Love – Indifference – Devotion

Love – Indifference – Devotion
How much do you give for love?

Twenty’s Century has been an important period within literature. Novels, short stories, poems and essays have marked this period in writing. British literature has a rich variety of authors and in this course we have studied the most important ones, such as Keats, Woolf, Dickens, Lawrence and Auden. We mainly worked on poems and throughout them, we discovered how rich British Literature is. There are several interesting topics and we had fascinating discussions thanks to them.

What called my attention was the delicate use of words in poems and the impact of them in people’s life. Last term I wrote about how to appreciate poetry and one of the most important things is assuming it as a way of expression. For that reason poetry is an interesting manner to bring literature inside our EFL classroom. As we saw in classes, poems are much shorter than novels and short stories. Hence, they can be read completely to understand them better. Furthermore, there are lots of topics inside of them as those ones seen in classes such as death, industrialization, desolation, loneliness, within others. But, from all the writers studied, I really liked Auden’s way of writing, because he showed extremely current; for instance society, oppression, loneliness, love and revenge.

Wystan Hugh Auden is an Anglo-American poet, who born in England and then he received the American nationality. His poems were mainly focus on society’s issues and treated with psychological point of view. Irony, psychology, lyric and consciousness were part of his style. After reading September 1, 1939 I was engaged with him. But, in this opportunity I have chosen another Auden’s poem calls “The More Loving One”

I personally believe that this poem is an excellent work to bring literature into the classroom. First of all, The More Loving One talks about devotion, indifference and love, even if you do not receive it in return. Second, we can highlight the idea of losing someone to make her/ him happy. When you love, you give everything even the idea of loosing all. Finally, it is short and it has a comprehensible language, that allows students to get the idea quickly.

After showing the advantages of The More Loving One by W.H, you need to know how to deal with it in an EFL classroom. Possibly, love is seen as a simple theme in our life and in some way it is. But, when we think that there are so many people in love and they do not receive it in return, this simplicity is not understood by these “thinkers”. So, you start to notice different bitter loving issues, not just the rose color side. Therefore, as you can see in this poem, there are a variety of topics to be seen in classes just by talking about love. For me, that is the marvellous characteristic of literature. It allows us to discuss, think, reflect, know, learn and select. Penny Ur suggests the idea of showing literature as window of knowing cultures, religions, beliefs, folklore and language itself.

One of the best approaches to bring literature in the classroom is the Reader-Centered Approach. Shortly, this approach emphasizes the individual as a reader responder. It argues that collaboration between authors, the reader is the best way to reach an appropriate understanding and use of literary texts. The main objective in this case of showing The More Loving One is to encourage interpretation, personal responses from the reader and applicability of students’ own contexts. As themes are not easy to talk about them, the activity is ideally for 11th graders.

As the objective of the reading is personal responses and applicability in own contexts. The teacher can promote book discussions by asking interpretation and application question. For example:
• Select the main topics of the poem. (In this case love, indifference, devotion)
• Relate the topics with your own life: Have you ever been in love? Have you ever suffered for love?
• What do you think about the writer’s opinion?

Also, we can work with oral interpretation and oral presentations. As my style of teaching is very dynamic and I like moving, dancing and I use lot of body language. I would like to see students working on reader’s theater, puppet thetaer and role plays. Students pick up one or two important and appealing topic from the poem and they create one of these possible representations. In these activities, it is important students’ creativity, voices, expressive language, gesture and a good development of the conflict. Learners need to use their understanding and interpretation of the literary text.

If the class is divided in groups and there are few students who do not want to make these presentations, they can analyze the poem and tell us what they understand from it. They can make questions about it for the rest of the class. They can write a short paper with their own experiences about love or write about what they think about one specific theme from the poem.
Having in mind all these activities from the Reader-Centered approach, bringing literature to the classroom should not be as complicated as it was some years ago. Even though most of the poems are short, it does not mean that they are easier to work with. Poets use very complex words. However, The More Loving One has a clear language and a clear narrator to be understood easier than others. But, we do not have to judge and work with the complexity or simplicity of the literary texts. We need to work with them, because they help students to understand their society better, specially with W.H Auden. He wrote about current issues, hence I chose him to work with my high-school students.

