Benji

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

5 December 2016

                                                                        ‘Benji’

Benji was written by Chinelo Okparanta an author was born in Nigeria, and graduated from Penn State University with a Masters Degree.  is a short story that begins with a description of the main character. Benji is a man who’s recently deceased father has left him to be the only male in the family. His expectations were that he would find a wife and use his family’s wealth to help them grow. The author continues to describe Benji’s disgust with marriage. He was 42 and wealthy, but did not want to get married at all. He begins an affair with his mother’s close friend Alare, who’s class status was not as high as his. His mother becomes sick and his mistress’ visits become regular. After Benji’s mother dies, Alare’s husband becomes sick shortly after. He offers to pay for his massive medical bills, but her husband’s conditions continue to get worse. After a while, he gets better, and she ends her and Benji’s relationship.

This piece of work shifts from Alare’s thoughts to Benji’s point of view the whole time, making it hard to find a protagonist of the text. The short story also discusses Nigeria’s politics and class status issues. I think that these comparisons are not limited to Nigeria, but also relate to America’s issues with social status, money, health care, and politics.

This text also described issues with society and what they expect you to do. Benji was expected to get married to a nice woman, have children, and live ni a big house. His mother even says that people would begin to suspect something was wrong if he did not carry out with this plan. Although Alare ended up with her husband in the end, Benji had technically never wanted a wife in the first place. She was the closest he had come to a wife.

I think the reason Benji continued to pay for the treatment was because he truly never wanted a full commitment to a wife. If the husband had died, he would have had Alare to himself, but instead he continued to pay for all of her husband’s medical treatment so he would get better. I also think Alare never wanted him completely either. She continued to take his money, knowing that ultimately she would choose her husband in the end.

I also think this text was very descriptive, sort of like a poem. It described the food and location with descriptive words that almost made you feel like you were there, such as with the Nigerian food and the way they eat. The descriptive way things are explained in this piece give us some insight on how they lived their lives, day to day. It also helps you build a connection with the characters in the piece.

 Ultimately, I really liked the piece. It brought attention to some important aspects about things in not only Nigeria but America as well. The text was definitely ahead of its time.

'Two Countries' Analysis

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

18 November 2016

‘Two Countries’ Analysis

The assigned reading for this Friday was a poem called ‘Two Countries’ by Naomi Shihab Nye, a Palestinian American poet from St. Louis, Missouri. The first thing I noticed about this poem was that it was not a rhyming type of poem-this two-stanza text was meant to tell a story. She starts it off by describing the way skin is touched by stating ‘Skin remembers how long the ears grow/When skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of/Singleness’ (Nye 1-2). This line is saying that as time goes by, when a body is not touched, you lose your sense of self. You begin to believe that you are alone. The next line that stood out to me was ‘Skin ate, walked/, Slept by itself.’ (Nye 6-7). She is describing the loneliness of being single and how you begin to be isolated after a period of time, and even describes how people see her-as just skin. ‘But skin felt/It was never seen, never known as/ A land on the map’ (Nye 8-10). To me, this line shows the feeling of not being seen or having anyone notice you at all while you are at you loneliest, or just having people not taking time to get to know who you are. She follows up by comparing skin to other things like ‘nose like a city, / hip like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque/and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.’ (Nye 10-12). I believe these comparisons to intimate things such as a city and a mosque kind of contribute to the idea of seeing people as just skin or something that is not real.

            The second stanza has a sort of mood change by starting off with ‘Skin had hope, that’s what skin does.’ (Nye 13). This is a definite change of gears from the melancholy, dejected tone that the first stanza was full of by stating that there was hope indeed. Nye continues with ‘Love means you breath in two countries. / And skin remembers—silk, spiny grass, deep in the pocket that is skin’s secret own.’ (Nye 15-17). These lines are saying that when you feel love, it gives you a sense of relief. It leaves a memory on your skin. ‘Even now, when skin is not alone, / it remembers being alone and thanks something larger/ that there are travelers, that people go places/larger than themselves.’ (Nye 18-21). These last few lines have a sense of peacefulness. She states that even when someone is not alone they remember the feeling of loneliness on their skin. She is grateful for the people that can get past the isolation and knows her for who she truly is. 

