Speaking of Courage

Reading this chapter, the word courage doesn't exactly come to mind. I believe choosing to call this chapter, "Speaking of Courage", was a way to lighten the tension, like the way he decided to start his story.

"Let me tell you about the time I almost won the Silver Star."

It's maybe used to brush aside the event as 'not a big deal'. Similar to the way they use military slang to degrade somethings of their emotional value. It's contradictory  that the chapter is called this because war stories can usually be seen as full of valor and soldiers sacrificing themselves for each other. In this story it's not the case, it's about how a veteran deals with the death of his comrade and consequently, himself.

The name of the chapter can be seen as ironic to what we usually expect from war stories. It's used to show how soldiers may deal with tension by making a situation lighter. When Ted Lavender died, they didn't grieve his death or have a good-bye ceremony but instead they smoked his drugs. They don't allow themselves to show any form of emotion because it breaks this whole idea that they're supposed to be tough and unbreakable killing machines.

Memoir Critique

The memoir I selected was Brown Bear: My Childhood Friend.

I really enjoyed this memoir because it brings up my own childhood memories, I remember when I was about 6 and I also had a stuffed bear that I carried around with me, it was a best friend to me and as I grew up I moved on to other things, I outgrew my bear and this memoir personifies the bear a little and depicts as a lonely soul and it made me feel a little sad. The narration is realistic, everybody, in my opinion, should be able to relate to the narration and have some form of nostalgia.

The narration is innocent at first and meant to evoke some nostalgia of our favorite childhood toys and it did that for me, I also remember throwing my bear at a fan and pretending he was flying and much to my mom's displeasure, feeding him baby food. 

In the end, the message is that not all things are forever, but it's good to treasure them in our memories. We'll always grow and our interests and desires will change as well and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The author does a good job of reflecting back on their memory realistically and with good insight.

"America never was America to me."

"America never was America to me."
The America Hughes describes in the past tense is not the land that the Constitution claims it would be but rather it's a land where the rich take advantage of the poor and the rich only get richer. Lagston Hughes is describing how America never was the land of the free or opportunity but he does state it's possible for it to be changed into the land shaped around the American Dream.
"Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love."

The America Hughes calls for is a land of true opportunity where the average working man has opportunity, freedom and a chance at happiness. When he says: "I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-" He's giving voice to the entire African American population and saying that this is what they all want. A chance to rise, to live comfortably and financial security.
The overall tone of the poem feels like a critique of America and where it is now, displeased with the America that has arisen, nothing close to what was promised in the Constitution. There is also a tone of hopefulness in parts of the poem, hope that America can be a land of liberty and equality. The criticism comes from the fact that while the rich can always get richer, the poor only get poorer. There is currently no equality in the America we have now.

In relation the Great Gatsby, there's a warning in Myrtle, Gatsby and George's death: if you work for the American Dream... you will end up dead. Gatsby serves as an example that only dishonest work will rise you up in American society and even then... you'll end up dead in your pool one day. Hughes says that while these people have worked so hard to achieve equality and freedom they are still the ones suffering the most, unable to move anywhere socio-economically.

I agree with Hughes because the poor only get poorer, it's an overused statement but it's true, the rich control everything and this only leads to a profit on their part. The poor struggle to feed their families while the rich completely spoil themselves.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a civil war between the north and south regions of Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was the U.S's opposition to the spread of communism, the U.S had a fear that if South Vietnam turned into a communist country then the surrounding countries would follow (the domino theory), until Asia was a giant communist landmass.
Why did the U.S get involved at all? The Truman doctrine states that the U.S assists all countries resisting communism.

After World War II, the French invaded and took control of Vietnam, this caused a disruption of peace in the lifestyle of the Vietnamese. At the time, Communists were hoping to spread their ideals onto smaller, weaker countries and took advantage of the despair.

The Great Gatsby Through the Eyes of George Wilson

“Beat me!” Myrtle cried. “Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!

After a brisk moment she ran from me, she was waving her arms madly and before I could do anything she was gone. It didn't stop, it was gone as fast as it came, like a phantom out of nowhere. 

Michaelis hurried to her and I could only watch as they checked the pulse on her, the car had mutilated her body beyond belief and I could no longer look. It felt like my life was over and the end was somewhere near.

