Reflection on "The Twelve Angry Jurors"

I went to see “The Twelve Angry Jurors”, put on by the University of Memphis, for one of my outside events. It was a very interesting play with a lot of personalities. The aspect of the play that I got the most out of was how some of the characters were so driven by their own prejudices, emotions, and past experiences, and how they influenced their decision on whether the person was guilty or not. There is a specific part in the play where one of the jurors gets so mad at another juror that he says, “I’m going to kill you!” This is significant because this is what a witness said that the accused person said before he supposedly killed his father. This just shows how hateful and quick to judge that humankind is. We are so quick to point the finger at others without even knowing if it is true. Also, for me this was all significant because, as a Christian, I believe that it is just as bad to murder someone as it is to hate someone like the one juror hated the other juror. This play really showed me how sinful and impulsive the human kind is. It also showed how preoccupied we are with our own lives and the little things that are going on in our lives, and when someone else’s life is on the line, a lot of the times we are very quick to just pass by on others’ lives. I saw this in the play when some of the characters wanted to simply vote that the person was guilty without even talking about it because they just wanted to go home and eat dinner or go to a baseball game. We put unimportant things as our top priorities and don’t think about the well being of others.

Words: 306

Poetry Reading Event

Tonight I went to the poetry reading at the Outlands café. It was a really fun, interesting, relaxing time and feeling. There were four different local poets there who read a collection of each of their poems. Not only was it interesting and nice to hear the poetry, but it was also interesting to be in that coffee shop with the different people around and the different personalities of the poets. It had a really safe and cozy feel to it. It wasn’t very organized which I liked. Each author had a lot of different themes to their poems including love, loneliness, suicide, Bible stories, time, random things like avocado colored toilets, and a bunch of other things. For me, it was really interesting to watch the authors as they read or recited their poems. Each had a different expression and style of reciting their poems. One man was very animated in how he read his poems and was really funny and got the audience into his poems. Another man was very different. He had his poems all memorized and looked a lot more serious with a more solemn appearance about him. This affected my mood and how I would react to each of their poems. It was a lot more difficult for me to understand the more solemn man because his poems were more deep, but it was almost like I could relate with him in some instances when he was talking about love or loneliness because it is something universal that happens with all of us, and we do not need to even fully understand what he says, we can feel it in the way he says the words. I could relate with some of the other poems that were really simple and seemed to resemble some aspects of my childhood. I could visualize the memories from my childhood Sunday school classes when one author read about the feelings of certain Bible characters and their stories. Another poem was about playing the game “Heads Up Seven Up” which I played as a child in elementary and middle school. When the author was explaining the senses involved in this game, I could specifically remember and almost smell and feel the situation happening over again at that moment. My experience at the poetry reading was simply really good for me to relax and get away from all the stress going on in my life and listen and experience the words of different people in my community.

Words: 460

Reflection on class

In class we have been talking about the relationship and the themes found in two of O’Connor’s stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” Both have the theme of having some sort of difference and tension between two generations. This is the theme that I have found very interesting because I can experience this in my own life. In both stories, there is an older woman who believes that she has it all put together and is a “good” person. There is also a younger person in each story who crosses into the older person’s life and brings along with them new values, ideas, and view on the world. The younger generation shows the older generation shows the older that they are not correct on everything, and the older generation is a bit hypocritical. I think that this is something that people will continually experience as they grow older and new generations come into the world. Each generation can learn from the other, and I think that this is something that everyone can think about and remember.

Words: 180

Sunny Day

Today is one of the few days we have had this fall that is actually sunny and clear out. I am sitting here in the library looking out of the window in the back, and I have finally found a place on this campus that is actually really pretty. The sun is reflecting off of the trees, and I see the changing colors of the leaves. This really brings me a sense of peace. Sitting here looking out of the window with the sun shining and soft acoustic guitar music playing is all I could ask for right now. I really am so blessed, and I know that I take it for granted a lot. A lot of people in this world have it a whole lot harder than I do, but I forget to realize that a lot of the time. God has given me so much to be thankful for, and I could not ask for anything more because I deserve nothing. This really is a beautiful day.

