Is There Life on Mars?

Well, another semester is over, and another one is about to begin. I’m not going to go off into a tangent or anything, instead, I’m going to get right to the point. Though I had a lot of fun in this last semester, there were a lot of components that could we could do without/ improve.

First off, blogs. I loathe blogs. I think that they are absolutely unnecessary while being incredbily forgettable. For example, when I think of someone to tell me to do something online, I see it as being informal and unimportant, thus making me think that this should be on the bottom of my list of things to do. Also, the dates in which certain blogs are due are never clear, and never repeated. Maybe if we were informed in class, we would all get these blogs done.

I respect Mr. Wasserman and his teachings immensely, however I found many of the essay questions to be uncompelling, and almost boring. It may be possible that the vagueness of the questions made it easier for an essay to be interesting/unique; however, some were still quite annoying.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed 213, and can’t wait to continue into 223!

When I first opened the novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain, I was anticipating a novel filled with adventure and humor, and I was almost positive that it would be just as influential/ life changing, as everyone has made it out to be. After reading a few chapters, I realized that I had hoped for too much. I began to struggle with it, and the satires weren’t noticeable at all. And finally, when I had reached the absolutlely preposterous ending, I had enough of it, and almost raced through it to reach the very last word. Finally, I was done, and I was so excited that I wouldn’t have to search for satires, or read anymore of this book, that was heavily realist. I then realized that I was being too close-minded, and not really paying attention to the book as a whole. For example, the whole ending, where all of the uneccessary action occurs, is a satire within itself. Essentially, Twain is making fun of all that romantic “bs” that was popular in Europe. Though I still dislike this book, Twain was actually the epitome of a satirical writer. He truly conveyed how many people at that time were so hypocritical, i.e. Miss Watson may be incredibly prim and proper, but she still uses the “n” word many times. Back to the ending of the story, it is such an obnoxious move for Twain to make the escape of Jim complicated, and intricate. We all know that there could have been a more realistic and easier way to have Jim escape, however, by having this ending, twain is just giving his readers a taste of romanticism, something that is so incredibly annoying because if its pathetic fantastical features. I see Twain’s point, but I’m still an avid fan of Romanticism!

As I read Louis Hughes’ narrative, a feeling, an almost indescribable one, overwhelmed me. I couldn’t even fathom the horrors that many slaves went through. The idea of being taken away from your mother, at 12, only to be sold into an unknown and unfamiliar plantation amazes me. No one should go through that, and no one has the authority or right, to sell anoter human being. Personally, if I were Louis Hughes, I’d probably have a breakdown, I have no mental strength to be parted from my mother for the rest of my life. The worst part, is that it was the norm for a slave to be sold, and it was pratically inevitable/expected. That right there made me upset, for someone to casually decide to sell another human being, for profit. A human should not be treated as an animal, a human should be treated with respect, and should have their natural rights, no matter what.

It took me a while to fully understand the life of a slave while reading the narrative. It’s not that I didn’t get it, it’s just that I didn’t want to believe that such evil existed. I wish that slavery did not exist, and that all things with that, such as racism also did not exist; but just like everything else that was seen as cruel or awful, it was inevitable, and bound to happen. However, the only good thing that came out of slavery, were the narratives, which will hopefully aid in getting rid of ALL slavery, and that history will not repeat itself.

Though I completely understand how awful and brutal slavery was, I don’t actually feel the pain of the slaves. I’m hoping that these narratives will put me into the shoes of a slave, this way, I can grasp the horror of being captured and sold. I really look forward to reading a slave narrative, because not only will it be an eye opening experience, but it also seems as if the narratives are well written, and really capture the daily routine of a slave, as well as the longing to escape.