Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "The Lie Detector" by Lewis Thomas (Blog # 17)

In my point of view lie detectors are useful. Although they should not be the last measure because they aren't one hundred percent efficient, they may sometimes or most of the times do their job. In other words, I personally agree and disagreed with Lewis Thomas in this essay. After we tell a lie to somebody we feel guilty, our body and brain feels different we start sweating and get really nervous because we know that we are doing something wrong especially if is a member of the family or our best friend, someone that we care about. In those cases I think that lying is wrong. There are other cases where I consider lying is appropriate for example when I go to eat at my grandmother's house and she ask who cooks better between my mother and her of course I have to make a little lie and tell her that she is the best cooker in the world, that way she won’t feel bad. Therefore lie detectors work most of the times but not always because there is people that are very nervous all the time so they can’t be submitted to a lie detector test. Humans have a tendency to lie for some reason and it is really hard to trust someone but you can never know what a person is thinking or feeling inside. You only hear what the persons telling you and what they want you to hear. Lie detectors might be correct in some cases but you can’t ever really know the truth. That is when trusting someone comes in hand. You need to believe in what you’re hearing and what they’re telling you. Some people make that hard but there are some good people in this world and not everyone is always lying.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Why We Crave Horror Movies" by Stephen King (Blog #16)

Stephen King’s first argument is something that I would say everyone has to agree with. He chose a very good starting sentence through which he tells the reader that we are all mentally ill, the only difference is that some of us are better at hiding it. When we go to horror movies we are proving people and ourselves that we can bear the horrific events that we will watch; it is as King says like “riding a roller coaster.” Another reason we go to the movies is to have fun. The movies are a type of entertainment that keeps us away from the outer world. Just with the two hours that the movie takes we relax and concentrate on what we are watching rather than in the problems that we are having in the outer world. I agree with King’s mentality that we are exercising a muscle when we watch these horror movies. The human being has a set of emotions that we all feel should be exercised. For instance, we all love, we all hate and at times we feel sad. The only emotion that we don’t exercise is the feeling of hurting someone else, because as I stated that crosses the border from sanity to insanity. When we go to the movie theatres and we watch these horror movies, and we watch people being menaced we enjoy it. We enjoy it because our sick fantasies are being realized, and as one of the viewers our instincts are being set free.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "My Wood" by E.M. Forster (Blog #15)

In My Wood by E.M. relays a cause and effect essay. He conveys the experience of owning a piece of land which comes with a lot of responsibilities. He mentions four effects. First, he feels heavy (he maybe feels important after buying the property). Second, he feels it ought to be larger. Third, the property make feels the owner that his is ought to do something to it (usually owners take care of their property). Four, the blackberries (he is pleased that the bird got and ate it). He seems not too happy with the way of owners change. He expresses that the owner become jealous and selfish because they don't share with other people. Owners only care about their property, and do not let strangers enter in it. I think he is kind of shame because he does not have enough money to buy a big property. This story gives an example of how someone can build greed without even noticing. Every time that you build or create something, many times you want it to grow into something bigger. For example, when a person takes control of a property, later on, you want to expand your property. People with small businesses or even big corporations find ways to expand their companies to make them stronger and more powerful. This essay showed me how greed can grow easily in every person.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "A Fable for Tomorrow" by Rachel Carson(Blog # 14)

In A Fable for Tomorrow, our Earth is pictured as a place that once held the beauty of nature and as days go by; this beauty alters into as an epidemic that no one could escape. After scrutinizing through this essay, I was made to believe that the reason as to why nature itself is diminishing in its beauty and life is because we humans are the cause of these unfortunate events. The author begins by contemplating on the past where beauty was all a person could see in nature. "Great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year", however, with much facilitation due to the usage of technology and our new ways of preventing the preservation of our green Earth, such "ferns" and "wildflowers" cease reproducing due to harmful chemicals that people use inflicting harm on nature.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Grant and Lee" A Study in Contrast (Blog # 13)

