In the short story Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway writes about a male he called the American and a female he called girl in this story. He spoke about how the American and the girl was at a train station having drinks and how they were discussing how they felt about each other. He also spoke about how the girl was pregnant and how the American and the girl was trying to decide was they going to keep the baby or not.
Argumentative Response: Does the girl in the story keep the baby? Does she stay in her relationship with the man? In this story the girl stayed in the relationship with the man. The man told the girl a lot of things to make her feel better while she was trying to make a decision on was they going to keep the baby or not. He told the girl he loved her, he told her he didn’t want her to do anything she didn’t want to do, he told her they both can have everything and of course he mentioned more nice things to her. The girl said some things to him like she didn’t care about herself, if she did it he wouldn’t worry, the mountains look like white elephants and she also said what will they do afterwards. While they were speaking with each the waitress told the girl her train would be there in five minutes and the girl smiled at her. Then the man said he was going to take the bags on the other side of the tracks. The girl said come back and have a drink. The train didn’t come. So he had a drink and was watching other people waiting for the train and he also was waiting on the girl. When he went thru the beaded curtain he seen the girl and she smiled at him. She said I feel fine nothing wrong with me. One of the reasons why I said she kept the baby and stayed with the man is because when he walked through the beaded curtain and saw the girl sitting, she smiled at him and said she was fine. It wasn’t nothing wrong with her. Narrative Response: When have you made a important choice to stay in a relationship or leave a relationship -- OR -- stay or leave a difficult situation? I encourage you to write a scene that shows the moment. Consider using dialogue. When I was younger maybe around twenty-two I had to make an important choice to leave a relationship. I was in a relationship since I was nineteen. I had my own apartment when I was twenty and I let my friend move in with me. I was working at a car rental place full time. My friend was a producer and he had a studio where he use to record individuals. I use to work a lot. When I use to call the studio and speak with my friend all I use to hear in the background was boom boom boom with drums, piano and of course people voices singing. Sometimes it would be a recorder and sometimes I wouldn’t know the difference. It was a time when I thought he was dealing with someone that I didn’t know about (cheating). So we decided no females in the studio unless I knew about it. One day I called and a girl picked the phone. I said hello… someone hung up the phone on me. I was so upset I wasn’t at work I was home fifteen minutes away from the studio. I called back no one answered so I kept paging my friend on his beeper, no call back. I jumped in my car speeded off so fast all I heard was the wind from the windows. I was there probably within five minutes. Once I got there I was calling the studio with my flip phone, paging the pager and bangging on the studio door. No one answered. So I sat in my car for a minute and when I looked up my friend friend was about to go in the studio. He was my friend best friend they was in business together. I was happy to see him. So he said hi Regina and I said hi. As he was opening the door my friend busted out the door and pushed me away from the door. As he was pushing me away I saw someone in the studio. Now one of my friend’s friend pull up and say that the girl in there is for me. So the girl finally came out and I asked the girl was that you who answered the phone. She said yes and that’s when my friend friend got in between us and said she was for me. Then the girl left. I told my friend I didn’t want our relationship no more. I chose to leave that relationship because it wasn’t just that situation it was also other situations that happened before than.
