The Imaginary Friend

This week I want to step out of the boundary of sports and talk about something different. We started reading Frankenstein this week. What I have grasped so far after 13 chapters is Victor's fascination with the creation of life. After the death of his mother, he becomes very distraught and lonely. So after years of work, he finally creates Frankenstein or Pedro, who my AP English class likes to call him. He does this to combat his loneliness and wants someone who will have similar interests as him. Now when we were all kids, we had "imaginary friends" or liked to pretend we were doing something with toys or whatever. We all had a wild imagination when we were young. Victor turned his crazy fascination into a reality by creating Frankenstein. But why did we as kids have imaginary friends or pretend to be doing a lot of things that weren't necessarily realistic? Is it just because we are in the kid state and our logic wasn't sound or is it deeper than that? From my own instances, I would pretend to be doing things when I was bored or didn't have anything to do. So Victor's reasoning can be connected the same way. He was lonely and we as kids were bored. But as kids we also pretended to do things with our imaginary friends that appealed to us. We created these "characters" to like what we liked to do. Like us, Victor had the same idea because he was out on the seas with other people who didn't necessarily have the same interests as he did. The characters were a part of us until we let them go and Victor was the same way because at some points he felt he wasn't responsible for Frankenstein even though he created it.

The Freedom Writer Part 2

This week we watched "The Freedom Writers" in class on Tuesday and part of Thursday. The thing that I kind of thought about after watching the movie again for the hundredth time was the fact that when all the kids came from different background, cultures, etc. The kids in Ms. G's class called living in Long Beach, California "a war". It was very prevalent throughout the movie to see people getting shot and jumped; in turn there was a lot of violence that these kids went up against every day. Whether it was at school, work, home; they always had someone that was out to get them. But the one place that all the kids from Ms. G's class could find peace was her class. They were all cool with each other and they had a certain level of respect for each other when they were in that class. Another place kids also find a place of peace is the basketball court or the football field. Some kids even get involved in sports to get away from trouble. It gives them a place to just forget about everything on the outside world and just focus on them and a ball or them and a would be tackler. That's what Ms. G's class did for those kids. And that's what sports can do for kids as well. As a result, some kids from her class went on to college after their senior years even though when they first started in her class as freshmen they had no intention of going to college at all. As like kids who don't have any intention of going to college, sometimes their athletic abilities help propel them to college and they become proficient in both their athletic skills and academic studies. All it takes is some place where they can have peace and quiet can do wonders for kids who are always in "a war" and that's what sports can do as well for kids like those from the Freedom Writers

Characterization

While reading the final chapters of Wuthering Heights over the past week I couldn't help but notice the subtle similarities between certain characters and their relationships with the others. For example, Cathy and Catherine both were very ambitious gals in their respective lives. Catherine was more for the mindset of being able to be rich and have great social standing, hence marrying Edgar. Cathy's ambition was her curiosity to find out about Wuthering Heights which eventually lead to her marriage of Hareton towards the end of the book. But even though Cathy was the offspring of Catherine, she had her differences as well. Just like in the NBA certain players play positions based on their skills and physical abilities. For instance, many have claimed that the closest player to replicate Michael Jordan is Kobe Bryant. His overall style of play is somewhat similar as well as his accolades. MJ has 6 rings, Kobe has 5. Michael Jordan was a clutch scorer in his day. Kobe is one of the clutchest players in the league today. But even with those 2 or 3 similarities, there are still thousands of small differences that can make them almost incomparable. Just like Catherine and Cathy, even though they were blood, they had their own differences that made them their own self.