Reflective Blog

     Being born in Africa, I've always been different than any other teenager I know. Instead of playing with Barbies, tiaras, or even dress up, I would always be climbing up trees. I lived in a big three bedroom apartment with huge mango tree's surrounding. Every morning I would go pick out a mango to eat on the way to school. At that time, I was eight years old and in third grade. I had no pressure to deal with and everything was so easy-going.
    In April, my parents decided to move us to the U.S. Their reason being that America has a better education level. I was devastated and tried convincing them not to move because I had grown used to everything in Kenya but they refused. Since I had five months until school started, we visited our cousins in London for a month. I was extremely exited to go see some of the sights London is famous for. Me and my cousins visited the Queen's palace, Big Ben, London Bridge, and a few other beautiful places.
     Moving to Princeton in New Jersey was difficult. Everything was different in both a good and a bad way. There weren't kids playing and having fun outside. Everyone seemed to be inside working or watching T.V. The roads outside were crammed with moving cars. Soon it was September and that meant school. I didn't know what to expect. My first day at Village school wasn't as bad as I had imagined. As the days followed, I got used to everything.
     The summer that I was going into fifth grade, we moved again. This time I would be going to Parsons. I had to make new friends and start all over. This time I didn't mind so much. I had grown used to starting over a couple of times. Fifth grade was absolutely amazing but surprisingly, I moved yet to another school but thankfully I still stayed in the same town. Unfortunately the first two years of Linwood went by so quickly. Eight grade was when all the pressure started getting to me. Every time I got a good grade or did something good, my parents expected me to do better. Going into high school, I needed to do better myself. All of my classes got dramatically harder. When I was younger, all I wanted was to grow up and now I'd rather go back to the days that the only thing I worried about was which color to pick from my crayon box. Even though I want to be a kid again, I'd rather move forward along with everyone I love.

Persuasive Argument

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I wish for the prosecution of Mr.Hyde. A man whom is believed to be guilty of the murder of a member of the parliament and a fine man, Sir Danvers Carew. A woman had watched Mr. Hyde murder Sir.Carew with a cane which is fatal. I believe that no sane man would commit this horrendous crime or would be allowed to live. Even though Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person, Dr. Jekyll is no longer able to control Mr. Hyde's impulse's as well as his actions therefore, no man or lady maybe safe anymore. This man has committed several crimes before but this is his most violent one. One previous crime that he had committed was that he trampled over a little girl and carelessly walked away until a kind hearted man pulled him by the collar to bring him to the little girl's family to apologize and pay for his injuries. If his evil nature is practiced much further, I pity the person that crosses his path for he may be murdered. Mr. Hyde is no longer safe for us to have him living among us and this is my input on this case.

Characters/ Theme

The character that i am most drawn to in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is Mr. Hyde because He sets a mysterious as well as a violent mood for the story. One of the reasons i think this is because he is always doing harmful things to anyone that would be around him. His "Violent" activities usually take place around midnight or after. One example of this is when he trampled over a little girl at about three a.m carelessly. Another evil thing that he did was that he murdered a man named Carew by beating him with a cane. The theme that Stevenson may have been trying to convey is that every action will have a reaction because he trampled the girl, and he got caught and had to pay for what he did as well as him getting caught with the murder or Carew. Another theme that came across was good v.s evil. Every time Mr. Hyde tried doing something harmful, Mr. Utterson would catch his mistakes and what he did wrong. Mr. Hyde being the faulty one in this comparison, he has his reputation trashed and Mr. Utterson is the trustworthy one who always means what he says and that's why almost everyone is fond of him.

"Story of the Door" Reaction

One memorable moment from the chapter "Story of the Door" was when Mr. Utterson was out on a walk when he had seen a man trample over a little girl calmly. This moment made me think about the little girl and why she was outside at two am. as well as why that man would be so disrespectful. It might have been different if he had apologised to the little girl and helped her instead of just walking on. This went against how people were treated and how respect was important in the Victorian era. I could connect this part of the book to the article "Multiple Personality Disorder" because at one point it had said that "...produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity." this showed that at that time, the man, who now is known as Mr. Hyde, did not know what he was doing and wasn't himself because if he was, i doubt that he would have trampled over a little girl. The theme i came across in this chapter was how evil goes against good. I think this because Mr. Hyde who had hurt the girl, represented evil and Mr. Utterson who had brought Mr. Hyde back to apologise and pay for the girl's injuries represents good. This contributes to my explanation of good and evil because even though Mr. Hyde had done wrong to that girl, Mr. Utterson invited Mr. Hyde over for some breakfast before they had gone to give in the cheque and that's how respectful Mr. Utterson was.

Multiple Personality Disorder

In this article, I have learned about what multiple personality disorder is, if it is real or not, and lastly the symptoms of it. "Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person's behavior" as it has been said in the article. Multiple personality disorder has different levels to it that i have read. The mildest level is to day dream and the most intense level is to separate himself from a harsh situation that the person can not deal with. In this article, i also have learned that Multiple personality disorder does exist even though it is puzzling for a trained expert to understand. Some of the signs of this sickness are "Depression, Suicidal tenancies, Sleep disorders, Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias, as well as Alcohol and drug abuse, Compulsions and rituals, psychotic like symptoms, and Eating disorders". In my opinion, i think that the central point of this article mainly focused on the symptoms of this disorder as well as how it works. One reason why i think this is because the article had made this section more descriptive and had gone in more detail about the disease. I don't think that my reaction to this article was very astonishing because of the fact that I had already known about multiple personality disorder and several things about it. Even though my reaction to this article wasn't that exiting, I did learn some new things on this sickness. This information may influence my thoughts on different characters and how they change into someone else as traumatic actions take place.