The more I read, the more interesting it gets. For this third part, I was able to identify the different perspectives that are being shown to us in this story.
The importance of using perspective in a story is that it gives the story a different aspect and makes it more interesting when reading it. By using this, the author introduces different situations and different actions at the same time that indirectly connect to each other. This style of perspective what does is, shows the story like if were a movie. What I mean, is that if we see how the movie is shown, we see that things take place in different settings or in different places and its easy to make it that way because of the camera poition and the changing of scenes. The perspective following this example would be when the camera stops in one place, and starts off in a totally different place.
For The Power and the Glory, I´ve already found many different perspectives. the story is taking place at at least five different places. The first one thas shown to us in the book is when the stranger meets Mr.Tench and this last one invites the straner to his small hut to have some drinks. Here they describe the location where the story si taking place and also they give us some infromation about Mr.Tench and the stranger. The second perspective we can see is the Police department and the authorities talking about a guy that has scaped and a priest that has to be found. In this part they also gives us some information that is very important for us in order to fin out the historical background and therefore identify the epoch where this story is taking place on. This also helps us understand a little bit more of whats happening and why thats happening. The third perspective I found was when they talk about a priest, Padre Jose and there they give us some information of him and his life. Another important perspective is Captain´s Fellow appearance. Captain Fellow is, for what we know, a banana seller or so, and he lives in his hpuse with his wife and his daughter. This fourth perspective also involves the stranger that was introduced at the begining and they show us how this stranger is hiding from the authorities. The little girl protects this stranger because she things is the right thing to do, but captain Fellow goes against her.
Like I said before, this story is conformed of many perspectives and in order to have a complete understandment of whats happening, we have to pay a lot of attention to the perspectives and be able to identify when these persepctives change. Until now the book is very interesting and is very fun how this method of using perspectives keeps you into the book all the time like if you where the detective trying to solve the case.
Mariana Gonzalez
September 30/2007
Pag 45-60

The Priest, the Stranger, The gringo??

After reading the third chapter of The Power and the Glory, I was able to answer some questions and some doubts I had from the first two chapters. some more characters are intrduced and that gives us more backgroung information in order to identify the straight plot. At this point I was able to make a straight connection from the last two chapter and it was that the same stranger that was drinking some brandy at Mr. Tench´s house, the man that left in a mule with the younger kid, the guy that was using the captains hut and his daughter´s nobleness to hide from the authorities, the Priest that ended in a very poor house full of rats and without being able to sleep because of the confesions of the people who lived there, are the same person, or at least thats what until know I can say.
There are many factor that helped me discover this connections. For instance, there is one clue that appears every time they mention him and is his english speaking in a latin town, not very common.
-"Somebody whispered in english, ¨What did you say?¨ Mr. Tench swivelled around. ¨You English?¨he asked in atonishment,"(pg. 9).
-"¨Quien es usted?¨ Captain Fellows said. ¨I speak English.¨" (pg. 37).
This clue help us because, as the author states at the beggining, is not very common to see someone speak a foreign language so basically by this we can connect the stranger from the beggining with the guy hidding from the authorities in the Captains house.
Another of those clues I found to connect all this characters as being one, is when they describe the character and give us details of what he is wearing and taking with him. they mention two very important things: an attaché case he takes averywhere and the brandy he had at the begining that then asks to the Captain if he has some.
-"A small man dressed in a shabby dark city suit, carrying a small attaché case." (Pg. 9).
_"He clutched a small attaché case to his side,..." (pg 37).
Like I mentioned before, he always carried along with this attaché, a bottle of Brandy or if he didnt had one, he asked for any king of drink that had alcohol.
-"¨I have a little brandy,¨the stranger said" (Pg. 11)
-"Ïf you would do me a favour...¨ ¨What?¨ ¨A little brandy.¨" (Pg. 38).