            I really enjoyed this poem. I believe Naomi Shibab Nye had more than a few different meanings for this poem, but what I got out of it was that she is more than just skin. These days, people do not really take the time to know others and understand others. It is a hopeful piece that understands that even though she is a complex person, there are still possibilities and people that she has not encountered yet that may one day understand her for who she really is. 

Seperating Sickness

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

14 November 2016

The article we were assigned to read this week was called ‘The Separating Sickness’. The title is appropriate because it discusses how people with diseases and people with disabilities are separated because of society’s perception of them. The diseases not only have a physical effect on them but also emotional.

            The article focuses mainly on the disease of leprosy. It gives an anecdote about a man named Eddie Bacon. He was a forklift driver in Alaska who developed mysterious rashes on his body. After seeing the doctor and being prescribed medication, nothing was changing. He became weak and started losing weight-he even began having trouble seeing. One day he ended up passing out and was rushed to the emergency room. No one knew what was wrong with him. Four weeks later, he was finally diagnosed: he had leprosy. Eddie Bacon was luckily diagnosed in time to get proper treatment. He also states that his body suffered irreversible damage which includes losing an eye, both feet, and scarring on his arms and legs. He luckily is alive and healthy, and even ended up getting married.

            Leprosy is not a common disease in the US. Only 173 out of a quarter million people were diagnosed with leprosy in America. He was sent to America’s largest leprosy clinic in Louisiana. The clinic was called the Louisiana Leper Home. Up until the late 1940’s and 50’s, people with leprosy were denied basic rights such as the right to vote, marry, live with uninfected spouses or to even leave the hospital.

            Society and its response to people with illnesses like leprosy is another disease. In Hawaii, people who suffered from leprosy were hunted down and were offered a choice to either be exiled or killed. It was not until doctors realized the leprosy was the least contagious disease that the perception of people with leprosy was changed. The drug Promin was a painful injection that improved the symptoms of leprosy dramatically. Leprosy is now curable within a year or two worldwide.

             Today, leprosy researchers focus on the care of patients. Although the disease does damage tissue and scar the skin, researchers realized that the cured patients were getting injured more than people who have never suffered from leprosy. They would literally injure themselves doing normal tasks that people do. Researchers began focusing more on rehabilitation and how to help heal the victims of this disease.

            I believe that people with disabilities suffer enough as victims of their disease. The way society treats these people have a lasting affect and can encourage others the do the same, which leads to a cycle that harms people. This article calls to attention the harmful way society treats the disabled. I believe it is important for us to treat others with respect and even with plain equality. The civil rights act clearly refers to the disabled as people who need to be respected as well. America and other coutries around the world should adhere to this rule and protect its disabled citizens.

Our Crime on Environment

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

12 November 2016

Maya Lin’s “What is Missing?” project brought attention to our class about the environmental problems in America. Humans in this generation have committed a crime against humanity-environmental degradation. This crime is the result of the damage of species, future generations, and ecosystems. Some people who are guilty of this crime include business owners that have a big impact on the fossil fuel industry or any company with a large carbon footprint. These businesses have a massive impact on the world and how the environment can either be helped or harmed.

            Although there are laws against some of these environmental crimes, the punishment in itself is the human suffering and environmental destruction. We continue to annihilate the habitats in which we and millions of other species live in. If we continue on this path, we can hurt the possibility of a healthy, future life for our great grandchildren and the environment they live on.

            The question this article asks is “Should we confer greater existential importance upon present generations of human beings than future ones?” to which it answers that environmental degradation is something of dire importance right now. If we do not take action now, the world as we know it will be different for the future generations and will ultimately hurt us.

Some places that have been affected environmentally are the war stricken lands of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They are ‘burnt out’ and ‘battered’ as a result of the millions of refugees fleeing the country because of the violent war ground. Humanity is being hurt by the liberal state power that is always trying to innovate or change things, which ultimately harms the planet in terms of businesses and factories. Capitalism is also hard at work by exploiting and oppressing a routine that we all live by-we hurt the environment without thinking twice. Every second, the earth is dying.

