Not the Only Ones

On April 20, I came across an article, “Twelve dead,15 missing in Brazil boat accident” in The Times of India. The author mentions the accident that occurred in the Ariri River in the Brazillian Amazon. At first, the captain of the boat claimed to only having 49 passengers aboard and had no idea how the accident occurred. In the article, the captain is quoted with the following statement: “I was at the helm when the boat capsized. I did not hit anything. I cannot understand what happened. It was so fast.” It was just an accident that no one saw coming.

We may not know how this happened. But there is one thing that is certain. The captain LIED! He did not have 49 passengers. He had 70! This, in fact, is more than the maximum capacity the boat could handle. Why would the captain have done this?  Is he lying about something else? We can’t be sure and can’t point figures to someone without having valid evidence that points to him of being the reason for this accident. Although, we do know that he risked the lives of people by allowing more people than the limit onto the board. 12 people died mostly likely not knowing moments before what was happened since the accident occurred while many of the passengers were sleeping.

Many people around the world suffer as well without many of us noticing. Emotions are universal but the way people are affected by it varies. Families who were affected by this accident are going through a lot of emotions and are reacting in different ways. Many may be grieving for their lost ones while others are praying to have them back safely. After a stressful week and everything going on in the United States, many of us might start to wonder: why us? It seems as if United States can’t take a break. In the last week or so, there have been tragic events that even led to the deaths of innocent ones. We can’t help and wonder what we have done to deserve all of this. The truth is, we are not the only ones. Everyone suffers and struggles.

Women's Safety

I came across an article that focuses on women. Women are always victims of abuse from men. The article, “Nagpurians cometogether at an event for women’s safety”, is short but points out the main issues of women’s safety. In Delhi, a ganrape started in which many women are exposed and potential victims of it. An even was organized led by Kekti Arbat and Angad Bhatti to help the women at risk. They gave a speech and informed young girls to be prepared with pepper spray and have the police numbers on speed dial.

As I was reading how the young girls are being educated to protect themselves, I started to think of “The Waiting Years” While reading this, lack of education has been brought up. Young girls who are sent to become concubines do not have the opportunity to get educated. Since they are sent away to become concubines from an early age, they do not have the chance of learning about life. They do not know what is out in the world and do not learn how to protect themselves. They are to do whatever they are asked to do by their superiors.

All around the world, there are places in which many people are not educated like in the United States. They have no knowledge of anything which is a big issue. How are women supposed to protect themselves when they have no clue what to do? All they know is how to be dominated by men. They feel as if they have no voice which is false. Everyone has a voice and needs to fight for their rights.

"Memoirs of a Geisha"

To be honest, movies about a different culture do not always interest me because most of the time I do not understand them. I don’t have enough background knowledge to fully understand it. In Memoirs of a Geisha I was able to understand it and actually enjoy it. The story involves the life of a young, poor, Japanese girl, Sayuri, who was sold by her parents to be a slave but becomes a geisha in her later life. As she grows, she is treated as a servant and learns the life of a servant. She gets physically punished for things that are not her fault. She becomes the most popular geisha in Kyoto from the help of the most successful geisha, Mameha. Sayuri, whose real name is Chiyo Sakamoto, struggles with life as a geisha. Geishas are woman who are entertainers and amuse men without actually giving them their own body. Sayuri, from a young age, falls in love with the chairman who is determined to see again one day. Sayuri learns quickly how to be a geisha as well as become the rival of  her friend and her mentor.

As I was watching this, I couldn’t help and think about The Waiting Years. Women in Japan are, in a way, forced to hide their feelings. Show no emotion and do what pleases the men. The film captures that effect very well demonstrates the life of a geisha well. Sayuri learns to put her strong feelings of the chairman away. They are humans who have feelings and live a life full of obstacles as many ordinary people do. Sayuri tries to find her happiness but being a geisha makes it difficult for it to happen. It becomes even more difficult when World War II begins interrupting her life. Despite everything Sayuri goes through, she manages to get through it. Who would have known the young Sayuri would become into a strong woman? The ending of the film might be well liked by many but hated for others. In my opinion, the film ended the way it should have.

Never Take Anything For Granted

Bonjour!

I'm glad you decided to come back and read more of my blogs. This time, I want to take a close look to "The Man who Walked Through Walls, Or the Life of an Unremarkable Person" by Marcel Ayme. But before going into the story, I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Sears for translating to text from french to english.

