pbernal's blog

It was corrupted over the years not by loose morals and flagging ideals but by the sheer pressure of numbers. 

It's easy for one to think over and reform and contemplate.

Everyone has some good in them and given the opportunity to reflect on their wrong doings in the penitentary they could rediscover the good.

Cleansing of the desire see and behave criminally for no one can dispute God's rules.

I see the overcrowding, the understaffing as a complete disregard for the ideals of this place. 

Today, it stands as a symbol of our dashed hopes.

A place of aesthetic beauty from outside. A place of silence and regret from inside.

Eastern State Penetentiary is the humane and right way to reform criminals.

From the point of view of a Quaker visionary, Esp was a failed excercise in penance and reform.

To give inmates a chance to do contemplation, to think, to reform themselves.

A dream that one point lived on but now has closed to face a new era. Dissapointment.

Although there was some subversion where the inmates talked to eachother, the majority of inmates time must have been solitary and the very fact that they where in a prison, must have made them think what it was that got them here.

No cruel punishment so as not to make them feel hated or unaccepted by the society, so that they could return to the society and be decent citizens. 

Jessica Bernal

ESEM- Play in The City

As I was growing up, every achievement I'd receive whether it was in school or with anything really, my mother never failed to say, Nunca te olvides de donde vienes ni quien eres, Never forget where you’re from or who you are. After a while, you get tired of hearing it and I never really understood why she would always get so serious and make deep eye contact as she’d say it. To be honest, I didn’t care, I thought it was just one of her silly dichos.

Anywhere you live, whether we’d like to acknowledge it or not, defines us as individuals. It either speaks for your race or your socioeconomic status in society. In NW, Zadie Smith splits the book into three major parts, Visitation, Guest, and, Host, each section focusing on a different main character, Leah, Felix, and Natalie (Keisha). Each one of them has a story of their own to share. But Natalie and Felix both have one particular thing in common, they’re both trying to get out of either their social, or economic status stagnation in life. They feel trapped and unsatisfied with themselves. Through the lens of a minority myself and other examples like rappers, NW’s Natalie, Felix, and Zadie Smith herself we determine whether race and socioeconomic status ultimately determine you’re success and setting in life or whether you really can escape stagnation.

This past Sunday's paper, my lens focused on the acceptance of interracial marriage in Brittain. I took the issue of race and focused on how it's factor plays a role in relationship stability and function. I felt good about the paper and like I completed the task of using a lens, but I definitely could have deepen my argument by using the example of leah and michel's relationship and how it plays into importance with the novel. 

For this upcoming paper, I'm not quite sure what my new lens might focus on. I have two ideas, one focusing on the social economic status of the characters and how it affects their romantic relationships as well as how race does. This option would be a lens focusing on the marxism lens. I could also choose to write based on my second idea, which would be on the lens of free will and analyzing the characters social status and their economic status and tie it in with the idea of stagnation. 

Jessica Bernal

ESEM- Play in the City

Race: A factor in Relationship Stability and Function

            In NW, Zadie Smith delves into three preeminent romantic relationships; Leah and Michel, Natalie and Frank, and Felix and Grace. Each relationship with stories and dilemmas of their own like any other typical relationship. Yet, Leah and Michel’s relationship is far more complex than the average relationship as we determine that their different ethnicities play a bigger role in defining their unity. From the view of a London inner city resident, the attitude towards interracial couples emphasizes that race plays a role in relationship stability and function to which such is represented by Zadie Smith’s unique relationship creation of Leah and Michel.

            Leah and Michel’s relationship is more of a physical attraction and sexual compatibility than respect and admiration for one another. Two complete different ends of a spectrum where as she is a white successful woman and Michel is a francophone black man trying to make a better living by disproving all stereotypes based on the color of his skin and in the end proving he as well can do greatness. Their social status creates tension within their relationship causing it to be unfunctional.

Throughout the novel, the continual theme of race and culture helped the novel's story grow and evolve. Race and culture also helped build Leah and Michel's unique relationship, which is what interested me most about the novel's many themes. The novel unfold's the relationships of the characters in a way society wouldn't define them as functional relationships, yet they manage to stay with their partner and continue the relationship. I'd like to look into more of the relationships between the characters and how race and culture play into effect, especially Leah and Michel's relationship.  

