Cards of Darkness by Ashton Garcia

From this journey, I have learned that I am a very peaceful person. I never wanted to put the natives in pain, and I did not want to push them. I wanted to always be friendly with them, even if that meant no profit, and staying at the same level that we started with. I definitely had trouble agreeing with my chums to press the natives when we did. Although I wanted a profit, I felt like we wouldn’t get very far and may even lose our profit quickly if we didn’t get along with the natives. Thankfully, we didn’t have to press them very hard. 

During the middle of the journey, we were really lucky with weather. We hit a storm once or twice, but other than that, it was nice and clear outside. This helped keep our goods safe and abundant for the most part. When we did run into weather, my fellows thought it was a good idea to press the natives harder to get more goods and supplies since we lost more during the hard weather. Although I disagreed at first, I knew it would help in the long run. So, I decided to push with my chums and gain more supplies and create ties with the natives that may not have been as close as I wanted them to be. 

Technically, I was in charge. I discussed with my group, they made a majority rule, and I was the one who actually pushed and pressed and took action in what we decided. I realized that I am a peaceful person who tries to make everyone happy, and I try to go along with what most people want. I could and I would stand up for myself and what I believed in, but I also wouldn’t argue too much and I would see where my fellows were coming from. 

Towards the end of the journey, out ties with the Natives weren't bad, but they could have been better. We ended up having more supplies, even though it was a little risky. If we had kept being peaceful, we would’ve had great ties with the Natives, but we wouldn’t have a profit in what we came to get. Essentially, even though it was tough for me, I’m glad we pressed the Natives the amount we did. It wasn’t a huge surplus we made, but we made a profit. 

If Only We Could Fly

Ashton Garcia 

August 23rd, 2015 

AP Lit: Third Blog Post 

The author proves that flight is a sense and common symbol of freedom. I agree: overtime a bird or flight is used or mentioned, it shares a sense of freedom, or hope for freedom. Sometimes it is used as a symbol for escape, entering into a world of new beginnings, shaking off the previous restraints once that once held on. 

Take Maleficent, for example. She was a free little girl with her wings. She felt like a queen (and she somewhat was one), and her palace loved her. She was able to go where she pleased and visit the creatures of the palace whenever she wanted, wherever they were. However, she was stripped from that. her freedom and escape was taken away, causing her to act mean and feel hateful to anyone who got in her way. Although she survived a long period of time without her wings, when she came close to death, they found her again and she escaped, becoming free. She went back to her sense of freedom, feeling happy and treated everyone around her the way she used to. 

Flight has tried to be accomplished for thousands of years by humans, just for this feeling of freedom or escape, whether it used literally or symbolically. It cannot be accomplished physically, unless we are on a plane, but literature allows us to understand that feeling of freedom by using the transportation we'll never quite be able to have, unless angels do have wings. Even that shows ultimate freedom: angels with wings. After being freed from the world into a perfect paradise, we gain wings to show that unending freedom. Whether wings are being used literally or figuratively in science fiction or some sort of story, it will most likely be something we associate with freedom, escape, and entrance into a new world. I never write realized this, I usually just thought having wings would be really awesome and a lot could be done and seen that needed to be in the story. But I never realized this almost obvious symbol that lead to a greater feeling, and a much greater character development. 

They Aren't Real

Ashton Garcia 

2nd Lit Post, They Aren't Real 

July 30th, 2015 

As we all know, characters make a story. Or, at least, they help make one. They're odd though, because no matter how much we can relate to them, they aren't actually real. Some are relatable because they have so many prominent traits, while some have very few. We can still understand and connect to both types of characters. Typically, the one with the strongest traits, because they're quite often the main character. But if they aren't real, how come they have real traits and concepts that we understand? 

