Month: February 2018

In this last blog post for Critical Thinking and Writing, I just wanted to reflect on all that I have learned in the past two quarters. Because of this class, I have not only become more confident in my writing but also my writing process.

To be honest, all throughout high school, I would proscatinate on papers leaving them literally to the day before. I never really learned or had any process to create papers and properly edit them. However, in this class, I was finally able to create a writing process that would lead to papers I felt more confident about. Even though I still procrastinated for this class, the rough draft that was due before every paper was a small step that let me start to explore my own writing process. In the beginning, when ‘shitty’ rough drafts were encouraged, it made it seem easier and more okay to just simply write. I soon learned to just put down my own thoughts rather than worrying about creating a polished product and as I started to do this, I found more ways to organize my thoughts in order to allow myself to just put down words for a simple rough draft. I eventually learned that I prefer to create a rough outline in order to set up a rough skeleton of my essay which helped me to let words flow more easily and in a way focus my thoughts more.

While this was not the only writing skill that I learned in this class, this was certainly one of the most important skills I learned that let me become more comfortable and excited to write papers.

In class, we have been discussing the book The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Just like the title says, the books follows along the life of Dominican boy, Oscar Wao, an overweight boy with a severe case of acne and crazy hair. Unlike him, his sister is very attractive while her mother also had great looks in her youth.

For Oscar, he is constantly chasing love and can never seem to catch a break. Because of his self consciousness over his looks, he is socially awkward and the only girl that gives him attention ends up back with her abusive ex-boyfriend. He is treated poorly byhis classmates and friends because he is a nerd.

 

 

Just like Oscar in a way, his mother let her looks affect her life. She let her looks get to her head and she used her looks to her own advantage. Her first boyfriend sold her out as soon as she became a border, her second boyfriend was a gangster, and her last partner ditched her when she got children.  She is overly trusting in men almost as if she is completely trusting in the Dominican stereotype of what a man should be.

However, Lola, Oscar’s sister, is completely different than Oscar and his mother. Lola uses her power as a woman to bend men to her desires which is shown in her relationship with Yunior in college. When Yunior mistreats her brother as a roommate, she stops talking to him for a while making him ask her out again later on. Compared to both Oscar and their mother, Lola almost seems as if she does not let stereotypes around one’s own body image define who she is and the types of experiences she has romantically.

This week in class, we talked about Satan. Satan is usually viewed as the source of evil, the snake that pushed man out of God’s grace, and the king of the underworld. He is the devil. However, in Milton’s books 1 and 2 of “Paradise Lost,” Satan is painted in a better light. Milton shows Satan as one who stands up to a dictator, God and is sent to hell for it. He is shown as bringing humans knowledge just like how Prometheus brought the humans fire. While Satan is no shining knight in armor or Superman, his depictions show him more as an antihero. However, in the end, when considering not just the context of Satan’s view in “Paradise Lost” but of everything, one remembers really how horrible Satan is.

Hearing about this story reminded me of a movie called the Watchmen. This movie is set in a dystopian society where costumed superheroes and vigilantes are looked down upon. It follows the journey of a costumed vigilante (SPOILERS WARNING), Rorschach, as he investigates the murder of a government agent. Eventually he reveals a plot in which a previous hero, Veidt, is planning on setting of multiple bombs and blaming it on a super powered human in order to bring humanity together. In the end, Rorschach is unable to stop the plot and is blown up by the super powered human. Veidt plans is successful and the world obtains world peace however the movie cuts away with the revealing of Rorschach’s journal ending up in the hands of a newspaper organization. I think this movie is interesting because in many ways, Rorschach is depicted as an anti hero and it always feels like the audience is cheering him on. 

However, just like Satan, despite Rorschach’s positive depiction, he does more damage to society than good. Veidt, the villain of the story, is working towards world peace and would have maintained it if not for Rorschach’s interference. When considered in the context of the whole society and not just the movie, Rorschach is no hero but just a deranged violent psychopath focused on getting what he perceives is justice.

While we always grew up with Superman and Wonder Woman, heroes who never did anything wrong and held the most perfect ideals, our society has always kept its love for antiheroes. This can be seen in movies like Deadpool, Nice Guys, or Star Wars with Han Solo. We seem to flock to these anti heroes despite all their moral flaws such as Deadpool. His childlike but also dark humor gives his audience a break from the normal, intense, do no evil comic book heroes. But why do we always love these anti heroes all the time?

This week in English, we discussed the anti hero role and how this is shown in the poem, Prometheus. As it goes in the Greek myth, Prometheus is a titan who defied the Gods by stealing fire for the humans, and was sentenced to eternal punishment. To the humans, Prometheus was a hero for bringing them such a valuable prize. However, to the authorities, the gods, Prometheus was hated and literally punished for eternity. Prometheus introduces this dynamic that there are heroes who exist in our world who are not gonna be perfect in every single way. This created the archetype of a hero who was not looked upon greatly by authority figures such as a god, but still did good for the people. It shows a hero that stuck out for humans despite what literal gods wanted, a hero that could be related to humans but not to a strict moral code.