The Journey (The Power and the Glory pg. 30-48).

Captain Fellows is extremely angry, but most of all, he is nervous. His daughter decided to help the Priest! How crazy is she? This chapter caught my attention because I saw a line that proved that the stranger is actually the Priest. “The stranger came into the clearing. He wore what used to be town shoes, black and pointed; only the uppers were left, so that he walked to all intents barefoot. The shoes were symbolic, like the cobwebbed flags in churches.” This quotation happens when the Priest (the stranger) arrives to a very poor village. His clothes are torn to pieces, and he is really tired. I could tell the stranger and the Priest are the same person because the old man from the little town asks him if he can confess him. I found it really interesting that the author tries to confuse us (readers) by introducing the stranger and the Priest as different people in different situations (although these situations connect). What I haven’t been able to understand is why Greene wants to confuse us, and why he presents the story from different perspectives.

Nonetheless, it is very important to take into consideration the different perspectives of the book. For example, one story, talks about a mother reading a story to her children. The other one is about Mr. Tench, another one is about Captain Fellows and so the author keeps on doing this. I believe he does this so we (readers) learn to connect the stories to reach one final conclusion. What do you think this conclusion, or this mystery is all about?

The Passenger by Andrew Rice

Dear Andrew Rice,

I agree with you on most of the things you wrote about Kapuscinski's work. It is probably true that Kapuscinski did not do most the things he says he does.However, i do believe he was in most of the wars he talks about in The Soccer War. Your point is totally valid,I do not think Kapuscinski is the hero or the inmortal person he shows to be. Its impossible that nothing ever happened to him, while facing the most chaotic situations in the world.It is also important to know that Kapuscinski also writes cruel things that happen to him. For example, when they get him in the road blocks and beat him up. However,this is only one situation compared to a thousand others that he "survived without any help." You also talked about family, love, and sexual desires. I believe The Soccer War is not about this topics. I believe it is about the wars and his point of view while being in the different countries. I likes your article and it helped me realize or see Kapuscinski from another perspective wich I never thought of.
Sicerely,
Mariana Gutierrez

The Priest (The Power and the Glory pg.20-30)

Who is the stranger? As I said on the previous blog, I thought Mr.Tench was not a dentist and that he was an evil person. However, I discovered in chapter two that I was completely wrong. Mr. Tench is an english dentist; but, the stranger is The Priest. "As for the Church - the Church is Padre Jose and the whisky priest - I don't know of any other." This quotation made me realize that the stranger was the Priest. I concluded this, because he little boy was the boy "the stranger" helped. The stranger also was trying to get on the boat to run away, but he missed it for helping the little boy. I was amazed by the way this novel is written because at first I could not understand anything, but now I am started to understand the suspense Greene is trying to create.

Meanwhile, I believe the lieutenant is really greedy and thinks he is the best in everything. I got the impression that he is going to do something suspicious in the novel. He gives the impression that he thinks he is really wise but I have the impression he is going to betray someone. "The lieutenant said suddendly, 'I will tell you what I'd do. I would take a man from every village in the state as a hostage. If the villagers didn't report the man when he came, the hostage would be shot - and then we'd take another." This quotation made me realize the lieutenant is really mean. He is going to kill inocent people just to find what he needs. This example from the novel shows how people use other people, and how many people die just for the benefit of others. I believe I am going to learn a lot with this novel. Hopefully, later on, I will be able to prove my theory of wether the lieutenant is a hipocrite or not.

A Dentist? (The Power and the Glory pg.7-20).

The Power and the Glory began with Mr. Tench. He is an english man who lives in Mexico because he wanted to become rich by being a dentist. He then gets stuck in Mexico because of the money changes. Making him grumpy. He seems to be in a bad mood all the time. "Mr. Tench's father had been a dentist too." This quotation informs the reader that Mr. Tench is a dentist;however, he seems to be upset or worried about something. It says, " 'Home,' Mr. tench said, 'my home's here. Did you see what the peso stands at in Mexico City? Four to the dollar. Four. O God. Ora pro nobis.' 'Are you a Catholic?' " giving us the idea that he is afraid of the stranger being catholic. Why is Mr. Tench scared?

Predicting what will happen next, I realized Mr.Tench is hiding something. He is probably another person with a completely different personality. He probably is not a dentist nor anything that has to do with that profession. He acts as if he were really mad, in a bad mood, and treats the little child in a really poor way. This made me believe he is trying to hide his real identity by acting as a complete different person. What will happen to Mr.Tench? Is he really a dentist? Who is he?

