The reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. along with two thousand people of African American origins have rallied in front of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C on the 28th of August, in order to speak up on the injustices they have suffered along the years, and yet nothing has been done to stop the racial segregation that is common occurrence in this country. The march started earlier today and has made others join in, until it climaxed once the reverend King gave a speech worthy to go down in history as the most memorable advocations for one's rights and justice.

Dr. King's speech addressed many topics in relation to how much and for how long they've suffered of a divided society and a marginalised race such as the African American people.

When addressing the march, King had a dream of his children and grandchildren living in an America free of racism, segregation and disregard for black people in all of its states. But nowadays, in despite all of Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts, such a thing still happens in America. Currently, the law system remains to be flawed for everyone, and Afroamerican people have it far worse than anyone else, as children, they go to school, totally oblivious to the world beyond their grasp, and yet, they continue to be defined by their ethnicity or simply by the color of their skin and not who they truly are as a person. After that, they proceed to a world filled with disdain for the qualities they were born with, eventually affecting who they are as a person, and how they're seen by entities like the law. After nearly 50 years of his famed speech, the Americans and the country in itself have yet to learn how to exclude and thoroughly exterminate this kind of irrational hate that's been birthed by such an idiotic reason. For example, many black people have been shot, either by civilians or policemen, and have ended up heavily injured or dead. Moreover, these shooters have come out not convicted of any criminal charges due to this. Not only this, but many other innocent black people have been found to be bias against, without any more of a reason than their ethnicity. Due to all of the reasons and examples is why justice has still not been achieved by the United States.

Poetry Analysis (All Things will Die by Lord Alfred Tennyson)

In this analysis, I will break down Lord Alfred Tennyson's famous poem; All Things will Die. From the title, I can perceive that this poem will take on the role of being critical, reflexive and make use of a sorrowful tone, which would create a gloomy ambiance, as for the theme, I think that he'll be making an insight on how ephemeral life is. After reading, I made a few interjections over how I interpret what the author meant. For example: from the 1st to the 7th verse, the author wrote with a tone of happiness or joy along with a relatively swift rhythm, appreciating all living things and delving into their beauty, but from that point and onwards, the tone changes to a depressive or melancholic tone while slowing down the poem's rhythm, with its predominant theme being how all things will wither away and die. The first interjection that I made was on the 31st verse, which read:

"The red cheek paling"

What I understood from this line is that, as a cheek loses its color, the world will lose its hue, and thus, representing that the world's beauty is dying, at the same time, employing imagery to compare the dying of a person to the decaying of the whole world along with its beauty. As for the third and last paraphrasing that I did, located in the 37th to the 40th verse and it read as follows:

"The old earth

Had a birth,

As all men know,

Long ago."

In the past few verses, I think that the author meant to make a connection with Buddha's famed words: "Everything that has a beginning, has an ending.” And made a reference as to how long it has been since the earth's existence has begun, that it's already nearing its end. An opinion of mine would be that, the message hidden throughout this poem is that, due to our human nature, we're not appreciating the gift that is our planet earth in its fullest, and in its stead, we keep on fighting whenever we get the chance to. "All things will die" is written mostly on a pessimistic or saddening tone that indulges the audience to reflect and truly weigh our own actions while contrasting their consequences, for example:

"The stream will cease to flow;

The wind will cease to blow;

The clouds will cease to fleet;

The hearts will cease to beat;"

Through the previous quote, the author meant to refer to the small things in life that we don't usually notice and take for granted, implying that if we keep living on with the same mindset, we'll eventually come to the same conclusion as it's pictured in this lyrical scenario. In this poem, I found 2 notable shifts in which the theme of the poem and in the author's tone transition notably; the first one located between verse 7 and 8, in which the author switches from a positive and grateful view in the world, to a pessimistic and melancholic one, also changing the theme along with it, which was: "the gift of life and beauty", which developed to "all things will die", which can be noticed in the following quote:

"Full merrily;

Yet all things must die."

The second shift occurs in-between the 36th and 37th verse, in which the author comes into a state of acceptance or understanding, in which the speaker realizes that death was fated to happen from a beginning and is coming to terms with the idea, this realization forces him/her to adjust his tone, from lugubrious to reflexive and almost impartial or unbiased, in which the speaker breaks free from all despair and desperation and starts contemplating death while at its doors, as can seen in the following quote:

"Ye merry souls, farewell.

