How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents #2

After reading the second part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, I’ve noticed that how the book is organized is becoming less of an issue for me, therefore putting the context of the book more into focus.  

As we go further back into the past of the four Garcia girls, we begin to make sense of situations in the beginning of the book that was confusing. A lot of the situations that the Garcia girls are dealing with in the beginning of their immigration to America speak of their troubles and how hard it was for them to adapt to American life and how much they disliked it. But when we compare that to the beginning of the story and part one of the stories, we learned that it was hard restoring the Dominican Republic cultures and values within them and getting them out of the American culture that was destroying some of them (we learn that two of the sisters end up in hospitals and are suffering mental breakdowns).

One interesting theme that was brought up in Mr. Sutherland’s class today during discussion was that as the four girls move farther apart from their cultures and into American life, they began to lose their innocence. In this book, the Dominican Republic culture represented the innocence and as they begin to adapt to American culture, this innocence was disappearing. This can be exemplified in one of the vignettes, “A Regular Revolution”, in which the four girls are caught doing stuff that was deeply influenced by their time in America and its culture. What they were caught doing was smoking marijuana, which was illegal back then as well, and also one of the sisters was wearing a tampon, something that seemed disapproved of by Carlos and Laura. These practices could have been prevented, if they stayed in the Dominican Republic, protecting their cultures.

Go Raaaaiders!!!

So, this year has been a breakout year for the Oakland Raiders. Their current record is at 4-4 (four wins and four losses) and its been a LOOOONG time since I have seen them with four wins this early in the season. Considering there are sixteen games in one NFL season, the Oakland Raiders are one win away from tying the most wins that they have had in the last seven seasons after they went to the Superbowl in 2002. I am extremely happy at this fact. I consider myself a die hard Raiders fan and I follow every move they make. Whether it's a trade, a hiring of a new coach, or a touchdown on game day, I'm always on top of it. So going through the pain of watching the Raiders lose game after game in the past seven years has been brutal.

When I look to name a single player who has contributed to the healing of this brutality, its kind of hard because it has become this way thanks to the contributions of everyone. But one player who stands out is our running back Darren McFadden, who is in his breakout season.

McFadden was drafted fourth overall by the Raiders and there was a lot of potential seen in him, something he has proved. He is currently seventh in the National Football League in running yards compared to every single other player in the League. And the fact that he has missed two games this season due to injury, he should be atop the list of rushing yards. This is very impressive to know that the Oakland Raiders have a superstar on their team constantly giving his best on the field. McFadden was drafted fourth overall by the Raiders and there was a lot of potential seen in him, something he has proved. Every game, he is constantly putting up amazing plays that I didn't know was possible by a Raiders players, especially through all the misery they have put us through in the past seven seasons. By the looks of how they're performing this year, I am really hoping to attend at least one of their games this year.

Rsponse to "Alameda High"

Going through Google Reader to look into what students in Mr. Sutherland are writing about, one caught my attention. This blog post belonged to Andy Lau and it was mainly about his desires to attend Alameda High School:

'I also wish to attend Alameda High because they have a bigger population. At ASTI, I see the same people every day and we all have like the exact same classes. In the beginning of freshman year I thought it was fine, but now it has become really dull and boring. When I was in middle school, my school had a big population. Every class would be with different students. With my experiences from attending big and small schools, I can conclude that I like bigger schools because you see a variety of students in different classes instead of the same students in different classes."

Currently, I feel like I am in the same place as Andy right now. ASTI is a relatively small school compared to other high schools such as Encinal High or Alameda High. Actually, its REALLY small compared to other high schools. It's so small that the whole campus is composed of only six portables!

As a freshman, I was ok with these conditions and I thought that I would accustom fairly well, even though I was coming from a middle school that was at least twenty times this size. As freshman year flowed by, everything went pretty well and I did become accustomed to ASTI's weird ways. But somehow, all this sort of changed for me sophomore year.

As I began to see the same people more and more and going through the same procedures in each class the same ways we did last year, it started to get tiring. I can barely find myself listening and attentive in any of my classes anymore. Last year, I was continually added my opinions and always raising my hand to the class. Now, every time you look my direction in class, you'll find me in hibernation mode looking for a quick snooze. I was also always putting in a lot of effort in my work, adding a lot of in depth work and creativity last year, always finding hidden meanings in literature and adding unique viewpoints. But this year, all my answers have become straight forward to the point, never going past just the "answer" to the question.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents" Book Review #1

Recently, I’ve been introduced to a new book called “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez. Like others have stated, its method of telling a story through reverse chronological order has added unique creativity to the book but at the same time it has put forth confusion for the reader.

