Short stories...

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 

-Dr. Seuss

We are finally at the end of the semester and I can't wait for holidays, anyway, in this last period, in the literature class, the teacher gave us five short stories to read,  by the way,  I didn't like all of them.  

The ones that I enjoyed are called: Unhappiness by Kafka and The Seventh man by Murakami, because both of them were really interesting, while I was reading I felt as if I was the principal character, I was into the story.

Unhappiness is about a dialogue a man and a child as a ghost. When I finished to read the story, I realized that I have to enjoy and love everyday of my life because with just one wink, the youth is vanished and you will never be a teen again. 

Youth (childhood, adolescence) is the most beautiful stage in our lives and we have to appreciate it because when you get older, you get bitter and the things you used to love as young, won't have the same meaning or value. 

The Seventh man, is the story of a man that indirectly provoked his friend's death. It makes you think about his situation of blame and shame because his friend died and he could have done something to save him. What would you do if your best friend is in danger and if you take the risk to save him, your life is in danger too?, Cannot answer, right? exactly!, this story makes you reflect about friendship and values.

I recommend to read both of them, they are worth it. 

Karate Kid into the Hero's Journey.

The Karate Kid (2010)

• Hero: In this movie, the hero would be the kid, Dre Parker, because he is the principal character and he "sacrificed" himself separating from his ordinary world because he moved with his mother from Detroit to Beijing, (crossing first threshold). At first he refused to move to that new country but it was something inevitable, everything depended on his mom's job. According to Joseph Campbell, we can classify this part as the refusal of call. 

 

• Mentor: Han is the one that trained Dre for his combat against the rude boy. He taught him new strategies and movements, he also taught him kung fu. This is when Dre is located in the Belly of the whale, because he enter walked into a new world and we will have a transformation after his training. 

 

• Threshold guardian: Han would also be the threshold guardian, because at first he acts like a serious man and he didn't tell anything about himself to Dre. Because of his mysteriousness, Dre continues to be with him and to accept his training because he wants to win the combat.

• Herald: Sherry, the mom, is the Herald, because she made an important announcement in the beginning and even though she doesn't appear constantly, she plays an important role (because of his work, they moved to Beijing, and in this place is where the call to adventure started). 

 

• Shapeshifter: Mei Ying, because at the beginning you don't know what her posture is, she behaved as a serious but as soon as Dre started to talk to her, she accepted to escape with him and they made a tour because Dre wanted to know Beijing.

 

• Trickster: Cheng, is the mean guy that got jealous since Dre talked to Mei. Since then he started to see Dre as his enemy and he thought he had to destroy him. But because they cannot have a "dirty fight", their mentors organized a combat, in which they were able to have a fair fight. (Road of trials). After having a fracture during the combat, Han used his magical remedies and healed him (Rescue from without). At the end, Dre won. (The ultimate boon)

 

 

• Shadow: The snake that appeared when Dre and Han arrived to the mystic temple and Dre was afraid of it but Han taught him how to destroy that fear and finally Dre knew how to balance his chakra. (Master of two worlds). 

 

 

After winning the combat, Dre became a confident person and he felt free for being with Mei without someone interfering. (Freedom to live). He transmitted hope to people and faith that they can achieve everything they wish for, and Cheng, realized that Dre is a human and has the liberty to live in Beijing. (Crossing the return threshold).

 

 

  

Self improvement.

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."

-Albert Einstein

During this week, I discovered a lot of things, I realized that I have a lot of ideas but it is hard for me to express them using the correct words and format while writing an essay or story. I believe that if I can go far beyond, I just have to feel it. 

I realized that my classmates do not necessarily read the entire reading and they get a hundred in the exam, maybe that is because they know how to write their ideas in order to make them understandable for the teacher. 

I know I need to improve myself, I have to be more confident in my beliefs and express them no matter what others may say. 

This term we read Faust (which by the way I absolutely loved), and because of its grammar and vocabulary, I learned new techniques for writing and also new words. 