The old earth

Had a birth,

As all men know,

Long ago."

As it can be seen on the last verses of the poem, the speaker forsakes his sorrow and begins to reminisce his life, this can also be seen as an allusion to the popular belief of seeing your life flash through one's eyes in a near death experience, ultimately remembering just how long the character has lived and coming to peace with the fact that death is near. As for the technical part of this poem, the meter changes along with the author's emotions, feelings and the theme that is being transmitted to the audience, for example:

"Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing

Under my eye;

Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing
Over the sky." 

(1, 2, 3, 4.)

-

"See! our friends are all forsaking

The wine and the merrymaking
We are call'd-we must go." 

(18, 19, 20.)

-

"The old earth

Had a birth
As all men know,
Long ago." 

(37, 38, 39, 40.)

As it can be seen in the previous quotes from the poem, the structure depends on what the poem's theme and what the author is trying to convey to the audience. In the beginning of the poem, the author employs imagery, consonant rhymes and assonance to describe the beauty of the setting that the speaker is in complete awe at, using a trochaic heptameter along with a trochaic dimeter as follow-up, the rhyme scheme used here is ABAB. In the next excerpt, the author immerses the speaker and the audience into complete despair and chaos when all of the beauty present in the world is fading away right before the speaker's eyes. An allusion is made to connect wine and merrymaking with a lively or relatively joyous way of living, there's also an enjambment employed to emphasize that they were called, by what I can infer, Death itself. The meter used here consists of a trochaic quadrameter, trochaic trimeter along with a trochaic trimeter, the rhyme scheme used here is AAB. Towards the ending of the poem, the author alters the atmosphere by utilizing a reflexive tone, which uses consonant and vowel rhymes to fit in with the rest of the poem and thus, create fluidity; as for the devices, the author uses allusion along with symbolism and metaphor to compare implicitly the world's life and age to a human's, an antithesis or juxtaposition can also be observed on the close use of the words "old" and "birth", additionally, tacitly communicating that earth has grown old and will die. The metric structure of this extract are spondaic dimeter, iambic meter, iambic dimeter and trochaic meter used along with an AABB rhyme scheme.

Rationale + Corrected Task.

Rationale:

My written task aimed for an audience that was interested in Atticus’ emotions throughout the first part, since he’s never shown displaying anything but subtle emotions (such as, empathy, love for his kids, anger, etc.). It’s purpose was to show Atticus as an average man, whom feels a wide variety of emotions, but instead of displaying them, he chooses to keep them hidden from his surroundings so that none of the people he cares about have one more worry just because of him. I felt that the best way to display all of the above was with a diary entry, since it manages to give an insight on his emotions and personality, while still keeping up with the book’s progress through the storyline, thus, we can see him reacting towards events or occurrences that come to be as the story goes on. As a finishing detail, I decided that the main character (Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout) would be finding this diary and reacting to Atticus’ reactions, this would allow me not only to deepen Atticus’ character, but also show the love that Scout has for his father, and how she feels bad over not noticing the burden he’s been carrying over the past year.

Atticus’ Diary

As Scout entered Atticus’ office, she immediately felt drawn to a certain bookcase, more specifically, a book that simply stood out from the rest. This book was odd, it’s outer cover was seemingly worn, but the pages within were pristine in comparison to the other books racked up along with it. Scout’s curiousness got the best of her and was driven to sneak her way up to the bookcase and take out the book she had singled out beforehand, she flipped it open without wasting any time and started reading:

Day 1

It’s the beginning of the year and work’s already coming in steadily, if this keeps up, then this might be our year

As Jean Louise read that, she knew this was Atticus’ diary, but it was apparently only work related, and knowing Atticus she could tell that he wouldn’t write anything in here in relation to his personal life, but she kept on going on the mere idea that she’d be able to read up on the “Tom Robinson” case and manage to get to know it on a certain level of depth. Since she knew that this hadn’t appeared until further into the year, she skipped a few pages, but was stopped by a sudden increase in writing, she continued reading:

