The Storm Reflection

I found the story to be an interesting reversal of fortune for women. It is usually all about the men and their sexual conquests. The main character of this story changes the tables and indulges in her sexual pleasure with an old friend. Of course, adultery is usually frowned upon, but it is obvious that there is a double standard when it comes to the opposite sex. Men will generally be excused from such activity and in some cultures it is even encouraged and revered. Something that is seen in all cultures is the frowning upon promiscuous women. Even worse is infidelity by women, as they are usually required to be the faithful of the two while the men get a pass on most occasions. We discussed the morality of the issue but I think she deserves a little more credit and we should get past the social stigma and misogynistic ways of thinking.

Reflection on Daisy Miller

Adrian Perez Daisy Miller was an interesting story. It is about the relationship of Winterbourne, an American that has lived most of his life in Europe and Daisy, an American girl that comes to Europe. They meet each other in Europe and Winterbourne is interested in Daisy because he is accustomed to the European society and he sees Daisy as something new. However, later Winterbourne does not know what to think about Daisy because he goes back and forth about her being innocent or a basically a tramp because of the way she acts and sees things. Personally I think Winterbourne didn’t need to think much about how was Daisy, he just needed to go with the flow and keep seeing her and knowing her and then make a conclusion about her. Daisy was just acting like she was and I don't think that Winterbourne understood that because he bacame so acustomed to the European society, their rules and the way they think and view other people. I think that he had feelings for her and he did not realize it. In another way, I think that Daisy didn’t understand that she was in another country with different views, culture and social perspective and she needed to act differently and oblique by the social rules and norms, and things would have turned out differently for her at the end. Its obvious that all of this is a learning experience for Winterbourne and is certainly going to affect his life and his future.

Daisy Miller

I personally enjoyed the story, I thought it was an interesting look back at how old society used to behave. Some of these norms may persist to our day in the higher spheres of society, but there is a certain old-fashioned quality to the whole treatment of Daisy. All of the different exchanges had little gems of socio-psychological norms that have been embedded in the way of thinking of each character. It was important for me to note how the Roman Fever plays in the story. These are basically cultural norm that develop and tend to stick because they actually provide a survival benefit to those who adhere to it. No one could explain what the Roman Fever was, only that they could get it at night. That little detail was good enough to probably keeps thousands of people alive. It makes me reflect on most social norms and it ends up showing how it is very hit or miss. Sometimes, the social norms actually have some tangible repercussions in our lives, but others, like believing in Jesus, have absolutely no benefit and are as useful as believing in Santa Claus. Other curious examples of this in Daisy Miller are seen with the over protectiveness of the women in the culture. This also has some survival benefit and it is why it is so ubiquitous in world cultures. This type of social norm protects young women from falling prey to overanxious men who would desert them if they were to get pregnant, as well as avoid sexually transmitted diseases which have been ever present.

Reflection on Daisy Miller

Beatriz Cruz Daisy Miller is a young American girl that is traveling through Europe with her mother and her little brother. She meets Winterbourne, an American man that has lived in Europe for a long time. At first, Winterbourne is confused by Daisy's actions, but discovers that she is just a pretty American flirt. She is being criticized by Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Costello, two women that live in Europe. They criticize Daisy because she is too affectionate with men, and the European society does not approve of her behavior. The novella presents a contrast between the two cultures, the American and the European. Since Daisy is American, she considers her behavior as normal and believes that there is nothing wrong with it. She gets ill for being out late with a man, Giovanelli, and dies some days later. Winterbourne realizes his feelings for Daisy at the end, when she is already dead. In my opinion, Daisy did nothing wrong. She believed her actions were the right ones, that there was nothing wrong about being alone with men, and talking with them. Daisy was not controlled by what people said about her. She was herself no matter what, and I liked that about her. She stood up for what she believed in, she did not go with the flow. Her actions had some bad consequences. She was left out in the European society, and died at the end as a consequence for one of her actions. I admire her courage and sincerity, she was herself no matter what people said about her.

