Battle With Death

Death is the end of our journey, the only thing that is inevitable. Death is always haunting our life’s waiting for the exact moment to strike and take our lives away from us. Death is feared, hated, and respected. It doesn’t have a time or a place it just gets to you in the moment less probable. For some death means salvation, for some others it means destruction. Due to its unnatural nature death is seen as something to be respected and it creates a feeling of insecurity in us. It is one of the themes that are most recurrent in our literature and arts since it is the only thing us humans can’t control. In Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, example he represents his ideas over death’s triumph by showing how in different cities death has taken over the history of these cities making them mold to it. In "Triumph of Death" by Brueghel we can see a connection between this piece and Calvino’s book since the theme of death is expressed. Although they both show death Calvino shows death as something that is inevitable but that will not triumph over the cities, while Brueghel shows death as triumphant over anything in its way.In Calvino’s book, there is a section of cities called Cities & Death. In this section of the book Calvino describes cities that have experienced death and that have changed because of it. These cities such as Adelma, Clarice, and Eusapia, have been affected by death but they are still up, they are still moving and life has brought them up again.
In Clarice for example plagues have hit the city, and it has decayed several times “Several times it decayed, then burgeoned again, always keeping the first Clarice as an unparalleled model of every splendor…” (Calvino 106). In this city, although death has tried to burry it underground, survivors have always brought it back up from the ashes. One factor that makes death triumph is that it destroy anything on its path leaving no trace of life. Death has not triumphed in Clarice because what really matters is what the first civilians from Clarice left as their legacies. The real Clarice is always reconstructed, this symbolizes how death has tried to destroy this city but has never triumphed. In Brueghel’s painting we see how death has taken over this place leaving nothing more than lifeless corpses and destruction. Brueghel’s painting shows the desperation of the humans on this piece. Fire, skeletons and suicide show how human’s hope of life is lost. Everything they had is destroyed, the skeletons, representing death, are killing the ones left and to end their suffering some others are jumping over cliffs to die.
In another city, Eusapia, for example people have made death less feared. They have created an underground copy of this city to burry their death so that it seems as if they had never left the city. “And to make the leap from life to death less abrupt, the inhabitants have constructed an identical copy of their city, underground.” (Calvino 109). Another of the factors why death triumphs is because of the fear people has to it, which sometimes makes them succumb to death and leave their destiny in its hands. In this city, inhabitants have decreased the fear factor in death by creating this underground city so that it doesn’t seem so bad. The leap from life to death is not so hard. In Brueghel’s piece, people show their fear and desperation towards death when we see the expression in their faces, when we see them jumping over cliffs to end their suffering.
In Adelma, another city in Calvino’s book, we see how the cycle of life, although disturbed by death is not stopping. Although many people are dead or are dying, there are new generations being born who will, in the future take the places of the old and will again lead the city. “ I thought: “Perhaps Adelma is the city were you arrive dying and were each finds again the people he has known. This means I, too, am dead.” (Calvino 95) in this city we see how although people seem dead and old, they are still living. Marco Polo says he is dead too, but this can also mean all the other people are alive like him. This shows another factor of the triumph of death, which is inevitable. In this city people seem dead but they are not therefore, death has lost is inevitability since they will not change really when they die. In Brueghel’s piece death is inevitable since there is no sign of salvation, either they die killed by the skeletons, or by the armies, or they suicide, or they are already dead.
Death may or not be triumphant it depends on how you depict it… Factors such as Fear towards it, its inevitability, and its erasing of any trace of life makes death triumphant. In Calvino’s book, cities such as Adelma, Clarice, and Eusapia, have come closer to making death less triumphant by creating underground copies of the city, or by bringing it up again, or finally by loosing their life like characteristics without dying. We may say that death will never be triumphant if the legacy us humans leaves teach future generations, to live life to the fullest and to never loose their hope.

Transportation in Bogota: A Day In The Streets Of Bogota PART II

Take a nap

Eat some fruit

Use the bridges

We don’t want any accidents

Follow the rules because they are watching you

Keep them safe

Our new acquisition:Everybody wants to be in them

Running out of fuel?

