“‘Pick up your child, woman!’ ‘It’s not mine, sir not mine!’ she shouts hysterically and runs on, covering her face with her hands. She wants to hide, she want to reach those who will not ride the trucks, those who will go on foot, those who will stay alive. ”

• In this particular section in the story a late shipment of jews come into the camp and the people are being evacuated from the train. What is important of these prisoners is that some know the drill of if you go on the car they will take you to die but if they take you by foot then you will live. The woman that gets off this train tries to catch up to the group that will be walking to camp and leaves her screaming child behind.
• This particular example stood our to me because the bond between a mother and child is thought to be one that is unbreakable and may stories have been written of acts in which the mother would gladly give up her own life for her child’s, while in this one it seems to be the complete opposite.
• Its significance is that shows the lengths that one will go to in order to try and survive, letting go of all ties that make us human such as love.
• Is self preservation so important, that we are willing to abandon what make us human?

The poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot is about a man that does not have confidence in himself. He has doubts about approaching women because of appearance  as it can be seen in “They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin?'” (41) in which he assumes how they will immediately talk about his thinning hair. He is a character with low self esteem and many doubts.

In the poem the line that capture his doubts more are ” To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;  There will be time to murder and create/ A time yet for a hundred indecision, And for a hundred visions and revisions” (27-28, 32-33) in which demonstrate how he envisions having to portray this made up face that he could “murder” and  recreate, imagining many scenarios in his mind and revising them time after time. These quotes capture the doubt that Prufrock has about himself and how his low self esteem are what drive his indecisiveness . Another line that very much shows how low Prufrock  self esteem is when he states ” I have heard the mermaids singing each to each, I do not think they will sing to me” this is important because according to greek mythology mermaid sang to handsome men, this capture how he believes that he is not attractive enough to be sung to by the mermaids.

This is a difficult poem to read  and the drastic changes make it harder to understand that why I have these questions.

1. Why does Prufrock choose to focus on the yellow cat?
2. Why does he focus so much on his physical appearance?
3. Why the reference to Michael Angelo?

In the play for Hedda Gabler there is very little room for interpretation with so much being written as far as describing how the set looks and the movements of the characters. With so much detail in the play of how the character is so supposed to move and what he is suppose to say it is quite easy to get an image of how the character where to look and act if it were to be adapted in to film. When watching the film small details that do not follow the text can be spotted such as changes in the lay out of the set. These are very small changes that does not seem to take away from the story, but there are some acting choices that when reading the play you envisioned a certain way but was acted differently that sometimes strengthens the idea you have a particular character. For example the relationship between Tesman and his aunt Miss Juliane Tesman when reading it in the beginning I interpreted their first official reunion to be one in which Tesman was not so happy, because he in the text it gives the directions of Tesman “shaking his aunts hands” which gives out in impression of being cold and informal but in the movie he greets her with open arms and a kiss hello. With this small change of direction for me it changed the entire relationship between the two to be one of genuine love instead of this confused vision that i had of him being concerned for his aunt and not to thrilled with her being there. Another action change that although subtle gives a bigger impact than words is when the first meeting between Aunt Tesman and Hedda with Tesman present in the text both Tesman and his aunt are speaking about Hedda and how fortunate he feels about his marriage and he see Hedda coming from afar and acknowledges her presence. While in the film when Hedda is coming down the stairs and she sees Tesman and his aunt she attempts to walk in a different direction but is seen by Aunt Julie and is obligated to make conversation with them. This change in direction here strengthens the image of dislike or discomfort that Hedda has towards Aunt Julie and it shoes how a small change in direction can enhance the text.

1. While reading the two excerpts from Harriet Jacobs I saw a relationship between them and the Frederick Douglas narrative when speaking about being a child of slavery. In Harriet Jacobs excerpts it focus more on the time when she was a slave and the things she did in order to protect her children and to try and give them a better future. In Frederick Douglas narrative he empathizes with the slave owner in the understand on to why they get rid of the child that was conceived with the slave, but in Harriet because of this reason she goes to great lengths to try and protect her children from that specific fate. Something that always surprises me when reading these narratives from the perspective of the slave is how hard they are to judge their supposed misconducts while yet lessening that of the slave owners. “With all these thoughts revolving in my mind, and seeing no other way of escaping the doom I so much dreaded, I made a headlong plunge. Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader!” is a quote that stands out to me, because although she is a slave and is put in situation that are completely unthinkable to put another human being, she decides to take advantage of a situation that could favor her but it require doing something that she is not proud of and because of this she instead asks for forgiveness from the reader ashamed for what she is confessing to. She does later explain how because she was a slave she viewed as necessary because no law was there to protect her but it is quite incredible that she believes that it is necessary to ask for forgiveness for an drastic action that she took in order to try and protect her children.
2. Although slavery has been made illegal in our laws for many years it still exists and it is very much known through out our world. One misconception that I found to be quite important is that we believe slavery is more a third world or foreign problem when in reality it is a very prominent problem here with in our own country. The average of a young prostitute is 14 years old and they young girls are forced into these jobs because of circumstance as well and physical and psychological threats. A second thing that I learned from this is that the laws that we currently have in place do nothing to very little to try and help this young women, in reality these laws instead of helping and assisting the young girls, punish and ruin any chance they would have had to try and leave the vicious cycle of slavery. The last thing I learned from this subject is that we have this view of slavery of just being someone who is forced to do manual labor and although that still exists in the world such as in african in the Blood Diamonds mining fields or Dubai with the people who work for no pay, Slavery is much more than just that such as sex trafficking and forced marriage. It is important to not just make the act of slavery illegal but t reform our laws to try and assist all that fall victim to these forms of slavery instead of punishing and further ensuring them into their captures grasps.