In short, during this term I have learned lots of techniques to bring literature to the classroom, not matters if the work is long or short. The most important issue is paying attention of our students. In other words, what they need, what appropriate for their ages is, what proficiency they have and what objectives I have from showing them literature. As a future English teacher, I must know that I am not just a teacher of one specific language. Moreover, the language is not grammar and syntax only. Language is culture and culture is in literature. Thus… Do you put literature away from your classes?








Bibliography
• Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Part III: Teaching the Language. Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press. 2007
• Ur, Penny. Language Activities for Teenagers. Cambridge university Press. Cambridge. 2007
• Chi-Fen Emily Chen. Department of English, National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology. Children’s Literature. 15 Nov 2009.

• House, Random. Academy of American Poets. The More Loving One. 1960. 25 Nov 2009
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15550

Outline

Intro:
- W.H Auden's way of writing
- Why did I choose him?
- The More Loving One

Body:
- What the poem is about
- Main topics
- How to bring them in a ESL classroom
- Activities

Conclu

W.H Auden (September 1, 1939)

I did not have idea about W.H Auden and his way of writing. Therefore, when my teacher brought his poetry to the class, it was y first time to face him and I really liked him. I appreciate his honesty in September 1, 1939. I like him because he writes about social and political issues that impact our lives. The most interesting issue is seeing that the problems highlited by him still happen, which make the poem more meaningful for me. Nationalism, Imperialism and Power are still present and make people passive. People do not want to change because they think that what the mass is doing is okay.
"Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return"

These two lines called my attention and probably most of my classmates attention, because the idea of receiving and doing is so strong in our society. If someone lives bad experiences, he or she will act in the same way. Thus, our profession is so important. Teachers must be very carefull with words and acts, because we are models and students are imitating us all the time. If we do something bad, they will do so as well. Lack of assertiveness is a common issue in people's personality. Sometimes we tend to act spontaneously and avoid cynicism,however we arenot assertive and we hurt someone else's feelings easily.
What makes me think from the poem is Auden's thoughts about society and about people's own worlds. As we have learned during our life at the university at least, a society is constructed by us and we need to share ideas and struggle for the same goal.

Daniela's post (T.S Eliot The Waste Land)

I think Daniela's comments about The Waste Land by T.S Eliot need more development. I did not understand her comment about language mixture. She could develop this idea a little bit more just by telling us why she thinks that. I agree when she stated that the poem is difficult to understand. In fact the poem is complex, perhaps because of its different narrators and episodes.
Daniela used a beautiful quote from the poem and maybe the most memorable one "April is the cruellest month". She thinks that the author uses nature to touch our feelings and emotions and I completely agree with this possible issue. However, I think she could give us a better explanation about the quote. She could take more advantages of it.For instance, what kinds of feelings and emotions the quote emphasizes according to her owns. Sometimes the comment of the poem is not so easy to follow, but it could be because it needs more work.

The Waste Land (T.S Eliot)

T.S Eliot is an important writer in our world; his new way of writing was a contribution to contemporary literature. What called my attention immediately were the subtitles of the poem, which ones were analysed in classes.
In my opinion the poem is very complex because it is too long and with different episodes. Even though, there is a connexion between them, there are different narrators who make the plot a little bit confusing, specially for beginner in these kinds of poems. If we consider that the poem is situated in Europe during the War we can understand its darkness. Throughout the five episodes there is a relation between death, confusion, pain, nothingness, suffering and modernity. The author makes an excellent job and he situates us in people’s feelings during those times. People did not know what they can do to survive in that waste land. There were not motivations for them. They were in a completely nothingness, meanwhile Europe seemed to walk towards modernity and it continues happening. Meanwhile some people enjoy, other ones suffer in the same context and situation.

