What If... I've Been There!!!

I disagree with Andrese's ideas, because if I would have been in that situation, I wouldn't take advantage of the people in the house. I'll rather try to foment the creation of a collective identity, a group. This is the most logic thing to do in such situations because it is way better to form a travel group in order to survive rather than just stealing everything and then to deal with everything by myself. They say humans are sociable in nature, so is the most logical and natural thing to do. Think of the benefits... You could carry more stuff and is more than obvious that a bunch of hands work better than just 2. In conclusion, I think that the main character wouldn't have done the same if he din't have the kid, but on the other hand he would have probably tried to organize this people in order to make his journey easier.

When I commented this matter to Andres, he said that thinking it again my solution sounded "more practical", but as they say, we can't be sure of what are we going to do on certain situations unless we are there.  

(Yeah!!!... My secret identity is Bear Grills!!!)

Register Exercise

1.  Hi sir sorry for not attending your class last week but I was very sick. I arrived today from a trip I was for the puente. I wanted to let you know that all my blogs are completed until last week. Furthermore I will talk to you tomorrow for anything else i am missing. Please take a look at them so you can grade them.
thanks,

         This piece is informal, because it has daily used words, but isn't familiar because there are no words that seem to require an internal understanding of the relationship between the people addressed   

2.   And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people. The cause of securing our country is not complete, but tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history. Whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people or the struggle for equality for all our citizens, our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.

      This extract shows a rather formal or even ceremonial register, as it uses generic audience references such as "american people" that suggest a speech situation.

3.   OMG! I love lit. Holy mole, I want to be a poet, yo. J

   

      Are there any explanations needed? FAMILIAR.

    

4.   In Brooklyn days, I wanted to be Carlos Ortiz, lightweight champion
of the world from Ponce, Puerto Rico. I gazed at the radiance
of the black and white television till it spoke to me in tongues,
a boy spellbound by the grainy spirits who stalked each other in the ring.

      This text shows a formal register that tends to turn more informal, this is because it describes personal experiences.

5.   I pointed out that his force had overthrown the government that issued visas. But, in this kind of a stalemate, the guy with the gun wins. And that was Ayman.

Eventually, he came up with a solution. I would give him a ride to his hometown, Zawarah, and the visa requirement would disappear. I gritted my teeth and told him to jump in.

That incident points to a fear that many Americans have of the Libyan rebels. Are they just goons who will create their own tyranny or chaos?

Particularly after we embraced Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, only to see him engulfed by corruption, it’s fair to ask whether the Libyan rebels will do any better. The uncertainties are real. But, after my recent visit to Libya, I’m guardedly optimistic.

This final extract is formal. This is shown by the conciseness of the ideas presentation (highlighted in blue) and the tendency to use a varied language. 

Are This People Stupid??? No, Seriously, Are They Out of Their Mind?!?!?!

Reading through The Road, looking for some serious elements that I could discuss, I found the most ridiculously shocking act of stupidity that I've ever read in a book throughout my whole life!!! I think that the extract is the only explanation needed:

"The waterfall fell into the pool almost at its center. (...) He turned and swam out to the falls and let the water beat upon him." (p. 38)

Is this for real??? Who in a reasoning state of mind could EVER think of swimming in the freezing cold the author describes in the book??? I even got to think that this may be foreshadowing of some sickness caught by one of the characters, because swimming in a place where there is snow and where you don't got any spare clothes or even shelter to get dry is simply so stupid that I'll guess that the kid will get pneumonia or some other horrible disease.

Lets just think about the hypothetical case where the kid dies of a cold or flu and the man is left alone in the middle of the road with the corpse of his dead son and a feeling of guilt that would provably drive him mad. The last thing I will say is that "if the kid dies, I TOLD YOU SO..."

To conclude, here is a video that represents the one and only more stupid thing that the one in the book:

          

Mother Nature's Naughty Son's

After some in-class discussion that helped me to recover my sleep, (for those who didn't read my last blog, is all about that thing of the cause of The Roads Apocalypse) we finally got to the conclusion that the dooms-day scenario in the novel was caused by... guess who? Yeah us, the humanity. Everything seems to point that the human lifestyle and its 'giving a ..." about Earth is what killed us all. (Thank you everyday guy who does not recycle...)

Anyway, even if we don't know exactly what happened (I am still going for The
Simpsons evil chemical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-9eYvvfhf4)  there is a paragraph that describes a dream that reinforces that idea of natural hazards. In the dream, the man sees the bride that appears in the novels first dream, but she is sick now and he is taking care of her. Furthermore, the line I want to highlight is "...did not take care of her and she died alone somewhere in the dark..." (p. 32)

This could be a metaphor of Mother Nature suffering from human misuse and finally decaying to death as a consequence of this human ignorance. The character also seems to dream with this because he feels guilty for what happened to the world. Could he be involved in an evil conspiracy that destroyed the know world?!? Nah... I don't think so, so lets stay with Mother Nature's theory, and to make you stay with the idea here is Mother Nature's Son by The Beatles...

(Haha, the frog missed!!! XD, now seriously, enjoy nature and take care of it for future generations.)         

The Cause of all...

When we first start reading The Road, we notice that the world has been raided by some kind of apocalypse. The reason of this apocalypse remains unknown and this may be because the author expects us to interpret this as a cause of our own or something like that kind of profound stuff, but I still can't stop asking myself, what happened to the world of The Road?!? After reading further into the novel, I found something that may be the answer to my suffering.

The enlightenment came to me as a snowball hitting the head of a child on a winter paradise.                                       

                                                       

 And guess where I found the clue... 

