"Speaking of Courage"

In “Speaking of Courage”, Tim O’Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker’s post war life. He tells how Bowker tried to live after the war, trying to live with some guilt for Kiowa’s death. Throughout the story, Bowker imagines conversations, explaining how he almost won the Silver Star. He was speaking of courage, some courage that was lost for having Kiowa slipped into the mud, into the war, into death. Bowker tried to speak and explain how and why the courage was lost in the shit field. This speaks of courage because very few people would want to try and speak about such a thing that seems to be guilt and embarrassment for not being able to do anything.

Tim O’Brien said that he was a coward for going to war. He was a coward for doing what the others wanted, and expects him, to do. Everyone expected him to go to war. So he went, not standing up for what he obviously wanted, which was not to go to war. He did not want to be embarrassed and be pointed out as the guy who didn’t go to war. So he went.
The courageous thing in “Speaking of Courage” is to forget embarrassment and how Bowker failed to save Kiowa and talk about it. “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien (the narrator) went to war because he would not have been able to survive with the embarrassment of not going. Bowker couldn’t do anything about Kiowa, but just trying to talk about it is courageous because he’s not afraid of the embarrassment.

I think O’Brien’s portrayal of what is courageous is doing what you think is right and not being embarrassed. Embarrassment is something that holds everyone down. O’Brien’s portrayal of what is not courageous is doing what everyone expects and wants you to do even if you don’t want to do it. 

"The End of Adolescence"

In the memoir “The End of Adolescence”, Chelsea, the narrator, tells the story of when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She starts with describing the day her family received the news. She describes the hospital and the walls around her, the smell of death. She describes her father’s eyes, too. They are really nice descriptions but I feel that she could have done a better job describing her feelings.

Afterwards, she described how her life changed; she had to take care of her mother and show her she wasn’t weak. Her father always worked and her two sisters lived far away, which made her responsibility over her mother much greater. Chelsea then goes on describing how this experience helped her grow up. If she had the opportunity to go back in time and erase, she said she wouldn’t because of what she gained.

Something I don’t understand is what she meant when she said “I wish I never had to smell death again, but then, there’s always going to be another trip to the hospital.” Did she mean that death teaches you valuable lessons? Yes, this might be true. I think it’s more like as death approaches, things are needed to be taken more seriously.

“The End of Adolescence” is a nice memoir, a reflection on Chelsea’s past experience that changed her life for good. I still feel that she could have written more of her thoughts and emotions towards her father and mother, as well as her own problems that she could have had during this time. Her memoir seems to be just covering the main points of her experiences, with a few feelings in, but honestly, I would assume someone might feel those things.

To sum things up, Chelsea’s memoir had a strong impact on her life, but she could have done a better job telling it.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/readpoem.asp?id=11980&genre=Memoir&Page=5&sortBy=

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War (1959-1975) was one of America’s longest wars. It started with the opposition of having a single Vietnam.  America, in fear of having communism spread, decided to get involved. That was America’s main concern: the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. President Eisenhower stated his Domino Theory to support the Vietnam War effort. This Domino Theory stated that if one country falls to communism (South Vietnam), then the other countries around that country will fall to communism (like a when you have a line of dominos, and once falls, the other dominos keep on falling). Thus, America supported South Vietnam, since North Vietnam was communist.

The South Vietnamese government was weak. That is also another reason why America gave so much support to the war. In the beginning, America only supported South Vietnam with money and military advisers. By 1963, President Kennedy increased the number of military advisers from 100 to 1600. Then in 1964, North Vietnam attacked an American ship in international waters. Afterwards, President Johnson used this excuse to get power from the Senate to take troops to Vietnam. After the arrival of troops, bombings on North Vietnam began. Even though President Nixon increased the number of bombings on North Vietnam, in 1973 he began removing troops from South Vietnam. Then, in 1975, South Vietnam lost the war. For me, this is a clear sign that South Vietnam wasn’t fighting its own war. It was America that was fighting a war that was not theirs. It wasn’t even an official war since Congress never declared war. It was just a stupid conflict in which our country lost money and, more important, lives.

http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/gcselinks/britishworld/vietnam/getinvolved.pdf

The Vietnam War didn’t have the full support of the American people. At first, people supported the war because they claimed that they needed to stop the spread of communism. Afterwards, people began realizing that the war was a mistake. To start with, the war was spending too much money. Taxes were increased, so the people were unhappy. Others began to protest the war because of the chemical weapons used. Something that the people also did not like were the drafts, especially since the drafted, they say, were the poor. Some of the soldiers that were in the war questioned the morality of the war.