Reflection on Daisy Miller

Liane Cartagena Daisy Miller and Winterbourne first meet in Vevey, Switzerland, where he is vacationing from his studies. They are introduced by young Randolph Miller, Daisy's brother. Randolph considers his hometown of Schenectady, New York to be superior to all of Europe, especially for the quality of candies. Daisy, however, is absolutely delighted with the continent, especially the high society which she wishes to enter. Winterbourne is at first confused by her attitude, but soon determines that she is nothing more than a young American flirt. He continues his pursuit of Daisy in spite of the disapproval of his authoritarian and snobbish aunt Mrs. Costello, who rejects any family with such a close a relationship to their courier as the Millers have with their Eugenio. She also thinks Daisy is a shameless girl for agreeing to visit the town with Winterbourne after a mere half hour together. Winterbourne informs Daisy that he must go to Geneva the next day. Daisy extracts a promise from him to meet her in Rome and they part. In Rome, Winterbourne and Daisy meet unexpectedly in the parlor of Mrs. Walker, a fellow American. Daisy is undeterred by the open disapprobation of the other Americans in Rome, and her ineffectual mother seems quite unaware of the underlying tensions. Winterbourne attempts to release Daisy from her situation, but she refuses to take any of it seriously. One night, Winterbourne takes a walk through the Coliseum and, at its center, sees Giovanelli standing in front of Daisy. Winterbourne tells himself that Daisy is too common for him to love. He warns her about the danger of “Roman Fever” her health, and she rushes home, although protesting that she doesn't care. Daisy falls ill, and dies a few days later. The feelings Winterbourne and his aunt have for Daisy is very superficial. Instead of being a little open minded and welcoming to Americans they were fast to judge her and undermine her. I feel that you should always welcome people no matter how different they might abide by ones rules. Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker were quick on judging Daisy for her actions but never once went and gave her a chance to engage in conversation with her. On top of this they were so closed minded that they never thought culture in the United States is different and might be the reason she acts the way she does. Daisy on the other hand is careless to judge and is just a nice young lady on vacation trying to get the best out of the European life enjoying every person who stands in her way. One thing that made her a little closed minded was the fact that she chose not to change her ways thinking that it was okay to to act the way she did with men. If she would have listened to Winterbourne maybe a little she could have mildly corrected her actions still keeping true to herself. Even though I do not find much harm in Daisy’s actions I am open minded enough to see that not everyone can be as engaging as Daisy was because people get the wrong message and are quick to judge upon ones character. I feel that because of miscommunication and both internal and external conflicts not being communicated within the characters ( Daisy and Winterbourne) led to Daisy’s death and Winterbourne’s doubt on placing judgement over Daisy and eventually placed a halt toward the development of their relationship.

Reflection on Daisy Miller

Mariola says: Daisy Miller is one of my favorite characters because she acts like a free woman and does not care what people around her think. For her, cultural aspects and morals are not very important; the only thing important to her is her own thoughts and values. People around her see her as a bad influence and see her behavior as improper. The story ends in a tragic way with the death of Daisy Miller and I really think that this is not a good ending. Critics say that in the end she dyes because of her behavior but for me that is not a good explanation. Why do we need to die because of our behavior? That is not fare. She did what she think it was right and we have to remember that she is a young woman and that she is from another country and does not have the same values and morals as European people have. Although I did not like the ending, I think the novel is excellent it gives us a point of view that is different from normal thins we see in regular novels. One of the most interesting things in the novel is the cultural shock of American society and European society. We see how the character like Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Miller are not please with Daisy Miller and see her as inferior because of her attitudes and values. In the other hand we see Daisy who is the typical American girl who go on life with her values that she knows. After observing this kinds of behavior we can understand why the character act like they do. Another thing that make this novel interesting is the fact that it can make a lot of controversy because we do not know how the audience feel about the novel. Depending of our values and moral we are going to have different opinions about the novel. With this in mind I can say that I like a lot the novel and that it was very interesting although I did not like the ending of it.

A Walk To The Jetty - Christian Torres

Annie is a seventeen year-old girl that is on the verge of leaving to England, where she is to become a nurse. Going to England and becoming a nurse is not something that she really wants to do, but, she thinks that it's better than living with her parents any longer. She wishes to part from them (as many teenagers do). Even though her parents are not bad parents, she wants to part from them. On the way to the boat that will take her to Europe, she starts to reminisce about her childhood only to find that her indentity is basically made up from her parents identity. That idea helps her descicion to go and become a nurse even firmer. The thought of independence and finding and identity to call her own is empowering. At just minutes before boarding, she thinks that it may be a bad idea, and that she really will miss her parents. But after coming to an agreement with her senses, she realizes that leaving her parents y what she wants most and that even though it will be tough, it's something that she has to go throught for her own sake. Annie is able to leave her parents with no second thoughts. I think many teenagers could relate to this short story. Because doesn't go too far down the roots of the problems, I think it's easier for readers to put themselves in Annie's position. Independence is one of the reasons we go to college for and finding our own identity. Not everytime we need something as drastic as moving to another country but just being determined to find oneself could be enough to make it happen.