Now, lets begin!

The short story revolves around a man, Dutilleul, living in Montmartre possessing a special power. This power enables him to physically walk through walls. Yes, walk through walls! Now who wouldn't want a power like that? Anyways, after discovering he could walk through walls, Dutilleul immediately sought a doctor to explain this behavior. The doctor had explained to him why it was happening and recommended him to do tiring exercises and to take a prescribed tablet twice a year.

Dutilleul's ability did not seem to be going away but Durtilleul did not find any use of it and avoided it. He did everything like a normal person for the first year but that changed when his boss was transfer to a new position. The new assistant director at the Ministry of Records, Monsieur Lecuyer, did not appreciate Dutilleul and treated him in a bad manner. Dutilleul did not like the changes Monsieur Lecuyer had made in such a short time and did not like the way he was being treated considering he had been working there for 20 years.

Dutilleul grew a hatred for the new assistant director and to get revenge, he used the special power he obtained. He started to scare and frighten Monsieur Lecuyer by popping his head through the wall in Monsieur's office. Dutilleul repeated this process over and over until Monsieur started to lose his mind and was sent to  mental hospital. After what he had caused to Monsieur Lecuyer, Dutilleul wanted to do more and fill his satisfaction.

What was it that Dutilleul did with his power to feel better? He began to rob banks! He would walk through the walls and fill his pockets with money leaving his signature of "Garou-Garou". Instead of the public becoming angry at this thief for stealing their money, they saw Garou-Garou as a hero. Even though Garou-Garou was seen as a great man, not everybody thought the same about Dutilleul. When Dutilleul tried to confess he was the thief, everyone laughed at him. He was a rich man who no one thought he could be Garou-Garou. After getting caught by a night guard, everything seem to be unsatisfied for Dutilleul.

After getting caught, Dutilleul became careless and did everything without having a consequence. He escaped jail many times leaving everyone to wonder how in the world he was doing it. Dutilleul continued to rob places and started to not hide his identity. Dutilleul became arrogant. He did not care if he was caught because he could simply walk through the jail walls and get out. Dutilleul then planned to escape to Egypt and therefore change his appearance so no one could be able to recognize him. Before leaving for Egypt though, he fell in love with a woman.

This woman though was married and her husband locked her up, leaving her alone for a long time. Dutilleul found getting into the house a challenve and so every night, he went in her room through the walls and made love to her. After the first nighr, he had a headache and took a pill he had found in his drawer. Now, remember in the beginning how his doctor gave him two prescribed tablets? Well, he made the mistake of taken the second tablet thinking it was going to help him get rid of his headache. Instead of getting rid of his headache, Dutilleul no longer was able to walk through walls. Though he did not find out until after going to have his night with the woman. As he was leaving in the morning, he all of a sudden felt he could not move as he was going through the wall and was stuck in it forever.

The end of the story was actually funny  and unexpected. It seemed like the story was going to continue with Dutilleul doing whatever he pleased withought gettinv into a major problem. The story is a fable and like many fables, Ayme wantdd the reader to learn a lesson. What is the lesson learned here? There can be many different lessons, but the lesson is one should never take anything for granted. Cherish the things you have and never put them at risk of losing them. If you lose them, you can lose yourself as well. Also, one must not take the easy way out. It will only bring bad consequences just like it happened to Dutilleul.

Until next time!

Who is it?

Welcome back readers!

Today, I want to talk about a book I read in my world literatire class awhile back. I have always had trouble with engaging myself to read books a teacher assigns me. Most of them, if not all, always seem to be boring to me. But in this case, I found The Icarus Girl to be interesting and full of surprises.

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi is a novel set in England telling the story of a young girl named Jessamy. It may seem Jessamy's behavior as out of the ordinary for an eight year old. One may even think of her as crazy or strange. Although that is nothing compared to what Oyeyemi reveals later in the novel.

While I was reading the novel, I asked myself a few questions over and over again. Why "The Icarus Girl"? Who is "The Icarus Girl"? It may see logical to say the Icarus girl is Jessamy. But in my opinion, I think the Icarus Girl is TillyTilly. Who is TillyTilly, you may ask?

