What constitutes our identity?

What constitutes our identity? This question doesn’t mean the ID picture on my driver’s license. This means what character traits I may have as a person that are unique to me. Identity means, to us as a class, the certain aspects of us as a person is shaped by many experiences, goals, morals, and ideas of similarity that has created characteristics of that unique person.

In the short story, The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, this idea of identity is demonstrated perfectly. The story is about a man named Francis Macomber, who is rich and well off.  He did not have to face many hardships throughout his life, until one day when he went off to a safari. He faced a lion, and ran with his tail in-between his legs. Later, he shot some buffalo, and found courage he did not have before. He was no longer afraid like he was before. This idea directly indicates the idea of identity. Thanks to living a rich and shelter life, Macomber did not have to do anything that was uncomfortable or scary to him. He probably had servants to do that for him. He never had to worry about not having enough money; he was rich, after all. This shaped him into being a coward, one who runs away from trouble and danger. He is not strong enough to face up to to these blocks in the road. However, later in the story, he comes across many terrors and trouble, and he finds himself growing in confidence and bravery. He was able to overcome the rough experiences, alive and well, and he learned from these experiences. Experiences help shape a person. He realized the great feeling of a kill, how good it felt to stand up to your fears and to come out with a win. By doing something he was uncomfortable with, he learns to deal with it and goes comfortable with the practice. So, he goes from being a cowardly child to a man with spirit. His identity changed from a shirk to a man who can stand up to anything. This transition to thanks to the experiences he encounter by confronting hardships. As I have said before, he was terrified of the lion, but after that fear he felt as if he could stand up to anything without being afraid before. He felt that fear, understood it, and learned from it. His identity changed.

This affects me as a person in many ways. I too am shaped into the person I am through my own experiences. To become a stronger person, I have faced so many hardships, sometimes I choose these hardships and others I did not. There are several hardships I have faced that I did not choose. For example, my grandmother passed away last year. I have never had a family member who was that close to me die before, so this was a hardship I had to go through. I learned from this experience in many ways. I understand people who have also lost family members as well to a greater degree than I ever have before. I also, emerged in this hardship, will be able to endure the feeling of loss when another family member passes away. In all, I grew as a person. I became someone who could understand and face up to the horrible idea of death, without shutting myself out to the world or living in denial. There are also hardships I face that I choose to face to become a better person. For example, I abhor talking to new people, because it is very uncomfortable for me to do so. To overcome this hate, I often force myself to talk to others, even when my body is screaming no. By emerging myself into the uncomfortable situation, I am able to become comfortable and learn from the experience. My identity would change from a quiet, shy person to a person able to speak with anyone with ease and happiness. This is how the idea of identity applies to me.

Pieces of a well-developed paragraph

What are the pieces of a well-developed paragraph for a commentary? There are many important pieces to this puzzle. A well-developed paragraph’s first sentence introduces your first point. This is important, because as a reader we must know what your paragraph is about. Without this sentence, your paragraph is random and not understandable. Next, you must provide an example to your point. You need to explain why your point makes sense, or else it would be only a bizarre guess. It is best to use direct quotes from the text, and to use more than one example. The next few sentences are explanations of your examples. Sometimes, readers cannot simply understand why the writer choose the example they did, so it is important to explain why you choose the example, and how the example creates an effect of the story. Finally, the last sentence is dedicated to restating the significance of your paragraph. This way, the reader both remembers why you are writing this paragraph and that you, as the writer, remember. This is also a good time to transition into the next paragraph. A good flow in an essay not only sounds better as it is being read, but also keeps the reader interested. These are the important pieces of a well-developed paragraph.

~Paragraph~

In the first paragraph, the literary devices that Sayer chooses helps show the rising anxiety Wimsey feels as he makes his ascent up the belfry. WE begin to feel Wimsey’s pain the minute he steps on the ladder and hears the bells that are “like the blows from a thousand hammers.” (Line 5) This hyperbolic simile creates the effect of intense, torturous pain. As Wimsey begins his climb, those hammering sounds drive the pain as he does, and this is only the beginning. “It rocked and reeled with the reeling of the bells, and staggered like a drunken man.” (Line 6-7) A man who is drunk feels little pain, then as he goes on the pain of the alcohol increases. The same goes for Wimsey. As he begins his climb, only the beginning of his pain is known. Wimsey’s pain is directly related to his climb through the demonic noise.

Video About Myself: Redone

I redid the video, and fixed the audio.

