Author Archives: Alejandro Reyes

My Utopia:

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dew-drops-on-grass-25590-1920x1080     It is early morning and I could feel dew drops on the end of the leaves and the grass, there is light fog surrounding, yet you could hear the joy of the town resonate through the wilderness portion of the park. The park is enormous and divided into many parts, a wilderness to escape from technology and daily routines a place to relax and discover new abilities lost through time with the advancement of technology. Then there is the area for children all made from recyclable material just like some of the materials used throughout the city, the city is huge on protecting mother earth and trying to discover new ways to fix the mistakes done by our past generations. A couple of miles away you will begin to see the tall skyscrapers and the diligent lives of the people. Every individual is responsible to complete their designed task and to try their best at their job positions but every year they can decide whether to learn new trades or try a new job position for a couple of weeks. This concept has been implemented to allow individuals to expand their knowledge in various professions and allowing for brighter and concrete ideas to form, but most importantly to try to avoid the boredom which sometimes jobs and routines can have on the long run.

                Upon entering the city you will notice many of the buildings having the same construction and everyone living in harmony and talking with each other. Sure, there are some which are always in front of their computers or on their phones but still aware of their surroundings. Walking down the street the sun shines begin to radiate a delicate touch of heat and the children are on recess having fun and playing some soccer before they return back to class. The children are blissful and sometimes even happy to return back to class after having a moment to relax and free their minds. The children’s grades have vastly increased as well as their social and intellectual aspects. This has begun to be implemented at my job, they give us one to two hours of break (depending on whether your tasks have been completed), mine usually consist of meeting up with friends and co-workers and going to play a quick game of soccer on one of the many fields around the city or just meet up during common breaks. Honestly I find this new implementations to work as heavenly this allows me to step away from the computers at the office get some fresh air and relax, basically to recharge my battery for the rest of the hours I need to work. I won’t complain about my job since it is not always boring and it is for the benefit of humanity and the city.      

                Towards late Friday afternoon everyone begins to prepare for the festiveness of the weekend. This weekend will be the semi-annual event in which the city throws a huge festival consisting of concerts, food and some private parties all in the benefit of the people in need and to help the cities programs for the citizens of our town. Once Friday night comes you can hear joy all over the air, and the smell of authentic international food from miles away making even the people on diet to have a cheat day, music surrounding you from all corners of the city. Your heart beats to the sound of music, music is life so this is a very important concept in our festival to the point in which even artist beg to be part of our events so we have constructed various stages. You can say that this semi-annual event can sum up our values which are peace, progress, innovation, unity, love and care.         

The Machine Stops

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  In E.M Forster’s “The Machine Stops”, introduces a utopia society and honestly I really enjoyed this story a lot, especially as an introduction to a sense of utopia. The story starts off by Forster using descriptive imagery in order for us to gain an understanding of the setting which would be the women’s room. Right away there is a bit of confusion, there were contradictions such as “There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh” (Forster 1) this is just one example but in only in the first paragraph there are many of these throughout the story. To my understanding I would assume that Forster really wanted us to understand that this whole room was “artificial” yet at the same time it has natural amenities such as the natural fresh air. Midway through page one I began to notice how the women or later on known as Vashti, interacts with the room as well as how technology is extremely advanced which gives a sense of science fiction. “You mustn’t say anything against the Machine” (Forster 2) I began to notice how the machine was referenced as if it was someone with power or rule above them and had to be respected. After page two we begin to see a lot of dialogue between Vashti and her son Kuno about him wanting to see his mother physically and how the son wants to visit Earth. Towards the end of page three and beginning of three once again I noticed how all of their life activities were done by interfacing with machines and how they did everything from their rooms without having the need to get up. On page 4 we are introduced to how a day would somewhat be like such as Vashti giving a lecture from her arm chair. I began to notice some characteristics of utopia one I read the following line “for beds were of the same dimension all over the world, and to have had an alternative size would have involved vast alterations in the Machine” this gives us an idea of how there is standardization in beds, rooms and much more. So there is this sense of standardization throughout the society and how the Machine control their lives. One thing which surprised me was to find out that in this society babies are removed to public nurseries and only visited by their parents at the center, yet the Machine assigns living arrangements to all the people this once again showing how the Machine is controlling this society.      

