Author Archives: YESSENIA GUERRA

As we can observe, there has been an extreme amount of change in the world with many advances in technology that make a shift in the appearance of items. Although these advances may seem as normal, there are also other people who might believe that change is not so good and that keeping things as how they were originally might be better, to keep it “traditional”. As we saw on Salih’s story, the Doum Tree of Wad Hamid was a treasured and for as many times as the government could try to take over the space and install advances, they were hesitant and resisted to that change. The message that this story was trying to portray was that it is more important to stick to the roots of tradition and to keep the tradition going than to install some new advancements that will perhaps have people leaving town for something more modern. As it was said in the passage, the villagers did not travel unless it was something necessary because there was no need and it was extremely difficult to do so, therefore, by giving them a clearer passage to travel they will not be able to move out and forget their origin instead they will stay where they are and try to maintain it as traditional as they can.

Do you think that Gregor is more powerful BEFORE or AFTER his metamorphosis?  Explain your response.

• I believe that Gregor is more powerful before his metamorphosis as we can see in the text, Gregor’s mom saying “You know that boy has nothing but work in his head” that it explains Gregor’s life which was focused on helping his family financially. By being the financial help and the only one working and supporting in the household it makes him the head of the house which is why he is a lot more powerful before his transformation.

Look at the final paragraph of the story. How does it shape or alter our understanding of the text?

• At the end of this story, we see how the family has moved on from their lives after Gregor’s death. It reads “…they thought it was about time to find a suitable husband for her. And it felt like a confirmation of their new dreams and their fond intentions…” which is explaining the next steps coming up for Grete as she is no longer a child but a woman. Due to this change, Grete’s parents are expecting to find her a ‘suitable’ husband for her in the sense that he can take care of her financially and of course can also support her parents since they lost the big help of Gregor due to his metamorphosis.

As I was completing “Punishment” by Rabindranath Tagore, I realized there was a similarity in the style of writing compared to that of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”. The style of writing seemed very detailed which stands out in the era of Literary Realism in the sense that the characters are not “flat” and are described in great detail giving each one a backstory. The description in each character can bring a sense of better understanding to the reader to understand the person and also their actions that play a role in the story. For example, in Ibsen’s story, we see how the main 4 characters were described greatly giving us an imaginary idea of how they look like, how they might dress, and how they might act. Similarly, in Tagore’s short story we see the description of the characters including the sisters in law which also gives us the sense that they do indeed contrast in many senses as they have different attributes. Because these pieces of writings are from the 19^th century we can see that great addition of details in the story as a complementary way of adding more complex and flawed scenes that will intensify the reader by engaging and intriguing which is something we see in both Tagore’s “Punishment” and Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, when Douglass was older he was learning how to read and once he got caught, his master said “…if you teach a nigger (speaking of Douglass) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.” These words meant greatly to Douglass as it gave him an idea on what education will do to a slave. By having education and learning of the world outside of the field, slaves would have been able to join together into the abolitionist movement but due to the fact that these masters would be ignorant to let an African American learn and educate themselves, all of this was prohibited and limited until there were some that actually were able to take the matter into hands. Douglass was one of the lucky ones to have a headstart in the understanding of what it meant to be educated in times like these. By learning how to read and how to write, these vulnerable humans would understand their rights and of the exploitation that they were receiving from their masters. “It would forever unfit him to be a slave” this brings back the idea that Douglass realized that being a slave was not something he wanted to do forever, and eventually he felt like physically he would keep being a slave because of his skin color but in reality in his mind, he was moving on and trying to feel freedom.

The philosophical work “An Essay on Man” by Alexander Pope personally felt like a challenging reading in which I did not grasp the main points of part of the reading. However, during the class time spent talking about this poem, I got to understand most of what Alexander Pope was trying to portray. The main idea from this reading I found very interesting was that we, as humans, ignore faith and leave everything to hope. Hope has become a routine and just living life as it comes without knowing what is coming next because if we had any idea of what the future holds then there will be no excitement nor experiences vivid in our lives which we can go back to in the future and remember as anecdotes. The change in the era in which this reading takes place is essential as it is when the world shifts from believing that everything is happening because of God to the whole era of the Enlightenment, where people are starting to find the reason behind it all. During this shift in time, it is important to bring back the idea that how can one believe in God when injustice and evil exist which is a point that Alexander Pope brings. The Scientific era was able to bring reasons and proper judgment as to why things are the way they are, that even when God exists, there will be injustice and evil throughout. The last point that stuck to me from this poem, was the idea of ‘pride’ and its relation to nature. Pope goes on to list earthquakes and many of the natural disasters that exist on earth and how people decide to go on and blame this on God because humans are full of pride and would rather have someone to blame rather than take the fault for themselves. I would like to assume that this reading made people realize all the faults humans have and how that affects the earth and the way that the scientific era impacted the world in making more sense behind the actions.