January 21

Polishing Literary Response : Gifts that led to trials

work in progress…..

How individuals respond to the trials of lifes adversity will influence the values and morals of one’s identity. The different reactions of adversity are shown in the novel The Glass Castle. The author Jeanette Walls reveals her unstable childhood growing up with an idealistic outlook, selfish parents and no money to eventually become the successful journalist and author she is today. With this she explores the idea that naive individuals reactions to adversity changes overtime from innocence, betrayal and acceptance finally.

 

Looking for the good in a challenging situation can be hard, but when the innocence of a child blinds the difficult truth it becomes natural. Jeanette lived her childhood as an adventure by constantly skedaddling and sleeping underneath the stars. Near the beginning of Jeanette’s childhood, her father and mother could not afford Christmas presents because of their selfishness and instead try to compensate their failure of parenting by giving Jeanette and her siblings all a star. When it becomes Jeanette’s turn she does not pick a star but the planet Venus, which her father, Rex, gave her anyway. Jeanette innocence makes the gift be significantly special to her because she is unaware of the real reason the family lacks money and food. Truthfully it is because Rex and Rosemary decide not to have the motivation a dedication for providing simple necessities for their children. Because Jeanette is so grateful for the gift, the Walls parent believe that living in poverty was just as easy to make the family happy while continuing to live in an hungry household. Jeanette Walls shows the significance of why she still has such hope and open-mindedness as an adult because she was blindly raised to look at the good in any situation rather than focusing on realism.

 

Adversity can be harshly impactful once revealed to an individual, especially a child because they begin to lose their innocence. Jeanette displays this by beginning to blame the adversity instead of her father’s betrayal. For her tenth birthday, Jeanette asked her father to stop drinking alcohol because she recognized that it was hurting the family. Rex promised to do so and Jeanette has known him for not breaking said promises but he eventually does go back on to his bad habit. Jeanette feels betrayed by her father and blames all the poor diversity instead of her dad specifically. This false leading adversity led Jeanette to be angry at her mother who was capable of helping the family because she had lost faith in her father to do so. Jeanette became more motivated to get out of the unstable life she had been living. This gets Jeanette to grow expecting and deserving more for herself than her parents ever provided for her. Jeanette reveals to the reader how adversity does not have to leave to pain but as motivation to thrive.

 

Forgiving and accepting the failures and struggles of past and present adversity will provide confidence. Near the end of the novel, the family separately lives in NewYork city and comes together for Christmas. At first, Jeanette finds it challenging to accept that her parents rather be homeless than stay with her or one of her siblings but eventually realizes this is what they want and to show her support she buys them warm clothes as a Christmas gift. Though her father responded negatively she begins to recognize that her childhood is part of her identity and she must embrace the adversity she has overcome. Because of her realization, Jeanette has confidently foreign and shared her past adversity.

 

Over time the perspectives on how an individual reacts to adversity can change from hope to forgiveness. Jeanette Walls experienced trials in her life through the gifts she has received, been promised and have given. From her Christmas present as a child to be a planet, her undelivered non-alcoholic father birthday present and eventually the stay warm acceptance present to her parents. In conclusion, our adversity is what inspires our values, morals and motivation in our lives so respecting our embarrassing failures is essential in becoming our true potential.

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January 20

Visual Reflection

 

In war, the true identity of people is revealed. We can see the person’s true identity and what type of person they truly are. War is a horrible event sometimes we are forced to do it, but we can’t let ourselves become animals and change who we are. The visual below represents a soldier feeding an orphaned kitten during the Korean War.

 

During the times of crisis, we can see how the smallest and the most unexpected thing could happen. The man feeding the kitten was getting shot at and instead of firing back he chose to put his rifle down and helping someone instead of hurting. In the tight area, he took something that would help him survive and gave it to the kitten so he didn’t have to struggle like he is right now. The soldier with his helmet on his knee and a kitten in his hand, was probably the nicest guy in the world, but the situation he was in was rough and dangerous, but he seemed to keep his cool and do some good instead of bad.

