Blinded by Love

You look so cool.
Eyes meet, staring together
You always look so cool.

She had told him
That she loved him.

Eyes        floated          toward her
They stared together
Alone.
In space.

he hadn't once ceased
Looking
                                                        In a dazed way-


At her.

HE saw. HE was
Astounded.














                                                           HE looked at him.
                                                            Then back at her.


Lines from pages 119 and 91.

These lines from the novel The Great Gatsby shows that Gatsby and Daisy are both blinded by love as they see each other in a materialisitc way. The picture of the hand with "Love" written on it that is displayed in front of her eyes represents Gatsby being blinded by love. The repetition of "look so cool" proves and emphasizes that Daisy looks at Gatsby's appearance and what he is represented as in society. This is also shown in the quote "You look so cool". It exhibits that she does not know his true self. Gatsby does not show a natural love for her. He loves the idea of Daisy rather than Daisy herself. This is revealed in the quote "He hadn't ceased looking at her". He loves the idea of Daisy and her lifestyle. This angers Tom. Tom's character (HE) is capitalized to set him apart from Gatsby and Daisy as an outsider. A picture of an envious and angry man represents Tom. I spaced out "eyes floated toward her" to highlight the dream Gatsby is in. I isolated "alone", "In a dazed way", "At her", "HE saw. HE was Astounded" and "HE looked at him. Then back at her" to show the contention between Tom and Gatsby.

The B's of being Creative

                                                This is what it means to be creative.

This is what it means to be creative in the mind of a teenager.

     We desire to fit in as we enter highs school. There are a variety of expectations. There are labels galore. Teens are developing and want to discover themselves. This is where judging becomes its finest. Expectations are set higher than ever. Teens compete to become the best.

       
      When starting high school, teens are often lost. They do not know what to expect, and have many trials they face. More than half of teenagers enter high school feeling peer pressure to blend in and find a destined clique. Everyone wants to be understood.

I can agree to this. As a transfer student freshmen year, I wanted to know that I would be accepted. There was a little fear of who I would be and who I would become.

In Self-Reliance Emerson objects to this."It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” In other words, Emerson states that individuals should refrain from being following sheep. It is easy to follow into peer pressure, but a leader is someone who will go against the crowd. Do not be a sheep. This is the idea of being nonconformist.

Speaking of an outspoken leader, take this situation:

A teacher asks their students to interpret what they think a complex abstract painting is saying. There is complete silence, yet most students have a perspective of what they think the significant meaning to the painting is. After a long and awkward pause, one student speaks up. Suddenly, the class is not so quiet anymore. Students start to express their thoughts. The main issue is that it took one student to break the lingering silence.

Emerson declares, “We but half express ourselves. And are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents". We dissemble our creativity which puts up barriers and can discolor our world. We fear of being misunderstood.

Who doesn't want to be understood?

     Emerson objects to this as he surmises, "To be great is to be misunderstood". We seem to be lacking confidence as we depend on others. Many of us are ashamed to share our ideas and fear of being judged. Yet, when someone shares that one brilliant idea we had, we regret concealing it. We need to learn to conquer fears and trust ourselves.
       
                            The man shows that he has trust in himself as he conquers an obstacle.

     Emerson reveals, "the other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loth to disappoint them." As teenagers, we are utterly consistent. We wake up to a blaring alarm, drag ourselves out of bed, and slowly putone foot in front of the other as we go to school, sports, then come home.  The idea is presented in the Beatles’s Across the Universe:

The lyrics are repetitive. ‘Nothing’s going to change my world’  sums up the life of a teenager. We are so used to a consistent schedule that many factors are missing from our daily routines. Yet as high school students begin to mature, they want to jump to college. All I thought about sophomore  year and the beginning of Junior year was  college and how I could not wait to go. However, I learned that I needed to adjust my daily schedule to make the most of these years. Instead of being consistent and wanting to skip steps, I found ways to spruce up my day. i made simple changes such as my morning routine and managing my time for the significant occurrences in my life and just time to think.

When starting high school, being a non-conformist can be difficult. However, as we get older and advance into high school, we should be successful by revealing our inner creativity in the work we do.

Appreciate

Do American citizens take their freedom for granted or are they truly grateful for their

opportunities in this free country? Do they take their freedom to the fullest advantage?

In Ashley Abbatiello and Rachel Kim’s blog, they compare and contrast the views of

American citizens vs. illegal immigrants. For example, Tarek has constant worry that he may be

deported while Walter shows hate for his life. They discuss the way Tarek blends in with his

environment when he plays his music. He shows his enthusiasm for what he loves to do.

However, Walter, the American citizen, lives a depressed life. He does not take advantage of

the dynamic events around him.

Does Walter represent the “average American”?

I agree with and believe Rachel’s viewpoint to be interesting. Are we Americans

completely appreciative of opportunities here such as freedom of religion and voting rights?

As an American citizen, I don’t always take the time to think about the opportunities

American gives and how other countries around the world do not give some of those

opportunities. It really makes me think if I am taking full advantage and being appreciative of

all of the rights I have as a citizen. There are immigrants in America who do take jobs that

Americans would pass up. Do all American citizens work equally hard as some immigrants

do? Just compare them.

Memory

1. Remember when?

2. For more than twenty years I’ve had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I’m hoping to relive at least some of the pressure on my dreams.

3. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.

4. Sometimes I can’t remember what real is .

5. Let’s go back.

6. She thought back and forth of about what had happened in the making of a voice out of a man. Then thought about herself. Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she remembered.

7. Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored from other times.

8. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.

9. Did it happen or not?

10. I remember sitting in detox — shaking with panic attacks, gagging, trying desperately to survive just another minute. I used to have nightmares about a 6-foot needle chasing me in and out of the shadows.

11. “I wake up many nights crying over this kid. I still see him in my dreams and I don’t know how to get him off my mind.”

12. “Our fathers haunted us. They were everywhere: in the grocery store when we spotted a thirty- pack of Coors on sale for ten bucks; on the highway when we passed a jacked-up Dodge with a dozen hay balesstacked in its bed; in the sky when a jet roared by, reminding us of faraway places. And now, as our bodies thickened with muscle, as we stopped shaving and grew patchy beards, we saw our fathers even in the mirror. We began to look like them. Our fathers, who had been taken from us, were everywhere, at every turn, imprisoning us.

13.




14. Memories of our family and childhood are what shape our personality and who we are.

15.



2. Tim O'Brien

3. Tim O'Brien

4. Tim O'Brien

6. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

7. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

8. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

10. Heroin Destroying Lives

11. Germans in the Woods

12. Refresh

13. Google Images

15. Google Images

Reflection:

The Mash-Up conveys the idea of remembrance and memories. Everyone has memories whether they may be old, recent, good, or bad. I showed personal accounts of memories in my post. Everyone has stories they remember to share or keep inside of them. For example, Tim O'Brien in The Things They Carried struggles to share a story with the closest people around him and writes it down on paper. This shows his insecurity of remembrance. In contrast, Richard Ferrell who share his story in Heroin Destroying Lives, releases his personal experience and memory of using heroin. These are two completely different ways of how both individuals feel about sharing their memories, but can be similar with their way of putting these memories out to the world.