Transportation in Bogota: A Day In The Streets Of Bogota

You got to have patience

Push on the gas and press the horn

Respect the line to get on the bus

Cross the street while the light is red

Eventually you will find one

They WILL take you home

You may also ride a bike

But stay in your track

NEED FOR SPEED

Styles Upon Styles: Informative Articles

As I read the articles I found out that there are different styles in the same kind of informative articles. When I read "Heeeere's...Conan!!! I found out how the author used the title to make emphasis on how known this phrase is thanks to the huge amount of programs Conan has made. The style of this article does the emphasis on how Conan has lived his tv career. I also see the inverted pyramid technique used in this article since first the author gives the big picture of what the article is going to be about and then he starts giving out some details about Conan and his present. The article first talks about the show, and how Conan presents his show. The article ends up showing how Conan and all his crew will move to record the show in a different location than they currently are. The article not only says this but is most concentrated in showing how Conan is so popular, his road to becoming this popular, and his live in the television media. The next article, I found they used also the inverted pyramid technique. They describe the town of Mcallen, Texas, a sunday morning and then they give out the most important piece that will be the topic of the article. How they have the "lowest household income in the country" also has  " one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country." The article shows the big gap that there is in this town. It is not easy to think of the extremes that this town faces. They are a very poor town, one of the most poor in the country but their health care is the most expensive in the country. I found this article similar to one of the documentaries of Michael Moore Fahrenheit 911. In his documentary Moore shows some of the unbelievable things that happened in Bush's presidency. He uses satire and sarcasm to show his feelings towards Bush making him seem as if he had not done anything. In this article they also use satire as to show the big contrast that there is in the town. Were people cant pay for health care and it is the most expensive in the country. The last article is about a graffiti artist, JA, who lives in New York. I found the style of this article similar to the kind of narrations of Pirry , a colombian journalist that narrates urban problems in Colombia and other problems in the world. We first see the history of Graffiti and its influences in the streets of New York. Then we meet JA, the character in the article which we learn about. We see how he thinks about Graffiti and we get some of his ideas of what live is. It is kind of an urban story that shows the graffiti society in the streets through the eyes of JA. After reading these three articles I learned that there are many ways of writing and article and using different styles in order to make your ideas stronger is the best way to write. Although the three articles are informative they all use different styles. These styles depend on how the author wants to pass his ideas to the public.

Away from Liberty

 

Gulliver is imprisoned by the Lilliputians and is used to entertain the nobility. This two chapters of Gulliver's Travels show how the Lilliputians which are very small compared to Gulliver take away his freedom and use him as a source of entertainment. I don't know why they can control him if he is 12 times their size.

"Some time after, 

asking a friend at court how they came to fix on that determinate number, 

he told me that his majesty’s mathematicians, having taken the height of 

my body by the help of a quadrant, and finding it to exceed theirs in the 

proportion of twelve to one" (30)

I don't understand if they are so small compared to Gulliver why doesn't he goes away. He is then given his liberty back after his pleadings pass through the Council and the majesty of Lilliput. But he has to follow 9 articles to prevent him from escaping or destroying any thing in Lilliput. It is kind of silly to think that Gulliver Being so big compared to them is treated like an animal in zoo. 

There is something that I connect to this chapters in Gulliver and it is called the Elephants Metaphor. This is something that happens when Baby elephants that are born captive are chained to strong pillars so that they cant escape. Since they are small and their muscles haven't developed fully yet they obviously cant break the chains. They grow up with the idea that the chains are unbreakable and they loose all their hope of being free. When they are at their maximum size they can break these chains with no effort but since they have the memory of the chains being very strong they don't even try to break them.

Although this is not exactly what is happening to Gulliver it is very much alike. He is stronger than his capturers and can easily escape. The articles that they give them after they give him a partial liberty are nothing that he can't break but there is something that doesn't leave him escape. As the Elephant Metaphor, Gulliver is much bigger than his captors and can escape if he wanted. His metaphorical chains are really nothing compared to what he can do. 

Macbeth adaptations

This activity we produced in class for the last couple of weeks was very insightful. The final day, the presentation of our scenes was very fun. I really enjoyed seeing my classmates act out their scenes and how they adapted them to a time period in the history in Colombia. Although it was kind of hard to see easily what time period it was because we could not create a big scenery the costumes and some small props gave us hints to what time in history it was.It was very funny to see the costumes of my classmates and how they acted their scenes. This activity also was good to understand the real art of plays. Since Macbeth doesn't have scene directions we had to create them as we thought it would be better. We created our scene directions in order to show emphasis, and power. It summed up all that we had learned about composition, in the essay of Macbeth and in the art analysis classes we had. It also was a good end to Macbeth since we could see the most important parts of the play acted out. It was good to act these scenes because we could show how our ideas about the play and its themes were. Over all this activity was very fun and I learned many things about it.

