Blog Post 30: The Color of Friendship

What is "friendship"? Someone who talks to you everyday? Someone who gives you things? Or maybe even someone who buys you things? No. "Friendship" is when someone has been there for you since day one. The definition off the dictionary says friendship means, "The emotions or conducts of friends; the state being friends." What in the hell is that supposed to mean. I think friendship is when you have maybe two or three people that have your back no matter what, do not talk smack behind your back (they do it in your face), and are not fake. For example, I know this dude who claims to be "very close friends" with another person. They hang out almost every single day after school. But my point is that he claims that hey are good friends but he can talk mad shit about the other dude. He was saying how ugly and dusty his friend is which is funny to be because the other dude was also talking smack about him. Like what the hell. That is not even close to what real 'friendship' looks like. Irene talks about Clare in different ways, positive and negative things, like any other person would talk about their friend. But almost every time she talks about her, it deals with her physical beauty. But how did she forget where she had me Clare? "Perhaps before time, contact, or something had been at them, making them into a voice remotely suggestion England. Ah! Could it have been in Europe that they had met? 'Rene. No." (Larsen pg.17) Cool how someone remembers your laugh though, "I'd never in this world have known you if you hadn't laughed. You are changed you know. And yet, in a way, you're just the same." (Larsen pg.18) I just hate it when an old friend is not able to recognize me but I am able to recognize them. The concept of "passing" influences both Clare and Irene because they saw each other and Clare messed up her identity because she didn't recognize Irene and basically saw her as a different person. The central idea of part one to me is Identity because because it's all over the novel as you can see Clare saw Irene as a different person and they both fail to attempt an answer to what race is!

Blog Post 29: Those Who Weep, Weep For Corruption

I don't how Jay Gatsby was able to throw parties almost every week. But did he throw these party for the people to enjoy or to get to someone? The reason he threw all of these parties was to get Daisy's attention and to get back to how things were with her in the past. He just can't get over the girl. The only reason people came to his parties was because he was rich and people were fake. They only showed up because there was a party going on, they did not really care about Gatsby. They never did, but Jay did not care about that, he only cared about Daisy. In the novel, it seemed as if everyone's plan for the "American Dream" were going well except for Gatsby's. He is only focused on Daisy which is getting really annoying. The "corruption" of Gatsby's guests and "incorruptible dream" begin to pull all threads of the entire story together by showing that everyone is selfish and that they are all working for their own dreams and do not care about others. No one really notice's what is going around them or around others. Their goal is to be at the top, that is all they really care about. Gatsby has changed a lot since the beginning of the novel. "Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream." (Fitzgerald pg.161) Gatsby wasted his entire life trying to find the love he and Daisy once had. Nick on the other hand stayed the same low-key. Some of his ideas on things changed but that is pretty much it.

Blog Post 28: Take the Clothes off my BAAAAAACK

Out of all the characters from 'The Great Gatsby', Jay Gatsby seems to be one of the characters who cannot seem to understand the difference between reality and illusion. After he fell in love with Daisy, he can't seem to get her out of his head, he is basically blinded with love. He does not seem to realize that she will never leave her husband, Tom. She does not leave him just because she uses him for "fun". They are both just playing with each other (Daisy and Tom). In chapter eight, Dr. T.J. Eckleburg says that the billboard with the billboard with the eyes, symbolizes the eyes of God that watch what people do. "I spoke to her... I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window... God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God!" (Fitzgerald pg.167) Fitzgerald is trying to show that the things we truly love with all of our hearts will blind us from what is reality and from the truth and will then lead to someone's ruin. Gatsby's biggest desire was Daisy. He wanted to have her in his arms again and wanted that love to be in between them like it once was but it would not be possible because that love was gone. The novel is like the quest of a knight for a grail because a knight would give anything even his life for the grail. Same way Gatsby would give up his life for the love to stay in between Daisy and himself. "But now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail. He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn't realize just how extraordinary a "nice" girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby - nothing. He felt married to her, that was all." (Fitzgerald pg.156)

Blog Post 26: Gatsby!