These were some of the connections I could come up with by reading the second twenty pages. There are some more clues I can think about in this moment but that still are not very clerly stated so I would prefers on waiting to read the next chapters and see what happens. Until now I find very interesting the novel because it makes you thnk a lot and makes you get into the story like a detective.
Mariana Gonzalez
September 26/2007
(Pg 30-45)

The Port and the Capital (The Power and the Glory # 1)

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene is the next novel we will be reading for english class. This novel seems to take place in latin america, first of all becuase the language spoken is spanish and they mentioned some mexican towns. I think the setting of this novel until now, takes place in a small town of Mexico during the time period of the mexican revolution. We can make this connection and deduce this events because of what was happening, priest being prosecuted and killed, street bands, people dying, lack of work, poor people etc.
Until now, what ive read, talks about a priest or a stranger thats being persecute by the authorities while this one tries to scape from them hiding in peoples houses and hiding his real identity to some others. First, this authorities talk about a person guilty of robing a bank, but also mention a priest or a stranger that was guilty of treason and that was scaping from the authorities. This part was very confusing, because there are many secondary characters and secondary situations that are occuring at the same time as the principal story so some times it gets confusing and you easily loose the track of the novel.
For this part of the novel I can do a character comparison between Mr. Tench and Mersault from The Stranger. We can see how Mr. Tench has a very undefined labor life just like Mersault did in The Stranger. We can see how both carry on with a solitaire and a very independent life. Both in some cases are really eaasy going like for example in The Stranger when Mersault has conversations with his neighbot, and in this novel, when Mr. Tench gets into a conversation with this strange guy very easily.
This are some connections I could manage to do by only reading the first twenty pages of the novel. I am still a little confused about some parts of the plot but hopefully this doubts would get resolved after reading some more.
Mariana Gonzalez
September 25/ 2007
Pages (7-30)

RHETORIC

After reading this OP-ed article, I separated each of the paragraphs into one of the three ctaegories or type of rhetoric exmples.


LOGOS: Argument by Logic: paragraphs 3,4,5,9,10
ex... a very simple and clear example of logos is in paragraph 5 where the author talks about the production of Ethanol in the world and how this, combined wth some other factors, are pushing the global price of grain.
ETHOS: Argument by Character: paragraphs 1,2,6,7,8
ex... For example, the first paragraph is introucing us to the problem and the problems a consumer probably would have to deal with only for having another source of fuel.
PATHOS: Argument by Emotion: paragraph 11
ex... this paragraph as we can see is more personal and emotional, the auhtor is giving sourt of a conclusion with his personal point of view about the situation.


FOLLOW LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19wed1.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Editorials

Backed by the White House, corn-state governors and solid blocks on both sides of Congress’s partisan divide, the politics of biofuels could hardly look sunnier. The economics of the American drive to increase ethanol in the energy supply are more discouraging.

American corn-based ethanol is expensive. And while it can help cut oil imports and provide modest reductions in greenhouse gases compared to conventional gasoline, corn ethanol also carries considerable risks. Even now as Europe and China join the United States in ramping up production, world food prices are rising, threatening misery for the poorest countries.

The European Union has announced that it wants to replace 10 percent of its transport fuel with biofuels by 2020. China is aiming for a 15 percent share. The United States is already on track to exceed Congress’s 2005 goal of doubling the amount of ethanol used in motor fuels to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. In his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush set a new goal of 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017. In June, the Senate raised it to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Of that, Congress said that 15 billion gallons should come from corn and 21 billion from advanced biofuels that are nowhere near commercial production.

The distortions in agricultural production are startling. Corn prices are up about 50 percent from last year, while soybean prices are projected to rise up to 30 percent in the coming year, as farmers have replaced soy with corn in their fields. The increasing cost of animal feed is raising the prices of dairy and poultry products.

The news from the rest of the world is little better. Ethanol production in the United States and other countries, combined with bad weather and rising demand for animal feed in China, has helped push global grain prices to their highest levels in at least a decade. Earlier this year, rising prices of corn imports from the United States triggered mass protests in Mexico. The chief of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising food prices around the world have threatened social unrest in developing countries.

A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an economic forum of rich nations, called on the United States and other industrialized nations to eliminate subsidies for the production of ethanol which, the report said, is driving up food costs, threatening natural habitats and imposing other environmental costs. “The overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel,” it said.

The economics of corn ethanol have never made much sense. Rather than importing cheap Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane, the United States slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on ethanol from Brazil. Then the government provides a tax break of 51 cents a gallon to American ethanol producers — on top of the generous subsidies that corn growers already receive under the farm program.

Corn-based ethanol also requires a lot of land. An O.E.C.D. report two years ago suggested that replacing 10 percent of America’s motor fuel with biofuels would require about a third of the total cropland devoted to cereals, oilseeds and sugar crops.