The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Fascinating! This is what I can say about the story The Emperor. The descriptions Kapuscinski uses to create the scenario are amazing. "Mountains of meat, fruit, fish, and cheese rose on the tables. Many-layered cakes dripped with sweet, colored icing. Distinguished wines spread reflected colors and invigorating aromas. The music played on, and costumed clowns did somersaults to the delight of the carefree revelers." Since I read The Soccer War I have noticed how Kapuscinski describes everything with exact precision so we can imagine it. I like this way of writing because it is similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writings. The descripition he uses creates a peaceful atmosphere that you can picture all along the story.

Nevertheless, so much description made me realize how fancy this dinner was. It is really shocking to see how later on in the story, Kapuscinski describes the beggars outside, and how they are waiting fo the emperor's servants to throw away the left overs. Hopefully the protagonist changes or realizes how poor people live and how blessed he is to have everything he has.

Boots (The Stranger pg.192-215).

A war between Syria and Israel leads to two important conclusions. Like Kapuscinski says, "When war breaks out, everyone in Israel goes to the front and civilian life dies out. While in Syria, many people did not find out about the 1967 war until it was over." I agree with Kapuscinski when he states that the only excuse for Syria loosing the war was because the country, the people, did not support their army. They did not show them any motive to fight with all their might, while the people in Israel do the exact opposite. Throughout my whole life, I have seen the difference of doing something by youself, and doing something with the support of others. When you are supported you are more motivated to do things, you feel appreciated. It is very important to feel supported in every thing that you do, wether you are playing in a team, or wether you did something wrong and you need people beside you. I believe it has been very clear through history how people succeed with the suppert of their friends and family and how others fail for being all alone and without any motivation.

Another interesting topic to discuss is how Kapuscinski describes the daily life of the Greeks, while being at war. "All day beginning in the morning, the Greeks sit in chairs in front on the little cafes. Until noon they sit facing the sun; at noon they pull the chairs into the shade;in the afternoon they move back into the sun. these are the men-no women." How can this be pissible? How can the Greeks avoid conversations with each other so they do not start arguing over the war? How can people be or act as if they were calm, when their army need their support? All these questions crossed my mind whie reading thins chapter. It is amazing to see how many people lost their homes, and meanwhile, others just pretend that nothing is happening. This chapter really made me think how much time we spend each day thinking about ourselves, while we could be supporting and helping people that get affected each day by the situation in Colombia and around the world today.

The Cause Of War (The Stranger pg.173-193)

The chapter called The Soccer War continued to impress me even more! As I kept on reading Kapuscinski I thought about the real purpose of the war between El Salvador and Honduras;however,I kept in mind that it began in a soccer game.
Finally,Kapuscinski explains that the struggles between these two countries began with a population problem in El Salvador. Salvadorians were living in Honduras because they had better lifes and because El Salvador has the greatest population density, while Honduras has much more "space" for people than El salvador. "In this circumstances the match between Honduras and El Salvador had taken place." This quotation caught my attention because it resumes how a little problem, or small conflicts add up until they end up in a war like it happend in the book.

Nontheless,as dicussed in class developing countries have the same conflicts, and have wars over almost the same things. It is extremely sad to see how developed countries advance in science and technology every day, while developing countries try to catch up with each new invension. The soccer War has showed me not only different wars in different countries, but how naive and forgotten are the third world countries.

The Soccer War (The Soccer War pg. 151-172)

Kapuscinski arrives in Latin America to witness and describe a war between El Salvador and Honduras. He first begins to write about, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and some other Latin American countries. When I got to the chapter called The Soccer War, I got really excited to see what it was about, because the book has the same title. However, I began reading and I noticed it was about a war that began in a soccer game; I was not so excited anymore.

Latin American countries have always been seen as violent, third world countries. I found it very interesting that Kapuscinski wrote, "But there was no way to stop that metal monster, it was like something possesed, banging against the cobblestones, smashing into lamp-posts, thundering and booming." I can compare this quoation to the trashcan being a group of revolutionary people and the cobblestones and lamp-posts being the rest of the country. Why do I relate this quote with groups of people? I believe the noise I could hear in my head while reading this quotation is the exact noise I hear everytime the news talks about terrorist atacks. Everytime "Las FARC" (guerilla group in Colombia) does another criminal assault. It is amazing the disturbance I felt when I read this quotation, I could feel the tension he felt while the trashcan bangged on the floor everytime!