D.H Lawrence

I really enjoyed reading these two short stories from H.D Lawrence. I had not idea about him and his way of writing.

Personally, I like his way of showing us strong topics such as greed, luck, family conflicts and so on, because he develops these issues in a very strong main story. I also like the end of “The Rocking Horse Winner”, because it is completely unexpected. Naturally, after reading the short stories I reflected on them and both let us think forwards. How much money do we need? How much family support do we need? How much abuse are we able to bear?

What called my attention was that both stories end with a death. Perhaps, this is a Lawrence way of putting problems out. In other words, in his style he cut the main issue with death, because it is a way of saying that another story will be written after this matter.

My space

After reading Virginia Woolf’s essay we can certify that the role of women writers in nineteenth century was completely hidden. We have just read some other women writers and all of them express the necessity of having a space to think and write.

I think that women in those times didn’t have the opportunity to express themselves freely. The context was chauvinist and society couldn’t imagine a place where women could write about their own needs and thoughts. Luckily, some women could do it, naturally not in the best way, but it helped to open a broader space for us.

For me it is obvious that women need an instance to reflect about what they are living, feeling and what they are wanting to have. From the very beginning of our lives, we need a space, because we reflect ourselves on it. At the same time, as women, we need to create that space in our minds. We must give ourselves the instance to think about what we need. First we must reflect on something and then put it in somewhere else.

Oliver Twist and Child Labour

During Victorian Times, England suffered lots of changes (social-political-economical). But, what of the main issues was child labour. In this process of changing, there were more work to do and cities began to increase its population. Workers were mainly adults, but when industries needed more hands; they needed cheaper labourers and who could be better than young children.

Oliver Twist shows perfectly how children were abused in Victorian times. Thanks to the movie, we can realize the lack of knowledge about an appropriate child’s development. Because of their little hands and small bodies, children were excellent workers in delicate jobs, even if those were licit or not.

Unfortunately, today we still see the same. Adult thieves use children to steal different things in supermarkets or on the street, because they can not be imputed if they are less than 14 years old. Therefore, it is easier for everybody. But, Is there anybody who thinks about children’s dreams and emotions?

The Signal Man (Modernity)

I like the analogy made by Dickens, when he illustrated modernity with a train. The train represents how fast modernity is arriving to the signalman’s life, even with the loneliness in the man’s life. I think that the train’s power is exactly the same one in modernity arrival, because it is very fast. Unfortunately, modernity is misunderstood. It is usually related to technological advances and not to people’s mind growing. Therefore, I also have fears about it. Modernity is not allowing people’s time to think about themselves and take a breath, rest and reflect on our own actions. Modern times consume us in their speed.

Is modernity considering a growing in mind? Are people understanding modernity? Modernity what for? If we think that evolution is a technological issue, I have to say that we are losing our focus in life. If so, I’m sure that there are more than thousand people frighten about modernity, as well as the signalman in the short story. How can we think about evolution, if we don’t have an evolution in mind before? Maybe the signalman was thinking about the same.

Have you ever...?

Have you ever thought about how useful Frankenstein’s novel is? Written by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is one of the most useful and beautiful novels to take into account in our teaching practices. Seeing as gothic, romantic, scientific-fiction or a long fable, there are lots of current topics to talk about, even if it was written in nineteenth century.

Through the novel I could see how alone the creature was after its creation. Selfishness and own ambitions were stronger in Victor Frankenstein’s life. Hence, when the creature saw himself alone, without education and someone to talk to, he could not understand what was his mission in life and society could not allow his uncertainty and difference.
.
“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother blessed me with smiles and caresses. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? (Shelley, 106)”

This represents that the monster did not have an identity. First of all, he did not have a name, which is our first identification. Have you ever thought about the importance of a name? If I don’t have my own identity; I can not have any relationship with society. Immediately, there is marginalization. Society does not allow differences (physically, emotionally, intellectually and so on); it assumes us with at least few common characteristics, for instance our names.
People need to be educated and guided by someone to discover identity and be part of society. We are when we have someone else to share with. Loneliness and Marginalization may not occur in an educated society. In this sense, teachers want students to be autonomous, respectful, self-awareness and with self-esteem to participate actively in society. If, there is not any relative to guide and accompany a person; teachers have this mission. Therefore, the novel made sense completely when I was reading it.

