With Blood Comes Death

What bloody man is that?
Unseamed from the nave to the chaps,
Smoked with bloody execution,
Fix'd head upon out battlements.
With twenty trenched gashes on his head,
As cannons overcharged with double cracks.

Wash this filthy witness from your hand,
Will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine.
Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?

The sleepy grooms with blood.
The sleeping, and the dead are but as pictures,
The least death to nature.
Charnel-houses and our graves must send,
It will have blood; they say blood will have blood
Blood hath shed ere now.

No This is Not Beyonce's 'If I Were a Boy'

   My mother never had good luck with having children. I was the only one that survived and ended up growing into a beautiful woman. Why can’t you be thankful for that? I know I am favoured by you father but you still can’t seem to see past my gender. I am everything you want in a child yet you still wish for more. Every time you look at me I know you wish to see a boy. I see you stare at me and all I can see is disappointment in your eyes. It makes me hate who I am and what I was born with more and more. You will never know how you make me feel when you say those words *dramatic pause* those words, “I wish she was a boy.” I am ashamed of who I am and I blame you for it all! Oh how badly I just want to SCREAM that in your face! Is that what it takes? It that what it takes for me to be accepted by you? No... It can’t. Nothing will help. I just wish I were a boy. That would solve everything.

Your a Hero... Not.

In my previous response to “is Okonkwo a hero?” I said that he wasn’t. Although he threw down the Cat when he was young and may be a hero throughout his village, he still is not a hero to me. I also explained that Okonkwo at his older age still possessed his heroic characteristics such as strength and war-like abilities but now has a temper. Then I went on how the temper came from the history with his father, Unoka.

After completing “Things Fall Apart” and taking notes on what a tragic hero is I still agree that Okonkwo is not a modern day hero that holds the traits of being a respectable person to their society or  just an overall good person. But now I can agree that Okonkwo is a classic version of a tragic hero. A tragic hero is one who has developed some kind of flaw that leads to a downfall. The person is also unaware of the flaw they possess and not responsible for it. I believe that flaw for Okonkwo is his past with this father.

Unoka was a kind and gentle man which led Okonkwo to strive to be the opposite of that. Okonkwo strikes fear into his wives and children: “His wives...lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper...so did his little children” (page nine). A modern day hero is not someone who makes others fear them especially their own family. A hero we know today is someone who provides comfort and safety to others.

Okonkwo’s real son Nyowe displays traits from Unoka which Okonkwo is ashamed of. He begins to start a relationship with Ikemefuna that he has always wanted to have with a son. But the bond between Okonkwo and Ikemefuna is destroyed when Okonkwo is forced to send Ikemefuna to death. I believe deep inside Okonkwo had enough feelings for him to stop the execution but of course Okonkwo could not show his weakness and his warrior side out shined his fatherly feelings towards Ikemefuna. At this point this classical tragic hero’s downfall began. This was one of Okonkwo’s weakest moments of the story. He could not eat or drink and struggled not to think of what he had done to Ikemefuna.

To me, Okonkwo is not a hero. He beats women and is not an overall respectable man. To his village, Okonkwo is strong, fearless and never shows weakness. In the end, Okonkwo commits suicide by hanging himself which shows the biggest weakness of all.

Lets talk about conflicts

The central conflicts in my novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, are man vs. himself and man vs. man. The main character, Dave’s parents just died a few months apart from each other and now he has to deal with his emotions of the loss. I believe this sort of conflict cannot be resolved because the only way to truly resolve this problem would be to bring Dave’s parents back to life. Since that is impossible Dave remains with the internal sorrow of this unfortunate predicament throughout the story. At the same time that conflict is happening, another is brought up which is man vs. man. Dave has a little brother named Toph who is too young to take care of himself so Dave takes initiative and begins to take care of him on his own. I have only read up to the part where Dave just begins to take Toph into his own hands so I don’t know what will happen for sure yet. I can only guess there will be some struggles along the way Dave will experience. I can imagine how difficult it’s going to be for Dave to maintain a normal life style such as getting a job, going back to school and keeping up with bills along with raising his eight-year-old brother Toph.

This conflict somewhat reminds me of the novel/movie The Outsiders. They both relate to the idea of brotherhood and each of the novels characters have lost their parents. In The Outsiders there are three brothers and the eldest, of course, struggles with keeping his younger siblings safe and out of trouble similar to how Dave has to make sure Toph grows up to be a respectable young man.

