multigenre project

Coming of age is something that is hard to deal with, but eventually it happens. Some people experience this differently. Maybe it's an experience that they had that made them think about the world surrounding them differently, or it's a loss that has completely changed the course of this person's life.
Sickness and the loss of a close person is what changed the course of MY life.
When my grandfather got sick, my mother felt that she needed to spend time with her father who might not live to see her again. She left when I was in second grade. She left in April. Right after my birthday. She didn't come back until June. In those two months that she was gone, Everything changed for me. Since my father worked, I spend days with relatives. A few days with this aunt, a few more days with that aunt. I had really long hair that my mother loved to pin up in many different ways. She was always experimenting with my hair. And I liked that. But when she left, my father couldn't deal with the fact that he had to take me to my aunt's house every morning so she could do my hair. It wasn't like he was completely clueless, he just didn't know how. He tried to do pig-tails on me once, but they were crooked. One was higher than the other. So he stopped trying. eventually, he cut my hair slightly shorter than the size it is now. That sort of ended his troubles with my hair. All  I did to my hair then was brush it and put little clips in it. Even though it made things easier for us, it made me sad. At the time, I didn't know that my mom would be back in 2 months. So when he cut my hair, I took that to mean that she wasn't coming back. My mom would wake up extra early every morning just to do something with my hair. She loved to. And when my hair was gone, it was as if she was gone too. The following year, my grandfather did die. It made my mom really sad. But i learned to appreciate her more. it was hard to live without her for 2 months.

That was how my character Riena was formed. she also strikes a strong connection with her mother Reina. But then her father dies, leaving her and her mother alone. Riena did not cry when her father died, but grieves his loss in silence. That's why it's hard for her to accept her mother's new boyfriend a few years later. She feels as if she just lost her father, and now she will lose her mother as well. She becomes selfish and refuses to accept her mother's new boyfriend. But, she soon realizes that, her mother has a right to be happy with someone else and go on with her life.





                                                                                                                                      July 16, 2008
Dear Diary,

Today was so much fun!!! Mama took my to the hair salon and we both got our hair done. She cut hers and straightened it, and I curled mine. But I didn't cut it like she did. I wanted to, but she said no. She likes my hair long, and she won't let me cut it. I really want to... but I don't want to upset her. When we got home, Papi said that we were both looked muy bonitas. We ate dinner, and then I went to my room to 'study' and Mama went to take a nap. Papi went to watch el fútbol. I feel so sleepy. Tengo mucho sueño. I'm gonna go to sleep. Goodnight!!!!




THE TRAGEDY 


Papi,
  Porque te fuiste?
                                                                        Why did you leave?
  Porque me dejaste aqui?
                                                                         Why did you leave me here?




I cant believe her!!! How could she do this to Papi? How could she go out and find some other guy to take his place??!! Papi isn't here anymore, but that doesn't mean he's gone for good!!! He's still here.  Su alma nos cuida a nosotras! How could she do this to him?! Does she not love him? Was she already with this guy when my Papi was alive? How could she? No I won't let her do this to him. I love and respect my father. And if my mother doesn't or didn't love him and respect him completely, then i wont let her bring that... that... intruder into the house with us. No. If he comes by, and knock on the door, I will NOT let him in. I don't care if a volcano explodes in his face. I don't want him here and he shouldn't be here in the first place. I already have a father. No. He's not gone... he's not gone. he's still here with me. With us. But apparently she doesn't like that. She doesn't care about him anymore. All she cares about is "getting our lives back, and moving on with my father's..." She doesn't care about me. Doesn't care how I feel. I won't let that intruder in with us . With her. I won't let her do this to my Papi. Te quiero mucho Papi. Nunca lo olvides.




