Qfwfq Character Analysis

Thesis: In "The Aquatic Uncle", Qfwfq in influenced by everyone around him that being a land animal is superior to being a fish until the end where he finally uses his own mind to define whether or not land animals are superior.

     Qfwfq is influenced by his family to think that land animals are more superior to fish. At the beginning of the story, Qfwfq states that he had evolved from a fish and that being a land animal is better than being a fish. When he evolved into a land animal, his family was changing with him as well. They influenced him to believe that this evolution was for the better of their family and become higher in superiority. He even describes that there were many animals evolving further than they were: "There might be a family that had bee living on land, say, for several generations, whose young people acted n a way that wasn't even amphibious but almost reptilian already..." (71). When he talks about evolving into a higher species, he almost idolizes those who become reptile. The fact that there were already so many advancements from fish, Qfwfq thought that fish were the least advanced animals of them all. Qfwfq describes a time when his family showed their thoughts and opinions when he talks about his great uncle. Qfwfq and his family are trying to convince their great uncle N'ba N'ga to get out of the water and become a land animal with them and the family is having a contest on who can get their great uncle out of the water first. Qfwfq describes a specific scene in which he talks about the power that the relative would have if he got the great uncle to go on land. Because then, they're whole family would be great: "On this score, the rivalry among the various branches of the family never died out, he would achieve a position of pre-eminence over the rest of our relatives," (73). Here, Qfwfq talks about how his whole family is evolved. He demonstrates to the reader that if his whole family were on land, they would also be superior to others. Qfwfq proves himself to be a follower of his family's opinions on land animals. There is also another character who further influences Qfwfq even more strongly.
     Qfwfq's other great influence in his life is his love for his fiancée, Lll. Lll is described to be one of the few land animals who are evolving into reptiles and had families on land for generations already. Later in the story, Qfwfq decides to bring Lll to meet his great uncle, but he rejects the idea and describes his feeling of how embarrassed he is of his great uncle: "I hadn't yet dared tell Lll that my great-uncle was a fish." (75). Qfwfq had fallen in love with her because he adores her and respects her. He feels inferior towards her because she is so perfect in his eyes. He believes that she is the promise and the perfect image of something he would like to evolve into: "In her I saw the perfect definitive form, born from the conquest of the land that had emerged she was the sum of the new boundless possibility that had opened. How could my great-uncle try to deny the incarnate reality of Lll?" (78).  Here, Qfwfq thinks to himself why his great uncle would not idolize Lll like he does because she seems like a beautiful, holy being who is much more superior than him and his great uncle. This section proves that Qfwfq is blinded by his love and admiration for Lll.
     Toward the end of the story after Lll leaves him, Qfwfq begins to break away from all the influence he had on his opinions and thinkings. He begins to realize that there are many others greater than Lll and that he should accept who he is instead of wanting to evolve into something more. When Lll decides to become a fish an marry great uncle N'ba N'ga, Qfwfq is left in the world on his own. Although he is lonely he soon realizes that there are still higher evolved species than Lll. Yet, he still cannot let go of the thought that he is inferior to them in some way: "Every now and then, among the many forms of living beings, I encountered one who 'was somebody' more than I was..." (81). Although he sees others a superior species to him, Qfwfq no long strives to be like them. In this quote, he talks with no envy, but with a matter-of-fact tone. He is now narrating like he is content with who he is and well not change himself simply to be a "superior" species. Qfwfq finally learns to be himself and to accept who he is.

Mistreating your Girlfriend: Response Posts

"Advice for the girl, leave the damn guy! You shouldn’t be taking the crap that he throws at you. If any young girl is going through all that but still love him she should open your eyes, understand what you’ve got your self in and forget about him."

