This class opened my eyes into rethinking older English classes that I have taken in the past. It has opened doors that I've closed many years back and helped me properly reflect on those hard situations and to prosper. The hardest piece to write was my Life-Choice Memoir which was given as a assignment. Shortly after I had posted a personal poem, Death, I had a hard time this semester dealing with death and depression which started to effect my coping skills. I have gotten support for my mental health and having many fellow classmates reach out to me really pushed me to get help. One classmate in particular helped me find motivation to not give up and to keep working hard. This isn't your average English class, this is English Composition One where you make meaning through your writing. All of the different writing aspects and views that I have learned over this course are the building blocks that I have conquered and now stand on today. Thank you!
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The focus on this post is Reflective Writing and how helpful it is to reflect back on your work and what questions and or steps you should take. I will be reflecting back on my Research paper in this blog post.
This blog post focuses closer to relevant topics in Where to Invade Next, and you can find a summery the film in my last post. These are topics that stood out the most to me and caught my eye into learning more about them, this is a step into the right direction for my research paper.
Summary
In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore speaks about how American needs to slow down and change. He touches on topics that are very, very sensitive such as police brutality, health care, drug issues. The way that he displays the purpose of this film was done in a amazing way because it really "paints the picture" on how we need change, considering that other countries that he visits are systematically okay. This film really catches and opens the viewers' eye especially if you are fed up with the American government. It shows that not every country is not better than one but, they all are different in ways and do have problems. America, on the other hand, lacks small concepts that do lead into bigger problems. Each country had a different solution to our problems such as:
Rhetorical analysis In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore has a clear purpose on what he conveys to the audience while touching base on very controversial topics that really put emotion into this film. This film is quite credible, considering he goes to each country to find the information backing up his questions. I have always been afraid of death but,
I find inner peace when it comes to sleep, When it comes to death my feelings are shut, Just as if i try to be the black sheep. When I wake all I hear is just silence, But the loud beat of your heart is so sweet, A sound almost comparing to a siren, Without you I'd be very incomplete. The day you left all I thought was death, I can't get that siren out of my head, I will utter your name as my last breath, Now suicide won't get out of my head. As I hung high above my kitchen floor My soul was left sobbing, completely sore. The focus of this post is how I can and how I did help my memoir become a stronger piece. From watching the video on reflective writing I've come to notice that I'm only focusing in one direct (past) and how I can focus on both (past and future).
Helpful Links: Reflective Writing video Life-Choice Memoir Who did you work with to compose your life-choice memoir?Was this a good approach? I did not work with anyone because what I endured through my memoir I was alone for and have the best recollection of. While revising of first draft I definitely will go to my mother because she was there for me towards the end, and I disclose everything with her. What rhetorical mode and genre are you using? The rhetorical mode I am using is narration and the genre is creative nonfiction meaning "true stories, well told" - Lee Gutkind When did you write this project? Good approach? I started the week before it was due because i was nervous that I wouldn't have something completed, start to finish. It was definitely a good approach because I was able to play around with different ways to start it off and include details throughout in a beneficial way to help the read know what was going on in my head at the time. Where did you write this project? Good approach? I wrote my memoir in my room where I felt the most comfortable and I could open a lot my closed doors from my past. I believe that this was the best approach so far to gain from in my opinion. Why did you choose to write about your chosen topic? Good choice? The topic I chose was a life defining moment in my life and either option would change me entire life and it was the most important thing that has ever happened to me. It was the best choice to right about that I could've pick from my life so far. How did it feel to write this narrative ("during, after, and since")? Do you have any "if only" moments that can help you revise the draft? I diffidently have those moments that something pops up in my head and I just write it down and will wait to include it into the revised paper. How will you revise your narrative? I am going to talk to multiple people see how they like/interpret my piece and ask for criticism. I will continue to keep writing in my "safe space" as well as reflecting on my past and digging deeper into it. Also looking at all of the context surrounding my topic. This story is about a couple going through a rough patch in they’re relationship while waiting for the train together. While the woman is quite uninterested in the man she just says in the relationship out of habit but when talking of the elephants you can see the pain she has being stuck with the man.
