Ernest Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants is a short story about a man and women in a train station deciding whether or not to have an abortion. The story is full of motifs and symbolism's. The man and the woman’s relationship looks to be at stake as the story goes along. 1. Does the girl in the story keep the baby? I think the girl in the story is not going to keep the baby. In the time that the story was created women had no power or real freedom. If her husband left, he owned everything and the woman would have nothing. If she had decided to keep the baby the man would probably have left her and she would have had nothing and had to deal with raising a baby. People would make her feel shameful about herself having a bay through wedlock at a young age, and it is a possibility that even if she went to her family they would not accept her, or the child. I think the woman had no choice but to get rid of the baby. 2. Does she stay in her relationship with the man? I think the woman is not going to stay I her relationship with the man. Near the end of the story the woman and the man are not getting along very well and the chemistry they have is nonexistent. I think the woman is going to let the man pay for the abortion and then leave him as soon as she can. It would be better for both of them if they went their separate ways. When have you made a important choice to stay in a relationship or leave a relationship -- OR -- stay or leave a difficult situation?
I am walking up the dirt path with my friend Billy. The screams and laughs of drunk high school students are deafening and the smell of beer fills the air. I am at a high school get together picking up my brother and some of his friends is Philadelphia. This is a normal situation on Saturday nights I just want to get in and out. I'm talking to a kid from Malvern Prep his breath reeks of beer and smoke but we are having a nice conversation. I hear a loud scream "Yo whats up man?' I hear from behind me. A large obviously drunk high schooler is coming up to say hi to his friend but for some reason I get his attention, "What the fuck are you looking at bro?" His beer breath and spit is all in my face. "You better leave my boy alone cause I will fuck you up" I turn to his friend and say "Get this asshole away from me." I say ,he just laughs and shakes his head. In this moment I knew I was on my own, and I have a choice I can pick up this empty forty from beneath my feet and crack his skull open in self defense or I can walk away and go to my car and tell my brother to get another ride home. When he started pushing me I seriously thought about running this kids night and sending him to the hospital but I thought it would be better to walk away and let the jerk drink himself to death. I went to my car and luckily enough my brother was ready to go. We got home safe and sound. This was a difficult situation for me. By leaving I could be called a sissy a loser and when your a senior in high school your image is everything. But what if I had decided to fight, I could have been seriously injured or worse be looking at legal trouble. Now that I'm older I know I made the right decision its better to walk away from situations like that.
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The podcast What You Don't Know by Lulu Wang is a story of a family deciding not to tell their grandmother that she is dying. The family stages a fake wedding so they all can say goodbye without the grandmother knowing. 1. If I were sick and dying I would want to know and I would want my family to tell me, saying that I agree with the family's decision not to tell the grandmother. Wang states in the story that in Chinese society it is thought that a person would be better off not knowing how sick they are because mental health relates directly to physical help, which means that the family believed that if the grandmother thought she was sick her physical health would decline rapidly. I agree with the families decision because they genuinely believed by not telling her they were doing her a favor. When you tell a little child that Santa Clause is real you are lying. You know Santa is not real but you tell the child anyway because you believe by telling the child Santa is real you are making him or her feel happy. The Wang family is doing the same thing, a different context but the same idea. This is why I agree with the Wang's Family decision. 2. Last year during the Super Bowl I wanted to go to my friends boyfriends house for the Super Bowl party. The only problem is her boyfriend is a 45 year old man, I knew my parents would never let me go to a 45 year old mans apartment for a football. I decided to tell my parents that I was going to my sisters house for the game, I had to make up an elaborate lie to make sure my parents had no idea I was actually going somewhere completely different. I came up with this story, "Im going to Renee's house I'm going to spend the night and come home Monday morning." of course my dad had a few drinks already so he asked, "Where are you going?' And I had to explain to him slowly that I was going to his daughters house in Allentown Pennsylvania. When he finally understood he said "Be careful, and no drinking and driving." "Okay!" I screamed running out the door almost tripping over my dog. I went to the party and had a great time. The lesson I learned in this situation is if I have confidence and a straight face it is very easy to lie to my parents.
The story My Name is Margaret is a story of a black servant working for an old white woman in the south. When Margaret starts being oppressed she fights back by breaking dishes.
1. I agree with Margaret's choice of breaking the dishes because it comes to a point in the story where the old women named Viola Cuillnan calls Margaret "Mary" because it is shorter and easier. I agree with Margarets decision because if a person doesn't have the respect to call you by your real name why should you respect them back. Mary was not a nickname for Margaret, nicknames are friendly and meant specifically to be used by friends. If my boss starting calling me a nickname without my permission I would be extremely upset. This is why I agree with Margarets choice to break the dishes. 2. I'm going to start off by saying that I am not normally a physical person. I have a problem with anyone or what they are doing I will say something about it, but sometimes talking doesn't always work. When I was a sophomore in high school I was not the most popular kid around but I minded my own business and most people wouldn't bother me except for one kid. I tried talking to him telling him to stop but he wouldn't stop and one day in gym we were playing dodgeball and that one kid was on my team and I got blindsided by a dodgeball right in the head, and while getting hit didn't exactly hurt but it didn't feel good either. I went up to the kid grabbed him and threw him to the ground and said "Stop messing with me dude because if you don't I will mess you up!" (Thats not exactly what I said but I think you understand what I meant.) After that the kid never messed with me again. This story is important to me because it proved to that kid and everyone in the gym that day that I was not the kid you wanted to make upset.
This blog post is describing the writing process of both me and the authors above.
The Daily Routines of Great Writers (Maria Popova) “My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life” (Ray Bradbury) “I never listen to music when I’m working. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all.” (E.B White) “I will tell people not to call in the morning, or not answer the phone.” (Susan Sontag) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. (Anne Lamott) “I always send my work Federal Express, because I am too impatient to wait for the mail to deliver” (Anne Lamott) “writing a novel is like driving a car at night you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” (E.L. Doctrow) “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.” (Anne Lamott) Zen in the Art of Writing (Ray Bradbury) “I began to put down brief notes and descriptions of loves and hates.” (Ray Bradbury) “Once I hit on this idea, the story finished itself in a single afternoon. (Ray Bradbury) “I wrote a series of stories about the Red Planet. One day, I looked up and the book was finished,”( Ray Bradbury) Co Authored Quotes by Jacqueline Heidin Anthony Goodman Mohnad Soliman Damian Puglia “Good writing ethic starts with a good breakfast.” “A good writing isn’t really a good writing until you’ve written it more than once.” “You haven’t learned how to write until you’ve taken an English Composition I class with Sabatino Mangini”
Introduction In this post, I will provide answers to the The Proust Questionnaire. This is the first blog post I am writing for my English 100 course, and I think my answers will provide my readers with insight into my identity, my approach to life, and my views on the world. __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? [insert a sentence or two to answer the question]. __2.__What is your greatest fear? __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? __5.__Which living person do you most admire? __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? __7.__What is your current state of mind? __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? __9.__On what occasion do you lie? __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? __11.__Which living person do you most despise? __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? __16.__When and where were you happiest? __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? __21.__Where would you most like to live? __22.__What is your most treasured possession? __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? __24.__What is your favorite occupation? __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? __26.__What do you most value in your friends? __27.__Who are your favorite writers? __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? __31.__What are your favorite names? __32.__What is it that you most dislike? __33.__What is your greatest regret? __34.__How would you like to die? __35.__What is your motto? Keep Scrolling down to read the answers to the questions.
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Patrick McFillinI will use this blog for assignments in class Archives
November 2017
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