The Train OF Life

The train is a very strange story just as the others I have read in Carvers Cathedral, again I come to the conclusion that Cravers style is one of a kind and that he depicts humans as completely weird creatures. This short story starts with a creepy image of a women giving a punishment to  a guy that tried to steal from her by aiming a revolver to the guy and letting him know that what he did was wrong. Then she goes to a train station apparently very late at night because no trains are leaving and the place is desolated. then a women and an old man enter the station. The lady talks to Miss dent saying that she knows she is listening to the conversation she has had with the old man all along. She also tells Miss Dent that she maybe doesn't want to talk but that at some time something will occur to her and it would be too late. They keep taking the old man comes in with his cigarette lit at last and then the train comes and the story ends. I found a topic that makes me wonder of life in this story and it is what we really are here to do in life. What is our purpose? It is not completely connected to the story but this is what came to me after reading. Miss Dent passes through to events one simple and the other one aggressive in a short period of time and it doesn't seem to affect her. why do events like these seem to pass in our everyday life and most of them we just take for granted. Do they signify nothing? What are we supposed to do with our lives, which are full of events that are simple, strange, happy, creepy, intense, and unique. What do these events mean are we supposed to see something in them. Did we came here for a purpose and if yes what is it? those are some of the questions I got after reading because the girl seems to not care much of what happens in her life. In general our lives flow normally and we think they are normal but why dont we think that everything happens for a reason.

Vitamins: an Adiction ?

After reading the short story Vitamins I relaized it was very complex. It seems very staright forward if you just read it but if you analyze it it is very strange. It starts with the business of Patti which we don't know what kind of relation she has with the narrator but she lives in the same house as him. Her business is to sell vitamins. This business has become her life to the point that now she dreams with it and she fills that vitamins are in her entire life. I could relate this story with people who are workaholics. They live for their jobs and would probably die for them. These people are in a lot of stress and may be declared to be sick. Their bodies are now tired and only respond to their jobs to nothing else. They may end up sleeping only a few hors per night and having a hard time getting energy. They are not healthy and they are in need of help maybe they can accept that they have a problem but they will say that they don't have time to wonder off their jobs because it will just fail. Maybe this is what is happening to Patti, she started working and know she is consumed by it, not the way I described exactly but the end result will be a person just like that. She only things of Vitamins, she feels the need to be at work and will find someone responsible for her acts if something related to his work goes wrong. This story was very strange but I could relate it with the addiction for work. I also could connect the Vitamins with drugs since the setting in the party would be a place were people use drugs the people in the party are strange and alcohol brings to drugs. 

Is Blindness a Real Disadvantage?

After reading the last story in Raymond Carver's Cathedral I got to the conclusion that there are many people that are blind but can see more than people that have their eyesight working. As described in the story the blind-man and bub draw a Cathedral with their eyes closed. At the beginning the "bub" treated the blind-man like with disgust an anger, he didn't want to receive him in his house but at last he had to because of his wife. The transition from hating him to trusting him came because of the knowledge that the blind-man had. He gave "bub" a kind of trust feeling and also gave him sympathy. The blind man was not disadvantaged he could do many things and his mind was very structured and developed so that his blindness didn't cause a problem to him. In life we can also represent this like a metaphor. People that have lost something are the ones that value life the most. People that have suffered and has had to work their whole life to be able to survive are the ones that are more thankful and the ones that people  look to the most. As in this story they use their supposed disadvantages to their advantages and in the case of blind people they develop their other senses and make them more superior as the senses of people that can see. I could also find from this story that we judge people just because of their physical problems and we forget that what is important is the feelings and the quality of person that people are. We must be thankful for what we have since the beginning and not wait for a problem to start to be thankful.

Chef's House a Familiar Tragedy

After reading this short story I got to the conclusion that good things don't last long. As it happened to Wes and Edna most of the events that seem that nothing could ruin them end up fast. They were having a fantastic time in Chef's house. They were remembering how their relationships was when they were married. Wes changed he had stopped drinking and was treating Edna very well, he gave her flowers and respected her. One day Chef got to the house and told them that they would have to leave because her daughter needed a house and that was the one he could offer to her. Then everything that Edna and Wes  had passed through and lived seemed all in the past, it all came to an end. This story gives us an advice and is to live our life the fullest. Live each moment as if it was your last. A maxim that I relate with this theme is Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away. This maxim is one of my favorite quotes because it represents how you can have a long calm life with no feelings or no extreme moments but it is better to go "all-in" and just live your life the most intense and emotional you can and this will mean that you lived your life successfully. We must take advantage of every opportunity life places us in our life and never give up our dreams.