Simply Nature

I wandered lonely as a cloud deals with very delicate metaphors about nature’s enjoyment, as other romantic poets do. The author shows how proud and happy he is looking daffodils in the lake. In fact, they dance for him. Daffodils are shines to our darkness in the earth, as well as starts in the sky. Perhaps, people not very often stop and look at roses, moon or The Andes. They run every day and they fill themselves with routine and problems, which dull their lives. When I feel a huge cloud on me; I used to go out and enjoy the nature, in places such as Parque O’Higgins or Parque Forestal. To me, that is the best jocund company. Wordsworth writes “A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company”. This stanza makes me think about the appreciation of simplicity and how simply details make us shine our hearts. How can you be gay if you have the most beautiful environment around you?

FEARS OF LIVING

Throughout Keats’s poem my feelings about the life’s process come into my mind and they star to give time to think about myself. I always think about how would be my life in the future, even though I live it every day doing my best. But, I can not cease to think about how complex living is. Having read this poem and after the discussion in class, my fears about death are complex to explain, because death is part of our process here in the earth. However, the way of my death and one of my family’s deaths is what I am scared of. I used to feel alarm of pain, illness, loneliness and how much love I can leave here.Maybe it is that fear of beung remembered or not.
I try to live with all implications (good or bad). I try to take advantages from wrong or right issues and naturally I try to do my best to overcome the wrong ones. But, what I fear the most in my life is being alone. Not loving someone, not taking care of someone and not hugging someone else is extremely painful for me. I can not predict the future, If I die without love I will die empty. Maybe after my life in the Earth I will live in somewhere else and there; I wish I could continue loving someone and sharing with someone.

Kubla Khan (Coleridge)

1. “Poetry is an art…of representing, in words, external nature and human thoughts and affections, both relatively to human affections, by the production of as much immediate pleasure in parts, as is compatible with the largest sum of pleasure in the whole”.

According with what I felt reading some romantic poems so far this is the best quotation for me. Nature is always present metaphorically in romanticism. Considering what Coleridge was trying to say in his poem Kubla Khan we can say that throughout the external nature he is showing his own thoughts and affections. People were not leaving with the simplicity of the life. They just wanted to have more pleasure, which is represented by sexual pleasure, luxury, goods, money and so on.
It’s not easy to express ourselves without care of what other people can think. Hence, using metaphor is an artistic way to say thoughts. Poetry is an art says the quotation.I can say that it is an artabsolutely , because of the mixture of simplicity and complexity of words and feelings.

Interpretation of The Little Black Boy

The Little Black Boy is a very appealing poem, because it has elements which are tangible to the reader. At the same time, there are some important elements which are intangible, thus there is a good mixture into the poem. God, Nature, Man and eternity are established aspects into The Black Little Boy. Certain words give to the reader what the poem’s environment is and even more if we can put the poem in paintings. I chose a Mary Cassat’s painting called “Woman preparing to wash her sleepy child” I focused my election mainly o what the poem made me felt. Throughout the painting we can see affection, love, security, confidence, protection or simply the nature of being mother. The author tells us how her mother educated him and how much love and protection she gave him. Hence, I chose this painting based on the protection and affection of mothers to their children.

How to appreaciate poetry

If I could define Literature in one word, I would say expression. Defining literature is complicated because of its different perspectives. For that reason, I give just what it means to me according to different definitions that I have read during my courses this semester. As Literature is expression, it gives the chance to talk about so many things in our classroom with our students. Obviously this is not only in our English classes; it can be applied in every subject and you can find it everywhere. Unfortunately, in our current educational system there is not an appropriate use of literature. What teachers usually teach is reading classical masterpieces of novels, books, poems and others. But, they don’t teach how to appreciate the broad field of topics that literature gives us through these masterpieces. In fact, there are good old masterpieces which treat current issues, such as “The Wife of Bath” or “The Merchant of Venice”. At the same time, there are lots of poems which talk about history, feelings, descriptions and emotions within others. Hence, poetry must be appreciated as a thought-provoking element in our classroom. This paper is mainly a work about how to appreciate poetry through different perspectives that the teacher can present to students to make it appealing to them.

