The Little Black Boy

So I am in the car, in traffic trying to get home. I have just spent my whole weekend stuck in school, on a leadership retreat. I am absolutely exhausted thinking on Leaves of Grass and on what I was going to write my blog on. I then looked out the glass car window and saw a black, little kid he was doing real hard work. I had no words to describe what he was doing, his face, his actions, movements. I once again closed my eyes. I arrived home, with the image of this little kid in my head. I turned on my computer and opened Walt Whitman’s poem, Leaves of Grass. I started reading poem 11, 12, and couldn’t find anything to write about but then I got to poem 13; the first 5 lines made the image of the black little boy arise to my mind once again.
“The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses—the block swags underneath on its tied-over chain;
The negro that drives the dray of the stone-yard—steady and tall he stands, pois’d on one leg on the string-piece;
His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over his hip-band;
His glance is calm and commanding—he tosses the slouch of his hat away from his forehead;
The sun falls on his crispy hair and moustache—falls on the black of his polish’d and perfect limbs.” (Poem 13. Lines 1-5)

Walt had the perfect description; it was simple, concrete, direct, and complete. I felt in the place of these two characters, poems do something, something that you cannot experience by yourself, not even through your eyes. It makes you have a focus, it does not permit you to wonder all around. He describes everything that he is seeing in a subtle and simple way.

Then Whitman ends this poem by
“And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,

And consider green and violet, and the tufted crown, intentional;

And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else;
And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me;

And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.” (Poem 13, lines 19 - 23)

Here he is repeating what he wants to say. Adding and adding more necessary detail to form a complete image in your mind. When reading poems readers like to not only read, but to see, feel, smell and these are two passages in Whitman’s poems that show different ways of forming images.

Expressing Your Feelings

I have always loved poems, I have loved the way by which you can express your feeling and emotions through it. I have loved the way you can make them sound however you please, add any rhythm to it if you want to. They have no boundaries. They are a way of self expression. Through poems you can transmit all sorts of feelings such as: happiness, sadness, disappointments and more. Through poems you can also express and tell moments in your life, describe people around you and many more.

In Walt Whitman’s book of poems: Leaves of Grass, in his first poem he uses a lot of feeling description. Starting by his first sentence: “I CELEBRATE myself;” I can clearly see that he is expressing a proud feeling type. Proud towards something that he has accomplished. Then as I continue to read through I found that he talks about sharing, and about being responsible for each other. When he says: “And what I assume you shall assume; For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.” By now the first stanza is over and so far he has proven my love for poems, which is the way than one can express our feeling through them. Walt then starts talking about loafing himself, showing the opposite feeling as before, as disappointment. He keeps on using expressing words to describe himself in that precise time lapse of his life some of these words include: “mad, love, loafe, undisguised”.

After all I really liked the way in which Walt Whitman through his poems tries to let some of him to the world. Expresses what he feels, and what he has lived. “Backward I see my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders; I have no mocking or arguments-I witness and wait” (Poem 4)

The Two Sides Of Description

As I continue to read A simple Soul, I realized that Flaubert continues with his same style of description in great detail. When I finished the book I realized how simple this book was. I mean anyone who read it would easily say it was about a woman named Felicite and the tragic life she had. But then I wondered. What pulled me into the story? What made me be into it? The answer was simple, it was the style of Gustave Flaubert. He does not use extravagating language, on the other hand he uses medium sized sentences, organizes them in an easy way to read fast and through. One of Flaubert’s most successful style techniques was the descriptions he used. He used two different types of descriptions he used direct ones, which left a complete image of what he is describing in our minds: “His body was green, his head blue, the tips of his wings were pink and his breast was golden.” (Chapter IV). And he also used some more complicated and sophisticated such as: “Already at the threshold, she caught sight of Virginia lying on her back, with clasped hands, her mouth open and her head thrown back, beneath a black crucifix inclined toward her, and stiff curtains which were less white than her face. Madame Aubain lay at the foot of the couch, clasping it with her arms and uttering groans of agony. The Mother Superior was standing on the right side of the bed. The three candles on the bureau made red blurs, and the windows were dimmed by the fog outside.” (Chapter III).
In these two sentences we can see the variation of description that Flaubert used.

And this is what kept me entertained throughout the book. Another technique that Flaubert used to keep the reader into the story was the topic jumping. He switched topics to keep us engaged to it, and in order for us not to get bored.

Flaubert's writing style

Style is essential to have in mind when you are writing. “Writing style is the manner in which a writer addresses a matter. A style reveals the writer's personality or voice.” In class we have recently been focusing on style and personally I am really enjoying it. Your writing style is like your personality, it portrays who you are.

In tonight’s reading, which consisted in reading A Simple Soul by
 Gustave Flaubert, I found his style to be extremely descriptive: “She was
immediately dazzled by the noise, the lights in the trees, the
brightness of the dresses, the laces and gold crosses, and the crowd
of people all hopping at the same time.” (A simple Soul chapter 2). Here he was not only descriptive in the surroundings but he did also mention details. He described all things that were around.