Day 75

Today started out like any typical day, I eat breakfast while reading the newspaper, say goodbye to the kids, clean up a bit then leave for work. The change in this came into play once I’d been a couple hours in my office. Someone knocked on my door, and thinking it might be a client I dropped what I was working on and rushed to the door, It turned out to be a middle-aged woman with ashen hair, she was carrying a rather large amount of files under her arm. She identified herself as a state worker, currently working for Maycomb’s courthouse, and that her motive for dropping by was to present me with some cases of people who had refused a lawyer but never contacted one either. I knew where she was going with this, she wanted me to do the work of a District Attorney, hoping for me to have the kindness in my heart to agree. But she knew I always defend te people who’re too weak to do so for themselves. I took the job on only one condition, that I’d be free to work on my personal cases for the length of the cases. She clearly didn’t mind this and we had a deal. But before she left my office, she said: “Before I forget about this, I should tell you to be careful, there’s a negro on the list.” I thanked her worry and she hastily left.

Day 76

I’ve read the files that the state worker dropped off and the file concerning Tom Robinson definitely worries, if not sickens me. He’s currently held for suspicion of rape over that Ewell young woman, but nothing indicates that this man is guilty, nor that he is at fault at all. But what sickens me the most is that, this is probably just because it’s the word of a black man against a white woman’s. I know that this is hopeless, but even if I can help in the slightest, then my choice’s made.

A few entries we’re missing, probably eaten by some kind of insect, so she flipped over the pages and continued.

Day 126

Today’s the first hearing of the case of rape involving Tom Robinson, but I doubt you could call that a hearing if the courthouse doesn’t allocate enough time to get both the prosecutor’s and defendant’s point through, as far as I can guess, is that we’ll have short appointments, distanced by quite a bit of time. This infuriates me to my very core, since not only they’re toying with his race, but with his future. Back to topic, the prosecutor’s point was vague, with his only apparent pretext is Mr. Ewell’s testimony, this is pure idiocy from part of the courthouse, we all know that a case like this involving 2 whites would be dismissed at the spot.

As Scout read on, she realized that the “normal cases” she’d been skipping we’re becoming slimmer and more distanced from each other, she could notice that, this specific case was taking a toll on Atticus that none of us would be able to imagine, and the weigh on his shoulders was enlarging itself as the days went on. Scout had no choice other than keep reading.

Day 159

Ms. Maudie’s house burnt down, people’s lives we’re endangered, including my children’s. Yet all I can think of is this head cracking case. The sleepless nights have become more regular and my obliviousness towards my environment is slowly growing. If I don’t move forward with this case, I might lose myself along with the case.

Some pages fell to the ground when Scout flipped them over, but she was too concentrated on the entries that she didn’t even flinch over the occurrence, instead, she just kept on reading where her eyes laid sight.

Day 171

A mad dog was sighted nearby, as soon as we got the news, me and the sheriff went to look for it. For some weird reason, he thought that I should shoot it. I did, and I felt no remorse nor inner conflict, this is getting out of hand. I MUST do something regarding this de-personalization or everyone around me will suffer an avoidable pain.

Scout could not feel worse, her stomach is upside down, tears dripping down her face and a runny nose. She had never thought how much this case could be getting into Atticus, nor how hard it had hit him, never thought about that part of the story, she couldn’t take it anymore, so she jumped into a fast conclusion and flipped the book towards the last entry written on it.

Day 203

Things have happened while the actual me was away, but my head’s clear now, I’ve come to the conclusion I had once I took this case, that no matter what I did, I WILL help this man.

Scout left the book and ran out of the room, as she had just realized, that Atticus’ last hearing was about to begin…

-END-

"The media can't control us, but it can greatly influence us".

This essay contains my point of view on a subject that is critical part of society, which is whether media has the capabilities to control our minds or not, while I do not agree with this statement fully, I can't say that I disagree with it either, and my answer to this reflection is, the media can greatly influence us, but by no ways does that mean that we're being controlled by it.

As a short introduction to the body of this essay, I will continue to quote the definitions of both key concepts that're essential in relation to this topic, those being the words "control" and "influence", according to dictionary.reference.com:

Control:
"to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command." 

Influence:

"the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others:"

One of the big counter arguments to this topic at hand is that, as the media is so greatly vast, it can easily cover the world once or twice, meaning that, any means of escaping it without leaving our modern selves behind would be futile. While I do agree with this statement, I deeply believe that this, as going by the definition of control, means there isn't any restraint or command held over our emotions nor actions whatsoever, hence the fact that I may watch, as an example, a fast food advertisement on TV and show complete obliviousness towards it, or even go out and get food elsewhere. This is only a mere demonstration on the amount of control it has over me, none.

