R.I.P Jason Whitten Lee

I dedicate all my work to Jason Whitten Lee, he inspired me to keep going with my English class and he was the most happiest and cheerful person I have ever met. Thank you for letting me meet you. you made the English 1B class at Foothill College the most special of all. I will miss you so much.
With Love;
Estephania Maupome

Reflective Letter

Dear Estephania;

This is your 4^th year at Foothill College and you completed the last English course, English 1B. Your goal in this class was to maintain your writing on an essay level, especially with the paragraph and sentence structure, PIE. I know you were trying hard to get a better focus on PIE, but you need to do it harder and practice more so you can become a proficient essay writer. However, you learn more in this class; you learned about your dreams, critical thinking, music and the history of California.

The first thing to learn in the curse was about the importance of defining the Dream, the California Dream. In which you were able to define your own California Dream and the difference of American Dream, with the help of the readings from the Course Reader and the California reading book. To finalize the chapter you were asked to do an essay, which you called it The State of Hope, in this essay you talked about that California is the only state to be successful in life and give you the hopes to reach your dreams. The grade you obtained was 69 out of 100 because you did not focus o the sentences and the ideas were not clear. Also in your conclusion you tried to tell something to reader, that the dreams are always going to become true in California; but the way you wrote it the read it got it as to keep dreaming because to keep dreaming means to be Californian, so California you are. I thought it was funny how your sentences were not clear.

Then, the music of California was knocking on the door; in this chapter you learned to use your critical thinking to have a better understanding on music, how to interpret what the singer is singing and what kind of metaphors he is giving to the world. The song that cached your attention was San Andreas Fault by Natalie Merchant and with this song you were able to write an essay called California’s Fault, such a pun; the reflection on this essay was to see how the singer was talking about California and the California Dream. In this essay your sentences were much clear and focus, but still you need to work on PIE. The examples that you gave on the essay were kind of out of the context because there were not too related to the son, such as the Governator and the Kardashians.

The class kept going and the elections were coming up, so the teacher decided to change plans and introduce politics to the class. Since the prepositions in California were very strong, your class met on in groups in which one of them had a preposition. You were on the preposition 35, Human Trafficking. Human trafficking is going to help by increasing prison sentences up to 15 years, big fines foe human trafficking convictions and extra police training. With your group, everyone was helping to analyze the proposition, with opinions and examples gave by your group mates. Also you study the fallacies in America and your group focuses on: Hasty Generalization, Missing the point, Post Hoc and Slippery slop.Once you and the group were ready, were able to present a class to your other fellow classmates in which you guys rock! Thanks to your group formed by Smeeta Maharag, Kasey Nelson, Arianna Blankenship, Mishell Koh and Jason Whitten Lee; you were able to write your essay of why we should vote for the proposition 35. In this essay called Against Human Trafficking, you prove that your introductions was going better, and the sentences were way much better, but the structure was adequate I know you can do an excellent sentence. Do it!

At this time you were almost to finish the curse, to understand the subject you needed to take out the Shakespeare in you. Poems and History was the chapter and this was very interesting. You had the opportunity to work with your group again and this time the discussion was about Indian Cartography and the history of the Native Americans. Learning about this type of history was perfect for you, it was your first time and you did well. Since other groups also have other poems about the same subject, you and your group have to compare the poems and find the similarities and differences between your assigned poem and the poem presented by the other group. At the end you have to choose a poem to compare with yours. You choose Indian Cartography and The First; the tile came up to be Indians vs. Modern Society. The essay talked about how unfair the government was with the Indians and how the government “tried” to make them feel better in the modern society. On this essay one of your paragraphs were upside down, and the points were not clear, you left your reader hanging. But you r almost very last paragraph was so much better and clear which that save you for failing the essay; the conclusion was so cool that the teacher love it!

Now that you reached the last chapter in your English class you had to be more focus. This time your focus was in Multiculturalism, since was the last chapter you had to read more that usual, but you had to watch a movie named Crash which takes all the boring lectures aside. Sadly, this last chapter came up to be a different one; Jason Whitten Lee passed away. Your Classmate was the only cheerful, happy and talkative in the class, which inspired you to participate and see the life happily. Everyone in the classroom was sad, including the teacher, but thanks to him you did not went down and quit. You were able to write an essay called The International Arena; I think you did well in that essay, although there were too many readings on that one. I hope you did not unfocused in the subject or thesis. In this chapter you learned how the culture and all the cultures in the world comes to one place and change life and people in general. You also find out that you have to accept others people culture to become Multicultural.

