Author Archives: Antoine

Lying

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While reading the first part if lying,it questioned my mindset in life. the narrator opened my mind that by human nature,man lie as a whole specie. it is not that we choose to lie ourself, it is a force of nature to deceit when face telling. We lie to keep face with one’s feeling. The narrator stats how a friend of his could not find a gift for another friend. Not able to buy the gift, so she use the condiments in her hotel. When she gave her friend the condiments to her friend, she lied. The only way the truth came out was through her son. This made an awkward moment for the two friends. It is something about young children mind that makes them always tell the truth. I believe that with little kids, the way their minds work are to believe that telling truth would not get them in trouble. After telling the truth for so many times, they realize that the truth only brings pain to our love ones. They begin to learn how to tell white lies to justify someone’s request. The truth hurts because as human, we know that if someone gives us a gift and we hate it,what can you say besides that you like it. We appreciate the gesture but what contains in the gift, does not fit into our style. The question we ask ourself is how to play it off without seeming like a jerk. Lying is an everyday thing that we can not help.we spare peoples emotion because we rather as humans to be done to us in that same manner.

Lolita- 97-142

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I always presumed that HH would have been the one to kill Charlotte due to his ways of describing how he would kill her. ” I knew that all I had to do was to drop back, take a deep breath, then grab her by the ankle and rapidly dive with my captive corpse” (86). I found it ironic that the way she died was not anything he did purposely to hurt her. Charlotte was trying to mail off three letters when she fell in wet cement and got hit by a car that  Frederick Beale Jr. was driving (98).

I love how HH at first tried to be a good step father to Lolita by not telling her that her mother have died. That showed a side that he put aside his true affectionate love he has for Lolita so she can enjoy her time at camp. Especially when John offered to get the policemen that he knew to locate Lolita up on her hike at the camp.

I feel that as the audience or being part of his “jury”, it is difficult to believe what HH say due to the fact that he constantly lies. HH made up the story where Charlotte and him where lovers before they got married. HH said that they had an affair with one another before Lolita was born thus making Lolita is biological daughter instead of Harold Haze. John and Jean gullible  as they are believe into that story because they based it on the rumors they have heard in the past. Then HH finally gotten the one thing he always wanted. The complete a lone time with Lolita. When HH picked Lolita up from camp, his and hers first reaction were too reconnect old times. “Well, you haven’t kissed me yet, have you?” (112). In this quote, Lolita expressed how HH “ceased” his affections for her by not instantly kissing her when they got into the care (112). Lolita is only twelve and I can not believe that a twelve year old child would be this active. Things turned to the worst when they went to room 342. HH slipped Lolita sleeping pills or “magic potion” as he calls it (122). When she woke up and they were both in bed, HH stated that Lolita seduced him (132). “Okay”, said Lolita, “here is where we start” (133).  I still find it hard to believe that a twelve year old would talk like that let a lone climb on top of an older man that is not her father.

Lolita

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While reading pages 34-97, what stood out to me was Humbert Humbert obsession for Lolita. It struck weird because he descriptively describe each day he and Lolita got close. “Humbert Humbert is also infinitely moved by the little one’s slangy speech, by her harsh high voice”(42). Humbert’s obsession freaks me out to the point where he should be looked up for all the things he about doing. From the first time he saw Lolita, Humbert Humbert search for a nymphet was right at his hand. Due to the fact that he actually live in the same residence or house as Lolita, his inner self wants to come out.

“Suddenly her hand slipped into mine and without our chaperon’s seeing, I held, and stroked, and squeezed that little hot, all the way to the store”(51). In this scene, Humbert is forced to go to the mall with Haze because he is good with picking things out. Lolita ran into the car and sat next to Humbert. What was odd for me was the fact he said “chaperon”. Humbert is a grown man so he doesn’t need a chaperon to watch him. I felt that the reasons why he said that was the inner child he lost due to Annabel’s death. Humbert never had the chance to actually sneak his attractions for someone like a little child would do around their parents. Humbert is making up for lost childhood experiences that he suppressed in his insane mind. As they arrived to the store, Humbert acted just like a child who got something they lone for taking away from him. In his case, holding hands or “connecting” in a way with Lolita.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

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In the text, I didn’t understand it at first but as I read the text a couple of times, it became clear. What i got from it, Omelas was in a sense Utopia. “In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding through the streets… and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells”. In this quote, the narrator use imagery to describe how beautiful and peaceful Omelas is. I felt while reading the text that anything too good always shrived from something evil. In the text, the narrator uses the word or phrase “darkness” to describe how the people in Omelas truly were. This “darkness” personified into an actually human being who they preferred as the “child”. This child became a symbol to why Omelas is the way it is. The way they treated the child by leaving him in that basement with no sign of him leaving. “Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually”(5). This illustrate how little care the people of Omelas treated the boy. What I perceived from pages 5-7 were that some of the Omelas people felt that as long he was fed, the child would be okay in the basement. While others felt rage and sympathy for the boy, there was nothing they can do due to the Omelas’ laws. All those sympathetic people can do is treat their kids better than what the child have to endure. When they had enough of seeing the kid in those conditions, they leave Omelas and wonder off into the mountains to never return.

