SpellBound Notes

Monday December 10, 2012

SpellBound

1. Choose one subject (person). Describe how winning the spelling bee is important to that subject.

- Ashley. She wants to look important and stand out in life so that she can have a job that pays well and be able to be there for her family. That is whats important for her. 

1. Write down five words that you did not know how to spell until seeing them in Spellbound.

• mongrel
• epitome 
• cephalalgia
• trachodon
• zaibatsu
• encephalon 

1. Do you have something in your life like the National Spelling Bee? Describe some of the pressure you feel.

- Yes I do. I participate in Tennis competitions representing the Country Club of Bogota. They are similar because they are both competitions in which you are on your own. The pressure is all on you and you feel that if you lose you're going to disappoint a lot of people. 

1. Should we still have spelling bees? Why? Why not?

- Sure we should. People that like these kinds of competition but are mot into sports can have their shot at doing what they like to do. Everybody should have a passion with something and some people like spelling bees, so they should still go on. Everybody should have the chance to feel like the best at something. 

Rhetoric Examples

ETHOS EXAMPLE 

This advertisement is a great example for ethos since its trying to get the consumer´s trust. By seeing that the "Icy-Hoy Patch" is used by Shaquille O´Neal, they trust the product since a celebrity that probably needs it a lot, uses the patch for pain relief and healing of bruises.


LOGOS EXAMPLE

This advertisement for MD toilet paper is a very good example of logos since its showing the consumer exactly what he's going to get by buying the product. The ad gives detailed information to the consumer about the product and puts everything there for the buyer to see.


PATHOS EXAMPLE

This advertisement for Pepsi is a great example for Logos since it gives emotions to the ad. The woman is spraying a pepsi on as if it will make her sexier, since the new pepsi light is sexy. It gives the consumer the emotion or idea that by drinking pepsi light, you will look sexier.

Opinion Response: Portrait of the Girl Blogger

To see that the BBC wrote an article with the purpose of spreading Malala´s story is amazing. Malala started writing a for the BBC Urdu when she was 11 with the purpose of letting the world know what life under the Taliban rule is like. Her blog posts are breathtaking. She speaks completely honestly, ignoring the consequences that she was exposed to face. As i read the posts that were shared by the BBC, a new image of the Pakistan landed in my mind, as well as the sympathy of horror that the population there is facing. 

In every post, Malala shares a bit of the horror she has faced through her childhood. Horror no child should ever face. For instance, her post on January 3rd 2009, states that she was actually afraid of going to school, since the Taliban had passed an edict forbidding girl´s education. Her school was affected by the edict, since only 11 out of 27 kept attending after the law was passed. They also had to change the school uniforms into casual dress, so that the Taliban would not find out that the school was still working.

Malala is admirable, ignoring the fear of her people and nevertheless letting the world know the horrors under Taliban rule. Her writing really shocked me and got though to me, giving me a completely different image of the suffering in the middle east. It is truly shocking that she got shot, simply for publishing the truth and I hope that doesnt stop her from writing. 

Opinion Response: Pakistani Activist, 14, shot in Swat

The fact that Taliban Militants are capable of firing upon a woman is unbelievable, but shooting at a 14 year old girl, is simply inhuman. Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen while she was surrounded by other school girls, injuring Malala severely as well as one of the other girls. The Taliban had ordered a shut down of all girl´s school houses. Malala started writing for the BBC Urdu when she had turned 11, two years after the Taliban had taken over.

This article truly left me breathless. Even living in Colombia, a country that has been at war for 50 years and still is, this kind of action is terrifying. This is an extraordinary example to see what kind of savage animals to the Taliban truly are. Malala was considered a public figure, a child writing about her daily life to the world. "We attacked her because she was anti-Talliban and secular, she simply could not be spared." - Ehsanullah Ehsan, statement to BBC Urdu. The arrogance of the Taliban led them to open fire upon a young girl that was simply expressing herself publicly, giving a glimpse of Taliban rule to the rest of the world. 

I considered Malala a true hero after reading this article. It is a proven fact that her father and herself received death threats, since they were both activists fighting for education right of women. Malala used the pen name Gul Makai, and her real identity only emerged after the Taliban were driven to the Swat valley by Pakistani military action. For this reason, she started writing her experience under their extreme Shaira Law implementation. 

Malala received a national award for bravery, as well as being nominated for an international children´s peace award. She is a true hero for her courageous writing acts, ignoring any kind of threat that presented itself. 

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Dowry

I was sattisfied in this chapter as I noticed my biggest question had an answer. Majri was the name of our little girl, the one with the dreams of becoming a prophet and forbidding all suffering. The same Majri that used to speak to god at night and was now heading off to an overseas boarding school, shortly after being kicked out of her other school. The girl is afraid to leave but at the same time happy and that is how I connected in this final chapter to the book. When my parents told me we were going to live in London, I sensed the same mix of anxiety, happiness, and fear. To find that we both ended up leaving and doing fine in our designations roved to me that the character and me did have several ways to connect as I enjoyed the book.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Sheep

When I read this chapter, I reached the conclusion that the little girls parents were my personal enemies as the reader. To see how the little girl connected to well to Anoosh, specially the way he protected the girl from her parents I admired greatly. That is why it hurt me that her parents probably noticed that but still didn't care to hide the fact he was sent to jail from her, even just for a minute. The bond they had was much greater than what the parents liked or accepted. When the girl was able to visit him, that made me very happy as a reader, although I inferred he was going to be killed in prison. Shortly, I found out I was right as Anoosh was executed and the girl realized how big of a war had began.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Passport

