Liv Castro 3298

From The “Writing Women’s Lives” Documentary Overall I thought that this documentary was really engaging. It followed a group of women, Gloria Steinem, Doris Lessing, Amy Tan, Isabel Allende, Bharati Mukherjee, Harriet Doerr, June Jordan, and Mona Simpson, and described what writing meant to them. Each woman came from a different background and had different life experiences, but they all had one thing in common and that was their love for writing. They described writing as something that they felt that they needed to do. They did not write for fame or fortune, but they wrote because they wanted to make a difference. I thought it was interesting that a lot of the authors that were interviewed said that they all had different routines when it came to writing. One woman described how she would listen to a song while she wrote so that when she resumed the next day she would still be in the same head space. Another woman said that she did not have a routine at all and would simply write w...

From "Lost In Translation" by Eva Hoffman I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Eva’s transition from Poland to Vancouver. “There are some turns of phase to which I develop strange allergies. “You’re welcome” for example, strikes me as a gaucherie, and I can hardly bring myself to say it, I suppose because it implies that there’s something to be thanked for, which in Polish would be impolite. The very places where language is at its most conventional, where it should be most taken for granted, are the places where I feel the prick of artifice.” (Hoffman, 389) “Nostalgia is a source of poetry, and a form of fidelity. It is also a species of melancholia which used to be thought of as an illness. And I walk the streets of Vancouver, I am pregnant with the images of Poland, pregnant and sick, Tesknota (nostalgia) throws a film over everything around me, and directs my vision in word. The largest presence within me is the welling up of absence, of w...

F rom “Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name” by Audre Lorde I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Audre’s relationship with her mother and her time in first grade. “My mother was different from other women, and sometimes it gave me a sense of pleasure and specialness that was a positive aspect of feeling set apart. But sometimes it gave me pain and I fancied it the reason for so many of my childhood sorrows. If my mother were like everybody else's maybe they would like me better. But most often, her difference was like the season or a cold day or a steamy night in June. It just was, with no explanation or evocation necessary.” (Lorde, 497) “The thing that I remember best about being in the first grade was how uncomfortable it was, always having to leave room for my guardian angel on those tiny seats, and moving back and forth across the room from Brownies to Fairies and back again.” (Lorde, 509) The first quote explains Audre’s relationship with her mot...

From “Times and Places” by Emily Hahn I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Emily’s addiction to opium.  “Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that as the reason I went to China. The opium ambition dates back to that obscure period of childhood when I wanted to be a lot of other things, too, the greatest expert on ghosts, the world's best ice skater, the champion lion tamer, you know the kind of thing.” (Hahn, 344) “Of course I could do without it. I liked it, of course, I liked it. I had learned what was so pleasant about opium. Gone were the old romantic notions of wild drug orgies and heavily flavored dreams, but I didn't regret them, because the truth was so much better. To lie in a quiet room talking and smoking, or, to put things in their proper order, smoking and taking, was delightfully restful and pleasant. I wasn't addicted, I told myself, but you had to have a bit of a habit to appreciate the thing.” (Ha...

From “Mules and Men” by Zora Neale Hurston I chose to write about 1 quote from the excerpt which describes Zora’s trip to New Orleans and her experience with voodoo. “One day Turner told me that he had taught me all that he could and he was quite satisfied with me. He wanted me to stay and work with him as a partner. He said that soon I would be in possession of the entire business, for the spirit had spoken to him and told him that I was the last doctor that he would make; that one year and seventy nine days from then he would die. He wanted me to stay with him to the end. It had been a great sorrow to me that I could not say yes.” (Hurston, 421) This quote comes from the end of the excerpt and describes how Turner wanted Zora to work with him. I thought this was interesting because at the beginning of the except Turner wanted nothing to do with Zora. I think that the spirit influenced and changed his mind because once the spirit believed in Zora, so did Turner. I also though...

From “The Story Of My Life” by Hellen Keller I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Helen Keller's journey through life. “Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, but it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way towards the shore with plummet and sounding line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without a compass or sounding line, and I had no way of knowing how near the harbor was.” (Keller, 445) “I had to use the sense of touch in catching the vibrations of the throat, the movements of the mouth and the expression of the face, and often the sense was at fault. In such cases I was forced to repeat the words or sentences, sometimes for hours, until I felt the proper ring in my own voice.” (Keller, 450) The first quote describes Hellen Keller's relationship with learning before she met her teacher,...

From The Hellen Keller Documentary “The World I See” I had learned about Hellen Keller before in elementary school and high school, and again now, and I am amazed every time. She accomplished so much in her life, not just with one disability, but with two. She was able to read, write and speak, all without ever seeing or hearing words. She was also able to accomplish many physical activities such as swimming and horseback riding. She was even able to go to school and graduate college. When Hellen Keller was alive, life was a lot harder for people with disabilities because daily activities were less accessible for them. As the documentary said, Helen Keller is responsible for some of that change. She pushed for change, not just for herself, but for the deaf and blind community as a whole. I don’t think the disabled world would be as accessible if it wasn't for her fighting for what she believed in. Hellen Keller showed the world that anyone can do anything as long as they put their...