The speakers in this article state that in order to fix this problem, we must strategically work with political platforms because they hold all the power in most issues involving land. Policies can be made to protect and give justice to the environment. Even small changes can hold a big effect in government. Blame cannot be given to any certain group ion this problem as well-social conflict is a distraction from things like climate change and species extinction. Giving climate or environmental degradation a name like criminal violence may serve justice for the environment.

The article calls the citizens of the world agents of history, and states that observing this change in the world is denying us of our humanity. I agree with this statement: as long as we stand back and watch the issues in this world go by without doing anything we have no right to complain. If we do not do anything to stop this then the future generations of the world will be left to deal with this problem except it may be ten times worse. In order to protect the future of the world, change must take place now. 

Presidential Debate Blog Post

Nardos Yosef

English 1102

Anlicker

31 October 2016

For this blog post, I chose to write about the third and final presidential debate between the Republican nominee Donald Trump and the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. This debate took place November 8, 2016 at the University of Nevada.

One topic of discussion that was highly discussed during the presidential election was the topic of National Security. It has been widely controversial that Donald Trump has a relationship with the Soviet Union dictator Vladimir Putin and that he cannot be trusted with the nuclear codes for the United States. Another topic that was discussed was taxes-Clinton believes her plan will create opportunities for jobs and growth but Trump says that it will only increase national debt with a massive tax increase. Trump also believes our allies are not a reason for America’s success but Clinton believes allies are necessary for America to succeed. Something I believe should have been discussed more is race relations in the United States and possibly police brutality, and how they will fix the issues in our local police stations and security. Social rights are a major deal breaker for me in particular, so I believe our future president should see people as equal.

The fact that America has a massive debt is an issue that obviously needs to be addressed. This was an issue that Obama had from the Bush terms, where George W. Bush increased our debt by 1.55 trillion dollars. This is something that Obama could not completely cure in his two terms, so whoever the next president is, they must be willing to make some changes in the spending department of the government. The seriousness of the issue is the fact that it will push America’s success down the drain. 

National Day of Writing

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

19 October 2016

National Day of Writing is an event organized by the National Council of Teachers of English to celebrate and establish the importance of writing. They have organized hashtags on social media, such as Twitter, so people can share their experiences on how writing has helped them. What usually happens on this day, October 20^th, is the encouragement for young writers everywhere to write for different reasons than just to turn an assignment in. It helps teach people that writing can be something that they enjoy rather than a chore they must complete for school. It also raises awareness for the fact that writing can help people control their mental health or even communicate their thoughts.

The National Council of Teachers of English website (http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/about) explains how writing is used in everyday life. We use our phones all day and type texts and go to class and write for our assignments. The new inventions and technology advance our use of writing every day. The website also provides tips for writers such as how to determine what you want to write about or finding a writing process that works for your self. It also gives you a way to listen to what other authors have to share about how or why they write. To get involved with the National Day of Writing you can write and share your work with others in any format. You can also encourage your friends and family to celebrate the day with you, and speak to groups of people. Connecting through social media, which is an essential form of communication these days, is another way to get involved by spreading the information to people everywhere. You can also organize an event to help people learn about this day.

Today at the National Day of Writing celebration on the quad there were a few stands open. We learned the different words that have different meanings in different places. There were crossword puzzles and trivia that helped us figure out what we knew about language and writing. My favorite stand was the one where we hash tagged the words #WhyIWrite and we wrote down why we wrote. Some people had really good explanations about how they use writing in their life and they made me think. Writing is more important than we know-it is an expression of the human emotions and we use the to communicate happiness, sadness, love, and so much more.