Another example of Flaubert’’s description is: “The sleepy waves lapping the sand unfurled themselves along the
shore that extended as far as the eye could see, but where land began,
it was limited by the downs which separated it from the "Swamp," a
large meadow shaped like a hippodrome” (A simple Soul chapter 2). Here we can see that the was Gustave Flaubert uses description is by: listing and separation by commas. He lists in the sense that he is naming and illustrates each piece and detail of things, in this case of the beach. And he separates these listings by commas.

Throughout the text the way that Flaubert describes is not just a paralyzed scene, he describes as actions keep occurring, and does not stop the story.

Ending Feelings

Throughout the book I noticed that most if the jokes that Thomas Pynchon made, and that in order for us to understand them we needed to have a good background and historical knowledge of the United States in the 1960’s. Since the beginning I knew that this was a satirical novel, and at first it was very hard for me to find and to catch all the of the satirical jokes, so instead of being funny and relaxed at the beginning for me this book was tense and I was looking all around for jokes that I could not catch. But then as I got used to them and relaxed I was able to find the satirical part of it.

Now regarding the end of this novel I can say that Oedipa ended up with her life made up a mess and all that she loved is now all gone and destroyed. Starting by saying that she completely lost her husband, Mucho. And that Dr. Hilarious is now gone completely insane, with many other factors Oedipa was completely ruined. And when the novel ends Pynchon is not really putting all the focus in the auction and the Tristeros, but even before that he is focusing on Oedipa and the sense that she lost everything she had for something that could have been a joke in the Inveraty.

Clues Leading To Confusions

As I continued to read this book I found that by this point Oedipa is living a mystery, to which she wants to find the solutions and has been able to find some clues one of these is: “She tailed him all the way back down the littered, shifty, loud length of the Market and over on First Street to the trans bay bus terminal, where he bought a ticket for Oakland. So did Oedipa”. (106) The problem is that this is not like any other kind of mystery movie or book that I have seen or read, in which generally as time passes by and the characters go finding clues, these will help them get closer to solve the mystery. In this book Pynchon does it kind of backwards, I mean he does give clues but instead of these clues leading the character towards the solution of the mystery, it leads her to more doubt and confusion. The night that Oedipa was wondering she was able to put many clues together but she was really confusing her more and more each time.


It is also important to state that by now Oedipa is having some emotional changes in her life. Meaning that she is feeling separated from Mucho, since he became in a victim of LSD. And it was also interesting for me to see how good Oedipa is doing in terms of her psychologically stability, during all this chaos and problems all around.

Finding Satire

After and as I was reading this chapter I found myself with many questions and comments. First of all I have to say that so far the names mentioned by Pynchon are really strange, weird and funny. I mean Oedipa, Mucho, Pierce, Metzger, Mike Fallopian, Mr. Hilarius. What kinds of names are these? Or would you ever name any of your children this way? Now that I was informed that this book was satirical I am finding the names as part of it.

Then regarding this precise chapter I have to say that as first it was really easy and simple, when oedipal was in the bar with Metzger and Mike Fallopian. But then, Oedipa decides to go to the bathroom, and sees a weird looking symbol, one that she cannot recognize. This shape was like: a "loop, triangle, and trapezoid" (p.38), beneath it said: “Kirby”. In the book, in this moment, after Oedipa saw this shape she is very confused and has no idea of what it might represent. And neither do I. But then I thought what might Pynchon want to say with this? Is he including any of the elements of satire in here? Hyperbole, target, irony or absurdity?

Oedipa

After reading chapter 2 of The Crying Of Lot 49, I wanted to talk about Oedipa. I thought that she was a great character and found interesting all that was happening to her and the way that she was handling it. So after she found out that her lover: Pierce, had died and that she was named to be the executrix of the estate of Pierce. So after she knowing this she went to San Narciso, this was a town in California and it was where Pierce’s law firm was located and where he used to live. In this law firm he had a lot of associates including: Metzger. This lawyer spend some time with Oedipa in a bar and they were drunk and started to play games in which she had to take off a piece of clothing by each time she talked about an specific topic. And this game went on and on and they ended up in the bathroom, and then they left and had sex. By now we can see that Oedipa is an unstable person she has no idea nor real conscious on what she is doing. She is acting for the moment without thinking what it may imply nor the consequences it may bring. I feel triggered to see what will be the next steps of Oedipa while continuing to read.

Characters

After knowing that this book is satire, I found myself very intrested in reading it. Since we studied satire in class with Mr. Tangen I have wanted to read a book of satire, this way i will understand it better and have a great time while reading it.
The main characters on chapter 1 of The Crying of Lot 49:

Oedipa Maas: Began to feel ill after knowing that Pierce had died. Needs an escape.

Wendell Mass: Is the husband of Oedipa, short tempered, and works by selling used cars.

Dr. Hilarius: Is a doctor and wants to perform drug experiments upon her.

Roseman: Is the lawyer and insists Oedipa to run away with him.

Pierce Inverarity: One of the ex-boyfriends of Oedipa, was a wealthy man, and a real-estate mogul, in California. He had lost money and died.

I thought that these characters were all very interesting and I found it funny to see that they are all very different from each other. Everyone seems to have their life formed individually and not really united. The part that I found most fun of this chapter was when Oedipa says that she felt she was Rapunzel and that when pierce tried climbing it was really a wig.