When I read the title of this chapter, I immediately imagined the passport that was going to be explained was for the girl to leave the country. As I actually started reading, I was shocked by her going from a child to an adult. Later in, I encountered the remarkable man that I considered Taher to be, after surviving two heart attacks and living on happily. When I was happy with this character, I stumbled with the tragedy of a grenade landing close to his apartment, which caused yet another heart attack. For a moment there, I thought the author was going to make his stay at the hospital a tragic bump in the road but nothing big. Then I was shocked to see the passport was actually to get him to England for a strongly equipped surgery, which he needed. At that moment, I suspected he wasn't going to make it, specially since the whole chapter was dedicated to the attempt to save him. Sadly, I was right and Taher passed away.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-Persepolis

When I saw the title of this chapter, I knew it was going to confuse me in some way or another. As I read it, I felt a scary connection between the little girl and me. For starters, she tries to find out about her grandfather by talking to her grandmother, who only avoids talking about him. Here, I was able to connect because my grandfather died when I was about 10 years old, but I never really got to know him. I probably saw him once a year and truly regret not sharing with him. Now that he has passed, if the topic arrises in a family conversation, it is immediately avoided, Im not sure why. As the chapter went on, it was late one night when the girl´s father hadnt returned. The family started to think he was dead and were very concerned about him. In this part, I had my deepest connection beacuse her family started to worry for their dad as well as my family did for my father. I had just began school when he suffered internal bleeding in his brain, rushed out of the country in a plane-ambulance I truly didnt know about how he was doing for a whole month, as well and my mom not being here but instedad being in the US with him, on my month of school. Fortunetly, we both got our fathers back healthy, him being late at night photographing the rebel take over around the hospital and the deaths that it caused.
Overall, the chapter was not as confusing as I imagined it, but rather interesting. My questions remained as well as my anxiety to keep reading.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Veil

The comic book Persepolis starts with an odd but rather interesting introduction. The author started the first chapter by criticizing the Islamic culture from a child, the main charater´s, point of view. The introduction told the reader how the girl was born at the beginning of the Islamic revolution and how this affected her life as a little girl. She questioned that suddenly her school required the girls to wear veils. Then the school breaks apart to different boy and girl schools. This puts her in much doubt, as well as seeing the changes in society with the beginning of the revolution. In this chapter, the author also introduces the fact that this girl´s dream is to become the last prophet. With this, she starts living that part of her life and talking to god every night before going to sleep. I personally had never thought of these point of views when I see the news about a new reform in the Middle East for example. The children´s point of view is usually ignored and not taken into consideration for public awareness. So mostly, I was left with three questions from this chapter: 1. What is the girl´s name? 2. How does she make her point of view important to society and 3. How will she succeed as the prophet she wants to be.

Reading Blog tablet XI

When I first entered this very long but interesting tablet, I was confused. I first thought Gilgamesh was very sad about Enkidu, full of hate, maybe even blaming himself. In this Tablet he seeks immortality. This shows me that he is greedy. He was sad that Enkidu died and now he doesn't want that to happen to him so its now all bout him becoming immortal. When he reaches Utnapishtim and the adventure is told, I started thinking how I could have ever considered the two others as heroes if their courage and path don´t have comparison to all Utnapishtim. I connected this to the Hunger Games book, when the bravery of Katniss joining Peeta and willing the kill them both instead of her winning, that shocked me. It showed me what a hero is like, putting themselves in danger while keeping others from harm`s way.

Reading Blog Tablets VI-VII

As I kept reading to find only the tragic death of Enkidu. It was truly sad to read the pain and sadness that poor Gilgamesh experienced through those tablets and see how the loss truly hit him so hard. Again, I was able to connect to the movie Shooter when Swagger´s partner, Donney, is shot in the field. The film, as well as the text, show the other characters pain very deeply. In the movie, Swagger quits the army and "gets off the grid" for about 3 years. In the text, Gilgamesh agonizes his friend´s death by putting up a statue and dreaming several nights about him. Its clear that in both stories, the survivors suffered for their loss a lot.

Reading Blog Tablets IV-V

As I continued reading through these action packed tablets, I did what i thought impossible. I was able to connect even more to the book! It was astonishing to see that the powerful partners were able to defeat Huwawa and felt very happy that our two characters and I could connect that well. The way they moved also let me connect to the movie "Shooter", when the two snipers were such good friends as well as buddies in combat. In the movie as well as in the book, they fought and moved as one. They seemed to read each other`s thought to who did what at what moment and fought incredibly. The bravery and courage that these men in the two stories had, it totally blew my mind, specially because I would never be able to go that far. I really admire these heroes and cant wait to keep on reading to find what other adventures they go to.

Reading Blog Tablet I-III

Tablets I-III

In this part of the book, I truly connected to Enkidu and Gilgamesh. They started competing with each other to see who was the greatest and mightiest of all, in a way that I did in my old school. When I lived in London, my best friend and I had a very interesting relationship. We fought for "power" in the playground but were still very close. I saw this with Enkidu and Gilgamesh at the beginning of their relationship. What truly connected them later on was a sort of hate. They both went and fought Huwawa, which gave them a common enemy and unconciounsely united them. That is what happened to Jack and Me; when we both started getting bullied by the same kid in our class. We united forces and got everyone in our class to turn against him, a thing which I am ashamed of now. Since this happened to me in real life, I predict that Enkidu and Gilgamesh will be able to defeat Huwawa uniting their great strength and force. 

Favorite Photo Inference

This photo lets me infer:

1. global warming is not only affeting humans
2. homes for other species are being destroyed by global warming and its time to worry about others, not only the humans
3. Polar bears will soon run out of ice to live on