My first semester of college began last semester in the fall at Cal State University Northridge. I have been very fortunate to have taken the English 114 A/B course because it has made me a better person, not just academically. I have come to the realization that my first year of college is coming to an end but I must not be sad because what I have been presented in this English class I will equip as tools for my next adventure. I never expected college to be so open and helpful about our school work. I always felt that I was on my in my academic life. My parents, who are Mexican, only required me to finish high school and start working. They didn’t take to account that I wanted a degree in something or I just wanted to pursue a higher education. My counselor in high school had the same students because the students were assigned to a counselor alphabetically. My counselor was more excited about coaching the JV girls’ basketball team than his students he had to advise. I pushed myself through my whole academic life because I wanted to not because I was forced to.
I’ve
come a long way from where I started this year. I was used to in high school
writing a paper and not even follow the procedures of revising, I would just
reprint it and when I got my essay back, it would always be an A or B.I thought
I would do the same in college but that method was not “functioning” here just
by the first paper that I received back. I got a D. This was where I began to
accept a new path for my English classes. In this portfolio I present proof of
how much I have learned throughout this year in English 114 A/B. I have
compiled 3 essays that will demonstrate where I stand today in my writing
skills. I have learned to analyze text, understand topics better, and write
better. One of the moments I will always cherish all my life happened in
English class. I asked my professor Kitty Nard “What do I need to do to get a C
or a B?” she replied “Never settle for less. Why don’t you ask me instead ‘what
do I need to get an A’?” That moment pushed me to do better and exceed in my
academic and personal life. I hope you enjoy what I have gathered for you in my
portfolio.
Project Text- Religion and its Tolle on an Adolescent
Mankind has always questioned how we humans
came to be and how this earth was made. Many have different beliefs like
evolution or the big bang theory or just put here by a divine being that goes
by the name of god. Religion can’t really have a definition. To ask “what IS religion” is a very contradicting way
that many can find invalid. To get a better understanding of religion we should
ask ourselves “what is A religion”.
The dictionary definition for religion is” a set of beliefs concerning the
cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the
creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and
ritual observance, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of
human affairs.”. To obtain a strong central government I believe everyone
should have a choice or an opportunity to vote or have a say and not just be
told what to do and what religion should be followed. The story of Persepolis takes place in the country of
Iran in the time period of 1980s. It was a time of differences and violence. In
that time era in Iran there was so much bloodshed between two opposing forces,
the secular and the religious people. This feud eventually became a revolution.
Religion made a huge impact on the country of Iran and the main character /
narrator Marjane Satrapi.
Throughout the graphic novel we see
demonstrations of religious activities. In the beginning of the comic we start
by reading a chapter called “The Veil”. In “The Veil” we learn about
segregation, and how Marjane wants to pursue her dream of being a prophet. What
stood out the most in the chapter was when Marjane said she wanted to be
“Justice, love and wrath-all in one” (pg.9-panel 6). This stood out to me
because as a Christian/ Catholic it reminded me of the Trinity, justice being
the Holy Spirit, love being Jesus, and wrath being God. Having this reference
in the book shows how universal this book is. These connections show how the
minimalist, and black and white, service as a way of having the readers connect
to the story and the author.
One of the main reasons why Persepolis is a controversial novel was
because of the images shown in the graphic novel. As the story unfolds we learn
about a special relationship Marjane has with God. She looks to him as a role
model and sees him as someone who will always be there for her. Their
conversations usually happened when she wasn’t content with the world around
her. For example in the book when she is asked by her teacher what she wanted
to be when she grew up, Marjane replied with “A Prophet”(pg.8 panel 4). Both
the teacher and students laughed at her response. She looked for God that night
but he didn’t “show up”. God was an inspiration and a role model who probably
pushed her to become a good person. However when she begins to be more
knowledgeable about her country and events going on around her, she begins to
lose faith meaning her relationship with God wasn’t strong. She begins to be
more concerned about war and who is running the country.
