Blog# 9

Since i can right about anything, I'm going to write about how the i rather read and talk about short stories in class rather then poems. I am like all confused and lost most of the time i think I'm on the right track about what a poem is trying to show and talk about. i truly am not and when someone else reads it I'm like oh i get a little better. Writing a 4 page paper on a poem is somewhat difficult most of the time. I cant wait till school is done!

assignment #7

Before my essay is read I want you to know, I truly didn't know how to start or what to write. I went to the writing center and got very much needed help. I am working on it.

Taking of Reasonability

Quinceañera is a popular celebration in the Latin culture. It’s a daughter’s transformation from child hood to woman hood. The celebration is a moment for both mother and daughter. The mother helps the daughter into the transformation as she has been saving and planning for this day since her daughter was a baby. Hair nails, dress, shoes, are all-important factors in the celebration. Now is the time of age men will want to marry and have children. Friends and family go into a catholic church for a ceremony. The priest talks of becoming a woman and he blesses her life as a woman now that she is fifteen years old. All the things the Quinceañera’s past possession of being a child now are gone and should always be kept in the past. The father also plays a small role usually if the girl is still a virgin; he dances a song that symbolizes their love. Now she can give her virginity and he will no longer be her protector. Who’s to say when you’ve truly turned into a woman, fifteen is a young. The Latin culture will assume you can take care of yourself and the responsibilities life comes with.

Why are mother’s so anxious for their daughter to make this drastic transformation at the age of fifteen? Mothers want their daughters to marry at such a young age and then have children who are usually grown into poverty. They wont have a degree or a job to support them so they will find a man to live off of. This is what they learn from their mothers, which did it to them. Mothers just pass on tradition and have the celebration for their daughters.

In a Quinceanera the girl has 14 couples, which represent one year in the girls life before transforming into a woman. They serve her through out the ceremony and party. They dance with her songs symbolizing her coming out. Everyone treats her, as a princess on her day. She even wears a tiara given by her parents.

All Latin women do not want transformation at such a tender age. “ My dolls have been put away like dead children in a chest I will carry with me when I marry” (page 640). So much from the past will be taking away. Now you have to act a certain way. What you wear is also important during the ceremony at the church you are wearing sandals but will be taken off, and you are given heels to wear through out the whole night during the celebration. The way you’ve worn you hair as a child will also change.” My hair has been nailed back with my mothers black hairpins to my skull. Her hands stretched my eyes open as she twisted braids into a tight circle at the nape of my neck”(page 640-641). The way you look will attract men. You will eventually meet one, if you want you can marry and have children. Now you are a woman and that is expected of you.

A lot of anxiety is felt during the day of the quinces, not only about how you are suppose to look but about the responsibility you are going to take on. “I am wound like the guts of a clock, waiting for each hour to release me”(page 641). She wants the ceremony to go be quick so she can be done and over with what her family has been waiting so long for. Judith Ortiz Cofer uses a lot of imagery in the poem she wants you to actually visualize what and how things happen in preparing for that day. The author says” I am to wash my own clothes and sheets from this day on, as if the fluids of my body were poison, as if the little trickle of blood I believe travels from my heart to the world were shameful”(page 641). She feels unloved in some way because things that were done for her before will not be done for her now, because of her age she is now treated different as if what came out of her isn’t that same anymore.

Even though this transformation from a child to woman is a tradition, and to many is a very special moment in their lives its not something every daughter wants to be part of. Fifteen is a young age to take on what the world has to offer. You will be barley out of high school. Most of the women will be jobless and struggling to take care of themselves. You will mature whether you like it or not, your family and friends will treat you as an adult from the day forward.

blog #6

I like the blogs more then anything out of this class. I think is way better then writing papers, and having quizzes all the time. Reading other classmates blogs, different points of views are extremely helpful. I expected this class have more long essay which I hate so very much. I think one paper and the blogs is enough. :-). Im hoping I get a better grade here then I did in 101.

Blog #5 option #2

50-50

I’m all alone in this world, she said,
Ain’t got nobody to share my bed,
Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand—
The truth of the matter’s
I ain’t got no man.

Big Boy opened his mouth and said,
Trouble with you is
You ain’t got no head!
If you had a head and used your mind
You could have me with you
All the time.

She answered, Babe, what must I do?

He said, Share your bed—
And your money, too.

Langston Hughes

I choose this poem because its a bit funny and some time ago i related to this poem how i wanted someone to be there but didn't realize how much it was going change my life not only money wise but emotionally.

www.poemhunter.com

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/50-50/ Hughes

blog #3 option A

From all the characters in the story "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien I found that Kiowa was interesting. Kiowa was illustrated as a baptist. He carried The New Testament given to him by his father. He was an upfront, and honest solider. He carried his grandmothers distrust of the white man and his Grand fathers old hunting and feathered hatchet. Kiowa saw Ted Lavenders death and describes is annoyingly many times in an unsympathetic way "Boom Down" he says, it was like watching a rock fall. He is a flat character to me. He didn't change the way he acted upon things, even though he wish he was able to feel more sympathy for Ted Lavenders death the way Jimmy Cross did. I chose this character because he was kinda different being that he was religious I would've thought he was going have more reaction emotionally to the death of his friend.

Blog #2 John Steinbeck. "The Chrysanthemums"

The Chrysanthemums written by John steinbeck uses symbolism with Elisa Allen. She lives in Salinas Valley where in the winter its closed off, from the sky and from the world. "On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot. John Steinbeck is already giving me the visual of a lonely place, secluded from the rest of society. Elisa was 35 and married to her husband Henry Allen with no children. Elisa planted and grew lots of Chrysanthemums which she cherished and put much effort and time into it. Henry didn't pay her passion and most valuable possession any attention so she kind of felt Henry felt the same way about her. When a man in a wagon with "Pots, pans, knives, siscors, lawn mores, Fixed", written on it pulled up to her farm road in front of her house she was very well protected of herself. She wore a gardening costume which made her figure look blocked and heavy, and mans black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she works.

Elisa was willing to make conversation with the very big man. She shared her love for the Chrysanthemums with the man, something she wasn't able to do with her husband often. She gave him some in a red pot to give to a lady. She told him step by step carefully what was to be done to make them grow tall. The man seem to take interest in the Chrysanthemums. John Steinbeck gives a visual of "her eyes shone", like she was in excited finally she was getting attention of what was hers that she loves so much. "She tore off her battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair". The man gave Elisa courage to stand in front of the mirror with out any of her gardening costume and look at her body , she tightened her stomach and threw out her chest. I think John Stein is telling the readers how much more confident she feels. Elisa goes to dinner with Henry and sees on the road the Chrysanthemums she shared with the man on the road. She turned her coat collar so Henry could not see that she was crying weakly-like and old woman. Steinbeck is saying Elisa isnt happy or content with the life given to her she feel stuck. She only has her Chrysanthemums.

Blog #1

Hi my name is Ashley. I am returning to school after a two year break, I'm glad to be back. I live with my spouse, 90lb razor edge bloodline pit bull, california kingston snake and a bearded dragon. I am very into animals and would like to one day become a veterinary. My favorite color is green. Im out going, pretty easy to make friends with. I despise the cold weather.