I enjoy reading and then having more imagination that makes you write anything. 

I believe that if I want to be an excellent writer, I need to be open-minded for me to read others stories and have more and more ideas and inspiration.

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” 

-William Faulkner

-Stay weird. 

Faust's characters...

 Faust: 

Along the reading, I realized that Faust is a man that wants to have limitless power and would do anything he can in order to achieve his goals. Faust is a very deceit person because he uses his power to cheat people for his benefit. He is really ambitious and selfish, he has everything, knowledge and power, but love. When he saw Margaret, he realizes that everything he was missing was love. He feels alive again, he is starting to love the Earth and the humans, and he would give everything for her lover, Margaret. One of his virtues is that he is really passionate, whenever he wants something he doesn't give up. One of his faults is that when he is doing something for achieving his goals, he can hurt people and doesn't care about it.

Mephistopheles:

He is the Devil, he is really evil and he is also very deceit. Because of his supernatural power he knows that he can do everything he wants, he can be tricky with people inducing them to do the bad things, he provoke people to temptations and guilty pleasures. The only thing he wants are their souls. One of his virtues is that he can give you everything you want if you ask for it. But the fault is that he only gives if he receives. He will give you anything if you give him your soul.

 

 

 

Margaret:

She is the most innocent woman in the story. Throughout her life she had suffered lots of losses. She has learned how to be strong enough to live by her own, but her innocence makes her vulnerable, Faust can easily manipulate her and she instantly fell in love with him. One of the virtues she has is that she is really caring and she worries about everything she loves. One of the faults is that she can easily be manipulated. 

As for myself I can say that I'm similar to Faust, because whenever I want something I am able to give everything I can for achieving it. The only difference is that I do care about people, I don't care if I know them or not, I always try not to hurt people, because I have empathy with them. I try to give my 110% always, and I don't give up easily on things I care about. 

 

 

 

...And you, which character describes you the most?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Stay Weird. 

 

 

 

 

Motifs & Themes in Faust.

I discovered that Faust is a man that is really influenced by Christianity. He's a highly successful man, because he knows a lot of things and he has an extended knowledge. There is one problem, that he is not satisfied with the things he own, he is unhappy because he believes that he can have more, and when he reaches his goals, he is always looking for something more. 

He's a really ambitious person, he feels that he will only become complete if he can fuse his life with nature and the universe, in order to find this higher knowledge, Faust makes a bet with the devil called Mephistopheles.

  
                                  

                               

• Themes: 

1. Faust's power and knowledge. 
2.  The importance of the Christianity in the decision-making of Faust.

3. The conflict between Medieval and Renaissance values. (Faust is a renaissance man who had payed the medieval price for being one). 

• Motifs: 

1. Angels and devils.
2.Supernatural forces.

The power that Faust owns, allows him to be a brave person, most of the history is based on his power, because despite his desire of having more, he is looking for a way on how to use the one he already has. Once he has all the power he can, he believes that everything is possible for him and his limitless power makes him an evil man. He plays jokes with people and he doesn't have a control of it.

 

-Stay weird. 

Formalism and Faust.

In this second partial we have to read Faust, which is a novel about a man that makes a pact with the devil, it was a really attractive option, and that's why we picked that novel. Formalism will help me understand better the literature, let's start explaining the its meaning. 

 

What is Formalism?

 

-It refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as meter and tropes. The formalist approach reduces the

importance of a text's historical, biographical and cultural context.

So, how is formalism going to help me understand better Faust?

 

-Because it allows me to have a deepest comprehension of the text. If I analyze more in depth these novel, I will understand it better and also I will be able to understand future books. And also because it's a reading that requires a lot of attention to make it understandable.

 

 

What have I liked or disliked about Faust so far?

 

-To be honest, I really like the general idea of the book, but when I started reading the book, I didn't was as excited as I used to be. I mean, it is really tedious and its also confusing. I just hope to like it during this week. 

