The Last American Chapter

In my opinion, Eustace is NOT the last American man, you dig? Yeah, there are always going to be plenty of his kind in the future. Yes, he knows a lot about nature, and yes he like the circle of life, and yes he does weird things like smear deer artery all over himself, but in reality, all humans are like that. The other 299,999,000 Americans just don't express themselves like Eustace does. For example, normal businessmen have very similar traits to that of Eustace. Businessmen understand that there is a circle of life, and a food chain i.e. some are on top, others on the bottom, and that's how it goes. The ones on the top have the power, and feed off of the ones on the bottom, and when the ones on top die out, the ones on the bottom are sometimes rewarded with a promotion or raise of some kind. The ones on top will do whatever it takes to stay on the top, and will try and make sure that the struggling bottom feeders will stay where they belong. Businessmen also desire land, territory, wealth and power, just like Eustace does. Only instead of bonds, stuffy air conditioning, corporate branches, salesmen and customer service workers, and skyscrapers, Eustace has tall trees and mountains, valleys, birds, animals, and open air.
Eustace is not the last American man, and this idea is a bad one. There are many types of "men" in our society, and Eustace is just a version of a man who became a stereotype in the 19th century, and in the 20th century with cheesy John Wayne movies and politically incorrect Disney movies. Gilbert's idea of the "Last American Man," is terrible, and in my opinion is just portraying that American men should be white, bearded, control freaks who like deer blood and love to use people for his own benefit, and do nothing for anyone else.

Jedi's Apprentice

Eustace is a selfish little guy who really, doesn't care about anyone else. He uses the people around him for his own benefit. He makes his apprentices do chores that he does not want to and he does not teach him how he lives. He also makes them work extremely hard, sometimes up to 15 hours. Many apprentices get fed up with this guy, and eventually leave. Many of these people also literally get their dreams crushed by Eustace's harsh treatment towards them. Eustace always exposes anything that is wrong, and will make them feel terribly for it. Some people give up their jobs and families for Eustace, and are crushed by him. I would not work for Eustace. I have this problem where, if I am yelled at and treated poorly, i am unmotivated, to work, and therefore will quit or do my job terribly. Yes, I know, this is not good. But it's how I am...But basically, I could not work for Eustace. I would get to annoyed by his selfishness, and his lack of compassion towards other people. I would want to take breaks, and he wouldn't let me take breaks. I would want to do stuff related to nature, like learning to hunt, fish, and make fires, he would just make me do useless chores around his property. All of this stuff would make me extremely mad, and I honestly would get up and leave. I would not be able to work in a situation and environment like that.

Montar el caballo (to ride a horse)

One of the main reasons Eustace goes on this trip is to, like many of his adventures and experiences, is to get out there, and to live. He wants to do something exciting and new, and a horse ride seemed like just the thing to do. Eustace also did not feel like he and his brother had a strong enough bond. He wanted to get to know him better, so he invited him a long for the ride. Eustace wanted to see how hard and how fast his brother and himself, as well as the horses could go before they reached a point of sheer exaustion, and he wanted to do it by Easter, which too many people was an unthinkable idea. I thought an important part of the story was when Eustace took a different path than Judson and Susan. Eustace was much safer by traveling a long the interstate, even though it was a longer route. The canyon where Judson and Susan traveled was much shorter, but was also much more dangerous. In the end though Eustace proved to be right because the horses hooves got injured. From then on Eustace was always right, and would win any argument. Eustace broke the pact that they had made. They had promised never to separate themselves from each other on the trip.

Under Pressure

Eustace is pressured, from all around to set up and run Turtle Island. He has lots of pressure from himself because he makes a dream and goal to buy the farmer's land. If he doesn't get the land, and it's developed, than he will quit cold turkey and will move somewhere else. He puts a lot of pressure on himself. He also is pressured because he has to act a certain way while being a businessman. It is very tiresome to act this way, his perfect side, and it breaks him down. He is sick of acting the same way for the same people over and over again. He worked very hard, and made people think that he was a kind, friendly, rugged pioneer man. Sure he was kind, friendly, and rugged, but he was not always these things, and it was hard for him to always portray this image to people.
He also put pressure on himself by getting money from his dad, whom he hadn't talked to in a while. He worked very hard to pay back his dad just to show that he was able to work, and was independent, and was intelligent enough to succeed on his own. He was also working very hard, quite opposite of the life that he preached, and quite opposite of the life that he wanted. He was working hard for a life where he wouldn't have to work hard, and he didn't really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

