Courage

Speaking of courage seems to portray courage as self-sacrifice, or the willing to do so, to save another human being. Bowker of course has not shown true courage, because although he attempted to save Kiowa, this did not occur while he was in danger. As soon as he himself was in immediate danger from the mortars, he let Kiowa drown in the muck. I think this can be contrasted with “The Man I Killed,” wherein the main character kills a man against his own will to save his life. Kiowa, in this scene, consoled the main character by saying that he had to do what he had to do, and in “Speaking of Courage,” Kiowa dies because Bowker, who was going to save him, abandoned him for his own life, as the person in “The Man I Killed” killed the Vietnamese man to save his own life.

I think that this a great, honest portrayal of what it means to be brave. There were no courageous acts in this section of the story, but there was a lack thereof that clearly defined bravery.

Christmas, by Tilak

This blog does a great job of fulfilling the elements of story telling. It has a lot of onomotopoeia, which should be noted. The blog discusses the events of a Tamil family on Christmas Day. The author discusses the fun he had that day. He received a Christmas gift from his parents, a game called "RATCHET: DEADLOCKED." He liked the game, and he continued to got through the rest of his gifts. The family settled down to a game of "CRANIUM", which they played until 10:00pm. The kids were to clean the house as a consequence of playing it, but instead of cleaning the house they stuffed the items that were to be cleaned under their beds. After a fun night of game playing, the author's mother discovered his sinister method of putting his things away.

I did a problem with this memoir; it constantly used big words in an unnecessary, unfitting, banal way that one could tell was very foreign to the author's vocabulary. Nonetheless, it had constant onomotopoeia that caused the memoir to resemble a story that is spoken, as opposed to written.

The Vietnam War

Communism is indeed one of the most dangerous and horrible political ideologies, not as bad as Anarchy but certainly worse than Fascism. And so it should be no surprise that when outbreaks of Communism arose in North Vietnam, ant-Communist forces came to the defense of righteousness.

In 1954, the Geneva Accords partitioned Indochina in twain. The north was ruled by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, and the South was ruled by a democratic government under Ngo Dinh Diem. In 1959, Communist guerrilla forces began to harm the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. deployed military advisors and began training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). A Vietnamese torpedo boat attacked the USS Maddox. Congress gave permission to President Lyndon B. Johnson to conduct military operations against North Vietnam on August 10, 1964, and by March 2, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were deployed, marking the beginning of the U.S. ground war. That same day, the U.S. began airstrikes against North Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder. By November 1st of 1968, the air campaign had failed, and after the Tet Offensive, where Communist forces pushed deep into South Vietnam with little military success, American public opinion turned against the war. U.S. involvement ended in 1973.

Langston Hughes blog

Langston Hughes criticizes in this poem the inequality of the American Dream. He criticizes the alleged racism, imperialism, and nativism that has kept blacks, aboriginals and immigrants from reaching success when they immigrating to this country. The poem shows “the other side of the story” as far as American success goes. It mentions white immigrants, form Ireland and Poland and other lands, and how they are discriminated against, even thought their ultimate goal is to be a successful American. This is contrasted with the success of English American Protestants, especially wealthy ones, and the greater amount of acceptance they are given in this country. The poem is read from the eyes of poverty-stricken minorities, and it criticizes not necessarily the American Dream, but it’s failure to be equally applied to all.

I do not necessarily agree with Hughes’ criticism of the inequality of the American Dream. A productive society has a sense of structure and order. Hughes seems to yearn for a nation that lacks order, and is full of complete equality, i.e. a socialist state. He also criticizes things that are simple facts of nature; the dog-eat-dog nature of this country is a great example of such a thing. In nature, animals devour to survive. A realistic worldview would reveal the horror of the world we live in, and would show to Langston the impossibility of complete economic equality. I do agree with his criticism of poor working conditions, but he must realize that nature has it’s own hierarchy; Hughes cannot simply supplant this hierarchy. While Lagnston demands a pluralistic society, he never looks at the viewpoints of such men as Booker T. Washington, who believe that different groups can work perfectly amongst themselves. If Mexican, Oriental, Middle-Eastern, and European immigrants, as well as African-Americans and aboriginals are discriminated against, they ought to unify amongst themselves. As for the poor, they deserve to be treated right, but it would be foolish to expect a prosperous society with complete social equality. Socialist states were, and today are, surely not as prosperous as nations with free, competitive markets. In conclusion, I say that Hughes is correct in his demand for respect of groups in society, and different ethnic groups do deserve opportunity. However, he must bear in mind the dangers of Marxist economic principles.

Great Gatsby reenactment: Gatsby's first reencounter with Daisy

From the perspective of Jay Gatsby:

"I certainly am awfully glad to see you again," said Daisy. I was surprised by my reaction to this, which was not one of joy because she express to me how she missed me, but rather one of distress i her initiation of a conversation. A silenced endured as I leaned against a mantel piece which bore a clock. I feigned ease as I did so, my head touched the clock that lay upon the mantel piece. 

"We've met before," I muttered. I looked at Nick, and I was tempted to laugh a gilded laugh and feign humor, but I could not. I realized the situation I was in, talking to the girl I loved, and I forgot Nick was there. I caught the horrid clock as it almost fell to the ground, and I rested it back its place. I heard, but ignored, Nick's statement that it was an old clock; time still progress regardless of the age of it's instruments. "We haven't met in years," said Daisy. I responded almost automatically, saying "five years next November, and realizing the awkwardness of such an automatic response I quieted myself. I paid no regard to the cupcakes and tea brought into the room, and walked into a shadow as Nick and Daisy spoke. We looked about wearily, and soon Nick left the room. I was alarmed, and I followed him out of the room. I explained to him the disaster that this meeting had turned into, but he only said that it was because I was embarrassed, as was Daisy. I urged him to quiet down, but he told me that I was acting as though I were a little boy, and very rude, for leaving my guest in the room by herself. I did not even want to hear what he had to say, and I left the kitchen to go back to the room, where Daisy sat on the couch. I looked at Daisy. She was beautiful, and she reminded me of the extravagant man I was. I would not her go simply due to the awkwardness of the moment. 

Bond of the Republic-The American Dream.

The article that I read was entitled: The American Dream-Is it slipping away? by Gregory Rodriguez, writing for the Los Angeles Times on September 27th of 2010. It discusses the prevalence of the dream among Americans, and what exactly it means. The article defined the dream as the acquisition of prosperous fruits from intense labors. I indeed do have trouble connecting the article to the Great Gatsby; in the novel, the American dream seems to be fake and unwanted. With the exception of Jay Gatsby, the aristocrats are an annoying, silly people consumed in vice. The article, however, focusses on statistics regarding the dream; minorities believe in the dream more than whites, the educated more so than the non-educated, and so on. The Great Gatsby continues to denounce the behavior of the wealthy, which is very phony and barbaric. Nick constantly deals with rich people that hardly seem human, such as Myrtle. At least this my interpretation. The article does bear a similarity with the novel in that it has some sort of sympathy for the poor, recognizing that they do not believe much at all in the American Dream. As well, it points out the current decline in such a dream, which is similar to the novel's complete denunciation of it as unrealistic.