     This was from Fermin's blog post: Mistresting your Girlfriend. I love this blog post. Not only does he give great advice, but he also understands the girl's point of view. I completely agree with everything on this blog post, but the quote above, especially, applys to many girls in relationships. The slightest notion of a boy mistreating a girl should sound wrong to any person who knows anything about it, especially those who are in that kind of relationship.
     When a boy mistreats his girl, he has no right to complain when she breaks up with him because of the mistreatment. Many times, boys either do not realize the power they are imposing on the girl, but sometimes, he realizes what he is doing and thinks that he is correct in what his actions are. Girls, if a boy is mistreating you, you have every right in the world to break up with him even if it's an accident. No matter what it is, guys should be more conscious about how they are treating their girl if they care about them a lot. If a guy cares about the girl as much as they say, they wouldn't make the mistake of mistreating her and having the possibliity of losing her.
     Girls should also not be so sensitive to what guys do to them because boys don't pay attention to how they are treating them. If you think that your guy is treating you wrong, then you should tell him and give him a chance to change instead of jumping to conclusions that he's a bad boyfriend. You should always give him a chance to change before you do anything extreme like breaking up with him because sometimes, there are other things affecting him to make him do thing.
   As a conclusion, girls shouldn't overreact when boys don't treat them right, but when it gets extreme, BREAK UP WITH HIM!!!!! Don't put up with mistreatment you dont' deserve, ever. Boys, pay more attention to how your're treating your girls if you want to keep them.

Change For Who? Response Post

"The thing about society is that people - a lot of them being mostly women - want to alter something about their body. They don't appriciate what they have, they complain, then they try to change it. Some want to look like celebrities, some like their friends, who the hell knows."

     I took this quote from Ruby Rew's blog. I agree with every word that Ruby said. In my earlier response post on Crystal Lau's prosthetic body parts post, I expressed a lot of how I felt about how people constantly want to change themselves. Here, I would like to talk about how specifically society causes everyone to feel unstable. Society, like Ruby said, forces people to be very conscience about their bodies and their looks in general. Many people fail to recognize the fact that they have everything they need to beautiful in their own unique way and not in the way that all society wants them to be.
     Society wants everyone to follow one trend and to look a certain way in order to seem beautiful. Everyone falls for this trap and many cannot catch themselves in the act of doing so. We constantly subject ourselves to the pitfalls of society when we strive to become someone we are not to blend into society. And because our society's normalities are constantly changing, we force ourselves to keep track of all the specific trends and looks of "today". And then following this obsession we all have, we change ourselves, our style, our personality to become what society's model of a perfect person is.  Many times this "perfect person" is flawless in every aspect. They have the perfect body, the shiny soft hair, the flawless skin and the blend of all the best looks. But it's obviously impossible to become that person. Even when you try to change everything about yourself, you will never be satisfied because all you can think about is being more and more attractive in society's eyes.
     We have to realize that we are all beautiful no matter what society labels as it's definition of beautiful. There shouldn't be a time in which you don't feel like your're not enough simply because you are not society's model of "perfect". Do not let the voice of society keep you from being you and believing that you are awesome the way you are.

Kung-Fu (:

     The start of this year marked my 10th year of doing Chinese Martial Arts also called Kung-Fu. There are plenty of different forms that I can do. Forms are basically a bunch of moves put together into a string of poses and moves that we perform in competitions. Currently, I am working on three forms in preparation for my next competition. They are all very popular forms, but everyone's has a different style to it depending on the capabilities of the performer. Because I am small and thin, my movements are quick and are meant to spread my body out to cover the length of the area. My three forms are Long Fist, Straight Sword, and Spear.
     Straight Sword is the weapon I am most comfortable with using because I've been practicing with it the most: almost five out of my ten years. My form consists of jumps, splits, and a lot of wrist turning and bending. My flexibility isn't all that good, but if i do stretch enough, my form is pretty cool. Over the course of five years, I've had four straight sword forms: three single straight swords and one double straight sword. My first thee forms were single swords and one double sword and they were all traditional. Last year, I transferred to a new Kung-Fu studio and my straight sword form became wushu. The difference between traditional and wushu is that wushu has more jumps and kicks.
     Spear is my second newest form. I learned it once three years ago and another time after I learned straight sword last year. I'm not as experienced in this weapon as I am in straight sword because I don't look as good when I do it.
     Long fist is my newest form and I just finished learning it two weeks ago. It is not a weapon form, but a hand form. This is my first time actually learning a hand form for competition, so I'm excited to improve it. My long fist form has a lot of jumps and a lot of slamming. It requires me to be very quick but strong at the same time, so I hurt myself often.  
     For anyone wondering, Kung-Fu isn't all about beating people up. In fact, in my point of view, Kung-Fu is more of an art and sport mushed together to make something threatening and competitive but at the same time beautiful.

Response Post~ Crystal Lau

"Personally, I do not believe in exchanging one's body parts when there is no apparent reason to do so such as a disability that would make life inconvenient. A person should be happy with what they are blessed with by nature. Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival."