I am so proud of you for the progress you have built up in this quarter; I think your writing skills and creativity really stack out more. If you keep this up you might be a good journalist.

I want to dedicate all my work to Jason Whitten Lee, I will always miss you and you are in my heart. Thank you for let me meeting you and I promise you I will write my essays more sexy. Love you.

Thank you Mr. Brian Lewis for your teachings, for listening, for supporting me when I was down. You are such a great teacher that I wish you were teaching all subjects at Foothill. I promise you I will represent you in my other classes when I write my essays. THANK YOU.

Sincerely;

Estephania Maupome.

12/15/12

The International Arena

The International Arena

Multiculturalism constitutes on several cultures or ethnic groups within a society, which makes it a melting pot. California has all the ingredients to be a good melting pot; it has all the countries, languages, cultures and ethnicities all together, therefore California has become and international arena where all the cultures crash into one making the state a very dangerous playground. To understand the meaning of living in a multicultural California I will use the following genres of art What is Multiculturalism? By Gregory Jay, American Son by Brian Roly Ascalon, the movie Crash by Paul Haggis and the article White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh.

 When we talk about multiculturalism we think of all the possible cultures America has, including the white privilege. On the essay What is Multiculturalism? Is asking if America has a melting pot, for most of the people would say yes, but to some white Americans the concept of melting pot is to assimilate to a white American “America’s traditional conception of itself as a ‘melting pot’ of diverse peoples joined in a common New World culture has been challenged by those multiculturalists who consider the ‘melting pot’ metaphor a cover for oppressive assimilation. To them, the only way you were able to melt into pot is by assimilating to the dominant white culture” I think America has not being melt to the fullest. People would say that this country is a melting pot because it has so many cultures and so many people of different countries. In some parts of America such as the south, still discriminating people for who they are. For example, Arizona has the most outrageous laws against the Latino culture and people, to the point that Latinos move to another place because this state does not want them just because they are not similar to the white culture. Arizona is not the only state but some of the east states are against these people. America needs more heat on thinking to melt the pot.

In the article White Privilege talks about the example of the privilege and how is it work. This lead to you of not being able to change your color or feel bad/good that you are white and born with such “luck”. This is an asset of how educated you were and what you want to do in life. But also it misleads that people are jealous of it and the white people suffer from robbery or discrimination in other countries. “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain obvious. White privilege is like invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, tools and blank checks” The white privilege is going to be in our lives forever, until a great miracle of changing people minds to get rid of this privilege is going to disappear. This privilege is just a pain to the rest of the people that are not white because is the belief of this type of things that people come up as a white culture. For example this case was a real life situation and most of the cases it happens. The police people go immediately to assist the white victim in a robbery, but when it comes to another ethnicity or immigrant person they take quite time to get there. I would call this a white privilege. Same in other places if you are white you get the best stuff, the first in line, the warmer lunch, is like the “devil” in an angel body. There is white privilege in the country and some white people take advantage of it but some of them they just do not care. By doing colliding different ethnicities in California would crash onto one another until they would depend on each other.

The melting pot in California has increasing in the past few years; more cultures have been crashing into each other making the melt to boil. In the movie Crash the director made in a way to force the white Americans to see the reality of race and discriminations. The theme of the movie is that everyone is prejudice, the white, black, Latino, Asian, Iranian, etc. This movie reflects a bag full of anger, grievances and fears. Even when the characters feel that they are making progress from their actions, they find themselves in a very complex frustration and they tangles themselves in their own decisions. I think the white people they know their privileges and have being maintaining them. The movie shows how white Americans are to other racial ethnicities and when the film goes on you can see how the film make the white people to feel better by helping the other races in somewhat actions. This movie wanted to show how the different ethnicities developed together in a new society created by them. In my opinion Anthony, the carjacker that Ludacris played was the one who understood the white supremacy because he was always making revolutionary arguments about how white people react towards other ethnicities and stereotyping them. We have to crash to respect one another; we need to do it before that.

 In California, we have a lot of cultures and the people identify with other cultures, in the American Son novel we discover how powerful a culture can be to a teenage person and how find himself living in a multicultural society.

