oursocialghosts1050y

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Double Post #2

Something I always struggle with when it comes to papers is meeting deadlines. I don’t know why I constantly put off assignments until the very last second, but it always happens no matter how committed I try to be. One thing that really helped me with my paper however, was getting sick believe it or not. When I got sick, I was able to go home and take away all the distraction that come with living at school. I didn’t have friends constantly asking to hang out, nor did I have to worry about sprinting to class or trying to grab a meal. Even though it sucked to be sick and I felt absolutely horrific, it was also calming. Being home centers me and helps me relax to get things in motion. I was extremely unsure of what my paper was going to look like. It seemed as though when I was given the freedom of choosing what the entirety of my paper was going to be about, that I got lost in decision. I tend to do this a lot and it leads to me being a horrific decision-maker. I was given clarity however, when talking to my classmates. My classmates provided me with opinions and points of view that I hadn’t even began the think of. I don’t think of myself as an incredibly conversational person, but talking through my struggles gave me a clear idea of what my thesis was going to be. Picturing my paper became easier after the workshops we did in class as a whole, and the multiple opportunities to peer edit. I even learned some things by looking over other people’s writings and thesis’s. Never would I have imagined that just by having simple conversations with people that I could strengthen my thesis and overall concept of my paper. I am a person that needs direction. I need to be told how to do things so I can make sure they hit every guideline necessary so I know that I wrote the best paper I could. This class allowed for a freedom that I wasn’t used to, so that was hard for me. I persevered through all the challenges I faced and was still able to hand in papers I could be proud of. I genuinely love my papers that I wrote in this class. This class, in a way, taught me that I can let go of the reigns a little bit in order to improve my writing in ways I hadn’t thought of previously.

- Jenna Durgin

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Double Post #1

One book in this course that really captured my attention was Mean by Myriam Gurba. Not only was this book extremely vulgar and uncensored in its language, but it was also written in an incredibly non-traditional way. Mean was not a normal book by any means. When talking about trauma throughout the novel, you were either given extremely morbid and deep details, or it skimmed the surface and was left to your interpretation which is a quality that I admired of the author’s. Gurba was able to leave out details that may seem important to the reader, but not so important that it became a terrible book. She does an amazing job of leaving imagery up to the reader, but directing them just enough so that the reader knew exactly what she was talking about. I think I connected with this book significantly more than the other ones because I love non-traditionally written books. Jumping around on a timeline and using words in a certain pattern or order is what draws me in. The evaluation of the same situation throughout the book is also beautifully intertwined. Never once did I lose interest in this book because there was always some event that occurred that the reader could never have predicted. You are able to feel, see, and relate to all aspects and angles of the character. You can feel the character’s pain, but feel detached enough so that you aren’t directly involved with the narrator. The use of the short chapters and differing titles is what truly intrigued me. Every title of each chapter had a meaning behind it based on what the chapter included. Towards the end of the book she marked the book’’s chapter after her semester’s at school and what occurred during those semesters. She also included what classes she was taking at the top which was a neat detail. You were able to understand why she listed her courses because she would relate her experiences to the ideas of the classes she was taking. Mean by Myriam Gurba was truly a masterpiece.

- Jenna Durgin

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Double Post

Some things that i have found helpful in terms of writing my research paper are if you are having trouble figuring out how you want to say or write something in your paper. I would set a certain amount of time to just write I would focus on just getting my thoughts down. It is easier to change and rewrite once it is down on paper. Another thing I find helpful is to create a timeline giving yourself tasks to complete for your paper. Such as completing a page or writing a certain topic in your paper. This is helpful for me in order to make sure I am setting a track to complete the paper in a timely manner. Especially for this paper so I can have adequate time to edit and review the paper. Another thing I have done that is helpful is make to have at least two people review your paper including going to the writing center. This is helpful because other people can help give you feedback and catch mistakes you may not see on your own. It is also beneficial to have your paper reviewed in stages to make sure you are on the right track and making good progress. These are some of the things I have done and find helpful while writing an essay. This is not only applicable to this class, but can be used for other classes and in the future.