In all, some things I learned through this assignment is that writing is a common method for people who want an outlet for their emotions. Writing has been known to help with stress, depression, or anxiety. It may help you control how you feel and help your mental health. Journaling, what I do, is a way I can plan my days out and keeps my thoughts in order. I feel like writing is a valid way to communicate your thoughts and feelings without having to speak. It is another art form and can help people without 

Steps Taken for My Research Proposal

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

3 October 2016

Steps Taken for My Research Proposal

               This week in class, we began our research projects. The topic that I am writing my research proposal on is immigration which aligns directly with my exploratory essay topic. The first step for this project was choosing a topic. This was easy since I have already decided to focus on immigration to the United States of America. I had to start finding a way to introduce this topic. I had to define what I wanted to study and why my topic was important. I also had to find multiple sources in order to succeed on this project. I then have to find what specific question I am trying to answer and make sure to include it into my introduction. After that, I must outline the route I am planning to take in order to conduct my research. Using these steps, writing this proposal will be more organized and simpler to write down

               Although I have never done a research proposal before, with the steps included on the assignment instructions, I thought it would be easy. On our class ‘field trip’ to the library, I discovered how to find books related to my topic. After searching for my two books in the very large Georgia State library, I finally figured the system out by narrowing it down to the location. The hardest part was finding the specific shelf that the call number of the book was. I also decided that I would definitely be using this method of finding sources for my paper because I believe that online sources are not always as reliable as a hard back book. I also discovered that the library was a great place to get work done. It’s always quiet and I can focus a lot better than if I was in my room!

               Since my topic is immigration, a very broad and widely controversial topic, I decided to focus on only immigration from other countries to America. While my sources include books like Migrants and Migration in Modern North America and Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policies in America, I will include some online articles from established websites of newspapers. The books and articles shows both sides of the immigration debate in America. It also gives statistics and numbers in order to give legitimate facts. They also focus on what different policies may discriminate against certain groups of people. Some certain key words I used at the library in order to find particular books were citizenship, immigration, discrimination, race, and transnationalism. These made my search for particular books with my topic much easier.

After doing some of my research, I believe that I am on the track to be successful on my final paper. It has already led me to information I had not come across on my exploratory essay. The Hunt for Sources search that we completed also aided in my research proposal. The online Georgia State University Library website’s advanced search option was helpful as well. I will definitely use some of the online sites provided by GA State to complete my project.

Nardos Yosef

Anlicker

English 1102

26 September 2016

Enrique’s Journey and the Significance it has to Other Immigrants Journeys

            Last week, our class began reading Enrique’s Journey. This book is written by Sonia Nazario, and explores the journey taken by the author and a young man named Enrique who lives in Honduras. Enrique and his little sister were abandoned by his mom, Lourdes, when he was young so she could try to make money in America. She worked hard to feed and provide clothes for her two children. He grows up with some relatives and has a rough turn in his life as he grows older. He becomes involved with drugs because he believes that his mom has abandoned him and he is all alone. He also gets involved with a woman and ends up having a baby. His family tries to help and fix his drug problems but no one can change the fact that Enrique feels abandoned. Everything is not well with his mother either. She realizes that America is not easy to find a job in. After Enrique gets kicked out of his aunt’s house because he steals her jewelry, he decides that he needs to return to his mom in America. He will take the illegal route and ride trains in order to get to America and reach his mother. The first seven times he was severely beaten and robbed. It was not until his eighth attempt that he becomes successful in this dangerous journey. Enrique’s mother Lourdes pays a smuggler to bring him to her, but when he finally arrives, their reunion is not what they expected. Enrique has to begin work immediately.

            Enrique believed that as soon as he reunited with his mother, all his problems would fade away. This is not what happens-he only has resentment and sadness for his mother. He goes back to abusing drugs and alcohol. He also has to continue working in order to send money back to his girlfriend and baby and continue saving up in order to pay for a smuggler to bring his girlfriend and baby to America. His dreams of a perfect reality in America were broken after arriving and having to work hard jobs and not connecting with his mother the way he thought he would.

            This book was very important in educating people about the reality of immigration. No matter what your stance on this topic, this book definitely evokes emotion from any reader. It is hard not to see what a painful and hard journey immigration is, and how the dream of America is way greater than the reality of it. It is not easy to immigrate here or find a place to fit. Immigrating to America brought many problems to the different families in this book. Nazario highlighted the pain and suffering many endure to have the opportunity to help their children succeed. It is important for people who may not have an understanding on who immigrants are or why they immigrate to America to know the different sides. 