This is part of what was the Vietnam War. Something, in my opinion, a waste of everyone’s time, strength, and money.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNprotest.htm

"Let America Be America Again"

In Langton Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again”, Hughes shows two different perspectives of this land; 1) a land of hope where people dream something better for themselves, a land of the free, a land of opportunity… And 2) the land of the rich, where their money and gold shines, and as it shines, it distracts others from the other side of the land, the dark part of the poor people who work the land, hidden by the rich, which take all the glory. Those are very two different views, but when America isn’t just hope, but becomes a promise, the other perspective almost becomes invisible, until the promise is broken, that is when the other view on America returns to its natural color. It seems that the second perspective is more mundane that the first.

In this poem we are also described two other Americas. There is the America we have, which is the one as the second perspective mentioned above. This America we have is the just the land of the poor (well, it would be nice if the poor owned the land, but they don’t), in which people work and rich take all the glory, a land with many dreams, but these dreams seem out far away, out of our reach. The other America described, though, is one that Hughes is making a call for this America is a land in which men can be free, where the people actually own the land (not just a couple rich people), a strong land that we shall love, a land of opportunity, a land where dreams don’t stay that way but actually become a reality.

The tone of this poem is anger, with a bit of sarcasm mixed in it. This is no surprise, though. Who wouldn’t be mad at a land that made you dream a promise, but that promise only stayed as a dream? That is also the aspects of the American Dream that Hughes criticizes. The dream never really existed for the lower class people because they were never able to achieve it. The poem also has some hope in the end, a hope that the land that is today will one day transformed to what it should be, which is how we, the people, see it as.

This poem relates very well to Fitzgerald’s criticism on The Great Gatsby because it shows how Gatsby, who was born poor, died without making his dream a reality; having Daisy. The poem speaks the truth when it says that the lower class always has a hard time reaching the American Dream. Daisy was Gatsby’s idiosyncrasy. She was his American Dream, everything that he did revolved around her. And as we try to make that dream come true, everything that we do is for that.

I, honestly, don’t agree with this criticism in my modern world. Today, the American Dream is something different for each individual. It is mainly, though, just a dream, a hope, of obtaining something better than what they have now or had in the past. Yes, we can still obtain the America Dream! It just depends on the dream itself; I guess it has some restrictions, but people can still reach it. It’s not a smart idea to reach for the stars because no one actually gets there, so maybe starting to dream small, and by slowly achieving goals, one can reach a higher dream than expected in the beginning.  We still want this dream. Deep down we always wish or just wonder if our life can be better than what it is now and we set goals to improve that, which becomes the American dream to us, because that’s what the American dream is, just our aspirations with an actual possibility to be realized in this country.

Tom: scene pg129-130

“Open the whiskey, Tom,” Daisy ordered to me, “and I’ll make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself…. Look at the mint!”
I could not take this humiliation any longer, especially not coming from my wife, a woman! I needed to get out this doubt, along with the anger, once and for all.

“Wait a minute,” I snapped with irritation, trying to hide my humiliation, “I want to ask Mr. Gatsby one more question.”

“Go on,” Gatsby said, with a gentle feeling of power and victory.

“What kind of row are you trying to cause in my house anyhow?”

This was it. It was time to face this man and confront him. Time to show whose boss.

“He isn’t causing a row,” Daisy said, again interrupting my moment. “You’re causing a row. Please have a little self-control.”

Self-control?! She wanted me to have some self control when some man was trying to take my wife. This was just ludicrous!

“Self-control!” I repeated mordantly. “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. NOBODY from NOWHERE make LOVE to your wife. Well, if that’s the idea you can count me OUT… Nowadays people begin sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”

I just not could not take this! This man was trying to tear apart my family, MY family. Yes, I understand I had an affair with Myrtle, but this man had no right to bother our lives and our marriage. We were all much better without him!

Afterwards I realized I was standing by myself, but at least their attention was all on me, and I hoped that those words were sinking right in those empty brains of theirs.

“We’re all white here,” murmured Jordan.

