling where you put a blindfold around your face and stick your hand in a box. When we see an object, we automatically decide whether to touch it or not. But in this case when site is taken away, the ability to have a choice is very limited. Your screams will be muffled, and no one would ever know what's happening. It's a creepy thought.

Gryphon

Miss Ferenczi is such a bold character. She's so confident in everything she says and it seems like she's comfortable in her own skin. She is a quirky and quite interesting person with weird beliefs, but it is kind of risky putting weird beliefs into a young child's mind. This is the time where they develop and they are very vulnerable to silly lies such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Some things she says aren't necessarily appropriate for the age she's teaching but others are quite interesting and fun to think about.

1. Six times eleven equals sixty-eight, if someone said that was true to me, as a child I would believe it. I have a very stubborn personality, so it would be hard later to grow up and realize that the answer was actually sixty-six. I would keep asking why and why and eventually it would lead to nowhere. That part was just confusing and irrelevant. Math has always been taught to be logical and find out accurate answers. It's not something you can have fun with. I wish it was fun; I think we all do, but messing around with a child's knowledge is simply cruel. Don't get me wrong I think I'd find it fascinating to have Miss Ferenczi as a teacher. I would love to hear all her adventurous stories, but how she twists around proven facts, things you just can't change, into lies would be confusing to a child.

2. I think the general idea that the author was trying to do was making Miss Ferenczi someone who would actually prepare the kids for the future and reality. I think sometimes adults never want to expose their kids to the real world, but we all have to face it sooner or later and you can't keep them hidden. But how she said death doesn't exist kind of contradicts the characters goal of exposing the kids to the real world. I'm not a very religious person, but everyone has different beliefs of what comes after death whether its heaven, hell, or reincarnation. I know one thing that is true, that we all die. That's all I ever knew to be true. The parts before and after death don't makes sense, but death is not something complicated. It's just a time where you let someone else live. It takes a long time to find out why I'm here and you always wonder where you go afterwards. It's also something my parents never tried to cover up and that's saying something.

3. I think it's nice that Miss Ferenczi exposed kids to a different religion other than Christianity. I know all my life whenever friends find out that I'm just not much of a religious person, they take me to church. Nobody was ever different and I think it's nice that she's giving kids more options to choose from and not just stick to something common. I was a Christian at one point but for the wrong reason. I just thought it was the right way to live just because it's the religion that I hear about the most. As I thought about it more and more I respected people's beliefs and how much they had faith in their high power. I just had a couple of disagreements and some parts just didn't make sense to me. Another part of me was saying, "No, why would so many people believe in this religion though?" I just thought I should just be open to many people's beliefs and listen before I decide to put my faith in it. I don't want to get my hopes up.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is amazing at putting a background on each character by adding random yet subtle details about the littlest things. When she adds disagreement between Bobby and Ronny, you get a clue that there's some kind of tension in between that's been going on for awhile a long time. For Tina, she adds a doll to Tina's part of the story and how she purposely mistreats the doll to show how her mother neglects her existence. This shows how much Tina is craving just at least some affection from her parents. I think the one character that Jhumpa Lahiri is best at portraying is Mr. Kapasi. He's just a regular tour guide around his 40s, who drives people around to show India. But he's unfamiliar about love, he's never seen his own wife naked, when they've been married for so long. Mr. Kapasi wants to feel love and he has an ideal image in his head inspired by his favorite statue of Astachala-Surya. The statue is covered with women all over this tiresome looking man, sympathizing him at his feet. Mr. Kapasi longs for someone to look forward to when his body is aching. His relationship with his wife lacks lust that he craves. When Mrs. Das commentates on his job and telling him that it's "romantic." Mr. Kapasi lights up because that's never been said to him before. He is puzzled by this rare comment that I believe he's always wanted his wife to say to him at night when they're in each others' arms. I believe while Mr. and Mrs. Das's marriage lacks attraction the same is happening in Mr. and Mrs. Kapasi's marriage. That appeal that once attracted these people are gone, allowing them to crave for that appeal again. She portrays it so wonderfully that you can even imagine Mr. Kapasi getting agitated because he can never spend a moment alone with Mrs. Das. A person, who he thinks, can satisfy his needs.

The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant

1. I knew that I was going to move to Korea in the middle of my freshmen year. I just moved to Saratoga and met the sister I've never had. That idea of moving to a foreign country was incomprehensible, I was very ignorant. I didn't care if this country had my "roots." I didn't want to move just yet because I just moved. America is my home and it will forever be my home. It's just because I've lived there my whole life. I've never been exposed to crowded streets and people elbowing me to move out of the way. I know people say you'll soon like it more than America, but they just don't get that it's the same thing if I were to tell them they will like America more than Korea if they moved. I didn't tell anyone, only my best friend. Then later I was talking to another one of my good friends and he was so convinced that he could convince my dad to stay. I honestly didn't think he'd actually have the time to go around and get all my good friends to sit down and write letters to send to my dad. They threw me a party and had me read all the letters. As I read each word my heart dropped, I honestly thought maybe there was a little hope. Just a little, just maybe and only there was hope I wouldn't move. My friend kept badgering me and telling me that it's going to work. He would even get a little bit stubborn when I was doubting it would work. Would my dad really just go ahead and change his mind with a couple of letters written by 15 year olds? I did want the answer to be, "Yes, you can stay here." But no matter what my friend thought, I knew he was wrong. I knew but then again i didn't want to admit that my dad will say no. It was all something that I got my hopes up for, but in the end I was really happy that I got to see what my friends wrote and what they thought of me when they first saw me. I knew that it was an obvious no, but I guess it was worth a shot.


