The Wall Street Journal

It took my attention when I registered for my classes and was trying to get the list of the text books necessary for the semester and suddenly I realize that my Mass Of Communication Class with professor Ken Carpenter didn't require any text book. It was weird, but a few weeks later, classes started and our Professor explained what would be the substitute material for the text book: The Wall Street Journal. We subscribed the Newspaper and every day, besides Sundays, we would have delivered at our doors one copy of the largest-circulation newspaper of the United States.

The Wall Street Journal is an American newspaper with Asian and European editions. It's an international daily newspaper published by Down Jones and Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City. It has a very good and understandable content separated through different areas that talk about specifics topics. You can find: Money and Investment, Market Place, Personal Journal, etc. The Newspaper started its circulation back in july 8, 1889 when it was founded by Charles Dow Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser.

I have to confess that at the beginning I wasn't very excited about it because we were going to start having quizes about some specif articles that our professor would pick from the newspaper. I thought I would have problems because of the technical terms used on the paper since English is not my first language. But, to be very honest with you I didn't. The Newspaper have this interesting ton of exposing the news either beneficial to the point criticized or not. It was smooth, inteligent and perfect for the class.

The benefits of using the Wall Street Journal instead of a text book are very broad. Specially because it makes you to get into the reading-daily exercise that makes you learn more about the country and the world. Learning about Google, broadcast TV, Iphones, E-books, Sarah Pallin's new book, The Road, etc. I've learned about movies, books, economy, history, culture... Everything that includes primordially the American culture and then world.

Just by waking up, openning your door and getting the newspaper. This is how I started my day since I have started the semester. Having my breakfest and openning the Wallstreet journal. Being informed about what just happened. Not mentioning my vocabulary that enriched with the pleasure of reading something that was happening right now. As we see the world changing, we use in our class as topics to be studied, while with a text book you study concepts and old editions of news around the world that can be already gone, or old by the time that a newspaper publishes the new fact that just happened.

I loved subscribing the paper, even though I have never received my saturday ones. I didn't get mad, I went online to try to find the articles and they were mostly there, ready for you to read. I am really thinking about renewing my subscription of the Wall Street Journal. It just depends on my financial situation for the next semester. But it is definetly one of my goals.

I'd like to thank my Professor for putting me into this experience that would definetly help me to improve my reading and writing. And as the semester goes by and we are now getting into the final exams week. We no longer have quizes about the articles that Ken Carpenter use to pick and send us via e-mail. But every morning, I wake up, open the door trying to find my newspaper wraped with this plastic bag, so then I can unwrap it and read it while drinking my coffe, preparing myself for the day. A long and better day, after knowing more about what happens in the country that I'm living now, and what happens around the world as well.

THE ROAD

The Road is a novel by the American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale taken by a father and its son. Around this two survivors, a devastated world. Gray, dead and silent. It is a beautiful story of love, in the midle of this hopeless scenary where father and son have to battle towards their inner fears and hunger. It is a very detailed written book. Words are not the easiest to understand, specially for me, that don't have English as my first language. I, myself was reading the book and discussing in class together with my classmates of Mass of Communication with Ken Carpenter, our professor that introduced us the story. The more we were reading, we felt inside of the drama and the issues that they were passing through. The little boy and his exposure to all of this crazy and scary facts including a not very attractive landscape, rain, the fact that they had to find food in order to be alive. Not mentioning the cannibalism, gun, bad people and not having the mother close to him. It's a brave and beautiful book that everybody should read.

On November 25, 2009 the film adaptation of the novel was openned in theaters. Directed by John Hilcoat, and written by Joe Penhall the movie brought me spectations that made me feel anxious about its own success. The Actor Viggo Mortensen amazed me by the fact that he could bring the exactly figure of the Man from the book that I was picturing in my mind. On the other hand, the actor Kodi Smit-McPhee as the little boy didn't really bring the boy that I pictured in my mind. He was a good actor in the movie, specially for the fact that it was a challenge for the directors to find a boy on his age, that would be able to read the story and be inside of the little boy's life. But still didn't make me feel like... wow! What a perfect litlle boy for the movie!

The little shopping cart, the scenary, clothes... Everything was really well done in the movie. I liked how they've showed the part when he sees a little boy. Charlize Theron did a great job as the wife and before seeing the movie, when I watched the traillers I thought they would make her a big thing in the movie, thing that she is not in the book. But in the end I liked how they explained her presence through the story and their lives. And her feminine touch always present on the Father's memory. It was memorable those mini flash backs that the Man had, when they were happy and the world was colorfull and their love was innocent. It contrasted with the moment that he was inserted now, without her... Missing the woman of his life.

I couldn't believe that they would really show the part that the Father asks the man that steals their cart and everything that was inside to take his clothes off. I though they would change that part and appadt more for the kind of public that would be watching the movie. The scene that the Man jumps into the sea to try to find something in the ship, in my oppinion was poor and to fast.

I've noticed in the beginning that they were walking trying to find food, and there is money on the floor and they don't even think about getting it from the floor. I think that was a message through the moment where we are living now. The moment that we are facing money's authority and its own importance in human lives.

By the end, my comments would be 80% positive on the results of the film. I have to admit that I cried when the Man dies and the son has to start his own life. Who wouldn't cry? It made me think about when I decided to study here in the United States and I had to leave my family, friends, everybody that used to support me and start a new beginning. It is a moment that McCarthy states in his book, that was brought very well done in the movie too that intrigues every little man's life: the moment we become MAN.