8/20/12 Culture

I define culture as how a person lives day to say including how they speak, eat, dress, act, work, and pass time. I think it is extrinsic because you learn how others act and you act like them. You can change culture based on where in the world you live by changing how you dress and speak and interact with others. Culture explains how one person goes about their life and the aspects of how they and the group of people act individually and together.

Journal Entry 8/17/12

Three Facts:
1. There are three people in the painting.
2. The little boy is wearing blue jeans.
3. The seats on the chairs are green.
Three Claims:
1. The three people are talking about the boy running away
2. The shortness of the boy symbolizes his innocence
3. The largeness of the cop shows authority

Pygmalion Journal Entry 2

Throughout the second half of the book, Higgins complains about how Eliza complains about being treated well. I definitely do see both Eliza's and Higgins' side of the story. For Eliza, she was never used to being treated like a lady. She was used to being treated like a low flower girl, which she was. When she was brought into Higgins' care, she began to be treated like a lady, as every girl should be treated. When Eliza began to be treated as such a lady, she began to get expectations as how she should be treated. When these weren't done in such a way that she liked, she claimed that she was being treated badly.
On Higgins' side, not every word that he said should've offended Eliza. I understand that he wasn't really tyring to offend Eliza or make her feel bad. That was just Higgins' nature. He seemed very outspoke and hot-headed. If Higgins' got mad I would not want to be in the room with him.
One question I have is how is Freddy so in love with Eliza when he has never even really met her. Sure he might've seen her a couple times in the street or in Higgins' office, but I don't remember him every getting to know Eliza.
When they kiss after Liza has stormed out of Higgins' building, it says that Liza is  hungry for comfort. Isn't that the only reason why she is kissing him? Becuase she needs comforting? I don't understand how their love blossoms, after never really having many conversations and suddenly their kissing, which is one thing, but then saying that their in love is another. Do people just fall in love the first time they see somebody? I figure the author just needed Liza to go to something and a quick love story would do.
One question that popped into my mind, was why out of all the places she could go, did Liza go to Higgins' mother? Doesn't she know that that would be a quicker place for Higgins to find her than a hotel or another place? I'm guessing she felt welcomed and warm there, though I don't quite understand why.

Pygmalion Journal Entry 1

I thought the main characters were going to be the lady and Clara. The beginning of the book was focusing a lot on those two. But then it shifted its focus on the Flower Girl, so I found out it was about her. The first few pages were hard to tell what th ebook would be about, but I guess it just took a while to start up. I tried to guess at the plot and what would happen, but I had no guesses that were even close to what ended up happening. I predicted that perhaps the Lady and Clara take the Flower Girl home since she doesn't seem to be well off. But that was not correct.
One thing I don't like about the beginning is how the author introduces the character but not with their name. Then later on he uses the character's name. When the book first said "Eliza" I thought they were introducing yet another character, since I hadn't rememebered an "Eliza". I was confused when they stopped talking about "The Flower Girl". Maybe I didn't catch the first time the author tried to use the name better, but that was very confusing and I think could've been done a little smoother.
Another thing that I found confusing was when the author tried to write as the Flower Girl spoke. I couldn't even begin to guess what she was saying, even after trying to read it four or five times. "Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e?" What is that? I know the author used it for emphasis on the girl's dialect, and was a good technique, but i was still confused on what she was trying to say. Maybe if it was a little easier to understand I would fine the technique a little more helpful.

The Pearl Journal Entry 2

One continuous thing I noticed about the writing was the way the author kept saying that Kino's outside was "hardening" - almost like a pearl would. The outside of the grain of sand, like explained in the book, would continue to get harder and harder until it was a pearl. I think the author was trying to draw a deeper connection of Kino and the pearl. Obviously there was a connection because he owned the pearl and he found it, but I think there was a connection, as if when the pearl was showing its evil, Kino also showed his evil. He was killing people and working as a "wild animal" and "machine" as if he didn't have feelings about what he was doing, like the pearl might. And even in the end it said that Kino and Juana had no emotion on their faces. You would think they would since they had just lost their only child.
One question I asked myself while reading the second half was why would the "dark people" kill them for the pearl? Would just stealing it be so bad? And then I thought that maybe they wanted to kill Kino for killing one of the other "dark people" back in the brush house village. And also, who were these people? Were they the pearl buyers trying to get the pearl for free? That would make sense. Or were they jealous neighbors? Though I don't think the neighbors would want to shed blood of Kino for the pearl. I was thinkinging maybe some people who worked for the one person who bought pearls were involved. Since the book said that really only one person had bought the pearls but had many faces, the dark people could be working for him.
Honestly the ending left me a little confused. Where do Kino and Juana live once they get home? Are the neighbors welcoming? Kino and Juana did just leave without notice. I even think that some neighbors thought that Kino and Juana had died. And did they find out that Kino was the one that murdered the man by the beach? The book never even spoke that the village found the body. Did they? You would think that a dead body would be pretty suspicious in a village. I could be wrong.

The Pearl Journal Entry 1

So far I know that Kino and Juana do not have a lot of money and live in a town with many neighbors in brush houses. They sleep on a sleeping mat on the ground and Coyotito sleeps in a box that hangs. I'm wondering why Kino doesn't try to go diving for pearls more often and sell them. Why he doesn't try to look for work for money since he doesn't have any. Never in the first half of the book does it seem like he is worried to find a job and to make money. It's like he is contempt with being poor until he finds the pearl.
One question I asked myself was when Kino foudn the pearl, why did he scream? At first I thought that it was a bad scream because Juana had just said something about Coyotito. I didn't know if he the author was trying to emphasize the excitement and joy of Kino, but I couldn't tell. I thought that maybe he was screaming because there was something still wrong with Coyotito. Which makes sense. People do seem to scream when there is something wrong, not necessarily when something is very right.
And also, I found it weird how everyone in the town suddenly knew that Kino had found the pearl. Was the news traveled by word or was it just a simultaneous thing? It's like as soon as Kino had it, no one had to talk about it, but already people in the nice part of town knew.
I'm trying to guess where this book takes place. THe setting still isn't very clear to me. They talked about pesos in the pricing, so I'm guessing Mexico or Spain. And also, when did this take place? It's not current because they talk about horses as a way of traveling. And I don't think that trading pearls for money is current either, but I could be wrong. But they did talk about the United States as country. So perhaps it takes place in the last century or two.