Everything I Need to Know...

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Witty Whitman

While I flip through the pages of Walt Whitman's journal, I am overcome by reoccurring motifs and literary devices. I see many lines mentioning weather, specifically wind. Other reoccurring motifs or words include Christ, love, ocean/waves, liberty, crash, welcome, and ships. He talks about wind fueling a sail boat. He also gives good imagery in his writings that paint a sea in your mind with sailboats floating on a breeze summer afternoon. In the back of his journal there are some drawings of people or things. The first four drawings are of men who are middle aged. These men all have long facial hair, which represents wisdom. These are probably characters faces to match with personalities he wrote about. On page 944, there is a drawing that I can not make sense of. At first glance, I think of an elegant harp with many strings and beautiful bends. However, on second thought, I can also see a book with its pages being flipped open, with the spine of the book facing the page. As I describe what I see, I can't make anything out of this figure which is why it interests me so much. Through these observations, I consider weather and the ocean to be significant symbols for him. I also believe his faith is close to heart since he writes about Christ.

While reading the explanations, I learn about the interesting mind of Walt Whitman. Firstly, I read a dialogue box reflecting religion. His is said to have "scribbled mystical thoughts about religion. We do not know whether these thoughts should have been read with the dialogue with Lincoln or separate from the dialogue. Ed Folsom sees Whitman write about religion at the beginning of each complex allegory of the civil war. His thoughts on religion further evolve into an idea that political and philosophical divide was splitting up his beloved nation. He also writes "libertad" at the top of one page. Libertad means liberty in Spanish. It describes WW as turning directly to the confrontation of the Union. He frequently uses Spanish words in his poems to provide emphasis and meaning. When he mentions the ship he is referring to the Ship of State. This ship of state is foreshadowing of a latter poem published saying Lincoln is captain of the ship. This metaphor of the ship and ocean is continued into the last pages of his journal, where he implies the ship's captain, the new president, will face challenges far more harrowing than previous presidents. The biggest of these challenges was the Civil War. These observations add a deeper meaning than my originally jotted ideas. He is a politically concerned man who refers to religions and intricate foreshadowing and metaphors to explain circumstances in his nation. I learn he looks highly of Lincoln and can sense the challenges facing the nation.

American Dream

When I think about the American Dream I immediately associate it with immigrants. Since middle school, during the immigration unit in history class we learn about the aspirations of immigrants from hearing about the American Dream. This dream looks different to everybody depending on their own aspirations and goals in life. A generality of the American Dream is closely related to the business industry. The idea that every person can create and start-up their own business and grow it into a well known company. This is very hard to accomplish and most people are unable to achieve this dream; however, some do. The American Dream has an independent and opportunistic aspect to it for everybody. The idea of freedom to create and to dream is something unique to this country. The opportunities here are plentiful, which is why so many immigrants desire to move to America, "the Land of the Free."

The aspect of wealth is also closely associated to the American Dream. This concept of wealth is different for each individual based on their beliefs and philosophies. To me, wealth is defined as happiness and living a life of pure joy. Also, wealth is how much money or authority an individual has over others. This concept of wealth is displayed in The Great Gatsby. Through this idea, othering is a main factor in attaining wealth because you put yourself on a higher status than others (which is how some can attain wealth). Even though there are many definitions of wealth, there is only one main definition of poverty, which encompasses all nations. Poverty is the lack of money to be able to live a prosperous and happy life. Many Americans try to help those who are in poverty because there are so many who live below the poverty line in America. This image of America is hidden away so that other countries wont see it. Instead, America flaunts the fact that Americans fly to other countries to help there people who are in poverty.

Americans see both poverty and wealth differently in that poverty is always a misfortune while wealth can be either good or bad. People who are wealthy have the ability to make a huge impact on their community and spend their money wisely. On the other hand, some people who are wealthy with money acquire their money by saving and not spending. This frugal characteristic will not serve them well when judged by the American people.

Importance of Translations

When looking at the translations of Kafka's Metamorphosis, there are multiple different factors that are affected when the sentence structure and the words are changed. Let's look at a couple of translations and determine what is affected:

#1: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." This translation overall gives a nonchalant statement. The diction found makes it sound like he found his favorite coffee mug, but it is describing how he "found" himself as a bug! Without a comma after dreams, it gives a flow throughout the sentence. The word transformed creates the correct mood because it associates with metamorphosis more so than just the word "changed." This long sentence without a comma gives the reader and uneasiness because it has no comma after the first clause. The word uneasy is a connotation for bad dreams, which helps to create the nonchalant tone. The image that this sentence creates is shady because of the descriptor words. Since the descriptors uneasy and gigantic are not strong descriptors, the reader is left to interpret the image. 