Video About Myself

For World Literature, I had to make a video of myself, talking about myself. I had some trouble with the sound, and I couldn’t not fix it. The sound goes faster than the video, so my goodbye was not record. The only thing that does not appear is my good-bye, so no worries. Here is the link:

My Learning Style

I am 100% verbal- linguistic. Verbal- linguistic means that a person learns best from oral conversation. According to the website, I learn best when information is told to me. For example, if you tell me that Newton created Calculus, I would remember it. Telling me information helps me remember it better. I somewhat believe this calculation. I am very good at picking up languages, because I hear them. However, I have very bad memory. I often forget conversations, people, important information, and places.

I was very low at visual-spatial: 33%. Visual-spatial means that a person learns better when they see pictures or demonstrations. So, according to the results, I have a hard time learning from pictures. I’m not sure if I believe this. For example, in math, I find that I learn better when the teacher draws a picture of the problem. However, sometimes this does make it a little more confusing than it should be.

In all, I believe in my highest learning style, but not my lowest.

Three Books That I Have Read That Impacted My Life

Fahrenheit 451

By Ray Bradbury

One of the most amazing books I have ever read in my entire life was the book Fahrenheit 451. This book was about a time where books were illegal and firemen burned any book that was uncovered. There were many parts of this book that stuck out to me. The books were burned because the books were to insulting to too many people. It was a safer world for everyone if there were no books to make anyone upset, but this also led to a disaster. No one was aware of the events that were going on around them. Guy Montag’s, the main character, wife couldn’t remember when she married Guy. I wonder, are we like that now? Do we not know what is going on around us? There was another example of this in the book. Guy, after falling in love with books, kills the Chief of the firemen, and absconds off to hide. He runs to Faber’s house, where he knows he will be safe for a short while. As he watches the T.V., he saw the police kill an innocent man. The government did not want the public to worry about the fugitive running around the city. In order to do so, they pretended to kill Guy by attacking the poor by-stander. I wonder if our government, and other governments around the world, do the same thing. How much do we not know? After reading this book, I am starting to wonder what is truth and what is not. I abhor the thought that we citizens are not being told everything that we should know. Even so, this book was amazing and I would love to read it again.

To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harbor Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird was a book about a young girl who remembers a summer when a black man was put on trial for raping a white woman. This book was an amazing story that truly impacted my life. It has really made me think about my neighbors, both friends and enemies. In the book, Scout, the nickname of the main character, had heard many stories about the people who live around her. One such person was Boo Radley, a mysterious man who lived locked up in his house. There were stories about how he cut his father with a pair of scissors or that his dead body was stuffed up in the chimney of his house. Yet over the course of the book, Scout learns that Boo was really a benevolent man, during such times when he gave her a blanket while she stood outside in the night, giving her little trinkets such as carved soap and a watch, and even saving both her and her brother’s life. People are not always what they appear to be. There are times I believe someone is a demonic character, but as I get to know them I come to realize that they are the considerate neighbor I could have. This book demonstrates this completely. After reading that book, every time I meet someone new, I try to get to know him or her first before deciding on what they are as a person. I try not to listen to the gossip at school or any other public area that spreads like a plague. Just like the book, those stories are usually very wrong.

After Dark

By Haruki Murakami

During the summer, I read the book After Dark. The plot is about a girl who is awake during one night, where she meets interesting people, learns new lessons, and come to realizations about her life. I noticed that throughout the book, everyone is running away from something, whether it was his or her own past, or strangers who are after them. Most characters hid themselves by running away from the problem, but the main character decided to stop running, and take action. I myself run away from many problems, whether it involves hard work or actions I do not want to remember. After reading this book, I questioned myself, “Why was I running?” I no longer want to run, either. After reading this book, I can see that standing up to the danger will not only make you a stronger person, but also make the problem go away. Running never solves anything; doing something about it will. I loved this book so much. There were so many lessons that this book teaches that everyone can benefit from. This book also speaks about mistakes. Everyone makes them. However, it is important to learn from these mistakes and move on. This goes back to running away. Do not run from mistakes. Take them head on, and fix them. This book has changed my perspective on life.

Band Album

A history of techno icons: Games For Heroes

Born in the back alleys of Alligator, Games For Heroes ripped their way into the techno scene in 2008 with their debut album, Officially Denied. The band’s latest album, Right Most of The Time, blends Hannah Lee’s haunting wails with crunching guitar solos to fabricate a disc overflowing with technical masterpieces. With standout tracks like “Judge A Book By It’s Movie,” the music of Games For Heroes appeals to techno fans and non-techno fans alike.