A Lucky Lily

Emotions are meant to be felt.

In both Power and Translations by Brian Friel the question of cultural identity is asked. In Translations, the character Owen grapples with his Irish identity while he is changing the names of his town to English while working for the British. Owen eventually decides to remain true to his Irish identity and quits working for the British by lying to the British officals and telling them his brother is "at a wake" (82). Similarly, in Power Omishto seems to be straddling both the modern American world and her Native American heritage and when her loyalties are questioned she must decide what culture she wants to embrace. Omishto is influenced by her Aunt Ama and fathers memory of her Native American culture. Yet, her mother pushes her to accept the Westernized ways and leave the tribe life. Although, Omishto does not live on the reservation she is still very much in tune with nature in her own way as well as her heritage being something she has left from her father. From the ch...

"Servants of the Map" and the Humans of New York Facebook post both seem to be saying the same thing. That obstacles can appear in our path and its up to us to climb the mountain to overcome the obstacle. Reading both stories reminds me of the Miley Cyrus song "Climb." "Servants of the Map" discusses how climbing a mountain and going on this type of adventure can cause someone's identity to shift and them to change as a result. While the HONY post discusses how even though this person had trained for so long there were still things he could not foresee or prepare for. These stories are true to everyday life. We can go through life thinking we are prepared but still there are things that can surprise us. These events and obstacles help shape us into who we are. We are what we've been through and survived and these stories show that.

In Act 1 of Translations by Brian Friel, the character Manus stands out as being an important part of the play overall due to his involvement in many aspects of the town life. Manus is the older son of the Master of the school, and is the primary teacher to the students. The descriptions of Manus compared to his younger brother Owen along with the dialogue between them at the end of Act 1 hints at an underlying tension within the group. By all accounts of history it is usually the eldest son that receives all the glory and honor. Yet, Manus is overshadowed by his younger brother in terms of money and political power. While Manus is described as being pale faced, shabby dressed and lame, Owen is described as handsome, charming, and smartly dressed. Manus is continually ignored by his father and brother even though he is the primary worker in the "school." Due to these descriptions and familial interactions, Manus comes off as trying to prove himself better than his brother w...

The story "A Private Experience," by Chimamanda Adichie, is told from the 3rd person and the point of view of a girl named Chika. It is the story of Chika and a woman hiding from the riot and killings taking place in the streets. The audience learns of the initial encounter of the two women, what takes place during their time hiding out, and what happens to Chika after the violence had ended. The only insight we have comes from Chika and her thoughts, and this makes a difference since we can't trust that her side as the full story. We never learn the name of the other woman or her thoughts on the situation. I found this particular detail interesting because it can confuse the reader by only presenting one side of the story. These two characters are both united in their grief and worry, and yet come from different backgrounds and the reader can only experience one background that might be influenced by stereotypes. How the story is told affects the tone of the story. If pa...

In some ways, the movie is both the same and different from the book The Complete Persepolis. Overall, the movie remains true to the book in that it remains a graphic narrative. The movie begins with an adult Marjane in an airport on her way to Tehran instead of with the wearing of the veil as a child. In this way the movie does not follow the chronological order like the book instead it tells as if she was remembering certain moments from her past. this is also shown as the adult Marjane is in color, but when she recalls a memory everything is in black and white. Whereas in the book, everything is in black and white. Obviously the movie had to cut out some of the scenes in the book in order to save time so they have a different approach of telling the story. One scene in particular made me feel like I was watching a play. In order to show time passing and yet informing the audience of particular things, the movie would fade to show a character saying something and then return to b...