Acitive class

Paraphrasing: According to the first part of the essay, they start analyzing why the test scores in schools are so low. This investigation drive to the conclusion that the children go to school because they are obligated by their parents and they cant be take out of public schools, so the rate of education are low because children know a days don’t bother to study because they cant get expulse of schools. This is not the case of private school; in this type of education students can get expulse, so they go to public schools.

Finally the priest shows his real face

The book is getting to the end, and each time we see the real intensions that the priest has. I personallly think that every human being likes to have money and most will do the imposible to get it, but what a really think is not true is that the priest way of thinking is like that. What my family taught me was a very different thing, due to the fact that the priest are represeting god, so they have to care about the people and not to much care about their own interest in this case money, for me the priest have to think more in the people.

In this part of the book I can see that the real intentions of the priest is to get some money of all, a great example was that the people had to pay so they colud baptized their kids, he did not care how much money the people ha, or if they were able to pay does amounts of money. I think that you dont have to really pay to get baptized, because I think that if you are catholic you can get baptized without any cost because is the church oblogations to gather the people that wants to join the church.

In other cases we see that the priest tells that he is using the money for the school teachers, but they are many doughs or unless I have many doughts on believing on this factor. In other situations the priest have help communities and have give them his services but he has charge for them, for me this is terrible because the church is for receving people that need help, but the church is not to help but at the same time, to charge for the help. Most of the people believe in the church, I do not believe to much in church , because I think that priest are only their to take advantage of the people, in what I really believe in is in god, but I think that the church is an identity that takes people money from lomg time ago.

What about the priest?

In this chapter I tried to discover what does the priest really thinks and feels. His actions and the way he acts shows us that maybe he has two way of acting depending on the circumstances that the priest was in. Also in this chapter we can analize that the priest is exhausted, because they confuss him with other person, and released again, the priest seems to be, totally exhausted. In this chapter we can see the other personality of the priest, and we can see that the priest sometimes likes to help the people, but in other ocassions not, maybe because he is tired, or maybe because he helps the people by interest, certainly I do not know if the priest is a good or an convenient person.

“One of the Fathers has told us that joy always depends on pain. Pains is part of joy. ........." I have many questions if the priest is good or bad, but what is certain enough if that the priest love his job, and the only thing that he wants to do is to expand christianity in this harsh period that Mexico was passing by. The priest works very hard because he hates and he wants to fight against the Red Shirts, and the way he does this is to put in the people that what really minds is going t heaven that is the total happiness you can get. From this part, I have a lot of question regarding to heaven. Heaven does exist? How you are chosen to go to heaven? How does heaven looks like? But I think that each person has to believe in an after world and also in a supreme justice or leader in my case I believe in god, but not in the church. In the book heaven wasa place were you do not suffer because you have to pay taxes, or the red shirts, the only thing that boders in heaven is your happiness.

In this chapter the priest show us the two different faces he has, but it also show us that sometimes he is a good person and sometimes not, the only thing that I have clarity on, is that the priest works for the people of Mexico.

The Soccer War (power)

Guilty and without feelings

We know that Meursalt is guilty but his personality or in the way he feels makes him in some way look innocent. This part of the book surprise me a lot because Meursalt stay long hours in prison sleeping and sometimes remebering memories from before, but he still did not show any kind of emotions. I do not know how the stranger could keep so much time alone in prison and thinking of his past but without any kind of feeling. For me staying at home alone and thinking on the past is pretty depresive. For me they are moments of my past that are very nice, but they are other that are very sad, and for me thinking good things in jail is imposible. In this moment I some how admire Meursalt, because he was very calm, and he did not care of being alone, but I think is not of admiration is just that Meursalt has no feelings and that is why he is so calm.

I think that this situation happens alot in Colombia, in Colombia their is to much violence and for me the people that works in las FARC, have no feelings and when they get caught they usually do not confessed anything and are send to jail, is not very similar to the stranger but I can used it to prove that some people that comit a crime sometimes do not care of going to jail.

