English 3 - Pahomov - D Public Feed

Create a Post

Lucentio in Manhattan

Posted by Pilar Carroll in English 3 - Pahomov - D on


Lucentio in Manhattan

The Taming of the Shrew; Maid in Manhattan

Pilar Carroll

Air Stream


     In english class we read the play The Taming of the Shrew, one of the main characters is Bianca, a beautiful girl that all the men are fond of. By contrast  the play also includes bianca’s sister, Katherine, a mean sour women who men tend to stay away from. Then there are the men of the play, Baptista, the father, Patricio, Katherine's husband, and Bianca's three suitors, Luciano, Grumio, and Hortensio. In the Maid in Manhattan, the main characters name is Marissa, she is a maid at The Beresford Hotel. She has a son named Ty. There is a man at the Hotel named Christopher Marshall, he is running for senator, and helping him is Jerry. Lasty, there is a women also staying at the hotel named Caroline, she is extremely rich.  


     In both this play and the movie, money is a factor. Though almost everyone in The Taming of the Shrew has the same social class, Marissa in Maid in Manhattan, was of a lower class than the rest of the characters in that movie. This could be seen as making the movies have no connection, but that fact that Marissa lied about her social class, is just like Lucentio lying about his identity and profession. These scenarios are very similar. Through out both the movie and the play, The characters act deceitfully when put in strange situations of love.


LUCENTIO

Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he!

But art thou not advised, he took some care

To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?

TRANIO

Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now ’tis plotted!

LUCENTIO

I have it, Tranio!

TRANIO

   You will be schoolmaster

And undertake the teaching of the maid:

That’s your device.

(Act 1, Scene 1, 158-169)


     In this scene of The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio, a young, handsome man who was sent to Pisa to go to university, sees a young women, named Bianca, accompanied by her undesirable sister, Katherine, and her father, Baptista. Bianca has two suitors following her Grumio, and Hortensio.There is a short spute between Katherine and the suitors, but eventually it is finished and they all go inside. After they leave, Lucentio discussed with his servant, Tranio about love he fell in love with her, at first sight. He knows that he could not court her they way his is now simply because her father with not approve. So he decided that he will disguise himself, to deceive Baptista, and Bianca, eventually to woo her. He dresses up as something Bianca is very familiar with, and fond of, a school teacher.


     This scene of Maid in Manhattan. Marissa is cleaning up the Park suite for a wealth guest. Another maid, Stephanie is helping Marissa clean the suite. While they are cleaning, Stephanie goes into the guests closet, and pulls out a Dolce & Gabbana outfit, begging Marissa to try them on. As she is putting on the clothes. Marissa's nine year old son, Ty, meets Christopher Marshall, a politician, his dog, and his right hand man, Jerry, on the elevator. Ty asks Christopher if he could walk his go with him. He goes upstairs to the park suite to ask Marissa, accompanied by Christopher. As Ty knocks on the door, Stephanie opens it. Stephanie see’s Christopher with Ty, and introduces Marissa as Ms.Carolyn, the name of the women renting the suite. Marissa and Christopher lock eyes, and have an intense moment. Her over ruled by his looks, plays along as being Carolyn.

     In both these scenes, Lucentio, and Marissa found the ones they loved, from love at first sight. They both decided to be in disguise to woo the ones they loved, and admired.


“LUCENTIO

Here’s Lucentio, right son to the right Vincentio,

That have by marriage made thy daughter mine

While counterfeit supposes bleared thine eyne.”

(Act 5, Scene 1, 97-99)


     In this scene of The Taming of the Shrew, the real Lucentio reveals himself to Bianca’s family. Before he reveals himself, everyone thinks that he is a latin teacher. After he shares that he is Lucentio, he explains how he is going to marry Bianca. He has shown that they loved each other, and have disregarded the fact that he lied about who he was in order for her to fall for him.



       This is the last scene in Maid in Manhattan. Previously, Christopher found out that Marissa was the maid. She was fired from her job. Christopher and Marissa parted ways, but were clearly devastated by their split. One day, Christopher was in town making a speech, and Ty, Marissa's son, knew he was going to be at her hotel. During Christophers speech, he asked for any questions, Ty asked about giving people second chances. Ty the convinced Christopher to go and find Marissa, and confess his love to her. When marissa saw Christopher she expressed how sorry she was, and how she was scared regarding her social class. But he exclaimed that he didn’t care. They confessed their love to each other, and lived “happily ever after”.

     Even though the scenarios were not completely the same in The Taming of the Shrew, and in Maid in Manhattan; both stories have extremely similar introductions into deceitfulness, and outcomes of deceitfulness. Both Lucentio and Marissa saw opportunities to get to the ones they love, and they took their chances. Thankfully, Bianca, and Christopher loved them so much that they did not care about the lies, because love is all that matters.  


Work Cited:
  • Shakespeare, William. The Taming Of The Shrew. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print.
  • Maid in Manhattan. Perf. Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes. Columbia Pictures, 2003. Netflix.

The Proposal Of The Shrew

Posted by Alex Colón-Vazquez in English 3 - Pahomov - D on



The Proposal of The Shrew


I chose to focus on a romantic comedy, this movie stars Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate, and Ryan Reynolds as Andrew Paxton. Margaret Tate is a canadian woman who finds out that she is facing deportation because of her expired visa. Since she is very committed to her job she convinces her assistant Andrew Paxton to pretend as her fiance until she can fix visa issues. The Taming of the Shrew shows the journey of how two polar opposites began a relationship and eventually through the up’s and down’s fell in love, this comedy revolves around Petruchio’s journey to marry the older sister but ill-tempered Katherine in order for the younger sister Bianca to marry. Both The Proposal and The Taming of the Shrew have similar issues that characters in The Proposal and The Taming of the Shrew, Margaret Tate and Andrew Paxton  


The Proposal and The Taming of the Shrew both contains two strong female characters that are filled with hardship and are considered to be heartless, but both women fall romantically in love once both males in each story show them how to love.


"Quote from Play"


Pertruchio: “ A herald Kate? O, put me in thy books.”


Katherine: “ What is you crest? A coxcomb?


Pertruchio: “A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.”


Katherine: “No cock of mine. You crow too like a craven.”


Pertruchio: “Nay, come, Kate, come. You must not look so sour.”


