Swimming and Flying are Not that Different

Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", although written in different time periods, both come to have a deep relationship between their main characters development.

Edna Ponteiller from" The Awakening" and Chief Bromden from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" share internal conflicts that lead them into transforming themselves, and going against what society wants them to be. Edna being a women from the 1800's had certain expectations from society that she had to live up to. She had to be a concerned mother, loving wife and an example for society but as time passed she realized that she wasnt accomplishing these roles because her heart lead her to take other paths. She was a curious women whom didnt like to follow orders or a schedule. She liked to spend time with Robert, learn how to swim, paint, baisaclly do whatever she liked. Realizing that she wasnt like most women wasnt easy for her just like Chief Brombden.

Chief Brombden was an insecure man who lived in a mental ward due to his "insaneness". He was oppressed by Miss. Ratched, and he permitted this to be in a comfort zone where he couldnt be hurt. As time passed by there were factors that made him realize that he wasnt satisfied with his reality, making him step out of it.

Going against society for both Edna Ponteiller and Chief Brombden was no easy task. They suffered many consequences along the way such as family problems, physical punishments, but at the end of the day both of them started becoming more satisfied with their reality. Its funny how two books from different time periods, and how both have nothing to do with eachother can relate in character development. I know that Chief Brombden's inner struggle led him to "flying away", I hope Edna's "swimming" takes her there too

Swimming Away From Reality

In the "Awakening" by Kate Chopin, Edna Ponteiller discovers that she has an internal conflict between who she must be and who she wants to be. Chopin demonstrates the shift from being one Edna to another when she begins to swim. When she accomplished to swim it worked as a metaphor in relationship to her internal conflict. In my life I have discovered that swimming, just like Edna works as an escape from reality, it is when we are "free.

Chopin portrays Edna as a women who is not content with her life situation. Her marriage isn't as successful as she would like to, she didn't like to be told what to do, nor watch for her children like other mothers such as Madame. Rotignolle did. She lives in a time where women have to have certain behaviour so that they are accepted by society, but Edna, although she has love for her family she isnt the exact role model for what society expects from her.

There are many times in the novel where the reader listens to Edna's thoughts, and is able to realize that her strange actions, such as staying outside of her house and sleeping at her porch is not because she´s crazy, its due to her internal conflict that when she can swim her duality disappears and she starts listening to her heart. At that moment there is a shift from being the Edna society wanted to see and the one that she wants to be. Swimming can work as a metaphor in the novel, in which it acts as if swimming was Edna's real personality but she didn't know how to manage it. She practiced swimming until she realized that it was something that she could do, just like her uprising personality. She knew that it was inside of her, she just had to put it into practice. When she was able to swim, it demonstrated her that she could stand up for her beliefs and that although she might of "felt death" she still found it "easy and natural", meaning that if she follows her heart it will have its consequences, but she believes in them so much that it will become natural to her, she can do it.

Swimming wasn't only an escape for Edna but it has also been an escape for me. I used to be in the swimming team about an year and a half ago, and it was an escape from the stress of school, and although it wasn't an easy task dealing with school and swimming it was where I mostly felt myself and free. When I swim its only me and the water, I don't hear a sound and it is a moment where I still reflect about my life and who I am as a person, just like Edna. Although her thoughts were different from mine I can understand how swimming helped her realize that she could be the person she desired because swimming demonstrated me many things. There were times where I felt tired, frustrated, I simply wasn't happy with my reality and while I swam I would talk to myself and see how I could change my reality for what my heart wanted just like Edna.

Ever since Edna learned how to swim she has been changing her reality for what she desires, just like when she stayed outside of her house even though her husband told her to "come in". She started to stand up for herself and started to stop her husband from oppressing her. She has been taking baby steps in order to change her reality, but I am sure that she will be able to change it completely just like I have changed it various times for the better.

We must listen to our hearts.

Hamlet's Footsteps

Reading “Hamlet” has surprised me in various ways. I thought that this was going to be a play that I would read for my AP-Lit class, and after closing the book I would be done with it. I was wrong. A play about a Prince trying to murder his Uncle seemed so distant to me that I started to find it frustrating and unrelatable. What I didn’t realize is the message that hides behind the story, which we can all relate to: procrastination.

