It is difficult to be a woman

The most important topic in Virginia Woolf’s essay is the genre issue. During those times, woman did not have the same rights than man, but do they have them now? I don’t think so. We have the same problem 70 years later.
In terms of writing, women were not suppose write or read certain topics like philosophy, religion, science fiction, and so on. After a few years, women started writing and reading what they wanted, but they were always critized because of it. Virginia discusses if women are able to write or create pieces of work as good as men do. At that time, women were not allowed to enter to all of the university or even to walk on the grass. Women were left a side, but they started to win their territory step by step.
The most interesting part of this essay, for me, was the fact that the problems those women lived 70 years ago are still an issue. Women are still mistreated, earn less money and men tend to believe that women are less intelligent than men. We need to change that way of thinking. We need to realize that women can do thing sometimes better than men, and the other way around too. Women have their weaknesses, but we have our strengths too

Problems from the past, will be always problems of the future.

Even thought the story “Oliver Twist” was written along time ago, we can see nowadays some of the issues that were happening during those times. Oliver was an orphan who was looking for a better life. We can see this in every corner or in every street of our country. Children are mistreated or fore to work in order to get some money for their parents who are drug addicts or alcoholics. In Oliver’s case, he had to survive on his own. Everywhere he went whether he was mistreated or he was pushed to steal. He had no good examples to follow or someone who could take care of him. He was alone.

Ok, we should not be so dramatic. There are some children who are treated correctly and love by their entire family. There are also children who have everything they want and they also have opportunities to be someone in the future.
The problem I saw in the book was inequality and inequity in the society. Wealthy people and poor people were extremely separated, as they are now, and no way in this world they will be seeing as equals. You were respected if you had money, but if you did not you have to accept to be accused of stealing, pick pocketing, etc.

To conclude, I think that we have a lot to work on. It is not right that we have to face the same problems we had 70 years ago. What we need is to find more “Mr. Brownlow” in order to make this world a better place to live in.

The signal man

After reading the signalman I was so confused that I could not understand a thing. There were so much information that I could not focus on one thing. After reading it twice, my attention was focus on the supernatural things that were in the story. The “ghost” that visited the main character was a warning for him. Every time the ghost appeared, a tragic accident happened. I believe the ghost was trying to warn the signalman about something that will happen to him. The first two accidents were just a warning for the signalman. He did not realize about this, and he died at the end.

It was quite difficult to understand the story. That is why I decided to look for more information about it. I found out that this story was based on a personal experience of Dickens. He was travelling on a train when it crushed and killed 10 passengers. He escaped alive, but with some psychological damage. It really called my attention the fact that most of the time writers write about their personal experiences. They might change them a bit, but are based on what they lived.

Being different

“Frankenstein” has a lot to reflect on. I personally focus my attention on the character Frankenstein junior. He was the creation of Victor Frankenstein, who was obsesses with the creation of life. After the creation of Frankenstein, Victor was afraid and regretted because of what he had done. He left Frankenstein alone, without any family or friends who can take care of him.

Rejection, hate, discrimination, frustration are just some of the words that come into mi mind when I think about Frankenstein Jr. He was so lonely, so scared, so frustrated, but he decided to fight against destiny anyways. He wanted to be part of the society, he wanted to be human, and he did everything he could to achieve that. He learnt how to speak and read, because he needed to communicate his feelings and thoughts. Most of the time Frankenstein was trying to be someone normal. He wanted to be accepted the way he was and the way he looked like.

In my personal opinion Frankenstein can not be treated as an “it”, he was one of us. In every house, in every office and in every classroom we will find a “Frankenstein” and it will be our decision to accept him/her or to leave him/her a side.

Wordsworth "Daffodils"

After reading the poem called “daffodils” by Wordsworth only one thing came into my mind, the importance of nature. I believe that William was trying to show that whenever he felt sad, lonely or afraid he looked for nature in order to get some comfort in his life. Daffodils are associated to spring, spring is associated to love, and love is associated to happiness. In this case, I believe that William was trying to show that nature is his way of escaping of all the bad things that sometimes a human being need to overcome.
I apply this poem in my personal life. We sometimes do not have nature to help us to feel better, but most of the time we have family or friends who are always there for us. I believe that nature and society had a lot in common in this poem. Maybe William sees daffodils as his allied or friends that will help him to overcome bad moments.

"When I have fears that I may Cease to be" by John Keats

I believe that everyone is afraid of death because of different reasons. A mother is afraid of leaving her children alone, a girl is afraid of leaving her boyfriend, a grandfather is afraid of making her children unhappy, a brother is afraid of not seeing her sister getting married, and so on. In my case, I am afraid that if I died my entire family will collapse. I know that my parents love me and my brother as if we were they life, so they are not expecting me to die first.
I believe that John Keats is afraid of missing some important things in his life such as writing, love, recognition, family, etc. He had goal to achieve as anyone else have, so he was afraid of not achieve his objectives in life. Keats used this poem to let us know what his fears were, and how afraid he was of dying.
I believe that regret is not good at all. We should live the way we want to, in order to do what we want to do. We all have dreams and we all have the right to have those dreams come true.

"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

After reading the poem "Kubla Khan" by Coleridge two things called my attention. The first one was that Coleridge was under the effect of opium when he wrote this poem. It is said, that this poem was a hallucination that he had due to the drug. It is really weird, at least for me that a famous poet writes under the opium effects, but many people celebrate the fact that he was capable of writing such a piece of work under this effect.

The second thing is that the writer really cares about nature. I understand that romanticism was focus on nature, but this poem is only about nature. The poem was really difficult to understand, even though we read it in Spanish too. He talks about rivers, forests, gardens, and so on. I imagine that his hallucination was about a castle which was located in a wonderful forest, full of trees and animals around it. He might want to live in a place like that.
It is said that his poem is not finish because he received a visitor while he was writing. I believe that it is ok the way it is.