Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
This is Water - Essay Analysis
"This is Water", this essay was written by David Foster Wallace, only to be delivered as a speech to the university graduates of Kenyon University. The speech covered and conveyed a significant aspect in life that the majority of people don't notice. It managed to portray freedom as being so important and easily configured. The purpose of the speech is to implement a simple yet primary lens, which life should be seen through. The moral of the phenomenal speech is to is to not consider the questions about the life after death, as a person must self adjust oneself to be aware consciously live the life before death.
The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.
The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.
"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.
The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.
The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.
"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Munro Literature Reflection
Literature is a skill that the majority of this generation appears to lack in. It consists of a wide range of literary works such as classical well-known novels, inspirational poems/ speeches and so on. It is important to have knowledge and skill in literature as it allows the reader to grasp the knowledge that is needed in order to further comprehend language as a whole and engage in more sophisticated thoughts and conversations. It also betters our ability to read others and interpret their body language and thoughts.
Women's literature, to be specific, is a kind of literature that can be used to express a variety of different thoughts and views. As a result of women's literature, people started to see things and understand them from different angles and perspectives, allowing them to understand how women view the world and the society as a whole. With it readers can form a less biased judgment about women and their values.
The themes and values of Munro's social realism were significant during the mid 1990s. This is due to the fact that her short stories managed to focus on women, and how they struggle to the fact that it was the 2nd wave of feminism at the time, so there we see a link that shows the significance of her themes. Munro stresses in her short stories, on bringing attention to women from their own perspectives, while also including different kinds of women from all ages, contributing to women's literature. Seeking equality in society, her short story "Boys and Girls" targeted the idea of gender roles, which took into consideration the expectations that people from either sex live up for.
The reason behind me admiring Alice Munro's short stories and techniques, was because as a reader a person wants to read and learn something different. The thing that was different and impacting, was how Munro managed to write her stories surrounding women as the main characters. In addition, the fact that she managed to make her stories informative and give perceptive without having to write anything much longer than just a typical short story, made her stories appealing and enjoyable.
Women's literature, to be specific, is a kind of literature that can be used to express a variety of different thoughts and views. As a result of women's literature, people started to see things and understand them from different angles and perspectives, allowing them to understand how women view the world and the society as a whole. With it readers can form a less biased judgment about women and their values.
The themes and values of Munro's social realism were significant during the mid 1990s. This is due to the fact that her short stories managed to focus on women, and how they struggle to the fact that it was the 2nd wave of feminism at the time, so there we see a link that shows the significance of her themes. Munro stresses in her short stories, on bringing attention to women from their own perspectives, while also including different kinds of women from all ages, contributing to women's literature. Seeking equality in society, her short story "Boys and Girls" targeted the idea of gender roles, which took into consideration the expectations that people from either sex live up for.
The reason behind me admiring Alice Munro's short stories and techniques, was because as a reader a person wants to read and learn something different. The thing that was different and impacting, was how Munro managed to write her stories surrounding women as the main characters. In addition, the fact that she managed to make her stories informative and give perceptive without having to write anything much longer than just a typical short story, made her stories appealing and enjoyable.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Tupac "Changes" commentary
Tupac, who was killed in 1996, was an American Rapper. Many of his songs feature the struggles that many people from black ethnicity have to cope with. The rap song "changes" carries with it Tupac's own lived experiences. The lyrics sheds light on significant issues consisting of violence, poverty and racism, all beholding a strong message of peace and equality.
In the third line of the song, "Is life worth living? Should i blast myself?", we can view it as a rising action, where Tupac is introducing an internal conflict to us as audience, which is a conflict of a struggle occurring within a character's mind. Then Tupac moves on to say in the next few lines, "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch", these lines further illustrate the internal conflict the author Tupac is struggling with, we are given an insight of how many people from black ethnicity live in poverty in America, and are not given the same opportunities and living standards, so they divert into doing wrong in order to move on. Tupac keeps on repeating and stating that he "sees no changes", further demonstrating his eagerness to see people from his culture and from black ethnicity, to be recognized by society and be equal.
Various Poetic features were in play and enhanced the message delivered to the audience, such as an anaphora, rhyme, allusion, free verse, Irony and metaphor.
Anaphora is a word or phrase that is repeated at the start of lines, "I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself ... I see no changes, all I see is racist faces", these previous lines carry an anaphora within to be delivered to the audience. A rhyme is an important component that can be very common in songs, which is considered to be the usage of matching sound patterns of different words at the end of different sentences, evident in the lines "Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, Crack you up and pimp-smack you up". An allusion was also present, which is when the song writer or author refers to another text, person or an event, for example "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead".
