Class Activity

Today in class, we did a fun activity! I thought it was really fun acting out what was told for us to do on the piece of paper. Before doing this project, I never even thought about these things (posture, hand gestures, etc.) But I did know that id have to the obvious things, such as speaking loud and clearly, keeping your audience entertained and having good eye contact with my audience. I think this project might be a little difficult for me though.. A 10 minute long presentation and I'm still not sure of what topic I'm going to choose yet or how I am going to present it! I have a lot of work to do. I don't even know if I can think of anything to do for that long.. But I have almost two weeks to prepare, so hopefully I think of something!

"05/01/09"

We're finally done with this book! But I must say, I didn't really appeal to me because of the women not getting any rights part. The quote that was given to us for our in class essay even made me mad! Haha.. I felt like Offred was so helpless in that quote. I thought she was saying that she really didn't want to be apart of the salvaging and be hung on the Wall. She would rather allow the government to do whatever they wanted with her instead of dying... She would rather live and be treated as an object than die! Shes crazy! I don't think I'd want to live under those circumstances. I also don't think it's necessary for the government of Gilead to have some kind of a public ceremony where they hang people who have done wrong. Not only is it embarassing, but it must really be hurtful to watch the whole process. But I guess they have to do whatever they have to do in order to keep control of their society.. Oh what propganda does to us!

Chapter 43

We're almost done with this book!

Anyways, the chapter that interested me most from the reading that was due today was chapter 43. I really liked this chapter because I finally get to see that the women stand up for themselves, unlike in most of the other chapters where their power is limited and what not. The women all came together and beat up a man who was convicted for rape. It didn't seem like the first time they did this. It actually seemed like they practice this because after Aunt Lydia blew a whistle, they all go attack the man. I also was surprised at Ofglen's actions because she really just kicked the man's head a bunch of times. Painful, much?!

Onto something else; in class, we've been doing activites on propaganda. I've never knew about all the different types of propaganda there are, such as bandwagon, bad logic, etc., until this activity. I also never knew how often the different types of propaganda are in things in our everyday lives such as TV commercials and online advertisements. And how the propaganda isn't always obvious in commercials.. sometimes you really have to pay attention and listen to what the people are saying because there are a lot of hidden meanings!

Until next time!

Late Post.

Today we did an activity in class that we've never done before. It was called, "Think Out Loud" I believe. Well anyway, I thought this activity was pretty interesting. I also thought it helped me understand the text a little better because sometimes when I read, my thoughts get jumbled up with what I read, but since I get to speak out loud, there was no longer any mix up!

Chapter 35 really caught my attention today. One quote that made me think was this one on page 226, "You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and that tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder..."
- I find that interesting because in my opinion, I don't think love can be used in past tense. It's either you love someone, or you never loved them at all. I don't think you can stop loving someone and if you ever think you loved someone, it probably wasn't love at all and it was just pure infatuation.

Also, at the end of this chapter, it talked about Ofglen not being able to use a knife while she ate because she has "manual skills and teeth". That's just another way of how they prevent the women from having any type of power. I admire the women so much for being able to put up with such tough living conditions!

Wikis + Chapters 27-28

So today, we wrapped up on our group Wikis. The discussion/summary questions that we had, made me realize even more about the society in Gilead. I feel bad for the women because in the society, they're "not supposed" to know how to read or write. What they are supposed to know how to do is household chores while the men go out and work, make money and provide for the family. What's up with all these stories that involve women getting little to no rights?! First, in The Left Hand of Darkness, the female pronoun wasn't even used! and now in The Handmaid's Tale, women aren't allowed to be educated! I'm so glad that our society isn't like that. My group also talked about this while working on our Wikis.. the whole "role of domesticity" thing. I mean, there will always be an ideal perception of a wife, but in reality, not all wives have to stay home, clean, take care of the kids, etc. They can have jobs too! It sucks that women aren't really appreciated in the society. The only thing they're wanted for is to have children. They need to learn how to treat women right!