First of all, we have to know what poetry is. Encyclopedia Britannica defines poetry as “literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm” But, I would like to paraphrase one idea that I heard once from Jorge Montealegre (Argentinian poet). You can find poetry everywhere, because poetry is interpreted as every single person’s feelings and emotions. Songs, art, books, diaries and so on are poems. You don’t need to specific rules to write poetry, you can express yourself throughout poems, even if you don’t have courses about it. Having in mind this idea of poetry, as teachers we can bring poetry in the classroom as simple as a way of expression. Moreover, the teacher must present more option to read. In other words, keeping just what the textbooks have is not enough to show the real purpose of poetry. Thus teachers must bring extra material to fill students’ needs and in that sense make poetry appealing to students.

Now, the reason why teachers should teach poetry is because if we see poetry as Jorge Montealegre shows this art; students can feel it much more appealing. From the beginning students have to comprehend that in those songs that they listen to; they can find poetry. One of the most important things is that the teacher should explain poems as one of the thousand ways that poetry has. Also, the teacher should explain that poems can be interpreted by every single student’s feelings. Therefore our learners should feel free in their own poems’ interpretation and the classroom will be the place to express their feelings.

Poetry is a marvellous form to say something. Naturally, not all songs are poetics, because they need some requirements. Song writers need to look for the right words to say something. Maybe, it doesn’t mean that they need to use fancy or tricky words, but at least some different but appropriate words to express what they really feel. Another important issue within poetry is how it is narrated. Through songs we can easily find a melody, but when it is narrated without musical instruments, you also can follow a certain rhythm, which makes it more intensive and appealing. Sometimes, we say: what a beautiful song! It is because that song appeals to us; thanks of its melody, rhythm, words and specially our own moment of life. Hence, some songs are seen as poems. In Latin America there are some singers who sing very poetically. For instance, Ricardo Arjona, Luis Fonsi, Alejandro Lerner and others.

Like this, the appreciation of poetry by our students must be the most important aim to reach in our classes. Through poems we can tell a story, describe an object or situation, narrate an event or simply express feelings and emotions. The difference that poetry could make inside classrooms is mainly based on the teacher’s purpose and intention. In other words, if the teacher wants to teach poems as they normally do, it means that they just take a masterpiece and students read it without discussion or interpretation, there is no doubt that learners won’t appreciate it as a thought-provoking way of writing. However, if the teacher wants to discuss a specific topic, presents poems’ implication in society or create new writings with learners, they could see how important poems are. Thus teachers must to show poems and poetry in general as a way of learning and development of knowledge, as normal as reading a book, novel or textbook. Students will appreciate poetry not just as beautiful words. In fact they will realize how thought-provoking poetry is.

In short, the importance of how to appreciate poetry is mainly because it is very thought-provoking. Through poetry students can learn historical issues and also discuss current events. The appreciation of poetry must be based on what students feel about it. Hence, it would be very appealing to them. But, they do not discover this characteristic of poetry if we do not teach them how to do it. If we do not show poetry as a way of expression, which can be presented in songs, writings, poems and speeches; students will continue categorize it as a structured way of writing. Literature itself is thought-provoking, but poetry is not always viewed in that way. For that reason this paper tried to show the importance of it in our lives through our work, which is English teaching. We are educating people, therefore we must present them different ways of finding new themes to discuss. Throughout poetry we can reach that purpose in an innovative way, because as we mentioned before, most of teachers do not present poetry as a way of topic discussion. But, the broad field of topics that we can find inside poetry (songs, poems and writings) is completely unknown. However, how thought-provoking it is must be the principal intention in our classes and if we follow this characteristic; students will do it at so.