Jessica Bernal

ESEM-Play in The City

Learning to Write for No One

When I crawl out of bed in the morning and start getting dressed to start a new day, it always takes me a while to step out and walk among society. One step in can cause a whole stir of thoughts, ideas, and judgments based on what I think I am. I put into a lot of thought about what the jeans and oversized shirt may say about me on that particular Monday morning. What I wear on a particular day represents who I am that day, how I wish to present myself for people to form their own ideas and perspectives… at least I used to think that way.

I came into this course with the mentality of writing and presenting myself for others to reach a consensus of approval. I surveyed around for the all agreeing and pleasing nods when really it had nothing to do with how smart I tried to appeal in my writing or present my thoughts in class. By taking this course, Play in The City, I’ve come to grasp and embrace my thoughts and express them through writing for no one in particular but myself, for my enjoyment in my choice of critical play in my own voice.

Jessica Bernal

ESEM-Play in The City

Breaking the Rules

If I followed every rule to the dot growing up, then I wouldn’t have learned a thing in life. As mentioned before, instead of working on math in third grade, I watched movies and I didn’t turn out so bad, so they say.

If I base my experience of Spring Gardens in Philadelphia to what play should be according to Costikyan, “games are by their definition competitive in that they always have an end point- a winning or losing state” (Flanagan, 7) then no I didn’t “play critically” into the city. But playing critically is not about having a winning or losing state or following the rules, in my perspective, playing is about breaking the rules and as Flanagan states, “Critical play means to create or occupy play environments and activities that represent one or more questions about aspects of human life.” (pg.6)

I have mixed feelings about the Philadelphia Inquirer. The sports section is very well done and very informative regarding sports. I was a bit dissapointed in their media/entertainment section of the city. I found it brief and not very diverse in what Philadelphia has to offer...I felt wanting to know more and yet there wasn't much being advertised. I was expecting to find what makes Philadelphia unique and articles written about places a philly citizen should be on the look out for or check out, but no. 

The one thing that caught my attention:

1. U.S. Parks would close due to U.S. government shutdown

2. Shutting down national parks is America's best idea 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131002-national-parks-shutting-down-americas-best-idea/

3. State and National Parks and Forests in Pennsylvania

http://www.visitpa.com/pa/pennsylvania-wilds/outdoor-recreation/state-national-parks-forests#1|5||180,104|||||||||

4. Places to hike and experience nature, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Awbury Arboretum Association, and etc.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=philadelphia+nature+centers&ie=UTF-8&ei=17lMUomrPMTYyQGDx4GAAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg

5. Let's get together and enjoy a nice walk on the nature trails and learn about, The Schuylkill Center

http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/

Andy Warhol is known for taking play to the next level. He loved being bold and distinct and making his thoughts visual. His art represented his playfulness with the media and his choice of colors. Some of his art became contradicting, but to him it just meant being free and letting his take be known and that people were paying attention to his art and acknowledging it. 

Jessica Bernal

Play in the City-ESEM

Connecting the dots

All I needed to learn in life to survive, I learned in third grade. Mrs. Washington, my third grade teacher, she deserved teacher of the year awards and perhaps a life supply of Diet Coke just to keep her smiling. That woman had been teaching for twenty-two years and still got out of her red Buick every morning. She meant well and of course wanted the best for a couple of eight year olds, which at that time just meant making it to high school alive. I learned what R&B music was like and how within minutes the rhythm would sway your body side to side. I learned why my best friend’s hair didn’t feel or look like mine and most importantly, why she was darker than I. She wasn’t the ideal teacher parents would want their kids in school with. Instead of focusing on fractions and spelling the hardest words imaginable, we’d watch movies. I learned more from watching those movies than I would’ve learned from any show on PBS or the Discovery Channel for that matter.

I learned to take a step back from it all and letting the play unfold character by character and each scene connecting to each other like connecting dots. Once the movie starts, everything in the room fades and everyone disappears into dust.