Post-Colonialism

Before defining post-colonialism I think knowing the meaning to colonialism is in order. Colonialism is the exploitation by a stronger country of a weaker one and using the weaker country's resources to strengthen and develop the stronger country. “Post” is a prefix that means after or behind. Now the term post-colonialism refers generally to the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture, and human characteristics itself are represented in modern time, after many colonized countries gained their independence. So is this basically referring to the aftermath of colonialism. This development has led cultures to fade and natives that were involved in colonialism start to seem ancient and second-rated. Europeans started to take over their culture and traditions by replacing it with their own ways. One outcome of this was that the “white man” was viewed as the ideal person and superior to any others who were seen as a lesser value, people particularly being black. A trend was put in to people’s heads that they needed to have white skin to be seen as beautiful and  many people who didn’t meet this demanding criteria were discriminated. In this day and age society no longer takes discrimination and racism as lightly as it did but pressure to be perfect is absolutely ongoing just not as enforced as it once was. 

  Movie stars, models, and singers featured in the media today all have that flawless, airbrushed look to them that everyone wants. Most of these people broadcasted in the media are skinny and have perfect skin (particularly white). Unfortunately not everyone has a personal trainer, their own make-up and hair stylist, and gets all their photos airbrushed. Most people do their best by watching what they eat and taking care of themselves. But others go to drastic measures to become these impossibly perfect popular people. One thing that people do is go on crazy starve-your-self diets or even worse, take deadly weight loss drugs or go through live risking surgeries. But thankfully aside from that superficial media there are advertisements and talk show hosts promoting to love who you are and the skin you’re in because that is real beauty. Natural beauty is what I believe makes a person beautiful.                                                                                 

p.s.

Check out this article on a potentially deadly weight loss drug recall   

>> http://www.cultureclashdaily.com/page1111358.php <<       

Justin, not Bieber, Timberlake

To all the haters,

I have loved Justin Timberlake ever since I was little. His voice never fails to make me melt and not to mention his looks, damn! Justin Timberlake is an actor and singer so obviously that makes him hot. He has the best male vocals ever. He won Grammies for it! Therefore everyone loves his voice. If you don’t like Justin Timberlake’s music you either have something wrong with your brain or just a bad taste in music. Hating on JT is like hating your mom. How can you say you hate Justin’s music? If there was no Justin there would be no ‘N sync. If there was no ‘N sync there would be no Justin. Therefore there is no reason to not like JT’s music. Some people think Justin is gay because he was in a boy band, but your gay for thinking Justin Timberlake is gay. JT is the most talented singer ever.  After all, he did get a lead role in “The Social Network.” If you hate Justin Timberlake so much why would you even read this? Clearly you’re lying about hating him. Even Ellen DeGeneres loves Justin.

Sincerly, JT`s #1 fan

P.S.

If you don’t listen to Justin’s music I will come to your house and cut off your ears.

:)

Protagonist Assignment Thingy

I have only begun reading the first chapter and a half of the book “The Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” I have been introduced to many characters already but some of the more mentioned characters are Beth (Dave’s sister), Toph (Dave’s little brother), Dave’s mother, and of course Dave (the main character/narrator/author of this book).

In this novel the protagonist is Dave Eggers, a 21 year old young man who has lost both of his parents and now has his little brother to take care of. Dave has a twenty-four year old brother named Bill, a twenty-three year old sister named Beth, and seven year old brother named Toph. Dave’s appearance has not been described in the book yet but, even though there is a picture of him at the back of the book, I imagine him having dark eyes and hair and also a very nice smile. I find him very charming with the way he talks about things. He describes matters passionately but practically, he doesn’t over do it with heartbreaking description that will make readers feel sorry for him. As a reader, when a character goes on and on about all their problems in life I don’t feel sorry for them I just think they are complaining. Eggers finds a way to get his feelings on subjects across but never goes over the top, he moves on and at the same time becomes a stronger character by looking at the bright side of life. This is one thing I admire about Dave, his strength and determination to move on in life with whatever gets thrown at him.

Even though Dave is going through a hard time with his parents’ death and having to take care of his little brother he manages to keep up the humour. This is another thing I like about Dave; he is throwing serious subjects at the reader but will usually back them up with a clever remark to lighten things up.