TLS When The War Is Over; Struggles After War

After reading the TLS review on Josef Skvorecky's Ordinary Lives I found myself stuck again with totalitarianism in literature. Like with George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm in this book the author tries to show how totalitarianism, and the Nazis attacked humans free will and were a complete disgrace for humanity. He depicts many different situations in his book of how different peoples lives ended because of this period in time in which Stalin and Hitler tried to control europe. I believe this topic is so recurrent in literature because of the huge impact it had on humanity. So many deaths and casualties created a scar on history. Not only because of the millions of deaths but because of the stupid ideals of Aryan race and total control that were imposed.  Again I can connect this with Slaughterhouse- five because as Vonnegut, Skvorecky shows how people suffered during this period in which justice and equality did not exist. The themes of this anti-war books are close to each other. In Ordinary Lives the different situations of very different individuals all end up in a labor camp or burned into ashes. It seems as a very interesting book because it is not the typical book that portrays only one story with only one main character like Night or Slaughterhouse-five. 

maelstrom:a restless, disordered, or tumultuous state of affairs

pragmatic:of or pertaining to a practical point of view or practical considerations.

uncannily:

having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary:uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble.

gallows:

a wooden frame, consisting of a crossbeam on two uprights, on which condemned persons are executed by hanging.

School Life: Fighting

In this chapter of The Selfish Gene Dawkins explains the different temperaments of aggression. This definitely has been the best chapter I have read so far because I could make a direct and concrete connection between the chapter and my life at school. Dawkins explains the five strategies of aggression that can be seen in nature, each of them with its advantages and disadvantages. There are five different temperaments: 

1. "The Hawk" The ones that never give up and will always try to win no matter what.

2."The Dove" The wimps or smart ones who will run away so that they don't get hurt.

3. "The Retaliator" Their level of aggression depends on his opponents'.

4. "The Bully" Very tough until they receive the first hit.

5. " Prober-Retaliator" Tries different strategies depending on the response of his opponent.

I can say that I have seen every one of these behaviors in school, The Hawks are the tough guys that are always trying to fight and are very stubborn. They believe that everyone is going against him and are very aggressive. The Doves may be the smart ones that don't want to get into trouble or the wimps that won't stand up for themselves. The Retaliators are the ones that will fight back if fought with or will be pacific if their opponent is not threatening. The Bullies which are the most common are the ones who have their ego in the skies that think that they can beat up anyone but that in reality are a bunch of losers that will run away after they receive the first hit. The Prober-Retaliator are those who change their fighting strategies as they see their opponents strengths and weaknesses. All this behaviors have their advantages and disadvantages and people that can see what kind of aggressor is their opponent will have a head start. In the school life you must be aware of any threat and walk with your friends so that other aggressors wont find that easy to get on you.

Are We Ready?

In the fourth chapter of The Selfish Gene, Dawkins talks about something that has haunted me all my life. I have forever been scared of death and its mystery. We will never know in what conditions we are going to die so we will never be ready for it. Dawkins uses the analogy of a computer chess game as the "Gene Machine." The programmer installs the game and gives the computer bascic information but not the best move to any situation because there are infinite combinations of moves and it is impossible to have the best solution for each."the number of possible solutions in chess is so great that the world would come to an end before the list had been completed." (52) In this analogy Dawkins explains how the genes of survival machines have basic information that will make them prepare for any problem but they will not be 100% ready because there are so many different variables it is impossible to be ready for all. Again I came up to the conclusion that we will never be ready for our death and it is impossible to prevent death with a 100% confidence. Human life is so fragile and exposed to danger that it is up to us to take the necessary preventions because although our genes may be ready for some problems we are prone to many others.

Our Common Ancestors

In this chapter of The Selfish Gene I came back to something that I had studied in biology last semester, common ancestry. There are 6 kingdoms in taxonomy and each of this are very different from the others. The thing that makes us similar are our building blocks, the building blocks of nature DNA. Every organism on earth  started as the replication of DNA. We all have DNA from the simplest bacteria to humans we all have this building blocks in our systems. This idea of every organism in earth has DNA is a key to the idea of common ancestry. It is huge to think that since the origins of life, living organisms have had DNA, and we about 14 billion years later we are still made up of DNA molecules. This shows the relationship that every organism that has lived on the planet. It shows how the theory of common ancestry is true. If every organism now has DNA molecules in it so this means that once every organism on earth was the same and due to evolution and exposure to different habitats they diversified. Loosing some characteristics but keeping the most important feature, the key to life which is DNA. 

