Literature Analysis #2

1. The novel, The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of stories written in the point of view of a 12 year old little girl named Esperanza (which is Spanish for Hope).  She is a Mexican American living on
   Mango Street
   which is in Chicago. The novel is over a year, and over the year, Esperanza grows significantly.  Fulfilling her name, she finds hope of a better life. She realizes that the poverty on
   Mango Street
   can be left, and that the written word and poetry are able to mentally take her to a place of enjoyment.
2. A theme of the novel is healthy relationships. Esperanza, like every growing girl, has dreams and aspirations. Hers include having a nice home in a nice neighborhood far away from
   Mango Street
   . Yet, also similar to growing girls, Esperanza wishes for intimacy with the opposite sex. She then observes relationships in her neighborhood, but they are a terrible example considering they are all dysfunctional. The men are the head of the house, and are mostly abusive to their wives. Because this is all Esperanza has ever seen, she believes that she’ll have to choose between a man and being a strong individual.
3. I believe that the tone of the novel is the story of Hope.  This is not only evident through Esperanza’s name, but by the hope that Esperanza has of a better life. Her family came to America with hope in their hearts of a better life, and they were able to achieve that. Now Esperanza is aware of a world that is better than her own, and wishes to change her situation. In the novel, Esperanza is sexually assaulted, and although a horrific experience, she is able to remain confident and express herself through poetry and writing.
4. To begin, I like the syntax and diction of the novel because it is written like a conversation. It is through the eyes and words of Esperanza, and I like that because it holds my attention. I could really imagine her world on
   Mango Street
   .

Tools That Change the Way We Think

When talking of technology of the future, such as the “implant” mentioned in the article above, I begin to wonder how much of it is invasive or too powerful. I wonder how people will deal with technology that extensive, considering people are already suffering from “information overload” in the safety of their own brains. The act of “thinking about your thinking” is familiar to many of us, yet it could be seen as a state of confusion, and lack of being clear minded.

By comparing myself to older people who did not experience smart phones and 2.0 while growing up, I believe that we learn at the same speed, considering we are all human beings. Of course now we are given more information on the world around us, I do not believe that we have a greater capacity to learn, but I do believe that the average kid is introduced to much more information. Whether they choose to use their resources and exercise their brain is the individual’s decision.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HUL/is_5_32/ai_112686945/

The above link goes to an article called “managing generational differences: school leaders who recognize different needs of baby boomers and generation X’ers can create an organization where all employees are working from their strengths” by Andrew Ansoorian, Pamela Good, Dave Samuelson. Althogh I am neither a part of the baby boomers or generation x, this article is helpful because it describes why there are differences. The reason is that there was a different mood when they grew up, they were influenced by world events, what technology was available, and what movements happened when they grew up.

In Search of

While watching the video, the thing that I found most interesting was that Netflix used the “Filter Bubble”. It rarely hinders my online searches, but in Netflix, it always gives me the wrong movies. This is because the filter bubble is tailored to my little sister (who uses netflix like it is going out of style), so animated movies about princesses and puppies have found home on our Netflix Queue.

Because I am most familiar to Google, I typed in “Search Engines without filter bubbles” into the search box, and the only search engine that came up was Duckduckgo.com. On the bottom of the wedsite, it advertises “We don’t bubble or track you!” So I typed in “Shakespeare” the first thing to come up read “Shakespeare was a playwrite” then the second was “Shakespeare, New Mexico, United States” I can already tell that this is different than Google. I clicked on http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 which was supposedly a biography of Shakespeare’s life.

Notes on "Hamlet"

As a class, when we first began reading Hamlet many things have changed in my mind about both the plot and the characters since the king’s ghost showed up at midnight. To start with the star of the play, I learned that Hamlet was not a knight in shining armor like I had always imagined, but he was a distraught son who knew about a great injustice that had struck his family; This being, the murder of his father by his uncle, as well as his adulterous mother. I realized that he spends his time trying to set things right threw revenge. Hamlet is not a mad man like they think in the beginning, but he is simply misunderstood. He is in the place of the stereotypical teenager, who is the only sane person in a world of insanity. At the end of Act 3, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, and I predict that the King will try and put Hamlet in jail forever as a result, considering that he does not want Hamlet to tell everyone that the king murdered Hamlet’s father.

Who Was Shakespeare?

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/timeline.html

After typing in “Shakespeare” on Google I found the website above. There was a timeline (1558-1616) of Shakespeare’s life. I found it interesting that he married a woman named Anne Hathaway, which is the name of a current actress. It also says that he acted in as well as wrote his own plays. Something that I still wonder is how Shakespeare’s experiences contributed to his stories, considering authors write about what they know.

When I hear the name “Shakespeare”, my mind plays a b-roll of images of my “Shakespearean experiences” those that include confusion, then once explained to me, I see it as sheer beauty and cleverness. I remember the humor of Romeo and Juliet during a time when I felt I was experiencing a similar naive romantic tragedy. Then there is Julius Caesar whose monologue I was challenged to learn and memorize “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your ears!” I finally recognized the many allusions to Shakespearean plays made by my father. I remember the many references, such as the animated movie “Gnomeo and Juliet”, Taylor Swift’s song, “Love Story”, as well as the carb-alicios restaurant, “Little Caesars”. Over the years my appreciation for Shakespeare has grown along with my knowledge. Understanding his works has gotten easier, but I am constantly reminded that when reading Shakespeare, I must concentrate; considering it is not written in colloquial English.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook..

I remember the beginning of my interest in online social media; it sprung in junior high when all of my friends were on Myspace. My parents did not allow me to be apart of the online community until I grew to a mature age where I could handle it. Well, it is now 2011, and Myspace is ancient history. Facebook currently holds the interest of my peers, and as an initial impression I realized that it was more invasive as well as convenient (disregarding uploading pictures) than Myspace. From the beginning it was obvious to me that it was a great tool to gather information, and those companies were able to collect this information from the masses. The benefits of this tool, is to better market products; and at the same time making the advertising world way more fast pace. Risks are the obvious privacy issues which seems a bit shady, considering many people are unaware of how much information they are giving away.  After discussing the article “Why Facebook is After Your Kids” by EMILY BAZELON, I was informed by my teacher that an elementary computer wiz can track your exact longitude and latitude simply after you uploaded a picture.

Hamlet Essay

            I believe that Hamlet should decide to embrace life and take full advantage of the opportunities that life offers, which death could never give. As Hamlet weighs the pros and cons of suicide, I felt that the cons out weighed the pros; for example, “and in that death of sleep, what dreams may come?” Hamlet is asking a question that infers that dreams are wonderful and meant to be enjoyed. On the other hand, because death is an unknown, it is scary. It is unknown to Hamlet, whether death simply sends one into oblivion, is an eternal torture chamber, or a heavenly homeland. “But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?”

            From my own life experiences, I have come to believe that one is never at the end of their rope, and that adversity is tough, but it is an opportunity to achieve greatness. Hamlet’s strongest argument against suicide is “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them.” This sheds light on the truth that there is always light beyond the darkness, and hope beyond the despair.