 The American Son focuses on Gabe, a half white, half Filipino adolescent, who is caught in an identity crisis as he faces pressures from both Filipino and American cultural values. The novel that is defined as “the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order.” The individual in this case is Gabe the character that has the Filipino and American societies; at the beginning Gabe is illustrated as shy and timid, and is afraid to speak out, enduring the relentless beatings and insults from his brother. Gabe is shameful of his Filipino heritage and rejects his identity. Gabe explains how he is embarrassed of his mother, who he describes to be “self-conscious about her English.” He states, “Still, I do not like having her pick me up from school. She is short and dark and wears funny-looking giant purple glasses that are trendy on other people’s mothers but which do no match her brown skin tone” (30). After being beat up by his brother, Gabe decides to take his brother’s car and run away, however, he explores his identity of being white and Asian. At this point of the novel, Roley essentially integrates the protagonist’s “major conflict between self and society.” Then a truck driver state, after demeaning various ethnic groups, “But it isn’t near as bad as San Pedro. Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians,” he continues, “All those mute Asians won’t even learn to speak English” (84). Afterwards, a discomfort comes over Gabe. Roley describes Gabe to be avoiding the rearview mirror in order to visually demonstrate Gabe’s shame of his own identity as an Asian. Gabe is also surprised at this point that the truck driver does not recognize his own Filipino heritage and verifies the fact that he may possibly “get by” or “pass” as a non-Asian. Throughout this experience with the truck driver, whom Gabe regards as a father figure, he finally feels accepted and finds a place for himself. After returning home in the last part and experiencing “clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an undoing social order,” Gabe attempts to develop a new identity conforming to a misconstrued image of being American. He joins a gang and follows the path of his brother, a life of violence. Gabe describes, “Ben laughed even though I was older. But now he is respectful, his head bowed”, “I feel a rush not of anxiety but of confidence” (214). Gabe finally overcomes his shame and is no longer the introverted adolescent he was. This shows how America society change people home “culture”, but still we find ourselves in other culture. My mom once called me that I am becoming American because I do not act like a person, like her when she was my age. My Mom told me I need to be with her until I get marry, and to never leave her alone. The time changed people, so society; my mom let me moved out before marriage and sometimes my mom calls me her American daughter.

In California and the rest of America is a big International arena where everyone is in danger to crash on the playground. If we don’t crash, we would never learn to accept each other. Before crashing we need to learn to accept ourselves and the people around us because we are human beings, and our culture makes us richer.

Multiculturlism

Free write

What is to you to live in a Multiculturalism world?

To me live in a multiculturalism world is very sensational, but at the same time is very hard. it is pretty cool been surrounded by so many cultures. In California we have so much diversity that makes this state a privilege one. it is hard because you are trying to identify yourself with so many things, and honestly the society shapes you; so it is hard to find something to follow. Especially the immigrants that come to California its hard to accept other people cultures and the American born as well.
With this multiculturalism
*we learn new things
*learn from others
*great for business
*But also misunderstanding.

Indian vs. Modern Society Essay Response

Essay Response

Indians vs. Modern Society

 You choose Indian Cartography and The First; the tile came up to be Indians vs. Modern Society. The essay talked about how unfair the government was with the Indians and how the government “tried” to make them feel better in the modern society. On this essay the intro was great, but you missed to introduce the Poems as poems because the readers would not know that these are poems. On your first paragraph was upside down, and the points were not clear, you left your reader hanging. It was upside down because the main point was at the bottom instead on the top. But in your very last paragraph was so much better and clear which that save you for failing the essay; the conclusion was so cool that the teacher love it!

What I learn from this chapter was to understand people and that everyone have bittersweet memories, also to compare two poems and to understand them deeply with critical thinking.

Indians vs. Modern Society

Indians vs. Modern Society

When you were a little kid you played the game Cowboys vs. Indians and you always wanted to be the cowboy because he was the smart, handsome and the hero of the story, but have you ever thought why the American Cowboys were always fighting with the Indians? And how the Indians felt from this invasion? The Indians have been living in California for around 15,000 years, away from civilization. When the white man (Cowboys) arrived to the Indian Territory they wanted to remove them because they were not white civilized people they gave them the name savages. To better understand the situation between how the white men treated the Indians and how the savages felt towards them, I am going to compare Indian Cartography and The First.