El se tiene que ir
                                                                                               He needs to leave
                                                                                               He's not my father
                                                                                               He's not you
                                                                                               He needs to leave
Yo no lo quiero aqui
                                                                                                I don't want him here
                                                                                                He doesn't belong here
Se tiene que ir







Maybe he's not that bad
                                                                                                He's terrible
He's just trying to be friendly
                                                                                                It's rude
                                                                                         He can't barge into someone else's home
                                                                                                 He can't do that
But he makes mom Happy                                                         But he makes mom Happy
She smiles when she sees him
                                                                                           And she laughs at his stupid jokes
She really likes him                                                                     She really likes him
Its the best for her
Papi always wanted that
                                                                                                   Lo mejor
The best
see? maybe it's not so bad
                                                                                                    Maybe
I'll give him a chance                                                                     I'll give him a chance
                                                                                                    Only one



Querido Papi,

I miss you. A lot. It's so strange coming home and not seeing your favorite beer in the fridge. And having to go into Mami's room and not see your cologne on the table and your favorite comfy chair in the corner with your towel over it. Remember when you refused to put it in the living room because you thought that when the relatives came, they would ruin it? You were being selfish. You always told me that being selfish, especially with family, is the worst thing you could do to our family. Do you remember that? I know you were probably scolding me a few weeks ago from heaven. I was being selfish with Mami. I wasn't letting her move on. I wasn't letting her move on because I couldn't move on. That makes me mean and selfish right? I know. I didn't think about it until I sat in your comfy chair and remembered all of the things that happened with that chair. I realized i was being selfish and i decided to give the guy a chance. Only one. And it was great. But even though he's super nice, and both him and Mami like each other a lot, I will never forget that you were the best father in the world.

                                                                                Te quiere mucho tu hija,
                                                                                                              Riena

writing prompt # 15

Some aspects of coming of age are pain, loss, disappointment, and disillusionment. Write about 1 experience you have had that relates to one of these aspects.




papá luis


He's dead
Gone
Gone forever
I cant believe it
And neither can my mom
I've never seen her like this
My father doesn't know what to do 
There is nothing he can do now
Its too late 
He isn't coming back
Not ever
It's not fair
I loved him
I love you
I miss you
Papá Luis




This poem is about my grandfather's death. I was old enough at the time to know that I never was going to get to see him again. I thought that it was unfair. I was going to visit him in a few years again. The first time, I was only 9 months old, and I lived with him and with my grand mother until I was 2 years old. My first words were; papá luis. Its Spanish for dad Luis or daddy Luis. When I was reunited with my real parents, they were complete strangers to me. i learned to call my real father 'dad'. But whenever I talked to or about my grandfather, he was always papá luis to me. He still is.

Poem to Promt #7

PINK                                                                 PURPLE

I want to be a princess                                I want my own apartment

and live in a castle                                       I want my own paying job

a pretty pink castle                                     Then i could finally buy that purse 

pretty and big                                             I've been dying for

with pink flowers                                       And that purple shirt I saw

I want pretty pink dresses                          I should get new purple shoes

with hearts on them                                   To wear with that purple shirt

I want a little sister                                     I could get my sisters something too

so she can live with me in my castle          And my little brother

and we could share dresses                       Maybe if I save enough,

and flowers                                               I could also get a car

but her color can't be pink                         When I'm old enough to drive it

I like pink                                                  It could also be purple

pink is mine                                               I like purple

What are the main similarities and differences between childhood and adulthood?

I chose to write both of these poems in response to this question because, since Pink is written from before the coming of age, and Purple is after, they kind of compare and contrast childhood and adulthood. both of them together, show that although you become more mature, and your wants and hopes also change, you are still you. you might not be a child in your mind, but you could could still be a young child in your heart.

extra response to romeo + juliet movie

I think that this movie displays the book and it's characters very well. by adding emphasis to the important events, they make the meaning of the book a bit stronger. it grabs your attention and makes you focus on the very dramatic scenes rather than the ones where; compared to the rest, are very plain.

