Final Essay Assignment

“Good writing is like a windowpane”, at least that`s what George Orwell said, and that's also what I learned in this class and my previous class too. I learned that writing is like drawing a picture. A good picture should speak for itself, it should recall someone or something, in short, it should make people think or dream; and that`s exactly what an effective writing involves too. It demands a concrete language, a clear argument, a structural framework and certainly coherence. These are just a few ingredients that implies in writing.

Personally, I think that this semester course materials was very rich. the various types of writing that we discussed in class had influence my writing, however, each type of writing was somehow different than the others, but they all request a clear and organize ideas. Whether you are working on a descriptive, argumentative or persuasive writing, you need to make sure that your essay makes sense and flow in an organized manner. But, the question is, how you will know that your paper is flowy and attractive? for my part, I learned that every time I finished a paragraph, I start to question  myself , if my word choice is pertinent? If the details are well arranged? if my argument is convincing? And obviously, how I will connect it with the other paragraph? Which is not a simple task! Taking these details into consideration helped me to become more aware of my weaknesses and gave me tools to strengthen them.

Furthermore, I have learned that the most convincing ideas in a paper should be expressed in the most beautiful sentences. A seductive sentence had to create a mood and tone, as well as control how a reader will think of a person, place, or a concept. As I learned, we can arrive to this level of expressions by means of the figurative language, such as simile or metaphor, and even more by using the connotations of words. the connotative meaning gives a better flavor to any writing, it conveys an additional layer of meaning to the reader, and it guarantee that he/she knows exactly, what you intended when using this particular word. Besides this, the variance of the sentence structure, can also breaks the monotonous tone and the classic subject-verb style, and engender a clear impression to the reader.

In the beginning of my course, I was not sure that sharing my writing with my classmate was a good idea. I was extremely anxious about my writing, especially for a student who their English is a second language. Therefore, I was nervous about being criticized for my essays that I have to post to the blog, which is a new process for me. but honestly, I was totally mistaken, from one hand, I learn that accepting constructive criticism will only make me better, I have to admit my mistakes and try to rectify them, and from the other hand, I think that sharing works with my peers was a lucrative experience, every-time I look at to my classmates essays, I perceived that even if we have the same topic, each person examine the subject from a different angle, and that generates a profound vision about the subject matter. Overall, it was a worthwhile semester. I can recognize that, by looking at my first and last essay, there is a significant progress.

Arabian Blood, final draft

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Take a moment, and try to imagine a horse. No matter from which breed you will choose it, since they are over 350 breeds of ponies and horses in the world today. However, via this speedy thought you will see, a truly magnificent creature full of grace and elegance; every part of his body is perfectly shaped. The head is modeled like a diamond. The neck is long and arched like the palm tree. The legs are strong and long like the twin tower and last but not least the mane and tail are long and extremely fine in texture, however, due to all these typical traits, horses are easily wins a special seat in history, ranking high marks of honor, nobility and power.

Horses are not only an emblem of magnanimity, but they are also a faithful human companion in both work and art. Over the past several centuries, a deep connection have been created between horses and humans, based on mutual trust and honesty. A horse does not know how to hide its perception, he always gives us an honest response to what he perceives through his eyes. Anyway, their acute sense of sight helps them to communicate widely through body language with his/her rider, moreover, Horses use attentively their vision to examine every movement and body posture that is made around them.

The horse`s eyes is the most delicate organ, that distinguish them from a large part of animal, his eyes are set on the side of the head, rather than facing front as in human, which gives them an extraordinary peripheral vision. Horses has three eyelids, the upper and lower eyelids are composed of sheets of cartilage covered on the outside by skin. They doesn`t make contact with the surface of the eye, because there is a thin layer of tears between them. The third eyelid is not visible, because it is located at the inside corner of the eye, it`s fundamental function is to clean and lubricate the eyes.

