My Digital Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HL3lQzxfDg

Here is my digital story in which I enjoyed making even though I had problem getting a hang of iMovie at first try. I learned a lot about my aunt from this project. I also learned a lot from others and how you should enjoy and embrace where you came from. I also hope the songs in which I included in my video helped reach people. As much as I loved my final project I wish to not be included in the ebook but hope my fellow classmates do.

What it means to be American?

After watching all of the presentations on what it is to be american I had to ask myself what it meant to be American to me? I have lived in America all my life and till this day I still have no idea how or what it means to be American. American is defined by being a native or citizen in the United States. which is true but what happen to are so called American Dream? If a foreigner ever asked me I would probably say to be an American it means to be free. But are we really free? I thought about Langston Hughes poem "Let America Be America Again" and how he wishes that America could go back to the time where we were free. At the same time he says that America was never America to him at times I know what he means. I feel living in America for me is yes a place to have better opportunities then other countries but we say we want to help immigrants here but be so quick to send them back too. 

I guess you can say I am still in the process of finding myself. I do classify myself as an American but only because where I reside. When it all comes down to it everyone does and will have there own definitions in which they believe is being American. I know I am still trying to define it for myself that I may or may not come to an conclusion with it but I am happy to keep trying.

#4 "The Third and Final Continent"

Imagine coming to another country only knowing what you have read in a book about it. That is exactly how narrator started his journey to America. The most important part of his journey to America was to further his education. Usually when we hear of immigrants coming to America it is usually something negative but what about the ones like this man/narrator who came for a positive reason? This narrator shows the journey of coming to America along with threshold of being in a arranged marriage. 

This story was the most positive outlook on two controversial topics. Many Americas have shown hate to foreigners coming to the country regardless the reason or the fact they have earn citizenship. This narrator started in London in which he didn't feel like he belonged until he came to Boston. Once he found his place in world he did succeed to have a successful life along with falling in love with a total stranger and meeting a older women who he didn't believe would have any affect on his life but did.
        During his stay with Mrs. Croft I believe that is when the narrator really learned most of his american mannerisms. The narrator learned that living with her respect for elders and how americans take pride mankind. For example Mrs. Croft and the narrator repeatedly talked about the man of the moon. Mrs. Croft to me represented a lady of traditional sense of America because her simple ways and mannerisms are a little outdated but still useful. The narrator later learns that she did actually mean something in his journey here.
   Another part of his journey was having his wife join him in America. In America people know of arranged marriages but we never know the actually journey with it. With this story you learn how the narrator had to learn to love her it took some time but they worked out. Imagine being forced into a relationship and then trying to make it work. Not only did they have to learn to love each other his wife also had to adjust to a whole new world. The beauty in their relationship is journey they went through and that once a complete stranger to him changed his outlook.  

#3 "Smoke Signals"

In "Smoke Signals" I think it grasped one of the aspects of friendship and journeys in life. Thomas and Victor are not your typical pair and may have not started off as friends but they did connect in more ways than one. Being that they are from the same reservation pretty much everything that goes on there makes them each part of each other life. But for Victor and Thomas they are more part of each other life then they originally knew. The death of Victor's father Arnold happens to bring them closer. Being that the title of the movie is called "Smoke Signals" in which you use to show signs of distress or help is actually what Victor needed. Throughout the movie you see Thomas approach Victor asking him about his father leaving in a somewhat annoying way. I feel that in Thomas' own way he felt Victor needed to talk about his father and express his anger. Also his way of telling these elaborate stories about Victor's father was to make Victor remember great things about rather then the hate he had for him.
This movie to me was basically symbolizing the journey in life where you face death and friendships. Victor had to come to an understanding about people and not that everyone is out to get him and can't be trusted.
This wasn't one of my best blogs because I was not sure how to explain exactly what this movie could symbolize. I feel it is one of those movie where it can be up to many interpretations. The main thing I got from it was the forming of a new friendship and how these two young men who are   
connected by this fire that happened brought them closer than expected. Maybe that is why it is called smoke signals because it all started with a fire. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the movie I did it was different.

#2 "A Father"

You should never forget where you came from. In "A Father" Mr. Bhowmick was trying to keep his culture alive even if everything around him was different. I could never imagine what it is like to have to convert the lifestyle you once knew to appease your surroundings. Being that they live in the states now his wife and daughter had started to become more americanized which he had grown accustomed to but did not fully accept it. But in almost every culture being a father is always the same. A father should love and care about their daughter in Mr. Bhowmick case he did not show that. As he even describes Babli he goes on to say that she is not the child he would have chosen, she is not womanly enough and she is only good enough to help him out money wise but nothing else. I never understood how one's father can describe their own child in such selfless(I am not sure if that is the word I was looking for but it will do for now) manner. Even when he finds out she is pregnant at first he seems surpise that anyone took time to love her. This story to me made me angry as to how a father can think such a way towards their child.

Towards the end when he does come to terms about her being pregnant and that he convinces himself that it would be all alright if he gets a grandson and if the father is white. The only time in this story that I did feel the same as Mr. Bhowmick is when he hit her at the end. I would have never hit her on her stomach though because of the baby but I would have still hit her. I only say this because if I was him and I had convinced myself that I would be ok if some man got my daughter pregnant before marriage even though it's against my culture, and she tells me that she got pregnant without a man I would be furious. One thing I guess he felt to go against the culture the right way but another thing to go against and not even an acceptable way. It was one of those stories were new school and old school collided. 

#1 "I Would Remember"

    I have to say when reading this I felt the passion and situations Carlos Bulosan went through. I love when writers can make you feel like your in story. I also connected with story because at a very young age my mother had passed as well. When that happens you later grow up trying to understand life and death. Unfortunately in Bulosan case he was surrounded by more deaths in such a short period that anyone should bear. As he describes each death of the people he encountered you can almost picture them interacting and what effect they had on him. The two deaths he encountered that he describes in great detail are of Crispin and Leroy.

    When describing Crispin death it is clear that there was a emotional connection. He describes him as if a person would describe a lover or a friend. As he wakes up the next morning and realizes Crispin has died he says "Men like Crispin who had poetry in their soul come silently into the world and live quietly down the years, and yet when they are gone no moon in the sky is lucid enough to compare with the light they shed when they are among the living." That passage to me shows how he felt Crispin was kind of like the light that shown through his darkness. Even though he did not know him that long he brought him hope and made an impact on him which made his death a significant one. 

    Leroy's death brings the whole story to a turn around. Being that Leroy was of the last death he describes it is also one of the most violent. Leroy's death reminded him of his homeland in which he saw his father violenting kill a carabao. It was a vicious death which was the same as Leroy's because these men showed little to no mercy on him. This made him see that even through he was trying to escape his homeland some of the same things he saw there were also everywhere else as well.