Life Is Life

“Had not been a week in my new office, when I happened to meet one evening a young Icoglan, extremely handsome and well-made. The weather was very hot; the young man had an inclination to bathe. I took the opportunity to bathe likewise. I did not know it was a crime for a Christian to be found naked in company with a young Turk” We see again gay behaviors and this time is proven. For the way Voltaire treats this issue and what he says about him I could conclude that either he is gay or that he was a very open minded person.
"When you were hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, did you continue to think that everything in this world happens for the best?" After I read this I couldn’t believe that they continued talking in such positivism it kinds of bothers me because Pangloss is like immortal person, because that’s not how life goes first he never dies no matter what (well really no one but he specially) and second of all everything is always perfect and so positive and nice that disturbs me.
In general I found this book really, really nice even though I find it a little bit hard not to read but to understand I think it must be really interesting to read it again sometime in my future. Thanks for everything!!!!!

If You Want Pleasure Create It

I don’t like the way Martin thinks it looks like he was unhappy but I think he also represent a part of how humanity thinks. There’s something especially that he says that I don’t agree on “there is a pleasure in having no pleasure." I really don’t believe this because if it were true then nobody would do anything if you don’t have pleasure you’re going to be an unhappy person that’s life for us to take chances and pursuit things that will make us happy which is the same as pursuing things that gives us pleasure. “to Seignor Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza,” I find it interesting how They refer to the Spaniards I feel that is like a way of mocking the importance they gave them and the long names they had.

The Circle Of Life

The fortune that he gets in El Dorado only makes him a target for robbers to rob. I kind of see a change in attitude in Candides, before he was wealthy he was optimistic and hopeful and believed in what Pangloss preached but after he got wealthy he know started seeing life in a different way. I think that that is the worst error you can ever do in your life because when by some reason change attitude you immediately change with the people you lave and become an arrogant person and more if the money you win is not with hard work. But I also think that everything in life has certain stage and as everyone in life Candide surpassed his crisis. There’s always something that helps us come through situations and for Candide no doubt was Cunegonde. I really found interesting how Martin thinks and how he says that “the world is made, to make us mad” I really don’t understand the purpose of Martin in the book. Chapter 24 is the perfect example of the cycle of life you try then you can’t do it and you desist then you get up again and it starts all over until you obtain what you want and that is what happens in this chapter after he sends Cacambo to search for Cunegonde he has hope then he doesn’t find them and he doesn’t etc…

Monkeys Are Not Humans

In these chapters I started to understand a little more about how Voltaire does to tell what he needs to. We can see how Europeans took over America and how not only Catholicism but Jesuits also exploited the natives. Also the hypocrisy of churches. “he father perceived that my eyelids stirred a little; he put his hand upon my breast and felt my heartbeat; upon which he gave me proper assistance, and at the end of three weeks I was perfectly recovered. You know, my dear Candide, I was very handsome; I became still more so, and the Reverend Father Croust, superior of that house, took a great fancy to me; he gave me the habit of the order, and some years afterwards I was sent to Rome. Our General stood in need of new recruits of young German Jesuits” I think this can be seen as a homosexual attitude which goes against what Jesuits think.

 

The other part I think it was very interesting was when Candide kills the monkeys that were the lovers of the women. I think that the monkeys were natives because everybody saw the natives as monkeys, running around speaking in a weird language.

Fairy Tale

These characters are really ironic starting with the fact that the old woman is the daughter of the pope and how religion acted in those days how the pope breaks his celibacy by having a baby. Also the misconception that people had about life and especially woman. It is horrifying to see how we were treated. They had no conscience about our importance and that women are human to not even religion.  “He preached a beautiful sermon to the soldiers persuading them not to kill us outright. “Cut just one buttock off each of these ladies ” (pg. 56) They all thought it was like a favor that cant be!

There’s was another thing that impressed me because its like all in life and it is that experience make us stronger, like the old woman who had to suffer a lot and because of that she is know a strong person. The more you travel and the more you live the more you know that’s another thing they stress with the old woman story which I totally agree because thanks to that is that a person becomes wise.