I think that the book is going to continue becoming funnier, and I really look forward and continue reading it.

Language Evolution

So I am almost done with this book. I am now reading chapter 12, which I think is the most interesting, fun and catching of all the other chapters in this book. This chapter focuses on the “Prisoners dilemma”. At first when I read about the “Prisoner dilemma” I did not really understand it until we played in class the other day. I was up on the first round with Laura Duarte and we had to play this game, we did 10 rounds and at the end we ended up being tied. This game was really fun and it was what I most enjoyed in tonight’s reading. But then I started to think, how I could relate chapters 11, 12 with Macbeth. But nothing came to my mind I was still in game mode with the “Prisoners dilemma”. The words default and cooperate kept running through my mind and at the same time I was still analyzing all of the strategies, and which I should use next time in order to win. And I my mind kept thinking about this, and so I had to start re-reading tonight’s homework. As I, again started chapter 11 I came across this line, which enlightened the connection path between MacBeth and The Selfish Gene.

"Language seems to 'evolve' by non-genetic means and at a rate which is orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution" (p 189). Immediately as I saw the word language, Shakespeare came to my mind. The way that Shakespeare implements language in his works is extremely appealing. And this is totally true as time passes people go changing the languages adding some words over here and omitting some others over there. And if we compare our present-day English language with Shakespeare’s we will find it with the same bases, but we will clearly see a difference. And this difference as Dawkins says is ‘genetic evolution’.

Science Class Feeling?

As I began reading The Selfish Gene totally convinced that it was a fun and interesting novel, I was in shock to find out that it was about science. Ignoring the fact that it is hard for me to understand and enjoy science I found myself interested in the book and its proved theories and facts. Throughout the first three chapters evolution is a topic frequently used. And as I am learning in science class evolution in other words means: when the organisms change their environment in order to become better and to have advantage over the others. And it is very similar to what Dawkins describes it to. And then came the part of natural selection “genes become more numerous and others less numerous”. And then everything starting matching up in my mind to what I had learned in science class and by this point in the book Dawkins had finally caught my attention. But then I came to the part of DNA and there I started to lose focus again I was feeling like I was in class with Dr. Anne Gregory, and she was the one talking about the chromosomes each one had, and then I imagined her giving examples as always in class. But I was really reading Dawkins examples as I was imagining her saying them. “It is as though in every room of a gigantic building, there was a book-case containing the architects plans for the entire building.”(22) And as I kept reading and Dawkins kept switching themes I felt in science class, but fortunately in this case I was interested and it was easy for me to understand everything better. Now I am here writing my blog on my first chapters reading experience and waiting to see with what Dawkins will surprise me next.

“Battle of sexes”

Preferences

Have you ever felt preferred over your siblings by your mother? Or have you ever felt that the teacher prefers your classmate over you? Or have you ever preferred any of your friends over the others? Think about it. “What is the reason for this?” I asked myself this question over and over as I was starting chapter 8 of The Selfish Gene. I stopped reading and began thinking: “what could it be?” Then the light bulb in my head illuminated and I went back to the tittle of this book which says: “The Selfish Gene.”

And then I knew it, humans prefer people over others because they are selfish and want to be privileged by them. Now this left me I doubt, by now in the book Dawkins has made us realize that human beings are selfish, but I had never really thought of any examples of how that could apply to my life.

And as I sat on my desk chair, closing my eyes, and thinking in which ways I was implementing this in my life I realized that yes. Sometimes I am nicer to my sister over my bother because she gives me candy, and many other examples in which I will prefer a person over the rest for me to be benefited. So after my question was answered I continued to read. And most of it was boring things which stated the example of the mother with her offspring, but then came a sentence which catched me back into the reading. This sentence said: “We have asked whether parents can be expected to have favourites, and in general what is the best investment policy for a parent?” (pg.127) this was the question of something that I had not thought about but that triggered me to find the answer.

So I put the book back on my hand and continued passing page by page. I found that a mother is as closely related to all of her children. And regarding the children they should all receive the same attention for their mother and for each other. The problem is that both the mother as the kids have ½ of their attention in themselves, and this makes one children want more attention from his mother than his siblings. And the mother thinks in the same way. So yes due to this the mother will have preference to satisfy that ½ of attention in her. So after all everyone has preferences, due to the selfishness of our genes.

Planning

So, I’m in the car with my sister and my cousin who won’t stop chitchatting about their day at school. I am in the front seat of the car thinking and planning. I am thinking on the way that I was going to plan my afternoon in order to do all my homework and have some extra time to rest. Most of the time in a normal day in my life consists of planning. I enjoy planning, having everything organized and ready for all situations. We create our own sort of movie; we visualize it perfect, with no miscalculations. The problem is that this is a dream, and that in real life everything is different, problems occur and not everything is as perfect as we thought it was. “In either case it is unlikely that somewhere laid out in your brain is an actual spatial model of the events you are imagining”. (Pg 59). This shows that yes we can have an imaginary model, but we will never be able to have in our minds reality. “You may see them vividly in your mind’s eyes, or you may see and manipulate stylized abstractions of them (Pg 59)” In our minds we can change everything really easily and fix all problems immediately, problems seem way smaller than they really are. Finally it is very normal to plan in advance, though many times things may not end up the way we want it to be.

