The Final Blog

I can't believe the year has finally come to an end because it seems just like that we started the class. I am a freshman and can honestly say I have never experienced an English class like this one. We would start off with a story, and then let our discussions lead the way for the rest of the class period. At first it stressed me out because I am used to being structured and knowing exactly what to expect, but now I wouldn't have it any other way! Lets jump into our first story A Christmas Carol.
    

"I have heard the story of Dickens A Christmas Carol multiple times throughout my childhood. I have also seen the Disney cartoon as well as the newly made movie, yet I had never even thought twice about what the word humbug could have possibly meant. When Dr. Vince told us that the word meant hypocrite my entire outlook on the story changed. Its crazy because after 13 or so years of having the same opinion, one minor detail in the story can erase that opinion completely. I now see the character of scrooge in a different light. It is very sad to know that people can not be genuine in their Christmas spirit, but it is the truth. Now a days Christmas has become a season of greed and deception."

This was the first story that really grabbed my attention because I realized that my perception on the whole story was off. Why had I never inquired about the word "Humbug?" I had never even thought about finding out the meaning of that word until I was introduced to it this year, and was told it meant "Hypocrite." This is a prime example of what we were being taught to do this year and that is to seek answers for ourselves. In my blog I found an article about a grandfather that was knocked unconscious over a pair of shoes on a big Christmas sale day. Whenever my dad isn't in the Christmas mood and refuses to hang up our wreaths and Christmas lights I tell him to quit "being a Scrooge." Yet now I think that it would be an honor to be called Scrooge because he saw the hypocrisy in the holiday and refused to join the crowd. Isn't this another key quality we've been learning about? To stand up for what we believe in? Our next story to discuss was O.Henry's The Gift of the Maji.I really liked this story because it showed us how love is supposed to be. I think today's society has a very twisted view on this topic due to all the domestic abuse, or just the divorce rates in general. Marriage and Love are supposed to be intertwined with one another, but lately love is completely absent from the equation.

    "The couple each sacrificed something that was important to them in order to make their partner happy, and although the couple is portrayed as acting foolishly, I believe that it is the ultimate love story."

Re-reading this blog, I have to say that i still agree with my response. This story could easily be made into a Nicholas Sparks movie (with an attractive man such as Channing Tatum to be the husband and a beautiful co-actress Kim Kardashian to play Della). When the climax occurs and the reader starts to see that they each bought gifts for each other that they can no longer use, I expected the husband to freak out and belittle his wife for making such a stupid decision. However, much to my surprise, his love for her is so great that he is able to look past her pixie cut. As I discussed in my presentation, Candide is one of my favorite stories that we have read this year. I love Voltaire's satire of organized religion, and just his use of satire in general. I admit that as I was reading this story I laughed quite a few times at Candide's misfortune.

"Pangloss fully believes that everything in the world is as it should be. This philosophy is tested throughout the story when back to back catastrophic events take place. I somewhat agree with Voltaire's mockery of the idea that every bad circumstance in life serves for some greater purpose. As a christian I believe that God doesn't give us anymore than we can handle, and some incidents in life occur to mold us into a better and stronger person."

I have paintings and pictures of the quote "Everything happens for a reason" hanging all over my room. In Candide's situation, he never learned a lesson or grew from his negative encounters. He accepted the fact that his bad luck was meant to be and he just kept trudging. The intent for Candide was to prove that God just left us on the earth and whatever happens is supposed to happen. I disagree with this because I am a christian, but I guess it just depends on your religion as to whether you agree with Voltaire or not. In the end of the story when Candide decides to "cultivate his garden," I paralleled this to the quote "Hard work pays off." When Candide stopped becoming involved with religion and politics, he was able to settle down in a controlled environment and focus on himself. I think this relates to people today because you will never be fully happy while being involved in other peoples business. Candide can also be a story about persistence because there were times that he could have given  up but he decided to keep going, which is a lesson that everyone can learn from. Equiano and Narrative on the life of Frederick Douglass are both slave narratives that portray the harsh conditions that slaves encountered. Equiano was stripped from his home and forced to become a slave, whereas Douglass was born into slavery. Being educated separated them from the million other slaves and allowed for their escape. Equiano used his intelligence to make his own money by sailing all over the world and finally made enough to set himself free, and Douglass learned to read and write so that when he escaped he could break away from the long line of indentured servants, which is practically another form of slavery. In my blog from Frederick Douglass I wrote:

"It is a common saying that "If you give someone an inch, they will take a mile," and this is the case with Douglass. Once he dipped his foot in the water of knowledge, he wanted to go swimming. He just couldn't get enough of learning. His longing to become free motivated him to keep learning.Douglass realized that becoming educated would remove the chains of ignorance that slavery provided"

I think that this pretty much sums up the entire lesson from both of these stories. Without education, anyone can become a slave. And I don't mean that in literal terms but a worker that is not educated can become a slave to his or her boss because he or she will never know if their being treated fairly or not. In college we are obviously here to gain an education, but even after college our strive to learn should never cease. My grandparents used to say "You learn something new everyday" and I have found that to be very true. As I was researching these two stories for my blogs, I was amazed as to how much slavery still occurs in the world today.