Indian Cartography by Deborah Miranda wrote one of the most vivid image poems of what society used to be in America. The word Cartography means the practice of drawing geographical maps, in the beginning of the poem by opening the map to California to locate the places the Indians used to be “My Father opens a map of California –traces mountain ranges, rivers, county borders like family bloodlines”(CDR, 72). On The First by Gary Soto, the poem opens in a very similar way “After the river gloved its fingers with leaves and the autumn sunlight spoked the earth on two parts, the villagers undid their houses, thatch by thatch” (CDR, 426). These two writers have something in common, they have some Indian origin and their parents are the latest Indian generation. When they opened the two poems by identifying the places their ancestors used to live by passing their fingers thru a map and thru the imagination of how the river gloved its fingers in the autumn it makes them feel glorious of how much they used to have and how beautiful it used to look. The tone of the opening in both poems is powerful and proudly happy. A lot of history in America and especially in California has been removed through natural and physical ways, these poems unfolds the landscapes that California used to have, and gives us an idea of how the modern world has changed California to the present day.

Those beautiful verses on the poems are just the good memories of what the Indians have left in the world because the white men sweep them away from their lands. In the Indian Cartography has a remarkable paragraph “[In] my Father’s boyhood: days he learned to swim the hard way, and days he walked across the silver scales, swollen bellies of salmon coming back to the river that wasn’t there. The Government paid those Indians to move away”(CDR, 72) In this sentence the tone and the theme on the poem is starting to shift to the sad part of how the Indians felt when the white man took their lands away. In history the Indians where struggling with the white man because they were unfair on the payment they were offering to them, to the Indians the land was their mother not a thing that is in dispute. On The First poem has a similar phrase just in this one it uses the personification and metaphors to identify the atrocity of how the white man were “What the sun raised- squashed and pumpkin, maize collared, in a white fungus-they left for the earth was not as it was remembered”(CDR, 426) The white fungus is a personification of the white man, the fungus comes and never leave always killing what it touches. This symbolize that both poems have the same ideology that Indians were replaced in their own land by what the modern society is about. Sadly the Indians lands are not recognizable anymore because of what the modern society has done to it by creating industries, factories and entertainment, therefore is no longer any natural beauty to the Mother Earth.

Another aspect is discrimination. The Indians suffer discrimination and racism from the white man because they look different from them. The Indians were natural and have no concerns of who owned the land, while the white men wanted to take everything feeling superior from them. The white man though they have no knowledge of anything, that by treating them like animals would be the solution to get rid of them. The Indians remember how dark this period of time was in Indian Cartography shared the feeling of an Indian who lose everything “Maybe he sees shadows of a people who are fluid, fluent in dark water, bodies long and glinting with sharp-edged jewelry, and mouths still opening, closing on the stories of our home”(CDR, 73) and on The First “A path that closed behind them as the day opened a smudge of its blue, they were the first to leave, unnoticed, without words, for it not longer mattered to say the world was once blue”(CDR, 427) Both poems show the closing of the Indian life, there is no go back to what they once had. The only way to go back is to remember the good memories they have. They were the first in California; they had the right to keep their home as a civilized people. Unfortunately our modern society has always being the fungus that is destroying the world. Would you play the Cowboy again?

Indian Cartography Summary

SUMMARY

Indian Cartography

The poem starts with the motion of opening a map of California from the Father of the Author Deborah Miranda. The Dad was tracing “mountain ranges, rivers and borders like family bloodlines” over the new places we have in California like Los Angeles, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, etc. Then the father’s boyhood was separated by the Lake Cachuma where he learned how to swim in the most difficult way, where he walked across the silver scales to see the salmon coming back. But the river was not there, in the map was gone.

The government paid the Indians to move out of their own land.

Deborah’s Father do not know where they went, he began to imagine how the valley used to look back then when he was a kid. He might “sees shadows of people who are fluid (…) and the stories of our home” in which they are not in the map anymore.

Respond

The poem was really interesting and sad at the same time. We use maps to locate places that are really in there. But the man in the poem was looking at the map as a memory and family album. His boyhood was in the map before, but thanks to the government is gone now. The only thing that is left for him is the imagination and the memories that are left to see the map.  In some way the way she wrote the poem was to stay alive and to heal, by the way she I describing her dad. Also the maps are not only indicators of political and boundaries, it illustrates life, social conditions and memories. One of the most intense sentences I read in the poem was “The government paid those Indians to move away, he says; I don’t know where they went”. To my prospective the Indians did not wanted to move because they were owners of that land and the government need to respect, I think since the Indians did not move they were killed by the government; that is why the Father don’t know where they went.

