Blog Portfolio 3

Welcome back to Monique’s brilliant blog! The following blogs attached all vary from each other and I took immense pleasure in writing every single piece. My blogs cover different concepts that can be observed in the three novels: “Hunger”, “The Metamorphosis” and “The Stranger”. Below each link will be a paragraph explaining the general picture of what that link contains. Please read the paragraph before visiting the blog. Enjoy!

Coverage:

Existentialism is a Humanism

This blog discusses my response to Kaufman’s article, “Existentialism is a Humanism” and I share my opinions either in alliance to or in opposition against the main principles he argues about, his main principle being “existence comes before the essence.” I link and give some examples of his principles to my life, celebrities, movies and the deliberations of 2012 which I think support his principles very well.

BBC News: Distraction Society

The article written by the BBC News regarding the “Distraction Society” deliberates the power of technology and the mind. Technology distractions such as Facebook are discussed and the distractions from the mind are shared in connection to the novel “Hunger.”

A Hunger Artist, Franz Kafka

This blog discusses the document “The Hunger Artist” and the similarities he has with the protagonist in “Hunger”. Similarities like pride and anger are clearly noted and supported with quotes from both the book and the document.

The Pencil

This blog is a piece written about a pencil from the perspective of the protagonist of “Hunger”. The piece focuses on the way the protagonist perceives things and the threshold his imagination can reach with a simple object like a pencil.

Knut Hamsun's Christian Perversions

In the blog titled “Knut Hamsun’s Christian Perversions”, the resemblances of Hamsun’s himself and the protagonist of “Hunger” are pondered over and how Hamsun’s lifestyle and beliefs could be grasped through this.

Hunger Mindmap

This mindmap focuses on three major parts of “Hunger”: Existentialism, Literary Techniques and Christianity. Quotes from the book itself as well as other sources are used to support the ideas that are stated.

The relationship between Gregor and his Father

This blog really showed how I felt about the relationship between Gregor and his father in “The Metamorphosis” which I continuously said was “disgusting” and why I felt this way.

Formal Paragraph (The Metamorphosis)

This blog discusses Gregor’s change in character after his transformation. First, this idea is expressed in a formal paragraph in my own style, then the reviewed version is how the same idea was expressed using the VIP format.

Kafkaesque

This blog deliberates about the term “Kafkaesque” after watching the film “Kafka”. Absurdity and irony are the two main elements that are discussed and references from secondary sources and the film itself are used to support this.

The Stranger Mindmap

This mindmap is a plan of how I would structure an essay about a theme from “The Stranger”. I first brainstormed ideas then settled on one: Irrationality vs.  Rationality which is what my mindmap shows. Many different thesis’s and topic sentences are displayed here.

What is Life? (Wildcard)

This blog is my wildcard which I decided to talk about Life, what it is and what it contains.

Depth

Kafkaesque

This blog discusses what the term “Kafkaesque” could mean after watching the film “Kafka”. The two main aspects I cover are absurdity and irony. I use references to the book series “Harry Potter” and connect and compare the monsters from ‘The Castle’ to slaves in the 20^th century. I also use David Wallace’s article, “Laughing with Kafka” to describe Kafka’s humour that is portrayed in the film. Examples from the film are used to show the irony aspect of it. 

Interaction

Javeria's blog (Kafkaesque)

This is a link to Javiera’s blog titled “Kafkaesque” in which I mentioned that Asim’s blog could help develop one piece of her blog which she did not go into such depth in.  This became a discussion and we both included parts of Asim’s blog that we liked and agreed on.

Discussion

Pooja's blog (His Happy Makes Me Sad)

This is a link to Pooja’s blog titled “His Happy Makes Me Sad”. Pooja, Saumya and I were all involved in this discussion. We mainly deliberated on Gregor’s true character. Pooja believed that he was a weak character overall because of his denial to face the real truth. I too believed that Gregor was a weak and cowardly character to allow his family to manipulate him, however, I thought that Gregor had such great strength and willpower to synthesize his happiness and make himself believe that his parents truly love and appreciate him. Saumya too jumped into this discussion!

Xenoblogging

Adrienne's blog (My Approach to Writing an Essay)

The Comment Primo: This is a link to Adrienne’s blog in which I found her plan of structuring an essay outstanding! I know that next time I need to write an essay, I will plan it by following her steps because she organized it organized very well! 

Wildcard

What is Life?

This is a link to my wildcard in which I decided to talk about What is Life? I discuss the emotions one can feel and how I learnt to appreciate and love life. 

What is Life? (Wildcard)

If we tried to understand what life is, it would be like trying to lick your elbow, and let’s face it, no one can do that. Life can be interpreted in many different ways. In biology, life would be defined as a living thing that moves, reproduces, grows and develops, gets rid of waste, takes in energy, responds to the environment and evolves.  To me, life is like a Snakes and Ladders game which we have to play to be happy, to be sad but most importantly to live.

The most joyful thing about life is the feeling of happiness. To be happy is a most wonderful experience. Every muscle of your body is aching with movement and your heart cannot stop thundering against your body. The smile across your face is stretched so wide that you feel your jaw might break and you’re laughing so much you feel you might explode. I always want to be happy because of how it makes me feel. It makes me feel ecstatic, ridiculous and crazy! At times I synthesize happiness which evolves into natural happiness. I call this “living the moment”.

Recently, I have chosen to live the moment and let all the chips fall into place. Worrying, stressing, being sad, these are all the obstacles of life. It is a part of life, and we have to be careful when we step onto that ladder because any emotion can cause the rung to give way and let us tumble to the floor. I believe that that is the whole game of life: To play with our emotions, to live these emotions and to try and accept them.

When we feel sad, we want to be happy and thus when happiness comes again, we appreciate it much more. Appreciation is something that God wants us to learn in the game of life. We must learn to appreciate everything we have and get to our advantage. I learnt this lesson when I was 10 and I travelled to a part in India with a religious group who was devoted to a Saint called Satya Sai Baba. It was living and learning without my family that made me see how privileged I was, how lucky I was, and how sick this game of life can be to others. This journey I took changed me, it made me happy with who I was, it made me appreciate more, it made me feel more – it made me a better person and this journey was a definite 6 on one roll of a die.

Moving to India and looking at the weak condition of around 70% of the population made me feel everything triple because this was my country and I could do nothing about it. Charities, working with slum kids, all these events help but they are not good enough to CHANGE it altogether. This made me realize that really I cannot change anything, the only thing I can change is myself and the only thing I can carry up the ladder is myself. That is the sad part of life. For many, “living the moment” is not good enough to make one happy because many do not get that moment. This is why we should appreciate everything we get; every single little act of kindness is worth a million dollars to every slum kid in Delhi.