Introduction
In this blog post, I will be discussing the story Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway). This is a short story about two young people that have faced with a difficult situation. The girl is pregnant and they are discussing what they’re going to do with the baby. The man wants her to get an abortion, but the girl seems to want to keep the baby. Does she stay in her relationship with the man? After reading and analyzing the dialog between two young people, I came to the conclusion that the girl doesn’t stay in relationship with the man. Often the dialogue takes the other turn and gives the impression that the girls agrees in silence with the suggestion of her beloved, I think this is the purpose of Hemingway to confuse us for the end of the story. If you analyze her sentence “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” Through this question she wants to be convinced that when she gets pregnant again whether he will accept it or not. The answer of the man doesn’t convince her about their future, “I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry”. The American is not determined and does not seem to be responsible. The end of the relationship becomes clearer when the girl says “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible”. She says clearly that they could have everything but that decision they are taking will put an end to the relationship. “It isn’t ours anymore”. “And once they take it away, you never get it back”. Through the symbolism Hemingway expresses that by taking the baby they will take and the love she has for him. “We’ll wait and see”. Ending abortion marks the end of their relationship. When have you made an important choice to stay in a relationship or leave a relationship? It is Summer, my favorite season. The sun shines and its warm rays touch everything on the ground. “Let’s sit on the balcony and get some fresh air” my mom said. “I just cleaned the floor with mop and cold water”. While we talk and enjoy our coffee together we hear the voices coming from the family that lives below us. The words are offensive but, we do not pay attention we continue to enjoy our coffee and conversation. The tones of sound become ever more annoying and I jokingly ask my mom, “Hey mom maybe these words are against us?” “No honey, we did nothing to address us with these words”, said my mom expressing surprise in her face. We continue to talk and the offensive words do not stop, but become even tougher. I stop and think with myself if they are fighting with each-other there will be dialog between them, but no, there is just the voice of the woman screaming. I focus on her words and realize that these words are against us. She was complaining about the mop my mom had hung up on the balcony wires that once in a while it flows a drop of water, but outside her balcony. I try to clarify her and to tell that this is not the right way she can discuss with the others. If you have something that bothers you, please tell us kindly without screaming and cursing. But this is useless because she keeps yelling at me. What makes me impress is the fact that her grown daughter and her husband are present, but they don’t even speak a word. My parents have been living in this apartment for over 35 years and the problems with this family have been numerous for the smallest and trivial things. Regardless the problems between our parents I and their daughter have always been friends (my mom has always said don’t involve the children in the adult’s things). But now we are not children anymore, so I can’t justify her indifference because now we are grown up as such we have to act. As adults, we have to give our opinion though it may be different from that of our parents, even though we are their children and for us they are the best, this doesn’t mean that showing them when they are not right, this does make us less loving and respectful of them, so I said to myself enough, this friendship can’t continue we can’t pretend everything is fine. The next day I faced with her, and she got ready to greet me, but I turned my head to the other side and continued the path.
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Introduction
In What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang), is a podcast about a Chinese girl named Lulu Wang who lives in the United States. She has received the news that her grandmother Nainai is diagnosed with stage four cancer. Her parents and her relatives decide to not tell Nainai about her illness. Lulu is not agree with this decision, she wants to tell her the truth, but the only condition for to go to meet Nainai is to keep this secret hidden from her. So Lulu decides to side with her family and hide the truth. In this blog post I will provide my opinion if I agree with Lulu Wang's family's decision or not. I will also relate this story to a time I have made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth. Did you agree with the family's choice to deceive Wang's grandmother? During listening the podcast I didn’t surprise by the choice that Wang’s family took about grandmother’s serious illness because the same story has happened with my family when my mom’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age 75. My grandmother and her daughters (include my mom) decided not to tell him about his illness and to not hospitalized him. They thought that the best decision for my grandfather at that age, it was to spend the last days of his life with his daughters and his grandchildren rather than wandering through the hospital corridors which affects the emotional state of the individual. Back to our story, I do agree with the family’s choice to deceive Wang’s grandmother because Nainai made the same choice to her husband a few years ago. She thought this was the best choice for her husband, and this is a clear indication that she would like the same solution for herself too. In my opinion when I find myself taking a decision for someone else’s good, I always put myself in his place and I choose what I would like others to choose for me. From a different perspective people have different personalities, some are strong and try to cope with every difficulty that life brings without stopping until the last moment, and some have weak personalities who, when faced with challenges and difficulties are demoralized, discouraged and surrendered (for this category of individuals such news would be deadly). Therefore, little Nainai knowing her sister’s character was worried that her sister would get overwhelmed with fear and depression., and that she would lose interest in life. At Nainai’s age it is easier to give up than to confront it. When have you made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth or you made an important choice to tell a lie that had a major impact on you and/or someone else? Many years ago, when I was in the fifth grade, for the first time the two middle schools of the city would arrange an excursion in a coastal