At the beginning of the course, I thought that I had a thorough understanding of what culture was. I thought culture was displayed through the arts, like dance, music, food, and paintings. However, after reading the assigned readings, I was just confused. I’m not sure whether or not if it’s just me but I found the readings to be particularly difficult. I found myself rereading paragraphs just to somewhat grasp the meaning behind the text. After spending an hour deciphering the text, I came to class the next day confident that I knew what was going on. But ironically enough, I had no idea. Luckily for me, the in-class discussions really helped me understand the meaning behind the word ‘culture’. What I thought was a word that just implied an ethnicities art form ended up being a word that encompassed far more than I had ever thought. It has come to my attention that there is still so much for me to learn about this course.

However, in regards to Jorge Luis Borges, “A Celebration of the Monster”, I found his writing particularly interesting. It was very descriptive but also somewhat elusive. He described the scenes in such clarity that I found myself reliving his story, however, upon finishing, I never really understood who or what the monster really was. I may be wrong but from my understanding of the story, the “monster” they are referring to is the movement. A certain movement that involves shooting and killing a Jew.

Evita Peron’s “My Message” definitely struck a chord within me. Her writing was grand, and filled with passion as she recounts her battles with her husband. I liked Peron’s writing more enjoyable than Borges, mainly because of the difficulty surrounding Borges’ writing. In the midst, of reading Peron’s writing, it struck to me the similarities between the two works. To me, it seemed as if Peron and Borges were writing the two sides of the same coin. However, I am not 100% sure about my hypothesis.