The Climax

This is them most important part of the book, because we are not just going to see how Meursalt killed the arab, but we also are going to see how Meursalt start confessing the feelings towards his mother. In this two chapters we observed how Meursalt killed the Arab and how he was send to prison. This is a good point in the book because we see that Meursalt does not care that he is going to be send to jail , and when he is in jail he just does not care if he is going out or not. Also when Meursalt was asked why did he shoot him more than twice he did not anwer anything. "In silence that followed, the magistrate seemed to be getting fidgety."(pg 67). This shows that Meursalt does not want to defend himself because he is so strange that I think that he did not matter to be in jail or not. Why did Meursalt did not anwer?

What surprise me of this chapter was that Meursalt for the first time after his mother dead, express what he really feel for his mother, this was very special in the book because we can see that Meursalt have some kind of feelings and that maybe he has a soul. I thought that he will was going to feel something for his mother of for someone in the book, but this showed me that he felt something for someone and that he was not like a robot, but I think that this was a moment that he really do not know was he was feeling. Or who knows, he is so strange that I don not know what to think. Maybe in he second part of the book Meursalt is going to give us a surprise and he is going to start feeling.

Meursalt feels or not?

The question we all ask is do Meursalt love Marie or he is just having a fun time with her? Meursalt does things that show us that he really doesnt love Marie. When Marie told Meursalt if they were going to get married he anwers her that if she wanted they were going to get married, but he did not care. For me this shows that Meursalt is with Marie to pass a good time and no more. This is not bad till a certain point, because I think that you can have a fun time, but also you have to know till what point. I think that enjoy each minute is great, and sometimes you are with someone to have a good time but no more, but Meursalt gets to the point that he does not care to get married or not, he is just going to do what Marie tells him to do.

"Marie told me I had not kissed her since that morning. I t was true, and yet I had wanted to" (pg 51). This quote describes that maybe Meursalt he feels something for Marie, but what I really thing is that Meursalt is not in loved of Marie, but I think that as the story pass Meursalt is going to get in love of Marie. But let see because each time Meursalt is more strange so we have to wait because he can bring us a lot of surprises.

More about the stranger

After Meursalt mother dead, we can see each time that the main character of the story Meursalt, shows each time that he is really an stranger. I think that when youre mother dies, is a big event and you can feel some kind of sadness. In the case of Meursalt he doesnt feel much. We can see each time that Meursalt acts more like a stranger due to the fact that he doesnt care, and he does not share with nobody hsi feelings. Maybe he doesnt have with whom to share them. In the other hand we can see that Meursalt had not a women presence, but when he met Marie everything change he became a flirt, and we started to know the other side of Meursalt, conquering a women, but also we can see that Marie wants more than a simple relationship, but I think that Meursalt is so strange that when the time comes he is not going to be able to have more than a simple relationship with Marie. Each time I see that Meursalt is the stranger.

Can someone thinks they are more important things than his mother death?

"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I dont know." (pg 3). We can see that he says alot of details and he didnt matter that his mother was dead. For me he puts attetion in things that are not relevant. He cares alot of what he was going to say in the office that run and see his mom. He does things that are insignificant to human society know a days. He puts to much interest in how are the bus seats, and he describe each thing to much. When he arrive to see his mom, he cares more of the light and the coffee that they are giving him that his mom that was dead. Also when he is on the room he detail more the nurse and the people that were their for the last goodbye to his mother. He give to much importance like to things "I like milk in my coffee" (pg 8), instead he diminished what he felt and crie like a normal person will do.

Another thing that surprise me was when the caretaker sat in his desk and was going to inform him all the details of the funeral he only looked at the caretaker legs . " He sat down behind his desk and crossed hsi short legs" (pg 13). So we see that he cares more about little details that are not relevant in that moment, and he leave apart important aspects of the funeral.

Reading Response

I am Maria Camila Jaramillo, I am 18 years old and I am from Bogota, Colombia. This page is for our reading responses on the books we are going to read in Mr. Tangen English 12 class in Colegio Nueva Granada.