End of the Year Reflection

This year has undoubtedly been the hardest year of high school yet, but it also has been my favorite. For the most part, I had incredible teachers that all helped me grow as a student and move one step closer to college and the real world. APLAC was extremely beneficial in that it helped prepare me for next year and for the rest of my life. I learned essential writing skills and many important messages and skills from my teacher's anecdotes. In this course, I found the rhetorical analysis essay to be the most difficult to write because I felt like I needed more practice identifying and learning rhetorical devices. The easiest essay for me was the synthesis essay. I found it easy because we are provided with all the information we need and I was taught how to synthesize information effectively and well. The book I enjoyed most was The Things They Carried because it was an interesting and easy read and it kept me engaged. The book I enjoyed the least was In Cold Blood because it didn't keep me interested and it was slow moving. I want you to know that you have been the best English teacher I have ever had by far and I want to thank you for everything!

The Things I carry

Physical- The one physical item I carry with me absolutely everywhere is my cell phone. I feel like I’m constantly texting, so without it I feel cut off from civilization. I use it to communicate with friends and family, and to use instagram and twitter of course. I also use it to listen to music, which is totally necessary. Without it I would feel lost, it is one of the most important physical things I carry.

Dreams/Goals- My ultimate goal is to be successful and happy with a family, and live comfortably doing something I love.  Obviously I want to go to a good college, A&M specifically, and do well there.  These goals motivate me to try hard in school and try my best at everything I do.  I carry these goals in my mind daily.

Relationship- The most influential and inspiring person in my life is my mother. My mom is who I keep in mind when I think about my dreams and goals, because I hope to accomplish what she has. She went to University of Texas Dental School and became a dental hygienist. After doing that for a while, she decided to start her own dental employment agency, and her business has grown to be the biggest dental employment agency in Texas. Not to mention, my mom pretty much gets to choose her own hours. This has inspired me to dream big and be very ambitious. Also, she is extremely caring and I am very close with her. I carry my mom with me in everything I do.

Personality- I would describe myself as ambitious, cultured, and indecisive. I am ambitious because I have big goals and I am extremely determined to become successful. I want to do just as well as my mom if not better. I am cultured because, as I described in the last blog post, I come from a very diverse background. Also, I travel around the world to interesting places every year and learn about how others live, which fascinates me. Lastly, I am indecisive. For example, it took me about 10 minutes to think of this last characteristic. I still have no idea what I want to do with my life and I struggle with small, everyday decisions. I carry these personality traits and they are pretty apparent.

Memories- The most important memories to me are with my family. They are centered around all of the unique places I go every summer. Traveling is very important to me. I love experiencing new things with my parents. I hope to continue to see as many places as I can throughout the rest of my life. These memories define me and I carry them in a special place in my heart. 

The Third Option

For some people it can be hard to both establish their own identity while continuing to honor their family’s culture. In this day and age, in America at least, it seems to be less of an issue. It is common for people to have the best of both worlds in this sense. It certainly is possible. We get to make choices to establish just who we are in society.

Personally, I come from a very diverse background. I am American (of course),German, English, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, Mexican, and Dutch. It can be hard for me to pinpoint one particular culture to celebrate, so every year my parents try to take me somewhere with ties to my heritage to help me appreciate where I’m from. I’ve been all over the world and have seen a great number of the countries that were home to my ancestors. Furthermore, a large portion of my mother’s family was from Mexico and Spain, so she taught me Spanish as a second language when I was a child and I am fluent. It is very useful and I am proud of it. Additionally, my mother always celebrates this culture by cooking traditional dishes.

Another way I celebrate my heritage is through my practice of Catholicism. Both of my parents were cradle Catholics and have passed it down to me. I am currently going through the process of being confirmed into the Catholic Church. We celebrate all of the Christian holidays like Easter, Christmas, etc. I do not celebrate any other holidays that are significant to my culture; this is how I establish my own identity. Our family is usually out of the country for the 4^th of July, but we are proud Americans that celebrate it wherever we are.

I am not particularly torn between two cultures so I do not have a big issue with tying my cultural backgrounds together. I establish myself as an individual through the music I listen to, clothes I wear, and hobbies I practice. I think that it is possible for everyone to express his or her cultural background while still being unique. There is a 3^rd option; we don’t have to choose one way or the other.

Imitating Poe's Techniques

Creating a haunted house story seems like a simple task, but no one could create a masterpiece as chilling as those of the master, Edgar Allan Poe. It has been common for modern authors and screenwriters to mimic his creepy techniques. He keeps his readers on their toes and craving more. If I were faced with the task of creating a haunted house tale I would undoubtedly imitate Poe’s skills.