-------

After a while, a crowd had gathered consisting of policemen and those with an insatiable curiosity for gossip or news.
"....and let's have your name. Look out now. i want to get his name," said the policeman. I knew the type of car, the yellow blur had reconstructed itself in my memory.
"You don't have to tell me what kind of car it was! I know what kind of car it was!"
Tom came over and in a comforting way he put his arms on my shoulders.
"You've got to pull yourself together," I didn't know his gruff character could manage a gentle word, much less a phrase and I let myself go for a second.
"Listen," said Tom, he was shaking me. " I just got here a minute ago from New York. i was you that coupe we've been talking about. That yellow car I was driving this afternoon wasn't mine - do you hear? I haven't seen it all afternoon."

The American Dream Today

The American Dream these days is much harder to pursuit, it not only takes an education or a skill but rather some luck it seems. Some people out of college are having it so bad that they have to move in directly to their parents' house because of the lack of jobs the economy is providing. The unemployment for our youth (14%) is reaching the levels it once had during the Great Depression.
It seems that these numbers are so discouraging or most people do not even want to give pursuit to their American Dream that 23% have not even tried looking for work. Despite these harsh numbers a lot remain optimistic about their future, the promise of a piece of their own American Dream is close.
This promise of independence, before easily achieved has become it's own part in the American Dream because of how elusive it is. It's come to the point where other people have to hold your hand or give you a little push so that you can make it.
This relates to the Great Gatsby because we see the same struggle in George, in my opinion he represents a working man that the American Dream has let down and so he has to continuously wait for Tom to give up his car so that George can profit from it. He's lost part of this independence in pushing George to sell him his car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html

Music Review - Handle Bars

For my music review, I choose a popular song, but I feel is still sort of hidden. It's called 'Handlebars' by Flobots from the album Fight with Tools.

Immediately, the song starts off with what seems a playful boasting, "I can ride my bike with no handlebars," but it seems to escalate to some more complex things that still seem something one might be able to do. Then it takes a dramatic turn and the song portrays the power a single individual can have and how it's up to that individual to decide how he manages this power, 

"I can hand out a million vaccinations or have 'em all die from exasperation."

For me, it's all about the individual and how he/she has enough power and potential to change how the world is and not necessarily in a good way.

The vocals are what drives the song, seemingly it starts out innocently with what might seem like some kid showing off and the voice gets powerful when the issues turn serious, almost to the point of yelling. The instrumentals are also very adequate to the song and add to the strong message it succeeds in portraying, increasing in dynamic when the vocalist gets to the stronger message and decreasing to almost nothing when it's just showing off.

The message is incredible and haunting and it's one song I always find myself coming back to. Easily 10/10.

My Winter Poem

On Christmas

Deep within the entity of Christmas

Within the wintry jingles

And the cartoon specials,

Within the bright lights

And crushed expectations on Christmas morning,

Within the commercialization

And the jolly red goliath created to crush the common man

Within all this,

Lies the spirit

Of what Christmas really is,

The warmth of togetherness

and the love that shines through,

Which all the materialism in the world

Cannot hope to vanquish

The Great Escape

When Catcher in the Rye came out it was met by a wave of disapproval from parents and was a target for censors, many parents would not agree with the rebellious nature of Holden. Many parents felt that it would be a negative impact on kids, perhaps inspiring rebellion.Today, it's highly revered and sells over 250,000 copies a year. The view on the book doesn't seem to have changed much, there will always be people who fight for censorship and those who fight against it. Older reviews seem to show a favorable disposition but people felt that it was a bit monotonous, Holden always seemed to be saying or doing the same stuff.

Well it seems the reason that J.D Salinger became a hermit because he was trying to protect himself from the people who felt it was their right to have more books from him, he's trying to protect his privacy.Many have tried to seek out J.D Salinger and so he sought recluse for himself, which the people in his community seem to respect.

In popular culture, Holden can be found anywhere. More recently, there was a whole South Park episode which argued that people were reading too much into Catcher in the Rye and has inspired numerous songs. If you hear or look around you're probably going to find some reference to Holden.