           In part two of this story titled “The Mending Apparatus” Vashti went to visit her son in person, something which was not done before the Machine basically took over. On page ten we learn that Kuno had been threatened with Homelessness which mean death by the victim being exposed to the air. At which point Kuno begins to explain how he has already escaped and been to the surface. “You are beginning to worship the Machine” (Forster 11) once again describes how this machine is worshiped and basically rules over the people. I did notice that Forster used comparison and a little of complexity when trying to get a very important detail to the reader such as on the end of page 11, where Kuno starts to redefine near & far without a reference to a machine giving a sense of individuality but there is always some fear and taught about what the machine would do. Once again imagery was used again to describe Kuno’s experience on the surface, this helped to see everything through his eyes and experience every detail. By this point we see how Kuno has liberated himself from the utopian society in which we see how technology may control this huge portion of our lives, yet we will always have free will to either use it or not. This story in general relates a lot our daily lives now, since almost everything can be done online or mobile phones. 

Le Guin Reading Response 1:

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While reading The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, we can observe at first instance that the author uses a lot of descriptive imagery to make the reader a sensation of being physically there. On the first page, through all the imagery we can see that Omelas is going through a festive time with parades, decorated horses and a very natural and calming setting. Yet towards the last paragraph of the first page we begin to obtain another perspective of the individuals of Omelas. Le Guin began to describe how even though it was a joyful moment, people in reality had begun to lose the real feeling and sensation of happiness, and thus all their superficial joy was unreal and the tradition archaic. After the second page I did notice that Le Guin began to use less imagery and it began to get more confusing, to me it seemed as if there was some type of internal conflict of the narrator. I was extremely surprised to read that in a basement they held a child locked, and especially how Le Guin used imagery once again to emphasize the horrible living conditions. By this literary device I felt a sense of darkness and grieve. It was even more surprising to read that citizens of Omelas did this as a tradition and how this action gave them intelligence and good fortune. Overall in this story Le Guin used imagery to portray the overall important actions which at times seemed to be full of paradox.

The Day Before the Revolution also by Le Guin contained a vast amount of imagery throughout the story. I found this story very confusing at first and had to re-read it various times, but I was able to understand how Le Guin transition between scenes such as shown on the top of page two. It begins with a dream and the last paragraph ends by stating “She feared to fall, to fall, she stopped” but the following paragraphs begins with descriptions of the surroundings around her sleeping body such as the “Sun, bright morning-glare.” We gain a perspective of her dream yet also of her surroundings and I also noticed how she loved her husband Taviri through his constant mention throughout the story and how he was described. Le Guin keep transitioning between her past and present and comparing both for example on the second paragraph of page four the following is mentioned “they had grown up in the principle of freedom of dress and sex and all the rest, she hadn’t. All she had done was invent it.” In this sentence we can see how she was very liberal and lived her life as well as taking part in a social movement in her early years yet the new generation consider the freedom of dress and sex to be a principle of theirs, not knowing that this old lady had done this and much more. Then we learn about her letters which were written during her time in prison which she used to let her emotions out and be able to move on, yet people were taking it as an interpretation of “spiritual strength”. While reading the short story I started to notice how Le Guin portrayed her as an old woman whom is poor and is physically not well, yet as the story progresses and we gain a glimpse of her past and everything she had to go through. This made me think of how things are not always as they seem.

A short intro about Alejandro Reyes

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Hello everyone! My name is Alejandro Reyes I am 21 years old and living in Elmhurst NY. Currently I am a junior; majoring in Computer Engineering Technology at City tech. I am currently doing an internship with CUNY Citizenship NOW! I got this internship by joining the CUNY Service Corp. Sadly my internship isn’t too involved with my major but I do enjoy learning new things and more than anything gaining some work experience. As a future goal I would like to have a job which revolves around my major, live a comfortable life and most important have a job which I can enjoy. Hopefully to be able to work with a team and create new things like projects which solve daily issues, robots, etc. would be great.

IMG_8134   (Taken at Central Park)

Overall it has been pretty good lately, but doing school (especially all the projects involved with my CET classes) and work do take a small toll on my free time. Whenever I have a chance I hang out with friends, play soccer, relax or spend time with family.

 I spent most of my last summer break here in New York, I love to travel but sadly I was unable to. I did get to go paint balling for the first time which was really fun. Play soccer and be able to catch up with friends which I had not seen in a really long time.

A weakness as a writer would definitely be my grammar and spelling. I would say that a strength as a reader would be finding a book that I’ll enjoy reading, I literally find it hard to stop. Although sadly I haven’t found a good book or better said the time to sit down and enjoy one. I love technology and anything that is involved with its aspect, and studying computer engineering helps. In regards to having knowledge of utopia, dystopia and science fiction I don’t really have much, although when I hear of the word utopia I do think of a world in which everything is perfect and standardized. I am currently taking this course since it is a requirement, yet I am looking forward to this class.   

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