For Good Or For Worse

This chapters were very interesting because I really can imagine what they are going through even though I think the language is a little bit sophisticated for me I can see how it was like. I get the feeling that this book is written with the purpose not to narrate a story but to express a point of view. Which probably in Voltaires time it wasnt acceptable. I was really impressed with the impact that power has even in those times and how religion distinguish people. I really cant understand Pangloss preachings about "how everything is for the best" I find it disturbing how Pangloss thinks because its really of reality it is very positive but its not the true or what you have to know in life to survive and be better. 

"For all this is a manifestation of the rightness of things, since if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could not be anywhere else. For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best." (pg. 35) With this we are seeing how they thought and how wrong they were. 

Behind Blind Eyes

This story talks about the visit and old friend is going to make to an old friend.Robert thinks its not such a good idea that his wife’s blind friend comes to visit her. This attitude I really thought was stupid because you have to be very narrow minded to be intimidated by a blind man, because for me that’s what he was intimidated. Robert seems like a coward. But we see how at the end of the story he ends up having a really good time with the blind man, which shows us that you cant judge before knowing.

 

There’s another aspect of this story that called my attention and was about the similarity of all the stories and how could be these connected because all the stories in a way. With respect to drugs and alcohol and there’s also something sad about at least one character in each story that makes me think bout the author and how the author lived and the moment in history in which he wrote this stories.

Regret Is Not Forgive

I’m amazed how people have the ability to hurt people and really ruin their life’s and then act like if nothing had happen that’s not how life works lets say Eileen calling his ex like if nothing had happened you have to stand up for what each person does and you cant expect that after you do something wrong then you can act normal. She left him with two little kids under his charge and that’s not easy and more when he couldn’t find baby sitter.

 

But I liked this story because it shows a little that not everything in life is bad that there’s going to be rough times but everything comes back to place. He found Carol who standed by him and then Mrs. Webster who changed his life. 

The Cake Or The Cake Man

This story really got to me because it’s the typical story of movies that ends in a sad way and also reminded me to life stories in which drunken people kill others because of drinking and driving. I also got a little bit confused with the beginning nut at the end it was all connected. But it is incredible how life can change in one minute like howard said that nothing had been wrong “Until now, his life had gone smoothly …” he had never had a loss and then this shock, and to think that it an happen any minute. And really the cake or the cake man what I mean is that we never expect for nothing to happen to our loved ones but even the day of his birthday can happen.

 

One time I had a friend that lived in Miami and was doing donut and he was going very fast when he fell he hit his head really hard so much that he was in comma like for 1 month and when he finally woke up he had to learn everything again. But the shocking part is that you think that nothing can happen to you but from one moment to another your life can be down.

Surviving Or Living

Once again we see alcohol involved in a story. It starts with everything and every scene containing alcohol. This story was different because it kinds of reflects what people live daily with work and with surviving but it gives the story a negative and sad tone its not very real its really negative because everything that happens is bad and everything that she says is like if nothing could go the right way and it actually doesn’t. Throughout all the story I was thinking that that’s not always bad that it is not like that her job doesn’t work his boy goes with another one and they only drink they never think beyond what is happening to them in the minute.

 

There’s a time in the story where starts wondering about why people don’t drink vitamins or why don’t they buy them or why do her sales woman  quit and she kinds if gives up, in that moment I connected with that because theres time in life were nothing goes right and we wonder why but eventually we find a way out she never did. I wonder if the writer was passing through a hard moment or if alcohol influenced something in his life.

The Still Was Not As Bad As It Could Be

This story was like a close up of things because everything is very descriptive when the old man searches for matches or the conversation the old man has with what it seems like a Latina. But in general I was impressed because you never know what is behind things much of the times you just think about the obvious things and the things that happen as a routine in all the world that is maybe because we are part of the routine and we really don’t realize what life really is because we haven’t had to really life it. In this story is for me like most of the people who really have to work that for them the normal things like sleeping at night or reading a book at night is not the common but instead working and feeling cold and killing or being bullied is the normal and they have the opportunity to see the two faces of reality the hard and the normal part of it whether most of us just see the normal one and we stick to that for life until we bang against the world and there is where we really know what is life and reality.