Deborah Miranda gives a really vivid image of the making of geographical maps, because in California has been a lot of changes in the physical and natural ways since the Indians lived here. Her poem gives an idea of how Indians look at their homeland all destroyed, and all what is left is the good memory from it. I also encounter in the poem a kind of discrimination from the government. It was more important industries and other places rather to not taking it away from their real owners, which are the native Indians.

Indian Cartography by Deborah Miranda

Here is one of Deborah's most famous American Indian poems:

Indian Cartography excerpts by Deborah A. Miranda, Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen

Indian Cartography My father opens a map of California— traces mountain ranges, rivers, county borders like family bloodlines. Tuolomne, Salinas, Los Angeles, Paso Robles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Saticoy, Tehachapi. Places he was happy, or where tragedy greeted him like an old unpleasant relative. A small blue spot marks Lake Cachuma, created when they dammed the Santa Ynez, flooded a valley, divided my father's boyhood: days he learned to swim the hard way, and days he walked across the silver scales, swollen bellies of salmon coming back to a river that wasn't there. The government paid those Indians to move away, he says; I don't know where they went. In my father's dreams after the solace of a six-pack, he follows a longing, a deepness. When he comes to the valley drowned by a displaced river he swims out, floats on his face with eyes open, looks down into lands not drawn on any map. Maybe he sees shadows of a people who are fluid, fluent in dark water; bodies long and glinting with sharp-edged jewelry, mouths still opening, closing on the stories of our home.

Slippery Slope Fallacy

Post Hoc Fallacy

Missing the Point Fallacy

Hasty Generalization Fallacy

Againts Human Trafficking Essay Response

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Against Human Trafficking

Essay Response

In this essay I am in favor on Prop.35 against human trafficking. In here I wanted to convince the audience to vote YES on proposition 35.

This essay had a great title and also in the intro the comment was that every quarter my writing just build up!. On my essay since we were also looking at the different fallacies in writing, I wanted to add some in my essay to look that I got the understanding of the fallacies, but it did not work as I was expecting it on the lat statement that I wrote in the second paragraph my teacher identify the fallacy. The purpose itself did not work, my teacher took it as a mistake; in some way I think is good because he find the intension of it, but it was a mistake n my essay, so the points went down, what I did here was a false dichotomy and appeal to fear and for this the argument went down.

Then on the third paragraph I wanted to include politics, so I did an ad hominem. The politicians as if it’s all of them, aren’t any support of it and do they all feel woman deserve rape.  I did not want to sound like all politicians just some that I mentioned later on in the essay. The next paragraph I have some great quotations to prove a powerful point about some politicians (all the right by the way). It is that opponents of this legislation seem to be anti-woman, anti feminist and against equality for woman. I wanted to be somewhat specific in this since I see prove of how these politicians were making bad commentaries about woman and rape. At the last argumentative paragraph I talk about the budget, but it came out negative for the essay; I did not focus on the budget so I mislead the audience to believe that it will negatively affect the budget. The conclusion overall was good. I need to focus on sentences and to focus on my paragraphs.

What I learn from this chapter, was to open my mind to some politics and to listen everyone’s opinion to different propositions, also I learn about fallacies which are Hasty Generalization, Missing the Point, Post Hoc and Slippery Slope. 

Against Human Trafficking

Against Human Trafficking

In California we have the right to vote, to raise our voice and let the Government to hear our propositions and make them happen. Human trafficking is the most horrific crime a person could do, California has three cities that has a high intensity child sex trafficking areas: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. To help these cities to prevent the human trafficking Proposition 35 is going to increase prison sentences and fines for all people convicted of human trafficking and trade of human beings for sex slavery or forced labor.  Prison sentences would be increased to 15 years of jail or a lifetime and a fine up to $1.5 million. Also would require the offenders convicted of sex trafficking to register as a sex offender and would force them to disclose the identities they use on the Internet, as well as the sites they visit. Our children and youth are the future of our country, and we demand protection to them, therefore, vote YES for proposition 35 to protect our children and youth from sexual exploitation.

People against the proposition argue that is not necessary to have this law passed because criminalization of prostitution is the condition that allows exploitation. When we talk about prostitution in general, we can define it as an individual job that a female or a male decide to do to gain some money for them. We are trying to stop the criminalization of human trafficking and exploiting the victims to being force to have sex, being in pornography and being sexual slaves. Woman have it the worst, in a video on YouTube shows evidence when a woman that was working on the streets as a prostitute was not giving a man what he wanted, he called the police to get her as a human trafficker; even the police assault her just because she was saying no. Who was the sexual offender on this scene, was the police. If we do not put a stop on this our future generation would fall from heaven and would be on the devils hands.

