In Kafka’s “The Judgment”, Georg’s friend serves to highlight Georg’s position in life and to complicate his relation with his fiancée and his father. We are told about Georg’s friend but we’re told very little about him, not even his name. We do know that the friend has left his home city for a far-away strange place, Russia, that his business has stagnated, that he has few social connections, seeming to be becoming a bachelor for good, and that he seems to be unhealthy. By contrast Georg is a successful business man who has taken over much of his family business, and he is engaged to be married.

The situation between Georg and his friend is a little strange. The author does not make very clear the relation between Georg and his friend, which is, we are told, both close and distant, so close he cannot tell him about his coming marriage, for instance. When Georg and his fiancée are having a conversation about this, she says to him “I really do feel offended”     (Kafka, 61). There they start arguing about why Georg doesn’t want to tell his friend about his marriage. Georg’s relationship with his friend is disrupting Georg’s life because he can’t decide what to do. Because of Georg’s friend Georg is not only having trouble with his future wife but with his father as well. In one long conversation his father says to Georg, “Do no deceive me. It is a trivial matter, it is not worth wasting one’s breath on, so do not hoodwink me”. (64) One role of the friend in the story makes the reader more anxious to know what is going to happen next. Georg is taking care of his business family and soon will get married with a very eligible young woman. However, his friend is having a difficult life in Russia . Furthermore, Georg’s friend seems to be a imaginary character which make the reader confused and also make the reader to question himself in a way that there are scene that Kafka doesn’t make it understandable.

The story seems to be part of the surrealism because surrealism is “the combination of unrelated images or events in a very strange and dreamlike way”.  Kafka’s surrealism involves a very realistic description of events so strange they could only occurring in a nightmare. The story begins very normally but at the end it ends with a surrealistic ending.

I was observing carefully this collage and all I could see was related with sex. It might be a show of how the society is at this time, or a demonstration of how men only want to have sex with women base on their appearance. Another thing that caught my attention was the way women dress. Sometimes the way people dress it’s the way they will be respected. Today, most women dress “Sexy” but they only are seducing men to have sex with. This collage is a real image of how sex has become a real problem. As we see in the collage, two men are fighting to have the woman and take her to bed.

I learned that by observing your create objective ideas than with words. This activity taught me that images are a way better to understand the concept of something.

Realism and Naturalism

Realism is like “Mirror”. It is basically a way to see the reality, to show exactly what is happening in our environment. Realism is a representation of the middle class. When I say a representation of middle class I refer to those workers like professor lawyers, doctors etc. Those ones who do not really make anything with their hands but are part of the real world. Realism is a technique to see reality from another point of view; it was a way to see things in an objective way. In literature there are huge amount of scientific that use the term Realism to describe things that are happening in the word. A few readings emphasize the idea of realism because shows reality, shows the real effects in the past and now in the present. For example, in “Separate Ways” the author emphasizes the idea of realism with the two main characters, Okyo and Kichizo; both of them are a representation of the lower classes in Japan, an illustration of how lower class has to work day by day in order to bring food to their houses. Furthermore, the author also shows how Japan’s society is. In Japan Lower class people have to choose to do wrong things because they do not have options to go forward and be people with money. For example, Okyo at the end decided to leave her town and work as mistress because her social economic situation was critical. And for Kichizo the only way he can be a wealthy man is by getting married with a wealthy woman. Another reading that is related with the term realism is “Simple heart” by Gustave Flaubert” the author emphasizes the idea of realism with Felicite, the servant. It was an idea of how lower classes in order to survive have to work in anything. It shows the condition of lower class workers. Felicite has to work every day, her paid was low; her living condition is not the best plus she has to work long hours.

On the other hand, Naturalism is the study of natural objects is based on the study that human beings given to the nature. Naturalism is basically how people act according his social economic. For example in “Hedda Gabler” Hedda represents what Naturalism is. She is behaving in a certain way because she coming from a wealthy family. Showing that the way she behaves is largely caused by her wealthy background represent a naturalistic way of looking at the world. Hedda manipulates Tesman, her husband; because she feels she has the power to do that just because she comes from a family with money. All her actions derive from her class position. Ibsen shows how rich people in that time treated lower class people as inferior. She only uses Tesman for stability, not for love.

