2/23 post

On Thursday, we watched two documentaries about migrant workers and then had a seminar to discuss these issues through the lenses of science, literature, and economics. Examine  how this experience informed your understanding of major themes, such as questioning the American Dream and whether we live in a meritocracy, inThe Great Gatsby.

After watching those two movies, my view of how attainable the American Dream is has definitely shifted. For us, the American Dream seems a lot more realistic and achievable. For some of us like myself, because my parents and grandparents have achieved the stereotypical American Dream. For others, because they only know what they are told about it, which is that it is easily achievable with hard work, and that it is common. Both of which are untrue. There are people that work just as hard if not harder as people socioeconomically above them, yet can't break the cycle of poverty that they live in. It almost seems that in our society, we set it up so that people who already are financially well off are set up to keep receiving even more money, while making it harder for those who are socioeconomically lower to get ahead. 

American Dream

The American Dream is creating an ideal life for yourself in America. It generally looks like finding a stable job, being able to support you family, and setting up your kids to be able to have a better life than you did. Although this is definitely ideal, I don't think it is as realistic or achievable as it used to be, or as it is publicized. My grandfather moved here in the 70's with eleven kids, and no money. He saved up money overtime, and him and his friend bought one Burger King location. He saved up the money from that location, and bought another. Over time, this added up, and today the family company owns over 500 all over the country. He started a family company where all of his kids work, and some of his grandchildren have started to work. Even though he was able to achieve the American Dream, I do believe a lot of it is luck along with hard work. It seems like you have to be at the right places at the right time in order to have the opportunity presented to you. The cost of living itself is so expensive, its almost impossible to save up on a low salary, especially supporting a family. Although I do think it is do-able, I don't think it is realistic.

12/19 Blog Post

Out of my two years at POHS, this semester of ELA has been my favorite so far. The most meaningful thing to me so far has been seminars. I enjoy seminars in all my classes, but more so this year in ELA. The Alchemist and The Odyssey were challenging books for me, so participation in seminars helps me get a  better idea of the book. The most challenging thing for me is doing response projects, just because of how long they take to complete. Doing creative writing responses in particular are the hardest for me, as I'm not really a creative person, and I usually get better grades on analytical or research papers. There is nothing I would really want to change about ELA, except for maybe having verbal reminders in class before having vocal quizzes. I would like the consistency of our seminars to stay the same, because I really enjoy having them so often. Overall this semester in ELA has been amazing, and I'm excited to see what next semester holds!

12/8/14

Analyze the purpose of all of the violence in books 22-24. Do you think that this is necessary for Odysseus' successful nostos? Why or why not?

I think that the violence was necessary when it came to the suitors because they took over his house and terrorized his family, to an extent. In order to have a whole homecoming, it was necessary to completely get rid of them, not only to claim back his property, but also to get revenge for what they did to his family. I think when it came to the maids, the violence was unnecessary to complete his nostos, because the maids were not in the way of him achieving his homecoming successfully. 

11/17/14

In class, Dr. Quillin discussed the historical context within which The Odyssey was written. Using your notes on this lecture, discuss how you think why it was necessary to develop an oral tradition during the Greek Dark Ages and what you think happens to that oral tradition once it is written down.

During the Greek Dark Age, I think it was necessary to develop an oral tradition because at that point the tradition of writing had halted, and verbal communication would be their only way to preserve their stories. Without the singers, they wouldn't have a way to tell their stories, but they also wouldn't have a way to preserve them. Once the oral tradition is written down, there would be less of a need for singers or word of mouth in general to tell stories, because everyone, or most people, would be able to have access to the storers, versus a group of people having to verbally tell it. The written down stories would also be better preserved because there would be less variations of the same story, since it wasn't based solely on word of mouth.

Halloween 2014

My Halloween was not very exciting. I stayed home, and a few of my cousins came over to my house, as they do every Friday. Every Friday, my mom's side of the family comes over and we all eat Burger King and hang out with each other. After most of my family left, a few of my cousins such around and we taught my two year old cousin, Hannah, how to tell people to "shut up". We mainly just laid around my house on our phones, talking and laughing all night.

Maus from The Conflict Theorist's Perspective

The reason that Vladek's story played out the way it did is because he was Jewish, and Jews were the underdogs in society. Non-jews had the upper hand and were able to not only avoid persecution, but also inflicted persecution upon Jews purely based on their social hierarchy.