[oursocialghosts1050y]

This is going to be a double post, making up for a post that I have missed in the past. I really enjoyed reading the book, Mean, in class. I think that it might have been my favorite book to talk about in class, out of all of the books we have read this whole semester. I think why I enjoyed it was not because of what the book was talking about but because of the way it was talked about. I think oftentimes in an english class, and in life, this was a topic that was never really talked about. (I can not speak for everyone, this was just my past experiences). I think it was cool to talk about a heavy topic in an english class because I never typically did. I think that while it was a heavy topic, the way the book was written made it easier to talk about as well. It was written in a way where you almost laugh at certain points. I think that because it was funny at certain points, it provided comedic relief which made it easier to talk about in class. I also think that the book seemed so real at points too. I have heard other people’s stories and their feelings afterwards, and they seemed to have aligned with the main character’s story as well. So i think there was a very good balance where it can make the conversation easier to talk about, but at the same time the topic was not made a joke. I think that this book was easier to understand in comparison to the other books that we had read in class, and I wish we had gotten to write a paper on this book, because I understood it and I feel like I could have a lot to say. The very ending of the story was interesting to me. I found it interesting how now she is going to live and do things where the other girl is not able to. It is like she is living for that other girl. I feel like it was a good way to end the story because it shows the affects of everything that can happen, but I think it also became a vulnerable time with the main character which ended up making the whole story seem so real. While we were reading this book I have also been working on my research paper. I feel like a lot of my argument is coming from one side, and I might need to find more articles for a counter argument. 

-Sara C

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Double Post

In the reading for this week I was surprised how in the beginning of the reading when she went on the run she was very reactive. She was expecting someone to be there when no one was around. She was expecting her pants to be pulled down as if that is something that just happens. I guess this is a natural reaction from someone who has faced trauma like her nothing ever feels safe anymore. I feel as though Myriam expresses her sexual desires in taboo ways. When she is talking to her friend Yenifer she is told that Yenifer touches herdelf to Peruvian music. Myriam does not tell her, but it says that when she was little she was little she had “gotten her temperature” to the Diary of Anne Frank. This is very strange. 

It is also wrong that she has a desire to ruin a married mans marriage. That man she decides she wants to have an affair with is her history professor. I find it odd how Myriam’s friend knows so much personal information about the professor, This leads me to believe that he has had more sexual encounters with his students. When the professor decides to reciprocate Myriam’s sexual advances he is violating the student-teacher relationship. He is the one who holds the power and even though She wants this she might feel pressured into continuing it. I get the sense that at many colleges this issues might arise. It might have been more prevalent during the time when Myriam was in college.

- Seamus McDonough

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Things can be predicted

As I predicted in my last post, the constant thought of rape for Miriam has lead to things that are always bad. She sees the bad in everything. Especially in the case of Michael Jackson, she talks about the “was” that he had given her. He was her innocence basically and then he was tried for assault. Although he was found not-guilty, it only added to the distrust she held for everything around her. She got married and moved to the place of a victim and even her roommate started seeing this person who she was obsessed with. She then goes to a teaching convention in DC and still there she doubts people around her. She is constantly doubting people and does not feel as though she is safe. She turns to school and fitness to escape but she still finds rape there. It is something she feels she cannot escape from. Although she is not completely healed, and will never be, we definitely see some growth in her and her look on Sophia. She is happy she didn’t end up where Sophia is and that is very important for how her own life will play out. 

-Joe Espinola

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Connections

At the end of the book we start to see a change in Myriam regarding Sophia. She starts to talk about how she's not glad that Sophia is dead but happy that she is alive herself. Myriam makes a connection that she is able to live through her and that is the way it has to be. She uses the word “enjoys” towards the end to describe the way Sophia is existing through her. This is a more positive word that we don't see Myriam use often. She also discusses how she is “glad” that she is able to live her life. This is also another word we would rarely hear from her.  I could tell that the whole Sophia experience was bothering her in the book. She covered it up well but it was showing through some scenes. We get to see at the end how she grew with it in a way rather than let it control her emotions. She also states “ I have finally addressed the ghost that has been haunting me for more than a decade.”  Myriam has a specific way she looks at life. She takes into account all of the horrible things that have happened to her and what may happen. At first  some may have been confused by her meanness but we realize that this can be a defense mechanism. This can also be looked at as a necessity to keep yourself from getting hurt. There is some growth within Myriam at the end that is shown.