Unfortunately, since I can remember I have been a person who gets stressed very easily, and it certainly isn’t a characteristic of mine, which I enjoy. After reading the article “ Viewpoint: Why do we procrastinate so much” it made me even more stressed than what I already was. Alter reading it, I reflected upon the times that I have procrastinated, and I am not proud to say it, but there have been many times in which I have made this despicable action. I also started to think about the times that I haven’t done this, and how nice it feels. So it made me question: why do I still keep on doing it?

In life there are always going to be things that we enjoy more than others, and some we can actually hate. When I am intelligent enough to make the move in which I do first the ones that I hate and leave the ones that I love for last, I feel great. Once I finish homework that I do no enjoy doing, it’s a load off of my back. But when it’s the other way around, it’s the worst because the fun is over and the boring stuff begins. This relates to what Hamlet did because he “experienced the horror of crippling indecision and compulsive delaying tactics” like the “95%” of us do as well. His decision of killing his uncle wasn’t an easy one that is why it took him such a long time. Just like when we have to do a hard task, we leave it until the end when destiny is the one that pushes us to do it. As I have gotten older more responsibilities have come to me and more decisions I have to make, regarding the order in which I do them because at the end of the day I must have finished them all. That is when I have to stop and think what is best for me to do: I shouldn’t follow Hamlet’s footsteps. 

"Reading" Hamlet

"Hamlet", a major historical work has touched the productions of thousands of people that use their own stlye and voices to perform it. Shakespear only wrote the lines of the play, but never described how the actors were supposed to act, how the sceneary should look like etc. He gave producers, actors, readers, and directors the freedom to create Hamlet using their own stlye. That is why we have the privledge of finding so many versions of Hamlet, such as Hamlets interpretation of the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center.

After seeing many versions of Hamlet, such as the Canadian funny interpretation, or the serious 2010 film of Hamlet, the one I have liked best is the interpretation of the prisioners because it made me think about my thinking towards Hamlet. I had always read Hamlet with a mind of ridiculizing the plot because I found myself detached from this situation. I found the situation fictional because thankfully I have never had to pass through something like that. But after listening to the podcast I realized how not everyone thought about Hamlet the way that I did. How Hamlet can be just more than a play for some people. In the case of the prisioners it was an escape from the dehumanized treatment the prisioners would receive in jail, Hamlet made them feel human. A shocking moment in the podcast for me was when Danny Waller spoke about his experience in acting Hamlet. He had killed a man, William Prye, which he regreted it later, and interpreted what the ghost said as if it was William speaking to him. He was the body on stage, and he was the voice. This made me realize how this work of art, like all art touches peoples hearts in different ways. It makes some people, as myself believe that this story about a man who doesn't decide if he should kill his uncle to avenge his father is something frusturating, while others who have done it now reflect upon it, and realize that they should have pondered more on their actions.

There was a prisioner that thought the same way that I did. He also felt that Hamlet should stop hesitating and kill Claudius. I connected Hamlets situation with one that occured to my grandmother a long time ago. Her brother was kidnapped and killed by the M-19, a gorilla group that was going around in Colombia. She still says it today, that if she could avenge her brothers death she would. But I believe that she doesn't understand what avenging her brothers death includes. This means she would have to kill these men, and although she might feel a great passion for doing it, she should listen to what these prisioners have to say. Although killing someone may sound easy, doing it is a whole different story. Her decision of killing those men, would most likelly haunt her for her whole life, just as William Prye haunts the prisioner.

I never thought that Hamlet would make me reflect about death, and revenge. As stated before, I thought it was something so detatched from my life that I read it without reflecting on what Hamlet was feeling. Thankfully, after listening to what the prisioners have to say I look at Hamlet with an other mind, a more realist point of view. This version of Hamlet, taught me how revenge isn't something easy and that just because I feel detached from the plot, others relate more to the characters than to themselves. I believe that Hamlet wasn't just a play for the prisioners, it was a therapy that made them reflect on their decision making.