Columbus in Chains Reflection

Adrian Perez Columbus in Chains is a controversial story that makes you rethink about history and about Christopher Columbus himself. I personally never gave that much attention to Christopher Columbus because in school I was taught that he’s the one that discovered us and that’s it, but after discussing about him in class, it made me think about his purpose in discovering us. A lot of people think that he is a hero, but I don’t think he’s a hero. A hero is someone who looks out for others and is not selfish. Christopher Columbus is an important figure in history, but he’s no hero. He brought slavery and war to our land, and he didn’t think of us, he just wanted to do his job, which was to discover us. I think that the author thought that in a way he was a hero, but in another way he wasn’t. A.J. first thought that he deserved to be chained up and felt good about it, but then realized that he’s the one that discovered her land. This story inspires me to know more about our history and our past.

The Storm Reflection

Adrian Perez After reading this story, it shocked me how Calixta went on with her life after she just cheated on her husband, whom treats her very well. Calixta was alone and Alcee, her past lover, comes to her house because of the storm. The sexual passion that they demonstrated was very intense and maybe it’s because both of them don’t have that kind of passion with their respective spouses. For me, I don’t support cheating on your husband or wife, but maybe in this case is something that needed to happen. Maybe they needed closure from their past relationship and that’s why neither of them felt guilty. Society says that marriage is a sacred union and that that bond should never be disrespected, so that’s why I’m against Calixta’s actions. If she had problems with her husband they should have worked out. The Storm was an interesting story because it was full of strong emotions and it had an unexpected element that made the story have more character.

Writing is not a McDonald’s Hamburger

Adrian Perez When you write you are supposed to let everything go and not hold anything back. The author uses an example of a student that can talk about anything, but when he writes, he can’t transmit those emotions. In writing you have to let every emotion you have to take place in that writing and feel what you’re writing. After reading this I started to write because it reminded me of the journal that we use in class for free writing and we are supposed to let everything go and write everything that’s in our thoughts. I started to write whatever I was feeling without holding back anything. It was a very calm experience. I wrote whatever popped in my head and it felt good while doing it because I forgot all of my worries.

A Walk to the Jetty Reflection

Adrian Perez This story is about finding yourself. Annie decided to leave her home and go to England and become a nurse. As she goes to take the ship to England, she has all these memories that she remembers that include her parents and her childhood and she doesn’t want to continue that path in her life where she is dominated by her parents and so she wants to gain independence and find herself by leaving. I think this is a good story because it teaches us to take a stand and choose what we want to do in the future. I think everyone can relate to this story because everyone at some point in their lives has to leave the nest and become independent and go through that journey that helps us find ourselves.

The Storm- Beatriz Cruz

In this story, Calixta is alone at home when she notices that there is a storm coming. Her husband and son are at a store, so they do not come home until the storm is over. She lets in Alcee, because of the storm. They are both married, but the past passion they had came over them. Calixta did not care she did that to her husband, who was really good with her. What really touched me was that she treated her husband like always, she was happy. She did not even feel guilty because he was good with her. She felt nothing, even though she did something that would hurt him a lot.

Columbus In Chains- Beatriz Cruz

The question was if Christopher Columbus is a hero or not. I do not think he was really a hero. Although he discovered many places, he was not a hero. In my oppinion heores are people that have courage and are self sacrificed, but have moral excellence. Christopher Columbus had courage and was self sacrificed, but he did not have moral excellence. He did not care when he hurt the indians just to rule this island. The little girl had the right to express her oppinion on Christopher Columbus. Where she studied they could not do what they wanted. They had to behave ladylike, talk about novels and poems they were reading, they did all this while walking. But she was different, some of the other girls and her liked to play games that the teachers did not approve. I liked the way she did everything that she wanted, she had courage.

A Walk To The Jetty- Beatriz Cruz

In this story, Annie wakes up the last day she is spending in her home, Antigua. She is moving to England to become a nurse. She does not want to go to England, and does not want to become a nurse. But she prefers this than staying at her home and going on with her life the way it was at the moment. She does not have a really good relationship with her parents, but when they start walking with her to the jetty she starts thinking of all her memories in Antigua. At the end, she feels like she was making a mistake, but then she realizes she is not a child anymore and when she makes up her mind about something she has to go through it. I like the story, because every grown kid has to go away from his parents and make his own decisions. At some point in most people's lives, they had to leave their parents and start making the decisions that would affect them for the rest of their lives.

