Week 10: Reading Notes Part B

Bulosan

Bulosan is a timely piece about coming to America and the struggles, as well as the greatness of coming to America. Bulosan was a Filipino man who had moved to Seattle to live in out his life as an American. Soon after the story begins, he then leaves to Salinas to see his brother. It is at this point in the story that I became kind of torn. It is clear that Bulosans brother is a better off individual, and that he is living a much better life here in America than he could have gotten in the Philipines. The Only problem is that when Bulosan goes to meet his brother, he has completely forgotten about their heritage, and even forgotten the face of Bulosan. This is saddening because it shows just how badly you can get sucked in to a new atmosphere or culture, and completely forget about your origins. While on the surface Bulosan's brother is better off for being more prosperous and living a better life, not knowing your family and forgetting your heritage arguably makes you worse off than being a successful man in America.

Week 10: Reading Notes Part A

The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts

This story is a short sweet tale about an oriental woman who does just as the title suggests, makes swell doughnuts. There is not much substance to the story, nor is there much of a story all together. But the culmination and the warmth you can feel through the authors words is definitely there. The author enters the old Woman's home, and is immediately greeted and taken to the most comfortable chair in the household. The author describes the wear and tear of the old woman, and how it is obvious to see that the woman has gone through many hardships as well as bright times in her long life. The old woman has raised six children, as well as an extremely long marriage, and just life in general. None of this has deterred her cooking, and even though the recipe to make a regular old doughnut does not offer much in the form of variety, her doughnuts still have a distinct taste to them that makes them amazing to the author. It is also clear that this woman is worldly and after living a long life and raising other lives, she is fully aware of life and the paths that should be taken. When the old lady is asked about the children she responds "I say to them, play, play hard, go out there and play hard. You will be glad later for everything you have done with all your might." This is important because she knows that playing hard and playing outside is important to the development of a child. In all I enjoyed this story, and I think it connects very well with the reader since myself, and I'm sure many other readers have someone like the old lady in their lives that they can relate this story to.

Week 9: Progress

I feel as though over the few months I have been in this class I have become a better writer. I have been missing some assignments and have been trying to cram everything in at the last minute to get things done in this class, but I am slowly figuring it out and getting better. It is hard for me currently to deal with life, four challenging classes, and working full time, but I have gotten the hang of it. I have been giving up going out with friends and doing things I enjoy doing to do work for this class as well as my other classes, but I feel as long as I can get the work done and graduate it will all be worth it. For this next half of the semester I plan to spend more time on school and put more effort into this class especially. I requested an extra day off work during the week so that I can get more school work done and have cut a few other things out of my life to make way for school work. It is a sacrifice and I will miss hanging out with my friends and doing fun things but it's a sacrifice I have to make in order to have a brighter future. This class is a lot of work and I usually bring my book to work to read the stories any chance I can get, and spend a few hours every day afterwards to get my school work done. Hopefully I can get on track very soon and make more time to get things done without staying up half of the night to finish my duties. This will be a good semester for me and I can graduate knowing that I accomplished something great.

Week 9: Project Action Plan

For my project I want to write about the short poem "To the Stone Cutters" and reflect upon the reading and how it connects to my life. "To the Stone Cutters" has the central theme about leaving behind a legacy and having the memory of you be passed down through the ages. Whether it be through your actions, your writing, or in this case, carving a statue that will stand the test of time, leaving behind a material piece of yourself that will stay around through ages is one of the greatest accomplishments I feel you can have in life. Writing a poem or a book to leave behind may get lost, but it can always be reprinted or remade and the words themselves will always be yours. The same goes for a statue, a statue is usually made out of rock, and that rock has been aged for thousands, possibly millions of years, and will continue to stand there as whatever you make of it. This is important for me and my life because I feel it is extremely important to leave behind a legacy of my own. It is a driving force for me to accomplish my goals and to be remembered, maybe not globally, but by my peers and possibly by the next generation those peers bring up. There are many people who live their lives and do nothing remarkable, which is okay but not doing anything out of the ordinary and not living life to its fullest capability to me is just a waste. For me I want to be remembered and I want this short life that I live to have meaning and purpose in this huge world. "To the Stone Cutters" resonated with me a lot, even though I never plan on writing a timeless piece of poetry or carving a statue of myself, I think the message the author portrays about leaving behind a legacy can be achieved also through action. Being a good person and helping others, especially those who severely need help is so important and you leave behind pieces of yourself that will be carried on through memory. This is one of the many reasons I want to become a police officer, and I hope to accomplish my goals and have an impact on others that will resonate with them and carry ono my legacy throughout the future.