The book starts off at the end of the story (since it is in reverse chronological order) with the sister Yolanda being put into focus. A celebration has been thrown for her since she has come back to her place of birth. Yolanda has decided to come back to the Dominican Republic, her place of origin, to regain her cultural ways that she has lost in America. At the celebration, Yolanda has a hard time relating to her relatives there, due to the fact that she has adapted to American life.  How she dresses, cuts her hair, and other features of her has become different from those of her relatives.

But a question that arises here is why has Yolanda come back to live in the Dominican Republic?

What I think of this is that Yolanda has come back to her country because she does not appreciate this new life in American that she has grown into. Instead, she has come back to regain her cultural ties and relearn the language she has forgotten. But this is not temporarily. Yolanda wants to stay in the Dominican Republic forever showing how appreciative of her culture she is.

One of the reasons Yolanda might want to come back to her country can be exemplified by the vignette “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story”. She has fallen into a crush she has on a guy that goes to her college named Rudy. But as they get to know each other more, immediately he wants to go straight to having sex. He uses explicit language to refer to sex that she doesn’t appreciate that has turned the meaning of sex into fun instead of her way of wanting it to be a relaxed and loving. Overall, the first part of the book is showing the phase in which Yolanda chooses to migrate back to the Dominican Republic.

Reflective Essay

When blogging was first introduced to me, it was something out of the ordinary. In English class, our writing usually followed specific objectives or prompts which was something that was always out of my interest. But blogging was entirely different. It was a place where we can free write about almost anything that came to mind. Over the course of a quarter, I learned to improve upon the struggles dealt with writer’s block, explore a variety of ideas I can use for my blog posts, and also explore how others felt about certain topics.

When I was first introduced to blogging, I noticed that writer’s block was becoming a constant problem throughout my blogs. When I begin to write, I usually start off by blurting everything on my mind about the topic. After that was over, I always notice that I was never near the number of words I am supposed to aim for (350 words at least). This is the moment in which writer’s block is at its strongest. To get unstuck, I usually searched for a solution that, in conclusion added more to the problem: redundancy. By using redundancy to get unstuck, I made my blogs look really repetitive and disinteresting. As I used redundancy more and more as a method to get unstuck, I started to notice a pattern in my work. My blogs were becoming more and more boring. That’s when I also noticed there was another problem and that was my preparation of my blogs. An example of my redundancy can be found in my opinion on what my responsibility as a student is:

“As a student, I think I carry out a lot of responsibilities. One important responsibility that stands out is how I complete and handle the work that is assigned to me from teachers, and eventually professors.  As a student, I think that I am mainly responsible for completing all, not just some, of the work assigned to me as hard and as much as possible.” 

In the second sentence, I state my opinion on what my responsibility as a student is. In the third sentence, I am doing the same thing, just in other words. This is an example of how writer’s block can contribute to the redundancy I see in my work. I’m focusing on one topic and repeating the same thing over and over again. But as weeks go by and I post more blogs, I start to eliminate this by switching to a whole new subject about the topic but not so different of a subject that it gets off topic. An example of my new solution is exemplified in my response to Leon’s post about books:  

“Leon states that the number of books he has read without being forced to can be counted with two hands, you can count the number I have read with only one! And even those aren't necessarily voluntary by me!

When I look over why books are such a problem and distress for me, I kinda blame myself, not the books. I have not looked over the kinds of book that are of my interest.”

Instead of focusing simply on the subject of “How many books have I read?” writer’s block kicks in and I avoid it by moving on to a new subject. This is one of the methods I have learned over the course of the first quarter of blogging and has proven to be very helpful not just in my blogging assignments. It has also proven helpful and essays and other work beyond just blogging.

Going back to my first blogs, there wasn’t much topics of my interest that I could blog about. So instead of searching for something new to express my ideas and perspectives about, I went to my summer assignments and just typed them up and posted them as blog posts. But then I noticed I wasn’t really going anywhere in terms of improving my writing methods or in learning how to avoid the chance of writer’s block occurring. That’s when I started to browse around both the freshmen and also fellow sophomore blog posts and observed the variety of topics that were pouring in through Google Reader. Topics included sports, weather, music, books, and numerous others. That’s when I began to get the idea myself to start posting blogs about topics that I liked as well. The first thing that that came to mind was sports so I started blogging about how horrendous the Oakland Raiders were:

“So far...The Oakland Raiders have a record of two losses and one win (1-2). Am I angry? YES! The Raiders do not deserve that record! The last game they played, a loss of 23-24 to the Arizona Cardinals was horrible to watch for a Raiders fan.”