High Expectations

Candide is a very interesting story. And most importantly Candide is a remarkable character. Throughout most of the book until the end Candide has wished to marry Connegonde. This is like some of the dreams that we have and we keep on dreaming about them, like for example I have always dreamed of dancing beautiful ballet and every free time that I have I will try to think about my solos and how great I can do it with my partner. But then when the real moment comes and my dreams are over and all that is left is reality I will notice that my partner does not dance as good as I thought he would. And this is a disappointment for me, because I had tried my best and had dreams but suddenly they faded away. A similar thing happened to Candide when he was completely in love with Cunegode and her extraordinary beauty. As the book advances and Candide has the opportunity of seeing her and realized that each time that he saw her he felt that he was more in love and to a certain extend he is dozed off by her. And he proposed her to marry him and she accepted. Time kept passing by and Candide could not stop thinking about her. But then a disappointment arose because when Candide met with her again he saw how Cunegode had changed so much and she was no longer as beautiful as she was before. Due to this moment and realization Candide decided that he did not love her, and decided not to marry. "At the bottom of his heart Candide had no wish to marry Cunégode"(138). This quote is totally true, after all Candide was in love with her beauty and not with her in the inside. The thing that most surprised me about this was all that Candide went through and did for the love and to marry Cunegode, and he never gave up. But in the ended Candide ended up disappointed just as I did.

Satire

Candide is a parody that includes many examples of satire. But in these chapters specifically I would like to go in depth in the examples and different ways that irony is included, also how Voltaire makes fun of other people. I am going to start by showing the example of irony that I caught. This was: "But I have never forgotten that I am the daughter of a Pope."(57) This is said by the old woman. But going back to the ironic part of this is that the pope is not supposed to have any children, they should not reproduce themselves. And evidently here in the book the pope did reproduce himself and had kids.

Then there is also another example of satire which is target. This one we can see towards the arrogance of the nobility. This target come from part of Don Fernando, the way that Voltaire does this is by stating how naturally the nobility should have power and money. But in this book Don Fernando which is the representation of the nobility is describes as: a lair, a cheater and in a way a joker. So by this we can see the huge amount of target vs. the nobility’s arrogance.

And last I saw that Voltaire makes fun of Don Fernando by mentioning hin full name, which also includes all his honors and tittles that he has earned in time. “Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. (Pg 58)

The Old Woman

As I continue to read Candide I found that specially in these two chapters the old woman is great mentioned. I can say that from what a read she has a negative attitude vs. life but she is alert of the world that she lives in. The old woman relays all her actions and thoughts on the previous life experiences. This is why the proposal that the old woman gives to Cunegond is to base her decisions on what she had to live the past years and on her prior decisions. Also she encourages both Candide and Conegond to gather more knowledge in order to make better judgments.

“I would not even have mentioned my own misfortunes, if you had not irked me a bit, and if it weren’t the custom, on shipboard, to pass the time with stories.” This is what the old woman tells Conegond and through this we can see that she is a person that has passed through very hard moments in life but that these help her form better as a character. Through this character of hers we can see that she completely lacks self-pity.

Personally I think that this old woman has gone through so much misfortunes that she should be constantly thinking about suicide and she does actually but she keeps on saying: “A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more.” In a way I can relate this to the fact that she is the Pope’s daughter and that she knows that if she takes her life she will be committing a sin and will go to hell. I think that this is the strongest bond that hold’s her towards keep living life.

This old woman is a very interesting and important character in Candide and I really enjoyed analyzing her.

More Than Words

So I am sitting at my desk and I am reading Voltaire Candide, as I pass page by page I encounter with some words to which I have no idea of their meaning, hence I had to use the dictionary and my knowledge on word context to find the meaning on the word and its effect on the sentence. The word to which I had to do the most effort to understand was:

Ghastly- “Candide was moved more by compassion than by horror at the sight of this ghastly scarecrow, and gave him the two florins he had received from James, the honest Anabaptist.” (28) The first think I did when I saw this word in this sentence was to look up the definition. And this is what I found: 1 a : terrifyingly horrible to the senses : FRIGHTENING b : intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
2 : resembling a ghost(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghastly)

As I read this I figured that it was a negative adjective. That it was describing something in this case the scarecrow in a pessimistic way. Then after looking the definition I did a sentence analysis and first realized how the author said that candied was more moved by compassion than by horror, this to me meant that when he saw it, the scarecrow had more than just a direct and shocking reaction instead it had a deep reply and in a way with sorrow. Candide felt sorry for the scarecrows state. As a matter of fact Candide felt so sorry for him that he even gave him 2 florins, which were the gold at that time. These florins represented a lot of money which makes us realize that this scarecrow was in real needy conditions.

As I keep on reading I find that this scarecrow is Pangloss, Candide’s tutor. And maybe because it was the tutor Candide felt more compassion and was so shocked in seeing him in such a terrifying condition.

