Andrew Andrew

Maris Luisa Bombal's "The Shrouded Woman" blurs the line between life and death as it starts off with the protagonist, Ana Maria, narrating her own funeral. It follows her reflecting about her memories, her relationships of friends, family and lovers while lying on her deathbed surrounded by the people she knew she was alive.  I felt a bit empathetic and found myself slightly cheering for Ana Maria when she was pursuing her love for her first love, Ricardo. Despite the potential consequences she might face , she still decided to embrace her desires and pursue a romance with him. Her boldness went against the societal norms and expectations set in the mid 20th century which offered her a glimpse to what life could've been. For Ricardo, he was described as a man who was charismatic and alluring, drawing Ana Maria into a deep romance in the beginning, but it was suddenly cut short, leaving her with a sense of longing and loss. Ricardo's departure, driven by his pursu...

 "Mad Toy" by Roberto Alta takes place in the bustling streets of the early 20th century Buenos Aires, and tells the tale of Silvio, a young man trying to find his footing in life, marked by camaraderie, resilience and his quest of identity. Personally, I enjoyed reading "Mad Toy" far more than "Combray" as with some parts of the story, I could empathize with Silvio, it was more straightforward with the challenges the characters had to face such as the struggles of the working class, and adapting to their environment. Thus, that made it much easier to understand and analyze the novel. As a teenager, Silvio was up to no good, building cannons that he shot with his friends and running away from the police. Then, he started stealing with his friend, Enrique any loot that could be found in houses, such as wires and etc. This made him start the "Thieves Guild" where he decided to steal more expensive loot. From books to lightbulbs, he stole anything h...

Personally, I did not enjoy reading this novel. As I started reading this novel, I soon realized that every event was described in such fine detail that sometimes it got me a bit lost in what I was reading. It felt if my mind slightly wandered off, I would not be able to understand what the author was currently trying to describe and portray. In addition, the constant changing of the past and present perspectives made it extremely difficult to follow what was happening as it was hard to grasp the sequence of events that was transpiring. Thus, I could not comprehend the story in full detail. What struck me as interesting as I read this book was definitely how well he could articulate his childhood memories such as when he missed his mother's goodnight kisses, his father being so adamantly against this display of affection, or his family dynamics. The way his grandma used to purchase second-hand goods as gifts to show how these objects can give glimpses of other individual's live...

 A. A bit About myself Hey everyone! My name is Andrew and I am a second year statistics student intending to minor in data science. Fun fact about me is that I do not have a last name. I was brought up halfway across the world in Jakarta and it is very different from Vancouver such as it only has two seasons and it's more of an urban landscape than Vancouver. I commute from Marpole and its pretty good unless it is snowing (like today)! I'm taking RMST 202 for my arts requirement and I also found it very interesting to learn about how to "read" as we go through this course. Additionally, I'm very curious as well to how these romance languages came about and how they evolved to what they are today.  B. Expectations For my expectations for this course, I am hoping to achieve an (A-) and I do realize this takes a lot of effort and readings. The first lecture of this course was very different from all the courses I have taken so far as it was very engaging, specifical...