Nardos Yosef

6 September 2016

Anlicker

English 1102

               The article assigned for us to read this week was by Zadie Smith called ‘Fences: A Brexit Diary’. I think it is important for the reader to know what Brexit is before they read this article. Brexit is an abbreviation for “British Exit” which is when the British citizens attempted to vote to leave the European Union. This action is not legally binding but the EU will have to let the British remove themselves from the operation. At first glance while I was reading these definitions, I thought this was a wild decision. What is Europe without Great Britain?

               The article begins with the author describing the town of North West London and the local primary school. The school is described a beautiful Victorian building that was well known for its diversity of all different types of students from different races and religions. She says that there was a change that she noticed-the wooden veil had gone up. The wooden veil was a sort of wall that separated the school from the outside. I did not know what she meant by that, but she continued to describe it as a sort of wall that separated it from everything else.  

               She transitions from the topic of the school to when she found out that the British voted for the Brexit, and compares her emotions from when the school shut down to now when England began separating itself from Europe. This metaphor helps portray what she felt when this happens-the reader can relate to her turmoil. She is also utilizing the rhetorical strategy of pathos which appeals to the emotion of readers in order to help them see her side of the argument.

Zadie Smith questions some of the possible reasons for Britain deciding to isolate themselves from the rest of Europe. Some possible reasons she states are immigration, inequality, a class war, or maybe even a European Union bureaucracy. She also puts into perspective how this affects other countries in Europe such as Northern Ireland or Scotland. She continues to accuse Great Britain of being a self-satisfying country who will throw away a union of many, many European countries that has been going on for hundreds of years for selfish reasons.

She finishes the article with more anecdotes from earlier in her life and continues to rightfully criticize Britain for their history in shaming the poor and having class separations. She tells the reader how she visited France after the vote. She finished the essay in a way that makes the reader think-she says that whether we continue to create disasters is up to “us” (Europeans) as a whole.  This speaks volumes and unites Europe as a whole in order to fix the continent of Europe.

After reading this, I agree with the author. This Brexit could possibly cause a domino effect in these European countries. Smaller countries may decide to follow in the steps of Britain and ruin the alliance that many parts of Britain have contributed to throughout many centuries.

Nardos Yosef

1 September 2016

Anlicker

English 1102

In the essay 'Reflections on Exile' by Edward Said, his main thesis throughout the essay was the fact that exile and the lack of companionship or acceptance by other people was being romanticized throughout all of history and even art and literature. He uses references to pathos and ethos in the essay to relate to the audience in terms of emotion and authority. He also uses anecdotes to tell the story of different people who have been through exile and exclusion.

He begins by arguing that exile may have caused major issues in tradition, family, and geography. He explains that a 'poet in exile' is one of the most unique experiences, and explains that being in exile is not a choice but instead something that you are born into. He tells the story of a man named Faiz Ahmed Faiz who was estranged from most of his peers. He also discusses James Joyce who ‘chose’ to live in exile because of an artistic devotion. This makes a lot of sense because most people have a common understanding of the ‘starving artist’ or an artist that suffers for his work. It is a crazy thought that exile can promote ones standing and apparently also kill a person like Yanko Goorall.

I also believe that Said is trying to elaborate that rejection to groups of people or a single person can ultimately be harmful and is not beneficial regardless of the representation in history, art, or literature. He mentions the groups of people and countries, such as the Palestinians and Jews and the conflicts that they have. He believes that the exclusion of groups of people might be used as a defense mechanism, but can cause more harm than good. When they want to reverse the effects of exile, it is much harder. They have to ‘revive an ancient language’ and found new national foundations in order to restore the country at least somewhat back to its original place.

He continues on to say that the pathos of exile is in the 'loss of contact with solidity' and the 'satisfaction of earth' which, to me, means that the emotional or relatability of exile to other people is the loss of connection with other people or ‘solidity’. While this is a weird concept, Said continues and makes the statement that people who live in exile hate non-exiles because of the fact that they belong while they do not. 

In conclusion, I believe Said makes valid points throughout the whole essay. He highlights the main issues in society regarding exile and exclusion of certain groups of people and the harm that it causes. He even uses rhetorical strategies to show the issues and to make his arguments clear. His main thesis remains evident throughout the whole piece-exile is not a good thing, and to make it seem so is not the truth.