El ultimo hombre Americano

Eustace, really was in trouble with starting Turtle Island because he had ZERO dollars to start something like this. He asked his father, whom he hadn't talked very much with and didn't have a very good relationship with, for some money, which was quite an embarrassing and pride hurting thing for Eustace to do. When his father gives him the money, he works, works, and works some more to pay it off. Basically, he worked his nature butt off to pay off the loan quickly. He wanted to get it out of the way, and prove to people that money was not important in life, that nature could make people ultimately happy, not money. Too him, Nature was where it was out, and he wanted to prove that too people, and he wanted to share this idea, to everyone. I also thought it was interesting that he really did enjoy presenting his ideas to everyone minus the fact he had to be in society's "squares," and not his environment's "circles." He was sick of the squares, and that seemed like that was the main problem for him. He wanted to return to his life, and get away from it all. And in my opinion, I actually think he would be happiest going Chris McCandless on everyone and just, literally, disappearing, but I think he was smarter than Chris, and realized he couldn't do something like that for a long period of time. He wasn't out to prove anything.

CHARITAY

For my paper, I'm writing about a homeless shelter in inner city Indianapolis called the Dayspring Center. I am directly linked to this shelter because for about 5 years, my mom worked there, and I spent a lot of time volunteering there, as well as simply playing with the other kids my age that lived there. I spent a lot of time there growing up, so it's a place that I find to be special and very helpful to many families who have been put into bad situations. I've seen homelessness and how most of the time, it's actually not the persons own fault. Homelessness for many people is a thing that cannot be avoided. It makes people mentally and physically damaged and effects millions and millions of people. The Dayspring Center works extremely hard for its residents trying to put them back into employment, permanent housing, and school.
For this essay, I want to write how Dayspring helps out the people who live there, and how Dayspring sets people up for when they leave after 90 days. I think that what they do is invaluable to the society, and can save thousands of people from hunger, poverty, and even sickness. Keeping people off the street reduces death rates, crime, and trash, and that's what Dayspring does. Dayspring doesn't just do it for the present, they also work hard to try and reduce homelessness for the future, and to keep it that way.

Things that make me mad, today.

In my opinion, silent racism is still a big factor in today's modern world. Sure, African-Americans can sit in first class, make a lot of money, vote and all that what not. They are technically just as "equal." But in reality, the white race seems to oppress them. We make it hard for them to receive an education by hardly funding schools in a black neighborhood, making it hard for one to go to college and then without college, it's hard to get a job. And the cycle just continues. On, and on, and on, after 100 and 143 years since the end of slavery and around 50 years since the end of segregation in the south. Even today, people will not absolutely positively vote for Barack Obama, solely based on the color of his skin. His politics and ethics have nothing to do with it. He is black, so some people will not vote for him, and will not think twice about it.
Another group that has been somewhat oppressed by society is Arabs and Muslims. This is a group of people who's religion is completely based on peace, and happiness. Okay, sure, some Muslims have ruined it for everybody, but for the most part, they are a great people. They have their problems in their culture, but so does everybody. We're all human. Muslims are called degrading names like Towelheads. They are extremely disliked by many Americans and many people honestly feel like their safety is extremely threatened when a Muslim or Arab is in their proximity. They feel as if this person is out to get them and that they should report them immediately.
Latin Americans these days are especially picked on these days, just like all foreigners are during an influx of immigrants. The Mexicans, Cubans, Haitians, Guatemalans, and almost any other Latino people are taking our jobs, and costing us valuable tax dollars. But what does not make sense to me is the fact that the rich upper class white people in the suburbs never see this people except for when they come up from the inner city to mow their lawn or do excruciatingly hard work for meager to almost inhumane pay, and then they complain about how they're taking their jobs. This doesn't make sense to me. These Latinos work extremely hard in terrible, awful, conditions, and do things that almost nobody else will seem to do these days, and then get complained about by the people who won't do them. This sort of stuff just bugs me so, so, much.

Linda's mixed up emotions.