I could not believe there are children that get shot, and continue fighting! While being a delegate at the Model United Nations in Bogota, I realized how many children get demoralized and mistreated by grownups who want them to fight, not only in Colombia, but everywhere around the world. Kapuscinski says, "A wounded boy arrived in a truck. A Salvadoran. he had taken a bullet in a knee. He was ordered to lie down on the grass.The boy was barefoot, pale, spattered with blood...He used his fingers to pull out the bullet. Then he poured iodine into the wound and wrapped it in a bandage." It is incredible to see, how a boy gets shot and takes the bullet out by himself! Although this happened a while ago, children are still being used for different war purposes. For example, they are used to walk over mine fields so they get hurt and not the older ones. They are used to fight and to carry weapons when the older ones get tired! I just do not believe this is fair. Children are supposed to be studying and getting educated. Furthermore, children are children and they deserve a chance to play, learn, and grow up to be good people. In what world will we end up living if the future leaders of the world learn to fight, shoot, and hurt others? Is this what we want our future to be?

Behind The Desk (The Soccer War pg 135-151)

The life of Kapuscinski while being a journalist was a risky but a very active one. Kapuscinski, had the opportunity to presence real conflicts and real countries at wars. I believe he was a very brave person, and therefore he was a very good journalist. I thought about the feelings he described while passing through the roablocks, and I concluded that if I were in that position I would not have the guts to stay still and I would definitely show a lot of weakness. I enjoyed reading the way he described his situations while being on the hands of the UPGA. "The Irony of the situation was that I would die out of responsibility for colonialism; I would die in expiation of the slave merchants; I would die to atone for the white planter's whip; I would die because Lady Lugard had orderes them to carry her in a litter." This quoation is a perfect explanation of what was crossing Kapuscinski's mind, he perfectly describes the situation, and what the UPGA was doing with him and his Peugeot.

On the other hand, I found it very interesting that Kapuscinski could not work behing a desk. I never thought about offices and desks as an influence on who you are, but after reading Kapuscinski's descriptions I realized, desks do make a lot of differences in you life. It is very true that a small desk demonstrates you have a low paying job, while a big fancy desk shows you have an important job in whatever job you work on. I found it very special that Kapuscinski gets so desperate in his desk because this demonstrates how he has the strength to become a real journalist. I mean a real journalist by a person who lives each moment he is about to document, and not a someone who sits all day long waiting for information to come in. "When my editor became convinced that all his efforts had been in vain and that there was no way to get me doing office work, he decided to do something with me. It would be best if I went somewhere." This quotation resumes everything I just talked about, and how he proves to his boss what job he was born to do.

Listening About The Author of The Soccer War

Kapuscinski was a great journalist that I did not knew of before. This week in class we have started to read The Soccer War. For this reason we have learned about Kapuscinski, and his writings. I found very interesting the way he was a journalist during the day, and a novelist during the night. In the interview they talk about his work, and when he began writing.

It was very interesting when they mentioned Gabriel Garcia Marquez because in spanish I am reading a novel that he wrote. I did not knew Kapuscinski and Gabriel Garcia Marquez tought classes together, and I would love to read and learn more about their relationship.

Taking Over (The Soccer War pg.115-135)

Are you afraid of people taking over a country?
I think it is amazing that Kapuscinski wrote this book because this way I have been able to get to know real life conflicts involving politics in different countries. I have seen throughout the first two chapters that taking over the government was really popular in those times. It says, "During the course of the military takeover that I was about to witness, I did not see a single armed soldier. This distinguished the present coup from that of October 1963,when the army used weapons..." I have always thought about the day when a colombian president takes over the country, or when someone takes the place of the president without voting. Kapuscinski writes about these events as he witness each of them, but he does not describe how people feel or act, he makes it look as if everyone was terrified, and he only describes how the army check the cars, bags etc... My real question is, how has this affected those countries? Do these things happen only in third world countries? Are these countries all in Africa? Hopefully, as I read ahead I get the answers of this questions because they are really confusing my comprehension of the book.

However, I did find interesting the idea about thinking what would happen if someone took over Colombia, or better yet the current president; Alvaro Uribe. It has been a real shock to most colombians that Uribe has been elected to be the president of Colombia for four more years! Although most colombians did vote for him, I am feeling afraid that he is going to stay as president for a very long time. This happened to Venezuela, and Chavez is not seen in a good way around the world, especially in the United States. I believe that presidents that are in charge for a very long time become power mongers and slowly start to take over without concerning for the people. I found a quotation in The Soccer War that describes an event that I do not want to see happening in Colombia, "Mobutu had arrested President Kasavubu and named himself president for five years. The most characteristic thing about Mobutu's speech was the precision of the decree that he would be president 'for five years'." I do not want to see this happen, because developing countries have very naive people that get conviced over anything. For example, if someone arrests Uribe, and takes over for five years, he will probably say and promise things that benefit the lower class, therefore, the lower class will love him or her, and therefore he or she can stay in control for a very long time until he takes over and bring disadvantages to our country. I believe this novel will give us some idea of different situations in different countries that will enrich our knowledge and will bring a lot of topics to discuss.