This is a great essay about two amazing generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Lee came from the age of aristocratic chivalry. Unlike Lee, Grant was from the democratic west. They were both representative for their regions. Lee didn't want to change anything in his society but however, Grant fought for a growth, expansion, and a constantly widening horizon. In addition, they also had much in common, such as they both wonderful fighters, and they were able to turn from war to peace. The author also mentions that the two titans had their similarities. As Catton puts it, "They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that through them, had come into final collision". Grant and Lee were born into nearly opposite families and environments, which greatly influenced who they later became. Both men embraced democracy, but Grant stood for the concept realistically while Lee only stood for it idealistically. Grant was a modern man, whereas Lee was quite old-fashioned.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Neat People vs. Sloppy People" by Suzanne Brit (Blog #12)

This is a great essay, Neat people vs. Sloppy people by Suzanne Britt, in it the author used many humorous details to show the different characteristics of the two types of personalities. In my opinion, the author favors sloppy people, she says that sloppy people live in never never land and that someday they are planning to alphabetize all their books and set up home catalogues. For all these reasons and more, sloppy people never get neat. They aim too high and wide. They save everything, planning someday to file. On the other hand she says that neat people are bums and clods at heart. Neat people will toy with the idea of throwing the children out of the house just to cut down on the clutter. Neat people don't care about process, they like results. Neat people operate on two unvarying principles, never handle any item twice, and throw everything away. Neat people are especially vicious with mail. Neat people place neatness above averything, even economics. According to the essay neat people are incredible wasteful, and cut a clean swath through the organic as well as the inorganic world. People, animals, and things are all one to them. They are so insensitive.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "How to Give Orders Like a Man" by Tannen (Blog # 11)

In my opinion this topic is very controversial because I find both forms of communication are very useful depending on the situation. Over all most of the times I prefer direct communication, it can be defined as a communication that specifically states and expresses an action. When someone hears direct communication, they know immediately what needs to be done. There is no question about who is in charge, and usually no need for discussion. Also I prefer direct communication because I rather leave things clear than being saying confusing stuff. Therefore, when interacting with each other I believe direct communication is the best way to do it.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Embalming in the U.S.A." by Mitford (Blog # 10)

Jessica Mitford, who wrote The American Way of Death included in this book "Embalming in the U.S.A. In this essay the author describes how the process of embalming is. She explained this extraordinary procedure of what is it about, what is done and how it is done. Mitford goes step by step. She stars with the preparation of the room and the equipment, consisting of scalps, scissors, augers, forceps, clamps, needles, pumps, tubes, bowls and basins and continue with the process of remove all the blood until the body is shaved, washed and dressed. After that the body is ready for casketing. Jessica Mitford scared me with this essay, but I appreciate very much what she wrote because I know now about a process that I never read anything.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Shouting 'Fire!'" by Dershowitz (Blog # 9)

In Shouting “Fire” Dershowitz criticizes the maliciously and dishonestly use of the freedom of speech and the attempts to restrict it. He argues against the analogy that Holmes uses to justify his decision in a case of Schenk v. United States. He defines the analogy as a caricature of logical argumentation and explains with examples why he catalogues it as a false analogy. In addition; he gives us some examples of analogies that are logically related to the Schenk case and that could be used by Holmes. According to Dershowitz the real purpose of Justice Holmes was to set a precedent in a restriction of the freedom of speech, using as a diverter the war situation in a case of ideological background. He also shows us the subsequent misuse of this analogy in speeches, cases and arguments especially for or to justify censoring purposes

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Why Don't We Complain?" by Buckley, Jr. (Blog # 8)

This essay was one of my favorites because it made so much sense to me and was also funny to read. The essay was about how sometimes people are scared to complain about things they should complain about because their embarrassed or shy to speak their thoughts. The author used many examples, one was about how when he went to watch a movie and threw out the whole movie the film was out of focus and he explained how everyone in the theater was uncomfortable but yet no one got up to tell the manager, also when it was very hot in the train, and others. He used details like "everyone was expecting someone else to take the initiative in going to tell the manager" this is true people don't want to get embarrassed so they just wait for someone else to complain. In conclusion I liked this reading because it is a series of real examples that show that sometimes people rather suffer because they are afraid to speak their mind and get embarrassed.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Marrying Absurd" by Joan Didion (Blog # 7)