 

 

 

 

 

-Stay Weird. 

My improvement in the first term! (:

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."

-Napoleon Hill

I am now in 3rd semester, and I just finished the first term, which was a little bit confusing. I don't know why, things got harder, I mean, my grades were not as good as in the previous semesters. I felt disappointed about me and I didn't have motivation to continue on the IB. 

But one friend told me that no matter the grades I got in the first term, I can improve them in the second term. And I learned that if you really want something so bad, all you have to do is to be persistent and dedicated, therefore you will have really good results.

I learned in my literature class that I have to read Naruto everyday. And that I am really liking it, even though I thought I was not going to enjoy it,

I expect to improve my grades this 2nd partial because I know what I am capable of, and that no matter what I got in the 1st one, that number doesn't define my abilities or intelligence. I know that I can do it. 

There we go second partial... 

 

"A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success."

-Elbert Hubbard.

 

-Stay weird. 

What I have learned about Literature.

First term is gone, and I have enjoyed my all my classes!. I never thought I would choose literature, but I ended up doing it and to be honest I've learned a lot of things, If it was my decision I would have never choose to read Naruto, and when the teacher told us that Manga was the first thing to read, I didn't feel excited about that, but I had to read it anyways.

After reading I was really into the history, is really interesting. I realized that Literature is a synonym of entertainment, literally.

 

 

All the knowledge that I've learned during this time about Literature, I can apply it in my ordinary life, because now I have more imagination and creativity to create solutions for problems. Now I can reflect about everything in a deeper way. I love Literature, and I love to write in this blog, because I can say anything I want. I love to read and I realized that one of the best ways of expressing yourself is through writing.

 

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” 

-Cassandra Clare

-Stay weird. 

Why is writing an essay so hard?

When the teacher tells you: "you need to write an essay about the book for the next week, is going to be part of your final grade", you feel like you are not going to make it just because you think that you're not good at writing.

But, why is writing an essay so hard?

Maybe because writing our feelings and thoughts in a piece of paper is not as easy as when we talk. You may also feel like you are limited to express your thoughts because again, it's not the same to written than spoken. 

 

Any way, whenever you are forced to write an essay, you just have to write the most important things in order to make it understandable, also you must follow a thesis statement in all the essay and in every paragraph there must be a topic sentence, therefore writing you essay shouldn't be as hard as it was in the beginning.

I am currently working in an essay, it's not done yet, and I'm struggling with it a little bit because I can't express in a paragraph (8 lines approx.) the big idea that is in my mind, so I found out that the thing that I struggle a lot with when writing an essay is to find the correct words on expressing the same thoughts I have in my mind, but without changing the meaning. 

 

But, after all, I'm enjoying it! It's a personal challenge that I have to confront, but I know that if I give my best and just try to make some outlines before, at the end I will have a good grade!

So don't give up!, think that essays help you to become more modest as a thinker, more open to error, less fixated on what you do and more respectful of what you don't. 

 

 "The essays that really touch us, are the ones that are deeply personal."

 -Richard Shaw.

-Stay weird. 

The influence of a culture in its own literature.

"People without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."

-Marcus Garvey  

 

Do you ever wonder what makes a literature book so special?

 The answer is simple.  Every literature book is influenced by a culture, it depends on the author's nationality and beliefs. There are so many reasons that can explain the reasons that make you love a book, for example: you can have the same nationality of the author, so your interests and beliefs are similar and that makes you feel identified with the book, therefore you ended up loving it, or you can like the way the author sees the world. So if you share something in common with the author, is for sure that you are going to love his/her book!.

 

 

 

Every culture has its own history, the important things that makes that state/country/continent unique. So I can say for sure that a literature book that has relation with its own culture, will make the people buy it, because they can either be interested on that culture and want to know more about it by reading that book, or they already know about that culture because they believe in the same things and they love to read creative stories projecting their culture.