-Paige 

[oursocialghosts1050y]

double post

This is a double post so the first thing I’m going to talk about is the book mean. This book is really interesting to me and the main character sticks out a lot. She has a very unique way of looking at things. This is most likely due to the trauma she has endured. Using humor to cope with trauma is a common thing we see throughout this book. She makes jokes out of serious situations and things that should be a big deal she undermines. We see her progression throughout the book, in the beginning, she says she likes to be mean because being mean is fun but towards the end we see herself holding back a little and trying to fight these negative thoughts. She wants to be better for herself and we can see that. 

The next thing I wanted to talk about was my research paper. My ideas are coming pretty good for right now. I am doing my paper on capital punishment and the information I have researched so far is very interesting to learn about. My topic has a lot of legal things to go off of which is a lot to understand but I have put a lot of time into looking into it and trying to decipher the purpose and meaning. Looking at many cases has opened my eyes to different ideas and has made me think of things I didn’t before. I’m excited to further research and write my paper, I am hopeful for the outcome of this assignment.

-Anna Carey

[oursocialghosts1050y]

My Research Paper

This post is going to be a double post, making up for a post that I have missed. For my research paper I decided to talk about mobility between social classes. I wanted to focus on upward mobility as opposed to downward mobility because in a way it aligns with the idea of the american dream, which I find very interesting. When beginning my research I decided to narrow it to just be if Americans are able to move out of poverty as opposed to also including immigrants. I think that a majority of my argument is going to be that no matter how hard a person works, when they are in poverty it is hard to move out of poverty. A lot of my resources are going to be crucial to prove that it is hard to move upward out of poverty. One resource that I have says that a child that is born into poverty, right off the bat in school has to work harder to try and succeed. Children in poverty are statistically shown to either not graduate high school, or not go and achieve a higher education. An argument that can be made by this is that we as a country have a flawed system that oftentimes if you want a well paying job, you need to pursue higher education. But it is hard for them to go pursue a higher education when it is so expensive. Oftentimes in order to get a job you also need to have graduated high school with a diploma or a GED, but it is statistically shown that people who are in poverty will not graduate high school. I think that this shows that this is the “end goal” we as a country have put into place, but there are flaws in it. I will go into more detail in my paper about this particular idea, this was just to lightly touch upon that idea. I think another idea I will talk about in my paper is that there are other costs of living as well. People have to worry about food and shelter, the necessities. A have a resource that solely talks about how in order to live at a place, there are other costs a person will have to think about, not just the cost of the house. If people in the middle class have a hard time being able to afford these costs, how are people in poverty supposed to be able to meet these costs. It shows that there is another flaw that is put into place as well. Essentially a lot of my paper is going to be about how there are things that are set into place that will prohibit upward mobility, even though we have an idea that if we work hard, we will be able to move out of poverty, when in poverty. I did not talk a lot about my different points, but I think the majority of my argument will come from these two points.

-Sara C

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Reflection of the week

Reflecting on this past week was sort of tough. This week went by fast thankfully but I felt as if I struggled a lot mentally. Feeling like you are trapped in a room with not even a roommate to speak about how you are feeling is very hard. I live about 1 and a half hours away from Merrimack, and since the second semester has started I have been going home every weekend which is not convenient for my family. Fortunately enough they know how hard it has been on me so they do not mind getting me and bringing me back but I do feel bad in a way. Keeping my head up for the upcoming semester and hoping that having a roommate will make it easier for me and enjoyable to have someone by my side who I can talk to.

-Savannah Melo

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Omnipresence

In this chapter, I found it pretty interesting where she compares Gods Omnipresence to rape. Going to catholic school, I have learned many times about the ”Omni” of god. How he is all knowing, all present, etc. Comparing rape to this is scary but it is evident that you could make a claim like this and be able to stand on it. Rape can be everywhere but to think of the world like that as something evil being all around rather than having something good being all around can lead to much more hate of the world. I think it’s probably bad and it is concerning that in everything, she sees rape. This is an issue that she should probably be talking to someone about.

-Joe Espinola

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Mean Thoughts

As the book continues to progress, we see Myriam start to try and change her negative thoughts and mindsets. She talks about her desert epiphany and how she does not want to “be a thinker of bad thoughts” (80). We see into her mind as the book continues and we see how she is trying hard to fight the urge to have negative thoughts towards others. We see that when she is in her art class she slips up and makes a comment on how someone's artwork is tacky, and then later how nice girls went to comfort a girl who was crying while she sat there and didn't think to move. This as a reader makes me wonder if she doesn't want to be kind because she sees it as being vulnerable, and more of a chance of getting hurt like she has been in the past. Or I wonder if she is mean because she overall can't help it, and just says and does everything that comes to her mind. One thing I look forward to as I continue to read would be if she really can change her outlook on others, or if she gives up and resorts to her old ways. 

