Once a great man, always a great man

This man was nearly a mystery, no one really knew as to why he kept doing what he did. He somehow was able to complete his goal as he inspired many people to keep trying if really that was his goal. I’m not sure from other people experience but from mine I found it to be really enjoyable because what I saw in him is that he inspired people in knowledge or idea because he seemed to always try and learn. He also inspired people to try hard physically though I don’t really think most people did what he said, but he was able to inspire a few individual. I don’t know why life would take such a man since he really didn’t do wrong and wasn’t even that old and didn’t even seem to have any problems in any medical reasons. I also enjoyed helping him at times and I felt guilty at times when I don’t because I know how hard he worked, but myself, as a kid I always wanted to hang out with my friends so I tried to avoid helping him because my friends often left me behind. But because of this I wanted to lessen the burden that was placed upon him. What really was weird to me was that he drove 2 hours for us so just so he could help teach even though the gas price was now 5 dollars a gallon and that of a teacher’s salary is small, I think such teachers are rare now these days, teachers that only want to teach for them to be hard to find, is kind of ironic but you can find them at ASTI. I hate how we always took advantage of this great man as he bought most of the gears for us to play with but I guess it was just because we always thought he would be around us. As this is a vignette I wrote for this man but I don’t know if it’d be great or not but I hope I got what message out for this man. Daniel Sousa, you will be missed dearly by the students of ASTI though if you somehow read this I hope you liked it and to know you won’t be forgotten and will live on in the memories of many, I also think I might make this day… March 25^th, the memorial day of the proud man named Daniel Sousa.

A house of my own :D

I think that Ezperanza a.k.a. Cisneros will go far because basically Cisneros is writing about her life, though a character with a different name, I’m pretty sure that it’s a life story about herself. Why I think that is because Ezperanza and Cisneros have things in common so definitely there is a connection between the character and Cisneros not just by a author-character relationship but with life experience. But the things she had in common were poetry and or literature and such. I also see that she agreed to go back after reading The Three Sisters which was basically telling about Ezperanza future as the 3 sisters were fortune teller of some sort, or probably people who can grant wishes:

“You must remember to come back. For the ones who cannot leave as easily as you. You will remember? She asked as if she was telling me. Yes, yes, I said a little confused.” (105)

Here she had admitted to coming back and definitely think she had. Cisneros, who was Ezperanza, probably did go back and got the people that could not get out as easily as she could as Cisneros life is just an expansions on Ezperanza life.

Though I really did think that Ezperanza got her house as Cisneros had said on a vignette named A House of My Own, here she talks about her dream house and I think that it is basically the house Cisneros had gotten for herself:

“Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody’s garbage to pick up after.

A House quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.”

Here she explains a house, her dream house and I don’t think it as too descriptive, it gives off enough information such as how she had wished for such a house like this and so that is why I think Ezperanza had gotten far enough to make her dream come true.

Boys and girls :D

Cisneros point of view on why boys and girls should be treated are great opinionated points on how she feels about them, though she never tells it directly it is still visible and see able trough out the story. I agree on some cases on how she says how women are treated. At one part of the story though, she talks about a women named Marin. A quick summary of who she is, is that she is a woman that Ezperanza likes, she seems to have many life experience and shares them with whoever listens to her as in the book it said that she seemed to only get out of the house when her aunt comes home so I think the aunt is afraid and only lets her out when she knows it. But she also sells beauty product so she knows pretty much what boys want. But as Cisneros uses Marin as an example as to why boys and girls are different stated in this quote:

“What matters, Marin says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them.”

Here I think she is saying that both boys and girls have a different view on each other so how can we be treated the same if we have different view on each other is basically what Cisneros implies. But as the stories prolong there seemed to be a sort of bias thinking in my opinion.

