Welcome everybody! This blog is about analyzing the different journeys in Literature. Specifically, we are looking experiment an external journey that allows us to know ourselves. We should think about; what defines us? We must know our own identity. Finally, in this blog you will find different written about the external journey and it will help us to understand others cultures and traditions. I hope all of you enjoy this external journey and find what really define you!
I attended to the
second discussion panel “Mini Sagas: My Creative Process” supervised by Dr.
Mildred Lockwood on Tuesday March 25, 2014. The students that participated in
this panel were students from the PSAE Program. In this panel the students
defined the mini saga concept and they presented different mini sagas. The
students that were participating as panelist were Kathyria Sánchez, Paula
Mysonet, Ashley Dalmau, Maricel Vargas, Manueli Cabrera and Brian Aldiss. They
defined mini saga as a very short piece of writing containing exactly 50 words.
In my personal opinion I like a lot this panel because they incorporated the
dramatization in their presentation. In my opinion Maricel Vargas had the best
performance in the mini saga. I remember she said: “Girl you have taught me
that together we can save lives”, which showed the message transmitted through
the mini saga.
Through the mini sagas
student exposed important topics such as: physical appearances, health, racism,
expectations, live, goals and beliefs. My favorite mini saga was about
Expectations; because it really made me laugh. Ashley mentioned in this mini
saga: “Expectations? Challenge: Evaluations. The cruel reality of has a
husband”. Kathyria Sanchez’s mini saga was incredible. I really love her mini
saga about the bulimic woman. I remember when she said: “Mirror, mirror.
Beautiful is only thin. I am awake. I see my enemy, me ugly fat. I only desire
to be like the one on the TV. This mini saga impacted myself. Here I quote Ashley's mini saga, Expectations, that was my favorite.
Expectations
By. Ashley Dalmau
Some are intelligent, some are dumb.
Some have manners, others don’t.
Some are loving, others rude.
Some are gentle, others sour.
Some are handsome, tall, strong, energetic…. Others careless,
Small, fat, lazy.
Some love the family, others love their PlayStation.
Expectations?
Challenge evaluation…
The cruel reality of finding a husband.
Definitely, the
panelists explain that most important thing of a mini saga is that it should
have theme, conflict and solution in exactly 50 words. In my personal opinion
the mini saga panel was the best part of the different student conferences.
This experience allowed me to learn knew concepts. For example it was the first
time I heard about mini sagas. In conclusion I think that this experience was
very educational and useful, because this opportunity helped to develop different
communication English skills.
I assisted to the
student conference offered by the Department of English on Tuesday March 25,
2014. The general activity was called Student Interventions in General Studies:
Interdisciplinary Project and Creative Initiatives. The first discussion panel
I attended was “Interrogating the Journey: Literature and Personal Experience” supervised
by Dr. Cynthia Pittmann. In this discussion panel I had the opportunity to
participate as student panelist with four classmates: Sylvette, Carla, Sahara
and Lorna.
In the discussion panel
we exposed the meaning of an internal and an external journey. Also, we defined
the identity concept. We related our journey experiences with these fundamental
concepts to exposes what define the identity of any human being. In the
overall, we related the class’ essays about Petter Roberts, Jim Cooper and
Jamaica Kincaid with the identity concept. In my personal speech I talked about
the Puerto Rican identity. I exposed different reasons and arguments to support
that Puerto Ricans have a complete and separate identity. I also related my
personal journey experiences with the Puerto Rican identity. This opportunity
is very significant in my academic career, because it help me to develop the
oral and writing English skills. Specifically, this opportunity allowed me to
improve the oral English skill, because it allowed me to experiment the
experience of talk in front of a lot of people and to practice the words’
pronunciation. At the beginning of the conference I was very nervous but then
when I continued reading I gain confidence and I could perfectly develop the
identity topic. I did not know how to explain what I was feeling when I was
presented my essay. It was a combination of feelings and emotions. I just know
that I felt something amazing inside of my body that gave the strongest to
continue reading with passion and proud.
Finally, I consider the
experience of being panelist an excellent opportunity to gain confidence and
demonstrated that you are able to speak in front of a lot of people in another
language that is not your first language. The experience was amazing. I had the
opportunity to expose a point of view and I tried to convince the audience of
it. I also interact different ideas about the identity concept. In conclusion
the activity was very educational and it allow the student to share knowledge
to learn new things.
The film The Rum Diary
directed by Bruce Robinson take place in Puerto Rico in the 1960s. The movie
summarizes the Puerto Rican’s life style and it clearly criticizes the
discriminations and injustices in the Puerto Rican population. This was showed
through Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) who is an author, which works to The San Juan
Star Newspaper. Kemp had the homework of discover what the tourist love of
Puerto Rico, but in his way he appreciate different situations that show him
the Puerto Rican life and customs. Kemp realize how to be a real journalist and
he discover the end of one story and the beginning of another listening his own
voice.