 

The true identities of some people are revealed in desire moments. We see who a person is or what they have in them. People sometimes assume that everything is for the worst, but sometimes it’s not. We have to realize that anyone in any situation can make an impact on the world. The people that are seen to be the bad guys turn out to be the good guys.

 

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January 19

Literary exploration

In the novel of “The Glass Castle”, the author Jeanette Walls, portrays hope by promises by her father. Hope is what kept her going when everything was going wrong. Hope was the engine that lighted her, hope kept

her head up and kept her close to her family. Jeanette was always a person that supported and forgave her father for many different reasons because she always had hope for him.

 

Everyone needs or has hope, especially during dark times. Hope is something that people use to think about the positivity in their lives during all the dark. Hope is the best quality to have because it can help a person through anything. It helped Jeanette threw some harsh times when they were homeless sleeping in their car or in some broken down place. Jeanette always believed in hope and something good will come if she does. She wanted to trust her parents and she believed that they would keep her safe and well. She was always the one that believed and had her fathers back for mostly everything. She didn’t complain when she had to do things in harsh conditions because she had hope.

 

Hope was the biggest thing keeping her and her father close. Her father always talked about hope and made her believe it. Her father made her believe in the glass castle and that it was coming true. He showed her plans and blueprints, but she wasn’t falling for it. She lost all hope in her father, that’s why she went to new york. Hope plays a huge key role in people’s lives. Hope is the only thing some people have in their life. Hope is what makes people believe in a better tomorrow.

 

Hope is the key to everything. You can do everything in life with hope. Hope is key to life and it always will be there for you. Breaking or losing hope is like having your dreams crushed. Hope was something Rex believed in a lot and he didn’t do anything to work for it. Rex always had an excuse for his actions then relied on hope to save him. Hope isn’t something that could be there for him each time.  He realized that when Jeanette left for New York. He started working towards hope again by moving to New York as well to be with his children. When he was in New York he started relying on his children again and started believing in hope, but did not do anything to achieve it. Hope is something that people believe in, but don’t want to work towards. Hope needs to be accomplished by hard work and dedication.

 

Hope is the key to life. Everyone needs to have hope as their quality. It helps everyone become a better person and believe in something good. It helped Jeanette when everything was going bad. It helped her through rough times because she believed some good will come out of it. If we didn’t have hope than we would not believe or trust anything. Hope is a great quality that everyone should have.

 

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January 19

Literary Exploration (ARRTI) – Polished

The Influence of Actions

What is your opinion of the idea that our beliefs are influenced by the actions of others?

Friends and family shape the way an individual sees the world by influencing their beliefs, showing them a new perspective of how the world can be viewed. In the film, “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman Maclean, a character, also named Norman Maclean, is shown to have beliefs that were influenced greatly by his father, Reverend John Norman Maclean, and his brother, Paul Maclean. Norman’s childhood was filled with innocence. A family consisting of a father, mother, brother, and himself.

As an individual starts out their life, their perspective and personality is based off of a parents’ ideals. Norman was homeschooled by his father, mainly working on writing. Whenever Norman made mistakes and/or wasn’t up to the standards set by his father, the father would correct his mistakes using a red pen and make Norman rewrite his work until it was perfected. This affected him as he grew up, shown in the scene where Norman comes back after studying abroad and begins engaging in a conversation with his father in his study. As the conversation goes on, Norman and the father talk about the possibilities of careers that Norman can have as a permanent job. Norman had a dream of having a specific career but it was immediately crushed after seeing his father holding a red pen, symbolizing disappointment, as Norman was mentioning it. Because of this, Norman then changes his career idea to being a teacher. He chooses to do this because his belief, as he grew up, was to always meet his father’s standards.