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In this post, I will give three quotes from each of the following readings:
The Daily Writing Routines of Great Writers (Maria Popova), Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott), and Zen in the Art of Writing (Ray Bradbury). Along with the quotes I will give three quotes about my writing process. The Daily Writing Routines of Great Writers: “I like the slowness of writing by hand. Then i type it up and scrawl all over that and keep on retyping it, each time making corrections both by hand and directly on the typewriter, until i don't see how to make it any better.” -Kurt Vonnegut (Maria Popova) “You write until you come to a place where you still have you juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”- Kurt Vonnegut (Maria Popova) “I work in the morning at the manual typewriter. I do about four hours and then go running. This helps me shake off one word and enter another”-Kurt Vonnegut (Maria Popova) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life: “Writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water-just as writing is also about dealing with emptiness.” -(Anne Lamott) “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts.” -(Anne Lamott) “… there may be someone out there in the world-maybe a spouse, maybe a close friend-who will read your finished drafts and give you an honest critique, let you know what does and doesn't work, give you some suggestions on things you might take out or things on which you need to elaborate, ways in which to make you piece stronger” -(Anne Lamott) Zen in the Art of Writing: “In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.” -(Ray Bradbury) “…I began to make lists of titles, to put down long lines of nouns. These lists were the provocations, finally, that caused my better stuff to surface.” -(Ray Bradbury) “You stumble into it, mostly. You don't know what you’re doing, and suddenly, its done. You don't set out to reform a certain kind of writing. It evolves out of your own life and night scares.” -(Ray Bradbury) This blog post was co-authorized by my class mates and I. My Writing Process: "When writing try to be at peace." "Think of the most interesting things you going to write about." "Try not to complete your best writing in one day because you may think of something better tomorrow". In this blog post, I’m going to write about a short story called My Name is Margaret by Maya Angelou. This story is about a colored girl named Margaret who works for a white woman name Mrs. Viola Cullinan. Margaret stated that “during her tenth year, a white woman’s kitchen became her finishing school”. Margaret also spoke about Miss Glory who was a descendant of slaves who also worked for Mrs. Cullinan and Mrs. Collinan’s family, Margaret said Miss Glory told her her history. Miss Glory was a cook for Mrs. Collinan. Miss Glory was very patient with the housework and explaining the dishware to Margaret, said Margaret. Margaret explained how Mrs. Collinan exactness of her house was inhuman. One example of that statement was “Margaret said that cup had it’s place and it was an art of impudent rebellion to place it anywhere else”. Margaret also said that she was “fascinated with the novelty, with the fluttering Mrs. Cullinan and her Alice-in-Wonderland house. Margaret had learned the differences of plates. She also learned that Mrs. Collinan best plates was a casserole shaped like a fish and the green glass coffee cups. Mrs. Cullinan parents was wealthy and she kept up the tradition of her parents said Margaret. Mrs. Cullinan was married. Mrs. Cullinan husband had two daughters from a colored woman. Margaret said she feel sorry for Mrs. Collinan because she don’t know what she missed with those kids. Margaret also said the kids was beautiful. Mrs. Collinan was a plump woman, lived in the three bedroom house behind post office, she was unattractive until she smiled said Margaret. Margaret also said she “thought privately that as ugly as Mrs. Collinan is she was lucky to get a husband above or beneath her station”. Margaret also said Mrs. Collinan “face looked like the mask of an impish elf”. Mrs. Collinan invites her friends over in the late afternoon and when they come the cook Miss Glory serve them cold drinks in a closed in porch said Margaret. One evening Miss Glory asked Margaret to serve Mrs. Collinan and her friends some drinks and she did. As she was serving the drinks one of Mrs. Collinan’s friends wanted to know Magaret name and Margaret told her. Mrs. Collinan friend name was Mrs. Randall. Mrs. Randall said I would call her Mary for short. Margaret said she fumed in the kitchen and said “that horrible woman would never have the chance to call me Mary because if I was starving, I wouldn't work for her. The next day Mrs. Collinan called Magaret by a different name and Miss Glory said who. Then Miss Glory said “you mean Margaret ma’am”. Mrs. Collinan said “that’s too long she’s Mary from now”. Margaret was now trying to find away to get fired bc she said her momma wouldn’t let her quit for any reason. So Margaret would come late and leave early said Margaret. She still didn’t get fired. So one day she was told to serve Mrs. Collinan’s friends on the porch while Mrs. Collinan was hanging out clothes. Margaret had Mrs. Collinan best dishes. So before she served Mrs. Collinan friends she heard Mrs. Collinan scream Mary she said. As she went to serve them she said she saw Mrs. Collinan rounded at the kitchen door and she let her favorite dishes fall on the tiled floor said Margaret. (The favorite piece, the casserole shaped like a fish and the green coffee cups). Mrs. Collinan’s was very upset, crying and wobbling around on the floor as she said “It’s Momma’s china from Virginia” said Margaret. Her friends and Miss Gloria came running in Miss Glory said you broke our Virginia dishes what we going to do and Mrs. Collinan screamed louder. Then Mrs. Collinan friend bent down and said to her was it Mary” and Mrs. Collinan yelled out and said it was Margaret. So Margaret left the house and said “Mrs. Collinan have one thing right my name wasn’t Mary.