I can relate quite well to Dave because he reminds me a lot of my oldest brother, Jeremy. They have the same kind of humour and they think the same at times. Dave reminded me most of Jeremy when he started talking about how “People know” (pg. 14). To summarize page fourteen, Dave talked about how if he heard people gossiping about his mother dying he would “... lift them over [his] head and bring them down, break them over [his] knee, their spines like dowels of balsa” (pg.14). All I could think about was when my brother was talking about how he would do something similar to anyone who ever hurt his family or anyone he cared about. The description on page fourteen is violent but I couldn’t help but laugh while reading it because obviously neither Dave nor Jeremy would ever “...pull out hearts and intestines and toss them aside” they just want the point to be across that they would not be happy if anyone were to hurt their family (pg.14). They just have different ways of showing their emotions than others.    

I am excited to keep reading and watch Dave's character transition!

My True Valentine

    I have decided to write a valentine to my mom. I picked my mom because she is the one person I can say so much about. She has done a great deal for me in my life and the least I can do is make her feel special by writing her a little valentine poem.
...Love you mom :)

...

Some may know you as Esther,

Some know you as wife.

I know you as my mom,

What I would do, without you in my life.

No matter what I do

You still love me,

And even when I think I don’t,

There is just no way, that could ever be.

You can be crazy and silly too,

But everyone has their moments,

I just think those moments account especially to you.

You may think I’m being mean

And gang up on you.

But you know it’s all out of love,

You have to love the attention too.

From I miss my mommy,

To leave me alone,

How could I ever mean such words?

With all the love that you have shown.

On this day of love,

I write to you to and say,

Will you be my valentine today?

...

There is much more I could say about/to my mama, but this is what I came up with.. for now anyways!
... Enjoy!

The Little Monster

   Sometimes in life, the greatest challenges we face are with ourselves. Even if that challenge is something small, like facing a spider.

   Spending my Saturday with my Grandma wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We went walking around Steveston eating frozen yogurt, laughing at the funny stories we told each other. The lovely Saturday came to an end as I said, "Good night" to my Grandma. With all the walking I did today I expected myself to fall right asleep, but for some reason I was wide awake! To my luck there was a television where I was sleeping, so I began to flick through the channels.

   I settled in to the couch as best as I could, trying to make it feel like my own bed. I lay bundled up on the couch in the darkness of the small room with the only light being the TV glare. As I watched "The Simpsons" my eyes began to get heavy and just before I my eyelids came to a close I saw something move from the corner of my eye. I jerked my head towards the direction of the movement to see this, thing. Eight hairy long legs creeping upside the bottom of the wall like it owned the place. My eyes widened even more as I realized how big this spider was. I began to pinch myself in hopes that I was only dreaming. But this was not a dream it was my nightmare. My first reaction was to get my Grandma to destroy this beast. But there was no way I could wake my Grandma from her deep sleep.

   I looked around the room for something, anything that could kill this being other than me. My eyes narrowed in on Bella, my Grandmas pug, sleeping on the other couch. I grabbed the dog and forced her in front of the spider trying to nudge her to eat it. But of course all this lazy pug does is jump right back up on to the couch. 

   After several times of trying to get Bella to devour the creepy-crawly I gave up. I was much too afraid to kill this animal myself, so I went back on the couch and tried to forget about the spider. But as I lay there, all I could think about was the spider crawling up on to the couch while I sleep and swarming my body.

  The only way this spider will die is if I do it myself. I started to feel strength I have never felt before. It was like nothing could scare me at this point. I tip toed into the kitchen to grab a pan to squish the evil species. I held the pan by the handle with my slippery hand. I inched closer and closer to my enemy until I was at a perfect distance to strike. I gave my hands a final wipe on my pajama pants for a better grasp on the handle. I closed my eyes and imagined myself hitting the spider. This was it, the moment of truth. I wound my arm back while taking a deep breath in and snap! I fling the pan onto the spider like a slingshot. I pressed down hard on the pan to ensure the eerie eight-legged monster was dead, and lifted up my weapon to reveal the lifeless creature. 

   As I crawled back into bed I let out a sigh of not only relief but of admiration of my daring bravery as well. Then finally, I rested my eyes and drifted away with not a worry in the world about spiders.

   This event taught me that no matter what challenge, big or small, comes my way I should always deal with the challenge myself. If I had dealt with the spider dilemma myself in the first place, I could have got to bed a lot sooner. But instead of handling the crisis myself I looked for ways out. For example, trying to get my Grandmas dog Bella to eat the spider. I learned that facing a challenge on my own me feel stronger and better about myself.