The second counter argument is based on two big foundations, the first one being something that I already addressed, it being that the media is something so incredibly big with no chances of escaping its domains. The second one consists in the media being the modern center of attention, most of the things we do or say, eventually end up on social media. All of the big events that occur in your city will make the news, with some luck it may even reach the front of a newspaper. The list goes on and beyond. The point of listing all of this, is that our lives and the media are intertwined to an extent that it affects our environment, making our perception of it change as the media does. My thoughts on this are that, this is completely true, probably because I've spent half of my life sitting on front of my computer. But this is where the definition of influence comes into play, we're only influenced by our surroundings, we've always been, but that's where it ends. For us to do something relating to it, the idea at hand would've had to be in our heads long before it became a conversational topic between your circle of friends, the only work that the environment would do is be the final nudge between the idea and reality itself. And remember that, at the end if the day, I will still be myself, and you, the reader, will remain to be yourself.

The third and last counter argument is the typical one, and most likely the one that is widely addressed while referring to this topic, and it consists in that we tend to believe what news reporters, or the media in general says. We are also led to follow trends, we chat about the latest gossip, etc. All of this without batting an eye towards it, in other words, it's instantly deemed as something normal or mundane within our modern lives. This would make for the typical excuse of someone who'd agree with the idea that the media controls our minds, but that someone is not me. I believe that we're all different in any way imaginable by us, and thus, making mass control something non-achievable, and only managing to at the very most, influencing us towards an action that was probably in our thoughts already. This is exactly what people supporting the idea of media-mass control get wrong, the crucial difference between "Control" and "Influence", which, as I said before, are key elements in this subject.

To conclude this essay, I'll just state that, ultimately, I do not agree with the main theme of essay to an acceptable extent to deem it as "true" nor "correct", this being that the media has control over us. But as my thesis stated, I do, firmly believe that media composes a big part in our lives and plays a major role in our modern selves, yet, we're not being commanded by the media to perform an action nor to feel a certain emotion at a given time. We are still in possession of our whole and untouched free will, which will remain like that whichever case may be. This means that we're not under the control of the media, but we are, most certainly, within the influence of it, as it is the biggest and most widely used system present in our lives. 

As the last words of my essay, I'll quote the definition of media, as according to dictionary.reference.com:

Media: "the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely"

Thank you.

What cultural elements called your attention? (...)

The New Zealander's lifestyle differs from ours in many ways, such as simple things like school finishing at 3:30 or main businesses closing up at 5:30, to intricate things like the school system. What caught my attention the most is that their main food of the day is dinner (And that's if you even dare to call that a main). Other thing is that people are nice, honest and welcoming here (Their houses don't even have electrified fencing or anything :o), whilst in Chile... not so much. A similitude between them would be that they're both growing (baby) countries, which is what makes both of them beautiful, since they're not completely over-ridden by the human race, another big similitude is that we both have a second ethnicity within our country and forms a decent percentage of our complete population (In New Zealand, they would be the Maori, and in Chile, they'd be the Mapuche) and both have formed links between their cultures and ours to some extent influenced the government (Maori people are entitled to at least 4 seats in New Zealand's parliament). A thing that our government should copy from New Zealand would be the monthly fee that the government pays to the people who are currently in poor conditions of life (Or any of the benefits that New Zealand offers to it's people).

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?

An obvious response to that question would be: "to live in New Zealand", but to live in New Zealand means a lot more to me.
I think that being a New Zealand instantly makes you a better person (Mainly because this is one of the nicest and most polite places on earth), It also means that you can include various ethnicities into your daily life (such as Asian, Maori, and a lot more) and include them into their culture (Te Papa always had their exhibitions written in English and in Maori, and nearly every college has their own Haka). Their daily life consists of waking up and eating cereal and getting dressed to go to school (In a weekend they would eat a big breakfast made of bacon, eggs and orange juice). They usually take the bus to school. In the afternoon, they go home at 3:30 via bus, and most businesses close and go home at 5:30 - 6:00, Their big meal of the day is dinner, in which they can have a wide range of meals, Sweet potato and fish & chips being their typical meals. It's normal for them to go to bed at 8:00 and to be sleeping at 9:00, ready for their next day.