Holden

We've talked quite a lot about Holden and have delved into his mind to further understand him. We know that he doesn't like phonies and appreciates things that are more real, like the books by his brother D.B, before he went into Hollywood. He holds a deep resentment for the movies, they make a person believe  He blames society for this at times, giving too much credit to those that they believe are good, the person doesn't understand when they're good or not like Ernie or the people in the play.

Holden is very lonesome and in a difficult time of his life, when he gets off the train he's at a loss for who to call. It seems that no one's there for him and in a difficult time for him too, he's constantly thinking about suicide and is depressed.

Holden sees himself as a protector of that which is corrupt, he protects the people he's placed up in his pedestal and tries to preserve them. When he's at the museum, he thinks to himself that some things should stay like the things behind the glass windows, unchanged. For this reason, I think he gets really 'peculiar' when Sunny says "like fun you are," I feel that he's reminded of innocence and going through with it would be corrupting the very innocence he stands for. The very same things happen when Stradlater goes out with Jane, he gets angry and nervous for Jane and feels it his duty to protect her. I also think this is why Allie's important to him, Allie's death caused him to be unchanged by society, they didn't get to ridicule him for his baseball mitt with the poems and so he was preserved in Holden's mind.

My Red Hunting Hat

Literally, a red hunting hat is used to distinguish yourself from the deer so that the other hunters won't mistake and shoot you, well let's move into the metaphorical meaning.
Holden finds pride in his wearing his hat, it's something that has become a part of who he is, feeling like some sort of hunter among the phonies or to let the 'real' people know he's there or maybe looking for those who don't "fake" their way around life. I feel that he also uses it when he's had a shift in emotions or thoughts, such as when he playfully held Stradlater in a half-nelson or when he felt nervous about Stradlater going out with Jane Gallagher. It's almost like a 'tell', an action (even a minuscule one) that people can use to know that you're lying.

Another interpretation to the hunting hat is an item that brings Holden some level of safety, maybe feeling that he has more power than he really does. In this case, everyone might have their own hunting hat, some charm, item or even thought that makes them feel in control.

I can't say that I'm too sure what my own red hunting hat is maybe it's the smile you use to distinguish yourself to people, to let them know that you're a friend or a frown to let people know 'I'm not in the mood to deal with you". It's not my best interpretation so enjoy this hat instead.

Themes in the Road

In 'The Road', Cormac McCarthy gives hints to things that are no more but in our everyday lives, some might feel they couldn't live without. In an interview he says, "...be more appreciative. Life is pretty damn good, even when it looks bad, and we should appreciate it more. We should be grateful. I don't know who to be grateful to, but you should be thankful for what you have.”
When the Man and the Boy stop at the bomb shelter, we see a glimpse of our own world, hygienics, toys, food (at the amount we are accustomed to) and safety. All these things are priceless in The Road but we too often take them for granted. When asked, people will often cite technology or money as the most important resource in the world, but if the world collapsed, they would both become useless, remnants of the past.
Food is so scarce that people have turned against their innermost morals and eaten their fellow humans but today, we have the opposite problem, people overstuff themselves and have become gluttons. We aren't thankful to have enough to live.
We also need to be thankful for the safety we have, the government will probably crumble and with it, polices, armies and paramedics. People will be forced to fend for themselves on a much greater scale than we do now. Normal ailments may turn deadly, chaos and famine will consume the Earth.

It's good to be thankful, it shows that we understand just how good we have it.

To Bukowski,

Your accounts of what human nature will drive us to do are chilling yet in our times, nearly 40 years laters, easy to relate to. People today live in fear that our destructive nature will lead to some nuke war that the human race will be unable to rebuild from.
You mention a world in so much debt that future generations will suffer and be unable to recover from and the way our government is handling our money, I see this as a possibility. Corrupt people find ways to get a lot of money, by embezzlement or fraud, and leave the poor suffering and very bad off.
In the line, "Radiated robot men will stalk each other,"I see this as a warning to how technology will change us to the point were we lose our humanity. Other people will say this is ridiculous, but technology has been moving at an incredibly alarming rate and at some point people will see it fit to transplant their technology into them to be more productive or efficient. Of course, the prospects for more revenue don't let us slow down and this ties into how human nature (greed) will bring our demise.

