Tolerance
One of the most desirable wishes humans want it’s to find the true happiness of life. No human being will live without the desire to find that happiness that everybody is eager to find nowadays. In order to find this dream, this almost perfect life, you should be a person of integrity and live your life in moral values.
Tolerance qualifies as a value, but, in order to understand and deepen into this topic we need to know a basic definition for the value. Tolerance is a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own. To simplify this definition, is to respect others freedom. But is societies at all applying this value and ift it´s then are we doing it the correct way?
In my opinion the definition that is given to tolerance nowadays is the wrong one. Usually marketing and a lot of powerful people have power of what others think, this people are in a very quiet way promoting selfishness as tolerance. “It is only me I care about, respect me, and be tolerant”. You can´t confuse tolerance with selfishness because if you do you are bound to great a cold society where there members will only live for themselves, and this is not happiness. Tolerance should be apply but in a different way, respecting others and asking respects from others but not forgetting friendship and love.
It’s me…. Ricardo
It all started a 4 of March, year 1997, in a hospital a little boy with a very abnormal head, I may dare say, a very big head, was borne. His name was so simple and lovable, his name was Ricardo. That’s me, now a teenager with responsibilities and some eagerness to continue life. This is my story.
After being 9 months inside my moms tummy I got the opportunity to come to life. The first years of my life were actually pretty normal, like any baby depending on mommy and daddy. There was a major complication during my third year of life, I was diagnose with asthma. This was a big problem for my parents since I was the first children they had. I have one little brother and three younger sisters. This asthma I always said was like something meant to happened because a doctor advised my mom to try with some swimming lessons with me. I got very serious into swimming and it became something very important life. Since three years old I practiced swimming but had to leave it because of sickness.
At three years old i became to go to school, my first school ever was Fairland Academy Montessori School. It was quite a small school with not alot to mention about, just the great basis I received there. Because the school was quite small and the amount of students was small too, the education was somehow very personal. I spent there my first years of school till second grade. There I met one of my best friends and that still is, Gabriel. He is a very good friend and he assures that on those first years of school I was quite a slave for him. I always denied this, maybe. Those first years as a child were pretty special for me because I met something that is very exciting in life, work. I have always been a good student, not that I want to brag about it. I love to find new things and new stuff, this eagerness is the responsible of making me a good student. Sometimes stuff is not that interesting and it bores me, a defect I have.
To be continued….
“The Man in the Water” by Roger Rosenblatt
Theme
Nature is a force inside this world that has been provoking or killing human beings since the start of history. Humans, by nature, are arrogant and selfish, in search of a real power, the control of everything. But there has always been a constant trying by humans to dominate nature, this turning into a constant failure. This story just reminds us that humans don’t have the real power to overthrow a force as big as nature.
Narrative
This narrative is a non- fiction story that is based on real events. We know this because the story is based on survivor’s testimonies. Also, the author gives specific dates, type of accident, and what happened. The story is based on real heroic actions of one man, that we don’t actually know its name. The narration of the story is on 3rd person. Example of it and a small summary of is “As the disasters go, this one was terrible but not unique. January 13, 1982, flight 90 crashed over a river. All passengers wanted to survive. Heroes were actually present on the actions but a special one, the man in the water, gave his life for others.
Characters and Characterization
- Donald Usher: part of a team of police officers that operated from a helicopter to rescue the people of flight 90.
- Eugene Windsor: part of a team of police officers that operated from a helicopter to rescue the people of flight 90.
- Lenny Skutnik: was 28 year old, old employee of the Congressional Budget Office. He jumped into the water to drag an injured woman to shore.
- The Man in the water: Is the protagonist of the story, is the man of which we don’t know his name, the man that gave his life for others.
Plot
The story revolves around the amazing heroic actions by the man in the water. What he actually accomplished was to save 5 lives by giving his own during the accident. He knew he was not going to survive but still he was unselfish and gave his life. The story praises this man and other heroes that were able to rescue people too. It revolves too in the historic fights between man and nature, the story gets kind of philosophical.
Setting
The setting of this story takes place on January 13, 1982 at the 14 Street Bridge over the Potomac River. The occupants of the aircraft during the tragedy were 74 passengers and 5 crew members. Only four passengers and one flight attendant survived the crash and still four more died on the bridge.
Mood
The atmosphere this story creates is tragedy sadness. For me tragedy sadness is worst than any normal sadness (even thought the word is not an official word I myself considerate it an official word and part of my vocabulary) because is created from the deaths of not just one person, but several in the same circumstances. It’s a heartbreaking and undesirable feeling that affects not only family and friends from the victims, it affects society in general.
Tone
I believe if you were to write a story related with a tragedy you wouldn´t use a disrupting tone in your writing, you will have to use a tone of respect. The story follows that principle, it uses a tone of respect because of the victims, but the story contains a hero too. In relation with the hero, the tone is more optimistic and still respectful because of the deeds that he accomplished.
Foreshadowing
Before the heroic acts of “the man in the water” were described, several heroic acts from others were actually described. This early descriptions can actually be a hint to what was going to be described later on in the story. Another hint that may have being given to us in order to predict the next events was the description of the airplane crash, this hinting us to think that someone must have been saved or at least survived.
Suspense
Never thought there was going to be suspense in this story, really I was hoping there wasn´t any, don´t know why. But anyways, suspense in this story can be found through the testimonies of those who watched the main scene, telling us how the unknown man start helping the other survivors and giving his life for them. I was uncertain of the outcome of the man, did he really died or did he have the chance to save himself?
Irony
Well irony can sometimes be pretty rude or harsh just like in this story; this unknown man saved people just like others did too but why did he have to died, why is nature that mean? They say that human’s can´t and will never control nature as a power, but does nature has compassion at least with these kinds of awesome men and women. I don´t quite get it.
My personal reaction
I seriously didn´t like this story at all, for several reasons: it was to short, it was very boring, and was written in third person. It just wasn´t very convincing. The story didn´t have any kind of direct action. I believe the author wrote the story with the purpose of actually giving praise to the rescuers and heroes.
Kinds of literature that I like are those with action, with a drama, with a mystery, and load more.
Remains of what was once known as Flight 90.
What I’m I doing?
What is this? I don’t quite get it?
This is going to be a nice little blog for my Language Arts class, but there’s a problem, I don’t know how to use this website. This site or it’s pretty complicated or I’m the dumb guy here.
I would not give up and continue with my work, so here we go!!
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