As was previously stated, horses and specially the Arabian race, are a symbol of physical splendor. Its grace, beauty and adaptability, makes them one of the most remarkable breeds. Personally, I cannot see a horse, without having this feeling of divine nobility or without seeing this loyalty on his eyes. In the end, I completely share the same opinion with Sharron Ralls Lemons, when he said that “ The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire”, because I think that the human-horse connection is a kind of spiritual relation than just a physical or emotional relation.

Arabian Blood

Literary source by timothy Murad

Part I of the novel, then, presents horses and man as being in harmony and, moreover, emphasizes the horse as a source of strength and power. Descriptions of horses accord well with the ascendant trajectory of the first part of the novel.

In Part II, horse images and their symbolic import are strikingly different. They symbolize the?descenso al infierno de la barbarie?(10) which characterizes this central section of Los deabajo. The wild, uncontrollable, and brute nature of horses now predominates in descriptions.
Author(s): Timothy Murad
Source: Journal of Spanish Studies: Twentieth Century, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall, 1979), pp. 207-222
Published by: Society of Spanish & Spanish-American Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27740882.
Accessed: 13/11/2014 13:51

Animal Imagery and Structural Unity in Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo

Scientific source By Stephen Duren

Horses have larger eyes than any other land animals except ostriches. A horse's eyes are oval, and they are set on the sides of the head. The two eyes can be moved independently, each in a half circle. Thus, a horse can look forward with one eye and backward with the other. Because of the position of its eyes, a horse has a blind spot a short distance in front of it. A horse must turn its head to see a nearby object that lies directly ahead. The shape of a horse’s eyes makes objects far to the side or back appears to move faster than they actually do. For this reason, a horse may shy (move suddenly) at the slightest movement of an object to the side or back. Horses' eyes require a fairly long time to adjust to changes of light. When a horse is moved from a dark stall into bright sunlight, it may appear nervous until its eyes adjust.

MLA: Duren, Stephen.  "Horse." Academic World Book. World Book,2014 . Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

APA:Duren, S. (2014).Horse.  In Academic World Book. Retrieved fromhttp://www.worldbookonline.com/academic/article?id=ar263040

Harvard:Duren, S 2014,'Horse', Academic World Book, World Book, Chicago, viewed 13 November 2014,

<http://www.worldbookonline.com/academic/article?id=ar263040>.

Printed source by Patton Charles U.

The eye is one of the most important organs connected with the horse. From the fact that when your horse goes blind he is almost worthless. It is one of the most delicate parts of the horse to be treated, and is in many case.

Common Sense Horse Book by Prof Charles U. Patton  p: 47

    I have always been fascinated by horses specially the Arabian race; they have the most majestic silhouette and strength that allows them easily to occupy the first places between the other breeds. Horses have inspired artists and poets through the ages, because they are well known for being affectionate and bonding well with humans, as well as they are famous for their power and intelligence. The literary source that I pick out confirm that there is a certain harmony between horses and man, and also mentions some typical characteristics of horses. On the other hand, the scientific and the printed source that I choose, we can see a deep description of horse`s eyes, and how delicate are they.

"Unpacking a Quotation"

‘’I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save lack of strength. John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious. I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dread­fully depressing. “

In this passage from “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, we can see that the narrator of this story is a mentally disordered woman, who has clearly a strong passion for writing, even if her husband forbids her to write, because he thinks that writing is not helping her getting better. Apparently, the fact that her husband prohibits her to write, push the narrator to start sneaking, when she wants to write, because she has a strong belief that writing is her unique way of liberation.

The theme of mental illness is plainly dominant in this quotation even if john dismissed it as nervous troubles. But normally, a competent physician like John should easily diagnose the disease of his wife or take her to a medical specialist, to make sure that she is on the mend.  But unfortunately in this passage we see totally the opposite, the doctor does not understand how the narrator exactly feels and how serious her case is.