i also think that they displayed the families' power very well in the beginning. they make all of the buildings seem super tiny and then BOOM smack in the middle are 2 huge buildings that look like skyscrapers. each with a family name over it. Whether it says montague or capulet, both buildings are very tall and your attention is immediately drawn to them. kind of like that really big annoying tree in van gogh's painting. at first, you kind of look at the scenery in the back, but it's difficult to ignore that big black thing there. just like these buildings. it's impossible to not see them. i think that the largness of these buildings kind of emphasises the power that both families have. kind of like the line "2 households both alike in dignity".

this movie also emphasises the street fight. first of all the place where they fight is in a gas station. just because they saw eachother, they began to fight. and in a gas station. of all places a gas station that is full of people. and their fights reach high levels of dangerosity. they have to get chased with helicopters so that they could stop the fighting. also, in my opinion, they acted like idiots. and the capulet's heel are so ridiculous, i literally began to giggle.

another thing that i think that they emphasise that helped, were the visual appearances of the characters. for example, tybalt capulet has a very funny haicut, and a pointy beard. this makes him look very silly. and benvolio's haircut also makes him look very silly in my opinion. it kind of states that they just use this as an excuse to fight with someone. i also think that alll of these 'silly' features were on purpose so that you can see, that the family feud wasn't necessary. like one of our ela teachers said, (i think it was mr. records) not even the families know why exactly they hate eachother. it's just a fact to them now. Capulets and Montagues hate eachother. so by making them act and look very silly while they fight, they emphasise the fact that he fighting just doesn't make any sense anymore. it's pointless.

i think that the people that made the movie were very clear on what they thought about the fighting between these families. and i think that perhaps maybe even shakespear meant it too. and romeo and juliet's love just states the fact the even the kids don't really care about the fight anymore either.



tybalts funny moustach and haircut

benvolio and his crazyness



cemetary dance

The book that I am currently reading, Cemetery dance, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln child, is a fast paced, suspenseful and therefore a very interesting book. it takes place in Manhattan. it starts off with a very successful New York Times Reporter, William Smith Back Jr., being murdered in his apartment. the murderer not only murdered him, but also injured his shocked wife on the way out. William's wife was Nora Kelly, an archaeologist that works in the Museum of Natural History.

the story begins to get interesting because, when the police begin to investigate and interview the witnesses, they are all positive that it was Collin fearing. he used to be a tenent in the same building and had asked Nora out on dates ignoring the fact that she was married. the first conclusion was that Collin was mad at nora for rejecting him and blamed William. The problem, is that when the people in charge of investigating the crime (Lieutenant Vincent D' Agosta, and special FBI Agent Pendergast) look up Colin Fearing, reports say that Colin fearing was dead and Burried 10 days before the murder. his body had been found in the Harlem River, and his 'sister' came to identify him. but there is evidence that the person who killed William was Colin. there are witnesses, such as the doorman, who knew him for 6 years, and most importantly, a camera. when Colin walks into the building, he glances up at the camera. as if he was taunting the people that saw the video. as if he was saying "hey look at me i did it. but guess what? i'm dead".

the most puzzling thing, is that when they go try to find Colin's body to make sure it's not some kind of mostake, his body is not there. but a bunch of small objects that seem to be voodoo are pesent. then the investigation turns to a place called the ville. where animal sacrifice is suspected to go on in it. it is kind of like another religion, but they are hidden in manhattan. they have owned that land since before the civil war, so the state can't really do much about it. but it is suspected that they are behind William's murder because he wrote a series of articles on them and on their suspected animal sacrifices.
Afterwards, when Nora gets impatient with the police, she decides to go with another reporter, Caitlyn Kidd to go spy on the ville and see what they are up to. Caitlyn begins to write about what they witnessed and what happened when they were in the ville. and a few days after, while she is giving a speech to a bunch of other reporters, William Smithback appears and murders her in front of every one (including his wife) and manages to dissapear before anyone realizes what is going on. Nora, very frantic and scared, goes to the morge where they are investigating her husbands body for any clues, and demands to see her husbands body. freakishly enough, he is not there. just some paper mache coffin with a toothpick skeleton in it.