Another point of view on why boys and girls how they should be treated from Cisneros were implicated over at the vignette Alicia Who sees Mice. Another short summary of the character Ezperanza describes is Alicia, she is a Young adult probably around 18-21 who basically is left to take care of her father because her mother died but she is very smart because she is studying at a university. But she is afraid of mice which is kind of a bias thing against women as explained:

“Is a good girl, my friend, studies all night and sees the mice, the ones her father says do not exist. Is afraid of nothing except four-legged fur.”

Here I think it is bias because you know how women are often seen on cartoons to be afraid of mice, so I think it’s a bit bias when Cisneros says that she is afraid of mice and that’s why I think it gets bias later on in the story.

Oh shiznle

The oh **** moments in life:

Life has many moments, like this one time I had experienced. Luke said he had a new girl friend. I told him that was awesome and that I also have a new girl friend. And then he said it was awesome. I said that we should show off a little and he said yah alright, we both called our girl friends. And when mine picked up I ask if she wanted me to meet me at the place I was at right now, the mall, she said sure and then hung up… I wonder why. And then Luke said that he can’t today and that she was busy so I said it doesn’t matter so I’ll show mines off first and then him later. We waited for a few minutes and then Luke said he needed to go to the bathroom and I said alright and he went. But then I saw my girl friend Natalie coming down the escalator and I waved to her, she smiled and waved back at me and so I waited for her to walk over here and I pulled her chair out and let her sit in it and then I pushed it back in, she then said, what I wanted to meet her for and I said to show you off, she said alright and smiled at me. And Luke came back gawking as I was talking to her, and then he came up jogging. What Luke, I asked, but he was focused on Natalie who was just as surprised and was frozen up. Luke said, What are you doing here Natalie? I thought you said you were busy. Natalie didn’t know what to say so she stayed quiet. I asked, what is this about Luke and how did you know Natalie. He said, she’s my girlfriend. no… she is mine… and then we both looked at her, she was getting up from the chair with her hair down, and said Well I got to be going.

Hah, life... how you are so funny.

I don't wanna think about her:

I’m not going to think about how I first met her. I’m not going to think about all the times on her birthday I was always the first one to say happy birthday to her. I’m not going to think about how she understands boys so well. I’m not going to think about how she is like a huge combination of a frilly girl and a tomboy. I’m not going to think about how she loves to play video games and that we play together. I’m not going to think about how she owns so many things ranging from comics too the dress she owns. I’m not going to think about how she has an army of cats. I’m not going to think about how she is a bit older than me but everyone makes fun of that but I don’t give a crud. I’m not going to think about how she is a bit stronger than me and can kick my butt any time and any day. I’m not going to think about how she is sometimes mean to me and conspire with other friends to tease me but I laugh because they are funny. I’m not going to think about how she may call herself stupid… but actually is one of the smartest people I know. I’m not going to think about how she knows about so much about what types of cars there are. I’m not going to think about how she is one of the most unique girls I know. I’m not going to think about how much I love her.

Procrastination: 

I came home from school and I was sleepy because last night I didn’t get enough sleep so I took off my shoes, put my back pack on the couch, and laid my body down, the couch and took a nap because I when I get around to my homework. When my dad woke me up it was dinner time and so I was hungry and so I went to the dinner table and went to eat my dinner with my family because I didn’t want to work on my homework on a empty stomach. I Finished eating my dinner first and went to the refrigerator to get a cup from the freezer where I always put my cups because I like to drink things cold and so when I drank it, it would be cold since I needed to hydrate myself before working on my homework. So I filled my cup with water and waited for the water to get cold, because I like cold water and I need cold water to help me concentrate on my homework. After I finish I thought I could clean my room as well because I didn’t want to clean my room after finishing my homework. After my room was clean I noticed it was getting late, so I went on facebook to make sure I got all my homework and asked my friends for what was the homework. And now I finally do my homework.