      I took this quote from Crystal Lau's post. I agree with her point of view about prosthetic body parts. If a person is born or isn't in need of a prosthetic body part, they should embrace who they are instead of changing themselves into someone they are not.
     Yet, I disagree with the part where Crystal says "Human evolution is the result of humans adapting to the environment that they are in, meaning that what a person has right now is sufficient enough for their survival". Yes, humans are able to survive the way they can now because of evolution, but the reason for many people to want to get prosthetic body parts is because they are not happy with the way they appear naturally. Now, there is make up, padding, and plastic surgery. These things appeal to many females and even some males in order for them to change the way they look: to exaggerate some parts of their bodies and faces or to hide parts of their body that they do not like. I don't think that anyone should change themselves for the purpose of looking better. Everyone has a little something they don't like about themselves. And while they should be the ones accepting themselves for who they are, they are the ones pressuring themselves into thinking they are not good enough or are ugly.
     I don't think someone should get themselves changed for the reason that they don't like the way they look because these people should learn how to accept who they are and the things that they were born with. Even if you change your looks, you are still yourself. In any circumstance, the way you were born is the way you will always remember yourself as. Making yourself look different using prosthetic body parts or anything like plastic surgery would make you look better, but on the inside, you are still you no matter how much you try to change your appearance.
     In society, we see models of perfection and everyone wants to become that because they are shown that that is how you have to look in order to be attractive. Changing yourself using this new technology is no different from doing what society wants you to do. The choice is between being yourself, which you should be proud of in the first place, or blending into society, in which everyone strives to look a certain way and requires the need for perfection. Which one is more worth being?

Vocab

Derive
Discretion
Entity
Marginal
Notion
Require
Regime
Welfare
Ration
Style

Words 9/15

     Words are used as a form of expression, and without it there is no way for opinions to be made. When opinions are not left for others to hear, society is forced to turn to only one person to tell everyone what to do. Without communication, forms of governments such as democracy are not made possible; people are unable to express their will and feelings.
     Allowing people to have the freedom of speech also means for people to be more careful with their words. Saying something to someone that you may not this is offensive does not mean that someone else may not take what you said offensively. The freedom of speech allows people to be free, but also have a higher chance of making mistakes in their community. Such as the issue with the Arizona policy; the governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, said that most illegal Mexicans are drug smugglers and that is why Arizona should have this new policy. Many people too what the governor said as an offensive and racist statement. The way she had stated her point made her become antagonized by much of the population. The mistake she made was in the way she had said and phrased her statement. Being in the high position that she holds, she has even more responsibility for the things she says and does.
     Words are a powerful thing. When you abuse it or when you say hurtful words without thinking, the consequences are most likely more than they are worth in the first place.

Debate Rebuttal

“When we put people in permanent imprisonment it is similar from executing people.”  

-This statement was taken from my opposing side's opening statement and it is completely wrong. 

I have a question for you, do you mean that someone who is alive and well is the same as a person who is dead and buried? So we ask you, do you know what happens in prisons? Do you know that these prisoners have a chance to sleep, eat, exercise, and are provided education? When a person is executed, they have no way of enjoying any of these needs anymore.

Another point we have about the difference between permanent imprisonment and execution is that when someone does something extreme, they have to face execution. The law of execution is sending a message to everyone that if they do something very wrong, they will have to face death. This law scares people from doing the wrong thing and hurting people because they do not want to face the harsh consequences of it.

Also, in the opposing side's opening statement, they say that:

"Plus everybody make mistakes in their life, some may have came from a bad neighborhood so the death penalty on people does not make the world any safer from anybody or even ourselves."

     When someone makes that decision to kill someone else, it is THEIR decision NOT anyone else's. They should fully know the consequences that they are forcing onto themselves for committing such a crime, but yet, they still do what they decided to do. Some of these things are inexcusable and even if we do let them live, we are giving all criminals fallacies that they can be spared simply because they can change. There is no such a thing as saying "Oh, you killed someone in my family, but because you can change, you are excused and don't have to pay for the crime and terror you caused."   This is not a LEARNING mistake, but it is a CAPITOL mistake in which a person's life and the people around them's lives are torn down because of this person.

     It is true that we all want to kind and generous and that some people can change, but this is not about kindness nor is it about generosity. We are dealing with adults, not children. These are people who society depend on to support and become role models for the next generation. We have to hold these people responsible for their actions in order to maintain peace.