Author Archives: SIMRAN SHARIF

1. What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

I learned from this story that previously did not know about life in Nazi concentration camps is it is not a good environment and people are not treated well in the concentration camps. They are not provided with food and water to survive and they have a very difficult time in the concentration camps.

2. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?

The significance of the story’s title “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” is it describes the living conditions in concentration camps and how people are treated in the camps, the importance of people’s life and death in the camps.

1. Ultimately, what do you think Gregor’s metamorphosis means?  What does it mean to be transformed into a giant bug?

I think Gregor’s metamorphosis mean is he was not happy with his life and didn’t like how he was treated by his family. It means to be transformed into a giant bug is he wanted to give himself the proper treatment. He couldn’t support his family anymore and he felt hopeless. He became a giant bug to get out of real life that he was living in. Gregor didn’t want to live a miserable life because of his family.

2. How is Gregor’s family transformed in the wake of his metamorphosis?

Gregor’s family transformed in the wake of his metamorphosis by being the one who supports his family. His family were always normal with him. The family was a normal family and he was working very hard to support his family. After Gregor’s transformation, his sister tried to give her support to him. The family was getting separated and being kept away from each other.

The lines that I am analyzing is “For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;”. The line numbers are 49 through 51. The literal meaning of this passage is how is he all alone and he has to figure out how to spend his time all alone. He has to deal with his emotions and his feelings. His feelings are dealing with isolation and lack of taking his own decision. I choose this passage because the stanzas stand out and they show his feelings of isolation. The words I had to look up is inadequacy. Inadequacy means the state or quality of being inadequate; lack of the quantity or quality required.

In “Punishment” Rabindranath Tagore narrates a story about how a women has to deal with struggles to patriarchy. Chandara is being used and tortured with by her husband and the husband’s brother Dukhirum Rai. The husband told Chandara that he will save him after she tells him about her murder. Chandara is getting blamed for killing the older brother’s wife and the older brother doesn’t want his younger brother to be in jail and have a crime. He blames his wife on the murder of the older brothers wife . The article is related to Du Tenth Sinks The Jewel Box In Anger. Du Tenth and Chandara as ignored by their partner,  and they chose death to show their disappointment of being together with each other. The authors are trying to show that the feeling of sorrow because women’s can’t escape from the control of men’s. Women are being used for as objects and being used for to get the work done. In both of the articles it’s showing that that people died and there are similarities between the two stories.

Leo Tolstoy “Death Of Ivan Ilyich” talks about the experiences with life and death. The life of Ivan had lived a good life. Ivan’s death was unexpected and it taught Ivan about his life and also him as a person. People are so into people’s business and not their own business and comparing themselves to other people. In the story it states that we shouldn’t live with the thoughts of people we should live within ourselves. You will never get the happiness and the truth of life. Ivan experiences the feeling of separation and sickness, life is full of purposes and a meaningful life. Leo Tolstoy shows how reality is very depressing and sad and it is very painful and also disturbing life and death be. Tolstoy is showing that it is not easy to find the true people and we are living in not good situations and could change us as people. The extent I am able to sympathize with Ivan’s suffering is he feels lonely and has no one to be around with and he feels depressed. The lessons Tolstoy’s work hold for us is people go through changes and their emotions changes as a person. This story “Death of Ivan Ilyich” made me realize that not to compare myself with other people and to focus on things that are important to me.

The written and the film version of Hedda Gabbler are very different from each other. The TV series shows more scenes and it makes it feel very realistic. The book is just the written acts of the play and doesn’t show much when reading and it takes time to picture what is being read. The book doesn’t show as much as imagery that the TV series shows and it can be pictured very well. When reading the book, it takes a while to picture what is being read and in the TV series you can visualize the scene by watching it. The book and the TV series have  huge differences when it comes to representation and visualization. We might view the film as an interpretation of Ibsen’s original text is the tv series has more imagery representation than the book itself. It is hard to understand the text when reading because you can’t picture exactly what’s going on in the text. In the movie you can easily picture what is going on in the play by watching it.

A quotation that I choose from the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas that had a strong impression on me is “After a patient waiting, I got one of our city papers, containing an account of the number of petitions from the north, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the States. From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionist, and always drew near when that word was spoken, expecting to bear something of importance to myself and fellow-slaves. ” This quotation stood out to me because the people were waiting for petitions to get signed to stop slavery and handed the petitions to Washington DC to put an end to slavery. Frederick Douglas was fighting for abolition to end slavery permanently and he was fighting for his slaves and giving them the rights they deserve. This passage adds to our understanding of slavery is slavery was a difficult time in history and people just worked days and night as slaves in very bad conditions. The literary style Frederick Douglas uses in this reading is diction and syntax by describing the horrible conditions of being a slave and the tone of how the slaves were feeling and how hard it was for them being slaves. When I was reading the reading I can picture in my head the slaves working in bad conditions. The reading contains a lot of imagery by describing how the slaves are feeling and how their slave owner was treating them as slaves. He wants the reader to understand the slaves working conditions and it is not easy being a slave.

I choose the poem “London” by William Blake. The title of the poem drew me to select the poem “London”. A pair of lines that seems meaningful to me is In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. These pair of lines mean that he sees pain in people’s eyes and the fears and tears in newborn babies. Everyone in the city of London is placed on restriction by law based on the population. William Blake can understand the feelings of people of being abused in the city life. The theme of the poem “London” is the city London is a dark and miserable place.

The image and the poem work together by it is describing the city of London which is very depressing and miserable. The city London is a dark place and the people are being abused in the city. I see in the image that I have selected that helps me understand the poem fully is the young child helping the old men and guiding him to a place.  In the poem it talks about is the first stanzas it talks about I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet. The speaker is talking about meeting and seeing someone in the city of London.

The ideas stuck with me from today’s class is the earth is controlled by god and the nature and beauty of the earth in the universe.

I did not understand some of the wording in the poem and it was difficult to understand the meaning of what the poem tried to say while reading the poem.

Class went well for me I learned a lot of definition of word in the poem I didn’t know about in today’s class. The factors that contributed to this is the words were not easy to understand in the poem and had difficulty trying to understand the word and their meaning.

Pope’s poem is connected to scientific revolution and/or the Enlightenment is it is focused on the physical world and how it is related to god. It is related to Enlightenment by mental and physical actions and how it is related to man.

My ideas about scientific exploration is science plays a big role in Enlightenment  and the rules of basic  scientific ideas and scientific rules. No, they aren’t boundaries science shouldn’t cross science can cross any boundaries.

One line that has made an impression on me from “An Essay on Man” is See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth.  It resonates about me is I like to vision everything with my eyes of the beauty of nature and the world.  I like to visualize my surroundings and the beauty that comes with the universe and the earth.