first draft of my untitled sonnet

I look at her and wish she didn't

Look like that; wish she didn't have that nose

That mouth those features are mine, she shouldn't

Have them. Everything even the clothes

I want them all for me just me not her

Mother loves us both but perhaps her more

She was born first, she is a bit taller

She is a bit smarter, not such a bore

Yet, she is just like me we are the same

And in result she understands me

I like that we have a different name

And there is also a different he

I love her so when she left I mis'ter

'Cus after all, she is still my sister

foreward to poetry project

history marks us and defines us and makes us who we are. history, like poetry can be analyzed through different perspectives. no matter how many perspectives there are, each time it will be different than the last. neither one has the 'right' opinions or answers. that is what makes history and poetry so unique.

ever since i started taking a history class, it has amazed me every single time i learn something new. whether it's on a new topic, or an old topic, i never stop learning new things about history. poetry is the same. every single person is different in their own way. as is every single poem ever written. that is why in my poetry collection , i try to combine them both history and poetry.

although there are a lot of interesting topics to be able to discuss in history, one really caught my attention. it was the civil war. during the civil war, many families were torn apart. often, even brothers were fighting on opposite sides of the war. John J. Crittenden was a senator from Kentucky at the time of the civil war. Kentucky was torn between which side of the war to take. so, the senator had two sons George B. Crittenden and Thomas L. Crittenden. they were both generals during the civil war. but on separate sides. George served as a confederate general while Thomas was a union general. even the first lady's family was torn. since she was Lincoln's wife, she supported the Union. but six close relatives of hers fought for the Confederate side. the of them killed in battle.

these stories from the civil war inspired me to write these poems. the first one is about the brothers. the second one is about the first lady and her relatives. the third from a slave that joined to fight for the union. and the last one is from a plantation owner and how he feels about slavery.

response to my papa's waltz (final)

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt










I believe that this poem suggests that a boy is being abused by his father. Many people say that the boy is Not being beaten by his father, but rather just waltzing with him as the title suggests. But i disagree. I think that the boy purposefully chose to make his poem seem like it could be about an innocent and enjoyable dance with his father. Maybe he is ashamed or afraid of what people will think when he confesses that he is abused physically and perhaps even mentally by his father. Another possibility for why the boy would try to hide his message in the poem could be that he is threatened by his father. he is afraid of how his father will react to him confessing his father's wrongdoings. i think that the boys secret cry for help is showed in these small excerpts from the poem:


"The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy"


I think that this is evidence that the father isn't TIPSY (as I have heard other people say), because TIPSY is to be slightly intoxicated. and obviously, if his breath makes a small boy dizzy, then he is not slightly intoxicated, because if he was slightly intoxicated then you would be able to detect a hint of whiskey on his breath. but certainly not enough to make anyone dizzy.


"My mother's countenance could not unfrown itself."


I know that many people think that the fact that the mother isn't defending her child, is enough proof to say that the boy isn't being abused. But I disagree. Just because the mother isn't defending her child like a crazy person, doesn't mean that the boy isn't being hurt. I think that it means that the mother is just watching out for herself. I also think that doesn't make her a bad mother.It makes her a very good and smart mother. Also, it kind of emphasizes the level of dangerosity that the father can reach. I mean, how do we know that he doesn't beat her too? If she jumps in to directly save her child from being hurt, then she could be running straight into a trap. The father could get mad, and beat her instead of the boy, and if he injures her badly because he is drunk, then who is going to protect her child from him in the future? Who is to say that something terrible won't happen to her, and if it does, then she will be leaving her son alone to deal with a drunk father. And besides, if she isn't defending him like a crazy person, it could also indicate that the boy is being abused, but not so bad that the mother has to intervene 