I also liked how the author approached the title because at the end the train was the closing moment it’s the back to normal part back to being common and just another person not like before in the story where they are somebody who suffers who kills who smokes who talks etcc..

3 Is Like 1

This story is basically the story of how an alcoholic ruins its life. For me this story was more than the wife helping his ex to unplug his ears it s more like the opportunity to describe how an alcoholic behaves. Because we can see how he finds any second or any excuse to go and drink. He also thinks that only because he drinks champagne which morally would be less aggressive than lets say rum doesn’t mean that he is no hurting himself he is because he drinks like 3 bottles per day so what is the difference. We also can see how everything starts changing he sleeps a lot so much that he plug his ears because he has been so much time lying down in that side of his head.

 

There’s a moment in the story that Inez tries to talk to him about stuff, which involved them, and she couldn’t even talk to him because he was like in another planet. I think that being and living with an alcoholic must be very difficult because they are not in a normal mind state they cannot think right.

 

 

 

Camel Back Riding

This short story has many sides to it because you can interpret it in many different ways first of all how the author uses Myers son as an excuse to be able to tell the story because at the end we don’t really know what eventually happens if he re unites with his son if he just passes the station were he had to go down or what. At first we get he feeling that the story is all about how father and son were separated because of his fault but then it starts sounding weird because they haven’t talked for a long time and then all of a sudden Myers receives a letter form his son but as the story continues you realize the story revolves around another setting and subject and that is the train.

 

 

This story reminded me to one time that we were on a trip through Europe and we were half the trip after we had gone everywhere to Egypt and had gone camel back riging and million places and we left our camera there like in a seat in my jacket and I went ot the bathroom and when I got back it wasn’t there it was the worst because all our trip had been recorded in that camera.

Preservation Or Renovation

I was really connected with this short story because I don’t know why I related it to feminism and to Colombian men. How women work and are capable to sustain the house without saying a word and Sandy’s husband just lies in his bed all day, while Sandy works and on top of that she gets home to cook dinner. One day she gets home and almost everything in the fridge is damage because her husband wasn’t even able to clean the fridge, and we are so noble Sandy doesn’t even say anything. If Sandy would’ve been the one who stayed at home she would never have let that happened.

But everything wasn’t as bad for this family because even though the fridge broke they after that were able to go to an auction which was a very important time for Sandy because it remembered her to her father and had the opportunity to buy a new one.

Chefs House: Is It About Love

This story ended a little bit weird but after thinking about it I realized that it all rounded up to a single point. In this story Wes an alcoholic goes to live in a house far away to stay sober and live a better life and invites his wife to the house. Throughout the book we can see an evolution about Edna’s way of thinking. At first Edna is not sure she wants the old Wes back and their old way of living back but he as an alcoholic won’t do it.” I found myself wishing the summer wouldn’t end. I knew better, but after a month of being with Wes in Chef’s house, I put my wedding ring back on. I hadn’t worn the ring in two years. Not since the night Wes was drunk and threw his ring into a peach orchard.” (pg. 28) This is a clear example that she was happy again with his love.

At the end when Chef tells them they have to get out of the house and the think or are sacred that maybe everything is going to be over they kind of realize that good things don’t last forever but that they two do and that they can do everything together. “Wes got up and pulled the drapes and the ocean was gone just like that. I went to start supper. We still had some fish in the icebox. There wasn’t much else. We’ll clean it up tonight, I thought, and that will be the end of it.” (pg 33) This is how the book ends but you can feel how the story continues meaning that the house made them reconciliate and the story is about the house not about the couple that’s why it ends like inconclusive.

Feathers: Was That The Only Problem

It narrates a story that happens to all of us in a sense that everyone of us or at least everyone that has had a relationship not necessary a girlfriend simply a relationship has had to go through dinners like this one which is boring with people that are not you’re kind of people and where you feel out of place but are those kinds of things you have to do but that everything goes wrong. Or they just start kind of weird. Like for example the first you meet your parents in law that is the most awkward situation or when you’re asked to please go with your grandmother or mother to visit a really old relative that in the moment you enter the room its weird.