Also the politicians are ridiculously against the proposition 35 they think that rape is what as a woman, we deserve. In 1990 the republican Clayton Williams said, “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it”. In that year human trafficking was climbing the way up, but no one did something to stop it. Now in 2012 the same political party, had three other politicians that commented in a very inhuman way about the victims of human trafficking. We have Rick Santorian’s quote, “Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation”, Todd Akin’s “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” (this is just a missing the point fallacy). And the famous quote from Richard Mourdock, “I came to realize life is that gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that God intended to happen”. We have to stop this insult we need to support each other to give the sex offenders what they deserve, prison. We need to save our children and woman for a better future.

    

One of other reasons that people are against this law is because they think the state would affect the state budget and go bankrupt. According to make this proposition happen the state would use $2 million to increase the time on prison to the offender and it would also train the police Officers in a better way to identify the offenders and to be strict with the law. The thing that people do not think is that we have donors that are willing to help California to be a better place for our children and woman. Chris Kelly, a candidate for Attorney General of California contributed with $2,160,000 millions, The California Statewide Law Enforcement Association has donated $500,000 dollars, The Police Officers Research Association gave $200,000 dollars and so many donors that completed the amount of $3,000,000 millions. We are not even going to touch the state budget if this proposition passes. The offenders would pay a on lifetime prison and a fine up to $1.5 millions. Do not worry, there is people out there, like you and I that care about our children and woman that would do anything to protect them.

The Internet media has so many traffickers online, which provide them with access to vulnerable children. Proposition 35 would stop from happening because every time that the police would arrest an offender would have to provide all his information and sites to track other traffickers and save more victims to be free again. If this proposition does not pass our children and woman would be held against their will and forced into prostitution for the financial gain of human traffickers. Many girls are around the age working for these sex offenders. Leah Albright- Boyd that is a survivor from being trafficked and abused when she was just only 14 years old. Imagine if your kid ends it up like Leah, you would like to send these human traffickers to prison for the rest of their lives. I would vote YES to 35, I want to protect our generation, our woman and my future children from human traffickers. Help by voting Yes on Proposition 35 to build a better California and to protect our woman and children.

Outrageous!!!

Proposition 35

Proposition 35

 Summary
 

Increase prison sentences and fines for human trafficking convictions. Requires convicted human traffickers to register as sex offenders. Requires register sex offenders to disclose Internet activities and identities. Also there is going to be an extra police training, a fine of $1,500,000 and 15 years of prison.

Essay Reflection

California’s Fault

Essay Response

In this essay I talked about what the song San Andreas Fault was trying to tell us, at the beginning on the essay I had a good thesis statement, but some ideas in the sentences were not clear so for consequence the leading up of the introduction did not work too much. When the music goes on it talks about that you are going to become a super star but at some point you are going to end up bad because is kind of related to Hollywood cycle thin you start good, you get into the climax and then you go down hill; so as an example I used the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and the famous family The Kardashians. Although theses are really interesting examples it doesn’t work to the fullest because the song is referring to a female only, it do not connect to the essay. The conclusion was good, “California’s Fault that make people keep dreaming and overachieving in this wicked land of hope”. Overall, I think I did a better job than the previous essay, but I still need to work on the clarification and the flow on the sentences by using PIE.

What I leaned in this chapter was to be able to recognize the importance of the meanings in each song, you will find more than a song. I also learn about the metaphors that the songwriters used to communicate with their audience.

California's Fault

California’s Fault

California is the paradise of the United States of America and the song “San Andreas Fault” by Natalie Merchant, which represents the positive and negative side of California to this song overwhelmed the hearts of the dreamers with the beautiful sound of milk and honey, but with the notion of the earthquake being quite literal and killing the protagonist or dreamer from the first few verses. The song communicates you to go to California with a warning of a disaster that can happen and will tear your dreams down.