Katherine: “It is my fashion when I see a crab.”


In this conversation Petruchio and Katherine fight back and forth, in their heated exchange of words many sexual references were used as clever comebacks. This relates to my thesis statement because it gives an example of how negative Katherine can be as a result to how Petruchio tries to tame her.



Act 2, Scene 1, 210


(Act x, Scene x, line numbers)





Andrew and Margaret are put under pressure as they are demanded to tell the story of who they got engaged. But it takes a turn for the worse as Margaret and Andrew secretly insult each other as they tell the tale of their engagement.

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 6.49.37 PM.png


In this scene of “The Proposal” Andrew and Margaret go to Sitka, Alaska where Andrew’s family lives so Margaret could meet them. Margaret wasn’t adjusting to well to Andrew’s hometown and was already on a rocky start with his family. Later in the scene Andrew and his dad have a heated discussion about his relationship with his boss, at that moment asked for the attention of everyone in the room and announced that he and Margaret will be getting married. When asked if they would have children in the near future Margaret and Andrew go back and forth insulting each other about what they lack and their weaknesses.



Katherine: “ Husband, let’s follow to see the end of this ado.”


Petruchio: “ First Kiss me, Kate, and we will.


Katherine: “ What, in the midst of the street?”


Petruchio: “ What, art thou ashamed of me?”

Katherine: “ No, sir God Forbid, but ashamed to kiss.”


Petruchio: “ Why then, let’s home again. Come, sirrah, let’s away.”


Katherine: “ Nay, I will give thee a kiss. Now pray thee, love, stay.”


Petruchio: “ Is not this well? Come, my sweet Kate. Better once than never, for never too late.”


Act 5, Scene 5, Page 205




Analysis: 

In this scene of "The Taming of The Shrew" Katherine falls in love with Petruchio despite their recent fights in the early scenes. Before they do anything Petruchio wants Katherine to kiss him in the middle of the street, almost as if it proves her love to him. She doesn't know how she feels about kissing him in the street at first, but then kisses him as they are about to leave. The quotes relate to my thesis statement because it shows how their transition from hating each other to loving each other at the end. 







Margaret holds back on expressing her true feelings for Andrew, Andrew demands that she commit to what she feels and that he is in love with her and wants to get married. She eventually gives in and kisses him.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 9.52.30 PM.png















In this scene of “ The Proposal” Margaret packs up all her things from her office as she prepares to be deported back to Canada where she was born. Andrew follows her back to New York from Alaska to finally make her realize that she doesn’t need to be cold hearted and that she is wanted. As the scene continues Margaret continues to push Andrew away and makes excuses as to why she prefers to be alone, but Andrew stands his ground and eventually leans in to kiss her in front of all of her employees. This scene relates to my thesis statement because it shows how Andrew forces Margaret to face reality and realize that she doesn’t always have to be tough throughs others, he even stands his ground when she tries to push him away and point out all of his flaws and why they shouldn’t be together. This scene relates to the "The Taming of The Shrew" because in the beginning of the movie Andrew hated her because she was heartless and a cruel boss, but at the end they fall in love and declare their love just as Petruchio and Katherine did in the book.


Every man and woman is expected to always be in a relationship, and if that relationship were to end the hunt for a new partner becomes a notion that clouds what really matters. But when the untamed lose their instinct to hunt for a new partner, their hunger can become very bitter. “The Taming of the Shrew” and “The Proposal” show how two strong, cold hearted female characters fall for the men they would have never thought they would be with. Society uses this status quo to advertise that you have to act like a damsel in distress to be in a relationship. Both the movie and the book give a clear example of how the damsel in distress act isn’t always the solution.


Work Cited:

1). "The Proposal: Why Are You Panting?" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

2). SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.



Movie Visual Essay - A Love We Didn’t Think We’d Get

Posted by Naomi Fecher-Davis in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

A Love We Didn’t Think We’d Get

The William and Kate Story; Taming of the Shrew


     Taming of the Shrew and The William and Kate Story may seem like two very different stories but when analyzed deeper the audience can see that their characters have many things in common. In Taming of the Shrew Baptista is the father of two girls who are both of marrying age, the problem is that one of them, the older, has to get married first and she isn’t exactly turning all the guy’s heads. She is a tougher girl that doesn’t want to be defined by a man. The William and Kate Story is a lifetime movie about Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton. It follows them from the first time they met until they got married. Both stories follow children in royal families and them on their way to getting married. In both stories there are conflicts with how the children are to be married. Being royal children is hard because all they have is family but now a day it is easier than it ever has been.


“Gentlemen, importune me no father, For how I firmly am resolved you know: That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder.” - Baptista (Act 1. Sc1. Line 45 - 51)


  At this moment in the play, Baptista, the father of Katherine and Bianca, is talking to his daughter suitors. He is telling them that no matter how many suitors come for his younger and kinder daughter Bianca that she is not getting married before his eldest Katherine. In The William and Kate Story William’s father, Prince Charles, is meeting his son’s friends for the first time, most of them commoners. Among the friends is his girlfriend Kate who is also a commoner. It is hard for the Prince to be okay with his son, a part of the royal family, dating a commoner.   


    At this point in the movie Kate is getting to know her boyfriends father. She tried very hard to fit into the role of a suitor for her royal boyfriend. William invites his friends for lunch at the palace and his friends do their very best but the viewer can feel the awkwardness that is felt at the table. The Prince tries his best to make conversation but they have so little in common. It is hard for all the characters in both situations. In The Taming of the Shrew everyone wants to marry the youngest daughter but are unable to until the eldest is married. In The William and Kate Story William has fallen in love with someone who his family won’t approve of because of her social status.



“Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What, shall I be appointed hours as though, belike, I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!” - Katherine (Act 1, Sc 1, Line 104 - 106)


    At this point in the play Katherine is ranting on why she doesn’t need a man. She feels as though if she was to get married the man would simply take over her life and control her. At the time the play was written that was a very legitimate fear. In Katherine Middleton’s case, 400 years from when Shakespeare was writing about it, has a legitimate reason to think her life is going to be taken over and controlled by the royal family.