I also noticed or what I think is that the whole thing about the baby and the dinner and Olla implies us something and it is that she is never going to have babies and in fact that is what they tell us at the end of the story but I got the feeling in the whole story that it wanted to make a point to prove something and the why about it in this case how Fran felt about having babies. For example when Fran says that she hasn’t even met his nephew or all of the things she says about Ollas baby when if you where thinking of being a mother would have a different attitude towards the baby meaning that instead of saying it was ugly maybe she would’ve said like oh his mother loves him so much and also would’ve said something like you would love your son no matter what. And Fran was disgusted with the bird also everything was going wrong with the dinner becauise she was predisposed.

Rich Or Poor

In this part of the handbook I really liked because he talks of differenht ways to see things and that is very important for you to succeed in life for example in number 43 "Everything has to handles, one by which it may be carried and the other not." This is really true because everything that happens in life good or bad has two ways in wich a person can see them. And I really think that this makes you either happy or sad. Theres many times in which we atke things more serously than what they really are and this would make the difference between fighting or not. Theres another part I really liked that is when he says that because " you're richer you're superior" which would be invalid but instead if you say that if you're richer would mean that you're poperties are superior that yours would be a more appropiate assumption.


He also talks about how sometimes men behave in a lazy manner like if they were smaller thyan what they really are and I really agree on this because it really true that you always have to act older than what you are and always be prepared to be able to confront life situation in which you will not always be able to handle but there sometimes that if you approach certain situations in an older way it will always be easier to deal with and obviously mature. "If you now neglect things and are lazy and are always making delay after delay and set one day after another as the day for paying attention to yourself, then without realizing it you will make no progress but will end up a non-philosopher all through life and death. So decide now that you are worthy of living as full-groen man who is making progress, and make everything that seems bes be a law that you cannot go against." (pg. 28) This quote totally says how people should think to keep on and to have purposes because I really think that you should always propose higher standards that what you think you can achieve.

Decisions For Fortune

The point he makes about fortune telling is totally right because and I have been impressed with this text because I have seen that even though it was written long time ago it still has to do with now a days it is applicable with things we see today in movies or in books. Its is unbelievable that even in these days many years after this was written people still believe in things like fortune tellers. On number 33 it talks about not trusting basically anyone and to not talk or laugh more than necessary I really don't believe it is applicable in these days because for those days the only ones who really had a word were the kings and queens and nobody else nut now a days everyone says everything they have in their mind no matter what and I like it that way its interesting and I think its a really useful way to be able to know about everything and the more you know about things the more cultured person you become.

I think that whatever you are going to do do it it with pride and that is basically what Epictetus says on number 35 which I think is were many problems start because people just don't do the things de frente but they hide it like if they were afraid of something and that is being a coward. Number 37 says " If you undertake some role beyond your capacity, you both disgrace yourself by taking it and also thereby neglect the role that you were unable to take." I interpreted this as being humble which is really a virtue that helps us a lot in life to learn to know ourselves and to know what each and every one of us is able to do and when to do it so you cant just get any job when you are not prepared for it and there's nothing wrong in admitting you cant with that specific job there's going to be a lot of other jobs which will fit perfectly for you.

I You And The Rest

This section of the hand book was very interesting because it talks in a very radical way which I like and that sometimes we don't see because we many times think with our heart when we really don't have to. For example in number 23 that it says that " If it ever happens that you turn outward to want to please another person, certainly you have lost your plan of life." (pg. 17) I think that to please other persons is really comforting you feel good everybody likes that the persons they love are happy and more if there is something you can do to make that person you love even happier its a good feeling. For example if your mom is sad and you give her a chocolate and she smiles hats the best feeling you can have. I also think that there's lots of things that you do are you don't that come from your heart and are inevitable and that if you don't do they will be on you for the rest of your life.

On number 29 it says "For each action,  consider what leads up to it and what follows it, and approach it in the light of that. Otherwise you will come to it enthusiastically at first, since you have not borne in mind any of what will happen next, but late when difficulties turn up you will give up disgracefully. You want to win Olympic victory? I do too, by the gods, since that is a fine thing. But consider what leads up to it and what follows it, and undertake the action in the light of that. You must be disciplined, keep a strict diet, stay away from cakes...." (pg.19) I love this one because I really think that it is the key to succeed in life and your work always to think beyond and in the present and the example they give there explains it perfectly and it is a very realistic way to approach dreams and decisions.