Ironies were also present in the song, which are words that convey a meaning different and opposite of their literal meaning, such poetic devices are used by authors who are discussing an issue where they are resembling a minority or a lost cause, this can be shown in the lines "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare", in these previous lines, Tupac asks to hand drugs down to kids, however the intention is to show how desperate people can get for fighting a case that is being looked down upon. Last but not least, free verse, a piece of text written in free verse is intended to not have any rhymes or a basic regular rhythm, this was clear in the lines "We gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live And let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive".
In the third line of the song, "Is life worth living? Should i blast myself?", we can view it as a rising action, where Tupac is introducing an internal conflict to us as audience, which is a conflict of a struggle occurring within a character's mind. Then Tupac moves on to say in the next few lines, "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch", these lines further illustrate the internal conflict the author Tupac is struggling with, we are given an insight of how many people from black ethnicity live in poverty in America, and are not given the same opportunities and living standards, so they divert into doing wrong in order to move on. Tupac keeps on repeating and stating that he "sees no changes", further demonstrating his eagerness to see people from his culture and from black ethnicity, to be recognized by society and be equal.
Various Poetic features were in play and enhanced the message delivered to the audience, such as an anaphora, rhyme, allusion, free verse, Irony and metaphor.
Anaphora is a word or phrase that is repeated at the start of lines, "I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself ... I see no changes, all I see is racist faces", these previous lines carry an anaphora within to be delivered to the audience. A rhyme is an important component that can be very common in songs, which is considered to be the usage of matching sound patterns of different words at the end of different sentences, evident in the lines "Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, Crack you up and pimp-smack you up". An allusion was also present, which is when the song writer or author refers to another text, person or an event, for example "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead".
Ironies were also present in the song, which are words that convey a meaning different and opposite of their literal meaning, such poetic devices are used by authors who are discussing an issue where they are resembling a minority or a lost cause, this can be shown in the lines "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare", in these previous lines, Tupac asks to hand drugs down to kids, however the intention is to show how desperate people can get for fighting a case that is being looked down upon. Last but not least, free verse, a piece of text written in free verse is intended to not have any rhymes or a basic regular rhythm, this was clear in the lines "We gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live And let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive".
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Summer Post #2
After coming back from Jordan, I have spent a lot of time
doing schoolwork and finishing up some assignments that we were assigned to do
from before the summer break started. I have been looking for CAS opportunities,
and I have found out that Khalifa University was offering a Medicine Program
for two weeks. I sent in my application, and luckily I have been accepted
through a selective process to be one of the 15 people accepted.
The reason I signed up was for CAS, but it was an
opportunity to make my mind on whether I want to study medicine or engineering
in the next years of my life. It was a really nice experience, and I have met
new people that made the program easier and more fun for sure.
The program included dissecting hearts, DNA extraction from
blood, hair, nails and fingerprints, along with other activities that were interesting
and exciting. The program and the activities help me to be more familiarized with
different medicine specializations.
Summer Post #1
My summer so far and the rest of it surely belongs to the IB. My
laptop, books and notes have been my traveling companions throughout this
period. Others argue that summer is meant for people to relax and reflect on
the previous school year, however, us IB students have no time to relax as we
are meant to be working on our internal assessments and most importantly the
extended essay.
Summer started off during the month of Ramadan, so hanging out
would only be reasonable if I leave my house at 9pm, plus the weather in
AbuDhabi would reach 53 degrees, so going out in the previous conditions was
unpleasant, which had me stay home and be forced to start my summer work
early.