Baking A Cake- Beatriz Cruz

Baking A Cake explains the process of baking a cake. You have different ingredients to bake a cake: sugar, flour, butter, baking soda, eggs, milk. You mix the ingredients, but you don't get a cake, you get goop. When you put the goop in the oven, when it heats up is when you get the cake. When you get the cake it does not look like the original ingredients. Writing is like baking a cake. The ingredients are the details of your life. You must add the heat of your heart to those ingredients to organize your writing with details. You can't think as you write, you accept what is put down its truth. Timing your writing will help heat things up. If you look at the clock too much as you write, you have to say to yourself that you will keep writing until you have from three to five pages filled, both sides, until the cake is baked. You have to use details to bake the cake. I did this activity two times and it worked, I didn't look at the clock, so I finished really easy, with details and without stoping the pen.

Reflection on The Storm- Liane Cartagena

After reading the storm I find it quite interesting how normal Bobinot and Calixta went about their lives even after just having cheated on their spouses. I guess that they did not have that full happiness in sexual pleasure and found it in each other. I believe they were hypnotized by the storm and their passion for being touched and discovered once again. I feel that they did not have that passion with their spouses and found it in each other. I know that it is not right to cheat on your spouse but if the marriage is not being consummated then I do not find it wrong to find pleasure someone else where someone can give it to you. If you marry someone it is to love and consummate your marriage as much as possible.

Columbus in Chains: Christian Torres

Now I admire the girl in this story who wrote her mind in the book about what she thought about Columbus. We all should do the same. We also should wonder, as we did in class, about the kind of man he was. He wasn't important, least a hero when he found the New World, I think he was just lucky. It was a good thing that such different cultures were able to join together to make one such as ours, but what they had to go through during that time, it was tough. Columbus made no heroic act, but still he deserves to be a historic figure to be remembered as the lucky one that was able to find a whole new world before someone else did.

The Storm: Christian Torres

I think that it's unbelievable that that act of infidelity could've ocurred unnoticed. Calixta acted out of instinc and just went of with her feelings at the momento while her husband Bobinot was away with her son Bibi as a storm passed and kept them from arriving to their house. As the father and son were full of love for their mother, Calixta, however, showed no regard for them during the time she was with Aclée. After Alcée left, she back to being a great mother and spouse as she served them food and showed them affection as if nothing had happened. In the end, everyone was happy. Happiness came from ignorance. As long as nobody knew anything, everybody not only kept on with their lives, but they lived in joy. It kinda makes you wonder if it's worth sometimes telling the truth about somethings. As long as everybody's happy, why change it right? The truth could bring sadness that might even be unnecesary.

The Storm - Luis Bevilacqua

In the storm we see a story of infidelity, about how a man and a woman have relations together while they are in a relationship with someone else. the woman gets caught in the heat of the moment and gives in to the man's temptations. i believe the man did it because its just a tendency to be prone to sexual action as a man, but the woman was not being satisfied with her current husband so did what she did. They both did something wrong and I believe you pay for infidelity, they should be tossed out of their houses and pay emotionally. Their partners do not deserve what these two did to them. Althought hings happen in a moment of emotion and desperation you should be strong enough not to give in to these temptations.

Christopher Columbus day - Luis Bevilacqua

I really enjoyed this day in which we had a discussion about whether Columbus was a hero or not. It gave me a chance to express my views and discuss some interesting points about his contributions to our history. i believe he is a hero, very few heroes in history have been able to do a great deed without a sacrifice for the gerater good. There will always be blood in a change of culture, there will always be those who oppose, and if blood was not shed, the change would have come much later. We could possibly have ended up a third world country having to fend off for ourselves. I appreciate what he did for us and if I was in his place I would have done exactly the same thing. poeple have no clue what they want, they think they do but they dont. Give a culture a chance to evolve into the future and bring forth future eras of prosperity and they will not want it just because it will spill a few drops of blood to the ground. then so be it, let few suffer now, so that the future generations for decades to come can blossom from that very sacrifice. Try to feed a tiger and it will bite your arm off, because it doesnt know any better.