Culture

Culture is a person's way of life.
This could mean the foods you eat, clothes you wear, rituals or demonstrations you perform, and the language you speak. Other people and events influence one's culture.
Culture was intrisic at first when the first civilizations set a precedent for following generations. Now culture is kind of extrinsic. Our families, friends, and other things such as the media influence the way we are raised and the way we live now.

Facts, Claims, and Analytical Claims

Facts
1. The little boy is sitting down.
2. The policeman's shirt is blue.
3. They are at a diner.

Claims
1. The little boy ran away.
2. The policeman and diner guy are trying to convince the little boy to go back home.
3. The diner is located in a small town.

Analytical Claims
1. The little boy did not like his home life and that is why he ran away.

Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo!

I wonder why Henry Higgons and Colonel Pickering are so interested in listening to people talk. I also wonder how they trained themselves to be able to tell the difference in dialects. It's pretty cool if you ask me, and slightly creepy. If I knew their talent I would be a bit intimidated to speak in front of them. I think it is so cool how they can tell a person's orgin, even down to the very street they live on. Again, kind of creepy. But this talent could also come in handy, perhaps to tell if someone was lying or impersonating someone. This leads me to a very important question, is it this rare skill that makes Higgons so arrogant, or Higgon's arrogance that drove him to acquire this skill?

So Many Questions

In the opening act of Pygmalion, I had a million questions going through my head. First off, why was the daughter so unhappy? I assumed she and her mother were upper class because of the way they spoke and also because of the description given in the beginning of the scene. She was irritated because Freddie had not come back with a taxi yet, but was that any reason for her to be so rude to her mother and the other bystanders? I wondered if there was a back story that we would encounter later in the book to tell us more as to why she was so unhappy. Another question I had was who was this mysterious notetaker sitting on the bench and why was he recording what common people were saying? Was it that interesting? Then when he began interacting with other people, I thought he was very rude and I wondered still what business he had in Covent Garden.

The Result of Greed

I found it very hard to put my book down during the second half. I wanted so badly for Kino to sell the pearl for a good sum of money so that he could afford all the things he wanted. I was extremely mad when the merchants told him it was a fake. Because of my lack of knowledge when it comes to the authenticity of pearls, I wasn't sure whether to believe the merchants or assume that they were all filthy liars. After Kino's meltdown on the same day, I had a bad feeling about the pearl. After being attacked several times, having his house burned down, and abusing Juana, I felt sorry for the family. All I wanted was for Coyotito to be saved and the family's happiness to be restored. I felt sad, shocked, and a little angry at how greed could lead people to commit such rash actions.

Thinking Like Steinbeck

Within the first few pages of The Pearl I began analyzing Kino and Juana's way of communication, which I thought was kind of unusual. They spoke mostly with their eyes and facial expressions but on the rare occasions that they opened their mouths, they only spoke a few words at a time. In a sense, their behavior set an eerie mood for the rest of the book. I wondered why the author chose them to have this sort of relationship and I thought of a few possible reasons. Again, one reason might be to contribute to the mood. Another reason is maybe to help illustrate the simplicity of the villager's way of life. Their limited vocabulary reflected the villager's poor education and bad living conditions. On the other hand, when the doctor spoke, he used full sentences and rich vocabulary. From these instances we can assume that the doctor is a well-educated man, which leads me to my final idea: The author used ways of communication to seperate people by class.