Writing for HS, AM (Scalice, '07): Jade Rowland

analytic essay

(jrowland) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:54:59 GMT

America is in the Heart, written by Carlos Bulosan; known early on in the book as Allos, is an autobiography discussing his hard working and strenuous lifestyle in the Philippines. Fleeing to America to try and pursue his own dreams, he finds out that America isn’t just what he thought of it to be. Carlos has to struggle with his life there and faces many obstacles and challenges that hold him from his own dreams.
Allos’s family sold all of their land in Binalonan, Philippines to send his older brother Macario through high school. This monetary impact on their lives made them struggle with severe poverty. The result of their actions affected each and every one of their lives tremendously in the long run, inflicting constant hard work on their rigid lifestyles.
Allos -or Carlos- grew up on the countryside of Binalonan with his father. He had a mother and many other siblings; majority of them boys, but they lived separate from him and his father. He worked at a very young age on his family’s land of eight hectares. He grew crops and harvested them also. Everybody worked in his family. From his father to him to even his little sisters that you learn about later on in the book. However, they did not work to make a sum of money for themselves. On the contrary, they put all of their money together to send Allos’ brother, Macario through high school.
“Macario, who was next to him, was a student at the high school in Lingayen, the capital of the province of Pangasinan. It was for Macario that we were working so hard, so that he could come back to Binalonan to teach school and, perhaps, to help us support our large family…”-(pg.10) ¶ 2
The entire family was working relentlessly, just so that only one person in their gargantuate family could finish school and bring some money to their poor table. They worked day and night and night and day. Each year that Macario went to school, they buckled down and went to their labor, hoping that their hard efforts would be rewarded in the end with some form of success from Macario.
“It was the beginning of another school year, and my brother Macario, who was in Binalonan for a month’s vacation, was ready to return. He needed money to continue his studies, but we had nothing to give him. He stayed on for two more weeks, losing that time in his studies. My father began to worry; then one day he went to town with the deed to our land.” (pg.14) ¶ 1

Macario came back every year before school started to visit his family and to congregate all the money that his family made to pay for his studies. However, his family had no more money to pay for the expenses of his education. His reaction to the situation was to simply stay home. Knowing that his family would fear that he would not go back to school, they would find some way to give him the money that was due for his studies. They would have to, or else he would not be able to go back hence, all of their previous money that they put into his education would have been a waste.
“My father sold one hectare of our land and gave the money to my brother Macario. Then we worked even harder on the farm, and sometimes we planted beans between the rows to make use of time and space. My mother also worked harder, going around the villages with a large earthen jar of salted fish and a bamboo tube of salt. The peasants had no money but they gave my mother chickens, eggs, and beans, and these she sold in the public market for a few centavos.” (pg.14) ¶ 4
In this book, it seems that out of all people in Allos’ family, his father wants Macario to finish high school the most. Every time Macario needs anything, mostly money, his father is always the one to make the decisions on where and how the money would come from and where they would get it from. In this statement made by Allos, it makes it known that they are constantly working harder and harder, trying to make ends meet with Macario’s studies and their poverty.
In some ways, it seems as if Macario, in some way, is controlling his family. Sometimes it even seems as if his family wants him to graduate more than he himself does.
“We had deprived ourselves of any form of leisure and simple luxury so that my brother could finish high school. But even then he kept asking for more money, threatening that he would stop if we did not send him enough, the thought that he would really stop terrified us.” (pg. 14) ¶ 5
The way that his family bereaves themselves from the fun things in life and simple lavishness that they deserve for all of their hard work shows great care and dedication, don’t you think? On the other hand, Macario is wrongful for even attempting to threaten his family after all they have done for him. They have sold land, just so that he could go to school, everybody in the family is working to their full potential to make some money. All I see Macario doing is coming around when he needs money and leaving once he gets it.
“He gave my father more money and got the deed to another hectare. The stipulation was that after a certain period of time we would pay back the money and thus retrieve the land; but in the event that we could not pay the moneylender, we automatically lost ownership of our land. Oddly enough, we were not bothered by this usurious arrangement. We were waiting for the day when my brother Macario would teach school and pay back the moneylender.” (pg. 15) ¶ 1
Allos’ family amazed me in this autobiography. They remained completely optimistic about the entire situation. Even though they were giving up their land and almost everything they rightfully owned, they were sure that their son and to some, brother, were going to become a teacher and pay back the moneylender. But, what if? What if Macario did not pay back the moneylender? What if he never came back to his family? All of these allegations I made against Macario could have happened, but not once did his family think of this.
The Bulosan family was down to their last centavos and had barely any land left.
“Two hundred pesos?” said my mother, rising slightly from where she sat on the floor. “You might as well ask for two thousand pesos.” “Don’t you have it?” asked my brother, looking at my father and then at my mother. “Can’t you do anything at all? Can’t you sell some more land? “We have only one hectare left, son,” said my mother, trying desperately to make my brother understand our poverty with futile movements of her hands. Can’t you sell this house?” (pg.22) ¶ 2
This conversation held between Macario, his mother and his father was surprising. After giving up all of the money that they had ever earned and most of their land, it just was not enough. Could Macario not see that his family was doing all that they could do? Couldn’t Macario see that by taking the last of their land that they would have nothing? The most head-turning statement was “Can’t you do anything at all?” but when he asks that of his parents they fail to ask him the same question.
Macario was an excellent student, but not so much a excellent child. He asked of too much without giving anything. He never volunteered to help; he never showed sympathy for his struggling family. All he did was take from his family… and a simple ‘thank you’ would have been nice to get thrown into the mix every once in a while.

america is in the heart v.s. how my brother leon brought home a wife

(jrowland) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:46:28 GMT

-Why did they they go through the Waig, long way?