Two men, Similar and Different (Soccer War pg.95-115)

Do Ben Bella and Meursault have something in common or are they completely different? As I began reading The Soccer War by Ryzard Kapuscinski I started thinkis what this book had in common with The Stranger. I then decided to compare the main character of the The Stranger (Meursault) with one of the characters of The Soccer War. As discussed on the precious blogs, Meursault is a very different person from the rest of us. He does not show feelings at all, he is very straigh forward and honest. However, Ben Bella is said to be brave and original. "Ben Bella tried to create the conditions in which youth could develop, to free slaves, to fight for the rights of women: Algerian women despaired when they heard that ben Bella had been removed; they dressed in mourning." This quotation is very interesting because it says Ben Bella fought for women's rights while Meursault did not care when Raymond hit his mistress. This quotation clearly demonstrates a difference in their believes and ways of living their lifes. Another difference is, that Meursault did not care about anyone, he could not care less about his girlfriend, his neighbor, his boss etc... Meanwhile, Ben Bella cares for the people, and wants to handle Algeria for this reason.

An example of a similarity in their personalities is their personal strenght and confidence towards themselves. "He was so sure of himself that he felt the moment had come to deal with his main opponent, the very force that had carried him into power, that for three years had stood not so much behind him as beside him-the army." This quotation is an example of Ben Bellas strength and confidence. Another example is, He believed in his own strength, in his own star, in his own popularity." Some people believe in themselves, others live their whole life regreting their every move, I believe Meursault and Ben Bella are both very brave and in some way proud of who they are. This is the last connection related to the novel The Stranger.
Taking into consideration that the auther of The Soccer War was actually present in all the wars he describes, I am ancious to see what will happen next!

The Punishment (The Stranger pg. 100-123)

Did Meursault receive the punishment he deserved? I have been asking myself this question since I finished the book. Throughout the whole story I was angry at Meursault for being the way he was! I did not understand why he had to be so empty inside and so careless about everything. Nevertheless, I found a quotation of the book that made me feel pity for him. "I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate." I find this quotation extremely strong. It shows Meursault's total confidence towards his way of living and his way of being. I admire his way of not changing his personality just because a priest, a judge, or his lawyer tells him to. However, I do not encourage being like Meursault, although, throughout the book I did learn to respect his decisions and his way of being.

Having analyzed Meursault's personality I thought it was interesting to discuss society and how many people have been punished for being different. In class we have talked and compared Sisyphus, Meursault and Jesus. We discussed how they were all punished for being different.
It is obvious that society today takes a while to adapt to change, and to new different ideas. But, how many people have to die for us to realize being different does not make you guilty of anything? If we think, throughout history, changes have happened and it is because of some people that have thought differently. It is beacuse of this that we have technology or philosophy. It is because of this that some ancient people have become famous, it is because of this that people get rewarded. But, do people have to die because of this?

Scared of Death (The Stranger pg 80-100)

Guilty as charged! This what the judge had to say since the beginning of the trial. Wether or not, he did it on purpose or not, Meursault did kill a man. I understood throughout the whole book, that Meursault had no feelings at all about anything around his life, however that does not make him innocent. It really shocked me when I read "It was then I felt a stirring go through the room and for the first time I realized that I was guilty." At first I got confused when I read this, and I thought he migh have felt guilty, but then I realized i was wrong. He said he knew he was guilty, but he was talking about the decision the jury was going to make, he did not feel anything.

I am also very impressed with how Meursault goes through the days. For the first time in the book I admire his personality. It is because of his lack of feelings that he can spend months thinking about his memories, and sleeping. I think that if I had to be in that situation I would probably get bored to death! I could never pass a day thinking about things that have happend to me before, because I would be sad all the time. I can not even pass a day in my house by myself! It is frustrating that Meursault's personality is this way, because in a way I really do admire him... Sometimes I overreact about little problems that at the end are not so relevant, and this is the time were I would love to be like Meursault! Is Camus trying to prove something by making Meursault guilty?