Candide

So far we have read two chapters of Candide, and after what we did in class I realized how this that I am reading contains many pieces of satire. For example it totally contains abusurdity in the way that the author expressed Candide’s tutor; Pangloss, that this world is perfect. And not only that the world is perfect but that everything that happens is for a specific reason. That nothing is there just because is there, all things in life have a purpose and meaning to it. Pangloss said to Candide: “He proved incontestably that there is no effect without a cause, and that it is best for all possible worlds,” (Candide pg.20). There are many people on earth that think this way that everything happens for a reason even I share this thought too.

Now the absurd part is how in chapter two Candide is banned from love and this is in a way totally bizarre because we are supposed to create the life that we want and make all the decisions that we want. We should not be restricted form what we feel and from what we think is the right thing to do. Also the part that states how the king decided to stop and help him because of compassion and that is the reason why he is saved. I mean really this may match with Pangloss ideology but is things are so extreme there should be a more sophisticated help.

Letter to Robert Frost

Dear Mr. Frost

As I read through your poem: The Road Not Taken, I realized how you clearly state how there is a big decision to take. This is to choose one of the paths in the woods. During life one encounters many decisions to make some may be harder than others but they are both going to affect the rest of our lives. We must take some time to think on how we are going to make these decisions but most importantly one has to think of the future and be sure that what we are choosing is the right one. One of the factors that will have a great influence in our final choice is freewill.

As you know I have written a lot about freewill. And realizing if we really actually have it or are
we being manipulated and controlled by others. During the process of taking a decision we have everyone around us telling us what to do and giving us suggestions and support. At the end we can see that the decisions are up to us. I really enjoyed your poem and it does relate to my thoughts and opinions.

Regards,

Epictetus

The 5 Steps To Become The Best At School

1. Bribe the teacher on the first day of school.
2. Complement and offer help to teachers.
3. Help others in front of teachers.
4. Copy the intelligent person’s work.
5. Get drunk and go to parties every night.

Epictetus 10-20

“What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about things.”(Epictetus Section 5) As I kept reading through Epictetus I encountered this quote and it really caught my attention. At first when I read it I thought it was not true but then as I reflected more about it I realized that it is true. Well at least that is the way that my mentality works. For example it does not upset me that it rains. In fact I like the rain. I think that it is nice and can help create a cozy environment. But what does bother me is me and other people judging it by saying that due to the rain we cannot play outside, or that the BBQ cannot be made due to the rain. Those are the judgments that make me be upset about the fact that it is raining.

This happens in a lot of cases, it may come to vary depending on the mood that you have. Also on the person that may tell you something. Another very similar example of this occurred in passage 20: “what is insulting is not the person who abuses you or hits you, but the judgment about them...” This is basically the same idea written in other words saying how what is insulting is not the person that preformed the actions, but the judgments on the way the person preformed the actions on you.

In my personal experience this is very true. As far as I have read of Epictetus I can see how this is a very good manual and a great guide to your life and to your understanding of actions and thought of others.

The Desires Epictetus 1-10

As I began reading Epictetus I realized how this could be the guide for my daily life. It states many different points and very clearly and briefly describes them. At first he talks about how we cannot control our lives completely, and then it begins to talk about the desire: “Remember, what a desire proposes is that you gain what you desire,” (Epictetus Section 2). This is very clear at first sight but I had never thought if desire in such way and now I realize that we can manage to try to do whatever we like. And that all that we accomplish is what we desired and so hard worked for.
Desire: “To wish or long for; want, To express a wish for; request.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/desire). In the paragraph above I stated how everything that you have is desires. Because it is what you have worked for, what you deserve in return. But if you don’t get what you desire and have really worked hard for you will be considered and unlucky person. “Someone who fails to obtain what he desires is unfortunate, while someone who falls into what he is averse to has met misfortune” (Epictetus Section 2). And this means that if you fall into the opposite of your happiness you will be tricked and haunted into misfortune, or bad things.
If you are to be cursed then you will have to face misfortune. There is nothing that you can so to avoid it. “what an aversion proposes is that you not fall into what you are adverse to” (Epictetus Section 2). So either you will get your desires and be happy or you are going to have to fall into your adverse or in other words your misfortune and will have to learn to live with it because there will not be any turn backs.

Thesis

 How Vonnegut uses animal totems in Slaughterhouse five to relate to the other characters in the book.

Points of close reading:

-                 Horses

-                 Dogs

-                Birds

-                 Owl

-                 Miliapes

Narrator and “Poo-tee-weet?”

When I was reading the end of the book I encountered 2 things that really interested me. The first one was that finally here I can see that the narrator of the story was Vonnegut, and that Billy Pilgrim and Kurt Vonnegut is not the same person!! Here is the proof: “Now Billy and the rest were being marched into the ruins by their guards. I was there. O'Hare was there.”(Chapter 10) This means that Vonnegut was part of the story, that he was always there and that he saw and was present in most of the events that occurred during the novel. What Vonnegut did was tell the story of one of the soldiers that attended. And at the beginning of the book in chapter 1 he says that he has changed all the names, so Billy Pilgrim could be his friend or just some person he encountered during the war.

