Satirical Speech.. Farewell

Rodo's Lesson

Jose Enrique Rodo is a 19th century professor, who is trying to send a message to his students not about academics but of morality. 

To do so, he uses Ariel, a type of angel from the Tempest. This is done strategically because Rodo is trying to implement a good morality on his students, and Ariel serves as an allegory for his lesson. Rodo says that "Shakespeare's ethereal Ariel symbolizes the noble, soaring aspect of the human spirit. He represents the superiority of reason and feeling over the base impulses of irrationality." This means that he serves as an example for society because he is able to control his natural impulses, and is able to act on by thinking nobelly and with reason. 

Rodo tells his students that they should concentrate on making changes in America, no matter the size to make it a better place as Ariel would do it. They could all relate to Ariel because he is one that is dominated by an authority: Prospero, but at the same time is able to do the right thing. His nobleness is the greatest power that he has, and that is how he wishes his students to act. 

Also, he wants to implement hope in his students, and reminds them that if they ever feel hopelesness to think about Ariel, to generate them that motivation and hope that they need to go on. 

As you can see, Ariel works as a symbolism of hope, nobility and reason which makes him be an allegory of acting well and making a change. 

Some of the words that I didn't know what they meant were: ethereal, chisel, gossamer, and numen. 

Having found the meaning of these words made me understand better the meaning of what Rodo was saying. For example, when Roso says "I call upon Ariel to be my numen", since I didnt know the meaning of numen, for me it would have made no sense of what Rodo was saying. It could've meant the same thing as saying that he calls up Ariel to be his clown. Finding the definition of numen which is:  the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place, I understand that for Rodo, Ariel could be like his god because he admires his character so deeply. Finding and knowing the meaning of words is essential to understand what a person is saying. Without them, it would be as if the person is saying nothing. 

Numen: the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place.

Gossamer: a light, thin, and insubstantial or delicate material or substance.

Chisel: a long-bladed hand tool with a bevelled cutting edge and a handle which is struck with a hammer or mallet, used to cut or shape wood, stone, or metal.

Ethereal: extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.

Caliban and the Indigenous

When we began studying The Tempest, I thought it was an odd story about a powerful mother trying to manipulate her daughter for her own benefit. Nevertheless, after reading the article: Caliban: Notes Toward a Discussion of Culture in Our America, I understood that I was wrong. Through The Tempest, Shakespeare actually “ [alluded] to America, that its island is the mythification of one of our islands” in Latin America.

As I continued reading the article I realized how obvious this idea was. When Shakespeare introduces this deserted island, one could relate it with when the colonizers arrived to Colombia. Colombia was an unknown place, where the Spanish colonizers barged in making the indigenous people their servants, and converting them into the Spanish culture. The Spanish slowly but sharply took away the indigenous people's culture by not allowing them to speak their language, obligating them to convert into Catholicism, and invading their lands and constructing a little Spain.

This may seem like a history class, but this is what happens in The Tempest. Caliban serves as a representation of the indigenous people, and Prospero serves as the colonizers. Prospero, as mentioned previously is the powerful character that manipulates everything to get what she wants, specially Caliban who she uses as her slave. To make Caliban her slave, she empowers herself even more by taking away his own culture and introducing him to her own, but not for his benefit, its for hers. She does this by teaching Caliban her language, just as the Spanish did. When he learns this language she is able to communicate with him and tell him exactly what she wants. Although Caliban is a slave, just like the indigenous people, he is not stupid. He tells Prospero that "You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you / For learning me your language!" (1. 2.362-64). This means that Caliban was aware that Prospero was trying to exterminate his culture, so that the only thing he actually understood was Prospero’s orders.

After reading the article, I wondered what was my culture? Since I am Colombian, my ancestors were products of “mestizaje” (mixture between an indigenous person and a Spanish person). This means that there is not a defined culture because if I am more indigenous than Spanish, my ancestors culture was erased away. If I am more Spanish, well the culture also gets complicated because they mixed so much with people of different parts of the world that their own race was already a mix. I can conclude that there isn’t really a pure culture. The culture that I have now in Colombia is a mixture of African, Indigenous, and European cultures. This can be seen with the traditional dances such as Mapale that are from African decent or our language, which comes from Spanish descent.

In conclusion, what Prospero is doing with Caliban is exactly what happened in Latin America. I infer that Caliban is going to be forced to forget his culture because unfortunately there are not many people like him in the island with which he can continue to speak his language. The enforcement of Propsero’s culture towards Caliban will eliminate poor Calibans culture. 

Prescriptivist or Descriptivist?

I had never thought about what I considered myself to be: a presecriptivist or a descriptivist. Now that I have read the article Which Language Rules to Flout. Or Flaunt? I have a better idea of what category I fall in. Since I was little I have considered myself to be more of an english type of student than math. Some people like math because it has only one answer, but for me it is more interesting to have different answers because it leaves room for creativity and making choices. Thus I am a prescriptivist.