It breaks my heart to know that children are being taking from their homes just like Equiano, and forced to work against their will just like Douglass. I believe that the only way to stop slavery in the world today is to raise awareness. Tolstoy's The death of Ivan Ilyich shows us that climbing to the top of the social ladder is not all that matters in the world. His overly obsession with popularity is the ultimate reason for his death.

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy

 Ivan Ilyich died a bitter man because he never took the initiative to change himself, even on his death bed. I think that his main cause of death was his lack of support. His family nor the doctors ever treated him as if he were dying. It was almost like they were annoyed at the fact he was just laying around all day.

"While reading the story I felt as if Ilyich was dying mentally from his lack of sympathy, as well as physically from his pain. I can relate to this because this summer I had my wisdom teeth taken out, and it was the worst pain I have ever had to endure in my 18 years of life. However no matter how intense the pain was, nothing made me more mad than when my family thought that I was faking/exaggerating about the extent of the pain."

This excerpt from my blog makes me laugh because I can remember my wisdom teeth hell like it was yesterday. When reading about how his wife and kids would just go to the movies and leave him by himself I could only think of how angry I was when my family would eat steaks right in front of me while I could barely even eat soup. This story made me realize that I need to be nicer to people, because when I am on my deathbed, I want to have a huge support group constantly surrounding me. I don't think anyone wants to end up bitter and alone like Ivan Ilyich. Maupassant's Regret kind of ties in with Ivan Ilyich. Ivan had many regrets in his life, and in Regret, Saval regrets his love life. It is said that Saval had been with many women, but none of them really meant anything to him because his heart was still stuck on Madame Sandres. His one regret is that he never gave into his feelings and he is bogged with the "what ifs" of life.

"The story could have had ended completely different if Saval had chosen to follow his heart, but I think that is just how life goes.
There are so many "what ifs" throughout life. I believe that everything happens for a reason and wondering "what if" is simply a waste of precious time"

If Saval had decided to confront Madame Sandres years ago one of two things could have happened. Either she would have confessed her love for him too and they would run away together, or she would say she is perfectly happy being married and Saval could have finally moved on. This story motivated me to seize the day and live a life of no regrets. 
Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman was one of the more sinister stories we read this year. Don't get me wrong almost every story we read involved something depressing or perverted, yet this particular story really stuck with me. Just to recap on it, it portrayed a mentally diseased man who thought that his peers and family were plotting to eat him. I think to me the most disturbing thing was that the story was told from his point of view, so it was as if we were reading his mind.

 "Cannibalism is not something that we have to worry about in today's society because we are never in the position to where we would have to eat another human in order to survive. Dr. Vince mentioned that he has watched the movie, The Road, and although I have yet to see the movie, I have read the book. Cormac McCarthy's novel on a post-apocalyptic society is one of the most depressing books I have ever read."

The topic of cannibalism gives me nightmares after seeing all the gory movies such as Hunger or Silence of the Lambs. It is almost scary to think of all the movies and books on the topic because if people are reading/watching this kind of thing then something about it intrigues them. In my blog I commented on how it is easy for a person to say that they would rather die than resort to eating another human, but sadly it is hard to say until you have been in that position where cannibalism was your only option for survival.  

 
Our final story was Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I was very intrigued with this story and its culture shock. I tried to imagine my life today if we lived in a world of tribes and polygamy, but needless to say since I am a female I would have gotten the short end of the stick. Okonkwo is a man of tradition and his whole world is thrown off balance when things in the tribe start to change. It was sad to me when Okonkwo would beat his wives for the pettiest of offenses. He was trying to show his masculinity, yet I don't think it is very masculine to beat a woman. My sister and I used to watch the show "Sister Wives" (don't ask me why) which is a reality show on polygamy. The wives would refer to one another as sisters because they liked to think of their union with each other as one big happy family. It was funny to see the jealousy stir up when the husband would spend more time with one than the other, or when one of the wives became pregnant. Girls are jealous by nature and I don't think that anyone can honestly like sharing their boyfriend/husband with two other girls. Okonkwo ends up hanging himself because he can't deal with the changes in his tribe caused by the "white man."

I have learned a lot throughout this semester especially how to read a story and decipher it for yourself and in today's context. In this class not only did we read and discuss stories, but we applied them to everyday life circumstances. I learned how to dig though information to develop a greater meaning and I hope to carry this ability with me throughout the rest of my college years. I think that us ending the semester with Ai Weiwei was perfect because it showed us a person in toady's world that is making a change based on his beliefs, and this is practically what we have been taught to do since day one. Thanks for everything Vince! You the best!