Greek Mythology: Medea

  In the myth of Medea, Medea who is the daughter of King of Cholcis, helps Jason in the quest of the Golden Fleece, in order for him to give it back to the uncle as the deal was for him to get the throne back. In return though, Jason betrays Medea by going and agreeing to marry the  princess. Medea feels betrayed and furious that she decides to kill her sons since it reminded her of Jason, but to also for Jason to have no future generations. Medea also decided to poison the princess killing both the princess and her dad. The only reason Medea did all this crimes was not for Jason, but for her honor. Similar to Achilles and Paris, Medea also wanted her honor to stay high and respected, since she didn't want to become the clown of Greece, due to the betraying of Jason. Overall, I believe that the moral of the story was the role of women in ancient Greece. We see how bad she gets treated by Jason when he decides to leave her. Her reaction is the result of a male dominated society, since she didn't want to be another one of the many women of that time that couldn't speak up. She instead committed these horrendous sins in order to not let her honor go down.

"The Female Individual and the Empire", by Feng Lan

 It was interesting to read this essay named "The Female Individual and the Empire" by Feng Lan, since it shows how the poem or story of Mulan has changed causing different interpretations throughout the centuries. She clearly explains the different point of views different writers have establish with Mulan, and how it was impacted negatively. She mentions how today's Mulan was a "hybrid product of multicultural".  She also explains how  it was a "reconstruction of  Chinese history", showing that the story was manipulated and altered. While reading this essay, something that grabbed my attention was how they decided to change the origin of where Mulan was from. We know that when there is no certain place or origin for a certain myth or story, it becomes disreputable.  It was also interesting to see how women were view back then in China.

Tales From Outer Suburbia

  Compared to other comic texts we had read in the past, the tales from outer suburbia was way shorter which in my opinion was better. It was easier to understand the moral or theme compared to other texts we had read before. We see how the topic of immigration and coming to a new land completely different from the land you was born in can sometimes be a hard time to deal with. New traditions, new people, new lifestyle are some of the stuff immigrants see changes when arriving to a new country. I enjoyed how there was a magical theme such as the hidden door in the house that led them to a place similar to their country of origin because it showed how they can still practice their traditions, even though they are living in a different place. Overall, i enjoyed a lot reading this literature since it was short, straight to the point, with a deep and common theme such as immigrating to a new place.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

    I really did enjoy reading the comic of American Born Chinese by Gene Yang, since it was really understandable, and also the images included in the comic were easy to understand and straight to the point. In contrast to Sandman comic, this one didn't include any deep meaning and was way more enjoyable to read in my opinion. This comic had a clear moral to it, as it shows at the end when king monkey wanted to defeat his own god that created him, yet realized that he was just fooling himself , and that  he couldn't defeat that god unlike the others, since he created everything.I believe that American Born Chinese has more of a religions moral into it, since it shows how there is this one god that is the strongest out of all of them, creating and also destroying his creating if they decide to take the wrong path. I enjoy reading comics that have a clear moral like this one, and I do feel proud of myself to have ended reading this comic understand the plot and moral it contains.

Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman

  I normally don't read comics that often, so I did have a difficult time reading Sandman. Not only was it a little unclear or confuse to understand, but I also didn't understand the direction in which the events in the story where moving. In my opinion, this kind of comic contains a more serious message than the kind of comics I am used to reading, since they don't contain vital details like Sandman. Other type of comics also tend to make me laugh but this one was the exact opposite, and gave a more serious message to the readers. Even  though I did have some difficulty trying to follow the direction of the story and the meaning it was trying to give, I did enjoyed taking some time and analyzing the events in the story. It was more like a puzzle game I needed to somehow find an answer to, which was the reason I kept reading Sandman

American Indian Myths and Legends Ed. by Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz

  I just had a great experience while reading these great Native Indian myths and legends selected by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. What I enjoyed the most of reading these ancient myths is the way these different native american tribes used things that we might find dumb or overrated, as for example animals or plants, they used it as something more holy and important in their everyday life. By them using nature as a way to express their view on something they found important, is what truly got me interested in continuing reading their myths and legends. I was also pleased to see how both Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz stated in the very beginning that they did not edit anything or take random information from anywhere, they even stated where each myth was taken from, at the end of every myth. It was also interesting to notice how they were disappointed to see how some of the ancient Native Americans myths/legends were  changed by white men. It's good to see how these two men decided to go out and search for these myths that may seem useless or not important to us, but in reality it holds the heart of these different native american tribes cultures. Even though most of these tribes no longer exist, including their culture, by gathering these myths and folktales, we can see how their cultures were, and how they used nature as an answer to their questions.