Words: 170

Graduating

I have been thinking lately about what I want to do after I actually get my degree. Situations keep coming up where people keep asking me this, and it has made me start to think a lot about it. Thinking about it, however, has gotten me nowhere. I do not know what I want to do with my degree. I am a Spanish major and have thought about taking up teaching, but really, I have no idea. It is so weird to think about this because being out in the real world seems so far away, but it is actually not that far away. I still feel so young, but in two and a half years, I am probably going to be pursuing some sort of real job in the real world.

Words: 132

Reflection on Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O’Connor was a Southerner and a Catholic. We can see how her identity as a Southerner and a Catholic are played out in the stories she writes. I am not a Southerner; rather, I am a Northerner from Michigan, and the whole Southern atmosphere is very different than it is in the North. Some things that I picked out from O’Connor’s stories that seem very Southern to me are, first, how she talks using racial slurs in the story. I think that the use of these words are also due to the time frame that this was written in, but I also think that it is a more Southern thing to use those words. Another thing that seems very Southern to me is how there is a great deal of respect that seems to be given to the elderly and certain people like that. I am not saying that we do not respect our elders in the North, but it seems to be a different kind of respect in the South. It is kind of like the Southern hospitality idea. The whole aspect of religion in all of her stories I think ties into the Southern aspect too. I always think of the South as being very Christian, and these stories made that idea even more prominent to me. The Catholic aspect in all of the stories is very interesting too. When I think of the South, I actually do not think of it being Catholic. I think of the South as being more Protestant with all of the Baptist churches and such. O’Connor’s being Catholic is interesting to me because I am a Christian, and her view of Christianity seems very skewed and confusing to me. As a Christian, I believe that I am saved by salvation through the death of Christ; however, while reading O’Connor’s stories, it seems to me that she has the belief that she has to do good things in God’s eyes in order to be saved.

Words: 333

Acting

After acting out our remake of “The Glass Menagerie”, I have seen that there is no way I would be able to be an actress. It takes me too long to get through a certain line or scene because it is so hard for me to take my character seriously. I think part of this is because in life in general, I do not put on a face. I am who I am. I don’t try to change my personality so people like me more or anything like that. I am not saying that actors and actresses all put on a fake personality in life. I am just saying that I think that it is true for me that I am not a good actress because I do not put on a face in life.

Words: 135

Fall and Family

Some of my family is coming to Memphis tomorrow from Michigan, and it seems to be a great time for them to come. When I go outside, I can feel the cool breeze and hear the leaves blowing, and it makes me think about my family and home. I love the fall and the cool weather. It all brings back memories of football games, bonfires, Halloween, and pumpkin pie. I am excited to see my family because they, too, will bring me a little bit of their fall spirit with them. I haven’t seen my family in 3 months and am excited to see how my little brothers and sisters keep growing.

Words: 112

Can't Trust People

I can relate to the first story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” because it shows how the world is full of people who you cannot trust. I live in the neighborhood just south of campus where there have been a lot of armed robberies happening lately. I never lived in a neighborhood like this. I live in the country back in Michigan, and it is nothing like it is in my neighborhood. I never really had to lock my car door if I left it for fifteen minutes or anything like that; however, in my neighborhood here in Memphis, I always lock the doors. Even if I am home alone, I lock the house door because it is hard to trust people around here because of all of the bad things that are happening. That is just something that I thought about when I read the story about how the Misfit chose to simply kill these people who had done him no harm.

Words: 165

Video Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uASlR5mMLfw

Remake of "The Glass Menagerie"

I am going to be playing the role of Laura in our remake of “The Glass Menagerie”. We are going to recreate this play in a more modern and funny way. I am going to portray Laura as a shy girl especially around boys, and who likes to stick to herself and do things on her own. I am going to stress the importance of how my physical handicap plays a strong role in my acting so shy and wanting to be alone. I am going to keep my head down a lot which shows that I have little self-confidence. Wearing clothes that are very modest and clothes that cover me up will help portray the self-confidence issue too. My hair will probably be down to cover my face a little bit so as to seem shy. Vulnerability is not something that Laura likes, so I will stray from vulnerable situations. I am not going to be one of the characters that makes a lot of funny remarks because as a shy character, Laura would not like to be rejected if what she said was not even that funny. Overall, my character should show how girls who are not perfect in their looks and physical being are scared of being outside of the norm and scared of not being accepted, so they usually choose to simply not put themselves in a situation where they could be rejected.