The encouraging words of the song to “Go west, Paradise is there, you will have all that you can eat of milk and honey over there” describes the beauty of going to California because is offering to us the buffet of dreams and hopes that we are craving for. Everyone wants the honey and milk of life and what a great place to get it in California. If you go to California “you’ll be the brightest star, the world has ever seen, sun-baked slender heroine of film and magazine”. In California most of the people wants to be a star and be the biggest and shiniest of all, but with the sun-baked slender heroine is a meaningful down hill killer, with a, “The dizzy height of a jet-set life” means it would be crazy and hard for an easy steady life, which you can never dream. The famous Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s a great example of the music line. He came from Germany to California to make his dream come true as a bright star; years later he managed to become a super star in the movie Terminator. Unfortunately he had his slender heroine when he got addicted with steroids and became the Governor of California and was called the Governator. His fame did not last and now he is just a guy getting divorce and in bankruptcy.

When beauty becomes a necessity or a priority on which most cases is; people get crazy to get anything to look beautiful and spend million of dollars just to look like a star. In the fifth verse when Natalie Merchant sings “your pale blue eyes, strawberry hair, lips so sweet, skin so fair” I pictured the actress Lindsey Lohan, I found something interesting with this verse because it makes you think about how you can look to be famous and a bright star. So, I got the imaged of Lindsey because she is famous, rich and beautiful.  “Your future bright, beyond compare, it’s rags to riches, skin so fair” when people came from rags and become rich, they completely change physically and mentally. The famous evidence from this sickness is the Kardashian Family, they were a good family to all America with values, morals and dreaming so big to get their California Dream, and both Lindsey and the Kardashians are beautiful only from the outside. Once they throw away their rags and became rich monsters with skin so fair. The people of California were not longer accepting them because they became a menace to the young generation. This famous people were getting beauty surgeries and the young people that wanted to look like them were doing the same. However, not all the surgeries to the people were successful, some of them die for following the Kardashians, Lindsey and their California dream to become a bright star.

Then the song shift in a way by taking you to the natural disaster of the San Andreas Fault by using the metaphor of "San Andreas fault moved its fingers through the ground" becomes itself a fault line in the song, breaking it in half and changing all that came before into something almost unrecognizable. In the same concept of meaning Merchant sings “o promise land, o wicked ground, build a dream, tear it down” her choice of words to express the quake itself there - using almost gentle imagery to contrast what would necessarily be a very massive violent moment. Also it turns to how Arnold, Lindsey and the Kardashians are going down by the massive earthquake of people and drugs of California’s fault. I love how the lyrics themselves take a hard right turn halfway through, becoming something entirely different than what the first half is setting up.

The song is very inspiring of coming to California, but with a warning label of a wicked ground. It reminds me of the book The Sillicon Boys by David A. Kaplan when its says, “Out here, you wake up everyday knowing the whole thing could come crashing down in a moment. It produces anxiety, but also a subliminal force that drives people to keep over achieving” this relates to the song in a way that people do not care of the danger of the place because is more important to get what they want instead of thinking on the future; it would function as a demonstration though as to how a random, senseless tragedy or disaster can destroy the dreams of people going about their daily lives, with no greater purpose or meaning than the damage it causes. Another quote from the same book that goes hand to hand to this song is “Get it today, because it may be gone tomorrow” I think that is what most people think about California and its hope, to come and get it before is gone. Also if you think in a different negative way like the other states do because of hate and jealously is that they just drive you to go to California to destroy you and be nothing in life and go back to them. Is the California’s Fault that make people keep dreaming and overachieving in this wicked land of hope.

San Andreas Fault by Natalie Merchant

Images of California Dram in Music

Imagery:  Occurs when an author uses an object that is not really there, in order to create a comparison between one that is, usually evoking a more meaningful visual experience for the reader.

Ex: Song- Hotel California

“In the masters chambers they’re gathered for the feast

 They stab it with their steely knifes but they just can’t

 kill the best”

Irony:  The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Ex: Song- Californication

“Pay your surgeon very well

 To break the spell of aging

 Celebrity skin is this your chin

 Or is that war your waging”

Metaphor: Is a literary figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Is also a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association or comparison.

Ex: Song- Going to California

“The sea was red and the sky was grey (…) as the children of the sun began to awake”

California The Golden State

My Reflection on The State of Hope

The State of Hope

Reflection.

In this essay I talked about of what California means to me. At the introduction part it went pretty well at the beginning, but it was not clear while answering the focus question which was, what is California mean to you?