After a couple of weeks of spending the beginning of summer in
AbuDhabi, I went to Jordan; it was so pleasant and appealing to see it after 3
years. Friends, family and the people there were all welcoming and loving. But
the way they drive there makes me realize how lucky we are here in AD to have
such traffic-less streets. Though I haven’t seen the people there for a while, I
still had to take extra classes to keep some topics fresh in my head, these
included physics and mathematics. I went to the dead see with my friends, which
was an interesting and a memorable trip. But I knew that for every hour I spent
having fun and relaxing, there are 4 other hours that will have to be dedicated
for schoolwork. After spending a month there, I had to head back to Abudhabi
and say goodbyes. So I headed back to Abudhabi, but the weather wasn’t welcoming
which had me feeling down for the first couple of days.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Paper #2
Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization
The Igbo people rely on success, in order to determine how well a person should be respected and recognized. Social status in Things Fall Apart plays an impacting role on the various themes originated by Achebe. It is one of the most important factors that as a result, character's actions were driven with their traits. Social status was used as a tool of characterization, as Achebe managed to relate titles character traits. In Igbo culture, a man's social status is based on merit rather than inheritance. A man is capable of gaining respect by committing to hard work, bravery and war skills. Hence, when men have a couple of titles, it means that they have earned a rather high status in their society. Achebe kept the audience updated and informed of the titles earned by characters. Okwonko has earned two titles; this signifies his physical capabilities and his hard working inflated ego. On the other hand Unoka, Okwonko's father, has not earned any titles throughout his lifetime, this is a symbol of the ideologies stating that Unoka is a lazy character and incompetent.
Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village and considered to be one of the most important clan elders and leaders, had a high status in Umofia. Because of his significant titles, “he was to be buried after dark with only a glowing brand to light the sacred ceremony" (page 123). This further enriches the idea that relates titles to social status and characterization. Unoka, unlike Ezeudu, had no titles. Which resulted in him dying a rather shameful death as he was left in the evil forest to die there alone.
Those who were old were given a lot of respect by their society. This is because respect is associated with experience, wealth and social status. Assuming that old people have the most experience, and as a result they gained respect. However, the tribe valued achievement and accomplishment more than how much age was concerned. This is determined after perceiving that Okwonko was a fine young warrior in contrast with the respect he gained from his people, as he was an achiever and hardworking.
Women did not play a huge role in society and were only good at raising their husband’s children, thus men with no titles were referred to as women, as they did not play a role in society and deemed to be lazy and unworthy in terms of their social status.
"There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo's village who had three huge barns, nine wives, and thirty children. His name was Nwakibie and he had taken the highest but one title which a man could take in the clan" (page 18-19). This enhances the ideas of titles and success. The more titles an individual has, then the more respect he will earn from his tribe, showing that a character is an accomplished citizen of Umofia.
In conclusion, social status shaped the character’s actions and limited their character traits as discussed in the previous analytical response. As characters were introduced in terms of how many titles each has, then resulting in a creation of an idea surrounding the character and his actions relating to his social status.
The Igbo people rely on success, in order to determine how well a person should be respected and recognized. Social status in Things Fall Apart plays an impacting role on the various themes originated by Achebe. It is one of the most important factors that as a result, character's actions were driven with their traits. Social status was used as a tool of characterization, as Achebe managed to relate titles character traits. In Igbo culture, a man's social status is based on merit rather than inheritance. A man is capable of gaining respect by committing to hard work, bravery and war skills. Hence, when men have a couple of titles, it means that they have earned a rather high status in their society. Achebe kept the audience updated and informed of the titles earned by characters. Okwonko has earned two titles; this signifies his physical capabilities and his hard working inflated ego. On the other hand Unoka, Okwonko's father, has not earned any titles throughout his lifetime, this is a symbol of the ideologies stating that Unoka is a lazy character and incompetent.
Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village and considered to be one of the most important clan elders and leaders, had a high status in Umofia. Because of his significant titles, “he was to be buried after dark with only a glowing brand to light the sacred ceremony" (page 123). This further enriches the idea that relates titles to social status and characterization. Unoka, unlike Ezeudu, had no titles. Which resulted in him dying a rather shameful death as he was left in the evil forest to die there alone.
Those who were old were given a lot of respect by their society. This is because respect is associated with experience, wealth and social status. Assuming that old people have the most experience, and as a result they gained respect. However, the tribe valued achievement and accomplishment more than how much age was concerned. This is determined after perceiving that Okwonko was a fine young warrior in contrast with the respect he gained from his people, as he was an achiever and hardworking.
Women did not play a huge role in society and were only good at raising their husband’s children, thus men with no titles were referred to as women, as they did not play a role in society and deemed to be lazy and unworthy in terms of their social status.
"There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo's village who had three huge barns, nine wives, and thirty children. His name was Nwakibie and he had taken the highest but one title which a man could take in the clan" (page 18-19). This enhances the ideas of titles and success. The more titles an individual has, then the more respect he will earn from his tribe, showing that a character is an accomplished citizen of Umofia.
In conclusion, social status shaped the character’s actions and limited their character traits as discussed in the previous analytical response. As characters were introduced in terms of how many titles each has, then resulting in a creation of an idea surrounding the character and his actions relating to his social status.
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