Marjane as a child wanted to pursue her dream
of becoming a prophet. In the book she states, “at the age of six I was already
sure I was the last prophet. This was a few years before the revolution” (pg.6-panel
3). Growing up Marjane had many important people in her life but the most
influental was her grandmother. Her grandmother supported everything she would
say or wanted to do. In the story Marjane began naming a few rules she would have if she
was a prophet: “Rule number six: everybody should have a car. Rule number
seven: all maids should eat at the table with others. Rule number eight: no old
person should have to suffer.”(pg.7- panel 5). All these acts were from what
she noticed around her environment that she couldn’t quite understand and
thought we; wrong. Rule number seven was explaining how all maids should eat at
the table with others, she noticed that her maid didn’t eat with her family and
she somehow understood at such a young age that that was wrong. All Marjane
wanted is for everyone to be treated equally and fairly. Her wanting to pursue
being a prophet later changed because
she lost faith as she learned about what is going on in her country.
With no faith, religious beliefs are lost, and
revolutions begin. This graphic novel took place during the Islamic Revolution.
It was a fight between secular and religious people. Marjane says in the
chapter “The Veil” “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil, deep
down I was very religions but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde”
(pg.6- panel 1). The quote indicated that there was going to be trouble in her
life since her family was very modern (westernized).Marjane demonstrates
throughout the story, how the Islamic Revolution changed the real view of
Islam. Not wearing a Veil in that time meant punishment and harassment from the
fundamentalist. For example Marjane’s mother was very against wearing a veil so
one evening she was harassed by two males. Marjane’s mother began to explain
and tell her husband the things that were said to her. “Women like me should be
pushed up against the wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage.”(pg.74-
panel 3). This impacted Marjane’s family emotionally and mentally. No one
deserves to be treated like that just because they have a different view or
opinion.
Religion can be a good thing and a bad thing.
Many have no where in their time of
need. Marjane throughout the story always looked for God as comfort .When a monarchy
tries to reform a whole country, there can be very controversial opinions
causing war and hardship . All women wearing veils is a prime example of such
controversy. Religion affects us one way or another but no has the right to
control us in what we believe in.
Project Space- Places and Spaces
As we grow older our moral beliefs and values begin to take shape
making us grow into the people we were, who we are, and what we want to become.
The word value takes different meanings, for example, value can mean amount
worth or it can mean, to regard or esteem like a friendship. Certain people
value objects more than the space they stand, walk, eat, sit, etc. To people a
church can show the ability to pursue the divine, a library to help with
studying, and your bedroom for personal space. All these spaces are common and
know to the world. Places consist of ideologies that affect us in many
different ways and forms.
There are
different types of spaces that we know of religious, sacred, cyber, public,
etc. In one of the chapters in the textbook Convergences the topic was
about sacred spaces. This chapter consisted of poems, short narratives, and
photographs. In one of the photographs there were two teenage males appearing
to be relaxed. The setting of this photograph was in nature, very outdoor, and
woodland like. There was an automobile where the two males where either sitting
or leaning against it. One of the males had a joint in his hands. A joint is
basically a cigarette but instead of tobacco its marijuana. They both seemed to
be enjoying life with no worries in the world. The whole photograph represented
their perspective of sacred. To other people it would be an ordinary place.
In one the entries
in Another City it talks about how a teacher sees his students forming
into adults. He or she pays close attention to their surroundings like how
there’s trash outside the trash bin or the constant sirens outside the
classroom. What stands out the most in this poem is how the teacher pays
attention to the gestures the students make. In one instance a girl is writing
on the chalk board and sees the movement of her hand, the teachers compares it
to her mom’s sewing techniques. Another example of this action was when he
notices a boy stacking his words and comparing it to his father’s occupation of
construction worker, stacking up bricks. The jobs that were described by the
teacher are all low paying jobs that typically are worked by underprivileged
people. The reason that helps him identify what occupations the students’ parents’
work is because of the setting of the poem. From the title of the poem the
reader can see that the poem takes place in Lincoln Heights which is located in
Los Angles in a very underdeveloped city. The place affects this poem because
if the story were to take place in Beverly Hills instead of Lincoln Heights the
teacher wouldn’t assume that their parents are construction workers, the
teacher would assume they are doctors and lawyers. Having the setting
introduced by the author in the beginning of the poem helps the reader
understand and analyze the poem better.