"The Handmaid's Tale" - Night

This book is starting to get a little bit harder to understand. I feel this way because sometimes, and I really do mean sometimes, Atwood chooses not to use quotation marks. I wonder why she chooses to make only certain peoples' words in quotations and not with the other characters. After the discussions in class on Monday and Tuesday, I learned that the "Marthas" were at home servants.

There is one quote I'd like to speak about from chapter 18:
"But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere." (pg. 103)
I think it's unfair that they are forced to sleep with men that they aren't interested in and must also bear their baby. It's especially sad because the men already have their own wives, but their wives can't have babies because of certain reasons such as radiation, age, etc. But in my opinion, I don't think that's an excuse to force someone else to have sex with you. The woman may not even know the man, but they are forced to sleep with him. That's so wrong! I also wonder how the mens' wives feel about that and how the children will feel about it when they grow up knowing that their mom doesn't even love their dad and was just forced to sleep with him. It seems like the females in the society do not live very happy lives. I feel so sorry for them! I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to have to deal with that type of situation.

The Handmaid's Tale

Before reading this story, I was hoping that it wouldn't be as confusing as The Left Hand of Darkness and that it wouldn't have any weird made up vocabulary to add more to the confusion. So far, I've finished reading the first section of the story (up to page 33) and I am kind of confused. I don't really understand what type of living conditions they are in. I'm also still wondering who the "Marthas" are. I think that the society in this book is sort of reaching towards a Utopia because of how they separate the males from the females.

Here's a few quotes I'd like to talk about:
"As we walk away, I know they're watching, these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt around me." Pg. 22
- For some reason, they don't allow some men to have any type of physical interaction with females. I guess it's their way of "protecting" the females? I also thought it was mean for her to be teasing those men, but I guess it's also funny too.

"She's a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her." Pg. 26
- This quote is when the women at the market notice that there is a pregnant woman there. I think they're envious of her because they don't have any men, therefore they aren't able to become pregnant like her. I still wonder what status or ranking do they have to be in order to even talk to a man. This is confusing! But hopefully as I continue reading the book over the break, it'll become clearer to me.

Until next time!

Class in General

So, now that we're done reading The Left Hand of Darkness, we're writing an essay related to it. But this time, we get to be the envoys and we must report back to our own counsils. In my report, I decided to discuss the social topic of gender. I chose to speak on gender because we had already talked about it in class a week or two ago, and I thought I had good examples on gender already. Some examples I mentioned in my essay were occupations and certain gender-based quotes people say. I also wanted to speak about gender because I feel that in our society, males are more superior than females, and that's not fair to us females! And I know there are probably a lot of other girls who feel the same way. It's too bad that the solutions I used in my essay wouldn't be so simple to use in real life. Oh well, I guess for now I can imagine the equality that I wished society would have with genders.

Until next time!

The End!..

Wow, it feels like just yesterday where we just started reading the book and now all of a sudden, we're finally done with it! I must say the book was pretty good even though it was confusing A LOT of times. Well, what can I say..

In chapter 19, I'm glad that they had finally found civilization! I was wondering how long they would have had to travel until they finally reached a town. I'm surprised that the place they arrived in welcomed them. If I were those people, I would've been kind of scared because first of all, two people just came walking into my house out of nowhere and second of all, I don't even know who these people are, where they came from or what they want from me!! But I guess Genly and Estraven were lucky enough to stumble upon a nice home who welcomed them with open arms.

So, after having a little bit of rest and eating some food, they went back on their journey. I remember one of the last group's questions was something like "Do you think Estraven knew the guards were there as he skiied by? Why do you think he kept going even though the guards were there?" In my opinion, I don't think Estraven necessarily knew the guards were there, but I also don't think he cared they were there either. I mean, he's already been exiled from his home, which is where he's trying to go back to. So he either would've stopped skiing and got caught and be taken back to jail, or just keep going and hope that they didn't catch him. I think he didn't stop because there was nothing for him to live for. He might as well have took the risk and kept going because if he didn't, he would've just been taken to jail or something. I think I would've taken the risk too because I'd rather risk my life to get away rather than going back to jail and probably staying there to live the rest of my life miserably.