I actually do kinda understand Gatsby more now and how he is overall. Colors are in the novel because they represent symbols or moods. I agree on the yellow and how it represents weird or a iffy vibe cause to me yellow has something suspect about it, I dont know its just dusty to be honest. For green nah because a symbol for calm isn't the color green, I don't know what color calm could be but definitely not green. Green is like a fun color or something thats nasty like germs for example. But for red yeah definitely represents danger or death, always cause like its basically the color that represents Hell, red and a lot of fire. Gatsby is chill you know he minding his business and just relaxin like a real dude! Tom, for fuck sakes why is that bitch so arrogant like damn we understand your a MALE and you got money but dude calm down and he even cheating on his girl Daisy. Damn Daisy she's such a dumbs like whats going on in her small minded ass head like damnnnn!!! Shit fam like move one from that fucker and find yourself something better than that. I can see why you dislike her Mr.Vazquez. Oh yeah so explain how am I fuckboy? I dont recall me being that  at all. Thats bad Mr.Vazquez, really bad. But yeah Tom is a BITCHHH!!! Really you gotta hate him more than Daisy cause Daisy a dumb ass, she need help as soon as possible! The book is pretty interesting, I can't wait for the Gatsby trials and to go against Luis. You know thats gonna be funny as hell Mr.Vazquez! LMAO I can already imagine it! Well Im out, goodnight! I like all characters by the way, just not Tom he a bitch.

Blog Post 21: Thirsty? Here's Some LEMONADE

The video we watched in class today called "Lemonade" was interesting but it did not really catch my attention. I was into it for only a little portion of it. But what Beyoncé did with putting all of these parts of her album was very unique. I was not into it but it was still entertaining. I think it was a new kind of art in my view. I have never seen one of these kind of videos before and I give two thumbs up for the idea. Throughout the entire short film, all of the women including Beyoncé, were always lonely. There was only one part of the film where Beyoncé had a scene with Jay Z and another one with her dad. But all of the women seemed to have been broken hearted and were never surrounded by men. It explained that black women being left by black men has been passed down from generation to generation. This short film can relate with 'Song of Solomon', 'This Is How You Lose Her', but I can't really tell how it relates with 'The Crucible'. It can relate with 'Song of Solomon' because in the book, the black women in it, have no husband and are left alone with their family. It relates with 'This Is How You Lose Her' because men often cheat on their women and women have to deal with it. From what I understood, the meaning behind the film was that when Beyoncé was being cheated on, she was trying to recover and was trying to forget about him and wonder why he did that to her. Then she can't really handle it so she went back to him. In my opinion, Beyoncé was not weak for taking him back. I don't think she was weak because she actually loved him and because of that, she trusted him once again and gave him another chance to prove himself to her.

Blog Post 20: We've Come... to the End of the ROOOOAD

Out of all the three stories that we have read throughout this English course, I would have to go with 'This Is How You Lose Her' on being my favorite. This Yunior kid seems to be in his young ages. I like it because I can relate a lot with it. I am not saying that I would treat a girl like trash neither that I cheat on them but in the way that he thinks... most of the time. Like when Junior says, "You, Junior, have a girlfriend named Alma, who has a long tender horse neck and a big Dominican ass that seems to exist in a fourth dimension beyond jeans." (Junior pg. 47) That sounds like something I would have said if I had a girlfriend with a fat ass. Doesn't mean that I'm perverted, I am just being real. I can relate with this dude in so many ways. It seems as if we keep reading, we find out conflicts that a certain character faces. Common threads throughout the novel include machismo and men cheating on their women. The way the Junot Díaz explains these themes to the audience is by giving short stories and having a viewpoint from both, the man and the women's side. Overall I think all stories went very well even though they were not all in order, which really doesn't matter. I wish the short story 'The Sun, The Moon, The Stars' could have been a full length novel to see what actually led them to come to an end of their relationship. This is representative to the Latino culture because it shows that Latinos have a strong belief of machismo. Juno Díaz is telling the audience about how machismo is viewed in the eyes of Latino men and women & that it should not really interfere in a relationship.

Blog Post 19: The Anatomy of it all!

The way short story, 'Miss Lora', is set up differently from how the other short stories in the past have been set up in. I do not understand why Junot Díaz decided to divide it up in smaller sections even though the story is already small enough. Each time a part is divided up into a chapter and enters into a new one, it changes up the way the story was going. In the beginning, the first chapter ended with saying, "You'd fuck anything, someone jeered. And he had given that someone the eye. You make that sound like it's a bad thing" (Yunior pg.153) Right after, the second chapter starts off with, "Your brother. Dead now a year and sometimes you still feel a fulgurating sadness over it even though he really was a super asshole at the end." (Yunior pg.153) The way it ends, compared to the way that it starts off to a new chapter, changes the way in how the reader was reading it. For me, it has a different tone. I believe there is a different tone because when I am done reading one chapter, I feel some type of way towards it. Then, when I start reading the next one, I feel differently about how the reading is given to me. A common thread amongst all the short stories would be the men always cheating on their women. Throughout the short stories, women are kept being cheated on which basically is presented as "machismo".