If You Had 3 Wishes....

Since starting the course Lives and Times, i have come to reevaluate myself as a writer. In the beginning of the course I decided that I needed to work on my thought processes and the ways in which I approach the ideas that I need to write about. As of the beginning of the course, I was very close minded. My language was colloquial and I blame my High School English teachers for not correcting my grammar and style when they could. I believed that I was writing past a college freshman level according to my High School and Lived and Times proved to me how far I could take my abilities still. I have found new ways to approach analytic papers, artist statements, and narrative adaptations. The front door is not the only way!!

As this course comes to a close, I believe that my strengths as a writer have increased. I now come at all assignment topics form every angle possible. I have found much more faith in my abilities to cohesively put together any type of essay.

In the future, I need to improve my grammar and some of the language that I use in my writing. I would like to continue developing the cohesiveness of my writing, especially the transitioning from one sentence to another.

All-in-all I enjoyed myself in this class and would recommend it to anyone looking for a W.

Here is a video that I found today that may help any of my readers that need help writing...

Hope it helps!!

Lost In Translation

Rudyard Kipling said that "words are, of course, the most powerful drug by mankind." I don't believe he knew how true those words were.

I agree completely with Owen about not changing the Gaelic language. I do not agree however, with the way that he handled the situation. His country is being invaded! His hometown being torn apart by people who cannot even speak to him! How then , is he so calm about everything that is happening. The "visitors" cannot even pronounce his name and he is trusting them with his country's history and traditions? Lt. George had no other foundation for forcing the language change other than his own frustration with what he could not understand, couldn't we then just call him lazy for not learning the language himself rather than forcing an entire country to change for him. to this day only about 120,000 people in ireland still speak Gaeilge. It is now simply a lost treasure of the Irish community. it is not taught in schools as a primary language as it once was nor has it been truly passed down from family to family. Some Irishmen can't even understand it in it's full context.

I believe that what the United States is doing right now is right. Our government has not officially, but somewhat underhandedly, said that if an immigrant is to live in this country he/she must also speak the language. This is proper because we are not taking anything away from them. It is obviously their outright choice. However, the idea that Owen is allowing to be presented is preposterous because it is trapping them in a country they once thought of as home and not letting them live in it. Imagine how many lives had to have suffered because of the linguistic change instead of the one that could have made the decision freely an ask yourself if you would have accepted it as well.

Slan a fhagail ag duine

p.s. here's a funny little skit from translations in a school classroom that made me laugh

What Can Be Seen

In the Taiga tribe, Omishto is simply a girl who sees things that no one thinks about. But to the American Government she is a witness.

Omishto was named "the one who watches" for a reason. She grew up seeing the real truth about Ama and her mother and her necessary decision between the tribe and her mother, but now she is faced with another sight.

Omishto said many times that she only wanted to tell the truth, whether it be to the American government or to her tribe's council, she swore she would only tell the truth about what she saw. Being a witness inserts many hard decisions on top of her already confusing lifestyle. She must now use what she saw and what she was born to see to convict the one person that she thought was invincible. She uses her sight in a way that is unnerving to her and therefor is uncomfortable with herself and feels guilt beyond recognition. With her mother still pushing her to abandon the Tribe and their way of life, she herself feels abandoned because of what she has had to do to the one person she trusted most of all. Her sight, what was once her gift, is now what she hates the most.

Omishto may have been destined to see what she saw so that she could become a stronger person. She uses her unique situational sight to uncover the truth behind many scenes that pay out before her. One day she will look back on this instance and see that she has done the right thing and that the guilt is on the wrong shoulders. She will see the reflection of her actions in everything she says and does for the rest of her life and that will make her a more conscious, selfless, and brilliant person. She is able to see the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, guilty and innocent, and she feels the impact of that sight everyday.

Omishto is used as a witness to both the Taiga tribe and the American Government in different ways. She is a witness to the Taiga people because she was there with Ama. She saw what really happened and the driving forces/spirits that led to the actions. She can defend Ama in a way that no one else can while still giving evidence against her. For the American Government, Omishto is simply a witness because she can provide the fact that Ama was there, the fact that Ama killed the panther, and the fact that there was no provocation from the endangered animal.

Omishto has the gift of a very honest, very real sight and unlike before when it would have helped her choose between her mother and Ama, it is now killing her because she will not lie about her sight. Omishto watches everything, but now she has actually seen; and what she saw could hurt her more than she imagined.

Whose Power?

"Two worlds exist. Maybe it's always been this way, but I enter them both like I am two people. Above and below. Land and water. Now and then."

Omishto has a problem, and at such a young age she shouldn't be forced to choose. She has a mother, who loves her in her own way and is trying to force her to be someone that she doesn't know if she can be. She also has an "aunt" who would not, and will never force her. However, her aunt hopes that she will stick to the old ways and stay with her tribe.