When Foster first said that characters aren't real in any way, shape, or form, I felt like I strongly disagreed. We read books and watch movies with such relatable characters, and they seem to feel the same way that we as real humans do. How can they not be real when we are so familiar with the character ourself, or know someone exactly like that character? Then I really started thinking about it. I really started to think about even real, human actors. They might be real people portraying the character, but that character is part of our imagination. They are nothing more than a piece of literature and writing. Someone took words from a piece of paper, and created a character of their own. Even when a movie or a book reflects the life of someone, they still aren't real. Even in the movie "Lincoln," late President Abraham Lincoln isn't real. He was a real person, but at that time, he was a character made from a script. 

We can usually relate to the main character, or the round character, who has very strong traits, and has a tasteful personality. The other characters are static characters, usually having a more bland character or having one prominent characteristic. The main character also usually goes through some sort of change, which we don't quite realize until it's explained what exactly the character went through. Take Simba from the Lion King, for example. He "Just can't WAIT to be kiting!" But to do that, he must grow up. He's a very immature and childish character, not being able to wait for the throne, when he hardly even knows how to manage a kingdom. He doesn't think everything through, something that he has to do in order to be a great king. Now, Scar killed Mufasa, Simba's father, but Mufasa also died because Simba trusted the wrong person. Simba leaves then because he doesn't feel welcomed or deserving of being in his kingdom. He goes through a long and eventful journey where he grows as into a man (per se),and changes into a free and fun-loving lion. The static characters around him, Timone, Pumba, Rafiki, and even his father who appears in a cloud, are all responsible for Simba's growth, yet he is the one we relate to and follow. 

Even though We can relate to Simba and feel his pain and joy and everything else in between, he is far from a real character. We understand his pain to an extent, we understand his freedom, and we can totally relate to having or knowing friends like Timone and Pumba. Even if they made The Lion King a movie with real, human actors, Simba would still never be real. Neither would any of the cast, for they are simply just characters made from literature, from words on a page. Not matter how much you try to make them human, no matter how hard you try to get your audience to relate, they'll still be a character from words, and words just simply aren't living, breathing things. They're made to feel so real because if they weren't, who would be interested in the story? Whether it's a book or a movie or a play, if the character isn't relatable, no one would want to waste their time with that. The author and director want people to feel something, and to understand something ad have a familiar feeling. People want drama. We know how much the world loves drama. 

Normal Things Become Quests

Ashton Garcia
Chapter 1
First Blog
June 28th, 2015

Creating a story using specifics can change the feeling and the tone of the story, allowing the audience to see something much greater than just a trip to the grocery store, which introduces the book. The author goes on to explain how and why plain, normal, even boring things can be changed to something that gives great symbolism such as the Holy Grail, and creating a quest.

I never thought of reading a story in such a way, nor have I analyzed it in a way for a trip to the grocery store become a quest for the Holy Grail. Not necessarily because it's far fetched or unrealistic (although some could argue that statement), but just because I've never seen that truth behind a story such as this this one. What's even more interesting is that the author gives specific examples of modern problems, and compares with with a classic piece as he sees in a book he uses to teach his own classes. Although the stories seem very different, they obtain the same criteria, if you will, of having a "quester," "a place to go," "a stated reason to go there," "challenges to go there," and "the real reason to go." These are the straightforward requirements for the story to be  a quest.

At first, I will admit, that I was a bit skeptical, as I'm sure some people would be, because the general public associates quests with knights in shining armor battling beasts for a princess locked away, or explorers who set out to find treasure. Naturally, I was a bit confused as to where the author was going with the grocery store story. coming from a year of analyzing many forms of texts, I thought the story had something to do with the way the author uses specificity, tone, diction, and syntax amongst other things to make a normal story into one that you can't stop reading. However, there was a twist in that it was a story of a quest.

Essentially, what the author put on the table was at first odd, but eventually understandable. His reasoning was much different from what I'm used to hearing. It's quite simple, really, as long as you connect the story with a certain criteria, you have a quest story, not just going to the store to get some stuff for your mom while running into the girl of your dreams and that one guy that you can't ever beat. When creating a story, if one can write based on the given criteria, a quest can be made in any situation. You just have to connect one thing with another creatively.