Another area where the idea of actions causing influence onto your beliefs is through Paul’s eyes. His belief as he grew up was that he will be in the spotlight, the center of attention, well-known, and be famous. The main idea was him being the best. His beliefs begin to shift around and change when Norman comes back from abroad. Paul begins having jealousy towards his brother because of the attention Norman is getting for becoming a Professor. During the scene of the community get together, Norman is shown around by his mother, gloating about his accomplishments to the other ladies in the community. Paul is then shown around the end of the scene, just arriving, getting along with everyone, including their parents, but not speaking to Norman as he leaves.  Since this was the case, Paul then tries to do more things involved with the community to get him more recognized to counter Norman’s new uprising popularity. Because Paul felt like it was a competition and needed to get to the top, he continued stressing out more behind the scenes and is exposed later on through his addiction to alcohol.

My personal experience with this is more of when a belief was put upon me by another individual until I broke out of the idea, so I could change. As a young child, I was always restricted from going outside alone; Whether it’d be a short walk to the river, or just going to the nearby playground to meet up a neighborhood friend; It was never an option to go out without one of my parents or sister accompanying me there. Growing up, my belief that rose from that continued to twist and turn my ideas of not being allowed to go out without one of them until recently. Not that long ago, I went out for the first time, alone, to explore the city, to venture alone for once since I didn’t exactly have friends or anyone to accompany myself, but it felt more fulfilling without others. It’s not a small thing that not many people consider but this small act really helped me in being just that little more free, both externally and internally, instead of staying trapped in the dark abyss that limited everything I was to see and experience. This changed my belief into doing more than I thought I ever could, the little more I could do without plunging into a state of distorted fear and panic due to my personal fear of consequences.

Altogether, the three perspectives listed here connect together because all of them had an experience in a change of beliefs caused by others. Norman’s belief being influenced by his father’s, Paul’s belief broken down because of Norman, and the belief that was put upon me until I changed it. One day, each and every individual, whether it was in the past, present, or future, will inevitably experience another individual’s influence changing their perspective. All in all, this shows how the influence of others, what they say and what they do, can greatly impact how an individual lives their life.

 

 

January 19

Polished Visual

Innocence is a quality which all humans have which brings out the greater good of all by helping others instead of being selfish. In the visual, the author is portraying the idea individuals who must commit ruthless acts  are not doing so for themselves but to help the greater good. In the visual you can see a soldier feeding a tiny, helpless kitten in a trench during the Korean war. The soldier is behind sandbags which provide cover and his helmet is rested on his knee while he is solely focused on making sure the kitten is well. He also has a ring of his right ring finger which means he is most likely has a family of his own. Not knowing if you’ll ever come back to your family is a scary thought, leaving them all alone just as this kitten was left completely alone. In a way the soldier must think it’s his responsibility to take care of this kitten because he is able to help it and be there for it unlike his family. The soldiers clothing is also clean which shows that he was not engaged in combat recently and that this kitten provides hope for him to get home and that he cares for it more than anything else. All individuals, on either side of conflict are fighting for their others and are doing so for the greater good, they do not fight for themselves and all individuals share a sense of innocence which promotes their selflessness.

 

Innocence is what influences us to make selfless choices in order to help those around us rather than ourselves, it guides us to do what is morally correct. When I was just another trouble making kid who would play in his backyard with his sibling, I found a baby bird which was unable to fly due to what seemed to be an injury, when I tried to pick it up the first time it screamed in fear and was trying to escape my grasp. As I let it go I knew that I could just leave it be or try to help it until it was able to survive back outside again, I later came back with a milk crate and me and my family kept him in their for a bit feeding him very often inside our home. Two months later me and my sister were debating on whether we should keep him or let him be free. The bird had become less fearful of us but he was still scared when one of us tried to hold him. My sister wanted to keep him while I believed it would be better if we had left him go back out in the wild where he belongs and hopefully he would find his family. My innocence is what helped me let him go, knowing the bird would most likely want to fly freely instead of being caged up for the rest of his life and this decision was supported by my parents too.

 

Individuals must make selfless choices in order to help others and these choices are reached by embracing innocence and doing what is morally correct. All humans are capable of feeling innocence and all we need is to be presented with a situation to provide hope to another living being. Providing hope to others also leaves us feeling better knowing what we did helped someone else and that now they have the potential to do the same for another. This feeling also provides us with hope and can comfort us of our fears and we can leave this world happy knowing we made another life better just by committing a small act.