We Fall, And We Stand Up Again

One of the topics that really caught my attention in the second chapter of The Selfish Gene was when Dawkins explains that nothing is perfect. Sometimes thanks to religion people tend to think is that creation was perfect. That species are perfect the way they are and that every aspect of the creation happened because God meant it to be like that. What Dawkins explains is that most of the events that happened concerning the species in evolution was like a trial and error project. If there is something we learn in our school life is to learn from our mistakes, and that even the best project or work we do can be better. Every time we humans embark ourselves in journeys we tend to believe that everything we do is perfect but really nothing is perfect. It is important for us humans to believe that we are doing things the closest to perfect we can and part of this is due to competition. In evolution and every day live species compete to be the best and during this process some may cease to live and others will pass their genes to the next generation. Even the smallest choice an organism makes may affect totally its future. We must definitely learn from our mistakes and every time we fall stand back up always looking to our future and never backing down.

The Man Machine

The first chapter of The Selfish Gene I came up with a connection between this book and Slaughterhouse-five. I realized both books tend to say that humans, are machines. In this book, Dawkins says that we are machines ruled by our selfish genes.As for Slaughterhouse-five the Tralfamadorians say we are machines. This is a theme that makes me think about it, I cant imagine us humans being machines, we create machines and we use them but why do they say were are machines? I cannot think of us humans acting like machines, doing what we are programmed to because we are so different from one another. How do we know that what we are doing is meant to be? It is almost impossible to believe that the man machine is a possibility. Then if this is true, were is the concept of free will, the concept of nurture vs. nature? If we humans were machines how can you explain all the differences in cultures believes and ideas that move around our minds? I would say that we humans are not born with every aspect of our life decided, like machines are.  They are created for a reason, they are meant to work in someway and it is like that for the rest of their existence. As for humans, we have the option of forging our future, of deciding what is good and bad for us. Like Jean-Paul Sartre shows in his works humans are condemned to be free. We make our lives as we live them, every decision is a step into our destiny, we can take the correct choice or the wrong one and it is up to us. There is no instruction manual that tells us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong we have the complete freedom of walking into life. It is our actions and our choices what makes us what we are. It is true that we are born with certain characteristics that will come up as important factors in our lives but the choices we make are far stronger in the forging of our future than the characteristics we are born with.

What Is Really Ours?

Reading the 10-15 aphorism of Epictetus' The Handbook the theme that I was more interested in was when he talks about loosing your most important "attachments" for ever. I have always heard old people say children are borrowed. They nurture us raise us and then see us go. This is what Epictetus wants to say. People when they loose someone should say, "I gave them back," instead of "I Lost them." People don't own their relatives they were put in their ways so that they could have a pleasant life with good people but they weren't supposed to be owned by whom they appeared for. This reminds me also about the saying, you ' know what you have until you loose it, I have always realized that people are so greedy, instead of giving thanks for having met someone that hanged their life in a good way they cry and question God for having taken them away. They don't realize that they should thank him for giving them the opportunity of meeting someone like the one that died. Instead of saying why did you took him away, people should say thanks for giving me the pleasure of meeting him. In reality nothing is really yours instead of your body and your mind. People now have lost total importance of feelings and morality and the only thing they care now, is about the materialistic goods.

Beautiful Flaws

In the second 5 aphorism of Epictetus' The Handbook the speaker tries to show how he doesn't agree with society. I see how he wants to express people's envy. Humans are always trying to be better than the other, and this is what has brought so many world conflicts. I t is normal to have competence but once someone just tries to get everything better than the other only for satisfaction instead of need they are doing bad. People always try to have more money, to control more land, to have more businesses than their enemies and even friends. It is norma to say I am good for example but when people gives importance to their material goods it is not good. Epictetus show how societies flaws are seen everywhere. I also connect this with Slaughterhouse-five were he shows the decadence of society. Now a days, humans have stopped caring about living live in a fair manner, having just what they need and giving away to the most needed, and now only care of having the best car the biggest house the new cell phone. It is all based on materialistic goods. These goods really give nothing to help the humans life and are replacing feelings and emotions.

Human's Free Will

After reading the first 5 aphorism from the Epictetus' The Handbook I realized what we humans believe we have free will to choose are not all true. I connected this with Jean-Paul Sartre's work on existentialism were he talks that men have the freedom to chose what they are going to be and how they would get to that place. I know that a human has the freedom of becoming who he wants but as Epictetus says, some things are not up to us. Most of the time society decides many factors of our lives. People living in the higher classes can choose to become a business man or a lawyer but as soon as they say they want to become bus drivers society will act on them. They know they wont be accepted and wont be seen as  the same person once they become bus drivers so they decide not to be. If i have learned something over my life is that society has almost every aspect of our lives controlled. If someone gets out of the status quo, somebody will try to stop them. The actual range of human free will is very short not many options are available for us to choose.

"Poo-tee-weet?"