To Be Or Not To Be

After reading the handbook I really thoguht it is a difficult text to read but it s very interesting beacuse the way they thinked about things and the way they saw life I have found it is really interesting for example number 10 I found really wise advice and not only situating yourselfs in that time but also for life today. It says that whatever you do if you do it constantly you will eventually get used to it and then it will become automatic he tells us that if you become used to self control, endurance, and patience. Then you will beocme used to it and will not be carried away by appearances, which is really the greatest problem wich I think affect some ourselves by thinking and letting outer things influence us, but for every one of us to be able to develop certain characteristics we have to be exposed to situations that most of the time are really hurtful "If hardship comes to you you will find endurance."(pg.14) To be strong you have to face a hard situation . I think its like if you dont know white then you cant know black thats the same with this situations. 

I really agreed with most of the points of this part even though I thought there were some that were pretty harsh because they are really extreme that only talk about one selve. Like number six "Dont be joyfull about any superiority that is not your own." This paper also prepares yourselve to death and how neither you or the ones you love will live forever. 

True Or Not True

In this chapter we see how the final and only veredict is given and how he has the ocnversation with the father about god and about he should hold on to god to get over everything about jail. We see how in a moment his lawyer says about the trial that he didnt understand if they were really triyng him because of a murder or because he was bad wih his mother. But I think these two events are pretty connectd because one thing has to do with the other because its a way to prove his attitude towards life and how he approaches thigns so its obvious that they included that into the trial. Everyone knew he had killed the guy so they had to prove if it had been in self defense or notand what a better wya to prove it than to prove that his personality was going to let him act the way he did. And the best exaple for it was the way he acted with his mother because if he acted like that with his mother then it had to be obvious that he was going to be able to hurt anyone wothout any remorse.

The Veredict

In this chapter we can see how Meursault is convicted. As I read this chapter I didnt have mercy for him I to think he is guilty. He doesnt deserve to live like all the other people I really think he could be danger for society. Because what could be more dangerous that a man that doesnt have a soul that doesnt have moral that doesnt even recognize what is wrong or what is true, a man that doesnt feel pain or remorse. That has to be condemend its not fair with society and what about Marie did he think about her NOT he didnt even think about the people who were there for him and realy loved him he didnt fight for themm not even for himself and thats not life he deserves what he got.

Change Of Thinking

in this chapter we see a real change in how our main character is thinking i got the feeling that in this chapter he relaizedf that life is more than waiting and doing accordingly here he really realizes that did something wring and its teh first time taht he shows real feelings for example with his friend that he says that it is thwe first time he felt as giving a man a kiss. I think this chaoter gave the book a turn beacuse begfore I felt the charactyer distant and cold here I could see another face in him a more human face he actually says he wants to cry. This happens a lot in real life because theres osmetimes you think that you can do it all and you go over people that love you and appreciate you and at the end you realize that you have worries and feelings and that youre not alone in the world that when you really need somenone you do have friends that care about you. At last I feel something towards teh amin character and this feeling I would describe as compassion.

Live Life

In this chapter I realized many things in which I can include that I was really impressed with the attitude of the character towards his situation it reflected how the character didnt have any purposes and how he didnt look forward to anything in life. I can compare it a little bit with the book in spanish called Cobro de Sangre by Mario Mendoza where we see tha main character almost in the same situation and they are very similar because when they have the opportunity to scape out of prison they dont use it it seems like if they didnt care about anything in life and like if they didnt get he meaning of life and that the fun part of it is being free but Meursault is assimalationist he thinks that he can adjust to everything no matter what and I really disagree with how he thinks we have to fight for what we really want in life no matter what not with what he have or what life brings it off course you hace to get the best ot of each situation but fight for what you want, but meurault has de same attitude as Sotomayor in Cobro de Sangre they dont fight it they really have it with where they are and its a really mediocre way of thinking, but ither than what I think I found this chapter really interesting because at last the scenario was changed.

