About this time, we have all received answers from our colleges. Many acceptances and many rejections. I have completed my intent to register with UCR :). I felt that after the next step in choosing a college, things would be a little less stressful, however I feel that college isn't going to be as easy as I thought. My immature thoughts of parties, parties, parties, quickly changed after I realized that we aren't going to school because we have to, but because we choose to. That we are now paying for our education, and that we must sacrifice the fun or easy life we expected in order to be at our best potential and take our education seriously. I definitely needed to take a step back and reevaluate my reasoning for college and to see if my intentions were right.
Anthony Flores
Monday, April 4, 2011
Letter About Invisible Man
Dear future student,
You have been given a choice. When faced with the challenge of selecting a book to read with little or no background information, it can prove to be a tedious task. Do not worry, however, for I am here to lighten your load, and hopefully assist you in picking the ideal novel for you. Having read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, I am able to catalogue its attractive features and illustrate what you can expect to gain from reading this particular book.
For one, this is a picaresque novel. Much like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which Huck and Jim skate from scene to scene as they float down the river, the narrator of Invisible Man will hop in and out of situations that are seemingly unrelated. Whether he is taking college benefactors on tours, running into mentally unstable veterans, encountering near-death experiences in a paint factory, or joining the cause of the powerful and dubious Brotherhood, your attention will be steadily held. What I liked about this style of writing even more than its power to keep me wondering what would happen next, though, was the way that although each episode may seem disparate, they are all extremely interconnected; each one coalesces to reinforce Ellison's message and bring the novel full circle.
Another enjoyable aspect of this novel is its protagonist. The nameless narrator of Invisible Man may not be able to bring sufficient panache to the table, nor does he wow the reader with grand displays of derring-do, but nonetheless, his endeavors are eye-opening and very relatable. Always aiming to please and naively seeking truth, the narrator's persona and desperate search for identity is one that many high school students can identify with. I myself found a strange affinity for the narrator. In the end, I admired the way he was able to come to terms with his invisibility, and I felt especially connected to his existentialist view of the world when he said, "...only now I better understand my relation to it, and it to me."
Finally, this novel has the potential to make a prodigious impact on your views. While effectively making a comment on society, Invisible Man is no the typical activist novel. The narrator's invisibility is something that you may be able to relate to personally, but it can also correlate to events happening in our world today. For example, the union employees in Wisconsin who are protesting right now, are fighting for more than just their collective bargaining rights; they are fighting to remain visible and to keep their strings from being pulled. Ellison proves that there is not just a single cause, but numerous movements with massively divergent methods of achieving their goals. Mr. Norton sees equality differently from the Brotherhood who sees it differently from someone like Ras. The narrator opened my eyes to the fact that there are people who not only think differently from me, but also have completely contrasting views of the world.
Despite the aspects I found particularly engaging, there is still a plethora of other brilliant features packed into Invisible Man, and I regret not being able to list everything for you. It is a worth-while read, very apropos to the topic of what we as human seek and sacrafice, that I assume you are studying. Ellison showed me that people are made to be invisible everyday, and it is how one copes with that invisibility that defines that person and their relationship to the world; I hope you will give him the chance to show you too.
Good Luck,
Audrey T.
You have been given a choice. When faced with the challenge of selecting a book to read with little or no background information, it can prove to be a tedious task. Do not worry, however, for I am here to lighten your load, and hopefully assist you in picking the ideal novel for you. Having read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, I am able to catalogue its attractive features and illustrate what you can expect to gain from reading this particular book.
For one, this is a picaresque novel. Much like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which Huck and Jim skate from scene to scene as they float down the river, the narrator of Invisible Man will hop in and out of situations that are seemingly unrelated. Whether he is taking college benefactors on tours, running into mentally unstable veterans, encountering near-death experiences in a paint factory, or joining the cause of the powerful and dubious Brotherhood, your attention will be steadily held. What I liked about this style of writing even more than its power to keep me wondering what would happen next, though, was the way that although each episode may seem disparate, they are all extremely interconnected; each one coalesces to reinforce Ellison's message and bring the novel full circle.