Meanwhile, the environmental benefits are modest. A study published last year by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, estimated that after accounting for the energy used to grow the corn and turn it into ethanol, corn ethanol lowers emissions of greenhouse gases by only 13 percent.

The United States will not meet the dual challenges of reducing global warming and its dependence on foreign suppliers of energy until it manages to reduce energy consumption. That should be its main goal.

There is nothing wrong with developing alternative fuels, and there is high hope among environmentalists and even venture capitalists that more advanced biofuels — like cellulosic ethanol — can eventually play a constructive role in reducing oil dependency and greenhouse gases. What’s wrong is letting politics — the kind that leads to unnecessary subsidies, the invasion of natural landscapes best left alone and soaring food prices that hurt the poor — rather than sound science and sound economics drive America’s energy policy.

The Soccer War #7

The Soccer War #6

This video is a very sad video of the death of a soccer player in the field while playing. I thought it was a great idea to comprae it to the similar situation in The Soccer War when Victoriano Gomez gets killed in the middle of the soccer game. isnt it ironic to see a death in such activities? Your are supposed to die if your body doesnt do excersie, not if you excersies your body avery now and then, dont you think so?

The Soccer War #5

Reading this twenty pages I couldnt imagine a war could be determined by a soccer game. I am a soccer fan and I watch every game possible and now that I am reading this novel I wonder how would it be if things like this happened in real life. I cant imagine Colombia for example going to war with Paraguay beacuse they defeated them last game. The war between Honduras and El salvador started because of a soccer game, but a war needs some backgroung misunderstandings for it to occur. I war cant just start because of a loss in a soccer game, it has to have something behind it and this was exactly what happened in this ocassion. Honduras and El Salvador had some misunderstandings since the some peasants, due to the high population on El Salvador, were movind to Honduras and were tehre was more space for them.
I also liked about this chapter the description they give us of Latin America, makes me remember of my country and be proud of who I am as a citizen.

Mariana Gonzalez
Pg. (170-190)

Listening Clip

Soccer War #4

Today I came home and started playing Risk. Risk is a board game where you have to conquer other countries and is basically a continuous war, fighting for territories. After we finished the game, I sat down and started writing this blog entry. I figured out that what I had just played related with what I was reading in The Soccer War. In this twenty pages I read, i fugured out that the war was expanding each time south and that every place the main character visited had some reason for being in war. Its interesting to see this conncetion with Risk game because in the game finally someone wins, but in real life and in this novel, no one wins, the battles and the enemies never end.

Soccer War #3

At this point of the novel, many of the questions I have asked before, are now being answered. I felt identified with the main character in this part because once I did the same he is doing now. I once grabbed a car with some friends and traveled through Colombia. We went from town to town investigating for the fisrt time those places. The difference is that I didnt go out of Colombia, while the main character visits all or many of the countries in Latin America and some other continents.
Mariana Gonzalez
pag(136-150)

Soccer War #2

What does the word coup means?

Why does the main character is always traveling if he nows the situation in the countries he is visiting is not the most appropiated in that moment?

Why is there so much political struggle in African countries?

Mariana Gonzalez
pag(116-135)

Soccer War # 1

Why do we start at page 95 and not from the beggining?

By reading the first twenty pages of this novel, I found some similarities and difference withe the novel we read the past weeks, The Stranger. If we look at the main character in bothe novels, we can see that both were in jail at some moment of their lives. Compared to The Stranger, in the Soccer War the author is more descriptive and gives much more details of the things that are happening. Also we can say that the main character of the Soccer War is not as aimpulsive and agressive as it was Mersault from The Stranger.
Mariana Gonzalez
Pag(95-115)

The Stranger # 6

For this final chapter of the novel, I would say I was confused. From the beginning of the trial I knew he was going to be acussed as guilty, but I never imagine the punishment he received. I felt like if I were reading a book written thousnads of years before. I have to say that it was a little ironic the way they decided to kill Mersault because it didnt had nothing to do with the context. It was a very ancient way of killing someone and that changed my thoughts comlpetely. Even though, I liked the stroy and how it ended. Finally we discovered that even though he was still to this side of the line of death, he didnt regret for his acts and said that death would be a good thing that could happen to him.
Mariana Gonzalez
(pag 99-123)