First of all, in order to figure out who the Icarus girl is, one must understand the reference to Icarus. Icarus is a greek mythology in which the father of Icarus, Daedalus, builds a Labyrinth that was to trap a monster in it. Daedalus built two wax wings in order for his son and himself to escape the Labyrinth. Daedalus told his son to go first and warned him not to fly too close to the sea or the sun since the sun will cause the wings to melt. Icarus then set out to escape the Labyrinth, but as he was flying, he did the one thing he was told not to do. Icarus got too close to the sun and his wings melted causing him to fall in the sea.

Now, back to the original question. Who is TillyTilly? When Jessamy makes a visit to his grandfather in Nigeria with both of her parents, she meets a girl, TillyTilly, who would change her life. It seems as if TillyTilly is a good influence in Jessamy considering Jessamy starts to step out of her own shell and stand up for herself. But the way TillyTilly became a good influence quickly, she quickly turned into a bad influence in Jessamy's life. Jessamy soon began to get herself in trouble in school as well as in her home. People started to get hurt out of now where. What's the common factor in this? TillyTilly.

We later learn TillyTilly is dead and in reality is a bad, twin sister and spirit. TillyTilly would somehow get people hurt, putting them in a horrible health condition rapidly without a cure. Jessamy started to get worried and scared of what TillyTilly was doing. Her vision of TillyTilly being the best person and friend started to vanish. Jessamy wanted for TillyTilly to stop "getting" people. Though TillyTilly did not stop and "got" Jessamy's father. After seeing her dad in such a bad condition, Jessamy wanted TillyTilly to stop. But that was not TillyTilly's plan.

TillyTilly wanted to live and come back from the dead. She found out Jessamy was an easy target and that she would be the solution to her problem. TillyTilly's plan began by having Jessamy trust her and admire her. She wanted to get really close to Jessamy so when she found the right time, she would switch bodies and keep Jessamy's body as her own. The plan was ruined when Jessamy realized TillyTilly was a bad person. Jessamy started to push herself away from TillyTilly by becoming friends with another girl. TillyTilly could not bare that idea because if Jessamy put some distance between the two of them, then TillyTilly would not be able to have an easy access to Jessamy's body.

Throughout the whole book, TillyTilly wants to make Jessamy feel she only has TillyTilly and no one else. There are a couple of times that TillyTilly and Jessamy switch bodies, even against Jessamy's will. The first time they switch, TillyTilly was in pain and could not handle it. The second time, she is positive that she will be able to control the body. Towards the end, Jessamy's body and her mother get into a car accident. Jessamy's life is at risk and there is no knowing if she will survive or die. While in the real world all of this is happening, Jessamy finds herself in a supernatural world. She fights against TillyTilly since only one will be able to return to Jessamy's body. Jessamy does not become afraid of TillyTilly but rather TillyTilly becomes afraid. Jessamy finds her way back to her body leaving TillyTilly to fall.

TillyTilly thought if she could control Jessamy and get her to do anything, she would eventually tell Jessamy to give up her body for TillyTilly to have. The plan TillyTilly had failed at the end. Instead of her escaping death to live, TillyTilly did not return to the living world and stayed where she belong from the very beginning. TillyTilly was overconfident and at the end, she caused her own pain.

Well until next time!

Just Me

Hey there! Not a lot of you may know me or have ever heard of my name. If you do know me, you most likely do not know a lot about me and my life. Whatever the case is, after reading this post you will have a better idea of who I am and the type of person I am.

To start with, I was born in Mexico and have lived in Manitowoc for ten years now. I am the only child from my mother's side and I have two step brothers. One who lives in Mexico and another who is married and lives 30 minutes away from us. Even though they are not my real blood brothers and my step father is not my biological father, I consider them as my one and only family. I live at home with my parents and my two dogs (a chihuahua and a shih tzu) whom I love with all my heart. I am a responsible person, always willing to help out, and always there for anyone who may need me no matter what. I consider myself shy at times, kind to others and respectful. I speak fluent Spanish, English, and took 6 years of French although I might be losing some due to lack of practicing and speaking the language on a regular basis. As of now, I am a new student at Silver Lake College majoring in Psychology. Though I still keep my options open.

The main reason for this blog is for my World Literature class. The majority of my posts will consist of my learning and discoveries I make throughout the course and the types of works I come across with. Many of the readings I will encounter may come from different parts of the world which will challenge my thinking and way of learning. I do not have much experience in blogging but I hope to be able to share my thoughts without being too boring. So please bear with me and hopefully I will not be the only one learning through this process.

Until next time!