The type of place
you are in can really change the way you look at things or even make you feel
different. September 11 2001 was one of the most horrifying dates of all time
in the history of USA. That day planes were hijacked by terrorist flying the
planes they hijacked into the World Trade Center. This action caused thousands
of lives and heartache of the family and friends the victims had. Eleven years
later where the towers stood high in the sky, we’ve assembled a memorial. This
memorial is in memory of all the men, women, and children killed on 9/11. This
place is more than just a memorial, this place is sacred. The ideology behind
this place is to remember those who we lost. If you went to any other place,
you wouldn’t think of thousands of lives by a tragic event.
Religion takes a
big role in where we stand in society. There are many countries in the world
that hasn’t developed equal rights among women and men or even the freedom of
religious practices. If someone breaks a “Law” in one of those particular
countries, the one who broke it is harassed, beaten, or even killed. A graphic
novel that demonstrates this is the memoir Persepolis. The story of
Persepolis takes place during the 1980 in Iran. The setting took place during
the Islamic revolution. It was as a fight between secular and religious people.
The stories shared throughout the novel is by the main character as an
adolescent. During her struggle throughout the novel she would find comfort
speaking to “god”. The time and place really changed the story of Persepolis. In
one of the chapters called “the Veil”, the main character says “I really didn’t
know what to think about the veil, deep down I was very religious but as a
family we were very modern and avant-garde.”(page 6 panel 1) This brought
trouble in her life since her family is modern and she was living in a world
where you had no choice or freedom to say anything. Majane demonstrates
throughout the story how the Islamic revolution changed the real view of Islam.
Another example of the struggles faced in that time period was when Marjane's
mother wasn’t wearing a veil in public, because of that she was harassed by two
male adults telling her “Women like me should be pushed up against a wall and
fucked. And then thrown in the garbage.”(page 74 panel 4) This novel
demonstrates two types of places/spaces personal and religious. If Marjane
lived in the United States during that time period, there would be no hardship
in her life. Iran was a place in that time where nothing was fair nor equal.
This novel shows how places affect us in many shapes and forms.
The most important place to me in my
life would be a public park called Stoney Point. When you arrive at Stoney Point,
many people would see it as just rocks. In the park there are representations
of nature and modern life mixed into one place. One of the things that are acknowledged
is that there is nothing but gravel on the floor like a dessert but has
beautiful greenery like trees and bushes. There are a variety of paths that can
be taken to different parts of the park. Walking around the park can lead to
encountering big rocks which are referred to as boulders by the rock climbing
community. All these boulders are covered with white marks that are made of
chalk. The chalk is used for creating friction between the edges of the rocks
and bare palms and fingers. Stoney Point Harbors many people every day. These
people come from different backgrounds, different social classes, and even
different states. When people gather at Stoney Point they all have one goal and
that goal is to pursue a good time. These people engage in a variety of
activities like hiking, jogging, and rock climbing. I believe Stoney Point is a
nature representation of Los Angles because LA is all about different social
classes, meeting people and having one goal to make it big. Many people see
Stoney Point as a community not just a park, like LA we don’t see it as just a
city we see it as a home.
There are many
places in the world that have not been discovered yet. If you walked into the
biggest library in the world, picked up a random book, and point at a random
period, the size of the period is equivalent to the size of our galaxy to the
universe. We need to appreciate everything with own, believe in, and most
importantly see. Every place has a meaning to it and meant for a purpose.