Another enjoyable aspect of this novel is its protagonist. The nameless narrator of Invisible Man may not be able to bring sufficient panache to the table, nor does he wow the reader with grand displays of derring-do, but nonetheless, his endeavors are eye-opening and very relatable. Always aiming to please and naively seeking truth, the narrator's persona and desperate search for identity is one that many high school students can identify with. I myself found a strange affinity for the narrator. In the end, I admired the way he was able to come to terms with his invisibility, and I felt especially connected to his existentialist view of the world when he said, "...only now I better understand my relation to it, and it to me."
Finally, this novel has the potential to make a prodigious impact on your views. While effectively making a comment on society, Invisible Man is no the typical activist novel. The narrator's invisibility is something that you may be able to relate to personally, but it can also correlate to events happening in our world today. For example, the union employees in Wisconsin who are protesting right now, are fighting for more than just their collective bargaining rights; they are fighting to remain visible and to keep their strings from being pulled. Ellison proves that there is not just a single cause, but numerous movements with massively divergent methods of achieving their goals. Mr. Norton sees equality differently from the Brotherhood who sees it differently from someone like Ras. The narrator opened my eyes to the fact that there are people who not only think differently from me, but also have completely contrasting views of the world.
Despite the aspects I found particularly engaging, there is still a plethora of other brilliant features packed into Invisible Man, and I regret not being able to list everything for you. It is a worth-while read, very apropos to the topic of what we as human seek and sacrafice, that I assume you are studying. Ellison showed me that people are made to be invisible everyday, and it is how one copes with that invisibility that defines that person and their relationship to the world; I hope you will give him the chance to show you too.
Good Luck,
Audrey T.
Meta-Sestina
Writing a Sestina,
Is like shooting fish in barrel.
Just throw in some classic
troupes, rhetorical devices, and your six words.
Absence of originality,
Stick to clichés.
Roses are cliché,
Violets have been done,
Sugar is sweet,
but so bad for you.
Putting together a sestina
is pretty simple poetry.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote Poetry.
Shakespeare invented iambic pentameter.
Frost took the road less traveled.
All so worthy of the title "poet",
I'm guess I'm in the club too.
Even though I'm using the formula.
Creating a formula,
for an awesome Sestina.
Only gets easier,
as I near my fourth stanza.
Need another allusion,
Since any good Sestina is Self-referential.
Meta- Sestina means to be referential,
to refer to all poems,
a bunch of other poets,
reoccuring themes in all poems
(life, love, redemption, growing up)
and above all remind the reader they're reading a poem.
But what is a poem....
a sample of writing, perhaps cliché?
that captures something of nature through poetry.
Is always metaphorical but not always a formula.
Containing meter, rhyme, and stanzaic structure not in a referential way.
For all one knows a poem is just something that arouses emotion through beautiful use of language, unlike this horrible meta-Sestina!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My Influential Character
By Joel B.
What character or story has influenced something you've done or a decision you have made? Explain.
The character that has influenced me the most in my life is Jesus Christ in the Bible. I try my best to live by His examples and be like Him. Ever since I was young, my parents have taught me to live for God and to learn from His life here on earth. My decisions are also affected because in everything I do I try to ask myself what would Jesus do? I remember when I was little I had a wrist band that had the letters W.W.J.D on it which was a great reminder in everything I did to put Jesus first and see what He would have done in a certain situation. I strive to continue to live for Him and to always remember what would Jesus do so I can keep trying to be more and more like Him.
What character or story has influenced something you've done or a decision you have made? Explain.
The character that has influenced me the most in my life is Jesus Christ in the Bible. I try my best to live by His examples and be like Him. Ever since I was young, my parents have taught me to live for God and to learn from His life here on earth. My decisions are also affected because in everything I do I try to ask myself what would Jesus do? I remember when I was little I had a wrist band that had the letters W.W.J.D on it which was a great reminder in everything I did to put Jesus first and see what He would have done in a certain situation. I strive to continue to live for Him and to always remember what would Jesus do so I can keep trying to be more and more like Him.
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