May Non-Fiction

I watched the movie “Girl Rising” by Richard Roberts recently*. Roberts wants the viewer to know that many girls do not get an education and around the world, there are very few opportunities for them to be educated. He also describes that educating girls could be the key to a better world. He also would like the viewer to know that some girls in the world must fight for their education which often turns out to be worth it in the end. The movie shows the stories of a few brave girls who fight for their rights and education. The creator, Roberts, gets this message across by including facts. In between each story of a specific girl, he uses that time to share “fun” facts about the education of girls and about girls all over the world in general. An example of these facts is that there are 33 million less girls than boys attending primary school. Another thing that Roberts does to convey this idea of educating girls is to show the stories of girls who want their education. One example is the story of a girl living in Haiti. She goes to school until the huge earthquake occurs and there is no money for the new school, now taking place in a tent. She goes to the tent but is sent away. The next day she returns and tells her teacher “Even if you send me away, I will come back every day,” and convinces the teacher to let her stay even though she cannot pay.

Richard Roberts hopes that the viewer will both feel upset at the horrible facts of the education and rights of girls, but he also wants the viewer to feel motivated to help those girls who cannot get an education. Some girls are able to educate themselves and that we should feel the same way. The viewer feels saddened by the awful things that happen to girls, but also feels hope for the future through the way that the girls shown solve their problems. One way that Roberts makes the viewers feel this way is by having both frightening and motivating stories. An example of a sad story is a girl who, on a very hot day, wishes to travel to get some juice. The day was hot so she did not want to walk so she took a ride from a man. The man did not take her to the market, but to his house, and then further and further away from her home. He later raped her at 11 years old, and soon after, she became engaged. This story is quite upsetting, unlike the story about a girl working at a radio station. She helps other girls solve their problems. This story was more hopeful to show that not all girls have these terrible experiences. Another way that Roberts makes the audience feel this way is by including hopeful facts as wells as upsetting ones. He talks about how difficult it is to educate girls, and also describes how if we educate girls, we could improve the world.

I loved the movie. I was an excellent mixture of hope and sorrow, and even was a little funny. I learned a lot about what it is like for girls to not be educated all around the world. I think that girls who go to school are so lucky that they can, it is important for them to see this movie to know how fortunate they are. I want to know more about the other issues that affect girls worldwide. I hope that more girls can solve their problems like those in the video did. I enjoyed the movie very much and I wish that there were more videos like this. The movie makes me think about how people don’t care as much about girls’ education as they do boys’ as they have always thought.

*I was not able to collect quotes when watching the movie, so I only have a few.

My Antonia

I am currently reading “My Antonia” by Willa Cather. The book is about a boy visiting his grandparents at their house on the Nebraska Prairie, where he meets a Bohemian immigrant named Antonia. The book describes in depth both life on the Prairie as well as the two children’s relationship to one another. I find that the boy’s reaction when meeting Antonia is a smidge surprising, and unnatural to a person like me, and I also think that the setting could be the cause of this.

The boy, Jimmy, does not seem frightened or nervous at all when meeting the Bohemian family. He seems confident and willing to listen to the family. Coming from New York, I would be a smidge shy, as many kids my age would, and I would also not run off holding hands with one of the people I had just met and “snuggle” with him/her at the edge of a cliff. Honestly, I find this a little straightforward and imposing. I find myself quite quiet (if you can believe it) around strangers, but especially foreigners. Once, my friend rented her house out to a Scottish family, who my parents then decided to invite for brunch. The aspect I found most threatening was how polite they were. People from not only Scotland, but England as well are generally more polite than New Yorkers. One example of their polite manner was when my mom asked the 5-year-old boy, Bruce, whether he wanted some more orange juice. He replied in his adorable Scottish accent, “I wouldn’t mind.” The way he said it was so polite, like someone would say at the inaugural ball. Anyway, Jimmy was not shy at all, and I believe that he is a very communicative person because he did not feel this way when meeting the Bohemian family.

I think that the setting is partly the cause of Jimmy’s straightforward manner. On the lone, open prairie, a person could walk for miles without seeing another person or house. Jimmy’s loneliness may have led to a desire to talk to someone other than his grandparents. The same goes for Antonia. She is Bohemian, and most likely is not used to prairie life. Both she and Jimmy probably got fed up with their family and wanted a change. I feel this way with my room. Do you ever get tired of the way your room looks and randomly move furniture around? It may sound a little strange, but I do this every few months, depending on how neat the change allows me to be. The point is that Jimmy and Antonia were bored with seeing the same people each day because it is rare to see people out on the prairie, so they did not feel shy at all when meeting each other. Because of my experience with this, I understand how frustrating it is to see the same people and the same furniture each day.

Antonia, in “My Antonia” causes the main character, Jimmy, to respond to her in an overly-confident manner. He, in my opinion, seems almost rude in the way he acts. This is why people are shy: because they don’t want to seem to imposing or act as if they have already met. There is a difference (obviously) between rude and friendly, but in this case, it is almost hard to tell them apart.