Argumentative Response: Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? I would agree with Margaret to break the casserole and the two green glass cups because I wouldn’t want noone to call me by a different name without my permission. Especially someone I work for because I have to deal with that person everyday. Of course you should show respect to your boss but if your boss is not respecting you then their is a problem. I couldn’t see how a person would want to call someone a different name without their permission unless they were missable which in that short story Margaret said she would have wanted to capture Mrs. Collinan in the essence of her loneliness and pain. I wouldn’t want to see no one lonely or in pain but if you are a mean person and want to hurt someone feelings and things of that nature well I guess you get what was coming to you. Narrative Response: 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? When I was working at a job I made a important choice to resist oppression. At this job I was a hard worker and I always helped people who wanted help. One day I moved up at the job as a Shop Steward. I would help my co-workers with different things that went on at the job fars as managers or other employees. We had a Union, so of course I use to report to the union. A lot of things went on at that job. I use to have meetings with managers about different employee’s. One day I was speaking with a manager and as we were talking we noticed something while we were looking out the window. One of the employee’s pushed another employee. So we rushed outside before they started fighting and pulled them apart from each other. One of the employee’s was my manager favorite employee. So what happened was the manager took a statement from both employee’s and I was there and watched everything that was said. So when the regional manager came he asked what happened and the manager lied on the other guy not her favorite employee and the other person got fired. The other employee said Regina you saw everything that happened can you talk to the union for me to get my job back. I said yes. We had a meeting with the union present and I told my side of the story and my manager was still lying about her favorite employee. The employee did get his job back but after that I had a problem with my manager. She use to say I was being insubordinate towards her and if I call out she said I never called out it was a mess. Through all of that I still respected her and I never lied about her but at the end she got fired. In What You Don't Know, Lulu Wang shares a story about her grandmother, Nainai, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and was given three months to live. Nainai is from China and some of Nainai's relatives live in America and Japan. A few things happened within their family and how they responded was different from how my culture would have responded. NaiNai sister got the results of Nainai physical which diagnosed her with stage four cancer. So that’s how some of the family members knew about Nainai’s secret. The doctor told Nainai sister, which Lulu call her little Nainai, that she should get Nainai hospitalized. Little Nainai said her sister was too old and then she would have to tell her the bad news about her health. Little Nainai said she didn’t want her sister to know the bad news about her health because she would get depressed and won’t eat. Lulu mother told Lulu about her grandmother and explained that it wasn’t “permitted” for her to tell her grandmother about her health. Lulu was stunn. So the family is just telling NaiNai lies about her health. They want Nainai to be happy and not depressed. They did have big gathering for Nainai by having a early wedding so that everybody can spend time with her. No one said anything about Nainai’s secret.
