"Hatred"

In the story “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, he mentions his experiences with his father along with the American culture. He mainly focuses on hatred throughout the story, which come together with society and his relationship with his father.

Baldwin watches his father die of bitterness, and watches society grow bitter along side. Through the novel Baldwin gets intimidated with his father when he says that his friends are in league with the devil and intend to rob their family or everything they owned. Baldwin then becomes more distance to his father, due to the fact that he criticized his friends before knowing them. This relates to criticism between blacks and whites. For example; when Baldwin goes to a diner and the waitress tells him “We don’t serve blacks.”

Baldwin’s experiences throughout his life was always hatred and criticism towards his father and between blacks and whites. Having his father beside him all his life made him grow bitter about life and also seeing society through his father point of view. Once his father dies, Baldwin see society through his own point of view and not through the meaning his father left him.

Taking Criticism

In the book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris, the author talks about his situation of attending school again at a new place and learning a new language, but also have to deal with a teacher who harshly criticize his French. David gives examples that any person reading this book will relate to.

I can relate to the author for the same reason that I once had a teacher that constantly criticized me. For example, when the teacher tells him, “Were you always this palicmkrexis?” “Even a fluscrzsa tiawelmun knows that a typewriter is feminine.” When reading this, I remembered when my teacher once put me down for not being able to read well. With her criticism, I was determined to get better and show her I was capable to accomplish anything. Just the way David proves his teacher by learning the language and understanding the disapprovals the teacher will tell him.

I belief the message of this book is to not let people bring you down. There will always be people who would intimidate you but you have to be able to take the negatively and turn it positive, to help you on the long run.

change

A change in our world can lead us to new leaders, experiences and opportunities. Waking up this morning to hear that Barack Obama is our new president was a big change to our country. Not only is he the first African American to stand as our leader but he would be a new president that will make new transformation to our society and our future. As he mentioned once, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek".

2008 is here and our history has changed dramatically. I voted for Barack Obama so we the people could make a difference in this country. We have the freedom and rights to have any leader we want, but why is it that throughout the past years we have been stuck with president's that disgraced our voices and has mind of his own. We needed a change, and our change is here.

Blog Interest

"Financial Infidelity"

What this story talks about is having a relationship with your partner on how to manage your financial stability. The author talks about how she has an opened relationship with her partner about money wise and not lying about how she spends the money. She mentions that in a relationship, one of the partners will lie and use up all the family’s money, living the family with debts. Also that one partner will be the spender and the other one the saver. Although I do not go through this situation with a partner I still relate to it because I see it happening with my parents. My mother is the one saving up money and paying the bills and my father is the one spending it.



"Autism South Africa and Jail4Bail"

This story grabbed my attention because it talks about Autism. I like how in the beginning the author talks about the world in a way we can all reflect on. The author mentions good commentary on how Autism people shouldn’t be treated different. Autism people still go through same situations and still have the same feelings we go through. In the United States, people with Autism get treated pretty well. They’re able to get insured and not have to worry about financial stability. But it’s not only the insurance they need for help, they require specialized and individualized education. I have herd that in Africa they have a bad society but I never imagined that they will go so far that they won’t even provide health insurance for the people there. Here in the U.S. Autism kids get to attend school but in Africa some aren’t bale and affects them as they grow. I relate to this story because my cousin as well has Autism. I have watched him grow up with the expectations of him getting better. Although he is not born here, he still gets treated properly. Unlike the kids in Africa my cousin has opportunities to attend school and have access to health insurance.

College Life

Once going into college you always hear people telling you "Prepare for the worse", "No more watching T.V.", and whatever you do "Study study study". These are all comments people tell you to scare you. It is true about the studying part though don't get me wrong. I'm glad someone awared me about that. I've already had exams and it has only been 3 weeks of school, quizzes from each class, and for this following week more exams to come. What they didn't aware me was about the stress i'll be dealing with. The first year of college can be the stressful year ever because your getting use to the new environment. Eventhough with all these chaos, I'm glad i'm attending college. I have learned so many things in this short period of time and have experienced so much as well. I hope to learn more in the future.

What I Feel About Writing

Writing is very important for us to do. There are many strategies to writing; comparing, contrast, description, narration, etc. Writing allows us to speak our minds and to write our thoughts down. Although, it’s needed, this subject is not for me. For me it’s like trying to give kids vegetables. Writing has never encouraged me to continue doing outside as a hobby. I just write what I’m told to and that’s it. When doing so, I feel my writing doesn’t make sense. My weakness has always been starting my paragraph. That’s the biggest concern, because your first paragraph should be able to grab your reader’s attention.