Sneeeky* Juliet

Everything a friend or family member does impacts your impression of them and you understand that person better, so what would happen if they lied about everything?  You would be getting to know a different person. William Shakespeare creates a character like this in the play “Romeo and Juliet”, where a dispute between families causes a secret love resulting in both lovers’ death. One of these lovers is Juliet (the other being Romeo), a seemingly innocent and sweet 14-year-old who is really quite naughty and mischievous. She manipulates her family throughout the play to get what would benefit her. Juliet uses society’s expectations of her to her own advantage to change her reputation for the purpose of spending more time with Romeo, and meanwhile covering her tracks. By doing this, she misleads her family to believe her to be a different person than she truly is.

Juliet alters her reputation in order to spend more time with her true love, Romeo. Her actions in the story cause her loved ones to think of her contrary to who she is and she is able to gain more time to spend with Romeo. In the play, Juliet drinks a poison that causes her body to appear dead when she is really alive. She intends to later wake up and escape with Romeo by her side. When her mother, Lady Capulet, sees her laying cold and limp in bed, she shouts “O me! O me! My child, my only life.” (4.5, 24). Lady Capulet has altered her opinion of Juliet -- earlier she felt controlling and gave Juliet no say in her own affairs, while now she unexpectedly seems so caring. Yet she is not so changed as she may seem. By using “me” and my” repetitively, she emphasizes her superiority over Juliet yet again. She, though, has no idea that Juliet has been manipulating her to not notice her time spent with Romeo. Lady Capulet knows that she has authority over Juliet, but still is kinder to her here. Lady Capulet will, because of Juliet, be a more positive person, especially towards Juliet When Lady Capulet says that she is her “only life”, she realizes not only that Juliet should not have died, but that she mistreated her in her only life. If she and Romeo were to survive everything and escape together, and Lady Capulet were to discover their trick, she would at first be angry, but in the long run she might act more compassionate towards and protective of Juliet. Friar Lawrence has this in mind when he describes to her the result of the poison he gives her. He says “Each part, deprived of supple government” (4.1, 104). He literally means that her body will be stripped of flexibility, but his word choice implies governmental or societal roles in her “death”. She has, ever since she met Romeo, been losing authority from her life. Juliet has been disobeying almost every rule she could. No one had real power over her, not even her beloved nurse who tells her to marry Paris in the end. Juliet went to extreme measures and changes her innocent reputation for the purpose of getting more time with Romeo.

Juliet uses society’s expectations for her to cover her tracks. Throughout the play, she does naughty and drastic things to be with Romeo. A fight breaks out between the Montague and Capulet families which kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. When she discovers that Romeo is banished from Verona because he is the cause of Tybalt’s death, she is even more upset about Romeo’s punishment than she is about Tybalt. When her mother asks her if she is “Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?” (3.5, 71), she replies with not only with little emotion, but sarcasm as well, “Yet let me weep for such a feeling of loss.” (3.5, 77).  Juliet is expected by her mother, family, and society to be agitated over Tybalt’s death (especially when few are aware of her secret love life with Romeo), so she acts as if that is her reasoning. She uses society’s expectations to hide her true obsession. Another example of this manipulation happens to prove a major obstacle for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Lady Capulet informs Juliet that she will be marrying Paris. At first, she expresses anger and dissatisfaction, but later apologizes for her disobedient ways. She is expected by everyone to marry whomever her parents decide upon, so she switches her reaction to keep her secret with Romeo steadfast. When she first learns of her marriage she exclaims, “He shall not make me there a joyful bride!” (3.5, 122), most likely causing suspicion about her reasoning. Such emphasis on the sentence shows she really means it, but Juliet is sneaky and actually does agree to the marriage. She says “he” in reference to Paris, not hinting that it is Lord and Lady Capulet who are forcing the marriage upon her. This, then, creates no problem with her parents over their parenting and therefore covering her tracks.

Juliet uses expectations to mislead her family about who she truly is. To them, she is young, and innocent. But in the story, she is really quite mischievous, tricky, and in love, yet this is the side of her hidden from peoples’ view. When Juliet apologizes to her Lord Capulet saying, “I have learned me to repent the sin/of disobedient disposition,” (4.2, 18-19), She also states that “Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.” (4.2, 23) She says “henceforward”, or from now on, a word used often in past legal documents, to make it official for her father when she knows she is going to “die”. Juliet misleads Lord Capulet to happily believe she has changed, when she is really being just as secretive and disobedient as ever. Juliet also uses her language to mislead people about who she really is.  Her language is especially crafted to have a double meaning. This occurs when she talks with her mother over how sad she is about Tybalt, but is really most sorrowful over Romeo’s banishment. She creates a sentence that says how sad she is about Tybalt, but doubling up so she could also be talking about Romeo. She simply states that she will always be upset with such a feeling of loss, yet she never states for whom her sorrow is directed to. This blanks spot is what not only protects her true secret, but it does not show her parents who she truly is and who she truly loves. Juliet misleads her family about who she actually is, and it harms them.

Juliet uses society’s expectations to gain more time to spend with Romeo, all the while covering her tracks, resulting in a family who is unaware of her true personality. She marvels at Romeo, ignoring the harm being done to her family who think she is a drastically different person. Do modern day people do this too? Do we concentrate on something important to us and not notice what is important to others? Do we shy away when family or friends attempt to get to know us? Just remember how everything turns out for Juliet who does these same things (I am not saying that this results in death, merely that there can be consequences).

*This is spelled wrong on purpose, for effect.