It's sad that Estraven had to die and that Genly had to be there to witness it. I was hoping they would've continued their friendship at the end of the book. I didn't think that one of them was going to die, so that was a surprise to me. The book was pretty good, and in the end, Genly is having a conversation with Estraven's father and Estraven's son. The book doesn't really have a real ending, so I wonder if there's supposed to be another part to it, like another novel continuing it or something?.. oh well, it was good while it lasted!

Language.

Prompt: What do you notice now about the language used in your narrative that you didn't notice when you originally wrote it? How does your use of pronouns play a role that you notice?

After learning about what our narrative was REALLY about, it really made me think. I never thought about how much people can think that a certain job such as a nurse, is only for females and another job such as a professor, is only for males. This causes people to refer nurses as a "she" and a professor as a "he" no matter what gender they really are. and I was really surprised to see that I kind of followed these stereotypes because in my narrative, the teacher and the nurse were females while the police officer, physician and attorney were male, but my judge was a female ONLY because I was thinking about Judge Judy while I was writing, haha.

These pronouns cause certain genders to have dominance in certain jobs. I think males have the most dominance in these pronouns because we refer to the male pronoun "he" whenever a specific gender isn't mentioned. We also say things such as "hey guys!", "you guys!", etc. when we're talking to a mixed gendered group or even a whole group of females!

In order to fix this, I think the English language should create a pronoun that can be meant for a male AND female. I thought it was pretty interesting how the kids of Baltimore use the word "yo" to refer to a person. We should do something like that, but just create a different word because using "yo" sounds kind of weird to me. But then again, it probably doesn't sound weird to them. As we discussed in class, we grow up and get accustomed to the language and slang used in our area. The east and west coast have different ways of speaking, and each side probably finds the other side's way of speaking weird too.

Chapter 16; Between Drumner and Dremegole

So today, we had a very good discussion. Not only was it creative, but the questions were interesting too! There were two questions that I wanted to respond to in this blog because I found them the most interesting...

Q: When questioned, "What is a women?" by Estraven, Genly falters and is unable to come up with an answer. What do you think would happen if the Foretellers were asked this question? Is there an answer to this question?

A: In my opinion, if someone were to ask the Foretellers, "What is a women?" I don't think they would be able to give an answer. Usually, people go to the Foretellers to ask them questions about their futures. They'll ask something like, "When will I die?" for example. A question like "What is a women?" would probably confuse them. I don't think they would be able to come up with an answer to that question because it has nothing to do with the asker's future. I think that there is an answer to this question, but many answers at that. There isn't one definite answer to what a "women" is. You could base the definition on genetics, reproductive systems, stereotypes, etc. Therefore, there could many possibilities on the definition of "women".

and as for the 2nd question... I don't know exactly what it was, but it was along the lines of interpreting this quote:

"Light is the left hand of darkness

and darkness is the right hand of light.

Two are one, life and death, lying

together like lovers in kemmer,

like hands joined together,

like the end and the way. "

and basically, I thought the quote meant that one must experience life in order to experience death. You can't just go through one without going through the other. Life is basically a pathway to death. Just like how it was mentioned in today's discussion, it's similiar to "Yin and Yang". Life and death are two seperate parts that complete one another. There's no way you could die without living and when you live, eventually you're going to die. Light and dark stick together and are chain reactions that cannot be broken.

Chapter 14.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late post. My internet wasn't working on Friday night, so I had to use my phone to e-mail Ms.Aaland my blog post and she told me to just post it on my blog when my internet works again.. so here it is!

Chapter 14 was very interesting! Never would I have thought that Estraven would actually be helping Genly. This whole time, I thought he didn't like him and was going to be against him throughout the whole story. I think Estraven was nice to have saved Genly and help get him out of jail. During todays group discussion, one of the question really made me think. I don't remember what the exact question was, but it was along the lines of "would you trust Estraven?" Automatically, without thinking, I said I definitely would not trust him. After all, he was considered a traitor and didn't even help Genly in the beginning. But when I really thought about I I realized I would actually trust him. If someone is willing to go out of their way to rescue you and even carry you on their shoulders through harsh conditions, it obviously proves that they're really there for you. I know for sure that I wouldn't do that for anyone unless it was someone I cared about! I think this chapter was the most interesting so far of this whole novel. Its still a bit confusing, but the discussions are helping me clarify what's actually going on.