The Three Wishes by Ricardo E. Alegria "and Juan Bobo: A Folkloric Information System" by Sarai Lastra

 I enjoyed reading one of the reading texts name The Three Wishes By Ricardo E. Alegria since it contained three folktales are were interesting to read, and the moral each one taught was clear and precise. We see how many folktales in the Puerto Rican culture have either Taino,African, or Caucasian. In the first folktale we see how this foolish kid named Juan Bobo commited many mistakes when protecting the animals, while his mother was in church. As a result the author ends in the end saying that that day, Juan received a whipping that he still remembers till today. I believe that the main lesson to be learn in this folktale is that foolishness and disobedience take you to bad consequences. In the second folktale, I noticed how it had more of a religious background to it. We see how the little ant loses her leg due to the snow, and then she asked the snow to please give her the leg back, and then the snow said to ask sun, since sun is stronger than snow, and so did the chain continue untill it reach the highest and most powerful element which was God. I believe that this maybe was written to those that didn't believe or have a strong connection with God, since it shows in the folktale how God is the most powerful out of everything he created. In the third folktale we see how this beautiful woman who was really a ugly witch covered in beautiful skin, She ended up marrying the most bravest and handsome man, without him knowing the truth. One day the husband decides to not take the coffee that putted him to sleep in order to see what his wife did at night, and discovered that she was a witch when removing her skin. As a result, he decided to put some hot pepper and chili, so that when she putted it back, it will start burning her skin. As a result, sunlight came out and she ended up turning into ashes. I believe that the main moral to be learn here is that you never get away with lying, and that one day, sooner or later you will pay for your wrong doings. All these folktales had and still have an important meaning to the Puerto Rican culture and its people.

Post #2: Living Folklore by Martha Sims

I agree with the author when she states that the average person believes that folklore is just another term for something untrue or not real, or just a  story or an old-fashioned belief. She also states that people believe that the only kind of people that had connections with folklore where those of less sophisticated class or simpler groups. In reality, folklore is the learning of different knowledge about how the world, our own communities, families,culture, etc express their creatively through art which include music, words, arts etc.  There is not group that doesn't practice some kind of folklore in their everyday life since folklore played and played an important role in every human that once and currently exist in this world. I have seen how many different cultures in this world use folklore in order to let the other different cultures know what their society is all about and what they can offer to these other societies, The customs of Japanese culture, or their unique food preparing techniques and their music with certain dance moves are all part of their folklore fashion, since they are informing their own knowledge to other cultures that wish to learn their traditions, Tradition is basically the act of passing down through generations certain customs or beliefs that are important to that certain group. As Martha Sims explained, tradition is a branch of folklore in a way that it uses materials, customs, verbal expressions to express their practices, but this must be a continuous practice, which then proof that it is vital to this certain group or culture, I enjoy learning about different traditions other cultures do, since you can learn and see how they view the world.

Post #1: Aesop's Fables and Clayton Essay

As I was reading the  Aesop's fables, I noticed how important these kind of fables play in our everyday life. People normally think that fables are meant to be read by children or people of young age, but what they don't realize is that there is no specific age to have fun and learn a life lesson through fables. They teach important life lessons that can be beneficial to both adults and to children in a way that it open the eyes to what is evil and good,and what will be the best decision to make. I believe that if it wasn't because of these kind of literature existed, a lot of children and young adults will make way more mistakes in their life, since they wouldn't have never seen the consequences of decisions certain characters made in the fable stories. It was interesting to see how in "Aesop, Aristotle, Animals: The Role of Fable in Human" he mentions how fables were used in past civilizations as a way to portrayed how society worked according to the social level status you standed on, reflecting that those with more power or money, had more advantages than those that were poor or slaves. The connection they make with humans and animals was really vital to these ancient societies since it gave a more clearer image of who were the "predators" and who were the "preys", resulting in keeping the society as a whole under control. Even though we have some similarities with animals such as eating or sleeping, there is one huge difference between us and them: conscience. While animals acts for survival, we humans have conscience which tell us what is good or evil.