After Death — Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti in this poem is referring to the value of life. She recalls the man she loved, filled with pity, gazing at her corpse and weeping. 

The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept  And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may  Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,  Where thro’ the lattice ivy-shadows crept. 

In those lines the author does not mention specifically the relation between her and the man. She only describes a floor and bed covered in rushes, and half-covered window, which represents death. The author in these lines is using verbs as swept, strewn and crept to illustrate the setting and to let people know where the scene is taking place. She is using verbs as pitied touch, ruffles, raise and leaned to refer to her man. 

  He leaned above me, thinking that I slept  and could not hear him; but I heard him say:  “Poor child, poor child”: and as he turned away  Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.  He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold  that hid my face, or take my hand in his,  or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head: 

In these lines 

Those lines express the pity her love felt for her, he only showed her affection because she was death. He was those kinds of men who always show love when their love is gone. Moreover, he did not even touch her or held her hands to show how bad he felt, his silence and his actions showed that he didn’t love her. . I think that the only feeling from him to her was pity. A real love will die in tears knowing his love is dead.

  He did not love me living but once dead  He pitied me; and very sweet it is  to know he still is warm tho’ I am cold. 

While she was alive he did not love her, but once she was death he showed pity for her and wanted to show her his love. His sentiments were warmer after her death than during her life. The line of “he still is warm tho’ I am cold. “It can be described in two ways. The first one is telling that while he is alive enjoying life she is in the cold of death. Another meaning is that the author is saying refers to the feelings of both characters he used the word warm as person that is still alive and can feel and cold as person who is dead without feelings. Sometimes people do not show love to those special people. on occasion people only love while they are alive and once they die they want to show affection to them.  People must show what they feel when they are alive because once they pass away they get intact; they don’t feel, see or hear. These lines have a great moral which is…. while people have that special person alive  they have to show affection and not take for granted anything. Life is like a light while is on we enjoy it once it turns off everything is gone and we cannot go back

The right of women by Olympe De Gouges was published in 1791. It talks about how French revolution took off women rights. She explains the differences between women and men rights. De Gouges’ Declaration of the Rights of Women points out that women were subjected to the same injustices that the Declaration of the Rights of Man detailed. De Gouges also lays a structure by which men and women may exist on a more equal basis with her “Form for a Social Contract between Man and Woman.”

The author of this reading is Olympe De Gouges. She is writing this  because for her the French revolution never put attention to women rights; they were only focus on men rights. She also was writing this because she was a woman that cares about female rights and as woman she thought she had to put a stop to the discrimination of women.Writing those articles she made clear of how women needed to be treated.

One of the main arguments of this reading is the equality between women and men. Gouges wanted to show the French government that they both were born equal, that both of them have the right to do the same thing. Things like voting, being president or work in the same place.  As the reading states “Woman, wake up! The tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the universe; recognize your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudice, fanaticism, superstition, and lies. The flaming torch of truth has dispersed all the clouds of folly and usurpation” (27).  Meaning that she wanted to wake women up from that fear , she wanted to let them know that they have to fight for the rights.

the strong part about the reading was that the author had the bravery to fight for women rights and had the declaration of men in her hands as proof that women were discriminated and weren’t treated as men .The weak part was that  Olympe did not have enough potential to keep fighting with the government about the equality of women and men. And also she only mentioned the articles but she didn’t implemented any steps  to reach her  goals.

Yes, it is successful in conveying this message because that’s the only way she had to communicate with those women who were afraid of fighting for their rights. Those articles gave women the brave to fight and to know their rights. That was the best way to let women know that they are free and that as men they have the right of freedom prosperity, security and specially resistance to oppression.

Looking back to 2015 the progress has been huge. Now women are more independent and know exactly what their rights are. Women now can have the same job as men, and not only that, women are treated equally as men. Women now are more successful and more educated, before they did not have the opportunity attend to school. Woman had to stay at home and take care of their family,  now woman can do several things, they can work, study and take care of their family. Because men are more strong doesn’t mean women can’t do the things they do, women only need the motivation  and the passion to do things, once they have both values they just need to work on. Women now are considered as they deserve.