town in our country. At that time, my father worked as an emigrant in a neighboring country as unemployment had occupied our country, and that was the only way my father found out to secure the necessary family income. Since the mobile phone technology wasn’t widespread (we didn’t even had home phone) the only way to communicate with him was through the post office 2 or 3 times a month. As a result of lack of frequent communication, my mom decided to not tell my dad about the excursion. It took a long time for the teachers to secure our parents’ approval because it was a long journey (about 4 hours) and in a coastal city (where we could swim). Since the most of the teachers were from the neighboring town, they decided to take the buses from their city because they knew them better, so the transport would be safer. I was very excited about this trip, so the night before it, I couldn’t sleep out of joy and the night seemed to have no end. The trip went very well visiting the most beautiful places of the city, the various games during the journey, and sun bathing under the warm rays of that late June. While we enjoyed our desired journey, someone in our town had spread the news that children’s buses had suffered an accident (later it was learned that a man of anger that they didn’t take his bus went out and spread the news). The news spread throughout the city and the screams of our parents had invaded the entire city. There were family that had more than one child in that journey. The men of the families who owned a car, but not only (the others had booked taxi) and they were heading towards the coastal city hoping that their children would be alive and they would need their help. We were seeing the string of the cars coming to us and we wondered what was going on. I will never forget the moment when we arrived in the evening, and the city square was full of crying people even those who didn’t have their children on this trip. I saw my mom with the tears flowing in her face, her legs bare by the rush to get out of the house as quickly as possible, her hoarse voice from endless screams, and her hands trembled touched every part of my body to make sure I had no wound. She shook my hand and she didn’t release it not even for a moment. The news spread out to the national televisions and my dad learned through them what had happened. Even though my mom got most of the blame, the consequences of that decision also fell upon me. For about four years my dad and my mom didn’t allow me to go on excursions until I got to the high school. In this blog post, I will reflect on a short story called "My Name is Margaret" by (Maya Angelou). This story is about a young girl named Margaret, who works as a servant to Mrs. Cullinan house, a rich white woman. Everything seems to be going very well until at night when Mrs. Cullinan decides to call her "Mary" instead her real name. Margaret didn't like Mrs. Cullinan's decision and she felt insulted by this action. So she decided to claim her right by breaking something valuable for Mrs. Cullinan.
Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? The question if I agree with Margaret’s choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups I would answer no. I fully agree with Margaret’s nervousness and anger against Mrs. Cullinan, anyone in her place would feel insulted if someone wanted to change the identity without her consent and her approval. This is a violation of human dignity and human rights, so no one has this right, whoever he or she is. Although Mrs. Cullinan is Margaret’s chief, this does not give her the right to break the feelings of the young girl, Margaret is not a toy that she can do whatever she wants. Despite of the economic and cultural level, both are human beings with equal rights, and nobody has the right to harm the feelings of the other. But I disagree with the way Margaret chose to respond to Cullinan’s action. By breaking the casserole dish and two green glass cups that had a spiritual value for Mrs. Cullinan, Margaret sat down on the same level with her, doing a similar action and hurt the feelings of the white woman. If I were Margaret’s place, I definitely left the workplace because I can’t be productive in what I do in an environment where the values are not respected as human beings, regardless of the racial, economic, and cultural difference. But not breaking something valuable to Cullinan, but facing it and telling her that I will leave this job because my personality doesn’t allow me to work with people who do not value others for what they are and what values they carry, but depending on the color and the economic level. When have you made an important choice to either resist or not resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure? During high school, I and my best friend wanted to study at an Italian University (which was recently opened in our country) for nurse, being a future nurse was the greatest wish of my parents. The idea that after graduation we would work and live in the neighboring country encouraged us even more. The high school went through preparations and preoccupations to achieve the highest scores, and the desire to be admitted to the university of dreams. Little by little the school was coming to the end, and we were very close to realizing our dream. In addition to the nursing, we applied into two other universities specifically for psychology (as a new field in our universities) and for journalism, but the nursing was our priority. During the period we were expected the answers from each university, as by irony of chance my cousin was hospitalized to make a surgery, and I should stayed and took care of her. During my stay in the hospital, I was faced with the practical work that a nurse does, so I realized that being a very sensitive person this would hinder me in my job, and I didn’t want this to affect the emotional state of the patient. I do not forget the day the results came and both of us were admitted to the university we had dreamed of, and I remember the face of my friend that was brilliant from joy. She was talking about the plans we had created, for the student life, and for the life we would create in the other country. She looked at me and was surprised by the lack of my enthusiasm, by my obvious passivity which was also understood by my parents. They couldn’t believe that I would study in another field like psychology (which was just opened and for the sake of truth we didn’t have much information about it). Who knows how many times I have gone up till the middle of the street to enroll in psychology and I am back from my dad’s phone calls that has asked me to think it and once before deciding. I had decided that psychology was the best choice for me, and it was the first decision I took without the consent of my parents. |
AuthorHello my name is Oljada Zani. This is my blog for my English Composition 1 class. Enjoy! Archives
May 2018
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