    In the movie when these two screenshots takes place Kate is invited to William’s birthday party, where she believes she is going to be officially introduced as his girlfriend. Instead, she looks like a fool as he asks another girl to help him blow out the candles. Later, when Kate confronts William about it, he tells her that it was just for show and was something he had to do. He also stated he didn’t want to do it but because he is part of the royal family he has obligations that he had to conform to.

    Though the play and the movie were written so far apart it is clear to see that there are still clear similarities between how royal families treat their children being married off. In the play Baptista was very strict on the order in which his daughters could be married. In the movie Prince Charles is stuck in a situation where his son wants to marry someone outside of the royal family, that though is more common now a day is still not the normal way things are done. The viewer of both of these can see that though times have changed in terms of courtship and marriage has changed outside of the royal families, inside it is still very traditional.


Love Actually...or Not

Posted by Avery Monroe in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Comparing “Taming of the Shrew” to “Love Actually”


    “Taming of the Shrew” is a play about romance and the idea of looking for it. Two sisters, Katherine-the shrew- and Bianca-the “nice and gentle” one- have to get married. Bianca can’t get married until Katherine does. Petruchio, a suitor, says that he doesn’t care what kind of attitude Katherine has, he will still marry her so he must impress her father first. “Love Actually”, a romantic comedy that came out in 2003, showed a couple different story plots about love involving different people. One of the plots was about a little boy named Sam who had a huge crush on a girl he knew. He tries to win her over. Of course the techniques of trying to win over a girl are different from Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew” and Sam from “Love Actually” but they still had the same idea of trying to impress a girl. When looking at the two different stories,can see that they are very similar but also very different. In the modern love story, women have a lot more say in what they do, but with saying that, relationships- romantically or not- always have to do with winning somebody over. This type of love story has been romanticized and hailed by society forever, from the cheesy movies from the 50s to songs like “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey. We as people crave someone to root for, an underdog, the geek that gets the girl.

    




“...And therefore, if thou know one rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife (as wealth is burden of my wooing dance), be she as foul as was Florentius’ love, as old as sibyl, and as curst and shrewd as Socrates’ Xanthippe, or a worse,…”

(Act I, Scene ii, Lines 67-72)


Petruchio has just arrived in Padua and is looking for a lady for marriage. He is speaking to another character from the play. He is saying that he basically just needs a girl with wealth. He doesn’t care about anything else about her. None of her other qualities matter as long as she has money.


In the movie, Sam is in a similar situation when he is explaining to his step father the crush he has on a classmate.


Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 8.58.00 PM
Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 8.58.00 PM

In this scene from the movie, Sam’s step father asks him what has been going on. He says, “Is it school? Are you being bullied? Or is it something worse?” Sam is admitting that he has a crush on a girl named Joanna, and that he is in love with her. He replies, “The truth is, actually, I’m in love...” He says that there is nothing he can do about it. We can see that he, similar to Petruchio, is explaining the relationship he is wanting to get involved with. They are both trying to court a girl. The difference between Sam and Petruchio is that Sam really does love this girl or at least thinks he does. Petruchio wants money. They both continue on this quest to getting their respective girls. This scene shows how Sam wants to be in a relationship with the girl and it shows his status with her.




“...I’ll attend her here- And woo her with some spirit when she comes! Say that she rail, why then ill tell her plain she sings as sweetly as a nightingale. Say that she frown, I’ll say she looks as clear As morning roses newly washed with dew...”

(Act II, Scene i, Lines 176-181)


In this scene, Petruchio is explaining what he will do to please Katherine. He wants to make her like him so he thinks that complimenting her and everything will make her like him a little more. Any time she says something bad he will kind of contradict it and make it into a compliment.


Likewise, in the movie, Sam is talking to his stepfather because he wants to impress the girl that he likes.


Screen Shot 2015-04-19 at 11.35.16 AM
Screen Shot 2015-04-19 at 11.35.16 AM

He says, “Girls love musicians, even the really weird ones get girlfriends.”  He later says that there is a big concert that Joanna is in, and he wants to join so that she will see him play and maybe start to like him. Both Sam and Petruchio are willing to do something or say something that they don’t exactly believe in so that they can get the girl they want. Sam wants a girlfriend and Petruchio wants a wife. Both are unsure if this will work, but they are both willing to try and see what happens.


In the end of the movie, Joanna moves back to America where she is from. She does come back for a visit eventually, but we have to remember that they are only 12 and while they may have crushes on each other; this doesn’t build into a relationship, at least from what we can see. Petruchio, gets the wife that he always wanted and the dowry that came along with her. Sam may not get the girl he had been crushing on, but he is still excited that he got to show her how he truly felt.



Works Cited:

1. Shakespeare, William, and W. J. Rolfe. Shakespeare's Comedy of the Taming of the Shrew. New York: Harper & Bros., 1881. Print.

2. Love Actually. Dir. Richard Curtis. Perf. Hugh Grant, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Olivia Olsen. 2003. Website.


Father Knows Best

Posted by Kara Rosenberg in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Father Knows Best

Comparing the play “the Taming of the Shrew” to the film “50 First Dates”

Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew” displays the idea that love at first sight truly exists. In the play, when young scholar Lucentio comes to Padua and sees Bianca for the first time, he immediately falls in love. Lucentio decides from that moment on that he will do whatever it takes to marry Bianca. Similarly, in the film “50 First Dates,” Henry, a Hawaiian player, falls for a local girl named Lucy who suffers from short term memory loss. The second he sees her, he feels more strongly about her than he has for any other girl, which leads him to pull crazy stunts to try and get Lucy to fall for him everyday. Not only do Lucentio and Henry have to convince their perspective women to fall for them, but they also have to convince the girls’ fathers. The fathers in both the play and movie are skeptical of the potential relationships.


Even though both men go through similar processes when trying to win over the women of their dreams, they have different obstacles. For one, the two obstacles Lucentio faces when trying to marry Bianca are that she has many different suitors after her, and also that her father won’t let her marry until his eldest daughter is married. The two obstacles Henry faces are that she forgets who he is everyday, leaving him to convince her to fall for him all over again daily. The other obstacle faced by Henry is that Lucy’s father has no intention of ever allowing Lucy to get married as he wants to protect her. Even though their are a couple specific differences between the play and the movie, the overall messages remain the same. These texts show that even though love at first sight is real, the woman’s father will always have the final say in marriage.