Linda, at the news of of Dr. Flint's passing, has mixed emotions. Her first thought is, yes, the guy who wanted to have sex with and dominate me is finally dead, but then she realized that little girl who owned her, is no little girl any more. She is a young, married, southern broad who wants her slave back to help out around the house. Linda is scared, rightfully so, and goes into hiding in New York. But then stunningly enough, Mrs. Bruce offers to buy Linda from Mr. and Mrs. Dodge. Thinking that they will never be able to find Linda, the Dodge's want to make a little profit from their missing slave and call it a done deal. Mrs. Bruce then immediately frees her. (Just as a side note and question, I did not realize that this sort of transaction could be done. Did stuff like this happen often in the North, or was this sort of a one time thing? I think it's weird that Mrs. Bruce was able to purchase Linda so easily.) Linda then became the nurse to Mrs. Bruce's child. It was also quite shocking and joyous when Linda's daughter, Ellen, is offered scholorship money to attend school. Although Linda was reluctant to send her child to school, she realized that in order to be successful in life, one needed an education. She also saw it fit for her daughter to receive an education because it was a step away from being a slave. Having an education was something that most slaves of the time did not do.
Although Linda absolutely positively utterly was disgusted, infuriated, and sickened by the institution of slavery, Linda still missed the time that she had spent with her grandmother, and was sad that she could not be with her at her death. Linda was inspired, and motivated to reach freedom, and success by her grandmother's independent nature, and had much in common with her. She missed being able to relate with someone like her grandmother. This was the only thing that Linda missed about her days' as a slave. She had done terrible and awful things to reach her way to freedom, and to get to the North, and in my opinion, it was all justified. She had the right to do whatever it took to climb out of the slimy mud pit that is called slavery.

No price can be payed for First Class

In the North, Linda is completely thrown off by how different it is than her expectations. She imagined a land where a black could walk down the street feeling happy, independent and equal, without only his or herself to worry about. Well she was brutally wrong. Sure, whites didn't own the blacks, and the blacks weren't property. The blacks could vote, own land, pay taxes, have a paying job, go to school and all that jazz, but really, they weren't equal at all. Segregation still plagued the north. In a way, the segregation of the north during the mid 19th century was very similar to the serration in the south 100 years later in the mid 20th century. Linda's daughter, Ellen, was still basically "property" working as a maid and house servant for an old lady. Linda also experienced racial divide when she tried to get a nice first class ticket for the train ride from Philly to New York. The guy who was hooking her up and helping her out bought her a train ticket and told her he couldn't get her a first class seat. Instantly she pulled out more money and told him he could afford it, but instead he said, that this was all he could get for her, due to her race. Blacks could not ride on the first class train, so instead Linda had to ride on the train full of foreign smokers and baby holders. It was smelly inside the train box and was suffocating. This made Linda mad because she could ride like this for free in the south, instead of paying for it, and it also made her mad because she could afford to ride first class. She could afford to get out of the situation she was in, but her skin color would not allow for it. Just because she had a dark sun tan meant that she could never, ever, ride in first class. I think it's ironic....

Free Willie

William left Mr. Sands because he knew that promises in slavery were always broken. Although Mr. Sands had always shown great kindness to him, but the fact that he was still a slave, and was being taken to Washington D.C. to be a slave, even though he had been promised freedom. He did not trust it and wanted to taste freedom as soon as he could. He didn't want to risk Mr. Sands changing his minds, so he took his opportunity, and left.
I think that William's decision to run away was perfectly justified. I think that any slave who runs away's reason is justified. Slavery is an awful, cruel thing that should never have existed, so of course, his actions were completely and utterly justified. He had no other choice, he wanted to be free, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible.

What you talkin' bout, Mr. Sands?

Mr. Sands gets Linda's kids by getting a seller to buy the kids and then getting the seller to sell the kids to him. He does this because he does not want to give any idea to Dr. Flint that he has come into contact with Linda. At first Dr. Flint is reluctant to sell the kids because she wants to use them as bait so that Linda could come back. Dr. Flint then realized that there was a good chance of the kids dying and that they are worth the most around the age 15. He made a good profit off of it. Mr. Sands has always been nice to Linda and has always been kind to his own kids. I think that he is trustworthy because in the text, there has never been an example of him being untrustworthy. Although he does own slaves, and you never know what he could do. The institution of slavery screws everyone and everything up.

Does your chain hang low?

When Linda's grandmother wants Linda's newest child to be baptized, I found it interesting because Linda's grandmother is known as the "loyal do-good slave" and would never go against her master and mistress. Dr. Flint would most likely not allow the baptism of Linda's child, but her grandmother insisted that she get the baptism done. So, when Dr. Flint goes out of town, Linda and her grandmother go to church. Eventually, Linda's dad's mistress gives Linda's baby a gold chain. Although, the chain is most likely nice, fancy, and thoughtful, Linda does not like this because she is comparing the gold chain to the chains of slavery. Sure, I see the comparison, and understand where Linda is coming from but I also feel like she should be happy because a white person did something and gave something nice to a black person. It just seems that she should accept this gift with great honor, and should feel like a great step has been taken between the "barriers" of race. But I can also see that Linda hates slavery so much and does not like anything that reminds her of it, and she does not want anything related to slavery to be touching her children. She wants her children to be free, and with liberty.

