my ironic life

First off, I have to ask why we are focusing on the Native American stories. From what I've noticed, it's either been Caucasian or native main characters.

Either way, this story was something that really effected me. It talks of a kid, who knows his dad was a "partyer" when he was younger. Now, his father is tied down to a family and drinks. Eventually it strains the narrators parent's marriage and causes his father to move states away. The narrator then feels abandoned and hopeless.

My father and I love to talk about his crazy times when he was younger. The parties, the car rides, the police chases...I love listening to him recall his rebellious days as a young adult.

My parents divorced when I was 9 years old from my fathers consistent drinking. That was not the only reason, but the main one. My father wasn't the one to move away, like most traditional parent abandonments. It was my mother. She moved to Madison, which was about an hour away from me. However, being 9 years old, seemed like states away from me.

I only saw her on the weekends. It did feel like I was abandoned, and it did make me feel hopeless. The fact that she moved far away made it very clear that my parents were not getting back together.

My father and I did have a song too. "I Want to Rock and Roll" by KISS. It was something that we both loved to listen to and when it was playing we had no care in the world. After the divorce, we lost track of the KISS c.d., but almost every time that we were in the car together it came on the radio. It was our sign that this was "our song."

This story was just overall very much like my life with some small specifics that are different. It's very strange to me that out of all the stories that I could have read, I read this one. However, my friends and family always tell me what an ironic life I have.

Every Little Hurricane

The story "Every Little Hurricane" as of now, is my favorite story read in class. The metaphors and symbolic language created a fantastic depiction of alcoholism. I grew up with alcoholism in my family, not as Victor in Every Little Hurricane did, but I still did.

My family did their best to shield me from their habits. However, no matter how little you are, you still know what their doing is wrong. The fact that he described his family as a hurricane or bad whether was completely appropriate. Alchoholism can easily pass, just like bad whether.

In the beginning of the story, when the Victor speak of his uncle's fighting, he says that they were "slugging each other with such force that had to be in love." This line was very powerful for me, because I've never really thought about the way strangers fight, compared to the way that family members/friends fight. In reality though, it's true. If you know someone, you know how tough they are and you know how hard you can hit without causing permanent damage. With a stranger, you're just fighting to show that you're tougher, and hitting him/her just hard enough to end the fight.

There was one part of the story that I disagreed with, however. The fact that it was targeted towards Native Americans. It just seems that Native Americans get a lot of "beef" for drinking a lot. When in reality, no matter what nationality you are, you are just as likely to become and alcoholic.

However, the person who wrote this grew up on a reservation, so in that sense he's just speaking from personal experience. I hang out with a couple Native Americans however and they grew up on a reservation. They despise being called Indian, they prefer Native. That's what was the most confusing out of the story for me, if the person that wrote the story grew up on a reservation, why was he referring to his family as Indians?

A material world.

Today I wrote a paper on the song Imagine by John Lennon. If you have not heard this song, I highly recommend it. Here are the lyrics: http://www.songfacts.com/lyrics.php?findsong=1094

Some speak of how this song is anti-religious. However I don't believe that this is true at all. So, Lennon speaks of a world without religion, well he's not dumb people, he knows that this would never happen. The reason he powerfully dismisses religion, is because he wants everyone to forget about who believes what. He wants everyone to judge people by who they are, and not what they believe.

Also, in his song, he speaks of a world without worldly possessions. Immedietly following, he says "I wonder if you can." I believe that people have become so obssessed with what they have, that they feel it defines who they are. For example: "you are what you drive" or "you are what you wear". This is a dissapointing way that a majority of our population judges each other.

I for one am sick of it. Think about it, we look up to celebrities, why? Because they are known in the media. How did they become known in the media? For having money and nice cars. It's just not something that I want to be a part of.

Now, I am not about to say that I don't like my fair share of music. Rap is probably my all time favorite thing to listen to. I just think that people should view money and religion differently, other than it defining who you are.