Book from my Past

A book from my past that I enjoyed reading was Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. I read this book during the summer session last year, in English 009. I am not someone who necessarily loves to read, but this book seemed very interesting. My English professor assigned us to read it over the course of the summer session. I am glad he chose this book, I really enjoyed it. This book is about an eighteen-year-old woman (Kaysen) who is sent to a psychiatric hospital due to a mental illness. Although she plans to stay only a few weeks, Kaysen remains at McLean for nearly two years. Kaysen tells the story of the people and experiences she encounters at McLean hospital. I remember this book because it was interesting to read about the different mental illnesses that these patients at psychiatric hospitals have. I also remember it because we had to do research on a mental illness while also being tested on the chapters of the book. My favorite part of the book would probably be in the last chapters, where Susanna finally gets out of the hospital. She finds a job and even runs into one of the other patients she was in the hospital with, Lisa. She had a child and was a responsible mother, something that I would have never expected her to become due to her behavior throughout the book. I would recommend this book to anyone in the class because it was a book full of suspense and one of the books I really enjoyed reading.

Community Profile - Excessive Exercise

    She was always the first to get to the weight room, and by time we got there I bet she had already used every single machine in there. “I like to work out by myself, it helps me concentrate and go even harder at it. When I have the gym to myself it is the best feeling in the world” she told me. While I started out with an easy warm-up like the bike for cardio, she skipped the warm-up and got right to it. She loves to work on her legs, they’re pretty impressive. Sometimes when she used the machine for calf raises, she could carry all the weight (about 240 pounds) on those legs. “Sometimes when the guys are in here, they’ll want to challenge me and see who can lift more weight. I always win, I am very proud of my progress” she said proudly. She always left cardio for the end of her long workout, but that did not mean it was an easy cool down. She worked on each machine for about 20 minutes at some of the hardest levels that they had. She would start out with the treadmill, and increase the incline to the highest level possible and do lunges for about 10 minutes and then sprint the next 10 minutes. I know this because I work out right next to her and to me that is just insane, she has some great endurance and determination. Then, drenched in sweat, she would go to the elliptical, up-right bike and regular bike and finish with the stair climber. Sometimes after her workout, she would be so exhausted that she would just drop to the floor and lay there for a couple of minutes and then find her body imprinted on the floor because of how much she would sweat. “I have lost 30 pounds from March to April, I wouldn’t say I am obsessed with exercising, I just want to look and feel good for myself, no one else” she said. For some people, like my friend, exercising is something that helps them escape from reality. During the interview she mentioned that when she works out she feels “unplugged” from reality and forgets all about the problems going on in her life. So besides exercising her body, she is also relaxing her mind while doing it. In this moment I understood why so many people exercise, including myself. Exercise can be a stress reliever, and for many it is an escape from reality. Although some may become obsessed with exercise, it may be a way of tuning out from the real world for a couple of hours. Still, I mentioned to her that I wanted to help her maybe lower the amount of hours she went to gym and replace that with something besides exercise. “I do admit that I have been disconnected from my family and friends, and it may be time to cut back on the gym and work on getting some of my life back” she said. I was very glad to hear that and I was more than willing to help her get through this situation.

   

The Gate - Tortilla Analogy

In the novel, “Tortilla Curtain,” by T.C. Boyle, we see the putting up of a gate around Arroyo Blanco. The building of the gate must have been like putting up a border between all the people that lived in Arroyo Blanco to everybody else. Although Delaney disapproved of the gate and did not want it to be put up, others in the community felt safe if there was something that separated them from the outside dangers. The gate can be related to a border because it kept the people, or Mexicans, out of Arroyo Blanco. But Delaney did not like this idea. He felt as if he had moved to Arroyo Blanco because he wanted to feel free, in an open community. By putting up the gate, to Delaney it was as if he had been stuck in a prison. He needed a kind of permission, to get out and to get in to his home. This gate was a border, and just like any border, people were trying to get in. There was a constant struggle for people like Candido and Jose Navidad to get around Arroyo Blanco, much like Meixcans coming to America and trying to survive. There was also a constant struggle by Candido and America to not get caught by “La Migra” for they would be deported and sent back to Mexico. The gate must have felt like a border between Mexico and the United Sates because there’s people inside of the gate, who are white, and then there’s people who are trying to get into the gate, who are Mexican.

Tortilla Soundtrack

In the novel, “The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle, we see the building of a gate around Arroyo Blanco. The building of the gate must have been like putting up a border between all the people that lived in Arroyo Blanco to everyone else. This gate has a greater meaning than just keeping the community of Arroyo Blanco safe from outside dangers. This ultimately symbolizes the border between Mexico and the United States. Most people in the community believed that if they put a gate around their homes they would be protected from dangers such as coyotes and even other people. Delaney was completely against this idea because he felt as if he was stuck in a prison. He mentioned that he had moved to Arroyo Blanco for its open gated community but now the people are trying to do what he was running away from. This gate was a border, and just like any border, people were trying to get in. Much like Delaney, Candido and America are also running from something, their lives in Mexico. They come looking for a better economic situation in the United States, but soon find that things are the same, or even worse in the U.S. They go through many struggles and America even mentions she wished to be back in Mexico. If Candido and America came looking for a better like in the U.S., are things really that bad here that she would rather be back in Mexico? The song “Mojado” by Ricardo Arjona, explains the many struggles Mexican immigrants go through when they cross the border. Throughout the novel, there was a constant struggle by Candido and America to not get caught by “La Migra” for they would be deported and sent back to Mexico. This song reflects Candido and America’s lives for they had to leave their lives in Mexico to look for a better life in the United States.

Tortilla Curtain MVP

 The most important part of the book “The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle is the building of the gate around Arroyo Blanco. This part is the most important because this symbolizes a border between whites and Mexicans. Most people in the community believed that if they put a gate around their homes, they would be protected from the outside dangers, such as coyotes and even other people. Now, Delaney was completely against the building of the gate because he felt like it would feel like a prison. Delaney moved to Arroyo Blanco for its open-gated community but now they are trying to do what he was running away from. Much like Delaney, Candido and America are also running from something, their lives in Mexico. They come looking for a better economic situation in the United States, but soon find that things are the same, or even worse in the U.S. They go through many struggles and America even mentions that she wished to be back in Mexico. If Candido and America came looking for a better life in the U.S., are things really that bad here that she would rather be back in Mexico? The Tortilla Curtain MVP is the building of the wall around Arroyo Blanco because it symbolizes the overall conflict that is developed throughout the novel, illegal immigration. Much like the border that divides the United States from Mexico, this wall between Arroyo Blanco and the outside separates the whites from everyone else. At first Delaney did not approve of the building of this wall, but as the novel went on, he soon changed his mind and believed that the wall should be built. This can also refer to the way Delaney thought of Mexican illegal immigrants. At first he did not care much about them, but by the end of the novel he even went after one to kill him. The wall had many effects on various characters’ perspectives, such as Delaney, and this is why I believe that it was the “MVP” of the novel.