The narrator begins this passage with describing the nursery such us an “atrocious” place, which means an absolutely unpleasant or cruel place. The word “Atrocious” makes it seem like if the narrator hated being a patient and “the nursery” constantly reminded her of the sickness that she suffers from even if she is trying to neglect it.

Not only the negligence reigns on her case, but furthermore, the narrator is trying to camouflage her own illness as “only nervousness”. The “only” in this passage tell us that the narrators try to convince herself that her mental disorder is only nervousness, but here we certainly see that there is a hint of mockery, she is completely conscious that something is wrong with her.

“I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous trouble are dreadfully depressing” here, the narrator uses a figure of irony. She exclaims that her case is not that critical but simultaneously she complains from “these nervous troubles” that makes her “dreadfully depressing”. The adjective “depressing” here connote a much stronger feeling than simply from a bad day. I think here the narrator is trying to protest against the oppression and the imprisonment that she suffers from, since they are in this nursery, more specifically,  in this story the narrator is trying to represent the repression of women in their epoch.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Explain the relationship between the narrator and her husband, John. How does this relationship affect the narrator?

In “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, we can see that there is a patronizing relationship between the narrator and her husband. John is consistently making every decision regarding her wife`s life, even the minors decision “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall” “John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can”. As we can mentions from those previous quotations, the narrator is always referring and following John`s advices.

Moreover, John`s is not only patronizing the narrator, but he also “hates” her to ”write a word”. Here, the husband is trying to deny her wife`s voice by forbidding her the right to write. But this time, the narrator decides to follow her own instinct, by keeping her writing hide from John ”there comes John, and I must put this away”, in order to prevent him getting angry.

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher

  

1. Choose a few lines from the above passage as the material for your quotations.

“I know not how it was; but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit”

2. Write a sentence or a few sentences integrating a phrase from Poe into a sentence of your own. The easiest way to do this is to make a comment about Poe's story. For example, if I were writing about "The Raven," I could say: At the beginning of Edgar Allan Poe's long poem "The Raven," the narrator tells us that he has stayed up late reading "a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." It must be a pretty boring old book, because reading it leaves him "weak and weary" and "nearly napping."

        

         In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe describes his ride to Usher`s house with a dark imagery. The narrator recounts his “first glimpse” of Usher`s house and the irrational fear that ”pervaded” his “ spirit “.

        

3. Introduce a quotation and then explain what the quotation means. For example: In "The Raven," Edgar Allan Poe's narrator tells us that the events of the poem happened "in the bleak December / And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." The second line refers to the fact that he's sitting by a lit fireplace, and it's just a fancy, spooky way of describing the effect of the firelight as it shines off the floor.

Edgar Allan Poe opens this passage with a sinister description of an overcast day in the autumn ” during the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year”, then he illustrates “ when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens “ he also mentions the physical pressure that the clouds are pushing down on the narrator.  

4. Paraphrase a short passage from Poe. For example: In "The Raven," Poe's narrator tells us that the events of the poem take place in the winter. At the beginning of the poem, he's sitting cozily by the fire, falling asleep over an old book.

       In “the Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allan Poe tell us that the events of this story happens in an autumnal evening. At the beginning of the passage, the narrator mentions that the weather was gloomy, while he was riding on horseback at Usher`s house.

        

5. Now here's a tough one: try to summarize the entire passage from "The Fall of the House of Usher" in five short sentences.

       In “The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allan Poe describes his ride to Usher`s house in a cloudy autumnal day. When he first saw Usher`s house, a sense of fear and insecurity surrounds him due to old looking of the house, the old wall and the creepy windows. This elegiac atmosphere affects him, and made him interrogate himself about what made him feel like that about Usher`s house.

6. Now here's a really tough one: reduce your summary to two short sentences!

      

In “The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allan Poe draw a sad picture of his travel to Usher`s house. The narrator had a creepy feeling about the house and what surrounds the house, without finding an accurate explanation to these feeling.