In my personal opinion, I believe that the act of marriage is something to be taken very seriously. From my point of view it is a once in a life time event. I strongly believe that the dream of every woman is getting their hair and nails done, picking the perfect dress that they have always dream of, and later on go to that honeymoon that they have been waiting for. The author of "Marrying Absurd" is describing wedding in Las Vegas as an "Absurd" and I totally agree with her. In my believe people in Las Vegas tend to do crazy things that they might regret late on, due to the very commonly use phrase of "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". I think that people use this phrase in order to justify their unmoral conducts in Las Vegas.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "The Death of the Moth" by Virginia Woolf (Blog # 6)

In my opinion this essay by Virginia Woolf has a strong message. Sometimes we take life for granted. As many people say we sometimes don't appreciate things until is too late and we don't have them, this is when we realize that life is very short and that we should appreciate every moment of it. The message of this essay is basically that life is a gift and no matter how hard it could be sometimes we all want to live it. Also, the author is trying to tell us to enjoy every moment in life because you never know when life is going to catch up with you. In The Death of the Moth, the author uses symbolism to describe her perception of life. Virginia Woolf in this essay uses the moth to express symbolism. She present us an image of a moth full of life fly around for long periods of time that all of the sudden starts struggling to keep fluttering in other words fighting death. This is when we realize that we should live life to our fullest because you never know when your time is going to come.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "Culture and The Way to Rainy Mountain" by N. Scott Momaday (Blog # 5)

In this essay "Culture and The Way to Rainy Mountain" the author, N. Scott Momaday, uses a very descriptive language in forms of metaphors and similes. This descriptive language used by the author allows you to create a picture in your head while reading this essay. He describes the wet rainy weather, the brown grass, etc. This essay is not base only in the rainy mountain but also on the culture and history behind this mountain. The author describes his memories about his grandmother's house. When he finally gets there he express his sadness, due to the fact that he finds the house lonely because his grandmother is dead, and instead of been visiting his grandmother he is visiting her grave, but he also worries about the death of a culture, without realizing that by writing this he is giving it eternal life.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "A Hanging" by George Orwell (Blog # 4)

From my point of view, the story "A Hanging" by George Orwell has an important message, which basically is that no human being has the right to take others life, and also that human beings can be very cruel unless they are moved by something. In this story we can appreciate a moment of epiphany, in other words the moment of clarity and understanding. What triggers this moment is when the prisoner is seen steeping aside to avoid the puddle so his feet would not get wet. At the beginning the narrator says that when the man was being taken to the gallows he was reacting like he was not aware of what was happening. Later on when the prisoner avoids the puddle is when the narrator first realizes that this man still alive, and that is when he says that all of his organs still alive. At this point is when the author realizes what a horrible act they where about to commit.

Jessica Rodriguez: Reaction to "A Chase" by Annie Dillard (Blog # 3)

The story “A Chase” was one of the stories that I liked the most because it reminds me of my childhood. In this story the author, Annie Dillard, described her childhood highlighting her experiences so that the reader can feel the excitement that it produced to her and her friends. She and her friends were not afraid of anything, for instance as she described the adult kept running behind them and they enjoyed that moments instead of be worried about the man's intentions. This story deals with an event that occurs in childhood but the author carries it with her throughout adulthood. I can relate myself the author because it reminds me in a way of my childhood. I was a bit playful like the little girl in the story was. When I was a child, I remember living in Cuba, I used to play many pranks on my aunt she would chase me with a belt but somehow I found it to be exciting. It was the joy of the chase and the longer it lasted the better. In adulthood we become so jaded that forget to take pleasures in the little things in life. Finally, in the story "A Chase" the narrator, Annie Dillard, learned that no matter how much you try to avoid your problems you will always have to face them sooner or later.