The culture is something that makes so unique a group of people, because their beliefs, interests and manners, are involved in it, and because they are identified by its culture, they are not ashamed of it, so that is the way they want the world to see them, the way they want to be unique and recognized by others. So the same happens in a book, the culture that is involved in it, is the culture that is going to be spread around the world. 

 

 

 

A lot of literature books were written in a period of time while something important was happening, for example: The diary of a young girl: Anna Frank, was written during the Nazi occupation in Netherlands, so it involves a lot of culture because this girl describes her life, what she used to do before the Nazi occupation, what she believed, and this book had a big impact around the world, because people realized that the Nazi invasion, was something really important in the history of the world, and when the book came out, they realized that a young girl that lived in that chaos wrote it, so they felt more attracted to read that book because it contains aspects of a different culture and also it entertains the people while reading it and at the same time they learn more about the Nazi invasion and how an innocent girl saw it and lived it, that is what makes this book so unique.

In conclusion I want to say that the influence of a culture in its own literature is really important, because you let the world know more about your history, and is the way that makes you unique in the entire world. 

 

 

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people".

-Mahatma Gandhi

-Stay weird.

What is lost in translation?

-

Nowadays, there is a huge variety of cultures and languages in the world, each one of those cultures has really important things that need to be spread in the rest of the world and expand the multicultural environment. The message is transmitted in the first language of the place of its creation, the message transmits the knowledge of the people that wrote it, also it shows that they are proud of their culture. 

But there is a problem in that process, because when people translate something from another language, the meaning is the same in general, but it can lose the exactitude because in a language different than ours, there could be words that can’t be translated in the same way because they may mean something that is unknown for us, so what we do is to translate it into a word with similar meaning that we can understand.

 

Maybe the most important thing that is lost in translation is the meaning, because you can either change it its totally because you didn’t understand some words and couldn’t translate them or you can miss some of the most important facts that were said in the message and when is its turn to be translated, you can not listen to some words and ignore them, therefore the meaning is affected in some way.

Most of the people in the 21st century are bilingual because it’s important to understand other cultures and not only ours, so when we learn more languages, our chances of developing a better interpersonal communication increases without the requirement of knowing more than one language, so the objective of translation is to give you an opportunity for the ones that are not bilingual, to understand more about other cultures and to make them increase their knowledge without knowing how to speak that language.

 

-Stay weird.

Naruto. (Manga) ^o^

As  I said in my last post, I started to read Naruto for my Literature class, it has been something unique and interesting!

 

So...

1. What did I learn about Naruto in these 10 chapters?

Naruto, is a history based on the Japanese culture, in the Manga there are expressions written in Japanese that I just can't understand. Also is really mentioned the word "ramen" referring as food, so I believe that ramen is one of the most famous saucers in the Japanese world. 

The names are also weird, for example: Sakura Haruno, a girl that Naruto is in love with, but she's in love with Sasuke Uchiha, a really serious character that hides his feelings. The three of them want to accomplish really important things and in some way, they want to be recognized by the rest of the people. 

 

Naruto is the main character in the history, he wishes to become Hokage, the most acknowledged leader in the entire village.  

I realized that he's a boy with no parents, that everyone thinks he doesn't fit in that world because there's a legend that says that he's the nine-tailed fox (a dangerous phenomenon than can cause a major disaster), so everyone hates everything he does, but he tries to be acknowledged by the people, he's a lost boy that's trying to find his way doing things that he may thing are correct but he ends up being a mess. 

He's really stubborn, he doesn't obey anyone but his instincts, he never gives up because he wants to be recognized by everyone and he believes that he can achieve everything he wants to. Iruka, his teacher, knows he has potential and special abilities that can make him become Hokage, and for that, he's going to be a really essential support for Naruto. 

Naruto is a really interesting history and you can learn a lot of things about the Japanese culture, this is some of the things that I learned about the culture:

*food: ramen.