And then the second interesting thing that I found was the ending of the book which was: “Poo-tee-weet?” (Chapter 10) First of all it is important to state that the bird said this. Then also we have to have cleared that in pg 19 Vonnegut says: “There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre …. Everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.” This also means that when the massacre ended and that when the birds said this they meant to say something like; no what’s next? Or what are we supposed to do now? The birds are known to be the symbol of happiness and joy, so after this happened they were not really affected adding the fact that whom dies were the humans not the birds. So this is like a what happened is in the past, we are now in the present and what will be our plan for the future?

Aliens

Billy Pilgrim had a life full of adventures. He had a lot of time traveling and was able to in some words re-live his life moments. But throughout all the time travels Billy Pilgrim does not feel fully complete and accepted in each of the moments. In a way he feels lost like for example when he sees his son in the toilet with a guitar in his hands. This made me realize that maybe Billy pilgrim as not been there for his family. He is just there, without being interested in the past, present nor future.

Through the Trafalmadorians teaching and wisdom, Billy has learned that bad things happen and that the most important thing is that he lives the good moments to the maximum. That he really takes advantage of them. Also he learns that the idea of being dead just happens for one moment in one place. And that he may be dead for that moment in that place, but that everywhere else where he had been before he is still alive and that he still has to live those moments.

The Trafalmadorians are really weird people; they are kind of aliens and can be easily be connected and related to the science fiction stories of Kilengore Trout. Since he mentions the aliens. And to some degree I can come to think that those stories that he is writing about can be the sories of Billy Pilgrim in some points of his life.

Time Traveling Or Dreams

By now in the book we know that Billy Pilgrim constantly has experienced a lot of time travel. He is always time traveling without any control over it. But my question is: Is there a difference from dreams Billy pilgrim may have to the real time travel? “Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time-travel.” (Vonnegut). Here we can see that after all Billy does encounter both. Not all of his swatches in time are time travels controlled by the Trafalmadorians but sometimes it may also be his own dreams.

There is a part in chapter 7 when we know that Billy Pilgrim knew that the plane was going to crash and even though he did nothing about it nor even mention it. He did this because he did not want to seem like a coward in front of the others. He said: “but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so.”(Chapter 7). I think that maybe the reason of why he may have done this is because he knows about the Tralfamadorians and that they live I the fourth dimension and all of that including: “Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.”(Chapter 7). And hence if they are like a machine then why even try to save yourself if you are a controlled robot? So basically Billy had a feeling that they were going to crash but he know that there was nothing that he could do to help it.

Vengeance

Vengeance is a very common word in our daily vocabulary and actions, isn’t it? We will almost always try to make revenge to those whom harm us, or who harm the people that surrounds us and that we deeply love. Well in the book Slaughterhouse Five, in chapter 6 specifically we can see how one of the main themes is vengeance. In here vengeance is mostly first taken by Paul Lazzaro, whom was a very loyal and close friend to Roland Weary. And when Weary was killed by Billy Pilgrim, Paul Lazzaro promised Roland Weary that he was going to kill the man who had provoked his death. This is vengeance given that he is making Billy pilgrim pay for what he did to Roland Weary with much violence and force. And it is not until the end of this chapter when we find out that Lazzaro did commit vengeance to Billy Pilgrim by killing him.

Also vengeance is seen in pg 138 where between Lazzaro and the Blue Fairy Godmother where they say’s: “The Blue Fairy Godmother knew something about killing. He gave Lazzaro a careful smile. ‘There is still time for me to kill you,’ he said, ‘if you really persuade me that it’s the sensible thing to do.’ ‘Why don’t you go fuck yourself?’ ‘Don’t think I have not tried,’ the Blue Fairy Godmother answered. “ Here Lazzaro is already angry cause the Blue Fairy Godmother has already harmed his arm and so any comment that he tries to do, Lazzaro will answer really bad in order to make vengeance and make him feel bad and regret what he did.

It is very normal for all humans to fell the pressure and to what to do vengeance. Most of the times the reason of why vengeance is used is in order to be on the same page with the other person, for them to be equal and have peace amongst each other.

The Narrators Doubt

After having the discussion in class on who was the real narrator of the book Slaughterhouse Five I came to the conclusion that there are three different narrators. First of all there is Billy in the present where he refers to himself as I and expresses his feelings and thoughts during each moment. “I like the way you are”, “’I’m not’ said Billy” (Vonnegut 121). Then second there is Billy but in the past: He hadn’t told anybody about all the time traveling he’d done”(Vonnegut 121).And then last there is the author of the book Vonnegut.

Vonnegut is in the book because at first he says: “I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. I get drunk, and drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. And then, speaking, gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friends or that one, from whom I have not heard in years.” (Slaughterhouse-five, pg 4) And then more towards the middle and end of the book: “Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath—mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up.(slaughterhouse-five pg 73). This is the same description of Kurt Vonnegut which leads us to know that yes, Vonnegut is in the book, that he is Billy Pilgrim’s friend and that he is the one narrating the story in different forms narratives. Also it says: “This was I, that was me. That was the author of this book.”(Vonnegut 125) This is a proof that Vonnegut is in the book.

The only question that is still unanswered is why would Kurt Vonnegut write the story seeming to be told in three different narrarives?