“I firmly am resolved you know:

That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

Before I have a husband for the elder.”


(Act I, Scene i, 48-51)


In this quote, two suitors have approached Baptista, Bianca’s father, with interest in marrying Bianca. Baptista lays down the law by telling them he will decide when Bianca is able to be married.

In “50 First Dates,” Lucy’s father also has strong commandments that must be followed.


Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 10.47.20 AM
Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 10.47.20 AM

In this scene from “50 First Dates,” Henry goes to Lucy’s house for the first time. Lucy’s father, Marlin, stops Henry from coming inside, and pulls him to the back of the house to give him a talk. This would be expected out of a father of a teenager, or a younger girl, however Henry and Lucy are both adults. Marlin is in complete charge of Henry and Lucy’s relationship, and is the determining factor of whether Henry will even be allowed to see Lucy or not. Both the film and the play have a strong father character who is not willing to back down from his rules.



“They have by marriage made thy daughter mine

While counterfeit supposes bleared thine eyne.”


(Act V, Scene i, 120-121)


In this quote, Lucentio has just confessed to deceiving Baptista in order to win Bianca’s love. This quote shows how Lucentio knew that Baptista would make the decisions for Bianca, so he had to go behind Baptista’s back to be with her.

Henry also knows that Lucy’s father will be the determining factor in their relationship, and decides to also pull a few tricks.



Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 10.57.43 AM
Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 10.57.43 AM

This scene takes place after Marlin tells Henry not to go back to the diner where he meets Lucy. Like Lucentio, Henry knows that Lucy’s father will never allow him to see Lucy, so he goes behind Marlin’s back. Both Lucentio and Henry plan crazy tactics to see the women they love. The difference between the two characters is that Lucentio knows that once Katherine is married first, Baptista will be fine with him marrying Bianca, so he just has to wait to tell Baptista of his shenanigans. With Henry, he doesn’t think that Marlin will ever let him be with Lucy, so he has to find a way to convince Marlin that he is worthy of Lucy’s love.



In both the play “the Taming of the Shrew” and the film “50 First Dates,” it is shown that a woman’s father will make the decisions in her relationship, even if she and her partner already know they are in love. Even after hundreds of years have passed, it is still morally correct, just as it was in Shakespeare’s time, to have the father’s approval of a marriage, or relationship.


Q2 BM Changing Worlds Essay

Posted by Cole Hinton in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Analytical Essay

Dealing with the death of someone close is a life changing event that no one has control over. Because they lack this control, people become shocked of the news and it takes a while for them to fully understand that person is now gone.


Losing someone who is close to a person is the worst feeling in the world. When someone passes away, their loved ones and the people closet to them go through a long and hard process that takes lots of time to get over. In the book, “The Yellow Birds”, when Bartle and Sterling are watching Murphy’s body go down the river, Bartle was stunned and did not know how to feel about it all. But, Sterling said, “ Like it never happened, Bartle. That’s the only way.”( Pg. 211).  Sterling is telling Bartle that the only way for him to get over the death of Murphy is to forget that it ever happened. But what if that makes things worse for Bartle? What if    he can not forget it and move on from this whole new experience. This could maybe help him move forward in life by remembering little moments from this event.


With death, people start to regret things that happened to that person or things that happened between the person. In the book, Murphy’s mom says that she wished he would have stayed home and did not go off to war but she also knew that it was his duty to go war for his country. Murphy’s mom knew that it would have been better for him to stay home where he could have been safe. When you are a loved one or a friend of that person you wish that you could have done something that could have prevented their death to come.

Sometimes when there is a lot of deaths happening around you, you want to ignore it all so that you In the book, Murphy is telling Bartle about a guy who was just killed and Murphy cut in front of him in a  lunch line. Murphy didn’t even know the man but because he was just killed, he felt bad about it. Bartle told Murphy to not worry about it. This shows that with death happening around Bartle that he is being insecure and just brushing off Murphy’s concerns with the man. Bartle also wants to ignore the death happening around him and ignore it because it is shocking news to him. It shows he also understands it could’ve been him and he has no control over it. 

In a interview about the book, “The Yellow Birds”, the author, Kevin Powers says, that with death,“All pain is the same. Only the details are different”. What he is trying to say is that the pain of losing somebody close to you feels the same for everyone. It’s how you deal with it and get  through the pain and grief that is different. Death is something in life that takes a lot to overcome. 



Narrative Essay


During my life, I have lost both my grandmother and my father. Both were completely important people in my life. I didn’t know what to do after losing them both. It was strange to live without them and go about my day now thinking that they will not be in my life anymore. With death, it is hard to forget it after some time. You don’t think that this would happen to you this fast in your life. It’s something you don’t expect to happen so quick and soon in your life. 


Hearing the news is the worst part no matter how bad or how good your day is going. When I found out my grandmother had passed away, I was home in my room just laying in bed listening to music. I get a knock on my door. It’s my mother. I tell her to come in. When she opens the door, I see her crying.  I only knew what it could be. She tells me the news and begins to cry more. I never want to see my mother cry. I bring her into my arm. She explains to me that my grandmother loved me and was a very good woman. I knew all of that but I just sat quiet and nodded my head. She left me standing in the middle of my bedroom floor. I heard in my head what my mother told me. “Your grandmother passed away”. I continued to repeat it until it was stuck in my head and the last time it was repeated, I broke down in tears. I didn’t know what to do. There was no one to hold me now. Flashbacks of my life with her and things that we used to do started to flood my mind as I sit there with tears running down my face. 


The same thing happened when I heard the news with my father but very different. For my father, I was waiting for my report card conference. While I was waiting, I get a call from my brother saying that my mother called him saying she sounded like she was crying telling him to hurry home and she had something to tell us. Without hesitation, we followed her instructions and headed straight home. We get close to home and we get another call from our mother saying that our uncle will come to pick us up. When our uncle came to pick us up he stopped us and said. “listen. I want to tell you this before I take you over to your father’s house. Your father passed away today. Your mother and your sister found him today. Your sister and your mother are very emotional right now and it is ok to cry.” He then told us that he is here for us if we need him for anything. We get in the car and begin to head to wear my father lived at. The whole time I was thinking to myself, how could this happen so soon? I had just spent the weekend over his house like I would normally do. He wasn’t feeling good when I saw him but it wasn’t this bad. I started thinking about what could have happened. How would my life now be without one of my very important people in my life.


