There were no tropical bands, smiling islanders, or readily available sun tan lotions. There were, however, three gentlemen dressed in army fatigue sporting rifles and an unhappy disposition. Margarita Island looked more like the stage for a military coup than a vacation paradise. What awaited us on the small plot of land 20 miles north of the Venezuelan coast was a run-down hotel, Porto Fino Mare. Arriving with seven classmates from school and a plane full of American tourists, it felt as if the island's population had doubled with our arrival. We tried to make the best of a bad situation, after all, there was still an abundance of blue sky and crystal clear ocean. Although all seven of us attended the same school, we were still just acquaintances. By the third night on the island we made a rotting bamboo table our source of entertainment. Sitting around that table, we were forced to occupy ourselves with something novel, conversation.
At first, dialogue sounded like group therapy. Where are you from? What brings you to this island tonight? Over time, however, our discussion shifted to deeper waters. Some of my classmates knew that I had been running an internet company, but nobody knew exactly what or how I was doing it. I explained about the two books I had written and went into detail about how I was using the internet as a marketing tool. I talked about the weird looks I received from peers, while printing out thousands of pages in the school library.
My friends seemed genuinely interested in how I could manage a successful company, but what happened next surprised me. My normally reserved school acquaintances became enthralled. They started offering new ideas and directions for my business.
When it comes to analyzing the “banana massacre” scene in chapter 15, I found three narrative techniques the author used to describe this scene. Therefore, one can notice that this part of the book is the climax. As a result, one infers what the author is trying to say about Latin American history and politics.
In the next pages I will explain why Fredericksburg was such a tragedy. Why it was a big morale booster for the South, but a disappointment for the North?
The poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez dramatizes the conflicts of a young girl’s family’s escape from an oppressive dictatorship in the Dominican Republic to the freedom of the United States. The setting of this poem starts in the city of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, which was renamed for the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo; however, it eventually changes to New York when the family succeeds to escape. The speaker is a young girl who is unsophisticated to the world; therefore, she does not know what is happening to her family, even though she surmises that something is wrong. The author uses an extended metaphor throughout the poem to compare “swimming” and escaping the Dominican Republic. Through the line “A hurried bag, allowing one toy a piece,” (13) it feels as if the family were exiled or forced to leave its country. The title of the poem “Exile,” informs the reader that there was no choice for the family but to leave the Dominican Republic, but certain words and phrases reiterate the title. In this poem, the speaker expresser her feeling about fleeing her home and how isolated she feels in the United States.
Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The life and times of a Caribbean dictator. New York: Macmillan.1966.
Gonzales, Jose Luis. Puerto Rico: the Four Storeyed Country and Other Essays (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishing Inc.)1-30.
Overall, the Battle of Vicksburg of May 18 to July 4, 1836 was a turning point for the American Civil War for the Union States. As Abraham Lincoln had recognized the take-over of the Vicksburg as “the key” to the Confederacy, Grant successfully pulled through his maneuvers in leading to victory. The victory and capture of the city had divided the Confederates in half, which meant that the Union ceded control of a very strategic point along a river. As the Confederate Army suffered difficulty to continuously be supplied, it made it more perplexing to sustain a fight. With that, the Union Army benefited from their success of the Siege of Vicksburg.
In this story, the reader can see exactly how, many Puerto Ricans feel when living on other grounds. Throughout this time, the boy that Rodriguez presents us realizes he has his culture and that he wants to preserve it as much as he can. “Because I’m Puerto Rican”. I ain’t no American. And I’m not a Yankee flag-waver”
... could declare war and peace only with the consent of the legislature. This National Assembly did not last long enough for that. The king did uphold the constitution and some of the revolutionaries revolted against it also. Nevertheless, the National Assembly dissolved on Sept 30, 1791 making it only lasting three years.
The college education that I am seeking goes beyond credentials in that it must first and foremost enrich my mind and spirit, and support my belief in continuous learning. My desire is to be challenged and to gain an experience that I can build upon for the future.
I have always set big goals, and had even bigger dreams. However, these dreams aren’t like those of some of my classmates such as becoming a movie star or a famous soccer player, but ones of curing cancer and providing the world with answers to scientific phenomena. Should the Gatton Academy provide me the chance to take the next step toward fulfilling these dreams, very little would prevent me from attending.
This text exhibits the events of the 1937 Parsley Massacre. Similar to Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this text refers back to Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo organized a genocide of Haitians who were in D.R. Danticat allows readers to experience this traumatic event through the perspective of Amabelle Desir, the main character.
The American and the French revolutions had many similarities and differences. One similarity being is that they both wanted to escape the rule of their King. Second, they both started by an uprising of people against unfair taxation by the monarchy. The French peasants were not represented by the Parliament. It was mainly composed of middle and upper class people. Now, the American colonists were not represented in England because of their lack of presence. Both wanted to set up a Republic, which provided liberty and justice to all classes of citizens. Just like France, the American colonists were composed up mainly middle and lower class citizens. The American Revolution started out by not wanting bloodshed and violence. France started out with violence and bloodshed. (American Revolution)
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts, and the glitches in the health care system. Kincaid was an established writer for The New Yorker when she wrote this book, and it can be safely assumed that majority of her readers had, at some point in their lives, been tourists. I have been a tourist so many times before and yet, I had never stopped to consider what happens behind the surface of the countries I visit until I read this essay. Kincaid aims to provoke her readers; her style of writing supports her goal and sets both her and her essay apart. To the reader, it sounds like Kincaid is attacking the beautiful island, pin-pointing the very things that we, as tourists, wish to ignore. No tourist wants to think about faeces from the several tourists in the hotel swimming alongside them in the oceans, nor do they want to think about having accidents and having to deal with the hospital. It seems so natural that a tourist would not consider these, and that is exactly what Kincaid has a problem with.
On the first day at my new job right after graduation, the Vice President asked me why I became a structural engineer. My answer was “I want to contribute to society and my local community using my strengths in numbers and analytical thinking.” This answer has never changed to this day.
Ever since I was young I have always been interested in businesses and how they operate, as well as being fascinated by other languages and cultural differences. My passion for the subject expanded when I chose business studies and french, as part of my A-level education. Although these subjects are somewhat demanding, I find them extremely interesting. I believe that a degree combining both these aspects is the correct choice for me. I am confident that a course in international business studies and modern languages satisfies both these interests. I will be looking forward to learning about the international business world and I am relishing the thought of learning to integrate with other European countries. The idea of learning to communicate with other people across the world is something that has always appealed greatly to me.