"There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped. Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim,"Poo-tee-weet?"(215) Billy Pilgrim's story ended in an earthling way, his life will go on but we will not hear of him ever again. The story ended in some extent happy for Billy, the idea of the green coffin-shaped wagon represents his happiest moment and the bird taking to Billy is like a symbol for peace. Birds don't sing in wars, the image of the bird talking to Billy as the last phrase in the novel ends the book peacefully and calmly. It is like saying after all the time traveling all the adventures and the dangerous moments Billy finally came out safely from war. We knew he was going to survive war though but it gives us like the satisfaction you get when you finish a long race. This image also leaves us like with intrigue to know what happens after, if Billy meets Vonnegut and O'Hare.

 "I was there. O'Hare was there."(212) Again I get to the conclusion that Billy Pilgrim was just a character Vonnegut invented to show war as he saw it but also to incorporate fiction into the book. Billy Pilgrim lived many of the things Vonnegut lived in the war and so they had to be in some of the places Vonnegut passed through together. Vonnegut survived Dresden bombing, Billy survived Dresden Bombing, they are one of the few fortunate people that could do this. They are connected they are the same person one is the writer and the other one is "Dante the Pilgrim".

I liked the book its level of thinking is very complex it opened my mind to the 4th dimension. I liked the novel because it was like reading various stories at the same time that would connect at the end. I still had many questions like why Tralfamadorians, literally what does Kilgore Trout represent.  Why does Vonnegut include nonlinear time in the book?

Sad happy moments

"If this sort of selectivity had been possible for Billy, he might have chosen as his happiest moment his sun-drenched snooze in the back of the wagon." (195)  Billy's happiest moment in his life is so sad. I cant believe of all he has lived this moment as his happiest. It s kind of melancholic to think that Billy's life has been so miserable, with so little emption that his happiest moments are very simple. If anyone else heard this moment they would not even think it is the favorite moment in ones life. Billy Pilgrim has a very hard life because he knows everything that will happen, good or bad, and can't do anything to prevent it. He sees all evil and he cant do anything about it. His life is dull, it has no surprises because he always knows what is going to happen and he is not scared either because he will know what bad things will happen to him so he can have some time to be mentally prepared. In this chapter I found out that Billy's life is so hard nobody would understand him so his secret is kept and accumulated each time more deep inside him. He is lonely in this planet, he basically doesn't have anybody with whom he can talk to.

 Is Kurt Vonnegut also represented by Kilgore Trout. Billy goes to a book shop and one of the stories the books have are the story of two earthlings that would taken to the zoo in Tralfamadoria. He also talks about 4th dimension and life and death,"So it goes," Vonnegut represents himself in many characters in the book, maybe because he wants to show his life at war from different perspectives. These characters all represent the different stages Billy lived when he was in the war. Mabe all the characters that in some way, are simmilar to Vonnegut together are what he really was in  the war.

A memory you can't erase

"He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was."(173) It was time at last for Billy to reveal he had a problem. Since the beginning of the book we can see that Billy is strongly affected by war but for the first time we see that deep inside him he is sad and he has a huge secret that he has not even revealed to himself. Billy cant talk to anyone not even his wife or his daughter because he knows that they won't believe him or think he is crazy. Billy's problems are far from the understanding of an earthling. I think he can sought peace by talking to a Tralfamadorian rather than a human because at least they can understand without him having to explain so much but by looking at his whole life at once. Billy's problem is so complicated that maybe his subconscious has hidden it inside himself so that he is not worried or preoccupied with it. His life has been so tough so many close people to him have died and he knew when they were gig to die but he couldn't do anything. Billy maybe thinks he has so much pressure and thinks that nobody has the power to help him has stored all his problems inside him and he couldn't do this more, he collapsed. This is the first time when I see Billy sad and worried it seems as if he doesn't know what will happen next or what he feels. Billy Pilgrim is not a machine.

Billy so mysterious

"He knew it was going to crash, but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so."(154)  Billy now understands how things really are. He seems he is close to understanding everything tralfamadorians say. His time traveling makes him understand how he should ask and that even if he told the people in the airplane that the plane was going to crash they probably would stay in the plane and die or die afterwords because it was supposed to be like that. The people in that crash were supposed to die. "So it goes." Every time somebody dies in the book Billy says so it goes because he know that even-though at that moment they are dead they live in many other moments. I think that we humans should see death this way because although people cease to exist, they are saved in our memories by all those moments we lived together with them. What really intrigues me is why billy survives the multiple death experiences he faces and why he doesn't die. I know that according to the book he will die when he is supposed to but then why does he faces death so many times. It is as if he was so close to death but not close enough. If he is not supposed to die why does so many bad things happen to him. Billy is very strange and mysterious. It is as if he had fate against him, but at the same time by his side. In this book so many people die that are very close to Billy, living the same things he lives but he keeps on his journey while they die on his path. I feel bad for Billy war is not a pace for somebody like him. He seems so weak. His pink toga, his silver boots his long beard, all this makes me imagine billy as vulnerable poor guy. He seems so weak but I think he does this because he knows that he is not meant to die at war.He doesn't care if what he does is dangerous or not.

