Reflective Essay; "Vacation to the Dominican Republic"

Last summer, before i started high school, i was told that my family was going on a vacation to the Dominican Republic. At first, i was shaky about this; i hate sand, salt water, fish, anything tropical seems to tick me off. As the day to leave neared, i got more and more excited about vacation. It seemed as though i was counting down the minutes until we were getting on that airplane. Looking back now, this vacation wasnt actually a vacation at all.

During vacations you're supposed to get rid of stress, and enjoy your time wherever you might be. During my vacation, the food was truly horrid. I thought i would be eating this tropical grilled food with chicken, steak, great salad, but instead we had an ordered schedule of when to eat, and choices of odd food nobody was accustomed to. Besides the food, any drinks there were alcoholic except for soda's that rotted your teeth secretly. Being there for around 10-days was supposed to be worry-free. Overall, i couldnt stop worrying! After i got sick, probably from the food, i ended up spending two days in the hotel room! I was so sick, i couldnt bring myself to go to the beach.

When people think of a beach they think of many different things. Some people may fear it, hate it, or the beach is just not their thing. Others believe the beach is a spiritual place where people come to be healed by the water. For me, i used to enjoy the beach, up until i started getting into my teen years and did not like the waves. Dont get me wrong, its a great sight, but coming out of the water, with sand everywhere, your hair a mess, and being sticky from the salt water, isnt very "spiritual" to me. My experience this year was far from great. I typically enjoy fresh water, or the pool. Either way you can still get a great tan! Another thing, the sun was a murderer. It burned so many people, and left people "dying" of heat, there should've been an F.B.I report filled out. As childish that might sound, this island left me exhausted, thirsty, and hungry the whole time! I honestly could not wait to be back home.

The one time i had fun at this place, was when we all went out to dinner together. Every night it would be a different place, the hotel accompanied us with reservations around the area. Anything you bought there would be on the house. One night you would be in Little Italy dining with pasta and chicken. Another we would have snails at the French restaurant. More or less, the food at these restaurants was better than anything we had for breakfast and lunch. While everyone ate, bands would play songs corrusponding to whatever was on your plate. There would be dancers, and people having a great time.

Overall, this vacation was not as i hoped. Besides the dinner there, nothing else was entertaining to me. The beach was a disaster, including the sun, and mini-flood that happened every night! Even though it wasnt positive this sure was a "vacation to remember."

Bonus Blog!

In the 1931 film, "Jekyll and Hyde" many of the story's original plot's were changed. In the story, I noticed that any women that were characters, were portrayed very negatively. One woman or girl, was trampled on and left there screaming on the ground. The other only female character in the book was a maid.

As noted, it seems there wasnt very much respect for women in that century. The book expressed women as not important members of society. In the movie version, this appeal was very similar. Currently, the female characters we have seen were all prostitutes, and not appreciated or cared about. However, the men in this story seem to have very important roles in society. Lawyers, and doctors benefit everybody. I believe that the movies director, Rouben Mamoulian, expressed the story in such a way like this to show the beliefs and what society valued in his time period. He showed that there were, in fact, no important, strong, independent women like there are today. He portrayed women as sleazy, as worthless. Maybe, in fact, he wanted to change the outlooks on different genders, in a positive way.

It seems, that Mamoulian wanted to show women as weak humans, who should be built up. For example, in the movie, there is a scene where Mr. Hyde is at a burlesque, and relocates a gorgeous woman he helped before. As another man spotted her, he too wants his "treasure." After being angered Hyde gets defensive, and protective of his woman. The other man seems to back down. In this scene, nobody tries to help the young girl, even when they see she is unhappy, and frightened. This definitely shows how women arent respected in his time. Now, in our decade, we love helping others and caring for each other. In the novella, in the chapter "The Last Night," one line bothered me very much so. On page 50, it reads "'Weeping like a woman, or a lost soul."' This line seemed very subjective to females. It basically states that women always cry, and moan, and wine about everything.

Although the movie, and story are similar in many ways, there are also times when they are different. For example, in the story, it states that Dr. Jekyll did not have a mirror in his labratory when he first conducted the expirement. In the movie, there was a mirror that Jekyll stood in front of while he turned into Hyde. Also, in the story, Hyde isnt portrayed as such an ape-like man.

Persuasive Argument

You see jury, this young, fine, lady witnessed a terrible crime. Trauma will haunt her daily because of this. Imagine, your life just started and its already ruined by a heinous crime. Mr. Hyde is a murderer, and for that my friends, he deserves to be punished. He let evil take over and murdered Sir Danvers Carew, one of our friends in the Pariament. Put yourself in this young lady's shoes, and help her, and other innocent people stay alive, by putting this insensitive man behind bars.

Character/Theme

I am most drawn into the character, Mr. Utterson currently. He seems to grasp my attention. As i finished reading pages 34-38 i realized that Mr. Utterson seems to be a very caring man. He cared very much so about Dr. Jekyll and went to visit him 5 times. Although denied entry, he still had the perseverence to continue to try and visit his friend. Afterwords, on the sixth day, he visited Dr. Lanyon, it seemed as if he was very worried about his health, and his fear of death that was near. Overall i am drawn to Mr. Utterson the most.

Although he didnt completely contribute to the theme, he showed that you should spend time with people while they are still there. Because, as both of his great friends are dying, he was regretting not spending as much time with them as possible. Even though he was claimed to have been "good friends" with Dr. Lanyon, he had not even realized how ill and sickly he appeared. Seeing Dr. Lanyon, was probably a shock, as he only had a few weeks to live.

"Story of the Door" Reaction

After reading the first chapter, I realized this would be one of many confusing things to read from this book. My initial reaction post reading those few pages was confused, and shocked. What confused me the most was literally the "Story of the Door."

At first, as Mr. Enfield started to describe the odd story this mysterious door reminded him of, I was quite interested. After Mr. Enfield described the street as; "street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church", i began to be confused from that point on. Not that this story was incorrectly written, but the way Mr. Enfield was reminded of the story was very interesting. As the story continues, the reader finds out that when the two people met at the corner, the man "trampled calmy over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground." This to me was a very odd move. Morally, the man would have helped the child up and apologized for running into her. Instead, she was left on the ground in an insane state.

After I have read, "Good and Evil" this little girl seems to fall into the evil page. It seems like something possessed her and shes laying on the ground screaming. Even though they two people bumped into each other, it was quite evil of the man to just walk over her and continue walking. "The person who committed the deed lives in society, and therefore society must judge that person according to the rules that have been established" this quote, comes from the pre-reading article i have read about good and evil. This contributes very much to the "Story of the Door." With societies rules and regulations a person knows how to act, and if its appropriate to act any differently. This strange man in society would be eaten alive. He seems very inconsiderate, yet this story left me puzzled, and wanting to know more information.

Good and Evil

Prior to reading about evil in our society, and if it will ever fade away, this article has taught me many things. Mainly, this article starts off by discussing if evil can ever be completely removed, and moves into good deeds. The article states, "...without the presence of evil in society, the good would never be seen." I completely agree with this statement. If everybody did good deeds, and doing good was just a part of life, no deeds would be recognized.

This article also talks about how evil and good dont act as seperate forces. If one person was pure good, or pure evil, their life would be thrown off balance. Together these two forces act as one and balance our everyday lives.

Also, this passage discusses rules to our society, and free will. If we have the power to do whatever we would like, then society would be able to determine the morals, and type of person somebody truly is. Since society has laws, we are judged and configured by statistics of how people should behave. After all, without laws people could figure out their balance between good and evil.