All that comes to mind

One of the situations that I often find myself in that casues me trouble is writing. You see, when there is a writing assignment, I can really enjoy myself and let go, just write about whatever is the topic and elaborate thoroughly, the trobule comes now that these asssignments are way more strict. Nowadays we have to include “fancy” words and correct grammar, and also, sentences also have to be a separate thought each, not the way I was accustomed to. I know that this is probably a senseless complaint, since it´s only logical that when you´re required to write something you should abide by the rules (see what I did there? “abide” now that´s a phony word) but since I come from a school that wasn´t specialized in English, sentences were never my main concern, neither were paragraphs. This doesn´t make much sense though, because the school had terrific gramar in Spanish, so I should know all the rules, I suppose that  I´m just really lazy, well, I mean, not alwayas, like I do write a lot, and I mean A LOT, but I won´t try to take the guilt away, I´m lazy.

I´ll tell you something, there was this dude, that studied at Pencey, god that was a stupid school, which was called Holden Cauli… Calui… Calisomething, let me tell you, he was a douchebag. He always complained about everything, calling people “phonies” or “goddamn morons” or something like that. But I knew him, it was lkie I could get inside his mind, but I knew him better than everyone else, even than his family. He always used to pretend that he didn´t give a damn about anything, like the world was below him. But I knew, and I am sure, that he cared about everything more than everyone else. Let me give you an example; when his little brother Allie died, he slept in the garage and broke all the windows, screwing up his fist, but, you see, I get him, Allie was such a nice kid, like, he was really smart, like, disgusting smart, it even kind of bothered you, but not because he was an ass about it or anything, but because you felt really stupid beside him. Like this time, we were playing baseball in the field, and since there was no one at the bat, the dude takes out his glove and starts reading from it! WHAT THE HELL, like, who the F*** reads while playing? And after I managed to look at the glove, IT WAS POETRY, freaking poetry, now thats a level of intelligence I can´t even understand. But i´m getting out of topic.

The thing was that that night Holden got incredibly depressed, and to this day, he still is, but he tells the story as if his freaking Xbox died or something, hell, I would cry more if my ps4 died. But that was him, he pretended that he didn´t care at all, that “that´s just life” but I knew, of my god, I knew that he was dying from the inside, I knew that that was the reason he started smoking, and started losing his assignments in all classes, he was a freaking ball of sadness, but in order to divert us from it, he acted like this cool “i dont give a damn” guys. Anyways, that was Holden, calling everyone a “phony” and a “goddamn moron” while he was the phoniest, dumbest and most arrogant guy I´ve ever met.

I hope I could tell you more about him, but I´m not in the mood, and you really have to be in the mood to tell that kind of stuff. Now I have to go back to this class, math, goddamn stupid class. (Or maybe its me?)

Difficult time

Last year I went to Las Vegas with my family. It was a great trip, but after we came back several things happened. Due to an airline mistake we flew back to El Salvador, and there, my father decided to take a bus ride home. When we got in a taxi I asked the driver if he could take us home, and it turned out that he could, and it was a fairly cheap price, so we decided to go with him. Just as we were arriving to my father´s house, a pick-up truck stopped in front of us and some guys got out and entered our minivan, they blindfolded us and took us to some random dumpster, where they took our suitcases, cellphones and watches. We stayed there for about three hours, under the freezing cold, without shoes, our hands ties and heads down. The specific problem in that situation were my emotions towards the whole situation, you see, I could´ve reacted quite differently and started crying, or trying to run away, or fight back, but instead I managed to control my emotions and even fall asleep during the whole process. After we got back home, I talked my mother about it, she started crying, but, since I behaved calmly, she felt better. For the first few months, I still had a lot of anger and pain towards the thieves, and got super stressed whenever I thought about it. But now, 7 months later, I have practically forgot about it, and even make jokes about the whole thing, I feel a lot better and in peace. That is my difficult time tale, and how I coped with it. 

Holden Califlour

In “The Catcher in the Rye” Holden is a typical teenager throughout the whole story, this is shown several times, at first, when he decides to be alone in his room instead of down at the game, that shows us that he is kind of a loner. Then, because he goes to say good bye to his favorite teacher, which shows us that (as most of teenagers do) he has found a person he cares about in a teacher, a person who really impacted his life. The third point is because of how he talks about Ackley, he describes it in a severe and contemptuous way, which is another example of how us, the teenagers, criticize other people when they´re not around. How he talks about adults is also a reference to his teenage years, he is a smart-ass, and thinks he is always right. His deep love for his brothers is shown by how he talks about both of them in a contemptuous way, but just because he cares about them too much, as shown by his destructive rant when his little brother died. His addictions also show another part of his teenage-hood, by being dependand to alcohol and cigarettes, probably because of the stress of those schools and the freedom he had. A clear one is his language, he use slang and foul vocabulary, which is very common at our age. His indifference towards other people and the events in his daily life is also a feeling we share at this age. The most common perhaps is his fear of “the big guy” which was Stradlader, but also how he felt smart and strong enough to punch him, he was very stubbron, as we all are. And finally, the clearest part of how Holden is a typical teenager is his fake indifferance towards everything; he seems as if he does not care about anything that happens (how he got expelled, the fight, his parents, Jane) but he really does, the thing is, that showing feelings is a sign of weakness during teenage years, specially if you´re a man.