Mi casa es su casa

I thought an interesting passage was on page 23 when it described Lindas grandmother's loss of her youngest son, her favorite, Benjamen. It just seems interesting to me because to them, the selling of a family member is a usual occurrence, and although sad, is a part of life. It's odd to me because I will and have never felt these emotions. Sure, I've known people that have died, but I have never known anyone that I have loved that has been sold, or bought. I don't even know how I would feel, knowing that someone I loved was alone, in a whole new environment. It was also interesting to see how her grandma negotiated with the seller, and how she made him promise that he would not sell Benjamen until they got to New Orleans. This shows the respect that many people have for Linda's grandmother.

Capitulo Cinco- Ocho (Amor)

Slaves technically, can't love. They aren't aloud to really get married, they are just supposed to work for their master, and have kids to produce more strong, and healthy slaves to be sold off or put into the field or house. Slaves should not have any emotions, feelings, or anything else that could make them to the same level of humanity as whites. Sometimes love is artificial for slaves. For instance many masters have lust for their slaves and want to be sexually involved with them. They have sex with them, and get their slaves pregnant, sometimes treating the children just as terrible as the other slaves. Also, it is potentially extremely painful for slaves who fall in love because the second one falls in love, they could loose their loved one and family because their master might sell them away, or their family members get sold off.

Capitulo Uno - Cuatro

In the beginning of this book, I immediately felt the terror and horror of slavery. The author did not sensor his writing whatsoever and graphically described scenes quite well, giving me a most realistic vision in my head. I didn't realize that many slaves of the time, like Linda, got more freedom as slaves. It seems as if their masters were kinder, and nicer. They gave their slaves more freedom. Now, I don't know how common that was, but it sort of confused me, because it seems as if other slaves were treated much more harshly and terribly. It also makes me believe that these experiences and ideas are true because the author was an actual slave. It's interesting to read from the perspective from an actual slave. I also felt the pain of slavery when Linda described her Grandmother's sorrow and sadness when her son was sold to a different master. These types of things made me feel quite sad. I also got a broader and better view of slavery from Linda's stories of other slaves that she knew and interacted with.

En el classe de Literatura Americano, yo me gusta el simbolisma.

In class on Tuesday, i found it to be very interesting when we talked about the symbols in the book, The Great Gatsby. Symbolism and metaphors are something that I often miss when reading novels and works of writing. Is hard for me to find underlying meaning to stories. I often just look at the "1st level" of writing, instead of digging down deep, and looking at "layers 2&3." Understanding symbols like the Green Light on the East Egg and the "Valley of Ashes" is very important to understanding what exactly the author wants you to get from the book. My favorite bit of symbolism and the most obvious one in the book is the Green Light. I just like what it represents, and how the Green Light applies to everyone in the world. Everyone has that one goal or dream. Everyone is gazing off at something in the distance, and that's what interested me the most.

Wonton Soup's Egypticon

At Gatsby’s family, Owl Eyes, Nick, and Gatsby Senior guy only showed up for the funeral. Although Gatsby through tremendous parties filled with people weekend after weekend, he never really became friends with them. He usually just observed his parties hoping that some day Daisy might stray through the door in a glamorous dress with diamonds and rubies perfectly and precisely laid upon her body. He really had no friends, no acquaintances to honor him and his death. His business “partner,” Wolfsheim did not show up because in my opinion, I truthfully don’t think he cared too much. Gatsby made him money, so of course Gatsby was in his best interest. But once Gatsby was wasted, Wolfsheim didn’t miss a beat and innocently said “that’s evolution.” Now like I said, this is my opinion. Maybe Wolfsheim had a heart attack and was terribly tremendously sad that he could not make his good friend and long time business partner’s ceremony, who knows. It’s up for the reader to decide.

Jay Gatsby and the West Eggs

In chapters 7 and 8, the book reaches it’s climate, and in my opinion it’s most awkward and compelling point. Tom and George Wilson both find out that their wives are cheating on other men, and both, in a way have a breakdown. George is so screwed up about it; he wants to take Myrtle out west, away from everything. His only interest and dream is to be able to keep Myrtle in his life. He cares for her more than anything and will sacrifice anything, including his life, to keep her love. Unfortunately for George, he lost Myrtle to a more successful gentleman in Tom Buchanan. When Tom finds out that Daisy is having an affair with Jay Gatsby, he finally realizes that he cares for Daisy. This is example of not realizing how good something is until it’s gone, opposite of the examples used in the book about wanting something so bad that when finally received, it’s not all that it was made up to be.