Week 9 Analysis: The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon was another interesting read. I had heard of the movie version before but have never seen it. The story starts off right in the middle of the action and gives very little exposition or build up to the characters in the story. The story starts with the character know as "Spade." The story jumps right in with Spade talking to another character Cairo about paying Spade to follow a woman  around. They have a small chat and Spade eventually returns to hits apartment where the next character, Brigid, is waiting for him. They also chat and it turns out that Brigid has also hired Spade to help her. Context clues suggest that Spade is some sort of bodyguard or private investigator that will help people out if they pay him. Brigid and Spade leave the apartment and go to meet with Cairo. What made this story more enchanting was it's use of imagery and the setting. Being a frequenter of San Francisco lines that set up the imagery like "Herbert's Grill on Powell Street" helps me visually the story more because I know where and what Powell Street looks like. Overall this story has a dark and eerie to it. The characters talk with such a dry and serious tone that whenever I try to envision the characters a black and white scene like something out of Casablanca comes to mind. The complete blandness of the characters, and the delivery in their lines that show just how hollow and devoid the characters are makes me more intrigued in to their characters. The nonchalant delivery of words like " just wanted to know, because if he gets to be a nuisance I may have to hurt him" and "That's good. There goes the curtain. Good night." from characters like Spade give shows his characteristics, mostly as someone who is a worker and puts his job first before his humanity. I think characters like Spade are hard to portray, because instead of making the character seems cold you could make the argument that the author just is not a good writer. This is not the case, and I think the author is able to bring his characters to life because Hammett was an investigator, and he knows the inner working of the trade. I did enjoy this writing and I hope to read more like it in the future

Week 8: Reading and Writing Survey

Survey.

So far in this class I do feel as though my writing and reading skills have improved. I never used to take notes while reading a story before and taking the reading notes every few lines or so helped me to analyze what I was reading and get a better grasp as to what the author was intending. While I do think it is helping, it is starting to get a bit repetitive for me. Doing the same assignments every week is helping me get consistent, but at the same makes the reading feel like more and more of a chore that I have to knock out every week. In all I am certain that the work I am doing is helping me improve, and that I can continue to improve throughout my academic career

Week 8 Analysis: To The Stone Cutters

To the Stone-Cutters

To the Stone Cutters was a short but powerful read that I thoroughly enjoyed. What was emphasized the most in this poem was the question of what we should want to leave behind after we are gone. I have pondered this question a lot and I think that part of the strive we as humans have to be great and be successful is so that we will remembered throughout the ages for the people that we were during our lifetime. I think anybody would rather be known as the person who helped others or gave back to their community rather than a bad person who did evil deeds. Jeffers wants to leave his legacy behind through his poetry, much like a stone-cutter carves their legacy in to the stone. The carving of a legacy in to history is a reminder to the people of the future that you did exist and that you walked the grounds of the Earth before they did, along with the rest of your contemporaries. "For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth dies, the brave sun Die blind, his heart blackening." Lines like these show how the author views poetry, much like stone carvings, to be a timeless piece of work. While your physical body will run it's course, and eventually wither away, your piece of writing could be carried on theoretically forever, and people hundreds, maybe even thousands of years in to the future will know that you did in fact exist. Leaving behind a legacy is something that people should strive for, and is a good aspiration to have. Poets leave behind their legacy and put their blood, sweat and tears in to their work so that nothing about their life gets left behind.