Blog #7: Citizenship and commitment

Before I start talking about if these values are or aren’t in the story i am going to explain the meaning of each value. Citizenship has the meaning of state of living in a particular area or town and behaving in a way that other people who live in that área will expect you, and the value of commitment means the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause activity, or to be dedicated to do something ,etc. The Raven is a poem that can be also considered as a story about a man trying to forget a lost love but he never succeeds, and this story has a dark mood and depressing theme. In my personal opinion, one of these 2 values is in the story. The reason why i am saying there is one value in this poem is because i believe it is represented like in an abstract way that is not literally mentioned in this poem. The reason why i am saying there is only 1 value is because there is a lack of citizenship that is very characteristic in a grieving process. As we read “The Raven” the author Edgar Allan Poe shows us this lack of citizenship by making the main character in a very depressed way and he is showing how big is the sadness the author is feeling. The reasons i believe commitment is in this poem is because we can infer that the main character is very commited with his lover, we can infer this because we see the depression he is feeling and how sad he is feeling because of the fact that his lover named lenore is dead. Another way i can see commitment in this story is in the fact that the raven is very commited to stay in the house of the author and is stubborn to say just one Word that is “nevermore”. As i read this spectacular poem that is called “The Raven” i can notice that the author that is in a very depressed tone and this causes the value of citizenship to be missing in this story because as we read we see that the main character is like closed in his feelings because of lenore´s recent death. Also in this poem we can see the value of commitment in another aspect that is when the main character is trying to understand why is the raven saying the Word “nevermore” and where did this raven come from. His commitment in making the questions and trying to understand everything. In conclusión this poem i believe has the value of commitment because of all of the details that make this poem to be depressing and because of the many questions the author have, for example when the main character is trying to understand the reason why this raven is in his chamber door saying the same Word over and over, and when he starts trying to understand if this raven is a celestial being, if is coming from hell or if this raven is his dead lover called lenore. And the reason i believe in this poem there is not citizenship is because of the fact that in the definition of citizenship we say that is the state of living in a particular área and behaving in a particular way that people in that área will expect you and in the poem we see that the main character is very depressed and emotionally closed because of the fact he is very sad by the reason of his lover “Lenore” death and his inside battle trying to deal with the pain he feels because of her lost.

Blog #6: patience and caring

The value of patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate, problems, or delay without becoming annoyed or anxious, and the value of caring means displaying kindness and concern for others. Like showing interest to someone. These two values are in the story in different parts and also in different ways, this story makes the readers to be not be afraid of being themselves and makes us feel comfortable  with what we think, and with who we are. The author focus a lot on the effects of self reliance, and this makes people to develop and accept their own culture. Self reliance makes us be patient because we must not discriminate any other person and is an example of caring because we must care about ourselves to be self reliance. the fact that he says we are free to practice any religion is an patience, every single person in the world is free to show his culture and be proud of it, being patient with this means respect them, don't judged and as they accept their own culture, we don't have to be afraid of who we are, we must love ourselves, just as Emerson invites us to do with our own culture, Truth is within one’s self. Emerson says that reliance upon institutionalized religion hinders the ability to grow mentally as an individual. Also Emerson mentions that citizens control the government so they have control. He also mentions “History cannot bring enlightenment; only individual searching can.” this sentence is an example of caring, because it show us that we need to search our enlightenment just to let ourselves be happy. Emerson wrote how the community is a distraction to self growth I believe he means with this that community with their distractions and their bad things and with people judging is not a good place to be self reliant cause this type of things affects us.  This would help the people to not change their beliefs just because other people aren't patient with them or just didn't care enough about humans.  Emerson with makes us think about what might we need  to think or what we need to do, without caring about someone else's opinion, he also said that the people don't have to be conformist but they need to look to big things and be happy and always go for more and explore ourselves and personalities. Emerson in this story has the message of being caring everywhere you have to be caring with others and with ourselves, he states many times that is not bad that we are different but we need to be ourselves even if people says that is wrong we truly belief is right. In my opinion, to be self reliant is to be comfortable and happy with who you are and don't let the society changes your way of being, but to reach that we need patience and caring not just with others and ourselves, we need to  value what others feels or what they think. I like this story because it really makes me think and analyze many aspects of my life