2. Sheila Mant in the protagonist's mind is already up on a pedestal. A pedestal so far up, that it would take a while where she is. He notices every little thing about her to the point if he was a painter, he would take an incredibly long time to paint her. Every little detail about her is described perfectly in the story. He even mentions, "her well-spaced freckles." He takes in every little moment and takes time to learn when it's the right time to approach her on the dock while she's soaking in the sun. She's so high up in her mind, it's like that typical high school movie/ Where the girl is walking the hall and there's a glow around her hair with a fan blowing in her hair. The guy feels invisible even if she sits two seats away from him. He tries everything to be noticed and goes out for popular sports. In those movies, the guy always gets the girl, but in this story sadly he doesn't. At the start of their date, her tone is very blank and blunt. From the reading, I can even smell bad air. She's losing interest, and seemed very bored. It didn't even seem he was very much into it towards the end. The author just explains what happened at the concert with a very non-descriptive summary. If the protagonist was interested in the date, he would explain his every emotion with every happening throughout the night. He only expressed his feelings with fishing.

Newspaper:Travel

I think Rosenthal's piece should be in the travel section. It's objective and subjective and articles in the travel section can be objective and subjective. Also, the story is about tourists going to Germany to visit the concentration camps to see if such a gruesome place existed. It almost felt like Rosenthal was there and telling his experience was like. I feel like it should be published as a review under that section. He has a certain story telling vibe, that I think a lot of people can connect with and be interested in the place he went. "...at Brzezinka the sun should ever shine or that there should be light and greenness and the sound of young laughter It would be fitting if at Brezezinka the sun never shone and the grass withered, because this is a place of unutterable terror," this sentence seems to be said from the author's point of view. I don't think anyone else can describe someone else's feelings like that, unless they could read minds. It's hard to exactly write whats on someone else's mind unless it was fiction. I doubt that it should be in the short stories' column, because it's also seems to be too objective to be a story. When I read this, I imagined being inside the author's head literally. I imagined that inside his brain was a capsule, some sort of spaceship. I seated myself inside, clicked the audio button, and his thoughts could be heard over my pair of headphones. This story seems to real, to be fake.

Words of Wisdom

Tone Difference

Theme for English B's tone is more soother, whereas the tone for Hair is regretful and angry. Langston Hughes is more accepting and he understands the culture clashes. He also knows that he doesn't have to change in order to fit into society's image of perfect. In his poem he says, "As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me. " I like that line because it shows how this whole world is somewhat connected. Two different races with different ideas and thoughts, but so much to learn about each other. Malcolm X realizes later in the story and he regrets self- degrading himself and he was already perfectly fine just the ways he was before he got his hair transformed. He doesn't like the fact that he endured so much pain just to be someone who he doesn't need to be. Getting sucked in what is considered pretty can destroy a person's perspective on image and that being beautiful is a set of rules you have to follow. It was upsetting to both authors but they coped through it in different tones and methods.

Malcolm X and Langston Hughes

Hair and Theme for English B have their similarities and their differences.
It's all about what it's like to stand out from the crowd. Malcolm X in Hair is trying to blend in with the crowd, starting out with his hair. It's just hair, nothing special, but his want for a "white looking" hair shows significance that he wants to fit in. It's like high school, everyone is trying to find out what is considered "in" or "out." In Hair, Malcolm X is on his way to self- degradation. He wants to feel superior for just once in his life because society always looked down on having different colored skin.
Langston Hughes tells a story about being different. He says wearing a different color doesn't mean you can't like the same things or do the same things as a white person. He feels that everyone is connected in this world even though some people don't want to be. Some can learn from each other and it really doesn't matter about color. In fact, everyone can learn more about other culture and races. We all live in the same world, so might as well. When people learn about other people, they don't change along with it. A new perspective in another culture, is something someone gains.

These two stories both talk about society, and how judgmental it can be just because you're different. 

Fish Cheeks

There must be thousands of  possibilities on why Amy Tan decided to go along with Fish Cheeks as her title. I think she chose this title because in the story it mentions that it's her favorite food. Now, I'm a pretty picky eater, and I'm extremely stubborn about certain types of food. There's this mexican restaurant called Chipotle and they do burritos and burrito bowls. You scurry down the line, pick the toppings you want, and VOILA HEAVEN! Now there is a point to this. The point is that it is my Chipotle list, IT WILL NEVER CHANGE, because it's me. No one else is going to eat my Chipotle except for me. Favorite foods can't easily change, just like how Amy couldn't change her lifestyle to fit Roger..Ron...Robert. It's who she is and she doesn't have to change to satisfy someone else. She doesn't live for Robert and Robert doesn't live her life. It might be embarrassing to admit you like something that is out of the ordinary, but if someone were to truly love you, it wouldn't matter in the end. I believe that if you love someone, you'd love both sides, negative and positive. You really can't change a person, because it's their life and it's them.

By Any Other Name

I think the author wasn't trying to dissuade the readers about how people can have dual personalities. "But I put it happily away, because it had all happened to a girl called Cynthia, and I never was really particularly interested in her." This quote supports that people can have dual personalities. In this case, Cynthia was a meaningless name and personality. She cared about the name Santha. The author was born with that name, and the name defines her. She came into this world with that name, not Cynthia. Cynthia was a character she played at school, nothing more. I think a person can have dual personalities based on personal experience. A person can easily put on a smile, and you'd never know if they want to explode inside. There's surprisingly a lot of  people that are struggling inside, and you'd never guess what kind of issues they're dealing with. Everyone has a story, some are nice and others are bad.