Peacefull Eyes

I am here sitting at my desk, staring at the window, with my book slaughterhouse-five wide open and with a blank new word document in front of me. I have to write my blog and time keeps on passing and I have no idea to what I’m going to write about, then I start flipping the pages of my book and found a word that as soon as I saw it cached my eyes completely. This word was backwards, which means; the back side. I re-read that passage and found how Billy Pilgrim was watching a normal World War movie, where if he watched it forwardly in the right direction was a full of scenes of all the soldiers fighting and throwing missiles at each other and many hurt and dead soldiers on the ground. But instead Billy was watching the movie backwards there for he saw how instead of throwing the minerals from ones soldiers to the others they would take them away and put them away. “The minerals were then shipped to specialist in remote areas. It was their business to put them into ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.”(Vonnegut 75). We can see how this is related to the beginning when Vonnegut stated that he was going to write an anti-war book and this scene is totally anti-war since Billy is see how instead to seeing the bullet out of the gun and into the other soldiers body it would go from the soldiers dead body and into the gun, this way being very peace full.

The theme of peace and anti-war is also noticed when Billy Pilgrim says that: “Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.”(Vonnegut pg 75) He is trying to say how he would like everyone to start life over again and be good, have no harm and certainly banish war from the vocabulary and the human actions.

No Where To Be Accepted

After reading chapter 3 of Slaughterhouse-Five, I began thinking and realized that maybe Billy Pilgrim has lived a lot of moments, but he does not fit completely into any of them. I think that maybe the reason of why he is constantly closing his eyes and uncontrollably appearing in another moment, another year, and another place is because he wants to fit somewhere, he wants to feel accepted. He wants to have a comfortable moment.

“Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping. Nobody had ever caught Billy doing it. Only the doctor knew. It was an extremely quiet thing Billy did, and not very moist.” (Ch 3, Page 61). As I mentioned before Billy does not really fit in any moment, and there for he is sad, and that is why he is weeping. He feels disorientated, no were to be accepted. He wants to find a place where he can stay for a long time and just feel received.

From Past, To Present, To Future

In this chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim has lost control of his life. He says that: “He hadn’t been missed, he said, because the Tralfamadorians had taken him through a time warp, so that he could be on Tralfamadore for years, and still be away from earth for only a microsecond.”(Slaughterhouse-five, chapter 2, pg 26) This reminds me of the movie Narnia because, when the kids went into the wardrobe and into Narnia they could spend many months and days there and still be represented as minutes in the real world. Also Billy Pilgrim describes the Tralfamadorians as: “They were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber’s friends……extremely flexible, usually pointed at the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm.”(Slaughterhouse-five, chapter 2,pg 26)Also I can relate this to Narnia because the habitants of Narnia were also like weird looking figures, and deformed. In the movie Narnia the kids could go into Narnia and into their normal world whenever they wanted to in order to escape bad moments or to remember where they belong to. In the book, Billy Pilgrim can do something similar and escape the moments where he does not feel well and wants to remember his past.
Like when Billy was in the middle of the war and he suddenly moves to when he is old, or when he is young has to re-live those moments. Billy certainly has been in war for a lot of time and has experiences every aspect of it, and in a way all of his life is attached to war. And when he is in the middle of the war he just wants to escape it and find a past moment in his life depending on his feelings: "And then Billy swung into life again, going backwards until he was in pre-birth." Here we can see how the author is trying to link every part of Billy’s life with war.

The Post-War Felling

Chapter 1 of Slaughter House- Five is a chapter of the book, which was written at the end of the book when the other chapters were already completed, since at the end of the chapter it states: “It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet?” (Slaughter House- Five, chapter 1, pg 22). And with these lines it’s referring on how the book starts and ends.
When I began to read this chapter I found that in order to really understand it I had to know what was Dresden: “The bombing of Dresden by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force between 13 February and 15 February 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of the Western European theatre of war. The inner city of Dresden was largely destroyed by 800 RAF and USAAF bombers that let loose 650,000 incendiaries and 8,000lb of high explosives and hundreds of 4,000lb bombs[15] in three waves of attacks — approximately one bomb for every two people. Early reports estimated 150,000 to 250,000 deaths” (Wikipedia)
When the war is over and the main character decided to write a book about the war in Dresden there certainly is a clear after or post war feeling. He tries to think about things that he remembers from the war and he realizes that he does not remember most of things. And he also realizes that he cannot find any good memory of the war. He is searching for people to help him and they make him realize that the war had no good factors, and that he should write an anti-war book. He does know that he may not have enough words or memories to fulfill the whole book, and there for thinks he is not going to be able to write a book.
The theme about war and the idea that there is nothing good about it is clearly related to Mary since she finds and expresses that many babies were killed in the war and that it was not fair. That she was simply mad at many of the people who fought in the war just because of going, since they had no good reason of why to do so. But also as to the main character having gone to war and having to face such struggles made him have a new and different point of view towards war, and towards the decision that his country made to be involved in the war.