"The hand that held my wrist"


There is one thing here that caught my attention and could also prove the fact that the boy is being beaten by his father and not waltzing with him. To waltz, is to dance this dance right? Well then, when you dance with a partner, you are supposed to hold hands. Not wrists. If something (in this case someone) is making you feel pain, and you don't want it to, then you are going to try to get away from the source of it.And for this child, the source is his father. The father may not realize that he is hurting his child because he is drunk. but he is still doing it. If the father doesn't want the boy to run away, then he will not hold his hand because the boy can easily wriggle his small fingers out from his father's grip, but if his father is holding his wrist, then it will be harder for him to escape.


I think that these small excerpts, and the explanations that follow show the message that the boy wants us as his readers to get. He is too shy to admit that his father beats him, so he has decided to make it into a poem that could be read in many different ways. Everyone is different so everyone sees everything in different ways. And I think that these lines support my way f seeing and analyzing this poem.

Snow (rhyme poem)

Snow
snow
why is it so cold?

snow
snow
can i play in the snow?

no
no
do as you're told

poem about an incident

throw them out
throw them all out
except that one
not that one
that one is mine
it can stay in my room
it wont come out
i promise
please?
i promise
i promise it wont come out

december reading challenge

The Lightning Thief

    When I first saw the movie, I was like; "Wow. This doesn't look the same as it did in my head." What the movie gave me that the book didn't were visuals. though I was a bit disappointed that they cut out some parts(like they do to most movies that were originally books), I felt like i enjoyed the movie more than the book. The reason for this, I think is that in the book, I had visualized strange images when they described the gods, Percy Jackson, his friend Grover, and Medusa. I was confused most of the time because I didn't know exactly how to visualize what Rick Riordan was talking about. this is how the movie affected my understanding of the book.

Persepolis   

    for this book, none of the visuals were affected. it was the characters. in the book, the grandma didn't play a big role. she was kind of just there, she was a meaningless character. But in the movie, the grandma was bigger, she was actually part of the Marjane's life. she talked with her, told her stories, was with her parents. she was more present. and her friends too. they were also kind of 'not there' in the movie. but in the book they were there a bit more.

To Kill a Mockingbird

    for this book, what was different was the level of understanding. if i just saw the movie, then i didn't really get the message. i got the story and what is was about, but something just wasn't clear. and since i notice that books over explain everything, (not that that's a bad thing) i got the story and everything. maybe the fact that the movie was black and white affected my understanding. i think it affected it because the book was way more interesting than the movie. so i wasn't interested in the movie as much as i was interested in the book.

observations, inferences

                             Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick - Frida Kahlo



Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick - Frida Kahlo- 1954



Observations:    i notice that there are many aspects of nature, for example she is standing on like rough ground it looks like there's a stream or maybe a river running through it. theres a white dove that seems to be flying away from the world. you can kind of see the sun all the way in the back, and i think it's the moon, or maybe it's just a mushroom. there are crutches that look like they are falling. she is holding a book, and since she let go of the crutches, there are these hands kind of sort of reaching out to grab her. and Karl Marx seems to be choking uncle sam.

Inferences:    the dove represents peace. and it seems to be flying away from earth. as if she is trying to say that the peace is leaving earth and is going far away. also showing uncle sam as a vulture may show that she doesn't like the u.s. the feels strongly enough about that that she also has Karl Marx choking him. maybe uncle sam is a sickness and Karl Marx is going to cure it by killing it

Iterpretations:     i know that she was very sick when she painted this so maybe she's hoping that  will cure her of her sickness by letting the crutches fall off of her and showing her being able to stand alone and being ok. but on the contrary, those could be god's hands ready to take her to heaven or whatever. in showing that her crutches fall off, it can show her pain going with them. she is leaving it all behind and peace (the dove) is going to come to her never leave her side again.