January 19

Literary Exploration (TGC) – Polished

The Significance of Hope

Over the period of an individual’s lifespan, there will often be a point in their life where they develop a personal sense of hope or dream, manifested from the dreams of the past. It is often found after a person is at a low point in their life, where they seek salvation of themselves for a brighter future. By visualizing a better road ahead of them, it becomes their sense of hope that they act upon in order to redeem themselves. In the memoir, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the idea of reassurance using a sense of hope is present through the perspective of Jeanette and her life story. As Jeannette finds herself and her family in desperation, it resulted finding a hope of her own that deemed more livable.

Providing hope to youth at a young age brings an idealistic sense of success for sustainability for an individual as they grow older. Jeannette Walls in her earliest memory was three years old. She begins as a young child who knows nothing outside of her innocence while living in un-ideal conditions. Her father, Rex Walls, provides the family with hopes of a stable future through a blueprint he created called: The Glass Castle. This becomes the dream of the family, the kids visually it as the almighty plan for their future. As this becomes their sense of rationality, it becomes their pride and joy whenever the parents see upcoming desperation in their situation. Knowing this, Rex realizes that this fantasized dream will become the one thing that keeps the family from falling apart. This presents the idea that as we are young, we are presented with a path for a better future to escape the ideas of a worse future.

As an individual develops their knowledge and wisdom, reality overpowers idealism: crushing hopes and dreams. By the middle of the memoir, Jeanette is caught in a moment where it brings her to the reality of their dire situation, speeding up the decay of their once-believed dream. Jeannette and other members of the family dig out a foundation for their plan of the Glass Castle; as this becomes the first step to a hope for their future household, it also becomes their last. Since the family wasn’t living in ideal conditions, the pit that was dug out slowly becomes their garbage disposal: accumulating trash over the time as they lived in the household beside the pit. As it fills up, Jeannette soon realizes the hope for the family’s future, The Glass Castle, is buried underneath as well because the castle was their last source of redemption. The sense of certainty of that dream, hope for the family, is soon lost as she ages and becomes more mature.

As hope can become despair, despair leads back to creating a new sense of hope. Jeannette realizes her current reality and soon develops a new dream, a hope of her own: moving to New York. As she plans out her escape from the façade her father has created, Rex comes back once more to reel her back in hopes of salvation of that dream. Jeannette realizes what her father is trying to do but tells him that he may build the Glass Castle, but in three months, she will no longer be living with them because she is moving to New York. Because she found the in-between of a dream and reality, she created a new hope for herself in realistic standards that have a higher chance of becoming a better reality.

In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls presents the idea that hope is an important quality in an individual’s life. When a person is stuck in the depths of desperation, a hope they create becomes their redemption. The only thing that holds a person back from achieving personal greatness is when they can no longer see a reason for themselves. By seeking salvation for themselves, a new hope will be formed.

January 19

memories: writing journal

 

The silence, to me it has always held something so easy and calming within me, something that floods me with a sudden feeling of restfulness and sends me back to other moments just like that one.

 

Moments such as the silence that overcomes me once I see the view of what is below from the summit off Castle Mountain in the Upper Alberts Rockies.

 

Moments such as the silence that calms my rushing mind as my paddle strokes through the calm fog covered lake gleaming in the rising sun of my morning paddles on Mara Lake.

 

Moments such as the peaceful silence that waves over me as I dive into the underwater kingdom off the coast of Hawaii.

 

It is crazy to me, as a loud and social human, that my greatest memories are those that are also my quietest moments. The moments that take everything, including my words, away from me. Memories that are full of pure breathtaking beauty.

 

But the one memory that sticks out the most for me is that of the fresh mornings spent growing and working on my passion in the crisp morning air. Yes, the early mornings before a horse show were full of brutal sleeps due to the early wake up calls and the slap of the cold morning air in my face as I trekked out to the field in my sweatpants to gather my best friends. But no matter how cold it was I always gave myself that moment. That moment to breath deep in the air of home and look out into the pastures I have know my whole life, but now suddenly appear much more complex in the dim morning light shining off the layer of frost that covers the early august crop.