Part two Chapter 1

This chapter had a real unexpected turn for me because throughout what I had already read I had seen Meursault as a person that didnt care about anything or anyone and viceversa but in this chapter he we can see how society returned all that ignorance with which he acted in life because when he shot the arab he did it because he didnt care he didnt really think about it but this time it paid off and now he is in jail so no matter how ignorante you are and the less you put into life it all pays back. And in this chaoter for the first time we see how Meursault couldnt live like he was he thought he could do it alone and that he didnt need anyone and that theres was nothing wrong with people who did bad things because it was not his problem but that is not the case in real live you have to be very careful with the decisions you make in life because im a real believer that everything in life returns what comes around goes around.

Part One Chapter 6

 This chapter was very impresive starting because we can see how our main character shows once and again his coldeness towards life and persons. We can see also that he is really into Marie and Raymond who have been his real companions all along what he have read. We can see here that he commits a criminal act but I think he doesnt necesarily has to kill to be a criminal for example when raymond asked meursault about what to do with his girl if he should beat her he didnt stop it which is as terrible as killing not preventing an asault to life or an act that is obvously bad is as bad as killing its a crime. In the other hand we also see how is not expressive at all but I also think that the authro is maybe trying to represent something of society in the story. An aspect of our culture.

Chapter 5

In this chapter I really realized the meaning of the book and how a strange boko it is becuase when we talked about it in class I really didnt understand but in this chapter I giot the idea of the book. This book shows us a face of life taht exists but that we never se or realize about neithe rin books or in movies. This man has no ambitions and everything for him is like the same he doesnt really matter if he marries or not or whatever if his life is not distubed he has no problem with anything thats why when his boss tells him if he would want to work in paris he says no not beacuse he would like it or not just simply beacuse his ordinary life would get disturbed and he is a confortable person who doesnt like it. I think that in life a lot of us sometyimes take thisn attitude to new or challenging oportunites and we get lazy or scared and just avoid unconfortable situations and that is not a right attitude towards life because I think that life is about chalenges and oportunites that only come once in your life and thats when you have to get them.

Chapter 4

In chapter four is when the dog of salamano is lost. I found this chapter very contradictory qith respect to the attitude given by meursault towards de death of his mother beacuse he almost didnt notice while with the loss of the dog salamano cries so I found really interesting to see the contrast of the two reactions towards losses. I found this chapter better than the other two because something happened that was not normal something that was not included in their daily rutine. I also goit to know a little bit more the main character because even though he is a quiet man with no real purposes in life or at leats not ones that we can clearly see he has friends and it seems he is a man thatinspires trust because his neighbors go to him for advice and really hear what he has to say. But he seems not to be interesteed in anything more than himself his advices are fast he doesnt really think about what he is going to say or thinking in the other person or what would be best for the person he just says the first thing he thinks.

Chapter Three

In this chapter I found something especially interesting and it was the fact that his boss was very nice to him that day becuase he knew about meursault loss and he was being especially kind because he deduced he was sad and meursault refers to this attitude as strange which is very weird because it is obvious that if somebody has a loss well the persons with whom you sahre your time are going to be really carefull beacuse youre going to be sensitive. Its also really lame what he thinks about how salamano treats his dog. Everyone notices that he is really mean to the dog but meursault just doesnt care and doesnt relaize things. Even though his attitude is really not caring I really think its an aspect of life or humanity that we all have gone through because theres many times were we just do as if we didnt care when really we do and we just try to avfoid things in life which at the end are inevitable.

Chapter Two

In this chapter is when we really realize about the characters real attitude towards life because in the first chapter it wasnt clear but heer we realize the attitude of loneliness and how he is really not unterested in anything or anyone. When he talks about his mother and her death its like if he didnt care and in work he asks for some free days but I feel he does it more for beacuse tahts what you do when somebody close dies that your sad and youhace to be alone for some time but he does it beacuase tahts how it works not really because he feels it and with tings like this ones is that I feel that he is a stranger taht only follow rules of society to continue almost as with a lazy attitude.