The days after losing them was the most depressed I had ever felt. There was nothing that could really cheer me up. Everything seemed to move slowly. I was out of school for a lot of the time so that meant that I would have to make up some work and homework to catch up. I couldn’t do it. I could barely turn in work on time. Everything was being turned in late or forgotten about over time. My grades started to fall dramatically. I had to find a way to catch my self up before the quarter ended. I tended  to not have the urge to go down for dinner when it was ready or get up to find food until my stomach began to grumble. I couldn’t go to sleep at night because I would be reminded of them every other hour.


But sometimes with death, comes a sense of happiness. With my family, both funerals weren’t quiet and depressing. They were us and friends reflecting on the life of my grandmother and my father. We talked about his life and how kind and friendly he was to other people. With my grandmother, we did the same thing. With my family, we believed that people who die, will go on to heaven. This made it somewhat easier to cope with the death of both my grandmother and my father. It helped me ensure that both of them would be in a better place. You then get to see pictures that you never got to see before and share more memories. Dealing with death is a hard thing to deal with but when you surround yourself with more positive things and people, you begin to get back into your normal life and not worry so much about it anymore.

Soldiers in the changing world

Posted by Kristina Scalia-Jackson in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

The Yellow Birds connection to the Changing World:


When soldiers serve their country, they have different experiences. But despite the mixed reactions of the soldiers, their emotional damage can not be ignored. Despite the seriousness of PTSD, soldiers are still expected to adapt to their old life as if their service never occurred. But to adapt to such changes, one must accept that it is a multi step process, there is no one right way, and failure along the way is not weakness. In Powers novel, The Yellow Birds, we are told the tale of how the main character, Bartle, personally deals with the after effects of war. Dealing with death in one’s own terms accomplishes self peace and reflection more effectively than following other’s procedures. An individual must react to change in their own terms, not how someone else has succeeded, or how one believes is the “right” way.

Throughout the novel, death is one of the most prominent themes. The main character, Bartle, makes a best friend while enlisted named Murph. As the are deployed together they experience a lot of death, both of the enemy and of their brothers. Shortly into the war, a woman carrying a surrender flag starting walk to the soldiers and they open fire, not realizing she came in peace. The boys had mixed reactions, but Bartle and Murph were part of the newbies. This was their first rhedo. “Holy shit, that bitch got murdered.” Murph said. There was no grief, or anguish, or pity in that statement. There was no judgement made. He was just surprised, like he was waking from a long afternoon nap, disoriented...” Their LT then walked over to comfort each of the boys, telling them they’d be OK. “it was hard to believe that wed be OK and that we fought well. But I remember being told that the truth does not depend on being believed...we lived murph and me.” (Pg. 22-23) War can invoke different emotions out of different people. Throughout the book we see how very different characters cope with death. Murph unfortunately died because he tried to process death the way people around him approved of. From that day forward, death became a daily part of the boys lives, and they were expected to deal with it as their sarge did, despite the lack of time to adjust. Their LT gave them a pat on the back and moved on normally. No one talked about killing an innocent civilian or acknowledge what they would do to the soldiers, until after their home and counselors are shoved down their throats, but pressured to not accept them. The more experienced soldiers are able to sweep instances like this under the rug, Murph is able to to recognize it and try and process it but Bartle just floats along. By finding a coping mechanism that fits for himself, not everyone else, he is able to handle lose more effectively.

A common stigma in war is that one can not be weak. Soldiers can not break done and let their emotions get to them while in War. They can not analyze what just happen, they just have to keep moving. In an interview with The Guardian, author Kevin Powers, Iraq Army Veteran, he states,“I was interested in trying to describe this state between apprehension and comprehension. That is one of the primary characteristics of the experience of being at war: it's so intense and you don't have time to process.” (Powers) A lot of Powers personal experiences and feelings were transferred into his writing and shown through Bartle and Murph. People sitting at home watching more and more soldiers return home with PTSD tell them they have to process what happened. Which is true, one must process what happened, how it made them feel and how they are able to move on if they wanted to continue their life. But they need to do so at their own pace, in their own comfort zone. To be able to self reflect on such drastic changes that death carries happens in phases, different and unique to each individual. While processing death in these environments can be near impossible, they should also not be completely ignored because a lieutenant can handle it. In order to come to peace with the horrific things that happen in war, one needs to allow himself to cope within their own terms.

When Bartle returned home from his tour in Iraq, he had some difficulties adjusting, understandably. He had not yet started processing what happened in Iraq and how much that would change his life when he got back home. Everyone was so excited to be going back home, not just because they missed their family, but because they made it. But none of them spoke of how returning home didn’t mean slipping back into the life they once had, but starting a whole new one. ““You all right, hon?” My mother said...” Yeah, ma, I’m fine.”...I was disappearing. It was as if I stripped myself away in that darkened bedroom… I would be another number for the cable news shows. I could almost hear it. “Another casualty today,” they’d say, “vanished into thin air after returning home.” (Pg.110-111) When Bartle returned home, he was under pressure from his mother. Despite her best interests, returning home from war at his age with his experiences is not something he wants to discuss with anyone, let alone his mother. He needed time; something that he did not always have in Iraq. He was restless at night, but he slept that night, once again dreaming of Murph. He needed to figure out how to let go of Murph and all the other ghosts in his head in his own way or he would never truly be letting them go. He wasn’t done experiencing new things and even something as familiar as being in his mother’s house would feel like he was doing it for the first time. By taking the time he needs to self reflect and come to terms with what happened over seas, he will give himself more peace in the future.

While some may argue adapting to change in “this way” or “that way” is unhealthy, it is not for them to decide. When servicemen return home, they are entitled to the freedom they fought for. They are allowed to go through the anger and skip back to denial, they do not have to follow a 12 step program. Adapting to a new world, diagnosed PTSD or not, can be tremendously hard for anyone. Allowing them to react in their own space will allow them to feel like they still have power over something. They can go on their own terms and their own pace, benefiting them more than someone elses “right way” ever could.