Sources
Web Pages:
Goodblatt Chamita. “Teaching Poetry” 9 July 2009.

"Poetry." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 9 July. 2009

Books:
Bennett Durkin Diane, Language Issues: Readings for Teachers. New York: Longman Publishers, 1995.

How to appreaciate poetry (Outline)

Intro.
. our chilean context in terms of the treatment of poetry in the classroom.
. why the topic is important.
. Present the thesis statement ( poetry is thought-provoking)
body.
I.- What is poetry?
.- Poetry as a ay of expression
.- It can be interpreted by every single person's feelings
II.-The reason why teachers should teach poetry as a way of learning
III.- Poetry is appealing to students
Iv.-Conclusion

Heads or Tails

The Merchant of Venice is one of the famous Shakespeare’s masterpiece and also a film directed by Michael Radford in 2004. In this opportunity Michael Radford showed an easy movie to follow, because we can see clearly what the story is about and how well prepared the characters are. Through the story of each character we are in the middle of a comedy and a drama. We can see many different ideas from each one. The four main characters are: Antonio (The merchant of Venice) who is a Christian, Shylock, a Jewish man, Portia, a beautiful heiress and Bassanio, an Antonio’s friend
Love is one of the main themes in this story, but with different faces. In one side we have love between a man and a woman. In another side, we have love between a father and his daughter and in another side we have love between two friends. Every lover showed a different face for different issues lived in the story. We can easily see heads and tails during the film. However, the clearest love story is Portia and Bassanio.

Portia is looking for his husband with an especial way. Her father’s will was that a man has the opportunity to choose between three caskets of gold, silver and lead. If this man chooses the right one (with Portia’s portrait) he wins Portia’s hand in marriage. However, she was already in love and that lover was Bassanio. Unfortunately, Bassanio needed 3000 ducats to impress her family and allow the engagement with Antonio, a rich merchant of Venice and also a Bassanio’s friend was the only one who can help him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have money in that period and the solution thought was going to Shylock, a rich Jew in Venice and ask him for money. Shylock agreed and Antonio offered one pound of his meat that one closest to his heart.


When Bassanio arrived to Belmont he won the Portia’s hand in marriage. But, the ships of Antonio wrecked and he felt in troubles because of the treatment with Shylock. In this part of the film, I think that Portia needed more prominence because this character plays an important role and we can perfectly see how brave she was. In my opinion Portia needed more emphasis within the story. However, the film shows the virtues of Portia. She is very obedient, especially because she accepted what his father says. She is very female, as a woman in those times. What I like in this film is how Portia was presented, very cheerful and funny, especially through her dreams of marriage. Also, she gives to the story that characteristic of comedy, she is gracious and wit. I like the line of this movie. It is very easy to follow, it is not slow, it is not boring and it doesn’t lose time.

If we see different comments about the film we can note that there is no a specific category for this movie. To be honest, I do not like this issue, because if someone asks about it, I can not name it, because it has a little bit of this and a little bit of that. On the other hand, Venice is a beautiful place and it was not very well showed. Michael Radford could take more settings in this place without lacking the real essence of the story.



In my opinion, every character is well developed, especially the atmosphere of Shylock, he looks as a sad man. However, Portia calls my attention, I notice that the importance of a brave and intelligent woman. I think it was because she was very educated. If Portia would not have helped Antonio, he probably would have lost the last trial. The strength of Portia was definitely the strongest reason of my admiration. If you want to see what I am saying or if you want to say something different I recommend this movie to do that.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/summary.html

outline (film Review)

Heads or Tails

A brief summary of the movie

Characters: Heads or Tails

Portia: Values that she represents:
1. Bravery
2. Femininity
3. Dreamer
4. Obedience
Personal opinion: well or bad represented?

Tragedy or Comedy

Personal Opinion about the movie

Spenser and The Faery Queene

Eventhough the letter was difficult to read, I can say that Spenser wrote about King Arthur because he represented the twelve virtues, thus he was an example of a strong power.

