This Semester

This semester has started out a little rocky for me. I do feel like I am back on the right track though. I hope that my work keeps improving. I am starting to realize how important this class is in my studies. It relates to almost every subject. My biggest improvement will need to be making sure I understand truly what the text means. A lot of times I just read it and whatever comes to mind it what I take it for. I need to slow down and really think about each part. There may be a deeper meaning to it. I hope to keep improving with my studies throughout the semester and look forward to what is ahead of me.

Drown

I chose to read "Drown" and I really liked it. It was very interesting. I like stories that have unexpected twists like this. The setting changed a couple of times. Sometimes they were at the narrators house and other times at Beto's house. Another place they hung out was the pool. The point of view is first person major character. The narrator is an important person in this story. I hope the stories we read in the future are just as exciting as this one.

Racism

The discussion we had in class on Wednesday really got a lot of us thinking. I noticed some people would give their input and after being questioned about it they realized how many different ways it could be interpreted. We only saw it in from the way we wanted to see it. We really need to think about any thing that may come from our comments.

I also realized how unintentionally racist I am. I do not mean to be but sometimes it just happens. Being at USD is very different for me. I know some people think that this is a very secluded place with hardly any difference in culture. There are places that are even worse than this. I am from a small town of only 400 people and graduated with 10 classmates. We never had to interact with a person of a different culture. I always claimed that I was not racist but now being exposed to other cultures I am in little ways. One example I noticed was talking back from the library late at night. I was getting very nervous walking past certain types of people but then others was no big deal. Thinking about it now is I feel horrible. I should not think this and I am working on getting over this.

College Students

I can see this article from both sides. From the supporting side, I can see myself in this group. In high school, I took a lot of the more advanced classes. I took more than just the required classes. Now being at college, some of the classes feel the exact same as some of the AP classes that I took. I did not have very much literature in high school so this course is new to me. My psychology class on the other hand seems very repetitive. From the opposing side, I can see my older sister in this group. In high school, she took more of the standard classes. She only took what would help her reach the requirements. Then her freshman year, she took some introductory classes that were new to her. She would tell me a lot about what to expect from certain classes and how interesting they were. Little did she know, I was sitting there thinking "Wow, this seems a lot like what I am actually already learning". The coursework you chose in high school really determines which view you have of this article.

Fake Twitter

I think the fake twitter accounts are immature. If these people want to make comments, why don't they make an account with their name and own up to what they are saying? I would not have a problem with this if the person actually admitted to who they were. If that person wants to make a comment they should not be ashamed to put their name behind it. If they do not want to own up to the comment, they should just keep it to themselves. Having an account that makes jokes is ok. Having an account that mocks people is not ok.

The Metamorphosis

To me, the story was really random. Who would ever think of a person turning into a bug? That is a really weird thing to picture in your head. This face became a lot less random after reading the Metamorphosis for the second time. I saw a lot more of the symbolism in it. I realize that it represented changes in people. Sometimes people do change and that causes them to be treated differently. I think a couple of lessons could come out of this story. The first one is that never take what you have for grant it. The family did not realize how much Gregor contributed to the family. Once he was unable to work they knew that they needed to start picking up the slack. Another lesson could be that you should accept pepole for who they are even if they do change. The family knew that this bug was Gregor. Even though, this was their son and their brother, they treated him as if he was a bug. If physical appearance had changed but not his feelings and thoughts. They should of thought more about how Gregor felt on the inside.

Sources

"We." Publishers Weekly 253.16 (2006): 161. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Jan. 2011.

Wegner, Phillip E. "On Zamyatin's We: A Critical Map of Utopia's 'Possible World.'." Utopian Studies 4.2(1993): 94-112. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Jan. 2011.

Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. New York: The Random House Publishing Group. Print.


*Need hanging indent