Personal Connection to the Changing World:


My thesis previously mentioned dealing with death in one’s own terms being a more effective method of coping, than following what worked for someone else. Trying to connect this back to myself is hard.. the only real loss I’ve felt was my great uncle dying. When he passed, it put death into perspective for me. I felt like death was real now and that it could happen to anyone around me at anytime. My uncle and I weren’t super close, but I seen the way his death hit everyone around me. So when I was alone in my room, I would just think about my uncle and all the people that died in my family before I got to meet them and prayed that I wouldn’t lose anyone else.

I don’t know if I can really say my prayers worked because my pop is sick. I’ve surprisingly told a lot of people about my pop being sick, but I think it was more so an explanation of my tattoo. I don’t really talk about what’s going on with my pop because it gets me so upset. So when I got a tattoo of a cross with rosaries inside of angel wings, I wanted it to represent him. I wanted it to bring God on his side. I wanted him to have all the help in the world because I don’t know if I would survive if I lost my pop. Just thinking about losing him gets me emotional. Thinking about him being sick makes me think about my nan as well and if, when, the same thing is going to happen to her. Or my mom, my dad, my uncle, my sister...

My pop started getting sick before last christmas. No one told me that he was sick for a really long time. I had to overhear conversations between my mom and nan to understand that something was going on. I was in 9th grade I believe, when it was known that he was sick, but no one ever came up and told me personally. That christmas everyone just talked about it and asked him how he was doing. I had no idea what he was sick from or how serious it was. I would come to know that he had sclerosis of the liver, the same thing my Uncle Stevie had passed from in 2011. That was really hard to deal with because I assumed he would have the same ending as my uncle. Little did I know, cirrhosis  wasn’t the only thing wrong with him. His cirrhosis  has now progressed to liver cancer and without a transplant...

My pop got increasingly sick this past summer. He was admitted to the hospital several times because he was incoherent and spaced out. He had already been diagnosed with diabetes and he became insulin dependent. That was when I basically moved in with my nan. I only had my permit at the time, but it was enough to help get my nan around as she doesn’t drive. She depended on my pop to drive her wherever she had to go, but he was too sick to stand let alone drive. I remember one time he was feeling really bad and wanted to go to the hospital. My nan and I was the only one home so I drove them to the hospital and had to drive the car back myself. It was a bittersweet moment- it was my first time driving alone, but the reason why shadowed that.

I’ve been mostly living with my nan from about August, when my pop started getting too bad to drive. I didn’t understand everything that was going on. All I knew was that my pop had the cirrhosis, he had bad diabetes, his cirrhosis had enhanced to liver cancer, and he had hepatitis C. I began to understand how serious things were when he started radiation treatments and chemo last year. But I still had a lot of hope.. the treatments can, will, work. My hope began to fade the week before school started.

I was at my house with my best friend Grace from grade school watching my little sister. My parents had went to Atlantic City for the weekend and they were supposed to be on their way back to my house. But my nan called early that sunday morning and told me they had to take poppy to the hospital so my parents left A.C right way and went to the hospital. They didn’t come home until late that night. My whole world changed after my dad and I took my friend home. As we pulled away from her house he told me he had something he wanted to let me know. He thought I should, that I deserve to know. My dad told me that poppy was worse. The cancer had taken over most of his liver and he would need a transplant to survive. They were giving him 3 months to live.

I felt like my whole world fell apart. I was struggling to breathe through my tears but my dad wasn’t done. He told me that I needed to prepare myself and to help my mom out, but also not to tell my sister what was going on. I didn’t know what to do. How was I supposed to deal with losing my pop? How is everyone else going to deal? I felt like I had to do what everyone else was doing...ignoring it. My mom didn’t mention anything when I got home and I felt like I shouldn’t either. But my mind wouldn’t stop racing, thinking of everything he was going to miss out on in my life. I needed to talk to someone. My family might be able to act like nothing was wrong, but that didn’t work for me. So I texted Grace about how I felt..How I felt knowing he wouldn’t see my graduate..wouldn’t see me get married. It killed me inside but I didn’t feel like ignoring the situation would help me.

When school started, one of the main things teachers asked was what was something that would interfere with my work this year or something I would want them to know. At the time, I put that my pop was sick because I thought he only have a little bit of time left. Thank god he has been doing better and is on a transplant list, but that doesn’t mean we are out of the woods. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with everything going on. One day my life was fine, and the next I barely see my parents and sister and my pop is sick. It has happened in school a few times this year and my friend Gabby has been there for me each time.

My immediate friend group knows my pop is sick, and after my tattoo everyone does. But not many people know what “sick” means. I didn’t bother telling people because I didn’t even know what “sick” meant for a long time. But I’m now at the point where I can tell someone my pop is sick, when before I just ignored what was going on. That wasn’t working for me so I coped by talking. I continue to cope my crying when I need to. I don’t follow what others around me are doing and I don’t listen to things I see online. I need to process the change death plays on my mind in my own way, just as Bartle did.

Following someone else's success does not guarantee that it will work for you as well. There is no right or wrong way to deal with death, just as coping does not discriminate against gender. No one needs to “man up” and “quit being a girl”. Dealing with death is whatever way you see fit may not seem healthy at times, but giving yourself that control will help you overcome the grief and give yourself peace better than any steps other people tell you.

The war and changing the world

Posted by Soledad Alfaro-Allah in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Analytical Essay:


War is dense. It pulls at the mental and physical stability of a person until they are constantly running off of an adrenaline rush in order to survive the intense circumstances that is war. “The yellow birds”  depicts this easily by constantly personifying the war, calling the air of shrapnel it’s breath, how its constant weight of death is a heavy reminder that war is patient, and murderous. Powers begins the book by saying “The war tried to kill us in the spring . As the grass greened the plains of Nineveh and the weather warmed” This completes imagery and personification of the war is continuously used throughout the book to prove a further point on which Powers decides to elaborate, on. War creates the armor of the soldier. It makes him numb to all things human, and embeds the constant feeling of survival, a life on adrenaline, a permanent fight or flight syndrome. War strips a person of their emotional connection to life due to survival, resulting in PTSD and a severe lack of empathy and room for grieving. Changing the world starts with the empathy for people, without it nothing can be changed because no one is understood. The eradication of war would create a world united in improvement and not destruction.