-Did they see any people in thhe Waig?

-Why did Maria change Leon's name into Noel?

-"Labang's white coat, which I had washed and brushed that morning with a coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the lamplight and his horns appeared to be tipped with fire ." (6)

-surmised?

-the brother likes Maria; seems to be 13 years of age.

-What is the signifigance of Sky Sown With Stars?leon taught maria the song.

-thems: rural life compared to city life

-progress to backwardness

-how does this experience of the city effect carlos bulosan

STEPS:
1. theme(marriage, tradition,
2. question
3. argument

A:
city adapts to country in the person of maria

B:
country adapts to person of carlos

(jrowland) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:55:30 GMT

Yellow is the color pineapples. The color of the sun's bright rays. Yellow is the color of triumph and also of defeat.

Chocolate: chocolate is the edible brown substance that heals a broken heart. It is my escape to happiness. Chocolate can be liquified, purified, and frozen to perfection! =)
EMILY EDITING:
-take out the word 'substance' and use a different word
-the 2nd sentence instead of using chocolate again to begin the sentence use 'it'
-and the 3rd sentence begin it with Chocolate again

ROSE:

Roses tend to be the most popular flower. The red rose is usually non wilted, ageless, and has no thorns. To me, however the perfect rose would be wilted and would be browning, with many thorns. By showing its imperfections, it is showing the reality of life and how it takes a toll on each and every thing. In the negative or positive aspect. A rose tends to be the icon of everlasting life.

all three subjects of the matter: chocolate, yellow and a rose all have one key thing in common. all are colors. chocolate is a brown color and yellow is self explanitory. rose is a pretty pink color.

ageless, a rose tends to be the icon of everlasting life., triumph and defea

triumph and defeat are life's battles and as the dodge commercial says, we must "take life by the horns."

a rose tends to be the icon of everlasting life.

Descriptive Essay

(jrowland) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:33:11 GMT

The gymnasium was packed! There were no empty seats i the padded, wooden bleachers. half of the gym was chanting for us, the Bay area Magic, and the rest of the California Ballaz. This was the championship game for the 'Jam On It' seventeen and under tournament and everyone was watching. The game was tied at fifty-five to fifty-five and there was one minute remaining on the scoreboard. California Ballaz called a thirty second timeout; both teams when tot heir benches. The chairs were blue and the seat were fashioned with a cushion that had the school mascot on them. I sat down on a blue chair and drank a Gatorade. Coach as pacing back and forth and sweating bullets. He told us to man up, to match up with an opposing player. The short, stubby referee blows his whistle and five players from each team step out onto the court. I found a player, number twelve and matched up with her.

Sweat dripped down from her face, rolling past her temples and down her red cheeks. Her eyes locked gaze with mine and sent sheer fear down my spine. Her brown hair was soaked with sweat and clung to the nape of her neck. What scared me the most about her was the look of hunger in her face. She looked as if she really wanted to win the game, and win at any cost. This was my opponent and we were hungry for the same thing.

The referee handed the basketball to the California Ballaz. My team got in front of their men and played man to man defense. Number two on the opposing team threw an overhead pass to the right corner. A short, Asian girl about my height caught the ball. Half the crowd sighed as the ball was almost stolen. The girl bent her knees and shot the ball into the air. The ball rotated perfectly, then veered off slightly to the left. Krystal, a girl on my team stood about six feet tall and was slender. She jumped into the air and tore the ball out of the sky. She held the ball above her head and pivoted to face the wings of the court. She saw me and forcefully passed the ball to me. I caught the ball, put my head up, and dribbled down to the left side of the court... Seeing an open teammate down the court, I picked up the ball and threw it to her. As she caught the ball, I let out a sigh of relief. Looking down to see where she was located on the court, she took a step back to be behind the three-point line and shot the ball. The ball swished through the net and the crowd went wild! There were twenty-four seconds left on the clock and we were up by three points. We ran down the court to set up our defense. The California Ballaz passed the ball around trying to get an open shot. They passed the ball to the girl I was guarding and she shot the ball. I hurriedly put my hand in her face to mess up her shot and boxed her out. She missed the shot and our team got the rebound.

As the shot clock wound down five, four, three, two, one we started jumping in triumph. We won the championship game and were ecstatic! Our team was awarded individual trophies and a team trophy. Our coach was smiling a way I had never seen before. Our team went to the quietest place in the gym which was a corner by the exit doors. We took pictures and talked about the game. The team was satisfied with our win that we went out to eat at Outback. We all walked out the doors in our red uniforms with our heads held high in the air.