Arriving to CNG in 5th grade was not only a big transformation from country and friends but also from language. When I arrived to Colombia I thought that English was going to be the least of my worries because my frist language was actually English. But when I arrived I was surprised to find that my English teachers thought that my wirting was strange. At first I didnt understnad, I thought that I might know more than them, but then it stroke out to me when they strated to write FAVORITE instead of FAVOURITE. That is when I learened that Canada’s way of writing English is as the British do, and here it was all American. Although it started to frusturate me, I actually found it interesting. That was the momento when I realizad that I really liked to write, speacally because I could argue why I was still write of writing COLOUR with a U instead of just with an O, or writing centre as CENTRE instead of CENTER.

Both authors make interesting points, and both defend their positions, but I like the presecriptivist better because although they think that what they say is the write thing, they all argue to defend their form of writing.

Grandma For Dinner!

Reading Maldy’s article “Will we use Commas in the Future?” made me think about the importante of commas, rather than to agree with his point, that we wont use commas in the future. Although he writes very well without commas, I do think that they are necessary. They make the difference.

I hadnt though about the imporatnce of the comma because its something that I do automatically, but if I stop using them my messages can be perceived very differently and i might even have problems. In the article, Malady gives the example of “lets eat grandma!”. If one does not put a comma alter eat, it would sound as if one is saying to eat their grandma. Although by logic we wouldnt think so, it still sends a completely different message.

In class we watched the TED talk about how texting is so different from writing, and that is something Malady should take into account. Texting isn't the same thing as writing, it's another form of language. Just because we use abreviations when texting, it doesn't mean we are going to write them in our collage essays. Although he is right that this does have and effect of how people write, it most definitley won't be good if people start writing as they are texting or tweeting. 

The comma is such an essential part of writing that if they are deleted the messages that we send to others would be missinterpreted and someone might eat their grandma. Some people say that they write like they talk, but we actually use commas when we are speaking. We pause just a little, or when we are saying something it is essential to pause to deliver the right message. 

Super Heros DO Exist!

I think humanity has always wanted to escape from their reality and literally fly away, at least I have. Since I was little I would watch superman with my Dad because it was his favorite show. I liked it even more when Wonderwoman got in the picture because I though it was awesome for there to be a storng powerful women. As I started to get older, more shows and movies about super heroes were born, and the more I liked them.

I remember when I watched Superman for the first time. I was in my cousin’s house in Chicago and he forced me to watch it because he was obsessed with it. When I started watching it I couldn’t stop. I thought it was the best movie ever because it showed regular people being a super hero. This got me thinking if super heroes could exist. My parents would look at me with a weird face but I didn’t care, because I thought about how crazy the Universe was that why couldn’t a super hero exist? Anyway this thought was crushed by the bullying I would receive from my cousins, but still I always thought  it was pretty cool.

After listening to what the woman had to say about wanting to be wonderwoman I realized I wasn’t alone. Although she was more obsessed than I was, I was still a part of the fan club. She wanted to be like wonde rwoman so badly that she applied to be a CIA agent because it was the closest she was going to get to be that strong and powerful woman. Unfortunately she was rejected, but I still keep on thinking that if you actually want to be a super hero you can. If you want to help people, volunteer or work somewhere where you can have a positive direct impact on someones life.

 

For example, my role model, Catalina Escobar was a candidate to be a CNN hero for her amazing foundation that helps teenage pregnant girls that live in the povery of Colombia. This is what motivates me to still want to be a “super hero” because I realized that you don’t need to fly or become invisible to be one. 

Women's Rights are Not that 1800's

As mentioned in my previous blog, I sense this comic to be more like a movie rather than a book. That is why whenever I am reading it I sometimes have to stop for a second because the images are so vivid and hard to deal with. As mentioned previously, Satrapi is telling her story, when she unfortunately was living a very hard time in her country. Through her pictures and dialogue I start to sense what she felt: fear, happiness, sadness, relief and more, which demonstrates the power Persepolis has. It has evoked in me the feelings and images that were going around and still are at the time.

Reading Persepolis has brought many memories to my mind, and I don’t know where to begin. I remember when I was a little girl my grandmother told me that when she was studying in the States she met a woman from Iran whose name was Zareena. She was sent by her family to study English in the States for six months and then she would have to go back to her family. My grandmother always repeated to me that it was terrible how women were oppressed, how they had no liberty and how they were always ignored by society. This impacted me so much, that when I lived in Canada and saw women with burkas I felt very sad for them. I always remembered what my grandmother had told them, and all I wanted was for them to be able to show their face. As I got older, I understood and respected that this was part of their culture, but still I was never able to feel okay with it. I felt as if these women were being ignored and oppressed. These feelings started to come back to me when I continued reading Persepolis and Satrapi was forced to wear her burka, or when she was made to wear again her traditional wear instead of jeans (132).

I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if us women, were oppressed by society, and we couldn’t even choose what type of clothes to wear. Before reading Persepolis I connoted women oppression with the 1800’s, but unfortunately that is not the case for all of the countries on Earth.