In a war it is said that one, a soldier is their country, that they are fighting for the very glory and victory of their own nation. However the truth to be seen is that in reality there are no winners in a war. Those who empty there guns first and find themselves with the most bodies at their feet envy the deceased, because they now live with the permanent memories of gore embedded in their minds, are called cowards if they cannot cope with the after math of their doings or admit that they might need help. How can one be able to create a change if they are not able to seek help? To find guidance and be in agreement on the problem? Instead problems are created at home. In a heated discussion with his mother Bartle says “Got dammit Mama all I fucking do is think.” After she asks him what he does in his room all day. After this statement springs out of his mouth it becomes clear to the reader the amount of agitation he is feeling, constantly on edge in the small expert of expression within a sentence to his mother. This is the first time Bartle comes home before he dies. After seeing enough, after not wanting to see anymore.

Many would argue that war is a constructive way of solving conflicts. That it has its purposes and allows the job to get done with as much gratification for its successor as possible. However the toll that it takes in the aftermath of itself proves to be far more harmful than beneficial. It begins the road to poverty from destruction people who had nothing find themselves having less than before, people betraying their countries in order to survive and dying at the hand of the war with no one to grieve their loss. “Shukran, Afwan, Qumbula, Thank you, Your welcome, Bomb. This is Maliks old stomping grounds!...We did not see Malik get killed but murph and I had his blood on both of our uniforms.... Doesn’t count does it? No. I don’t think so. Where are we at? Nine-sixty eight.” (Powers 11) The beginning of the conversation has such a thankfulness ring to it. As if Malik is of value and immediately after his death they didn’t even include them in their count of dead men, for the loyalty to their own soldiers. For the defense of their own bodies.

The soldiers will later go home to grieve in silence. To never open up their room or windows, and while The Yellow birds tells the story of two men who had died and follows them through the most painful and concise instances of their life. Without war, they could’ve kept the streets clean, help build from the rubbles that had been lost, but war has changed the world. It has turned it gray and shoved soot into the lungs of children crying for their fathers while they watch their mothers dig bodies out of the ground at dawn, while we force our children to dig cereal from a bowl before school. It has deprived those who rightfully so deserve it. War is a last breath, is a barbaric resort to a frustration for the yearning of immediate gratification.




Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

Powers, Kevin. The Yellow Birds: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Print.


Dahlen, Dr. Barbara Van. "PTSD / Video." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.



Narrative Essay:


In 1973 Richard Nixon installed a coup to take down Chilean president Salvador Allende. To be rid of the communist rule that had gained so much power for the poor people in the country. A country rigged with classism prior to his election. The coup lasted for years, and resulting in the assassination of Salvador Allende and the installment of Pinochet killing millions of communist and liberal chileans. There was a black-list that had my uncles name on it.

The first time I watched my family shunn us back home I was 12. I was reaching for my cousin Rodrigos hand when my aunt smacked it. She had me go back to my mother and my cousin sat there crying with a blank face as though he knew what had happened and he knew why but didn’t want to. I could feel the back of my eyes pulling at me and I was holding my hand toward my chest. It didn’t hurt, but it made me upset

Q2 BM Changing Worlds Essay

Posted by Brian Torres in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Analytical Essay:

After every war, or every deployment to war, there are always soldiers who come back with emotional damage being expected to mold back into society’s way of life. Changes such as the one Bartle was expected to go through when returning from war come in multiple phases. Soldiers are expected to come back and almost instantly get their normal lives together while adjusting to an environment that doesn’t have them constantly feeling like they are still deployed at war. As a result, they go through severe phases of depression and a lot of times, things like suicide is a popular option among these guys.

We saw this in chapter 7 when Bartle finally decided to go out with some friends for the first time since coming back from the war and leading up to that part of the book we learned pretty much Bartle’s daily routine after the war. We know that he is going through a depression and it all comes to a climax when he takes this small trip with some friends. He’s out with friends and decides to go out into the river while his friends are all still on shore not really noticing at first. As time goes on he kind of dozed off and ends up falling asleep face down in the water.

His friends then notice and see that their depressed friend Bartle is lying face down in the water and drag him out thinking that he has drowned which he probably did but that is not the point. The point that the writer of “The Yellow Birds” is trying to make that goes almost perfectly with the thesis of this essay is that soldiers coming home from war go through a tough time. It comes in a set of phases, now how many phases, nobody knows, it is different for almost every person coming from war. As stated in the thesis as well, a lot of times, this time of severe depression(PTSD) can and has a lot of times led to suicide.






Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

  1. Anderson, Pauline, and Désirée Lie. "Depression, PTSD Worsen Several Months After Soldiers Return." Medscape. Medscape Medical News, 15 Nov. 2007. Web. 12 Jan. 2015. <http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/565954>.



Narrative Essay:

So sophomore year was by far my worst ever academic year. I wasn’t motivated to do anything my self esteem dropped severely and I felt like an outcast at home. Well as time went on between February 2014 and April 2014, people(my parents) started to take notice(mainly because my advisor noticed and pointed it out at the first narrative conference of the 2013-2014 year.) Anyways my parents realized that the same ways they treated my two younger siblings(my brother and my sister) wasn’t going to do a good job of helping my situation with school at all.

As a result, people like my parents and my brother and sister started to hang around me a little more thinking that spending time would heal all of my emotional wounds. So the school year finished, I barely passed World History and my parents decided not to really punish me for the bad grades but they put limits on all the things I could do like play video games. So summer started rolling through and things were starting to go back to normal until mid July.

It honestly felt and until that point of the day had gone on as any other day, wake up, get dressed, do chores, eat breakfast, play video games, eat lunch,play more video games with friends, but around like 6 or 7 pm, I paused the game just to stretch out and I pulled out my ipod touch and saw that I had a bunch of messages on the kik messenger app. I open it up to see what was happening and I see that one of my friends had sent me a text saying that a mutual friend of ours had run away from home and left a note saying he was going to kill himself.

I stopped everything and started talking to a bunch of friends and everyone is going crazy. I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to go help search for him. I knew my mom wasn’t going to help search and I figured that my dad who had been the Leader of my scout troop the last time that kid had come would also not hesitate to help search and that no matter how much begging I was going to have to do, I was going to help in the search any way that I can. My dad came home from his night shift at work and he must have heard about the situation on his way home because he was scrambling to change out of his police uniform so he could go search. Honestly my mom didn’t really want me to go and at first so did my dad. It took about ten minutes of back and forth arguing before I just stopped listening and changed out of my pajamas into regular clothes.