The primary strategies I would copy from Poe are the following: presence of a naïve narrator, personification of the setting, vague ending, minimal gore, and perverse sexual behavior. Throughout his story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe exemplifies these skills. Some of these techniques are what make Poe so unique. He pioneered many techniques in this genre. Some movies nowadays rely on excessive gore and detail to make their stories scary. Though those tactics can be truly bone chilling, I don’t find them to be quite as effective.

I would use the naïve narrator technique to increase suspense and to keep the reader on their toes and engaged in the story. This ensures that the reader has to really think about what’s going on by withholding important information. Another strategy I would imitate is the personification of the setting. Poe’s story is the first to make the physical house itself the ghost. This creates an eerie, unsafe feeling, especially when the house crumbles at the end. This leads me to another technique I would imitate, a vague ending. At the end of the story the reader is not entirely sure of what exactly happened to all of the characters.

The less significant things that I would copy from Poe are minimal gore and perverse sexual behavior. In the short story, Poe never describes murder or the death of Roderick’s sister. In other works, it is extremely common for the murder scene to be intense and sickening. This technique keeps the death mysterious and allows the reader’s mind to wander. The last technique I would copy is rather disgusting; it is the inclusion of perverse sexual behavior. In the story it is implied that Roderick’s sister is more than simply his sister (GROSS). This revolting quality is something that makes the story even more twisted and creepy. With these techniques, my story would be truly frightening.

America's Obsession With the Occult

            America seems to have always been captivated by the occult. We tend to be very curious about the unknown. A classic example of this infatuation is exemplified in Young Goodman Brown. There are plenty of modern examples of our interest in dark, supernatural forces, such as the movie, Paranormal Activity -which I personally find to be way too terrifying-. Does this make Americans sick, twisted, satanic people? Or do we just want to escape reality in an attempt to entertain ourselves with fear?

            There are various ways that we can indulge ourselves with this form of entertainment. We can read books, such as Twilight, watch movies like Paranormal Activity, or even keep up with dark TV shows, such as American Horror Story. This suggests that Americans enjoy the adrenaline rush of watching ghosts and demons rattle pans in an ordinary family’s kitchen, and are eager to imagine what they would do in a zombie apocalypse.

            In Hawthorne’s short story, Young Goodman Brown, the main character goes on a late night journey into the woods with the devil. He was bewildered by the sight of all of his devil-worshipping peers, who he thought were good, righteous Puritans. This popular piece shows that there has always been interest in the occult. This explains why even today some Americans go on haunted tours and around Halloween, haunted houses are a popular destination for many.

            Authors and producers keep providing society with this type of entertainment because they know how to manipulate us. They take what Americans are afraid of, and emphasize it. Maybe this is how some people face their fears, or maybe going to a thriller with a group of friends is a great way to experience an emotional catharsis. Americans as a whole are drawn to dark, intangible mysteries. We always have been, and we probably always will be.  

Anti-Heroes: Ichabod Crane vs. Olivia Pope

On the popular TV show, Scandal, character Olivia Pope (a well respected crisis management attorney in Washington DC) is portrayed as strong, independent, brilliant, and honest. However, if one looks beyond that, she can seem to be just the opposite. It’s hard not to like Liv, but she’s not always as good as she may seem, she will do whatever it takes to help “fix” her clients problems. Though it may seem hard to believe, Olivia Pope has some shocking similarities with the classic antihero, Ichibod Crane, from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

First of all, both Ichibod and Olivia are attracted to seemingly unattainable people. Ichibod, a poor schoolteacher, is infatuated with Katrina Van Tassel, or rather the idea of her. He wants her for her wealth and land. Olivia, on the other hand, is having an affair with the president, a very powerful and wealthy man. Not to mention the fact that he’s married with children. She has hopes of breaking up the family for her own benefit. Also, Olivia has had a history of only dating men who are rich, powerful, and older than her. Clearly, both characters are flawed, and frankly, gold diggers.

Another similarity between Olivia and Ichibod is that they both are willing to completely cut off anyone in their current life if they attain what -or whom, rather- they hope to. Ichibod imagines just how quickly he would abandon any colleague or friend of his if he won the hand of Katrina. Similarly, Olivia would leave her firm, along with all of her blindly loyal associates, if/when the president decides to go live with her (in the luxurious home he had built for her in Vermont). Evidently, both characters are so caught up in their selfishness that they have total disregard for those around them.

Finally, both characters have issues when regarding the subject of morality. Ichibod Crane is somewhat of a tyrant in the classroom. He is cruel to his students, unless he thinks their mother will prepare food for him, in which case he spares the child. Olivia Pope employs some very interesting people, one of them being a CIA trained killer, who is addicted to torturing people. Whenever she has dirty work, or needs something to be “handled”, she has him take care of it. This is acceptable to the viewer because she “rescued” the man after the CIA dumped him and made him homeless, indebting him to her forever. Both characters have their positive traits too, but I have focused on their questionable attributes. This sheds these characters in a different light, showing them as anti-heroes rather than heroes.