War is fought by brothers

"I, Billy Pilgrim, the tape begins, will die, have died,and always will die on February thirteenth , 1976."(141)This chapter made me think how Billy really sees his life. How can you feel if you knew when and how are you going to always die. Would it be worth it or would it be too depressing? I don't know how Billy really sees his life, he knows it all, so he is never surprised. How can you feel for example, the day before you know you are going to die. Not even a day, a year, how would you live the year of your death, would you do everything you didn't do before or would you spend your last days sitting on your bed regretting not doing all you wanted. I think this is a very hard question. Billy is emotionless his life must be all normal for him. All he does he has done it before so it must be boring. On the other side it is cool to know that even if you die you will keep on living in other moments. You will never actually be really dead and Billy knows this.

Another thing that came to my head after reading this chapter was the idea that wars are fought by brothers."There was nothing to be afraid of. Here were more crippled human beings, more fools like themselves."(150) When people see wars they see two or more sides fighting with each-other, defending a flag and honoring their uniforms. But they don't see further than this, beneath those camouflaged jackets and those cargo pants there are all humans trying to survive. In this chapter Billy and another 100 americans arrive at Dresden. Were they realize they are equal to the German soldiers that are supposed to watch them. In most wars the people that fight don't do it because they really love killing people but because they are forced to. We are all equal and by writing this antiwar book Vonnegut wants to show that wars are not good that they will not change the world into a better place, as many people think. Wars are fought by brothers, soldiers are only distinguished by their uniforms and the language they speak but aside from this they are not different.

Is Destiny Written?

"He always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way." (117) One of the main motifs in the book, I have seen, is destiny. The Tralfamadorians know when everything is going to happen they know exactly what will happen and they do nothing to change it. Humans' idea of free will actually says that you can write your own future that you decide what to do and what no to do. According to the tralfamadorians and the 4th dimension it is all written, everything that happens was supposed to happen you cant change or overwrite it. Your life since the moment you are born already takes a path and there is no way you can stray from it. Billy Pilgrim has the possibility of going to any part if his life and knowing what is going to happen and he does not try to change it because he knows anything he tries to do is what is supposed to do. This is a very complex level of thoughts, it is incredible to believe that anything you do is because was written that way. We wont discover if this is or isn't true but maybe it is and it means we are really machines as the tralfamadorians say.  They know how the Universe will end and when will this happen and they don't try to stop it as Billy asks because it is meant to end that time that way.

"That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."(125) A question I thought I wouldn't be able to answer until the end of the book was if Kurt Vonnegut would ever appear in the book, was answered in this chapter.  I knew for sure that Billy Pilgrim was not Vonnegut but I knew in some point he was going to mention himself in the story. In this chapter Billy meet Vonnegut in the latrine were all americans were sick and had excreted in buckets all they ate that night. Vonnegut says to Billy he had excreted everything except his brains and then he said he did. Billy is a character Vonnegut invented that passes to many of the adventures Vonnegut passed in war and sees them much like he did and in this chapter Vonnegut wants to show that Billy lived some things he did, but that they are not the same person.

Slaughter House-Five chapter 4 "Why me?"

Billy kidnapped by Tralfmadorians? "Why me?" People are always asking why me when something bad happens to them but they don't realize life is not perfect or fair. What Billy says is a very ignorant question in my opinion because everybody has passed through rough times in which everything seems to go wrong. Maybe Billy thinks his life is very bad, but he doesn't realize that there is a lot of suffering and pain all over the world. The book takes an unexpected turn. I thought this book would be only like a recount of war from somebody who hated it. It apparently goes around Billy and war was just a very important part of his life but there are more stories that take place in the book not only war.I wasn't expecting this, why aliens?? This really makes me think that Billy is crazy, I don't know if he is a reliable character and if everything he says really happened. Maybe the war made him crazy and he is in a mental institution. Some people that lived a cruel war like Billy end up in mental institutions because all they saw in war never stops haunting them. I think the writer is trying to take away a little seriousness from the book including aliens in it. He may be trying to include some humor to the book. He started the book, and I thought it would be another book of  wwII but now with this I don't know what will happen. 