We searched and searched for hours and couldn’t find him. By the time we got back to the house, we could see the sun rising. We knew that there would be searches going on all week until they found him and though my parents didn’t really agree with me going to all the searches, I went and we didn’t find him. Keep in mind he went missing on a monday or tuesday I believe, and that saturday, my dad had worked during the day and when he got home, again just your normal day for a teen during the summer, we had friends over and I remember my dad pulling me and my little brother and sister aside and telling us that a body had been found in the area where we thought my friend had gone missing and that they were trying to confirm his identity through DNA.

I had the feeling inside when I heard the news that it was him and we had been told that his mom had indeed ID’d him through just seeing him as they wheeled him away.


Q2: Self and Changing World

Posted by Alex Colón-Vazquez in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Analytical Essay:



Since the first world war many books have been published about the experiences people have had when they were deployed, my class has recently just finished reading one these books. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers follows the story of private John Bartle and his platoon as they enter in a bloody campaign to control the Northern city of Al Tafar. Like the narrator in The Yellow Birds  Kevin Powers was a soldier in Iraq for two years serving in Mosul and Tal Afar, his very own deployment had changed his whole world. A changing world could result in one’s self to change as well, whether the change is good or bad. An environment can either nurture, or drive it’s inhabitants to madness.


Kevin Powers in the past has described the problems he had when trying to describe those types of experiences that not a lot of people share, which includes the madness, and the extreme violence of war. For example in “The Yellow Birds” the main character John Bartle describes his time during war, “They lay in the dust, broken and shattered and bent, their white shifts gone dark with blood”. When I read this quote I was moved by the main character’s poetic analyzation of the dead bodies around him, almost as if the environment he grew up in didn’t even exist anymore.


To be deployed into war means to adapt to a new environment, but war isn’t always easy to adapt to. War can make soldiers or victims forget their past and their essential learnings that has made them into the human beings that they may be today, nonetheless nothing can prepare American soldiers for the toll war has. In “The Yellow Birds” the main character John Bartle gives his own input on what war does to people, for example “ We hardly noticed a change in September. But I know that everything that will ever matter in my life began then”. This quote relates to the essential question of self and changing world because it gives a reader a time sequence about what was going on at that moment, then goes right into his life and how war has changed all of that.


A changing world could result in one’s self to change as well, whether the change is good or bad. An environment can either nurture, or drive it’s inhabitants to madness. The environments that we call home have many meanings, and we have our own memories about our home. But adapting to a new environment isn’t always the easiest, it could either have a positive outcome or a negative outcome. This sort of change for many people isn’t the easiest and can introduce itself as an obstacle course that can mentally challenge one’s self. The essential question of “ What is the relationship between the self and the changing world” is a powerful message that I believe Kevin Powers has shown numerous times. During the reading of “The Yellow Birds” me and my group members were introduced to a very important character, Murph. Reading about his story and to read about his horrific death was shocking, me and my group members had come to the conclusion that in order to survive in the changing world, one must adapt to become it’s inhabitant. Although people may react in ways that they believe will help them cope , the outcome could be life changing for others.














Works Cited for Analytical Essay:


1).  MailOnline, Stephanie Cross for. "THE YELLOW BIRDS." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 07 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2199178/Kevin-Powers-THE-YELLOW-BIRDS.html>.


2). Tobar, Hector. "Kevin Powers' Haunting Iraq War Novel." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/10/entertainment/la-ca-jc-kevin-powers-20121111>.



Narrative Essay:



For many generations many people have lost family members in wars that America has participated in, or lost them through their mental suffering. This is a sensitive topic that is rather difficult for people to discuss around others, although it is currently taking place in this very moment many families of soldier urge people in higher positions to provide help and service for the men and women returning from deployment. I currently have two family members that are deployed in two different countries, and one family member who recently returned to the United States from deployment. At times it is very hard for me talk about it because they helped raise me as a child when I first came to the United States many years ago, so to know that this is their job and what they have to do can be very worrying at times. Many people don’t usually realize how connected they are to each other, whether it’s through blood or through marriage. People who have family members that are deployed or have been deployed to other countries are connected in more ways than one.


Both my uncles and my cousin have been deployed to other countries, my uncle Mario is in the army and he is currently deployed in Columbia and my other uncle Alejandro recently came back from South Korea. As a child I always looked up to them and admired them, and I still do today. When I founded out that they were both going to be deployed to different countries around the same time I was really confused and at times upset, because I was around 11 or 12 I didn’t really know much about the world and the wars that were going on. Knowing that there was a possibility that I would never see them again was a feeling that I know I will never forget, at the time I felt like I was the only person going through a situation like this and at times I pushed people away who wanted to help me. It wasn’t until I enter the 6th grade when I had met people who were going through the same situation that I was going through.


As I child I always kept to myself and never really let people know how I was feeling about my family, I always thought no one would know what to do If I even let them have some information about my situation. When I enter the 6th grade I was very shy and wasn’t really interested in making friends, on the first week my teacher Ms.Palumbo gave the class our first assignment of the year. The assignment was to write a personal narrative on who our role models were, and of course I chose to write about my uncles. On the day we were scheduled to read our narratives to the class I laid my head down until it was time for me to present. One of the students in my class was called up to read his narrative, he started off explaining who his role model was and why. I couldn’t believe what I had heard, his name was Durrell and he also had a family member that was in the air force too. My head was suddenly lifted by the joy of his words. After everyone including myself had finished reading their personal narratives Durrell came to me after class and told me that he understood where I was coming from and felt what I was feeling. It was the first time I felt like I could relate with someone else and know that they understand what it feels like to be in my situation.


Many people don’t usually realize how connected they are to each other, whether it’s through blood or through marriage. People who have family members that are deployed or have been deployed to other countries are connected in more ways than one. When I met Durrell it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I didn’t have the responsibility to deal with my own problems. Knowing that there are other people that go through the same situations as me makes me feel positive about the future and hopeful that my family members and the other men and women serving will come home safe and sound.


ENG3-018

Term
2014-15

Other Websites

Launch Canvas

Teacher