#2:"Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug." This short sentence is quick and to the point. The diction changed, giant, and bug all help to create a surprised tone. Changed, giant, and bug makes the sentence sounds less educated and formal which creates an image of the character. Through these words, I see Gregory as a young kid. The structure is important because it adds to the abruptness of the sentence.  The use of the comma, however, contradicts my original idea of the character. I would expect an exclamation point instead of a comma. 

#3: "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug." This sentence alludes to a shock factor which gets the reader on his or her toes! The diction used like troubled, transformed, found, enormous and bug. The denotation of troubled brings a dark perspective while the other sentence uneasy uses a good connotation. The word bug is a very broad term that describes all pests that crawl and fly. With room to imagine the worst possible bug, the reader paints an image of a nasty, enormous, creepy bug! Without the comma, the sentence flows and is more abrupt which contributes to the shock factor. 

#4: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin." I think this translator wanted to make up for the lack of commas in all of the other sentences.... All of these commas add suspense because the reader pauses one, two, three, FOUR times! The diction agitated and monstrous vermin create a serious tone. I'm not sure what vermin is, so that adds a sophisticated factor to the sentence. This factor allows the reader to imagine Gregor as an older man who is educated. 

IOC Practice

Knowledge and understanding of the text: 7. I gave examples for each claim given from the text.
Literary Features: 6. I kind of skimmed over that part at the end (the red pen at the bottom of the page) because I was running out of time but I did add notes about the effect and how it relates to the tone.
Organization: 5. I thought that I organized it well. I did the tone before diving in just because it was suggested by IB but besides that I never went "off track" from my 5 step process.
Language: 3. I am not totally sure what my tone should be registered as but I am going to put down a 3, especially because I used ambiguity as an adjective once haha!

Overall: 21

Once Upon a Time...

The TED talk that I chose was titled "Isabel Allende: How to live Passionately- No Matter your Age." The speaker is trying to convince the viewers to live passionately as they age. Ms. Allender puts her words into practice, as she calls her practicing "training." The important points that struck me were about her personal story of age, examples of passionate women, and her view of societal image on aging women especially. She talks about her personal story of aging by describing the ages of each family member, all old. She talks about how her body is deteriorating and her mind is still vibrant. She is scared because she loves to be independent and can tell she is becoming more dependent. But she does not want to be scared. That is why she is in training every day, to continue to live her life passionately as she did when she was 17 years old. The examples of the other passionate women were comical and touching. The older woman who saved hundreds of girls from domestic abuse and prostitution was really over whelming and added a lot of emotion to the speech. The story about the widowed woman with the red shoes was very comical and was another, but different, example of an aging woman living passionately. Lastly, her description of societal views of aging women was interesting. She talked about when you were officially considered OLD by society- age 65 when you apply for medicare. She also mentioned hating to see wrinkles in the mirror. 

Isabel Allende uses the tool pathos to get her point across- to live passionately. She uses emotion in her personal story to connect with the viewers. Personal stories always add pathos to help the viewer make a strong relationship with the speaker. She also uses pathos when she describes other stories. The story of the woman with the red shoes made me laugh. When I laugh I feel connected to the message and feel like I understand her point. The main point that I saw pathos in was when she says that everybody ages. I am aging. My parents are aging. My grandparents are aging. She talks about death being in her neighborhood, then knocking on the door, and then in her house. Is death in my grandparents house? I immediately throw a red flag and emotion floods my mind. This death that haunts my neighborhood can be closer to my family or my friends than I realize or that I want to realize. Death can take any of my loved ones at any moment. This concept is very scary and brings fear into my mind. But her point is to live passionately. Even though you know everybody dies, you need to make the best out of your time- which is why her point is so effective. I think this appeal to the audience was very effective because the death example grabbed my attention in the beginning of the talk and helped me to buy her point. 

My relationship to the TED talk was immediate. Because it is still January, most people are still working on their New Years Resolution (myself included). My NYR is to meet challenges with confidence. I can not waste my time living in fear or doubt. This caught my eye because it sort of relates to my resolution. To live passionately can go hand in hand with confidence. 

Lastly, the purpose of the TED talk was to better the viewers by sharing an insightful piece of advice-live passionately. Through this communication, she is trying to make the world a better place, filled with passionate people. I love this because in my generation the "cool" thing is disinterest. Everybody thinks it is cool to not care. But she is telling you that is a waste of time and not fulfilling! Her advice should embody my generation because the idea of disinterest is unfortunate.