On the first paragraph I felt somewhat confident of what I was writing, the teacher commented on the paragraph saying that I need to focus in the paragraph to unfold the thesis carefully, and to connect hope with the last idea I had. “Being in California is to have the weapons to succeed in whatever you want to do”. When I read it again several times I understood what the teacher meant on focusing in this paragraph, I think it was all over the place and not giving the reader a clear idea of my point of view.

The following paragraph is the same thing, not clear idea of what the focus question is and the reader would not get the idea as well. Although I had a good example of a friend of mine that succeed in California. I should have put it at the beginning of my first paragraph and try to lead the reader to a great reading sequel.

On my conclusion paragraph I was laughing of what I wrote, at first I did not notice but the teacher really pointed out “to keep dreaming means to being Californian?; so Californian you are”. There is a sentence where I meant to say that California is the best state to be, but I wrote California for me is the best place I have ever been; meaning I am California. So embarrassing!!!!.

This was my first essay in English 1B.

I need to practice more my focus and the clearness on my essays so the readers would understand what I have to say.

Overall, the teacher said that the title of the essay was good! I feel good

The State of Hope

                                                                The State of Hope

California has been one of the most popular state to live, to succeed and to retired; everyone that comes to California, they come full of dreams and hopes to become more successful and have a better life, a better future and a better reputation.  When we picture California, we see ourselves in a beach relaxing under the sun with a bunch of money around and that is what we want, we came to California to pursuit our happiness. That is why California is the state of hope.

I learned that California is the home of gold, celebrities, fame, money, beaches, mansions, Disneyland, education, technology and above all, hope. “The promises of the California Dream raise the expectations (…) hoping that their lives here will be better than what they leave behind (…) is [the best and last] chance of success”(CDR,25). When I arrived to California, it has being the America to my eyes, when I held my flight ticket; I hold it as a bible, as a key to a new world because Arizona is too hot and New York is too cold. I choose California as the perfect state to dream because my Mom said that this place would give us all the things that we have been dreaming for a long time, without suffering and starving and to leave behind all our frustrations; and it was true California changed my life. Sometimes I picture myself as rich as Steve Jobs, famous as Tom Cruise and smart as Bill Gates, and when I said picture I am dreaming on becoming a person that would change the world. I am making my dreams come true by going to school and graduate, and I know that I will get what I dream in this state. Be in California is being privileged to have the weapons to succeed in whatever you want to do.

However, California is sugar coded with too much sweet that can kill you with diabetes and vanish your dreams away. “[The] vivid images [of sunshine, beaches and Hollywood] the pursuit (…) has long been thought to have been the primary motivation [for coming to California]”(CDR, 40) which in this statement Denise S. Spooner is right for the perspective on the Dream. People all over the world come to California because they think they can get it fast and easy like in the images. Is too sweet to be truth and not everyone can make it. I called myself as an international dreamer; I came to change my life. The pictures, movies and people succeeding have being motivating to continue with my California Dream, but the sweet from too much sugar is affecting me to succeed and make my dreams vanish forever. The frustration of not having it fast and now the fabulous images makes me to give up, and go back from where I came, but there I have nothing. But this place, this state is “the strongest in all the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores (…) wild beast (…) and gold” (CDR, 31) The California state is one of the most beautiful place I have ever seen, with the wild beast like Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Shean and the money I will make after completing my dreams. Here is the only place I know and that I like to succeed. My friend Ivan, he came from Mexico fifteen years ago and he wanted to be a lawyer but he came with nothing to start his dream. He worked and studied and now he got what he wanted it; he is a successful lawyer, with a big house and a wonderful family. California was the place where he made his dream come true.

California has everything that every country would dream to have, in which they hope one day would get it. Unfortunately geological speaking, California is in between of San Andreas fault that will transform the state into nothing. As David A. Kaplan understands that California is the state of “Get it today, because it may be gone tomorrow” (The Sillicon Boys, 27) Let’s squish the juice out of lemon, lets get what we dream and make it true from this state of hope. I am enjoying being here, I am almost completing one of my dreams, graduating from college. California for me is the best place I have ever been, I like my country but I love it here. I have hope that one day I will change the world from California and I will say that everything started in the land of hope, where all the dreams come true. There is not place like California.

My Dreams

My Dreams.
I want to graduate from college.
Get a really good job in America.
Travel around the world.
To get these dreams come true, I will  study hard to get my Diploma and graduate, after graduation I will get a better job that would lead to the chance to get a car and a house, also travel around the world and have my own Family.
These would be my California Dream, because I believe that living in California is the only place where dreams come true.