Lala Land:

My fantasy world, I like my fantasy world, I like how it normal, how great it is, how better it is, because I know it my world. Thus in my fantasy world, I’m a survivor in a zombie apocalypse with my trusty katana. My katana and I would go on daily massacre on zombies; chopped heads would be rolling in hundreds each day till the world is rid of zombies because I will be cutting them down constantly, but the feeling of exhilaration from the slaughter of the undead, the adrenaline of knowing that if I fail, I’ll be eaten alive is really what excites me. So, this would be a fun world for me because no homework, no worries, no school; the fun of being free in such a world. Though the only reason for such a world is an escape from my current world, but I know such world couldn’t really possibly happen, or could it.

Falling

The symbolism of falling is of feeling, emotion, failure, and also hope. There were examples on such things for page 26-27 Marin, Page 29-30 There Was An Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do, and lastly on page 92-93 What Sally said. For Marin, it was about a person who Ezperanza sort of enjoyed having in her life but knew she could not stay there permanently because Marin aunt (who she was staying with) thought she was too much trouble. But for the quote, it represents failure, hope, and somewhat the emotion love. But for people to understand you need to read the whole content is needed to be read for people to understand but here it is:

“Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.”

The quote meaning for me, is hope, to hope that someone could take her away from the life she has been given currently but knew it was a long shot but she still hoped for it and wished it as it said “...someone to change her life.” This quote just basically explains the rest.

            Another reason as to why falling represents feeling, emotion, failure, and also hope, is also in There Was An Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do. In this vignette it represents failure as the children do not have any future at all as it seems and I think one died for being stupid and playing on the wall. Though the failure really represents the mom as her life was completely ruin by men just by knocking her up and then leaving and as a result, affected her children:

            “…nobody looked up not once the day Angel Vargas learned to fly and dropped from the sky like a sugar donut, just like a falling star, and exploded down to earth without even an “Oh.”

For the quote, it means failure, the failure to comply with society as the people of Ezperanza neighborhood just got tired of these kids because they were obnoxious and rude. Why you may ask, it’s because the mom couldn’t really be there for the kids and so couldn’t really teach them right from wrong adding onto the failures.

            The 3^rd thing as to why falling represented all that other stuff above was this other vignette called What Sally Said which was about an abused child in terms of “being hit like an animal.” But what’s worse is that the Dad forces her daughter to lie about being hit and so she says she “falls” which is the symbolic word in the vignette. But this one specifically meant something more, as such I guess failure as the situation seemed to be similar to the 2^nd example of vignette. But here is the quote.

            “A girl that big, a girl who comes in with her pretty face all beaten and black can’t be falling off the stairs.”

In this one it was sort of hard to understand it but I got it after comparing all of the falling and that is why I categorized it under failure. Reason is because Sally was beaten and coming to school all bruised, which was enough to tell that this treatment was unfair, and just a lost cause as no one could help her.

Windows :S

The symbolism of the window is to say that it is a gateway to their dream, but a dream that is unreachable, as given as an example on page 82 of Sally as she just talks about her dream, but she knows that it is unachievable because Ezperanza wants to live in a nice little house with such windows so she can have her “real house”.

“The windows would swing open, all the sky would come in. There’d be no nosy neighbors watching, no motorcycles and cars, no sheets and towels and laundry. Only trees and more trees and plenty of blue sky.”

Here is another example of what I meant, the window is a window to a dream, an unachievable dream I think, but it shows it through this window to show the wish and the sadness of being unable to achieve it because of society oppressing the people such as on page 79 of Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays, when Ezperanza and friends talk about Rafaela as she wants to go have fun outside instead of being locked inside and kept there.

“…Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.

          Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s. On the corner there is music from the bar, and Rafaela wishes she could go there and dance before she gets old.”

But that isn’t really the end of the story because another example to reason as to why windows are a gateway or window to the in achievable dream is also on page 77 of No Speak English. It talks about a neighbor of Ezpranza who brought in his mom but she is homesick and wishes to go back to her homeland .

“She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voie that sounds like a seagull.”