“They are, in the first place, a constant offense to their mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of showing to his mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his naked back; and if he lisps one word of disapproval, it is set down to his parental partiality, and only makes bad matter worse, both for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend.”(pg 237)

In chapter one of the narrative we are being introduced to Frederick Douglas up bringing and the memories he has of when he was a child. In the passage it describes the life of a young slave, which just happens to have the misfortune of being a mulatto child. This means a child that is of mixed race. In this specific section of chapter one, it illustrates how a child in this circumstance would suffer and struggle in his life if he were to stay living the plantation from which his mother (the slave) and his father (the master) were both originally from.

I would like to agree with the analysis that my fellow classmate Mikayla made and add a surprising choice of words that are were used to describe this horrible situation. Although understandable the feeling of disdain that the mistress feels towards the mulatto child, it is surprising how much empathy is felt when Fredrick is describing how the father is “compelled to sell his slave”. This is quite important because the specific word used is “compelled”  which gives the slave master a more human side to what initially thought to be soulless. He even goes as far as justifying the masters actions stating that it is a “dictate of humanity” to get ride of the child in order to save him from what would be his impending torture if he were to stay. This is a astonishing way to describe his capturer predicament in which he choose to sympathize with the master rather then condemning him for sending him away. This passage in particular moved me because from all the atrocities that he has suffered in such a short time to be able to say that he understands why such horrible choice were made in order to protect him, is a great sign of character.

In this story we are placed in the setting of Orgon’s home, with his family which is made up of his wife Elmire, his two kids Damis and Mariane and his wife’s maid Dorine. In his home a new guest is creating tension with in the family and that guest’s name is Tartuffe. He is a religious man that Orgon brought into his home to stay with him and the two have developed a relationship which Orgon sees Tartuffe as his soul’s savior. This strong bond is made very clear when Orgon is confronted by Cleante, his brother in law, on his sudden and drastic change in behavior. Orgon responds to those accusation with ” Yes, I was changed after I talked to him. I saw my wants and needs as just a whim…The world, and you and me, well it’s all dung…He taught me to love nothing and no one! Mother, father, wife, daughter son – They could die right now, I’d feel no pain.” this clearly demonstrates the faith that Orgon has in Tartuffe teachings. So much so that when told that his wife was sick and near death in his absences, Orgon main concern towards the well being of Tartuffe, and when informed of how Tartuffe was well fed and in good health in a sarcastic manner he would respond with “poor man”. Orgon could see no flaw in Tartuffe and felt appreciative of how he has helped him become this new man in his life, ignoring the warnings of his family and dismissing them as jealousy.

Tartuffe was a charismatic liar that knew exactly how to prey upon Orgon feelings, although he could not fool the entire family, it was a not a necessary to do so. He deceived Orgon by playing the character of the humble preacher that was a victim to his faith. A poor man that only cared for the well being of those that are around him. His intentions become very clear when Orgon informs him of how he will become his sole heir, and he does not reject this gift instead saying ” Whatever heaven wants I can’t oppose” showing how money and material possessions are important to him. He finally betrays Orgon by trying to bed his wife, and Tartuffe shows his true colors by trying to take control of his house which Orgon gave him the deed and also trying to in prisoning him.

The relationship between Orgon and Tartuffe could be dismissed as an extreme, when in reality in our current history we have many examples of something similar. Cults have a reputation of brainwashing their victims with religious salvation, we picture extremes like the Manson family or the Havens Gate cult which murdered people and themselves by following their leaders orders. This strong devotion could be seen in the relationship between Orgon and Tartuffe but was only broken when seeing with his own eyes of the tertiary that was about to be committed did Orgon break free from this spell.

Hello Everyone,

My name is Ismael Ramirez, I just recently transferred from BMCC after completing my associates degree in Business Administration this past summer session. I was born and raised here in New York City and although born in the Bronx I have resided most of my life in Manhattan. My family immigrated from Ecuador and I am a first generation American. I studied for two years in Ecuador , I speak fluent Spanish but I still tend to struggle with my writing and reading skills. My current major is Accounting and I hope to graduate by the year 2018. Apart from school I work the night shift in UPS, meaning my days start a bit early than the average person and my nights are still when the sun is out. This has made it quite difficult to find a lot of time for the normal college lifestyle since I am in bed usually by 6pm. After reading some of my fellow classmates introduction, I now consider myself quite lucky to be able to come to class with just about a 30 to 45 minute commute.

Leisure reading has not been something that I enjoy doing very often since most of my reading have been because the text are required for class. Although recently to not fall asleep on my train rides to work, I have attempted to pick up reading again and have struggled to find a book that I enjoy enough to try and finish. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Color of Water by James McBride are two books that I have recently read and have captured my attention enough to read them to completion. What I hope to gain from this class is a better understanding of the literature and try to find a genre that could resonate with me as a reader, as well as improving my writing since it is something that I have struggled with in the past. I hope to get to know all of you during our class discussions and help one another grow as scholars.