ENC 1102 was an interesting class that was boring at times and entertaining at other. The entertaining times were limited. The Arguing Through Literature book is a book I didnt really like because there was too much poems. I am not a poetry type of guy. I also dont enjoy the book because everything has symbolism. I like ENC 1101 more because it was more about current events and I would rather talk about current events then poetry and Shakespeare. I did enjoy watching some of the movies and reading some of the stories but like I said there was more stories I didnt like then what I did. I think my grade actually reflects which one I liked better.

If you have read about the Floyd Landis doping controversy you pretty much know that Landis is full of stuff with everything he has said. He continues to deny that he didnt dope when all the evidence shows that he did. Landis has taken so many urine samples that they have run out of letters in the alphabet and are now going towards numbers. Recently his "B" sample was tested and there was signs of doping and he continues to deny it. I think Landis should have admitted to it right when it was announced that he was suspected of it for his own good. Had Landis just admitted to doping months ago people wouldnt see him now as a pathetic man almost a year after the Tour D' France was run. Not that it would have been any better had he admitted to it before but people wouldnt be talking about him now. I think Landis has tarnished the sport of cycling because although there has been other cyclists banned for doping but never has a winner been caught and had the story been so big like the Floyd Landis story has.

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is a story written by Ernest Hemingway. This story was a good one. I think the title is symbolic because he was happy but when he finds out everything about his life and eventually dies you see that his life wasnt all that great. In the story Francis and his wife go to a safari trip with a man named Wilson. Francis is a rich white man who isnt a manly man. In the story Francis runs away from a lion when Wilson the manly man shoots it and doesnt seemed fazed by the lion. Also, Francis wife cheats on him with Wilson and Francis knows it and says "I thought you werent gonan do this here" which implies that she cheats on him alot. This shows that she is only married to him becuase he is rich and him because she is pretty, something that happens alot these days unfortunately. In the end she shoots Francis by mistake when he tries to stand up to a lion and then it ends.

Cathedral is a story written by Raymond Carver. I did not read the story but I did see the short film version of it. The story is narrated by a man whos wife is having a blind friend of hers come stay with them for a couple days. Right off the bat when the narrator sees the blind man he is rather shocked that he has a beard and that he smokes which shows the narrators ignorance. They show the 3 having dinner and the narrator lightens up and tells some jokes and makes the blind man feel more at home. They eventually become friendly and even smoke weed together. At the end of the story they are watching tv and talk about Cathedrals. The narrator asks the blind man if he knows what a Cathedral looks like, the blind man says no and then convinces the narrator to draw one for him while he hold his drawing hand. He then tells the narrator to close his eyes while he draws and the narrator says he feels something hes never felt before. The point of the story is that the Blind Man while literally blind isnt really as blind as the narrator who is blind to many things because he is ignorant. I thought this was a weird story and it was even weirder to see in a movie because I really didnt see the point of the drawing part and didnt see any importance to it and what he could have felt. I also found it weird that they smoked weed together especially since the blind dude was about 80 years old.

The Storm by Kate Chopin is a very good story about infidelity. This story was written in 1898 so back then Im sure it had alot of controvery to it but nowadays it would just be a regular story because infidelity is something that happens as regular as showers. Another reason this was so controversial at the time it was written was because it was about a woman cheating on a man and that was nearly unheard of back then. Back then infidelity was taboo but for a woman to cheat on a man was ever worse.
The story is about Calixta who is married to Bobinot. Calixta is home alone while Bobinot goes to the market with their son. Alcee who is Calixtas ex boyfriend goes to Calixtas house and stays there for a while. One thing leads to another and they have sex. Bobinot comes back home and everything seems fine Calixta is happy and they are happy together like if nothing ever happened. Alcee's story ends with him reading a letter from his wife who is on vacation. His wife tells him that she will be staying where she is at for a while longer and she says shes never been happier. The story ends there and leaves people assuming that Alcees wife is cheating on him.

Los Vendidos is a play/story written by Luis Valdez. This story was a interesting and entertaining story especially towards the end. Its about a man Honest Sancho who is selling 3 different robots the Farm Worker, Revolucionario and the Mexican-American. Honest is trying to sell the robots to people and tells them all the advantages and disadvantages that each robot has and that some robots are better then the other. When he gets to the Mexican-American he says that the robot is the best worker of the 3. He tells them this because it is a stereotype that Mexicans are the hardest working people in the world because thats all they do. The buyers become very interested in the robot but then they see that he has a bad temper which is another stereotype of Hispanics. At the end of the story the good part comes and you see that the 3 robots are actually real people and Honest is the only robot of the group. So the story was pretty much about a good scam.

Harlem is a poem by Langston Hughes. In this poem he talks about his dream of having Harlem be a nice city where good things happen. He talks about what happens when you have a dream that may not come true. He says "Does is dry up like a raisin in the sun?" what he means by that is will Harlem just be there and not have any significance to it and just dry up. "Does it stink like rotten meat?" he says this to ask if Harlem will be a city that people only remember for how bad of a city it isinstead of the good. Then his last line is "Or does it explode?" meaning will his dream just be completely shattered and will Harlem grow into a city that noone wants to be in and noone remembers for any of the right reasons that a city is remembered for.

