Eli Pardue
8/31/07
AP Lang Comp
LaMags

The Eiffel Tower

I have seen the Eiffel Tower only once. I remember when, and how I got there, and just about everything about that moment. It was the end of June, and My second to last day in Paris before leaving for Switzerland with my family. We walked everywhere in Paris, up and down the Seine, around the Louvre, and finally to the Eiffel Tower. It was not on my list of top things to do in Paris. I was much more interested in seeing Paris life as it went on everyday for the locals, not all the touristy places. I am positive the Eiffel Tower is on the list of the top five tourist attractions. So I held off going to the Tower. I had a preconceived notion in my mind that it would be the most amazing sight of my life, and that I would instantly be awed by its towering majesty, that I would be dwarfed by the unimaginable tons of steel that stood before me. When I finally stood next to the Tower, I was very, very disappointed. I felt like it was not tall enough, or that there was some flaw in the photographs and stories that dominated my understanding of what the Eiffel Tower really was. Perhaps it is that I had technically already seen it from afar while strolling in the city. Perhaps I would have been more impressed if it had jumped out of a shadow and shocked me, all at once. I think I was disappointed to know that the scene before me was not all mine, but I had to share it with all the other tourists. I figured out that all of it really was just for them; nothing more than a tourist attraction. The t-shirt booths and food stalls did not compete with the old beautiful sidewalk cafes, and in my mind, as I walked away across Champs de Mars, the lawn in front of the tower, I realized that the Eiffel Tower is American. It is English, Chinese, Japanese, and thing other than Parisian, because all of the Parisian culture ha\d been completely sapped from the place.

Class Reflection

Eli Pardue
8/29/07
AP Lang. Comp.
LaMags

Class Discussion

I truly enjoyed yesterday's class discussion. Last week in AP US History, we wrote an essay about the importance of history. I wrote about how without history we would have nothing to base the foundations of our society off of, and there for would not have an identity as a society. Carlos Fuentes makes an argument that has many of the same implications as mine. He expresses the importance of language by arguing that it is essential in expressing cultural history, and also, on a deeper level, instrumental in creating a cultural identity. This relates to my argument because the literature that Fuentes emphasizes is the source of history, and if it is the foundation of cultural identity, then history must be as well.
In general, class has been very enjoyable. It is a serious environment, but at the same time very silly and joking, which makes it great fun to be in. I feel like i am taking very much from this class and its excellent discussions.

Carlos Fuentes, Childhood and Language

Eli Pardue
8/28/08
AP Blog
LaMags

Carlos Fuentes-Childhood and Language

Carlos Fuentes outlook on language was very much influenced by his childhood. He grew up in Washington DC thinking of his birthplace as a fantasy, as if it were a story made up by his father. He knew about the history of Mexico, and of all the losses and hardships it faced as a budding nation. Hans Berliner was a young man who came to Carlos’s school; his family escaped the prosecution of Jews in Europe. In Hans’s eyes, Carlos saw so much of the hardship and strife of his people. He recognized it, and through Hans’s eyes discovered that his father country was real. This realization gave Carlos a sence of belonging to something greater than his connection to the United States, made him realize that he has more influence in his life that those other kids around him, and that is why it is important to his view on language.
The highest point in Carlos’s childhood in relation to the affect it had on his sense of language was his trip to Chile. It was his first time being fully immersed in the Spanish language. At one point in his trip, he came across a group of coal miners singing a poem of Pablo Neruda’s. They did not know that this poem had a particular author, which made Carlos think. The language that Neruda’s poems utilized was a universal language, an anonymous language that belongs to everyone. Through Pablo Neruda, he came to the understanding that poetry is something more than just literature. He came to the realization that poetry is a mindset. Also, that poetry and stories were the first ways that history was told by word of mouth, and therefore some of the earliest forms of language.

"I Could Tell You Stories"

Eli Pardue
8/27/07
AP Lang. Comp
LaMags

“I Could Tell You Stories”

I very much enjoyed the class discussion for Red Sky In The Morning. The woman on the bus next to Patricia Hayel opened her conversation with "I could tell you stories," but instead of doing so, she closes her eyes and falls asleep, leaving Patricia to ponder why she did not tell stories. The word 'could' in her statement made all the difference. It provided her statement with an air of uncertainty, as if she could tell stories but for some reason in not going to or can't. Perhaps something in her story is so rawly emotional that a story cannot give full justice to her experiences. Stories are all we have as vessels for our emotions and experiences, but if ones experiences and emotions are to intense to be fully appreciated, it may be better to the person in question to leave their experiences to be imagined.

Eli Pardue
8/23/07
AP Lang.
LaMags

Class so far

So far AP Language And Composition has been one of my most enjoyable classes, and has fully met my expectations for the class. Class discussions have been very in-depth and interesting. I am happy with the amount of homework assigned, but I feel that I have yet to re-open my mind to full analysis of whatever it is we read.