Omishto is torn between these two women, each of which have such power over her life and way of thingking. She describes her situation as being two different worlds as if she is two people. She doesn't know which way is the right path and I believe that she is too young to chose.

This situation is very familiar for millions of young people. It could be as simple as wanting to be like you father but being drawn to the ways of your mother. It could be very complicated, like being a celebrity but wanting to attend your first day of high school. We are faced with life-changing, heart-breaking, and sould-clenching decisions every day, howev er because we are young it makes life that much harder. There is so much pressure on us to make good decisions and decisions that will lead us to a better and brighter future that it makes it that much harder to make the decision in the first place. Colleges are another giant decision. If you think about it we have already decided where our future is going and who we will become to a great extent.

I can sympathize with Omishto as many of us can because I understand how hard her decision is. If she makes one wrong move her future could be demolished. She has to choose and that part is the hardest. We are all young and we all can take great advice from this similar girl in what she says, does, and thinks about as we move foreward with our lives. I really do love this book and I am anxious to see what comes next.

Touching the Surface

The cover of Lucy incorporates many foreshaddowing pictures and colors from the story itself. The painting on the cover depicts a woman who does very much look how we would imagine lucy to look. Her hand is placed in the middle of her chest and looks as if it is pushing something away. Her head is turned away from the light source, which I took to mean that she was trying to turn away from the bright source in her life and toward something that she was not ment to be involved with. The daffodills on the cover not only tell the reader that there will be daffodills in the story, but also that the daffodills will be a large part of the story.
The colors on the cover reflect back on the place to the place she came from. The bright oranges and different greens make the reader think about bright exotic colors and tropical islands. However, the colors in the painting are very drab and colorless. The various browns in the painting on the cover reflect New York, where she currently is. Her life traveled from a colorfull paradise to a very monotone city. It is as if the reader can see how all of the color in her life drained because of her new "adventure".

Dancing With the Daffodils

Lucy's hatred of the daffodils is ironic because of her relationship with her mother. Daffodils are known as a flower of cheer and happiness and are often given on mothers day or when a woman becomes a mother. The irony of choosing a cheerful flower to commemorate a mother figure is not lost on readers in this story. Because Lucy resents her mother so much her hatred of the flower makes perfect sense.
Daffodils also stand for new beginnings which may or may not be a situational coincidence in the story when Mariah shows Lucy her garden. Lucy is in an entirely new place, of which she had great expectations. The shock of the Upper New York class must have been a shock for a young girl coming from a tropical island filled with fresh ingredients, vibrant colors, and unimaginable poverty. Instead of having the expected reaction and loving the change, she resents the actual move in the first place. This could also explain her hatred of the simple flower.
The color and simplicity of the daffodil may have also been contributors to her aggrivation. The island she came from was most probably filled with every type of rich color, including yellow, the yellow may have triggered a memory of why she wanted to escape her previous life. On the other hand, the simplicity of the flower may relate to her expectations of what awaited her in America. Most immigrants have these fabulous, dream-like ideas about what America will be like when they get here and it could be inferred that she was expecting more out of her life once she arrived.

Here is a small poem by William Wordsworth that may help you understand Lucy's perspective on the daffodils a bit more...enjoy!

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud/

The Big "O"

In the film adaptation of the Shakespearean play Othello, "O", there are many interesting interpretations of the text by the director, the writers and the actors themselves.

The school is one of the most obviously adapted to present day times. The kingdom-like qualities are translated into a community-like form where there is status, where money and power take their toll, where race is still a very controversial topic and where all of it is very relevant just like in Othello's time. The uniforms that the students have to wear very accurately imply the uniforms that soldiers would have to wear right down to the suit that Desi's father wears that gives him a sense of power, and the uniforms that the girls wear showing their status and separating them from the boys they are with. The kingdom that is the school is clearly run by popularity much like any other school, everything is handled by Odin. When Hugo (Iago) starts to try to change the status quo everything went to hell. The students all but went insane with the new developments and any viewer could tell that nothing would ever be the same .

Rodger's (Roderigo) character is depicted in more of an exaggerated form of a used character than he is in the play. His money and status are more blatantly used against him and there is an aspect of physical abuse that is painfully obvious within the first hour of the film. Hugo is the character that we all love to hate, however, in an interesting twist he is the character we all feel sorry for because he is so unloved.

The "marriage" between Odin and Desi is also very interesting. In Shakespear's play there is a large controversy over whether the marriage between Othello and Desdemona is consummated. However, in the film the director and the writers take it one step further. The film raises the idea of whether or not the marriage was actually valid by filming the scene where Odin puts a rubber band of Desi's finger and asks her to "pretend for a while". While Desi is shocked and awed by the proposition she gives into this child like mentality of prince charming without thinking about the consequences of her decision. Her "marriage" to Odin didn't make any sense and both in the film and the play both were too naive and young to devote themselves to that type of relationship and commitment.