Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) This story was about a couple sitting at a bar next to the train station in Spain between Barcelona and Madrid. The young couple is faced with the difficult decision where the woman must choose between going forward with getting an abortion or keep the baby.
At first, the girl lives with an inner struggle with herself because she was unsure if she wanted the abortion or not. In the beginning of the story, the woman seemed to want to keep the baby but in the main time of the story, she also wanted to stay in relationship with the man. She had to make the difficult decision between the man or the baby. The man tried to persuade her into getting the abortion by saying “how it`s a simple procedure” or that “it`s really not an operation at all”. Those statements definitely make it sound like he does not want the woman to have the baby. I predict that in the end, the girl will stay in a relationship no matter what happens because she seems weak and powerless in the situation. I can tell from the conversation that she loves him and it’s hard for her to take the inconvenient decision. I also feel that the author put the setting of a train station in the story because it resembles a new destination in her life. I have made an important decision to quit or stay in my job. I started my job about 4 years ago when my friend told me that there was an open position at pre-primary school for an assistant teacher. I liked the idea of that job and I turned in my application and later got the job. In my time there, I enjoyed spending time with the kids there. I loved the fact that they didn’t judge me in the outside and liked me for who I was. I respected my co-workers, especially the oldest ones since it was a tradition in my culture to respect the elders and be helpful to them. On the other hand though, these people who I thought were my friends, took advantage of me and I ended up staying late to do their work. When I would report this behavior to the principal, she never took any real action to solve the issue. I stayed there for a long time because I really needed the job although I didn’t like coming into work every day knowing that I would be treated disrespectfully. It was finally time to take action and I stood up for myself and told the principal that I would quit and to look for other people to take my position. She pleaded me to stay and offered to pay for a Montessori Certification and to upgrade my position there and assured me that I would not work with the same teachers. After a couple months, the school decided to add another building and the principal told me that she couldn’t afford to pay for my certification. So after hearing this I made the tough decision to withdraw my position in that school. Today, I can say that it was one of the most satisfied moments of my life.
1 Comment
“What you don’t know” by Lulu Wang is a story made by Lulu Wang’s family hiding their grandmother’s, Nai Nai, stage 4 cancer diagnosis from her. On passage she talks about how she didn’t necessarily agree with the decision of hiding the secret from her grandmother and they should have handled it.
Did you agree with the family's choice to deceive Wang's grandmother? I agree with the decision of hiding it from her because she was genuinely ill, as described on the broadcast, and hiding a secret would just add more tension and stress to her as she is. Nai Nai’s sister was the one who had to tell the heartbreaking news to the family and she made the decision of hiding it from her sister and that should have been hard on her. Of course, some people would have a counter argument saying that it would be a horrid thing to do since the grandmother should have a say in what they were going to do with her life. But in my defense, hiding a secret for the well being of her grandmother was the right thing to do in this situation. I understand how they wanted her to live her life to the fullest since the doctor expected her to live for 3 more months. They even flew to China for a family member’s wedding just so she can see her beloved grandson get married. Although, she would live longer than her expectancy of 3 months, she actually lived to over 3 years, she would’ve gotten sicker over time if they gave her the horrid news. She would lose hope in fighting the lung cancer and prepare herself to the loss of her life. I liked a quote that Lulu Wang said about her grandmother outliving her expectancy and she said something along the lines of “washing out her misfortune with joy”. So to keep the secret from her grandmother for her own well being is a good decision in my perspective. When have you made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth or you made an important choice to tell a lie that had a major impact on you and/or someone else? This story related to me in so many ways and I am glad I read it. But one situation it applied to me most was the time my husband had to get operated for an open heart surgery.My two kids at the time were 7 and 4 and enjoyed their life being a kid. My kids didn’t quite understand what was happening except for the fact that they got to sleepover their friends house for a couple days on school nights, which was every kids dream. My kids had a normal day and didn’t think much of their parents since they were just kids. I still got to see them but I felt bad every time I had to lie to them when they asked to go home and expect to see their dad. My friends all told me that my kids should know but I thought otherwise because most kids didn’t have to deal with the trauma of their dad having a serious surgery at a young age. The day of the surgery eventually came and my kids were excited to sleepover with their friends again. I was on the road to the hospital talking to my friend who I had let my children stay over at. When we started talking about how worried I was about the surgery, all I could hear over the phone was a familiar voice over the phone crying. My oldest son was crying and he was worried about his dad. He kept asking questions that I tried to avoid and this was the reason why I didn’t want to tell my kids. When I ask my oldest son today how he felt about that situation, he describes it to me as “the most miserable time of my life and all I could think about was being an orphan at 7 years old”. This is the reasoning behind why I agree with Lulu Wang lying to her grandmother about her diagnosis. My Name is Margret (Maya Angelou) is a story about a black girl who works as a maid for a white old lady, Mrs. Cullinan . Margret, after being disrespected by Mrs. Cullinan, wants to quit her job. Margret decides to refuse authority and stand up for her rights.
Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? Margret destroys Mrs. Cullinan most prized possessions, because Mrs. Cullinan didn't respect her in front of her friends. Also Mrs. Cullinan decide to shorten Margret's name when one of her friend said to her "But the name's too long I'd never bother my self. I'd call her Mary if I was you". I do agree with Margret to breathe that the casserole and two green glass cups, even though what she does seems cruel, but this is the only way she can rebel and show how much she gets hurt. Even Margret felt sorry for Mrs. Cullinan she couldn't have any children, and her husband had children with a black woman , she was able to stand for her rights and refuse the authority. When have you made an important choice to either resist or not resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure? I wish if I was like Margret, the way that she rebel and refuse authority, because when I finished high school, my dream was to be flight attendant because I love traveling . I want to visit many different countries . But my mom wants me to finish my education, and always tries to convince me that this is not a good job. She thinks it's hard for a women to build a career in this kind of a job. So at the beginning I obeyed her and I want to college, but in the main time I kept applying until I got the job of my dream, and of course I had a big argument with my mom . Eventually, my mom said to me that I had to choose between "your mom or your job". Even so, I tried to convince her. I asked my aunt to talk with my mom and to let me do what I like and choose my own future, but she keeps refusing , so in the end I chose to give up and follow her decision. After reflecting over the years, I feel regret that I should have rebelled because now it is too late for me to follow my dream. These quote that I picked is appealing to me as a writer. It shows me that other writers go through the same process as I do when I write. Quote # 1
"Year after year the student shudders under a barrage of criticism, much of it brilliant, some of it stupid, and all of it irrelevant. No matter how careful our criticisms, they do not help the student since when we teach composition we are not teaching a product, we are teaching a process. " (Don Murray) Quote # 2 "Our students knew it wasn’t literature when they passed it in, and our attack usually does little more than confirm their lack of self-respect for their work and for themselves; we are as frustrated as our students, for conscientious, doggedly responsible, repetitive autopsying doesn’t give birth to live writing. "(Don Murray) Quote # 3 "The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say. " Quote # 1 I never listen to music when I’m working. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all. (Maria Popova) Quote # 2 ...but if you have no home, make a home out of your hotel room or motel room or pad: peace. (Maria Popova) Quote # 3 And keep on retyping it, each time making corrections both by hand and directly on the typewriter, until I don’t see how to make it any better. (Maria Popova)
"The first draft is the child`s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later."(Anne Lamoh) Quote # 2 "And the writing would be terrible. I'd write a lead paragraph that was a whole page, even though the entire review could only be three pages long, and then I'd start writing up a description of the food."(Anne Lamoh) Quote # 3 " I'd sit down, go through everything with a colored pen, take out everything I possibly could, find a new lead somewhere on the second page, figure out a kicky place to end it, and then write a second draft" ( Anne Lamoh ) Quotes for my writing process " Writing is a complex process, and to critique is not constructive to the writer " "It`s doesn't matter where you are, creativity can happen when ever and where ever you are" "Writing is like playing with play dough, you have to model it constantly until you get the right shape" |
AFAF
|