Let's Set Some Guidelines...

HELLO FRIENDS! 

julenejenson903 again, OKAY so... I was looking through my page views a little interested on how many times this blog has been viewed (ignoring the fact that most of the page views are mine). Then, I stumbled upon something very interesting... I saw that my blog has been viewed EIGHT TIMES by someone in Ireland and ONCE by someone in Indonesia this week alone!! This is so amazing, and I am so happy that Silently Loud has gone international.

I know that this blog is still basically in the beginning stages but I want to set some guidelines in order for this blog to improve exponentially.
1. I will start posting something that is not assigned every week. I am not sure on which day yet but I will try to get something up for you guys at least once a week in order to keep the creative juices flowing. If you did not know I did start this blog for my AP Literature and Composition class but I want to talk about a number of other things that interest me.
2. PLEASE leave comments if you read my posts! If you have anything to say positive or constructive criticism please say it! I would love to hear what you have to say.
3. I want this blog to be a place for people who are voiceless to have a voice. This is a place where we can be passive aggressive, where we can be spies on secret missions, where we can be SILENTLY LOUD.

All in all, I started this blog just for an assignment, but seeing that I have a vast audience that has at least looked at this page gives me hope that this blog will be bigger than I imagined.
Have a wonderful day wherever you are and do not forget to leave your footprint on the world.

Culture and Its Influence

I remember when I was little, my mother told me that being different should be praised. This is a mindset that I hold very close to my heart. Although I was brought up knowing that I should not let myself be tied down from outside influences, often times it is very difficult to not let these influences shape me in even the slightest way. There are too many people, including myself who are often left asking themselves: How do I manage to stay true to myself whilst staying true to the culture I was born and raised with? In my opinion, there is not necessarily a set in stone answer to this question. It all depends on the specific culture and whether the environment the particular person grew up around was set for their best interests or not.
While I was browsing an amazing website called YouTube, I came across a show called Taboo. One can easily infer what the show is about by just looking at the name. Taboo is defined as a practice or subject that is not acceptable to talk about or do, meaning that the show observes many practices or actions others do that certain cultures could consider unacceptable, or--taboo. The particular episode I was watching tackled the subject of body modifications, and one particular body modification stood out to me like a light bulb in a sea of darkness. A tribe located in a small town called Nai Soi in Thailand, consists of a unique group of women. At a very young age, most of the women in this tribe decide to put brass-looking rings around their necks in order for them to appear elongated. This particular body modification initially freaked me out, and I questioned why they would do such a thing to their bodies. As the episode went on, I realized that most of these women decide to put the rings around their necks because their mothers most likely had them on as well-- it is part of their culture. These women are raised, constantly exposed to other women appearing this way, therefore making women with these long necks beautiful to others in the community. In this particular case, I think that one’s culture can enable him/her to the creation of his/her’s identity. When a person’s religion, or common practices play a huge role in his/her’s life, it is very likely for their culture to play a huge influence on their identity.

In my AP Literature and Composition class, my classmates and I were assigned to read a coming-of-age novel called Native Son by Richard Wright. I know what you must be thinking: julenejenson903, this book must have been the struggle to go through, why are you talking about this assigned book?!! Well, this is one book that I would read on my free time for a second time. This book followed the story of a man named Bigger Thomas, and his struggles as a result of the harsh world he lived in. Bigger’s culture (which essentially set Bigger up to believe that whites were above him) hindered the creation of his identity. For the majority of the novel, Bigger could not focus on who he was because of his constant fear and anxiety due to his surroundings. Bigger was surviving, not living; because Bigger was on survival mode, he could not focus on himself and the steps he needed to take in order to create his own identity. So, in this case I think that someone’s culture can also hinder the creation of his/her identity.

All in all, the essential questions we ask ourselves does not have to have one answer. The answer to my essential question does not necessarily have to be the answer to your essential question. It all depends on the individual, and the situation. Life is just too complicated to view it through one set of eyes.

Does it Have What it Takes?

“A work of literary merit.” A literary work must go through a long and thought out process in order to be place in this exclusive category. In order to be selected, a group of experts in the field of English Literature has to recognize it as authentic and one of a kind. Classics like, Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, and Frankenstein are all works the have been put in this category. Sometimes I ask myself “Why Black Boy and not Divergent?” I never understood why I was not seeing any books that I liked not make the cut. So I spent a long time thinking and I came realize that books do in fact  have to fit a certain criteria.

In my opinion, it is imperative that a work of literary merit not only has to contain a vast and unique usage of literary elements, but it should also contain a very important underlying message. After reading works like Invisible Man and discussing the nature of the work as a whole, I understood that not every book is at the same level of authenticity as Invisible Man.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is considered a work of literary merit by experts, and after reading the work, I agree! This novel has a vast array of literary elements that are excellently used throughout the book such as, foreshadowing, imagery, and symbolism. This novel is set in the 1930’s and discusses a topic that many works tackle: racism. The novel surrounds two siblings, Scout and Jem Finch who live with their father, Atticus. Atticus is a lawyer who takes on a case involving a man named Tom Robinson; a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Robinson himself is a symbolizes a mockingbird which symbolizes innocence. Despite the fact that Robinson was innocent, he was found guilty of the accused crime. Atticus explains that it is a sin to kill something that is innocent, like if someone was to kill a mockingbird.

All in all, the novel contains a collage of hidden messages splattered throughout the whole text, but the biggest lesson I pulled from it is to never judge a person like you understand them when you have not been in their shoes. In my opinion, this book was definitely a great read; I grasped the lessons that I needed to and I actually enjoyed this work of literary merit. Was this a step into enjoying to read again? I think yes!

The 500-Page Drag

Hello! I am julenejenson903 I am 17 years old  and my life is consumed with school work, and my least favorite assignment for a while was reading. When I was younger, I loved reading and everything that came with it; escaping into another world and leaving behind the harsh world we live in. Some of my favorites book series were the Junie B. Jones and the Magic Treehouse series. I liked to think of myself as Junie B. Jones, to the point my mother even called me “Junie B.” I was someone who even read whole books in a day. I took pride in my reading, my parents praised me, and others loathed me. When I reached middle school, the work did become more intense but I still enjoyed what I read. I was starting to read a little less, but my appreciation for literature remained high. 

When I entered high school, the work became a lot more difficult and there was a lot more on my plate. For that reason, I  started to become the person that read because they had to. With the school work, clubs, and volunteer work that I had to juggle, it was really hard for me to read for pleasure anymore. And school drove my burning passion to slowly extinguish. I was no longer reading because I thought the books were good, I was reading because I had assignments that needed to be completed.

In the past year, I began to realize my wrong ways. I began to think about how hard some of these authors work to put their works together. The person that I became is not who I want to be, I want to learn to love books again. I hope that we can work together to make teenagers love reading again. I know that I am not perfect and I still have a long way to go, so let’s take this first step together.