 

These silences have always been my safety spot. The place where my mind wanders once the feeling of stress or anxiety begins to over power the peaceful zone I create for myself. These are the memories I dream of as I drift into a happy slumber, the trace of a small smile on my face with dreams of my silent adventures. The moments in my life with no noise happen to also be the memories that speak to me the most.

 

January 19

Visual Response – Polished

The Korean War

The visual that was presented is a photograph of a soldier feeding an orphaned kitten during the Korean War in 1952. In this photo, it sparks the idea of: How far does kindness go when you’re stuck in between saving another life or saving your own? The soldier’s belief, in this case, is importance of the lives of others, showing selflessness through his deeds.

The soldier depicted seems to be hidden under ground level, this statement in visualized by the soldier laying down on mud in a trench, nearby his head is a patch of dried grass, providing camouflage and shelter. Within this, the soldier is leaning against a stack of sandbags, ultimately making it more difficult for enemies to attack him as he’s not exposed. As the soldier hides underground, his body is packed together restricting his movement. Although this is the case, looking closely, he has a tiny kitten around the size of his hand within his grasp, feeding the kitten very delicately with a small syringe. As he feeds the kitten, his helmet is taken off his head, leaving him exposed to potential head-shots that could kill him instantly. Since the soldier’s helmet is off, it shows how attentive he is to the kitten at the very moment in time, risking his life to save the orphaned kitten who was quietly starving alone. Feeding the kitten is a huge risk as it also leaves the soldier attentive to the kitten only, not his surroundings. In a battle field, it is an extremely risky and dangerous situation, especially if the opposing side there threw explosives or charged forward to attack while this side wasn’t paying attention. The soldier’s choice that he made was out of selflessness: passionate desperation for the life of the kitten.

With the situation of being on the battlefield, the decisions made by the soldier are intriguing as it is difficult to see who’s life is more worthy during those times; Should one protect themself in order to secure a future for others overtime, or should one protect another life at that moment, potentially risking it all: having the chance of saving the other person while knowing the uncertainty of themself and the victim living during the battle. In the end, whether or not it was the smartest decision to make, taking a moment to give a small act of kindness, feeding an orphaned kitten a while longer to live before letting it go, was the choice of the soldier. Since the soldier once was another normal everyday citizen, he applied to be a soldier for war, meaning he was ready to be stationed in battle to secure a future for others and the greater good. Although that risky choice he made could have become the death of them both, the soldier and kitten, he still chose to show compassion one last time.

 

Knowing the importance of every decision that is made and/or will soon be made; how far can kindness go without knowing a guarantee ending? That question itself doesn’t have a specific answer either. Therefore, upon what you believe, make the right choices.

January 18

revised lit exploration

When a person’s actions influence the beliefs of another we will often refer to them as a role model. A role model is seen as someone who is admirable either in his accomplishments or in the distinctive way they live their life and the actions that follow these beliefs.  By surrounding ourselves with role models that live life or act on things in a different way we can look up to them in order to find a change in our beliefs or actions. In A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean you can see two contradictory boys aspiring and learning from each others actions in order to change their way of thinking or their individual beliefs. Even though we are all different we can all be the role model that’s actions influence those around us.

 

Norman has always been seen as the golden child, the boy that grew up perfectly under the influence of his father and seen as the keeper of his brother safety. When the boys are young Paul waits around all day to follow the lead of his brother after he is done with his school work. As Paul and Norman head out to the river they talk and dream about what they want to do in the future. Normans ideas being much more practical than Paul’s initial ideas. As Paul waits for Normans approval you see him being influenced by the more the feasible ideas that Norman has, changing his mind from completely unrealistic to the same dream as his brother. This show Normans influence over his brothers thoughts and actions starting from a young age. Paul is seen constantly pulling ideas and actions from those of his brothers.

