Literature Analysis #2 "Bless me Ultima"

1. Antonio is the main character is the novel Bless me Ultima. His family brings in Ultima, an elderly woman from his father’s native town. Antonio and Ultima automatically have a special connection like no one else. She begins to teach him about all the special plants and what type of cures they can be used for. Tragically Antonio witnesses deaths and loses his innocence through their journey but Ultima is there to guide him. Tenorio has hatred towards Ultima because he believes she was the cause o f her loved ones death. He ends up shooting her owl which represent her spirit, and without the owls presence she can no longer live.

2.Ffrom what I understood of this novel I believe that the theme is that innocence is not eternal. Like Antonio lost his innocence, he could not remain an innocent child forever. He had t grow up and become a man at some point.

3. The tone of bless me Ultima is a serious and sad tone. An example of when the sad tone was expressed is when Ultima is about to die. Antonio is saddened because of the close relationship they had. The serious tone is expressed when Antonio is taking his religion classes . He takes them very seriously because he wants everything to make sense to him.

4. The literary element I saw was how dreams are used as a way to express a meaning or situation.  The dream that Antonio had about the brothel shows how he has not yet lost his innocence and how it needs to be lost in order for him to enter the brothel. Symbolism is another element used as a way to make the story more interesting. The owl is a way of symbolism, it represents Ultima’s spirit. to

"Tools that change the way we think"

The extensive use of the internet and other technologies around the world has greatly affected the way we think these days. We no longer take time to critically think about situations or sit and contemplate about issues in the world. We now get answers to everything with a click of a button. We rely on the internet and other browsers for answers. In a way you can say that the internet has taken over our mind. We rely on information that is given to us by others and we don’t stop and think if the information is correct or even look at the flaws in the information given to us. We tend to just read the information and believe it is true; everyone has done this at some point. A couple years ago people would have to memorize a lot of things but now we don’t even bother with memorization, we just choose to look it up when it is needed. We can no longer concentrate for long periods of times nor do we have patients because we are use to everything coming at us so quickly that we can no longer bear to wait. We try to do a lot more in one day than most would do in a couple of days back then since we have information coming at us so quickly. Since the information comes so fast we do not have time to process it all thoroughly and we loose opportunities to learn. It is funny to think that back then when someone was interested in a certain topic they would get out there and experience it personally and learn about it by actively participating in it but now we look up the things we are interested in. Say we are interested in football, back then people would go out there play the game and watch the game be played but now we watch it on television or look it up on the web. Schooling back in the day was also different, they would learn straight out of the book or from what the teacher said, they would not have the opportunities to share ideas on blogs or to do much research. All their research came from books. Don’t get me wrong, the internet has provided a lot of opportunities for us. It has helped this world advance and get to the great stage it is in today. The only problem is that people do not tend to use it in an affective way; we use it as a way to make things more simple for ourselves and save time. If we would learn how to use it effectively and learn how to be one step ahead of the internet it would make this society function in a more productive way.

"In Search of"

From watching the video Filter Bubbles I have come to realize that the internet has become corrupt in many ways. Not only are they only showing us certain information, depending on the person, but now they are also monitoring certain things. This information made me think completely different about the results I see online. Each time a result pops up when I type something in it gets me wondering why did these results pop up instead of any others.  Now that I had this in mind I re-did my Shakespeare research, this time around with a different mind set. I researched by typing in different key words and reading most of the results. I found that little is actually known about him that what little is known of him is from his writings and church documents. His education is not really known because many have different opinions about it. Another question that came up in many of the websites was if he was a real person and if so did he really write those work of arts. After some research I began to wonder why so little is actually known about him. Is it because he lived so long ago and little is actually known from that time? Or is it because something is trying to be hidden about him, maybe people don’t want to admit to him being the writer because he was not from a noble family. All these questions arise and make this research pretty difficult because you do not know if what you are seeing is true. The internet has begun to turn into a very difficult source to confine in since it does filter a lot of information being seen.

"Notes on Hamlet"

When we first began to read Hamlet I dreaded it since the beginning. At that time I was uneducated on what a talented man the author was and how significant a sentence could be. As we began to read I began to understand what it was saying, the first couple of pages were difficult to understand and I was completely lost. I decided to do some research on how to understand Shakespeare’s language and I found that making it my own language was useful and so I used that method. I now think of this novel as more of a Mexican style novella and that is what makes me be so intrigued.  I thought as Hamlet to be a lost soul after his father’s death and to hallucinate a lot, but as the plot developed I realized that he only acted the way he did because of the pain of loosing his father. I realized that his want for revenge was justified after all his uncle murdered his father. I saw that most characters in the play tended to be two faced, for example his two friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern befriended him when they agreed to gather information from him and report it to the king. There is a lot of drama in this novel that dose not come off as apparent immediately it take some time to discover. From Act III and on I see revenge taking place. I see hamlet planning his revenge and going through with it. There will be murders, sins, lost of loves and so on seen.