Spenser through his letter wanted to emphasise the twelve virtues, however he mentioned Holiness, Temperance, Friendship,Justice, Courtesy and Chastity showing them in different books. He used different characters in the letter to represent the virtues, such as Red Cross Knight (Holiness), Gloriana, Britomartis (Chastity), Una, Sir Guyon, Prince Arthur, Arthegall and Calidore.


As the letter was an allegory, it means that it had some hidden messages. Spenser wanted to be “protected” by someone else if the Queen didn’t understant the letter very well. As King Arthur, was the man in love of the Faery Queene and also a respectful man, Spenser could show his messages through him.

Spenser and The Faery Queene

What women love most?

If we read carefully “The Wife of Bath” by Chaucer, we can realize that our needs have not suffered so many changes at all. According to the prologue, the woman wanted to have being seen as a stronger woman. She claimed attitude, intelligence, voice, brave and so on. If we think about what women love most in these days, we can conclude on the same topics. Women want to have respect from men and society. Women want to have more spaces for ourselves. I want to be treated as a partner not as a domestic servant. Women love feeling loved when we are right or wrong.

We have to be understood as a person and not utilized as a sexual object, because one of us has an amazing body. Men must respect women’s independency and women’s freedom because all of us need them. However, some men forget that issue and they abuse, they don't respect human rights.

Forgetting clichés and gentlemanliness, because you are not more gentleman because you open me the car’s door. Women love to share with a gentleman in his inside and his outside. We want to be recognized by our woman’s worth.

What I understood from G. Chaucer's poem "Thruth"

Truth is an interesting poem that presentes us an opinion about the society in medieval times. I think the name of the poem is because the truth always appears and tells you when you were right or wrong. When he says truth, it means whatever you do the truth comes afterward.
Our present world is full of market, trades, money, consumerism, envy and selfishness. Hence, when I read "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty" it inmediately makes sense to me. People are still trying to show who is the one with more power and with more goods.
Clearly, we can notice that religious implications are part of this poem. In my opinion, not saying what is right or what is wrong. Religious implications that I saw were just advices to be more human. Firstly with yourself and then with the rest.
As I said before, this poem makes sense to me because I unfurtanetely can see that through time issues based on consumerism are still present. Therefore, reading this Chaucer's poem lets me think that there are people who believe in change. There are people who criticize the system and do something for it, at least with their closer people.

My definition of an Epic Poem

According to my opinion an Epic Poem is very different form other kinds of them. Unquestinable, this kind of poems tell us very long stories about heroes and their exciting happenings. Its structure is different too, because its sentences begin with Capital Letters. However, these stories are fictional and not real. Eventhough, they make us think about what happened in the past and also let our minds fly.

People & Literature enrich us

" We are all formed from what other people give us: first our parents and then other people near us. Literature opens to the infinite this possibility of interaction and thus enriches us infinitely…” (page 17)
I totally agree with this quotation because our knowledge is firstly constructed by what other people say. We hear different opinions and different experiences. According to that we form our criteria. We create our first aproaches about life, history, politics,etc. In fact, our personal and external experiences give us knowledge about the world.
However, when we begin our formal education (school, high school, university) we beging to bring, erase and certify our thoughts and opinions. Why? because we read more, we talk to other people, we know different kind of opinions, not just opinions from our family. Thus, we begin to change some ideas and certify other ones. At the university thanks to our readings, and obviously between discussion with classmates and teachers, we try to reach a better understanding about world and we try to clarify aour thoughts.
In that sense, literature gives us another important tool to reach what we want to. As the quotation says "Literature opens to the infinitive this possibility of interaction" I think this is unquestionable. Throught reading and disscusion we can compare and being more critical. In this step of our life we can listen to people's stories such as when we were children or adolescents but now we compare and criticize because we are having a wider vision, thanks to literature. Therefore, people and literature enrich us but at the end, we decide which of them is more specific.