Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A Hanging

This narration begins by setting the reader in a jail yard in Burma; the author then describes the cells, and continues by saying that the condemned men pertained to them. Outside of a cell was a Hindu, a man that soldiers were preparing to hang; I was astonished at how the story says that the man acted when the soldiers were handcuffing him, he did not resist, instead he yielded to them. As the story develops we see the insensible feelings of the soldiers towards the poor man that’s going to be hanged; personally I believe that they do it as a routine as something ordinary that has to be done, and the faster they get the job done the better it is.

What I found to be the point of the story, or the peak is that the author notices that the man steps aside as to not step on a puddle, and that’s when he begins to think about the fact that that man was as alive as he was. Truthfully, this narration shows that the human mind can be triggered by anything, and that we can either do something about it or ignore it; in this case the author though feeling bad because he realized that it is an unfair act to cut someone’s like short when its at its tide, he didn't speak up nor do anything, he simply went along with it.

If I was asked to think of a way that this essay influenced me in my life I would say that it shows us something important which is that sometimes though were conscious about things that happen around us we never really show much attention to it, and if we do we don’t take care of it with actions. Also, through the reading I sensed hypocrisy because even though he was aware that it is a cruel act to cut someone’s life short he then proceeded to laugh and make jokes and drink whiskey with the other soldiers as if the event that had just occurred didn’t mean anything to him. The author by not doing anything was just as insensitive as the soldiers that wanted to get the job done quickly so that they could have the rest of the day for themselves.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Borges and I

In my opinion, I found Borges story to be perplexing. When I read it the first time I didn’t grasp the concept that Borges was trying to portray, only after the second time did I notice that Borges was referring to an internal conflict that he finds himself dealing with. Though puzzling, I found the story to be distinctive because the way that Borges conveys his use of words makes it unique from other stories. Also, what makes this story fascinating is that when you think that you finally realize what Borges was trying to express through his reading he closes off the story with a bewildering statement such as, “I do not know which of us has written this page;” phrases like that are found threw the whole story and truthfully they threw me off completely.