Does she stay in her relationship with the man? The story starts off with them having drinks while waiting for the train. The man has honestly feeling for the woman but the woman doesn’t know her feelings to him and their relationship. To me it seems that it is a one sided relationship between the two. When the woman mentions the hill looking like white elephants it was a symbol of openness and freedom because that’s where she wants to be but it is impossible for the man holding her back because he loves her too much and she is a creature of habit. Once the man started to leave and come back she started to smile, I believe he was just trying to get her space because she is indecisive about her feelings toward herself and him. Inevitably I believe she is going to leave him. When have you made a important choice to stay in a relationship or leave a relationship -- OR -- stay or leave a difficult situation? When I was 17 I dated a boy slightly younger than me out of pity because he kept trying hard to get attention from me. On the third day he told me that he loved me but I didn’t realize he was just the one night stand that just hanged around. I left that relationship because it was draining and I had no feeling for him so I let it be one sided until I couldn’t do it anymore. I left and started caring for myself and I never looked back. What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang).
This story is about a woman, Lulu Wang, who her and her family kept secret that her grandmother is actually dying of cancer and only has three months to live. So they devise a plan to have a fake wedding, which was actually supposed to happening a year. In order to get all the family together and see her but she doesn’t know that they’re doing the wedding just to see her. It’s a whole elaborate lie just for their grandmother who doesn’t know she’s dying now the question is do we agree with what the family is doing, meaning is it really okay that they’re keeping it a secret other than just telling her?
I agree wholeheartedly with their decision to keep it a secret from her because as they said in this story that the mental health and emotion is very, very important to physical health. Yes, she is right by saying that it is unfair that they won’t tell her but, in the same breath like her dad is trying to explain her that sometimes it’s okay to lie. That plays a huge role with this story, is it okay to lie. In situations like that even in your last moments of life, do you really want to be reminded of what’s to come? To be depresses last few months because I am waiting for the end to come rear its ugly head, to me it’s not worth it at all. I personally would rather be extremely ecstatic and happy for those last three months rather than sad, worried, or anxious all those types of depressing emotions. in this story they even said that shes been fine and outstayed the expected time she had because of the cancer. Honestly I do agree, more than anything that sometimes it is okay to lie, if it’s to save someone heart ache then by all means, go ahead.
Background information: This is going to be the hardest truth I had to break to someone before. I was just coming out of a two year relationship, very hurt and very broken going through recovery at the time as well. I felt pressured by two people who I thought were friends at the time to give him a "try" hang out with all of us, etc. To be completely honest I thought it was just going to be a one night stand, I didn’t want anything else, I wanted me time that's it. I felt bad because he kept trying to get my attention all the time, so we kept hanging out a little while after the one night and he decided it was a perfect time to ask if we can make this official. I said " that's fine" then he asked me if I believed in love at first sight, I jokingly said "sure, I guess I do" and that’s when he spilled the beans literally two week later after we met, saying "I love you so much. I want to spend the rest my life with you. I want to move in together." all this stuff so from there I’m like oh... I'm stuck in a very sticky situation. For the next couple months he would try to say I love you almost every two days and I would just brush it off and not acknowledge it. I guess that he would just shrug it off thinking maybe she’s busy and she definitely does love me. I wouldn’t say I love you, i would explain to him that's not something to say right away like I just got out of a two year relationship like you have to understand I’m not trying to commit to something so extreme. Forward 1 month later I am depressed, I’m trying to get my ducks in a row for college and I honestly didn’t even click with the guy that I was with at the time and I just want it out of that relationship it was sucking the life out of me because he was just, I don’t want to sound rude but it was just so overwhelming that he wanted me to fix every single problem he had because he was very immature couldn't think logically. I couldn’t deal with it until one day I said it... "I don’t love you, I never did and I’m sorry I just can’t do this" I wasn't stressing out about this anymore, I want time for myself and I rather be alone and recover from everything I was dealing with, physically and emotionally. So the biggest truth I’ve ever ever told someone was the fact that I did not love them and I never did, I try to not think about it too much because he was so hurt but I was hurting too, silently. So the story starts up as a very young, poor, African-American woman that works for a white woman of wealth. Margaret detests this woman and things very unkindly of her then finds out that she cannot have any children due to a hysterectomy. Considering all the context throughout the story it seems like it starts in a time where slavery and racism played a big role in many people’s lives and definitely was a big factor in this passage. Margaret starts to feel bad for her but then Mrs. Cuillnan starts to call her Mary since it is shorter than Margaret and easier to say out of signed of blatant disrespect. This was so out of line for the silver spoon of a woman to say to her just out of blatant disrespect and going against her dignity as a human being. Then finally Margaret is is fed up and results to a fight or flight response with the casserole dish and the two green glass cups. |
AuthorI am pretty much your average, awkward friend that can relate to pretty much anything you can talk about. Archives
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