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What it means when a crowd in a far away nation takes solider representing your own nation, shoots him then drags him from the vehicle and manipulates hims in the dust, was a very interesting story. Eggers writes about a man at his home who is filled with anxiety and uneaseness. It describes the man trying to remember what he had to do but realizes he really doesnt have anything to do. It made me think that something had been troubling the man to make him feel the way he felt. He reads the paper and is disturbed by the article about the soldier. The man tries to move on but finds himself unable to. I can tell the man feels angry and sad towards the soldier. Could it be possible that the man was once a verteran and the story is the reason why he is filled with anxiety? Eggers other story about Mother and I was somewhat boring to me. I felt as if the only interesting thing about the story was the sexual references and hearing about the many crazy stories that they said they accomplished. I also thought that the narrator was a male but then she spoke about getting her tubes tied so that kinda through me off. I did get some of the information that they were speaking about but i also had to do a bit of research on it as well.
— Eggers, Dave. “What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him From His Vehicle And Then Mutilates Him In The Dust,” pgs 17-18. Splatter.writing101.net 2012 Eggers, Dave. “Your Mother and I.” pgs 115-123. Splatter.writing101.net 2012
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Luis Rivera
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Luis Rivera
To Kill For To Die For
When presented with three very difficult questions, I stopped and tried to come up with three reasonable answers. Indeed these questions where questions that required great thought and yet I never really had been asked these questions until now. The only thing that came to mind was my family and personal happiness. I live so that one day I can achieve the ultimate American dream. I would die for my family if it came to a point where their lives were threaten and for some reason my death was the only way for their safety. Finally I would kill for my family and my country if they were in danger and our freedom was at stake.
Michelle Reyes, 
Reynaldo Tamayo, and 
Mark Reppen are discussing.
Mark Reppen 5:59 pm on February 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I was interested in this essay because of the way you opened the intro with thinking about the questions and how you came by with the answers. I definitely agree with trying to achieve the goal of living the American Dream. I liked the details that you put into it. I would also agree with that not wanting huge amount of money and a mansion, but having a nice house and a family would be a good life; hence the American Dream. After reading this, what you were living for seems to be a very good thought on what your priorities are in life. I liked how you were clear with the fact that your family is a huge part of your life. I share the same thoughts on this subject just like you, my family is very important to me, also my friends are too. You were very descriptive on the subject of life. I liked what you wrote on life, “Life is like a long journey you wake up but never really know what is going to happen.” It also went well with the example you used in the middle part of the essay. I agree with your thoughts on life and how it can be unexpected and how we should cherish it. I liked how you talked about your friend and how his life wasn’t a good one and you proved that life can be a good thing by taking him into your family. I was interested in one part of the essay when you talked about sacrificing yourself for your family and country. I too came under the same idea of do so. I liked how you expressed that you would defend your family and country if they were being threatened. The last part of the essay was well written about the leaders that fought for their rights and freedom in this world. You are clearly speaking as an active participant in this situation. Overall the essay is very descriptive and expressive in your answers to the three questions. The responses you submitted are worded with commonly used vocabulary and I found the sentences flawless. I also found that you were able to answer the questions using your experience with family values and your future goals. The middle, beginning, and end flowed well in this essay. This essay was very thorough with your thoughts and explanations on the subject. Your essay was very interesting to me because of the way you talked about your values in life and how many of it seems to be agreeable to the reader. After reading this, the main meaning of this whole thing, to me, was the value of life and how important family, friends, and country are. These questions did create a thought process for both the writer and the reader. I did like that you were clear and understanding in your essay and that made it an easy interpretation of your answers for the reader as well. I felt that you had a really good comprehension of the three questions for this essay.
Reynaldo Tamayo 12:06 am on February 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I liked how you stated all your answers in the introduction. It allows me as a reader to concentrate more on your reasons for that answer instead of figuring out what your stance was. I can relate to your ideas on the American dream. I also think that having a nice house, a steady income, and a family is the American dream. Not having large amounts of money and a huge house. I also like how you are able to express your views and thoughts on life throughout the essay. It really gives meaning and depth to what you are trying to convey. Also, the views that you express about life made me also think about my views. Your view on how you like life being unpredictable is a good view to have. Because life is unpredictable no matter what, it would not hurt to love the unpredictability of life. The part of the essay where you take about how you took in a friend of yours into your family really makes me respect you. Most people I feel would never do that. Instead I feel that people would feel sorry for your friend, but would never do something like taking the person in. That example really supports your answers throughout the essay and shows the reader what kind of person you are. When you were talking about the questions on what you would kill for and what would you die for, I liked how you guided the reader to your ultimate decision. It makes the essay an enjoyable read. Reading this part of your essay not only shows me how much you care about your family, but it shows that you have a strong belief in protecting people’s freedom. Your examples of the Civil War, World War II, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi are great examples to what you are trying to convey to the reader. These examples really benefited your essay. Overall I was able to understand what your answers were and your reasoning behind these answers. The essay was well written and was easily understandable.
Michelle Reyes 10:31 pm on February 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Your essay was very well written, organized and easy to stay interested in. Your beginning paragraph was a great intro to this essay. You started your essay with a great attention grabber which followed through in the rest of the essay, which ultimately kept me focused on your main points. In your second paragraph in which you spoke about what you would live for, I definitely like the reasons you gave. The fact that you would be happy with just a nice house and a family shows how much you don’t care for money or materialistic things. It makes you a humble person who only needs what is necessary in life to survive, which is a great trait for anyone to have especially nowadays when people want stardom and are becoming very money hungry. The story you told about your friend and how your family helped him made us realize the kind of support system you have, and was a great example for this particular question. It made your essay relatable and real. It showed how much your family cares not only for you but for the people in your life.
Your third paragraph which focused on what you would die for and kill for, could have been separated into two paragraphs in which you could have extended or emphasized the reasons on what you would die for. I understood why you would die for your family because you gave a solid explanation but for the part about the religion, I felt as though you could have explained yourself a bit more. You stated that you would die for what you believe in and because Jesus died for us, but why exactly is it so important to you that it would be something you would die for? How connected do you feel to your beliefs and religion?
The second part of your third paragraph focused on what you would kill for. I like the fact that you were honest and said that at first you felt as though you wouldn’t kill for anything, and that nothing that you ever wanted in order for you to be to be better off would be worth a life. When you mentioned that after some thought you would kill for our freedom and the protection of your family, I believed that those were good valid reasons for this question. I never thought about freedom as something that I would kill for, because most of us, like myself don’t think about freedom right away. This is due to the fact that most people in our country take freedom for granted since it’s something that we have become so accustomed to. We forget that some people don’t and will never have the freedom that we have in the United States. I like the example you gave of the wars and leaders that have fought for freedom, it made your points relatable once again and they were examples that everyone knows about. Overall, your essay did a good job at informing us of the reasons and answers to the three questions.