Life After The Journey In Hell

After reading the divine comedy of Dante, and seeing the journey from the beginning since he enters the hell gates very confused and says: “I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I have lost the path that does not stray.” (Canto I, Lines 2-3). Until in the end when he says: “O reader, do not ask of me how I grew faint and frozen then – I cannot write it: all words would fall far short of what it was. I did not die, and I was not alive; think for yourself, if you have any wit, what I became, deprived of life and death.”(Inferno, Canto XXXVI, Line 22) Clearly by this there is a change in the character of Dante. He began feeling disoriented and now he is confused of what he has become and if what he has seen.
When Dante finished his Journey through hell I predict that he will go back to his normal life again and will not sin and will give himself entirely to God. He will have to live a very careful and conscious life, and I think that also he will warn the people around him so that they will not go to hell and instead go to heaven. And in a future he may take Virgil’s role and take someone to hell and give them a journey this way they can go to the other people and influence them in taking good decisions and not sinning.

Defending The Dreams Of A Dear Destiny

The world I live in is hard to maintain
We all have a government and a right to express
We may have some laws that are hard to explain

But we all have some dreams that each day grow more immense
And we have the power to make of them whatever we desire
Because we are the city’s defense

Some of our laws we the people admire
Because they keep us under control
And never expire

Poetic Justice "Twilight Zone"

We can we see that in this Twilight Zone episode there is poetic justice since at first these two characters, when the war existed they were fighting against each other. As the war ended, and all the other soldiers died, they were lonely. And when they saw each other for the first time with the different colored uniforms they felt like they had to fight and keep on winning. But in a certain way they both knew that in order to survive they had to be and act together, and make each other company. It is very important to state that the scenery during this episode is lonely, deserted, and depressive. And that it had many posters and propaganda pulling people toward war and winning. So it is Poetic Justice because at first they want to be lonely and want to keep on fighting and winning. But as the man said that there is no more government, nor ideas there is no reason of why to keep fighting, and as time passes by they realize that they have to make each other company and be together.

Fun Summer In The Bahamas

Carla: Hey Meg
Megan: Oh hey Carla, it has been so long since we last talked
Carla: OMG I know, I miss you so much!
Megan: Me too, so have you had a good summer time?
Carla: Yeah! Totally last night I arrived from the Bahamas it was so much fun!!
Megan: Really? That’s great, and was the flight really long from Miami to Nassau?
Carla: Well actually we arrived to the check in desk 53 minutes before the plane left and unfortunately they did not let us get on the airplane so we had to take another plain 2 hours later!! It was so frustrating you can’t imagine plus my grandparents and all my family were waiting for us in the Bahamas!! My parents were like so angry arguing with everyone around it was really funny at the moment!! But we finally arrived there like ay 4 p.m. The plane is really short like about 30 min long.
Megan: OMG!! Seriously that’s terrible!! Jajaja but was it fun in the Bahamas? What you do?
Carla: Yeah well I stayed there like for 6 days, and it was awesome we did some water parks in the hotel, which were a total blast!! Then also we spend a lot of days in the beach, and then also we rented a boat and went snorkeling all around it was so beautiful!!
Megan: Carla that seems like so much fun!! You need to show me some pictures
Carla: Yeah totally I have these great pictures that you would love!
Megan: So when are you coming back to Colombia? I am really bored without you!!
Carla: Jaja Meg I’m also bored here without you!! And I will be back in 6 days. And how is your summer reading going?
Megan: Well actually it’s pretty good I have already read Dante Inferno and Brave New World I am missing 50 pg on 1984!
Carla: Wow!! You’re doing great I have already read 1984 and A Clock Work Orange and I am missing 140 pages of Dante inferno which really it’s like 70 pages. So I guess we’re kind of equal.
Megan: Hey I am kind of nervous of getting back in school, of all the new teachers, how people have changed I don’t know being in 10th grade makes me nervous.
Carla: Jaja yeah me too, don’t worry that is totally normal! Hey did you know that the middle school art room got burned and also some of the lockers beside it?
Megan: Seriously? That’s terrible. When did this happen and how?
Carla: Well I don’t really know any details I just know it happened.
Megan: Carla I got to go we’re going to the movies and then to go have dinner!! So good bye I miss you very much!!
Carla: Okay bye Meg love you!

Blogs With No Boundaries

After reading this article by Sara Boxer I realized that I do agree with her point of view regarding the differences between the books and the blogs. Personally I think that a blog is better than a book, since in a blog you can expand the topic by reading other peoples blogs expressing their own ideas about a certain topic, but then you can see the comments of others and understand their point of view. Also you can go into different links and find connections between this topic and many others. This helps broaden the topic and helps connect everything to understand better all the different opinions. The problem is that blogs sometimes have no walls and this may make you start reading about celebrity gossip and then end up reading about the Industrial revolution due to you following the links.

On the other hand books have a good thing which is that it is focused on one topic, with one opinion from start to the end. This is really helpful in the sense that you will have a better background knowledge on the topic and this will make you decide whether you agree with the author’s point of view or disagree. But books are only focused on the ideas of one person. And they will not give you the chance to comment on the author’s opinions, or even hearing about another point of view in that same topic. Personally as I mentioned before I prefer reading blogs over books because they have different opinions and can help you make connections with other topics.