In this blog, I start to express my feelings about the Oakland Raiders and how disappointing they can be at times. This also shows one of my first assignments in which I start to express how I feel about certain topics, something we don’t do in English assignments. What we usually do in our English assignments is follow specific prompts and objectives that are never really in our interests. But this year, it all changed when blogger was introduced to us. We are able to talk about whatever comes to our mind and express it and also explore what other are expressing and how others see certain things from their view points that I might see entirely differently. It is also a good feeling when you find that others feel the same way about certain topics as you do. In my response post to Leon Liang, I relate to his feelings toward books and what effect they have:

“When i read this portion of the blog, i feel almost the same exact way! Books to me are really boring and they are barely read by me. In those rare occasions where I reading books, it is because i am in a situation in which i am forced to read it! Its either "read" or "get an F" situations that i am caught with a book in my hand. While Leon states that the number of books he has read without being forced to can be counted with two hands, you can count the number I have read with only one! And even those aren't necessarily voluntary by me!”

In this blog post, I relate to Leon and his difficult times with books. We share the same opinion towards books and how boring they can get. Like Leon’s blog post, there are numerous topics that are discussed by my classmates that I can relate a whole lot to and there are also some that I disagree entirely on as well. Either way, I am always learning new things about how people feel about certain topics in our society.

"Night" Essay

People look to religion for many reasons. Sometimes they look to religion for guidance. Sometimes they are looking to help. No matter what the reason is, religion has been a part of peoples’ lives for a long time. In the story, Night by Elie Wiesel, the central conflict is character vs. supernatural because the main character Eliezar has a hard time keeping faith in his religion.

Eliezar begins to question God’s role in his life. Eliezar and his family are taken to concentration camps. He is separated from his mother and sister upon arrival, never to see them again. From the start, Eliezer witnesses horrifying scenes of those already in the concentration camps. This is when he begins to question. As he narrates, he explains: “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute Justice” (42). Eliezar faith in God is beginning to fall apart. Eliezar, once strongly religious and growing up in the belief that everything was a reflection of God’s work, began to lose his faith. Not only that, but he also wanted to grow up to become a Rabbi. This was very surprising of him, especially given the fact that he spent almost all of his childhood studying the Torah and praying at the temple. Though Eliezer is loosing faith in his religion, he stills hasn’t given up on it completely. He is still merely in the beginning phases of ‘doubt[ing] His absolute justice”, meaning he still has a strong relationship with God. As more and more devastating events occur and Eliezer begins to crumble on the inside-out, he then begins to doubt more than just His justice in the world.

Eliezar begins to lose patience in waiting for an answer from God. Eliezer and the rest of the prisoners continue to go through brutal conditions and many of them are killed as each day goes by. More questions begin to arise within Eliezer about whom God is and what is his role in the concentration camps are, killing the faith in his religion he once strictly followed within him softly. As the prisoners prey for a sign of hope from God, Eliezer exemplifies his rebellion through his narration in the book: “Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenav, Buna, and so many factories of death?” (64). Eliezer is basing the death camps on his religion, in which he believes he believes everything is a reflection of God’s work. So, he connects it to that belief by stating that God is the reason for all of these inhumane practices that are occurring. Eliezer is moving into a phase in which he now questions God’s intentions. He is in a way comparing God to a devilish figure, something hugely out of context of his Jewish religion. Eventually, the concentration camps are too much and lead to a disastrous conclusion about how he feels towards his religion.

Eliezar’s faith in his religion has lost all stablebility and he moves into a state of confusion. As each day goes by, the gap of hope he has that he’ll be free shrinks. But it was not the possibility of him being free that destroyed his faith, but it was his experiences in the camp and why God hasn’t acted in freeing the innocent lives in the concentration camps. His questions have come to a silence. In a foreshadowing located early in the story, Eliezer describes the setting and position he is in: “the night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it” (34). Eliezer states here that the teachings, faith, and knowledge of God within him have been carved out of him. God is no longer a figure he looks up to. His frustrations within the death camps and witnessing those who were completely innocent died there have convinced him: God is not there.

Eliezer was a kid who loved his religion and there was all good in it. This all changed for him in what seems like an instant. There are a lot of people who convert to other religions due to similar occurrences, even though they might not be as harsh as what Eliezer went through.