Brian Friel: Translations Act 1

In class we were discussing the five things that you should consider when analyzing a text. First, being context, to look at who is writing the piece, when was it published, what is the work's discipline, etc. According to Wikipedia, Brian Friel is the greatest living dramatist and the "universally accented voice of Ireland."He was born January 9, 1929 in Northern Ireland. Brian Friel got his B.A. from St. Pat's College, Mynooth and worked as a teacher until 1960. Translations was one of his later works, written in 1980. The play is set in 1833 and we are introduced to many characters in Act 1. Manus is the oldest son of Hugh, in his late twenties early thirties. He does everything with zeal and intensity, and he is lame and wears shabby clothes. Sarah is described as a mute anywhere from the age of 17 to 35 and has a dainty, waiflike appearance. Jimmy Jack Cassie is the 'Infant Prodigy', a bachelor in his 60’s who never washes, and wears the same coat, gloves and hat all year round. Maire is a strong-minded, strong-bodied woman in her 20’s and she has an interesting relationship with Manus. Doalty in his 20’s, open-minded, open-hearted, generous, slightly thick and is usually drunk. Bridget is in her 20’s, plump, fresh young girl, ready to laugh, vain, with a countrywoman’s instinctive cunning. Hugh is a large man with residual dignity, shabbily dressed, carrying a stick, in his early 60’s, and he is the head of the hedge-school which all of these civilians attend. Owen is his younger son who has been gone for six years and has just returned, He is handsome, attractive, in his 20’s, dressed smartly, easy, charming, considerate and enthusiastic. He owns nine shops in Dublin, owns 12 horses and 6 servants, employed as a part time underpaid civilian interpreter. Lancey, middle aged captain, a small crisp officer expert in his field as a cartographer, uneasy with people, especially foreign civilian. Lieutenant Yolland, late 20’s early 30’s, tall, thin and gangly, blond hair and shy, awkward mannered, a soldier by accident. The first Act ends with the Captain and Lietenant talked to the civilians in the hedge-school.

 

Advising Module 3: Resilience

Coping With Stress & Bouncing Back

• Consider how you handle stress, particularly when it is compounded by exhaustion and health issues. Do you go for a walk? Take a tv break? Read a poem? Call a friend? Hit the treadmill? Take a nap? Why??
• I handle stress in many different ways depending on what it is I'm stressed about. If homework is stressing me then I usually take a break from it by going to workout, watching TV, hanging out with friends; pretty much anything that will get my mind off of it for an hour or so. Then when I return to it later I am able to start fresh and reenergized. I usually can't take naps when I'm stressed about my workload because then I just think about how much stuff I could be, and should be getting done. If relationships or situations are stressing me out I will usually call a friend or go and talk to someone. It helps me to talk about what is causing me stress because then I can get another opinion on how to handle it. If it is a situation that only I can make the decision on, then I go for a walk or write down what I'm thinking to try and sort out my thoughts and clear my mind. 

• When you trip or fall down academically, do you make a plan to recover?  Seek out help?
• If I get a bad grade on an essay or a quiz or exam I usually just try even harder then next time to do better. I take the critiques from the professor and try to not make the same mistakes I did the first time around. I have gone to the writing center which I found helpful for papers and I have gone to study groups to help with studying for exams. Sometimes I try different study techniques to find which works best for me. 

Maintaining the Momentum

• Are the skills you want to develop either here or after SMC (languages, computer skills, etc)?
• I don't plan on doing any additional education after SMC like graduate school so everything I want to learn I hope to do so here. I will always continue to learn things throughout life but I don't have any plans in the future to get additional education. I'm still not sure what I want to major in so things might change.

• Are there countries or cultures you'd like to know more about?
• I want to study abroad while here at SMC and then hopefully continue to travel in my future. I currently want to go to Rome next year. I'm taking Italian now and hope to continue learning it and be able to use what I know in Rome. I want to learn their language as well as their culture and other foreign cultures. I want to experience more than just the American lifestyle, which is all I know now. 

Career Crossing 2

Seeing the video about the African woman and her encounters with One Stories was interesting and did give me a new perspective on stereotypes. It is true that everyone has their own stories and that we can't generalize or assume things about people because of their race or where they come from. However, I think we use stereotypes as a way to relate to others who seem foreign to us or who we are not familiar with. If I met someone from a different country, I would immediately try to picture their country from what I knew of it. This could be a stereotypical image of the country, but it would be all I knew and was a way for me to relate to this person. Not everyone is able to go to every country and be able to have first hand experiences with every place to form their own opinions. This is why we resort to stereotypes. No one can meet every single person and hear each individual story so we generalize Americans, Europeans, Africans, etc. This is not to be racist or judgmental but just a way to feel like we know a little bit about everyone else in the world. Stereotypes don't just come out of nowhere, they are formed for a reason. That does not mean that everyone fits into the stereotype but that for the most people that is how people are.

Persepolis

Persepolis was definitely not what I had expected it to be and I was happy to actually enjoy reading it. I thought it was an interesting style in writing and there was a sense of comedy and yet there was seriousness and a deeper message. In the first book, page 81 the author gives a comical sense to it and the pictures show the worry but also add to the sarcastic sense. It is about a serious subject being war but when the mom says well I guess I should dry off and war always takes you by surprise, it lightens the mood. This made it more realistic for me because war isn't something that you plan and everyone is ready for. It really can take you by surprise. In Persepolis 2 I was surprised that Marj went on to marry Reza because she was such an independent women and didn't want to form to the social expectations. Yet she did so anyways, all the while her parents knowing that it wouldn't last. Just like in I know Why The Caged Birds Sings, Marj seems to lose her voice throughout her life. She moves around and everyone she goes she feels like a foreigner. Page 23 she gains her voice back by standing up to the nuns who insulted her people, and again on page 43. She became more proud of her heritage and her homeland while she was away than when she was actually there.

Graphic Novels

Persepolis was my first graphic novel that I have read but I liked the structure of it. I thought it was good at bringing up an important issue but also had some comical parts as well. It was also easy to read and didn't take very long to do so. As I first began reading it, I didn't realize that it was a memoir but looking back afterwards it clearly was. It was a unique way of portraying one's life and giving a cartoon like feel to it. I also really enjoyed the other graphic article because it was really interesting to think about how our mind works when it sees pictures. Our mind can take any object and someone make it into a face. Does this really make us such self centered beings?? I had never really thought of that before.