My Rez

This blog was supposed to compare my neighborhood to the Rez, yet I hardly see a connection there. I've grown up in all parts of the city, and my house is a place where I've probably spent the least amount of time, not including sleeping. And honestly, if it weren't for the fact that my current house isn't about a half a mile from the blue line, then maybe I'd feel a little more isolated... But the Blue Line takes you anywhere. So I thought a little bit more about the comparison and I can connect it to a lot of other places in my life. For example my old school, which is a comparison I  believe a lot of students at Whitney will probably be able to identify with. I am the only one from my graduating class to have come to Whitney young, and maybe about a handful of others from my school went to selective enrollment schools or IB program schools. I can say the same for my family, because I'm the first to have gone to a selective enrollment school amongst my cousins. It's an accomplishment for me, but it also creates a barrier whenever I'm with my family because they put me in this high standard, making it seem as if I think I'm too good. As if I thought or I think I am little miss smarty pants with goals and ambition and I'm not afraid to admit that my dreams are probably too big. As for the rest of my non-American family, having been born in America in the first place has been like the reardan to Arnold's story. And that's the absolute best comparison I can think of as comparing a personal situation to the Rez. A lot of my family is still living in Mexico and Puertorico. I have yet to meet (almost all) of my Puertorican side of the family, but I know their situation is only slightly better than in Mexico. I love seeing my family in Mexico, but it's also a straight up feeing of being back on my own kind of 'Rez'. Seeing a lot of my cousins as teen parents already, only the lucky ones married. There's no room to grow out there, there's no room to follow your dreams because you're basically limited to two. It's still one of the happiest places I've known, but there's hardly any different ways of living. Like Arnold's Rez, it's highly influenced by alcohol, poverty and death but that's just the lifestyle on the 'Rez'. And it's basically engrained in our culture to be proud. And I am proud, of my family and my roots and where I come from, yet it's this idea of being too proud that hold everyone back. My dad has been in this country for at least 30 years and he still hasn't gotten his American citizenship because of this whole pride thing. Once you're 'American', there's no going back, you've already turned yor back on your roots.. Your history... But that's a whole other blog topic. The end :)

Native Son

In book three, Max gives an utterly long speech. The speech was nice at first, but ultimately it was not necessary for the reader to read the last 20 pages of it. throughout the book, Bigger is giving us his perspective and analysis of his situation involving the murder, racial problems, and society's influence on him. As we read, we also analysize the text that we read and discuss it in class as well as answer questions regarding it to give what we read deeper meaning. By the time book three came along, we as readers already had an idea of how the rest of Biggers life was going to play out, (or not play out) so reading through. Maxs speech was very repetitive as a reader. Max's speech was important in that it showed us as a reader that he had some similar views of Biggers situation and that his state of thinking was ahead of his time. His speech summed up a considerable portion of Biggers emotions and was well stated, although given the time period and Biggers crime, it was probably not convincing towards a hateful and bias jury.

Yellow cars, church steeples, and green lights

These three things are very symbolic in the great gatsby. Jay Gatsby drives a yellow car in the book, and it is seen as a big flashy statement. Tom refers to it as a circus wagon, and he believes it is just an attempt by Gatsby to show how much money he has. the green light is the light at the end of Daisys dock, that Gatsby looks at. The green light can represent the American dream to some, although that is a very general statement. At the beggining of the book, Nick sees the green light ahead of him, and in his individual case this might represent financial succes to Nick, seeing as he is a struggling binds salesman. I beleive Fitzgerald uses the color green to represent money for Nick. Finally, the church steeple. This refers to Immanuel Kant, who developed his theories on morality while looking at a church steeple. Fitzgerald relates this to Nick, because he resembles Immanuel in that he is pensive and thoughtful, and also carefully considers those around him and their thoughts/opinions.