Child Adoption

I am currently in the process of fine tuning my informative speech for my oral communication. My speech is on child adoption from Guatemala. It has really had me thinking a lot and hard about the situation in Guatemala and how sad it is. There are so many orphans that are now just sitting in the orphanages of Guatemala with no hope of finding a family because corruption in the adoption system has caused the Guatemalan government to stop adoption all together. There is no saying if or when adoption will start up again, but it is truly a sad situation. Because I have five adopted siblings from Guatemala, I have been to an orphanage there, and I absolutely love it there with the kids. It is really a very beautiful country, especially where this particular orphanage is, and I would love and have pondered going and taking over the orphanage there because the current people who run the orphanage are getting old and want to retire. It is also perfect because Spanish is my major, but so far I have chosen to stay in school and get my degree first. It just breaks my heart to think about all of those kids without a family, and it really makes me appreciate all of the loved ones I have in my life.

Reaction to "A Streetcar Named Desire"

I went to see the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” this weekend. It really left me with a sad, depressed feeling. The thing about the play that really made me think hard about the human behavior was the way Blanche was affected by her past experiences. After the tragic death of her husband happened, she was left yearning for some kind of meaning and belonging in the world, and she looked for it in relationships and sex. Stella also tried to find her security in her relationship with her husband, Stanley. Although Stella’s problems with Stanley did not leave her all messed up mentally like Blanche was, both of the girls were not fulfilled with happiness. This really made me think about just life in general and the way that people try to find security. People can all put on faces and think that they are all put together like Blanche did when she came, but most have something deeper within or a past experience that they try to hide from that usually comes out after time. It is very sad for me to see this play because, as a Christian, I find my identity and my security in my relationship with God. When something bad happens in my life, I know that God will never let me go. I also know that if I sin or have guilt about something, Christ takes it all away, and I can feel whole again and live with great joy. Blanche, however, feels guilt for the death of her husband, and it leads her on a path of destruction, and eventually drives her insane.

Relating to Characters of "The Glass Menagerie"

If you were one of the characters in “The Glass Menagerie,” which one would you be? I would probably be Tom because I can relate to him. He has so much responsibility in taking care of the family because his father left. I can relate not because my father has left my family, but because I do have a lot of responsibility in taking care of my family (or at least did when I lived at home). I have so much responsibility because I have twelve siblings. Only two of them are older than me, so that leaves me with ten younger siblings, four of which have some sort of physical handicap. I am the oldest girl in the family, and when I was a teenager living at home, my two older brothers had moved into their own places and gotten married and had their own kids. This left me the oldest child living at home with a dad who works all day, and a mother who’s doing her best to keep up with all the kids’ activities and sports practices and games. Of course, I had to help her out. I did a lot of the running kids to practices and games, and I helped out with feeding the kids and things like that. I can understand just how frustrated Tom must have been, and how he is always searching for some sort of escape. He wants to be a little bit rebellious, and I can relate.

Words: 248

Oedipus Rex and the Importance of Words

In one of my classes, we watched a movie that recorded the remaking of the ancient Greek play called “Oedipus Rex.” Watching this play really gave me an understanding of the power and importance of words. In ancient Greek theatre, there was a lot of talking, but not a lot of action. The characters had to speak out loudly and with a lot of emotion in order for the audience to understand completely what was going on because there was not a lot of action in the plays. I also that it was very interesting that in ancient Greek theatre they did not show violence and death because they thought it was bad enough to have to talk about it. This just shows the how dominating and important the spoken word really are.

Words: 131

Reflection on First Outside Event

For my first outside event, I went to see the play “The Horror of the Little Family Farce” here at the University of Memphis. I went into the play not knowing what to expect. I ended up really liking the play. It was actually really funny, and I laughed a lot. I did not think that I could laugh that much watching a play, but I was pleasantly surprised. The family in the play resembled mine a little bit, and I think that most of the audience members could put themselves into the shoes of the characters. I think that is the beauty of plays. It is usually very easy for audience members to be engaged in the activities that are being performed in the plays and can relate them to their own lives. The play consisted of a cast of seven people, all of which did a great job playing their roles. Theatre is just another form of literature, and I have found that I enjoy it a lot actually. I am excited to go watch another play at the University.

Words: 182