Blog #5: Fairness and justice

Fairness and justice are two values that their main idea is on doing the right thing. On the first poem, “A Psalm of Life”, these values are not exactly mentioned but there messages are there, on the first stanza the autor is saying things such as “life is an empty dream” and “things are not what they seem”. These stanza makes the reader think like life is not what we thought it was and that it is unfair but then this poems start to suggest that despite life is not what it seems and that life is unfair we should be “heroes in the strife” and keep achieving and pursuing  to reach our destiny. On the second poem, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”, justice and fairness are both implied to this poem but justice is implied as a synonym of fairness but on the exact meaning of justice is not because justice is about treating everybody based on their merits or on how good or bad they have been and the message of this poem is about everybody is treat equally in the cycle of life. The cycle of life is not looking for bad people or good people is just following the path of every living thing. I said this message is fair because it is equal for everyone without discriminate anyone.

My opinión is that justice and fairness are very important values and the way these values are implied to the story are like in an abstract way for example in “A Psalm of Life” these values are not in there but we can infer that these values are in there and in “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”, the author suggest these values as a metaphor like when he says “the tide rises, the tide falls” we can infer there he is talking about a cycle that no matter what happens it continues, the tide rises we can say he is talking about life, someone being born and growing up, and a tide falls means when someone is getting old and start to get shorter until the tide finally falls that we can say it is when someone dies. These two values are not the main points on this poems but they are slightly implicated in the message that the author wants us to infer so this is why I think that these values are implied on these poems.

Blog #4: Trustworthiness and thankful

In the story “The Devil and Tom Walker” there is trustworthiness and thankfulness depending in which character we are talking about. For example Tom is someone in which people trust because of his job, but he is not trustworthy because he is a very selfish person and only cares on gaining money. Tom is not a thankful character because he does not value what he have. He has a wife, a good job, and money. Tom is not trustworthy because on the story, at the end, he does not want to keep his deal with the devil because he is scared, this is why he becomes a religious sadic. I believe the devil is trustworthy because the devil always kept his word on what he said. For example the devil in the bargain with Tom said he would make him richer and so he did. Tom’s wife is not trustworthy because she tried to make the deal with the devil by herself and this is why the devil killed her. Tom´s wife is not thankful because she is as miserable as Tom, with this detail from the story we know she is not happy with her life and she just want more tan what she have. Another reason why Tom and Tom´s wife are not trustworthy is because they do not trust each other and a huge part of a marriage is trust. I believe there is trustworthiness on Tom’s friends because they are thinking the best about Tom, not realizing Tom is leading them to bankruptcy, because they think the best of Tom they are thankful to him. In my opinión this story shows this values and satirizes them, for example, as we read we would suppose Tom and Tom´s wife trust and love each other because they are marriage but is not like that so we do not see trustworthiness and they do not value each other so they are not thankful. Another thing on the story is that shows how people that are always selfish will end alone just as Tom did.

Blog #3: Thriller story

THE GHOUL'S CURSE

On a small town named Boringtown there was a guy named Bob, he was about to enter to the university. Bob love to read and he have a friend named Dan. Bob is very bad with girls but Dan is very good with the girls. Bob was in love with a girl he sees everyday in the cafeteria her name is Sara. Dan help Bob to ask Sara out and when Bob ask sara if she would like to hang out with him she said that she would love to go, and she would like to go to the library. Bob says he would love to go to the library and read together, but Sara says to Bob she needs him to pick her at her house. On the news there have been covering an slaughter in which every dead person was without blood. At 5pm Bob pick up Sara and they walked to the library. They have a good time and at 9pm the library was closing so Bob have to take Sara to her house. They were walking and Bob notice that on Sara's neighborhood there were no lights, it was very dark. Sara start getting close to Bob and she bites Bob's neck. Bob start running and he get into a construction, on the construction Bob have no more place to run and Sara was about to eat Bob but a very strong breeze make a huge brick fall from the top of the construction and Sara die. Bob was very hurt but he was alive when he arrive to the hospital the doctors start a surgery and they needed to transplant Sara's organs to Bob. When Bob woke up he notice de don't like food anymore. he sees the blood that is connected to him and he starts drinking the blood. Bob remembered Sara on the library said she likes ghouls.Bob get scared because he thinks that becoming a ghoul is a curse. Bob now can only eat blood. He tells Dan that he is a ghoul and Dan says that he is a ghoul too but he does not kill humans. Dan teach Bob how to be a ghoul without killing humans. Bob met another ghoul named Alex. Bob start falling in love with Alex and they marry and have 3 kids.They teach their kids how to eat without killing humans and they stay together until the end of their days.

