In the future, I will be critically analyzing one of Eminem’s songs, Darkness, from his 2020 album, Music to be Murdered By. The song is controversial, as it tells the story of depression, suicide, gun violence, and possible alcohol abuse. There are numerous reasons why I chose this song. For starters, it is one of my favorite songs. The reason it is one of my favorite songs because it highlights a very serious issue that the United States has today. When that song came out, there were mass shootings happening from all over the country. The way this song is told, it puts us in the point of view of the shooter. Looking at the lens of a shooter, it is quite interesting to see, because usually artists would write songs as a victim. So far, I haven’t found the right thesis to use for my 3rd essay, but it should be along the lines of, the United States needs to urgently address gun violence. Sometimes, depression could lead to school shooters/local shooters, which then leads to suicide, or getting shot by the police. I plan to listen to the song numerous times, as well as look at the viewpoints of others to see how they react to the song. I want to see what conclusions they draw up, so that I can better understand the conclusion that I want to come up with. I’ll be looking for positive AND negative reviews about the song. Gun violence has long been overdue, it is time that the United States take action with this particular issue. Anything that I have said in this blog is subject to change.

The “Good Immigrant Student” sets a tone on how challenging it is to adapt from an immigrant, to American. Immigrating to the “nation of immigrants” can be difficult, as Bich Minh Nguyen who moved away from Saigon, spent her days trying to figure out what “all American” meant. Her family moved to the Grand Rapids with five dollars to spare. Staying at a rental house gifted by Mr. Heidenga, the family was always keen on staying away from the police’s line of vision. Just imagine the difficulty on that. Not only are you trying to adapt to the new living conditions, (earning money, learning English, etc) but you also have to stay away from any intruders who can raise the alarm. For Bich and her sister, they were already “Americanized.” They were learning the English language and watching television (assuming that the things that they were watching were in English). For other immigrant kids, they did not wish to learn the new language. Immigrant families were fearful that they would lose their roots by learning English. Most of the kids had no trouble of leading a double life where they could speak their native language at home and English outside. For Bich, that was not the case. She couldn’t handle being double-faced. This is what I think she means when she says, “I would like to make a broad, accurate statement about immigrant children in schools. I would like to
speak for them (us). I hesitate; I cannot.” Nguyen is trying to come up with a conclusion about immigrant children in schools but fails to do so because although she is among the immigrants, she leads a life that is different from the other immigrants. The others adapted, others rebelled, but Nguyen was one of those people that moved around in silence. According to the text, Nguyen states that, “My own sister,
for instance, was never as shy as I was — she chose rebellion rather than silence.” Furthermore she says, “Because I couldn’t disappear into a crowd, I wished to between being good and being unnoticed..” This shows the difference between her and how she wanted to “disappear” to those who were outspoken. Nguyen wanted to balance her way of living between being someone who has some sort of success in her life, to not being exposed in an immigrant crowd.

Prison is a heavily guarded place, created to imprison criminals who broke the law. Prison is supposed to limit freedom — regularly scheduled outside visits, no smartphone devices or computers, limited variety of food, and you’re potentially trapped with another inmate. This however, did not matter at all to Malcolm X. In fact, Malcolm never felt more “…so truly free in his life.” In prison, Malcolm X would spend his time reading books and thus claimed he felt he was free. He found amusement with every new word he spent time understanding. Additionally, he would read the dictionary for “…fifteen hours a day.” Malcolm found comfort in reading the dictionary for so long in a place designed to be a human’s greatest fear. Although he doesn’t get accessed to the outside world and is stuck in solitude, staring at walls, he couldn’t be happier being confined in a space where he can still read. This says a lot about literature and freedom. Literature brings freedom to people because even though you can be stuck in prison staring at four walls with your freedom and rights limited, books can open up your imagination. It is like you’re in a whole new world. Not only does your language, creativity, and writing skills improve immensely, but you suddenly crave to “…mentally be alive” because you’re studying literature. Malcolm did certainly not regret going to jail and his curiosity soon blossomed into being able to seriously read. In jail, he read an entire book and wrote approximately one million words.

What’s popping people, my name is Andrew Polanco and I identify myself as a male. (he/him) I definitely want to major in computer science, as I am interested in coding programs and perhaps code games in the future. After looking at the syllabus, I am excited to expand my writing even further and improving my ability to analyze text. One thing I am a little nervous about is receiving feedback/criticism. This is because the suspense kills me when you post something and you’re trying to figure out if what you wrote is good enough while waiting for someone to respond to you back.

Qualities of good writing include; organization, powerful language, an excellent hook, and writing that doesn’t completely bore the reader. To be a good writer, one must be keen to exploring new opportunities to expand their writing even further. Additionally, a good writer never stops writing. It is important to be able to write well because writing is a form of communication and expression. Writing and speaking are two different things. With writing, I believe it gives you more freedom than speaking.

I wouldn’t say I’ve knocked down these parts of my writing, however, I believe the easier parts are correctly using grammar and using sophisticated language. The hardest part about writing is deeply analyzing texts. Sometimes I exceed in it, and other times it needs work.

Obviously, coding involves typing and writing. If in the future I start coding games, I will need to use powerful language for dialogue when it comes to characters interacting.

That is all the information you are getting out of me today, I’m going to take a snooze. Peace.