*beliefs: big monsters/creatures (nine-tailed fox), chakra, acupuncture.

*clothing: headbands, long shirts, sandals, baggy pants.

*medicine: a strange way of healing people is with natural ingredients. 

 

 

2: Where do I predict the story might go after here? 

  

I imagine the rest of the story with big obstacles but at the end with a happy ending.

I think that Naruto is the nine-tailed fox and there will be a part in which he will be fighting with another enormous monster, but the only way he can protect the village from the monster is if he brings out his inner monster because is the only way to destroy the enemy monster. 

Naruto will know that there are possible risks: when he kills the monster, he is going to die too or that once he turns into a monster, he will stay like that forever. So he decides to become a monster and then the village hopes that he will save them from the enemy monster even though they don't care about Naruto's future.

 

In the crucial fight, there will be a moment of weakness for Naruto, he will think that is the end but he will realize that no matter if the people of the village don't care about him at all, at the end is also his home and he has to protect it. 

Naruto will win after all, and there will be a witch that can will help Naruto become a person again. After that, the people in the village will realize that Naruto saved their lives and their home, so he will be acknowledged by all of them, and he will become Hokage.  

Sakura will fall in love with Naruto and they will get married and have a kid, but the kid is not going to be human.

 

-Stay weird.

This is how my literature class has been so far... (:

School started this week and I was nervous because I realized that the classes that I chose when I did my schedule were pretty challenging, something out of usual.

 

We had two options: chose literature in English or the typical English classes I've had since I was 6, so obviously I wanted something completely different, something that involves one of things I love in this world: reading, therefore my decision was made, I chose literature. 

 

The first day in the class, we introduced ourselves and the teacher told us that the first thing we were going to read was Manga, so I thought: "Manga in literature?, this teacher is kidding us", but no, that was our first homework. I've never read manga before and to be honest I  was not excited about that, I wanted something else. 

When I arrived home I knew I had to open my laptop and read the Manga about Naruto. I saw the first chapter and realized that Manga is black and white (so boring!), and I started to read it and in the first chapter I fell asleep, seriously. Just to think that I needed to read 9 chapters more was killing me, but I had to give it a try.

 

After the second chapter I was really into it, the story was so interesting, I couldn't stop reading!. 

The next day in class, we discussed about the first ten chapters and most of the group was participating. (: 

We realized that Naruto is a history based on Japanese culture because of so many reasons, for example, the names, I can barely pronounce/remember them, it is something completely different from my culture, but I'm enjoying this whole new thing. 

So last but not least I want to say that I'm loving Literature class, the teacher and my classmates just make it a lot more enjoyable!, also I want you to keep in mind that Literature is an important way of communication within cultures, because you can learn a lot from a culture just by reading a short history related to it!. (:

** PS: Don't get stuck in the ordinary, try different things!, never judge a book by its cover because the inside could change your way of seeing the world!. 

 "If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself". 

-Norman Vincent Pale.

-Stay weird. 

 
 

Why should I read?

The importance of reading. 

Personally, I love reading, it takes me to another universe, a universe created by me, a place in my mind where I can escape from everything related to the Earth, it's just me and my imagination. 

It takes just a few words to read and then realize all the big things you can create and do with the power of your mind and the use of your imagination. 

So, what can I get from reading? 

Everytime you read, your creativity increases positively, you realize that no matter the book or what you are reading, you can always learn something from it that will help yoy to grow as a person. Therefore your knowledge will be increased and you will have the chance to learn more about the world, about other cultures and about the things you're surrounded by. 

 

Does reading have disadvantages?

I believe that the only disadvantage reading can have is that you may or may not like what you're reading and you can get bored but you can read brief descriptions of the book before buying it, so that you decide if its worth buying. And you should look for books that contain something of your interest. 

If you are forced to read boring readings for school, don't be sad and give it a try, the only obstacle is you!!!

 

***Ps: reading doesn't cause bizarre diseases. (: 

-Stay weird.