Fishin' 4 Religion is a song by Arrested Development. The song is about looking for another religion because he is bored with the one he has now. In the song her talks about seeing a lady pray and ask the lord to let her cope and she prays and prays. He talks about does shouting make you a better person because you shout in church and different things like that.
I personally think that none of the things described in this song are what differentiates a religious person and a person who has no faith or beliefs. I dont go to church and dont scream and I barely ever pray, but that doesnt mean that I have no faith and dont have my beliefs. In my opinion, all the shouting is just an exaggeration.

The story Videotape was a very interesting story to read and while reading it it gets you to expect more then what really happens. The first part of the story is rather boring because it just talks about a little girl filming everything she sees while her parents are driving. The little girl then turns her focus to the man driving behind them he waves back at her a couple times and she doesnt keep the camera off him. Then all of a sudden you hear a loud noise and the mans head hits the wheel. The man was shot by the Texas Highway Killer who is a fictional killer in the story and the only evidence they have is the little girls video although she never captures the killer on tape. In the story they also talk about how the video was played over and over on tv and people while disgusted continued to watch it over and over. It shows that people like to watch violence and controversy on tv and a man being shot on video is just that.

This story was a very strange story and I really didnt see a point to it. It is about an old lady who walks a very long way to get some medicine for her grandson who is sick at home. On the way to the city she runs into a white hunter who points a gun at her but when he sees no fear in her he just leaves but not before she takes 25 cents from him after they fell out of his pocket. Then once she gets to the city she asks a white lady to tie her shoes for her and the lady does tie her shoes. Then when she finally gets to the clinic to get the medicine she forgets what she went there for and the first lady she talks to keeps asking her what she wants. Then another nurse comes out and tells her what she was there for and then Phoenix remembers her grandson and it just ends with her walking back home. I didnt really see a point to this story. In class we discussed racism but noone really shows that except for the white hunter and it wasnt even that bad. The only thought I had about this story was that maybe the grandson was already dead, apart from that the story wasnt great.

ENC 1101 is alot about current events and stories written about people like biographies and things that can happen. ENC 1102 is alot about literature and poems and stuff that has alot of symbolism. I like 1101 better because of the fact that its mostly about current events because I would rather have a discussion about a major current event then about Shakespeare being gay or why he writes what he writes.

After watching this movie I felt like I had to write something about which is why I wrote about it in my final project but I want to elaborate a bit more. It was the first time I saw Higher Learning and I am glad I picked that as one of the movies because it is definitely a great movie. I am also happy that I was able to see it now that I am in college because I understand the college life and how it must be hard for some people to adapt to having so many different types of people around you. Fortunately for me Im used to the diversity living in Miami.
I think Higher Learning is one of the best movies ever made because it speaks the truth and shows something that really can happen and has happened. The day after I saw this movie was the day that the Virginia Tech Shootings happened. Its a strange and crazy that I really hadnt thought about until a couple days later. The VTech shootings happened for the same reasons that the shootings in Higher Learning happened and thats because they both felt different and like they couldnt adapt to diversity.

The story of Oedipus Rex is a very tragic and interesting story. Before watching the movie I had never read the story like many have so I didnt know much about it. The play we saw about it was pretty strange but I liked how the masks showed different emotions depending on the character.
I think this story is the epitome of everything going wrong for someone. Oedipus thought he was living a good life, he was King, had power and had a wife. All that meant absolutely nothing to him when he found out the truth about his life. I think this story shows that the truth isnt always something you want to hear especially when you are living a good life like Oedipus was. I think he would have been better off by not knowing that he was married to his mother and that his parents gave him away to a shepherd. This story shows just one unfortunate event after another and it makes you want to feel for Oedipus.

In class we saw the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. The movie is based on the Odyssey. I had never read the Odyssey but I knew some of it from hearing people talk about it. This movie although it is just based on the Odyssey and not an exact remake really helped me in understanding the Odyssey and what it was about.
Listening to just a recap of the Odyssey helped me know a bit of the story but not all of it. There is alot of comparisons with the movie and the Odyssey. In the movie you see the Cyclops which in the Odyssey is a one eyed monster but in the movie it is John Goodman with a patch. I had seen the movie being played on tv alot and commercials and I never thought I would like but I think the fact that I learned that it was based on the Odyssey and I saw all the similiarities helped me out in actually liking this movie.

I cant believe I am actually writing on this because I think it is all a joke but I need something. I think the whole Imus situation was dumb and it went way too far. I dont agree or condone what Imus said but I do agree with those who say he should not have been fired. I think a 2 week suspension is a good enough punishment for the stupid comment he made.
I also hate the fact that a man like Al Sharpton was involved in something like this that has absolutely nothing to do with him. In my opinion, Sharpton is a racist himself and only wanted the spotlight back on him because he hadnt had it in a while. Sharpton is noone to say who should get fired and who shouldnt because he is someone who should be fired himself because he is talentless and isnt respected by many just criticized.

I am doing my final project on racial and social tensions in society today. I am comparing it to literature by using 3 movies that deal with racial and social tensions. The 3 movies I picked to write about are Higher Learning, Borat and Crash. I picked these 3 because I think they represent what I am writing about better then any other movie, book, etc.
Borat shows racial and social tensions in a funny way and a way that many people can relate. Crash shows how it actually is in a 3 day period in a city with alot of diversity. Higher Learning shows racial and social tensions in a college invironment where there is also alot of diversity that the students may not be used to.