Argumentative Response: Did you agree with the family's choice to deceive Wang's grandmother? No, I didn’t agree with the family’s choice to deceive Wang’s grandmother because my culture is different. Within my culture and if I think they did the right thing no. I believe they should have told Nainai because everyone should have say so on they own life. Some people may want to do something special that they never did in life. If they know they only have a few weeks to live I think they deserve to know. They might even want to have special studies about their religion. They might even want to do something special with their family and or friends. It was thoughtful and nice what they did for Nainai but I don’t think it was right. If someone tell you in advance to do something like that then that’s a different story. I believe everyone should accept everything that goes on in their life and deal with. Lulu was stunned because she wanted to spend time and grieve with her grandmother but she couldn’t because it was a secret she couldn’t share with her grandmother. Nainai’s son was speaking at the wedding and it was a shame his mother didn’t know how he really felt he was hurt, about that secret. That’s why I think it’s important to let a person know what’s going on in their life so they can do what they want to do and have a choice on what they want to do in their life. Narrative Response: 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? Years ago, I probably was around nineteen years old when I made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth. My husband and I met when I was eighteen. I was a nice young lady but I did do some fun things when I was younger and my husband also. My family didn’t like me with no male friends especially on my father side. My grandmother on my father’s side her name was Irene and my grandmother on my mother side was Florence. I was the first grandchild for both grandmother’s. That’s why of course when I speak about one I have to say something about the other. They use to argue about me all the time. Ok my grandmother Irene had five sons. So I was the first girl, granddaughter. My grandma Florence had five girls and three boys. So as I got older father and uncle was very strict. I was nineteen and already had kids they still was act strict. They would scare the guy away. My husband family was very nice and the went to church all the time. My husband is the only child. He was brought up very nice, respectful and especially to his grandmother and mother. He couldn’t fix his mouth to say he did anything wrong, he would lie first. My family taught me to be kind respectful tell the truth and all the above. My family grew to love my husband and my husband family grew to love me. One day when I was around nineteen (my husband and I were friends then), we were out at a party and we smoked some joints. I really didn’t smoke like that and neither did my husband. Before that night he barely smoke only occasions but after that night he was going in, smoking everyday. One day my husband mother called me and was asking me questions. For some reason I could not fix my mouth to say a lie and I didn’t even want to try. I knew my husband wouldn’t want his mother to know that he smoked refer. That was the worst but I told her the truth because that’s how I am. That’s how I was raised. I told her yes he smoke refer. So that was the difficult truth. *I have revised this post so some of the comments posted below might not be responding to the new content here. THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE9/7/2017 1 Comment In this post, I will provide answers to the The Proust Questionnaire. _1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My Idea of perfect happiness is having a loving, healthy family and getting whatever I want. __2.__What is your greatest fear? Drowning is my greatest fear. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The trait I most deplore within myself is my weight. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? The trait I most deplore in others is that some people are mean and selfish. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? Living people I most admire is my daughters. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? My greatest extravagance was my wedding. __7.__What is your current state of mind? My current state of mind is at ease. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? I consider the most overrated virtue is that some people overrate some holidays. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I do not know. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? I mostly dislike how my stomach sticks out. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? I don't despise anyone. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? The quality I most like in a man is respectfulness. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? The quality I most like in a woman is trustworthiness. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? The phrases I overuse the most is hello and hi. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? The greatest love of my life is my family. __16.__When and where were you happiest? I was the happiest this year on the month of May, when I got married at the Indigo Bleu Design and Culture Center. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? The talent I would like to have is to be a good singer. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I wouldn't change anything about myself. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My greatest achievement was receiving my diploma. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I would like to come back as myself. __21.__Where would you most like to live? I would most likely to live where I'm happy and comfortable. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? My most treasured possession is my grandmother's necklace. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? I regard the lowest depth of misery people who harm others. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? My favorite occupation License Practical Nurse. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? My most marked characteristic is being helpful. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? I mostly value within my friends is love. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? My favorite writers is Steve Harvey. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? My hero of fiction is Superman. __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? My historical figure I most identify with is Martin Luther King Jr. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? My heroes in real life is my family. __31.__What are your favorite names? My favorite names are Rakeera, Lashay, Ron, Lankin, Rj, Za and Damon. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? I mostly dislike dirty dusty restaurants. __33.__What is your greatest regret? My greatest regret is not having my master degree sooner. __34.__How would you like to die? I don't know how to answer that question. __35.__What is your motto? My motto is love yourself first.
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Regina KingI will use this Blog to discuss course materials. Archives
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