Project Web- Me, Myself, and I
There are a variety of ways that people gain
knowledge. The primary ways are visual, auditory, and hands on. Throughout the
time that I’ve been in school I have noticed that I am more of a visual
learner. The main components that help me understand the subject more are things
like graphs, charts, or power points. On the grounds of English I have taken to
account that by looking at literature from multiple perspectives for example,
1st person, 3rd person, and oddly enough portraying the character as if I was
them, has helped drastically in understanding the concept or the meaning behind
what I’m reading. There are many forms and shapes English takes, there are
poems, short stories, articles and the list can go on and on. Each of these
forms takes time and effort to understand what the writer is trying to convey
like a hidden message, or simply understanding the moral to be learned. From my
experience taking the university course English 114 a/b I have acknowledged
what I struggle with and what my fears are when it comes to writing. In the
year I’ve been in this course I can say that I have learned more about English
than I have learned in the past 12 years of school. The different approaches
and exercises taken in English 114 b/a have helped me understand and analyze
literature better.
I
was born and raised here in Los Angles in the city of Northridge. Though being
born in the US, my culture and the way I was raised was as if I was in the
country of Mexico. I am a first generation American and my parents both are
from Mexico. Both my parents have struggled all their lives to learn English so
when I was being raised, Spanish was my first language. I was a fluent Spanish
speaker growing up but my parents never took the time to teach me how to read
or write it. I knew what letters looked like and I knew how to make their
shapes but the sounds they made were a whole new take for me. When I started
school in kindergarten I was in a whole new ball park; it wasn’t just drawing
and coloring it was listening to stories and spelling simple words, I felt like
I was in the Bermuda Triangle, lost would be the best word to describe my
struggles. Because of the lack of experience speaking and writing English
formally joining school, I was always behind and getting low marks in English
throughout my elementary school years. I always excelled in the other fields,
especially math. I even won the multiplication bee in 5th grade. That did not
cover or make up for my English. Being raised in an all-Spanish speaking family
set me apart from the other “normal” kids. Coming from a Hispanic household
everyone knows that in order to be heard one must have the loudest voice. I’m
the middle child in my family so I have always been to myself, shy, and quite,
making it hard to express my opinions and get my point across in my family.
When writing an essay you must find a way to engage your audience, I never had
a chance to do so in my personal life so how can it be easier for me writing
it? This course helped me find out the true origins of where my struggles developed.
Discovering where I developed my struggle I have focused more on what needs to
be fixed when I’m writing. I’m fighting to become a better writer each day and
I have seen improvements so far. |
| My Partners In Crime |
 |
| Lyrics from Confide-"Now or Never" |
From that song I was instructed to bring the lyrics and
break it down to its roots and understand what the song was about. Doing so
what I understood I drew on a paper making a collage. Another assignment that
was out of norm in an English class was to bring 5 things that meant the most
to you and for each write a paragraph about it.it was called a Literacy
Portfolio. In each paragraph we described what we liked about it, how it looks,
and the meaning behind it. After I was done with this assignment I realized how
great my paragraph were because of the knowledge I had prior to writing. By far
the most important exercise in this course was this exercise called “a Rock”.
We
basically picked out a random rock and wrote
about it. We describe how it felt,
how it smelled, its
shape, its color, etc. The moral behind this exercise
was
to drill into our head that when we are
struggling to write we can tell
ourselves every time
“if I can write about a rock, I can write about
anything.”
There are plenty more exercises that
helped me develop my writing but these are
the most important ones to me. They all were so different
from what I was used
to in previous English classes, yet so
easy to get accomplished because of the
things that were incorporated.
Doing
different exercises in English has helped me understand and analyze literature
better. I have gained and acquired more knowledge than I have ever before. I
can never stand outside in public and not think about how we analyzed places
this course. I have a better understanding of where my struggles began, from
that I will focus more on what needs improvement. I have reached a stepping
stone in my life and I believe I have everything I need to take the next step.
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