Ending of Procrastinanting

   In T.S Elliot’s poem, “A Love Song”, and Shakespeare’s famous “Hamlet”, although very distinct works, come to have a common thread. J. Alfred Prufrock, the protagonist of the poem, “A Love Song” has a terrible problem, he has an obsession for a lover that he doesn’t “dare” to invite. Prince Hamlet encounters this same problem because he always wants to kill King Claudius but is never brave enough to do so. They both wonder too much about there actions and end up doing nothing. Prufrock even lingers upon “daring to eat a peach” meaning that even the things that most of us do unconsciously he wonders over and over again. Whenever he was going to act, he would ask himself if it “would have been worth it” and leaves it for the next day. He says that there is “time” for him to act, but as the poem starts progressing Prufrock starts “growing old” and time starts to run out. For Hamlet a similar situation rises, which is that Claudius is abusing more of his power making Hamlet's job harder because Claudius is wanting to send him away. Both Prufrock and Hamlet start encountering themselves with obstacles making their goals harder. The difference is that Prufrock never gets his wakeup call that he should act. Nevertheless, Hamlet does, by seeing the actor in the play avenging his father while he wasn’t doing anything. Hamlet, after seeing this scene says “O, vengeance, what an ass am I” meaning that he realized that he was a coward for not taking charge against Claudius. Although Hamlet at the end does accomplish his goal, and Prufrock doesn’t, they both die. In the poem Prufrock says "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was I meant to be" meaning that he realized that his outcome wasn't going to be the same as Hamlet's of reaching his goal. Maybe if they hadn’t procrastinated for so long their actions, their endings would have been different. Prufrock would might of married this woman, instead of fearing mankind, and Hamlet would of gotten his revenge without suffering a painful death. 

Stories Matter

After watching Chimamanda Adichie’s Ted Talk, I realized how much impact stories have towards our views of life. When she spoke about when she was small and wrote her first stories, she would write them as Westerners did because that is all that she knew. Chimamanda didn't know about African writing, she just repeated what she had read. It was only when she discovered African writing that she got a new perspective of how to write her stories. 

This is how sadly life is. Being Colombian, makes it hard of how internationally people view me. When I say where I am from they don't think of the beautiful mountains, coffee, or the great fauna and flora that exists in my country. Instead what first pops in their mind is drugs, violence, FARC, corruption and more. This is due to the one story that most people read: the bad ones. These things may be true, but as Chimamanda said, "Stereotypes sometimes are true but they are incomplete." People read the stories of how bad Colombia is, but they don't read the rest which talk about its beauty and greatness.

 I can´t judge people when they do this though, because when someone talks to me about Africa I can´t differ the situations of most countries. This is something that I must change because one cannot let ignorance take power over what is happening. I must read more stories and not just focus on one because if I do Colombia is just a jungle where all people live in trees. 

Guideline

The sea is the ultimate guideline and home for sailors. They revolve around the sea, and not the other way around. Something many seem to forget. As part one comes to an end, it seems as though many forget their lifeline; the sea.. The sea has been something that not only the sailors in the novel depend on, but also sailors world wide. In the film "Master and Commander" we can also see the importance of the sea and how their accomplishments depended on this.

"Marlow, unlike most of us, still lived by the sea."  In this quote we can see that he felt a great passion for the sea, and that his life revolved around it. Most men were only concentrated in reaching the treasures, whereas Marlow recognized that they were dependent on the sea. That depending on how the Sea takes them, they will obtain their success or failure.

Furthermore, in the movie "Master and Commander", where Her majesties men departed months at a time, to different destinations to  fight for there motherland or reach treasures, depended on one thing. The Sea. In this movie the sea can play as a villain or a hero, because the men's victories or failures depended on this. When the sea wasn't in their favor they would lose, when it was they obtained success. They lived by the sea, it was their guideline, and they had to have the will to follow it.

This relates to the novel, because the men in the movie and Marlow both shared the philosophy of "living by the sea", it was their home, not an obligation. Their victories depended on this, and they had to have the patience to obtain it. In both the novel and the film, highlight the importance of the sea and how it affects their outcomes. How although the sea may not be in their favor, they must have respect for it and patience until it does. They have to be able to read what the sea is telling them, and look at it in the right way, to reach success.