 

In the film Paul, the young, adventurous and dangerous brother, is often seen as troubled and as compared to his brother, unsuccessful. Though Paul has some less than attractive behaviour they are all hidden behind a charm that accompanies all his actions. This charm allows him to get away from the structure that they boys both grew up in. Both boys from a young age were groomed to grow into perfect well behaved mirror images of their father, though Paul has drifted from this strict guidance. But somethings will never change just like how strict the boys are when it comes to fishing, with perfect tempo as taught to them, but as time went on Paul continued to test the guidelines set by his father.“ In the time that I was away my brother became an artist.” Norman said as he watched his brother with pure awe as he fished a new pattern that was entirely new and his own when he came back to fish with his brother after years away at school. Paul’s actions were captivating to his brother and influenced Norman to test the limits and branch out as he just witnessed Paul do. Norman allowed himself to tell his dad what he wanted to do after school, even though they were not within the father’s wishes.  Though Norman stuck to who he was he saw his brother as a role model and continued to attempt to push the boundaries of his structured ways follow in his brothers’ footsteps.

 

At a very young age I started to ride horse competitively. This was many years before my brother began riding. At these times I was seen as the role model, the one with all the experience and knowledge of how to get the horse to do this and that. My brother constantly trying to learn off my years of experience and confidence on the back of a horse that he lacked. But as the years progressed my brother strayed from my structured way of training horses in to his own free and creative way of training. As the years have passed the roles have switched and I am now the one looking up to him for advice and instructions as I watch from the sidelines of the rodeo examining every actions in order to implement them into my training. With the shared knowledge and actions we both have been able to act as each other role models in the arena, looking up to each other’s differences and learning new and better things from each other.

 

A role model is a person whose actions are looked up to or can change the beliefs of those around them. Though we can be a role model for others the roles can often become reversed where those who once looked up to us are no leading us down a new path. As people are shown new and admirable actions we will always find an effect on the beliefs of each other.

 

January 18

Why Me: revised visual

 

File:Digging for drinking water in a dry riverbed (6220146368).jpg

“Why me”’

Pain shoots to my small fingers as they claw through the rough and drying mud at the hole we called a well; this was my daily chore. A chore most 10 year olds are never faced with, or would every cross their mind. Most kids are happy with the clean stream of thirst quenching water that can be found by the turn of a nozzle at any time of day, month or year. My faucet is quite slow in comparison; a hole in the earth filled only after hours of excruciating work done with a large shell of a nut acting as a makeshift shovel. My water is not as you would imagine, it is filled with rocks, silt, and is followed with an unsettling taste that would make anyones stomach lurch.  Yet we live in a world distributed extremely unfairly, giving vengeance of this pain to those with a more fortuitous geographical location. I, sadly, am not one of those lucky few, so here I am making a daily trek to collect what we consider water.

A water that makes us sick.

A water that can never satisfy my constant thirst.

A water that take hours to collect for a single sip that must be shared by all.

This was a reality we faced everyday, constantly in a state of panic of who’s going to be next. The next to be taken over by the beast we call dehydration; A monster that haunts us all at night as we lay in the heat feeling the little water we took in slip out of our parched pores.

Some Nights I dream of vast beautiful bodies of water littered with people screaming out in joy. Figures that are covered in a crystal clear sheen of moisture as they run after each other with threats of splashes and dunks. Floating children on large pink inflatable flamingos; fingernails  perfectly intact from a successful search for water. Their search, a much more forgiving task than mine, cut short by the endless flow of fun, found by the hoses at each end of the pool. Happy ignorant smiles sprawled across everyones’ faces as they take in the luxury of their life; turning a blind eye to the necessity that I lack.

What is it like to have enough water, not only for everyone to drink but for everyone to frolic in on a hot summer day?

Why do we not have enough water to end this thirst?

Who decided that they deserved all the water?

These dreams and questions haunt me as I think of the luxury I lack.

 

As I wake the next morning, breaking the distant memory of fun and refreshment, I become drowned in the stress of what should be drowning me in fun.