The Rum Diary - Official Trailer
I classified Kemp as tourist at the beginning of the film, however when
he went to live to the little and unkempt apartment he became in a traveler. At
the beginning of the movie Kemp just cared about himself and he wanted to
escape from his own reality. This is showed when the cabbie ask to Kemp:
“Primera vez en Puerto Rico” and Kemp answer: “I don’t speak Spanish, keep the
change”. This showed that at beginning Kemp did not want to have any kind of
relation with the Puerto Rican people because he really didn’t like Puerto
Rican people. Then Kemp’s character transform to a traveler, because he became
to relate in the deep problems about the Puerto Rican population and at the end
of the film he understood what is really happening in Puerto Rico. At the end
of the film Kemp transform his voice in the voice of the Puerto Rican’s country
and he want to denounce the injustice made by Edward J. Lotterman (chief and
editor of The San Juan Star), Hal Sanderson (a businessman who believe that he
is the owner of every single space in the world) and their colleagues. This is
showed in the film when at the end appeared “The voice he found was his own and
if you were one of the “Bastards” you had yourself a formidable enemy”. This
quote represents the general idea of the film. Kemp, of course, is the main
character of the film. He really represents the basic idea of a tourist and a
traveler.
Forward in the film you can see the basic idea of being a tourist
represented in the following characters: Hal Sanderson, Edward J. Lotterman, Donovan,
Art Zimburger, Wolsey, Mrs. Zimburger, Davey and Lazar. They are tourist because
they just worried about themselves and they did not care about to know Puerto
Rico’s places and Puerto Ricans people. These characters just think about how
much they can win of Puerto Rico. This was showed by Lotterman’s character when
he says: “Determination, balanced with appropriate humanity. This is a schizoid
society, Kemp. They got two languages, two flags, two loyalties, and two
anthems. We bring them stuff they never had. They either hate it or they want
more of it”. Lotterman talked about Puerto Rico like he knows the Puerto
Ricans, but he really did not know anything. He just closely lived in his own
little world full of discriminations. I consider Lotterman’s characters the
best example of a tourist because he had a lot of prejudices and he
discriminated his employees and the Puerto Ricans.For other hand, I consider Chenault
(Sanderson’s fiancée and Kemp’s love interest) a mixture of tourist and
traveler, but she had more of tourist than traveler. Chenault is a free soul
that wants to escape from Sanderson’s oppression. I saw in her character a
traveler who is repressed and persuaded by a tourist (Sanderson), because when
Chenault was with Kemp she acted as a traveler.
In the film I consider as examples of travelers Bob Sala and Moburg. I
think they are good examples of travelers because they are informed about
Puerto Rico’s situation and they did not worry about staff that a tourist will
worry. This is showed when Moburg says: “This country was built on genocide and
slavery. We killed all the black guys that were here, and then we shipped in
new black guys of our own and then we brought in Jesus, like a bar of soap”. They
also shared the unkempt apartment with Kemp, which means that they were
exposing themselves to the Puerto Rican’s life. I consider Kemp, Sala and
Moburg the main characters of the film because they represent the different
critics about the Puerto Rican culture and the injustices that the Puerto
Ricans were suffering. I also perceived in them different situations that
reflected the Puerto Rican style of life in the 1960s.
A quote that clearly relates to the
idea of tourist and traveler is represented in the scene in which Kemp as journalist
interviewed two tourists, an American fat man with his wife, in the bowling
contest. Kemp ask to them: “What would you say you like most about Puerto Rico?”,
then the man answer: “The bowling alleys and the casinos, of course she like
the duty free” and his wife said: “Well, the more you spend, the more you save”.
Then Kemp ask to them: “Have you seen a lot of the island?” and they answer: “We
don’t leave the hotel. It is not safe”. This clearly shows the tourist
characteristics in which they did not want to know about Puerto Rico and its
people. Also, this is connected with Jamaica Kincaid's idea of being a tourist in A Small Place, because Kincaid clearly discuss how tourists never deeply
know the place where they visit and how they are ignorant to the situations and
the history of the place they are visiting. Kincaid in her essay A Small Place defines a tourist as: “An
ugly human being” (14), this is totally true and it is clearly represented in
the film by Lotterman’s character when said: “This is America” and Kemp
answered to him: “This is Puerto Rico” and by Sanderson’s character when said
to the Puerto Ricans that are trying to access to the beach: “This is a private
beach!”. Definitively, tourists are ugly human beings who just want to
appropriate from the land, which they are visiting. These things create the
feelings of hate and angry from the Puerto Ricans toward the Americans. This
hate was represented in the film when a group of Puerto Ricans starts to chase Sala
and Kemp. The group of Puerto Ricans called Sala and Kemp: “Hey Yankee!” and
they also insulted them. This Puerto Rican attitude and hate is similar to the
Antiguan’s attitude described in Kincaid’s essay.
Finally, the film clearly exposes the idea of being a tourist or a
traveler. I love the transformation that Kemp’s character experienced because
he shows that everything is a factor of perception. Kemp’s character brings an
important message to the public. Kemp says: “He knows the price of everything,
the value of nothing” and “I wonder what it is you might think about our
different worlds. Human beings are the only creature on Earth that claim a God
and the only living thing that behaves like it has not got one”. These means
that some human beings believe they are superior to others and some people
believe they can go through everybody to achieve what they want. At the end of
the film Kemp says: “…because I finally understood the connection between
children scavenging for food and shiny brass plates on the front doors of banks”.
This is similar to the relation between Puerto Rico and the United States of
American in the 1960s until now which was summarized in the film.