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Lost Generation

1. The soldiers who survived WW1 and came back to become drunkards.

2. He wrote it in two of his books, and attributed it to Gertrude Stein.

3. She was an art patron. Since she had a lot of money, she could buy paintings from important artists, and also support artists that were going to shine.

4. It was her house where Mrs. Stein gathered art forms of all American and international modern artists. 

5. A person who works/lives in a country that is not his own.

Ernest Hemingway

1.His mother wanted a girl, so until he was 4, she dressed him up as a girl.

2.He drove an ambulance during WWI

3.He once “checked” F. Scott Fitzgerald man parts.

4.He rejected a suggestion from Fitzgerald to end a book.

5.He stole a urinal from his favorite bar.

6.Wrote a lot of food recipes.

7.Work with the KGB.

8. Allegedly led a group of French militia against the Nazis.

9.Married 4 times and divorced 3.

10. Hemingway survived  anthrax, malaria, skin cancer, and pneumonia. He lived through diabetes, two plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, hepatitis, a ruptured spleen, a fractured skull and a crushed vertebra.

Harlem Renaissance

1. Martin Garvey influenced the first American black nationalist movement, helping the ghettos and publishing in a newspaper the abuse that Negros received and also talked about African-american heroes at the time.

2. It was important because it set the first bases for stopping the African American segregation. It was a movement that induced and promoted the flourishing  of art, literature and culture of the Negros, which was really important because it was shown that they were more than thought. Some of the greatest music these days begun in that period, like Jazz with Louis Armstrong and Rock n Roll later on with Chuck Berry. The movement centered in Harlem in the US but it also influenced other cities. Another important thing was that the African-american writers begun to use their own style instead of copying Europeans.

Transcendentalism

1) The phrase number three talks about his wish to take the most out of life and enjoy it, he wants to love and feel loved, he feels as if he could see God. He enjoys the nature and the life that comes from it. He wants to live simply and reduce all his needs to the minimum. 

Lyrics from: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Around the World

I saw God
And I saw the fountains
You and me girl
Sittin’ in the Swiss mountains

Me Oh My O
Me and Guy O
Freer than a bird
‘Cause we’re rockin’ Ohio

Around the world
I feel dutiful
Take a wife
‘Cause life is beautiful

I know I know for sure
That life is beautiful around the world
I know I know it’s you
You say hello and then I say I do

I related the phrase to the song because the song talks about  loving his life, the singer says how he can see God on some of the places that he goes. He talks about the beauty of nature and life around the world. He talks about a woman that he loves, but he also talks about the freedom that he feels when traveling around the world. The enjoyment he feels from doing what he loves could indicate us that he won´t die regretful. 

2) The first quote talks about being yourself and enjoying life as you wish, being different makes you special.

Lyrics from: Bon Jovi – It´s my life

It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive
(It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I’m alive
It’s my life.

This song I can relate because the quote talks about being yourself, and Bon Jovi in his song says that he will live his life as he wishes. He wants to take the most from life before he dies. He wants to live his way and do whatever he wants because his heart says so.

1) Facts: 

Whitman’s novel Franklin Evans sold more copies during his lifetime than any of his other books, despite the fact that Whitman himself described it as “damned rot – rot of the worst sort.” ²³

As rumors circulated of Whitman’s failing health in 1889, a local cemetery owner in New Jersey contacted the dying poet and asked him to write a poem about the cemetery that they could use in their advertisements – all this in exchange for a free burial plot. 

He was gay 

He quit school at 11

Struggled finnancially most oof his llife.

He compared himself to Shakespeare

Often called father of the free verse

Opposed slavery

Second of nine children

His lungs shrunk to 1/8th of his breathing capacity when he died.

2) He inspired Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad.

 

Haven´t met you yet by: Michael Bublé

I’m not surprised, not everything lasts
I’ve broken my heart so many times I stopped keeping track
Talk myself in, I talk myself out
I get all worked up then I let myself down

I tried so very hard not to lose it
I came up with a million excuses
I thought, I thought of every possibility

And I know some day that it’ll all turn out
You’ll make me work so we can work to work it out
And I promise you kid that I’ll give so much more than I get
I just haven’t met you yet

1. Out, Down (kind of). Out, Out. Get, Yet.
2. Out, talk, Work, I, thought.

3. It´s about a man who has had a very bad run in love, but he is still optimistic about this perfect girl that he will eventually meet and treat perfect, but he has not met her yet.

4. It makes it sound more happy, like the guy is more optimistic, but this song doesn´t have many rhymes.

 

 

 

Edgar Allan Poe

1. His mother died when he was 2 years old and she was separated from his father at that time. He was adopted by a rich man called John Allan. He went to good schools in England by the age of 5, and then returned to America for college. 

2. His mother died, his father abandoned him and he separated from his 2 brothers since they were both adopted by different families. He entered school but due to his alcohol problems he resigned about a year later. His new mother Mrs. Allan, died in 1829, he then entered military school where he resigned by his own will. He was rejected by many magazines, had no friends, no job and no family. Died as an alcoholic.

3.NYC, Philadelphia and Virginia.

4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Baudelaire