Personal Narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Narrative - Essay Example I was not very silly as I used to perform in most of my classes when I decided to. Despite my small body and young age, I used to do things unimaginable to me while at high school. I was known all over St Lawrence Academy for mischievousness. Even the director of the school knew me even though it was very difficult for the director to have known anyone unless he or she was a performer in class and would occasionally meet the director during coffee hours organized by the school in their honor. Mine was a mixture of both, known majorly for bad and partly for academics. If one would tell me that school is a center for transformation, I would agree with him because it is though schooling that I got transformed. I usually had to wait for the opportune times to lay down my targets. This I often did with a lot of surety and accuracy which never missed the targets once laid on their paths. I remember once organizing to lay down the director on his way to school for blackmailing me and my fri ends before the morning assembly. It was an embarrassing moment for me and my friends when the director made the announcement live open before the assembly that we had peed in front of his office at night. We did not know that the director’s office had been fitted with CCTV cameras when we went pee in from of his office for scorning us on the previous assembly. I did not know that I would again come back and work in this school again and be answerable to the man I peed in front of is office. To be liked once again by the man who scorned and rebuked me occasionally before people and made sure that everyone heard about it as he covered my presumed good image with his usual abuses. The director told us to call our parents to school and threatened to dismiss us from the school if we didn’t do so. We called our parents and the director started narrating the story and even produced the cameras showing the slides with our images carrying out our hideous undertaking. It was of course and embarrassing situation before my parents who knew how innocent and hard working young man. My father whipped me for the first time and probably lost trust in me. My mother could not say anything but just kept mum. She did not tell me how bad I am neither did she tell me of anything bad that I ever did even when I went back home after the school had closed that semester. I performed rather well but she never said anything concerning that. I could not configure what was actually going on in her mind, whether she thought I was wrong or right only lay with her. My father is a man who does not hide anything and for any bad done by anyone, he would scorn and punish at the point of the offense. Life with my father was a rather difficult one even though at times we used to appreciate his efforts for making us follow the straight path and for being very friendly at times especially when we did something good. Life however made me change my bad characters and become a good man as I can call it today. I went to college after finishing my high school and life was not just very easy on my side, it was rather rougher than I had expected. The stories of good life and personal control were just amazing and I actually longed for it. Leaving my home for college was just an imaginable, I thought I would have full control over my life, do whatever I wanted at any time. The contrary however awaited me at college. My father almost forgot me and always assume that I am a grown up

Short book reviews and comparison of reviews Essay

Short book reviews and comparison of reviews - Essay Example Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This Earth of Mankind. New York: Penguin, 1996. Vol. 1 of Buru Quartet. Print. This Earth of Mankind is a novel about modernity, civilization, sex and sexuality in the society. The novel is set around the main protagonist, Minke who reflects on the real meaning of modernity, which he associates with â€Å"learning and science.†1 The idea of modernity and civilization is advanced as Minke shows his interest in electricity;2 he demonstrates modernity by using trains and smaller machines driven by oil and not steam. The novel starts by explaining factors of globalization and hence modernity. The novel also manifests the inner conflict in the main protagonists arising from conflict of interest between the colonized and the colonizer. The author utilizes the narrative approach to detail the life of the main protagonists, and how the protagonists advance the themes of colonialism, modernity, and sexuality. Through describing various inventions and developments in science, the author brings out development of modernity in the novel, and how it impacts the lives of the main protagonists. The author utilizes symbolism and descriptive language throughout the book. For example, the use of aspirin as the most powerful medicine to be discovered by humanity to symbolizes effects of modernity on humanity. The main perspective in the novel is the importance of the native Javanese culture as the main protagonists still fight to keep their identity in the society despite the rapid spreading forces of modernity that seek to abolish such cultures. This is observed through Minke who tries to find his real identity despite being in a Dutch school. The novel also brings out the ills of modernity in the society as prostitution and brothels became a status symbol in the society,3 and the oppression of the natives as seen in the rape of Annelies by Robert; a way to exert power for being associated with Europeans. The issue of mixed blood brews much conflict as Maurit’s father commits blasphemy by mixing the native and white blood, which is unforgivable. Thus the white is taken as a much superior race that cannot mix with the low class native blood. This is an issue of superiority complex, where the white is viewed as being much superior tot eh native. However, dispute the issue of mixed blood being contentious, the whites still continue to sleep with native prostitutes in brothels and to sire children with the natives, which is also mixing the native and white blood. The whites are thus hypocritical. This makes them to reconsider the racial boundaries and in some cases, the native can actually be assimilated into the white society to enjoy the prestige; an example being Minke who enjoys the prestige of the whites though from a mixed blood. Inner conflict in the main protagonists is the main aspect in the novel. Minke in his setting struggles to find his real identity in a society that ranks his native class at the lower end of social hierarchy. He is lonely and is forced to live with constant questioning by fellow students who probably were skeptical regarding his ability to make it in sciences as whites do.4 Nyai Ontosoroh faces serious inner struggles; she is a mistress to a white, though a native and is even mistreated by the same whites for being a native; she is used as a sex