-Molly Kelly

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Reply to Keara

I was going to discuss the same topic as well but I wasnt exactly sure how to go about talking about the specifics the book goes into with sexual assault. I agree with the way Keara talked about how this is unfortunately the reality of the world we live in. A part that stood out to me was when Myriam was talking about rape with Patricia. Myriam explained how she would sneak the books the librarians put on a special shelf that she wasn't supposed to read. She stated that they all discussed sexual assault and she read them all. At first, both of them were agreeing with what one another said until Patricia said one specific thing. She said “ I worked at shelters for women and I think they like it.” I was not expecting that to be what she ended her sentence with when she was explaining how she used to work there. Myriam clearly didn't either. She went on to say “ I mentally agreed with her but said nothing.” The scenes that Keara described stood out to me as well. These chapters discussed this issue in ways that I haven't thought about before.

-Paige 

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Sexual Assault

This week I am going to talk about a topic that has been brought up numerous times in this book, that being sexual assault. Sexual assault is a hard topic to talk about and hear about which is why it stood out to me in this book. A specific scene in the book is part of the chapter “Omnipresence,” and it is on page 110. “God is like rape. Rape is everywhere too...Rape happens in the Bible. Rape happens at the neighbors. Rape happens at home...Rape happens in history. Rape happens at bakeries.” This really caught my attention and made me more aware of how we can’t escape hearing about or even unfortunately experiencing being sexually assaulted. In the next chapter, Myriam talks about the story of this woman named Sophia Torres. Sophia Torres was raped and killed. Myriam explains Sophia’s tragic story and how she can relate to it. “The man whose about to sexual assault me murdered Sophia Torres. That’s how I sort of know her. I don’t know her at all, really. I’ve never seen her, never touched her, but the man who touched me touched her too” (Myriam 112). It is unfortunate that this story is so common, but it is reality. 

-Keara Bruno

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Reflection

As the end of the year is crawling upon us my feelings become mixed. A sense of relief and sadness. I feel as if my first college semester was very different from what it should have been, but I am also relieved that I have begun classes. Everything that I had imagined and dreamed about what college was like just was not due to the pandemic. Balancing school, mental health, and this pandemic were probably one of the most difficult challenges I have ever had to do but I know once everything is back to normal and things begin to feel normal again I will be able to say wow I did that, and realize how strong I really am in every perspective. I have been trying to make the best of what I could make of it this year and now all I can do is think positively and always try and do my best in everything I am doing here at Merrimack.

- Savannah Melo

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Reflecting

This school year is almost over, and with that I have had a lot to think about. I miss when things were normal, and when the stress of a global virus was something out of a sci-fi movie. In my opinion, classes and school as a whole have degraded to just knowing ‘enough’ to pass the online quizzes or tests that are basically asking to be cheated on. As someone who is getting an “education”, it’s really disappointing how we students are not being properly prepared for the real world at all. It’s worse for younger students, but college is the years that will choose our career for the rest of our lives, and sitting in from of a video call does not help at all. - jwood

[oursocialghosts1050y]

Hannah Wilke

In the story while Myriam is in San Francisco she seems to be really connected with Hannah Wilke’s exhibit in the art museum. First, we see her comparing names noticing that Hannah’s name is able to be spelt back-words and since hers cannot she calls her name imperfect. When she was holding a brochure she notices that Hannah Wilke is dead, she seems inspired by her art. Hannah says, “What matters is a woman making art out of everything she was born with,” (Gurbra 83). Myrium praises her for making art while she was alive throughout ther life but also seems very interested in her death. Myrium says that she is pretty with cancer, but also says she is in charge because she is a palindrome. Between Hannah’s art, her name that was able to spelt the same both back-words and forwards, and the pictures of her sick with cancer makes Myrium believe that she was not only an artist but also a saint. Myrium took this experience of art and saint as an example of how she wanted her life to be, in her words, she had given a lot to Hannah 

#- Brooklyn Stolgitis