Two Kinds- Amy Tan

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From my understanding of the story, the narrator’s mother was an overbearing mother who saw potential in her daughter. Due to the wars in 1949, the mother left China because she lost everything back in China. Before the war, she had a husband, two daughters, mother and father who died during the tyranny in China. The narrator’s mother remarried and gave birth to another daughter. She made sure that she will do anything in her power to make her daughter become productive in life. The narrator’s mother called her daughter her own child prodigy. They would watch the “Chinese Shirley Temple” as practice to established what was talent. While watching the Ed Sullivan show, another child prodigy came on the show and played the piano. The talent in that child enlightened the mother in purchasing a piano so that Ni Kan would able to play just as good as the girl on TV. The narrator’s mother hired Mr. Chong aka Old Chong to tutor Ni Kan in piano lessons. Like Ni Kan who is impatient when it came to her studies, took advantage of Old Chong disabilities such as partially blind and have bad hearing. Ni would play incorrect notes during her sessions because she knew that Old Chong would say that everything she was doing is correct. The narrator’s mother signed her up for school talent show thinking with all the practicing she have been doing, she would be a semi expert pianist. At the talent show, they ran into Auntie Lindo, Uncle Tin, cousin Waverly. Ni and Waverly have been rivals since birth and this talent show would prove whose the better child. During Waverly performance, she was flawless. As for Ni, she became confident with lack of experience. She believe that since her mother have been calling her a prodigy, they prodigy in her would come out during her performance. When she got on the piano, she played a couple notes and everything went well until she missed one note. She thought no one noticed but everyone did. That perfect pitch she was hearing in her mind was only her confidence blinding her. Old Chong applauded her but he is partially deaf. The embarrassment that the narrator had was nothing but straight disappointment. She locked herself in the room and didn’t say anything to anyone. One day while Ni is watching TV during her practice time, The mother yelled at her and Ni responded by saying ” you want me to be someone that I’m not!” Ni felt like her mom pressures her harder than any parent does due to the fact she lost her two girls in China. “Only two kinds of daughters…Those who are obedient and those who follow their own! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient Daughter!” Years later after that fight, Ni’s mother pasted and the piano still stayed at her parent’s house. Ni tuned up the piano and one day found herself playing “Perfectly Contented and Pleading Child”. By the way she was playing, you would never knew that she stopped playing all those years. Ni Kan finally realized the potential her mother saw all those years ago.

Who’s Irish by Gish Jen

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The narrator in the story portrayed the true meaning of traditional Chinese parental. The narrator is stubborn, hard headed, “fierce”, and daring. In the story, we learn that the narrator and her husband moved from China to live in the Americas for a better and prosperous life for their daughter. Years later, the narrator’s daughter Nattie married a man named John Shea. The Shea family are Irish with a single mother and three sons. To the narrator, the fact that Bess’ children are all unemployed which sent a red alert. In China, the men are the providers while the women are the teachers for their children by showing them ropes of obedience. In their case, Nattie is the provider and as for John, he is the gym jockey with self esteem problems. Another red alert was when Sophie, the new addition to the family was born. For a mixed Chinese and Irish breed, she came out a little darker than both her parents. Ideas speculated that John may not be the father. “Maybe John is not her father”. In this quote the narrator was being sarcastic about the situation but it rubbed people in the wrong way that they never bring up the topic around her. Being the fact that the narrator is born and raised Chinese parent, her cultural background tend to affect Nattie lifestyle at her home. In China, at a certain age, the daughter takes care of their mother. As in China, the word obedience is highly valued through all ages. For Sophie, she doesn’t listen and Chinese elders usually hit the child to demand respect and obedience. To Nattie, she disapprove of that and when she fund out that her mother have been hitting Sophie, she separated them until the narrator is ready to earn their trust back with the well being of Sophie.

Happy Endings

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Happy Endings in my opinion was the best reading ever. The way how Margaret Atwood started the story; drawn you on with the couple dying. Then she broke up the story into different events with the point of views of each characters. Even though they have the same names and similar background stories, you can tell they were different people. I loved how she stayed with the common theme which were John and Mary were died throughout the whole story. She added two characters which was confusing at first but brought a flavor that connected back to the relationship of John and Mary .

The NEW YORK KID!!!

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NEW YORK has been the only place I came to know since I was younger. My name is Antoine and this is my story. I am Panamanian and Jamaican but i was raised in BROOKLYN, NEW YORK most of my life. While growing up, I used most of my time drawing cartoon characters such as mickey mouse, sonic, pokemon, and etc. My artistic ability became a curse when drawing became my way of life. Whenever I became stressed or bothered, I would draw to calm myself down. During high school, I harnessed my abilities from looking at a picture of any character too drawing them from memory. Any art I have seen in the streets became a new form of understanding what art really was. Living in NEW YORK, graffiti admired me to different mediums in art topography. It made me look at how dedicated and creative they were to illustrate their name or any abstract object. Besides art, football became a dream that I still would like to pursue. Last year I played for a semi pro football league and we won the championship. The greatest feeling in the world after coming back from two years of not playing. Eventually I would hope to push my mind and body to its limit and tryout for a professional team. If I do not make the team, I wouldn’t care, it would only make me push harder for what i want…