Human's free will? When Billy is kidnapped by the Tralfmadorians they talk about the earthlings, they say we think we have the freedom to choose what will happen to us and what we will or will not do. I think it is wrong to say this. To some extent we may choose some aspects of our lives but something just happen, they are unexpected and you just cant choose whether they happen or not. This events are just a part of life and destiny.

slaughter House-Five chapter 3

This chapter makes me think that maybe Billy really is crazy. Maybe the two "times" he lives in are the past maybe he is insane. I think what Billy has is post war syndromes. Many people suffer this. They never accept the fact that the war has already ended and think they should still be aware. Many times this people never get over all the suffering and pain they had to live. Billy leaves me so doubtful. I don't know were he really is, who he really is and if everything he says is happening or happened along time ago.  This kind of books are so intriguing, they make you want to keep reading them and if possible ending them at once. I feel sad for Billy, it is horrible when people remind you of sad events that had happened to you so going back in time and seeing horrible events that happen to you without being able to do something about it must be so bad. He must feel trapped in war. His life will never be the same he will always have to accept what happens to him and try to be strong. I am not really sure but I think this book is like of encountering ones self. Of personal improvement and to live with a clean conciseness. It now gives me a morale. Don't  accept things that you know you wont like, and   try to do things that you know you wont regret.

Slaughter House-Five chapter 2

In chapter two of Slaughter House-five Billy a soldier who is against war travels back in time remebering what his life during the war was. I think he is so affected by war he has begun to become crazy. He travels back and forth in his mind with no control over it. Billy is one of those characters that are very complex. He is a soldier but he doesn't like war he is  against it, at first I believed he was like Forest Gump when he had to travel to Vietnam. He just went there because he had to not because he wanted to. He took war as something he had to do but not that he would choose to go. I think that during the whole book Billy will have many problems and challenges regarding  his lack of acceptation of war. I also connect this chapter with the trilogy of Back To The Future. In this movie Doctor Emmet Brown and his friend Marty Mcfly travel through time always trying to change things for good, but most of the time their positive intentions end up making the problem worst. Even though Billy may want to change some things of his past, it is better to let them go to try to never do those things again in the future. It is better to stop regretting and thinking "what would have been if..."or remembering  because it will never stop haunting you. Memories can be erased by good actions but Billy's problem of time will make him see things very differently than everybody else.

Slaughter House-Five chapter 1

Chapter one of the book starts with a regression into time. The narrator goes back in time to talk about his live in world war II. During the whole chapter he jumps back and forth in time taking about how he lived then, or what he is passing through now. As soon as I read the book had something to do with the second world war I felt very interested. I had just seen a movie about the life of a little kid son of a nazi general being friends with a jewish boy in a concentration camp, and the movie came into my mind. Every time I read about this war I have so much ideas in my mind. I cant believe how people can be so horribly cruel.  I immediately connected this book to that movie and I saw the images in my head. People who lived this war and survived it are marked for the rest of their lives. I see how people now a days have sympathy for the the people that lived in those times and suffered so much. Books like this talking about war atrocities and the effect it has on people help people be better and prevent events like this one to never happening again. I remember when I went to that movie The Boy with the Stripped pajamas, as soon as the movie finished there were like 5 minutes in which there was no sound. People were in shock they did not move, they knew that this once happened but had never seen what it might have been like. I now can see that this book is going to be interesting and just by seeing the title I think it will be sad and tough. Just as all the works that recapture the events of that war.

What is a Blog?

A. The difference between a blog and a book is that books are slow while blogs are fast, blogs are concise and need less time than books, which are extensive and require more time. Blogs are a conversation of many people while in a book only the author expresses his ideas. Blogs make you explore (links), while books stay between its pages.

B.Blogs have changed because before they were used only to show links to new pages bloggers discovered they had little comments and were used basically to post links. Now, blogs are used all over the world by anybody who has access to the internet to discuss and talk about some topic they are interested in. They wonder off in the internet surfing from link to link and trying to be recognized in the blog community.

C.You may read a blog to find out about a topic, learn what people think about this and see the different perspectives people have of the topic. Blogs can help you understand a topic because there is a huge range of bloggers with a different range of knowledge.

D. You may doubt the objectivity of a blog because it is open to anyone with internet to discuss. While some people take it serious some others take blogs as a place to find friends so they may not even talk about the topic in the blog, but start their own conversations of something totally differently.

E. http://blog.dantesinfernowithchildren.com/

http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/the-divine-comedy-and-dantes-inferno.html

http://blog.theavclub.tv/post/dantes-inferno