Sincerely, Derian E. Avalos

A Father's Love in a Barren Wasteland

In 'The Road', the world has met its demise due to some unexplained, catastrophic event. We experience this horrific world through a boy and his father, both of which remain unnamed. They are going south to some unspecified location, hoping to find warmth.

The world we see if filled with death, fire and evil but the boy has become accustomed to it and despite it all, the father tries to make the boy's life as normal as possible, he reads to the boy and although they are strapped for resources, he leaves the light on as requested by the boy. The father also tries to make new experiences for the boy, which when the boy grows up may be seen as highlights of  his life, such as the moment when his father gave him a Coke or when they both dived into the waterfall. Through some dreams, we also see that the child's mother left them, convinced that the father wouldn't leave the boy. The boy's mother was right, we learn from the man that his main purpose for living is the boy, keeping him alive and being a part of his life. 

In our lives, I think it's very easy to take for granted what our parents have to offer for us: unconditional love and support. Some parents have a hard letting their own kids grow and hold them back from some experiences, which might be for the better. Otherwise, we might grow up getting it all poured on at once and become very overwhelmed. Although, I would say that ignorance is (often) bliss and it's sometimes for the better to not know how bad the world. If you try to look at these things from the eyes of a parent, you want to do the best to preserve some of that ignorance in your child.

The boy's relationship with his dad is heartwarming but it's a bad place for a child to grow up and have to experience things as though they were normal.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

John Proctor... after long debating with myself, I decided on hero. For a hero stands up for what they believe in and does what is right, no matter the consequence (in this case a hanging). He's deciding to die based on principle, telling the church that this is where it ends w/ the sins, no more lies and this may be seen as his attempt to make up for committing adultery with Elizabeth.

We see a man of reason, he's one of the people we see who tries to see the logic in things rather than to jump to the conclusion that there is witchcraft. Proctor tries to show the community that they have done wrong, to little avail. John Proctor sees the wrong in the church and starts breaking away from religion and in my opinion this must be hard (or damning) for a Puritan to decide to break away from this religious norm, he recognizes that what Parris preaches about religion (hell, eternal damnation and such) wouldn't be the way of god.

Dying on principle seems harder than we think it to be, a lot of people would have rather taken the 'easy way' out and gone on with the lie, because of this, I believe that John Proctor is a hero.

Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God!

A lot of people upon looking at the views of the Puritans might consider them guillible or misguided, but it's sort of like the fantasies our parents feed us when we're little kids and we eat them up right up. The God, Jonathan Edwards depicts in his sermon is very remiscent of the boogeyman, the sandman or that one lady who kidnaps kids in a giant bag. They are used to keep people in line (while using fear as their entrance), people don't want to find out what happens if they're wrong.

Except, in this case, it's a whole group of people who believe these teachings without questions. Their beliefs are primitive, in that they use religion to explain everything, a healthy person might be blessed by God while the sick or dying might be of the Devil or punished by God. We may sit here and call them old-fashioned idiots but in various communities back then (and some today) clergy are looked upon as community leaders and their word is unquestionable.

Arrivals... Here Comes the Neighborhood

When two different communities or a community and a family come together, I believe the more influential party may engulf the other. This has happened numerous times during American history in which the second generation of immigrants assimilate to American culture because they're drained of their own culture. In a family, they may attempt to do what is best for them to fit in and you have to adapt to this new environment, is it safe to walk there? Who can't I look in the eye? I wonder what the other parents think of me?

Christopher Columbus has a similar case, he wanted to fuse the other people into his own culture and given  Columbus' presence and the Native American's passivity it seemed like the right conditions for Columbus and his crew to engulf the Native Americans into his own religion - Christianity.

Introduction

Yo, I'm Derian Avalos, I would describe myself as a nerd with a deep fascination to novels, movies or video-games in the science-fiction genre, who doesn't love a good apocalyptic wasteland? I have a deep interest with video games, and hope to grow up to write for a video game or even write my own and go on to write a novel or five.

My parents are always pushing me to do better so that I can have opportunities they didn't, which they pretty much always let me know. I volunteer at a local food pantry every week and hope to be joining Debate soon.

Being a Dolphin is stressful but nevertheless it's a title I feel proud to hold and that is enough to keep me pushing on.