Until next time!

Chapter 9; "Estraven the Traitor" & Chapter 10; "Conversations in Mishnory"

Back again with my thoughts!.. but this time, it'll be on chapters 9 and 10.

Although chapter 9 was pretty short, I was SO confused while reading it!! In the beginning, Estraven arrives at some type of shack, where he meets someone and they vow to kemmer. Then all of a sudden, some Stok men came and "stabbed Estraven in the throat and chest, and the young man fell across the cold hearth in his blood, dead." (pg. 126-127) OUCH! but okay, after reading that, i thought Estraven was dead. but then, on page 129, it talks about Estraven having a conversation with Stokven. And after that point, i was totally lost. First of all, I thought Estraven was dead?! But now all of a sudden he's alive and having a conversation with somebody? What's happening here?! After having the group discussion today, I was told that they were two DIFFERENT Estravens. That makes a lot more sense to me now!.. but I don't understand why someone would want to name him after some guy who was just killed and considered a "traitor".

Chapter 10 made more sense to me. I truly admire Genly for continuing to find different nations to unite with his own. He takes a risk by telling the Commensals more about him and his NAFAL ship. I think it's kind of weird how he has one of his ships orbiting around their sun and there are people in the ship "hibernating" and just waiting for Genly to get in contact with them. I'm surprised that the Commensals weren't so scared about that. I mean, c'mon, you have some ship orbiting around your nation and you don't even know who the people in there are.. but okay i guess. I also thought it was interesting how the Ekumen "does not enforce laws." (pg. 137) That's amazing how they can rule their society without any worry of their citizens causing any harm or unlawful acts towards one another.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 5: "The Domestication of Hunch"

So, I just finished reading chapter 5 of "The Left Hand of Darkness". I'm still a little bit confused with this whole story, but as I keep reading chapter by chapter, I'm slowly understanding it more and more.

I feel like this chapter of the novel relates to chapter 4 a lot, therefore, I'm going to refer back to that chapter just a little. Genly goes in search for the foretellers, just as Herbor did in the last chapter. Sadly, Herbor asked the "wrong" question, and in the end, he had a pretty bad outcome. Anyway, back to this chapter.. I never really understood what the whole chapter was going to be about as I read the first few pages. All I really got of it was that they were travelling somewhere, but I had no idea where they were going.

After reading about how Genly was denied by the King, I wondered where he was going to go next. On page 56, Genly told the "person" he was just greeted by that he had "come with a question for the Foretellers." I wondered what the question would be, and I hoped that he wouldn't have the same outcome as Herbor in the previous chapter. I thought it was pretty nice of the Foretellers to let Genly "dwell" with them for a few days (pg. 59). And when Genly finally got the chance to ask the Foretellers, "Will this world Gethen be a member of the Ekumen of Known Worlds, five years from now?" I wondered what type of process would have to be done in order to reach an answer. Would it be similar to The Bead Woman? As the foretellers sat in the circle, I found the "Pervert" kind of weird. On page 64, it says, "The Pervert laid his hand quickly and softly on the kemmerer's hand." What was he trying to do? Was he trying to flirt with the kemmerer or something? I don't know, but the actions of some of the characters in this novel confuse me.. I don't really get their intentions sometimes.

One thing that really interested me in this chapter was when Faxe said, "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action...." (pg.71) It took awhile for me to really understand what he was saying, and I'm still not sure if I'm taking it the right way. What I think is that Faxe is trying to say that life is about just living and letting fate take its course. What makes life life is living like there's no tomorrow, living with the uncertainties and taking chances. I think he's trying to say that life is about making choices based on what YOU believe is best. If all the Gethenians took the easy way out by paying the price to see a Foreteller, that wouldn't be living a real life. Just as Faxe said, "The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next." (pg. 71) I wonder what's in store for Genly!...

Thanks for reading!