"Who was Shakespeare"

Shakespeare is a man who little is actually known of. Many agree that he was a landowner, a merchant, a glove maker, and a man on a political track. He was well educated by teachers that held Oxford degrees. At the young age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway and had two children with her. He moved to London with his family and there became a well known actor, poet and play righter. Queen Elizabeth and King James became his sponsors and supported his plays for many years. He was well known for writing great literature pieces that came to inspire a great deal of people. Many tend to question if he was a real person at all, if he ever existed and this is something I wonder myself. When I was younger I would hear Shakespeare’s name and I would immediately think that he was the “guy who wrote hard to understand books.” As I grew older and began to read his literature I learned that it was not hard to understand it was just a unique style that I had to adjust to. He shares many great ideas that are not stated directly and that we have to dig out of it. The only thing that still makes me struggle a bit is the complicated language but what tends to help me, which I heard from a television show, is to think of his language in my own language. For example if I understand the rap language to translate it into a rap form and that makes it easier to understand. Though we are completely unsure if Shakespeare was a real person there was still a great man/woman out there who wrote these literature pieces and that can not be denied.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html

"To Facebook or not to Facebook"

When I first got my Facebook about a year ago I thought it was the coolest thing ever. All of my friends had one and I thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with them.  I thought it was a big upgrade from the MySpace I use to have, I thought this was a more mature level of social networking. But as time went by I found it to just as immature, I noticed that random people started to request me and that some of my friends started to post really dumb post. I believe that it was a combination of being more involved and being older that made me realize how potentially dangerous Facebook could be. Not only could people besides my friends view my entire profile but complete strangers that I have never seen or met before could as well. This caused great fear in me and it made me change my privacy settings, but I soon realized that was not good enough that many hackers could find ways to view my profile. After I read the article about how 7.5 million children younger than 12 have a Facebook I was in complete shock. Why would children so young need a Facebook? Besides the reason to keep in touch with family, which not many do, there is no good reason. Children’s minds are not fully developed at that age and they could potentially get themselves into some serious danger. Some children tend to be more mature than others at a young age and could handle a social networking sight but the majority is not prepared and I believe that there needs to be some strong regulations for these children. Someone needs to educate them on what is appropriate to post and look at on social networks, and if it is not going to be there parents then someone needs to step up to the plate.

"(Don't) be Hamlet"

Many tend to interpret hamlets soliloquy in different ways. Whether it is the definition of a word or whether it is the entire interpretation. After I have read the soliloquy over and over again I have found a couple key points. Hamlet is conflicted in whether he should kill himself of if he should continue to live a painful life, not only that but he is also conflicted in whether to seek revenge for his fathers death. Though revenge is not typically good there are certain occasions where it is necessary.

            The opening lines to his soliloquy “to be, or not to be—that is the question” clearly state that he is confronted with the question should I live or not. He knows that if he kills himself it will be a great sin but he is also aware that if he continues to live it will be very painful. He is upset about his mothers’ new marriage to his uncle, Claudius, and also with the fact that he knows his uncle murdered his father. The fact that his uncle murdered his father brings up another dilemma for him, and that is whether he should seek revenge or not. Once again revenge is a sin and he is unsure if it is a sin that is worth breaking.

            Though Hamlets life will be very difficult it is not worth taking his life. He will be looked upon as a coward and will be a disgrace to the family name. Many say that revenge is not the answer but I believe that in some cases it is necessary. Like in Hamlets case revenge will be the only way to win respect back. If everyone were to find out that Claudius killed his father and that Hamlet was aware and did nothing to get revenge, he will be considered a fool. He does not only need to live to seek revenge but also because of his great love for Ophelia. In his soliloquy hr refers to her as “the fair Ophelia” that is his way of demonstrating his love toward her.

            Whether Hamlet chooses to live or to die, to seek revenge or to not they are both sins. Even if he did not take action upon this the fair thought of him wanting to die or wanting to seek revenge was a sin. I figure if he already sinned by the thought of them why not just take action upon the thoughts, either way it would be a sin. Hamlets soliloquy is very difficult to interpret but once it is done it completes the whole thought process of Hamlet.