Blog #2: My country, my city and my neighborhood

Colombia, one of the most beautiful countries in the planet Earth. Colombia is located on South America on the northwestern tip. The geography of Colombia have 6 main natural regions with unique characteristics, from the Andes mountain range to the insular area that is made of islands in the Atlantic and in the Pacific oceans.The climate in Colombia have many variations on the 6 natural regions. Colombia’s flag is a horizontal tricolour of yellow , blue and red. Many people from other countries usually judge Colombia for some bad things like drugs, Pablo Escobar, and drug trafficking. I believe it is not fair for us that when people think about Colombia they usually think about this problems. I say that it’s not fair because Colombia have many beautiful things. Colombia is the second country with more biodiversity. Colombia have a hybrid and diverse culture,each región in Colombia have their own traits, customs, habits and traditions.Another beautiful thing about Colombia is that there are many places to visit, from museums like the Museo del Oro in Bogota or the Museo Naval del Caribe in Cartagena to parks like Parque Ciudad Montes in Bogota or Parque de la independencia also in Bogota.

Barranquilla, my city, my home. Barranquilla is located in the Atlantico Department and is the capital of this department. Barranquilla is Colombia’s fourth most populous city. Barranquilla have a very damp climate in which it seems like it is summer every day. Barranquilla’s soccer team is called Junior de Barranquilla. In Barranquilla there are many places to visit like Buenavista, which is a mall where you can go to hang out with friends or with your family. On Barranquilla there is a cultural activity which is known as Carnaval de Barranquilla. There are orher events on Barranquilla like the Barranquijazz or the Festival de Orquestas. On Barranquilla there are many schools such as the Lyndon B Johnson which is making students make this essay, the Marymount and the british school among others. Some universities in Barranquilla are Universidad del Norte , Universidad Autonoma del Caribe , Universidad del Atlantico among others. On Barranquilla the most popular sport is soccer but there are other sports that are played on this beautiful city such as basketball, volleyball, and tennis. Barranquilla have beautiful parks like Parque Electrificadora , Parque Washington and Parque Sagrado Corazon. Barranquilla is the home of colombia’s soccer team "Seleccion de futbol de Colombia".

My neighborhood is on a very wonderful location for me. I say is a wonderful location because I have everything I like nearby. On my neighborhood I have a mall called Viva in which i like to go with my friends or with my family to have fun. Another place I like in my neighborhood is Guarapo in which I like to go with my friends to study, talk and eat a sándwich with a juice. I have family and friends that live in my neighborhood so I like to visit them and have fun. On my neighborhood there is a church. Something I like about my neighborhood is that I have many restaurants near my house in which I like to go and eat. Some restaurants i like are Chuzo de la 85, Punto Multiple del Sabor, and Domino’s Pizza. My neighborhood is a very peaceful place, there are no big discussions and people is very kind. The streets on my neighborhood are clean, sometimes there is some trash but when I see trash I try to pick it up and look for a trash can. In my neighborhood there are markets and I like it because I can buy what I need without going too far.       

Blog #1: My Life

Hello , my name is Sebastian De La Espriella Vasquez. I live with my dad, my mom,with my 2 brothers who were born on the same day but they are not twins. my brother Luis and my brother Carlos who I call Kako and with my dog named Chloe. I was born on september 12 of 2001. I am 16 years old. I study at Lyndon B Johnson School. I’m at eleventh grade. I like to watch series on Netflix, to go out with my friends and to play with my friends videogames, My favorite videogame is Overwatch but i also like other games like Rocket League, Battlefield 4, Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm, and Call of Duty zombies. My favorite series on Netflix are The 100 and Arrow. I don’t know what i want to do when i finish school. I want to be a psychiatrist but i don’t want to study medicine, but i know i want to be an excellent professional. I love music, i’m learning to play the piano. I like many musical genres. I want to live some years on Canada because i like that country. I like to go with my friends to the movie theater, or just be at someone’s house talking. We usually go te eat when we go to someone’s house.