8. This is not Fair

This week, we started our mini presentations. Nowadays, fresh students are really busy with exams, papers and more, but the final work of presentations were really good. However, the one that influenced me very much was "Hanife".

During the presentation, some data were shown and one of them was indicating that honour killings occur in Istanbul every week. Imagine, once a week! In just a week, a girl who has dreams is killed only as she pursues her happiness. However, all the human being do have the freedom to live what they want or wish. This freedom can neither be prevented nor considered as a guilt. Unfortunately, some people arenot aware..In my opinion, we live in an isolated life, every one lives his own life without considering the surroundings. This is not fair..

Therefore, as Martin Luther, i have a dream that one day everyone can pursue own happiness. I have a dream that one day, every one can have a freedom to give own decisions freely. I have a dream that one day we don't have any other Hanifes.

As well, i have another dream that one day all our exams and our papers will end up and we can pursue our own interests :))

7. A Party Down At The Square

Today, we discussed or rather tried to discuss "A party down at the square". If you think about the story's name, you may get an idea that the focus of the article is a party, where people are having fun. Yes, your guess is right! However, these people's entertainment style is different from the ones who chooses dancing, singing or having conversations to have great time. Unfortunately, these people come together to burn someone, who is black. Only because of his colour, they are lynching him. Only because of his fate that makes him black, they are burning him alive. In my opinion, this event is shame of humanity. Nevertheless, can we consider these people as humanity, who consider themselves superior to another, only because of their colour? I think this is not fair, somebody should stop this oppression on black people and let them live as they desire. We are all humans that desire to live peacefully.

In this article, Ellison is really successful in awaking these ideas in readers. He is also a black people and point out this terrible situation explicitly. Beside from the importance of the message of this article, the techniques that Ellison is using is also crucial. He uses symbolism such as the "Bronz Statue" or "Phenix City"? Do you wonder the meaning of these? I realy wonder, but i haven't got enough idea about them, yet. However, i will try to find in my first free time when i get rid of all my exams. :)

6. The Blue Team

This week, we formed the seminar presentation groups. I am in the blue team with Sevda and Hazal. :) Firstly, we will present "The Lottery" as a practice and later move on to our final presentation. We aim to reflect "the Lottery" through the blue team perspective in a best way. The practice presentation and the final presentation will be on 5th April and 17th May respectively. I think it will be beneficial for us to begin analyzing our short story not to become stressed. Beside from these, i really love my blue team, both Sevda and Hazal have different view points that make our presentation fantastic. As well, i really love preparing power point presentation as a hobby, when all these come together, i hope the final work will be desirable. :)

5. Four Weeks Together

I am awared that days are just flowing but days never flew like this before. I feel myself as a machine that is responsible for doing lots of things at the same time. However, i will overcome. :)
During these four weeks, we first analyzed the adolescence which is a part of the identity topic and then we moved on the racism part. Last week, we interpreted two texts which are "Hailing while black" and "Black men and public sphere". These texts were examining the same issue, the stereotyping of blacks while these two writers approach to policy were really different from each other. Whereas the former writer support was conservatism, the latter one was a supporter of liberalism. Nevertheless, the distinction their political views is not an obstacle for them to engage in the same problem, the problem of blacks. To be honest, being a black person might be really difficult and scaring. I cannot imagine a situation that everyone cares with my colour. This is really difficult to handle. As well, to make these people cope with this situation is also scaring. After reading these texts, i started to examine why people avoid accept these differences. Then, i got the answer and confirmed it during our class discussion. The answer is really open, we afraid, but from what? From losing our authority. We all think that what if they come and demand for more rights. Therefore, most of the people tend to make blacks feel as abnormal. This is really painful and no one desires to feel this pain.
Beside from this racism issue, we interpreted these two texts deeply in a pub quiz. The quiz was really good and i had a chance to understand the contexts in a better way. I hope to have another pub quiz in the future. :)

4. Research Paper

This week, we learnt our research paper questions. I think researching about most of these questions will be interesting. However, i preferred researching about "domestic violence". I plan to correlate poverty and domestic violence and compare the rate of violence in a wealthy country and less wealthy country. During my research, if i encounter with anything more interesting, i will also use them. I hope to have a good job. Good luck to everyone.

3. In Dreams

Teenage girls generally try to find their princes with their white horses in dreams and they really want to meet their love of their life in one day. These girls engage in this dream so much that they assume that the first people they met is the love of their lives. In the short story which is named as "Where are you going, where have been?, we encounter a girl like these teenage girls. Her name is Connie, who is and 15 year-old, beautiful but also irresponsible girl. She always care about her appereance and wishes boys to care about her appereance, too.

One day, while she was dreaming again while listening to music, a car comes to their home. Without thinking the other step, she goes towards this car and gets into it. There were two men, and as Connie thought that these men were interested in her beauty, she did not see any harm to talk with them. After a while, she discerns the danger, but it was too late. Then, she first thinks about her mother and her bed. That is to say, while Connie is behaving as an adult by caring about her outfit and boys, as a child, she still depends on her mother.

To sum up, "Where are you going, where have you been?" is a crucial embodiement about the coming of age and its affects. As i read from some sources, Carol Oates wrote her masterpiece by the inspiration of the news that some teenagers girls were kidnapped. She may draw attention to the dangers which teenagers might encounter. On the other hand, isn't it possible that Connie is still dreaming?

2. The Graduate

Few days ago, we watched a film named "The Graduate" which is related to our focus, adolescence. The main character of the film is Benjamin Braddock who graduated from the school and in the summer holiday. However, his parents or the people around him always try to give him advice. From these lines," i'm just a little worried about my future", it can be understood that how he is nervous about his future. Benjamin is not only worried about his future but also he wants to be different in the future. He wants to be different from his family or his family's dreams. As Benjamin's parents always want to Ben be perfect and use him as an issue that they are proud of, Ben is really oppressed. As well, the camera techniques also symbolize his anxiety. Benjamin's diving into swimming pool and his only breathing while the audience can understand his feelings can be a best example. Moreover, the camera sometimes focus on the darkness like the darkness in Benjamin's feelings. Due to his doubt, he starts a sexual relation between an elder woman, then he falls in love with that woman's daughter. After this, the story becomes more different. Finally, one thing that is unforgetable for the Graduate is the scene when Benjamin attacks people with cross in the church. Although the cross in crucial in christianity, he uses the cross to attack the people in church. These people are the ones who generally make pression on them. Therefore, the attack with this cross may reveal his anger these people, the anger that he is not discourage enough to show to his family or others.