Eh... yep on the book.

(Jaja, Headshot!!!)

It was made clear to me when the kid ingenuously asks his father that if "...there could be fish..." (p. 22) in a lake they see from the top of a hill, but the real stuff is in his father's answer, "there's nothing in the lake." Is not one of my clearest explanations, but the as I said, this appeared in my head. Could it be something like a pollutant that got into the water and as it followed waters cycle it got into all over the world? Makes sense to me... this could explain the gray snow and water. But simply can't explain why society collapsed, I honestly hope that the answer is deeper in the novel, because I'm almost banging my head against the wall trying to figure it out. 

(OMG!!! Is the evil pollutant!!!)

Through Words We See... But Are They Always Right?

After reading Alejandra's Blogg, I have got a to a conclusion. The Road is a fairly depressing book!!! Tell me if I'm wrong, but the situation in which both main characters are is bad enough to make a family guy to kill himself...

 

  

But, is everything as bad? from A's point of view, the novel is a constant struggle to decide whether to survive or to kill yourself. But there is an important point to consider, as the main character is a father, is he actually going to be selfish enough to kill himself with the spare bullet leaving his son defenseless against the countless dangers of the endless wasteland he is currently living? or he might be responsible enough to survive until his son is safe? The second possibility seems to suit the novels ideals better. It is reasonable to think that he loves his son, even more, he finds his happiness in him. In conclusion, I disagree with A's position because I think it is more plausible that the main character would survive for his son before dying himself.

 So, we can see through the words or we can see through (past) the words?  

Considering that we all make different interpretation on words...          

 I think that                                                             of sight...

                 if we do             0           kind 

                              we                    different 

                                    all            a

                                          have 

Is all Truth, Beauty and justice?

In response to Maria Cecilia's blogg, I can state that I completely agree with the conclusions she had drawn. She just nailed it, the daydreaming that the main character shows throughout the novel is incredibly intense and melancholic. The author seems to be making an analogy that describes the wide spectrum of frustrated dreams that modern society is constantly increasing, as it raids with peoples hopes. Even if it is a profoundly depressing metaphor, he also emphasizes on the human capability of creating happiness for itself; this is shown (exactly as described on Truth, Beauty and Justice) on this man's daydreaming extacy and the conversations with his child. The other important theme represented by this author is the main character's solidarity, he gets happiness and hope from his child's well being. In overall, I'd enjoyed MC's blogg and hope to see more of these ideas in the future,       

Close Reading on Coming Through Slaughter

After reading the novel Coming through Slaughter, I decided to perform a close reading of two sections of the storyline. One will be presented on this entry, and the other on this entry’s second edition. The following extract is placed in the storyline when Nora receives a visitor.

“Hello Webb, come in.

Thanks. Buddy must be out.

She half laughed. Buddy! And then looked quizzical at him.

Then shook her head.

Yeah, you better come in Webb.” (19)  

Analysis:

When Webb says “Buddy must be out” he implies that he is not welcomed by Buddy, maybe he is jealous of Webb, afraid that he may steal his lady (19). Nora’s actions suggest that she knows that Buddy will get angry if she sees Webb, so she assures that Bolden isn’t home.  Her laughing also suggest that she is a trouble maker and she knows it.

Bis.

The second extract is from the end of the novel in the exact moment when Bolden dies.

“Bolden’s hand going up

in agony.

His brain driving it up into the

path of the circling fan.” (136)

Analysis:

Bolden’s raising hand represents not only his physical agony, but also his internal suffering when committing suicide. Suicide is implied in the phrase “His brain driving it up...” (136). This phrase also suggests that he is mad and can’t control his actions, to the point of self destruction.  

HOW DOES THE STYLE OF THE ROAD CONTRIBUTES TO THE BOOK'S EFFECTIVENESS?

 In literature, readers are attracted to certain characteristics that the book presents. In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, a series of elements make the novel to effectively attract the audience. I will continue to analyze these elements.

 In first place, one of the elements that the book provides is the fast pace created by it's small sentences.

"An old chronicle. To seek the upright. No fall but preceded  by a declination." (15)

  In this extract we can clearly see that the sentences are short and not paused. We can also see a remarkable lack of commas. This simple type of sentence construction makes the reader to go through the book rapidly making the monotone beginning faster and intensifying the action.

  Another resource that the author employs in order to make the book more interesting for the audience is the vivid description of the landscape.

"The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void."

  Here we can see a deep and graphic description achieved by the use of powerful and concise word choice. This creates a sense of familiarity from the reader, made itself by the easiness of the imagination of the objects.  Remember how easily the images of the book came alive in your head? I do.

This was my structural analysis of the first pages of The Road, I hope you've enjoyed.

Now, please comment below. Have you read through the first pages rapidly and enjoying?

 

How the opening scene of The Road is alike the movie the book of Eli?

As you could have figured out, The Road is a post apocalyptic novel where the main character is not presented in the begging. ( is only presented as a he or the man )

Watch the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYrrofV76EY

Do you see any similarities, any differences (except for the kid, please, and try to focus on the environment.) the description of the landscape is really similar to the one on the video, and in the movie they also travel to the coast.

These are the quotes that, I think, resemble the clip:

"Nights beyond darkness and the days more gray each one what had gone before." (p.3)

Look at the clip's sky man, it looks like an apathetic's room!!!

"Barren, sightless, godless." (p.4)

The dead man with the gun fits to "godless" and the place looks pretty deserted.

"The soft ash blowing in loose swirls over the Blacktop" (p.4)

Ash snowing, dah (clearly seen on the clip.)