I didn’t realize that part, but I still wanted to make them see that it wasn’t right for this Gatsby man to cause any trouble with my family, especially not my woman. But this man just thought he was so important and famous because of his huge social parties who just consisted of lazy people with nothing better to do that go waste some hours of their life at an unknown man’s home.

“I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties. I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends­—­in the modern world.”

I was mad. No, not mad, furious. I could already feel my packet muscles get tense. I wanted, no, I was desperate to shop everyone that I had every right to want to expose this man! I had to defend my morals!

“I’ve got something to tell you, old sport—“Gatsby began, but was, surprisingly, cut by Daisy’s helpless plea.

“Please don’t!” She cried. “Please let’s all go home. Why don’t we all go home?”

“That’s a good idea,” Mick said as he quickly got up. “Come on, Tom. Nobody wants a drink.”

Obviously no one wanted one. What they wanted was to get away from this huge embarrassing moment Gatsby was about to go through, by they were going to have to stay for it all.

“I want to know what Mr. Gatsby has to tell me.”

“You’re wife doesn’t love you,” said Gatsby.  “She’s never loved you. She loves me.”

“You must be crazy!” I exclaimed. I didn’t even think of how to respond him, I just did. From that moment I not only let my anger and hate toward Gatsby take hold of my words, by my feeling and emotions as well. This man must be truly insane to think that Daisy loves him when she has me. I couldn’t think of that being possible… Daisy’s love not being mine? I suddenly felt some huge anchor hit my heart.

Gatsby, on the other hand, was rather excited and pleased to have that lie out of his chest, for he jumped up and began talking once more.

The American Dream: Alive or Dead?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tiziana-dearing/us-wealth-gap_b_1093582.html
"Where Is the American Dream Today?"
A very good heading and question, in my opinion. So, where is this dream? Is it even still alive?
Well, according to Tiziana Dearing, it still is. This dream, though, is in danger of dying and that is because of poverty. This online newspaper article talked about hoe poverty has been increasing. We may try to seem hopeful and say that things will get back to normal soon, but the reality is that it will take even more years to get back on track even after the recession is finally over.
According to Fareed Zakaria, it will take about five YEARS for the economy to fully recover. Five years until people get back their jobs. And until those five years get here, what will happen to those without jobs? Poverty is going to hit those people and their family and that is what is destroying the american dream.
What is it that people look for in the american dream? Maybe a house of their own, happiness, and financial backup just to have a worry-free life. Well, i doubt that people in poverty have their own house and financial backup. Yes, they may have happiness, but it must be constantly invaded and interrupted by the worries of money and how they will get it to feed their family members. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a Dream I want to be in.
That is why we have to keep on working on this dream to improve it. The problem is, though, that this dream is based on economy and if our economy keeps on going like it's going right now, that American Dream will soon be just that, a dream that will never be.

Song Review

Time to review a song. I’m that picky with my music, but there are some that are just so annoying! That’s why I chose Lil Wayne’s song “She Will” (I could easily talk about his entire album The Carter IV, but I think one song is ENOUGH).

Ok, before I begin, I just want to say that I dislike many of Lil Wayne’s songs, but not all of them, just a lot.

So, let’s go into “She Will”. She Will what, Mr. Wayne? What is it that you are trying to say? That girls are whores?

“Maybe for the money and the power and the fame right now, she will, she will, she will.”

She’ll do anything for power and money? Why not say men will? I find this song very insulting to females. That’s the why I hate it! And especially with all the gorgeous language Lil Wayne uses, it’s just the strawberries on top of the frosting (not cherry, I prefer strawberries).

There are some good things about this song, though. I mean, the only reason I hate “She Will” is because of the insult towards female. Everything else isn’t that bad.

There some pretty good parts of it.

“What goes around, comes around like a hula hoop

Karma is a b****? Well just make sure that b**** is beautiful”

I like that part. Kinda like a life lesson, don’t you think? It’s like, try to make your life the best so what you get in return is good.

Yeah, other than that and the really cool rhythm, I still dislike this song. This dude, Mr. Lil Wayne, always uses bad language and has some really unpleasant lyrics about women, for example, like this song. But here, you can judge yourselfs:

http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/radio/lil-wayne-she-will/

(I honestly don’t understand how my brother likes to listens to this “song”)