Hitting Budapest

What are the primary features of this world--spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? 

The primary features of this world stem around the importance of men. Men make babies. Men provide for the family. Men should come first even in life. That is the culture these children have been born into. They concern themselves only with survival, not with the inappropriate or negative effects of their home environment.
What is the world’s ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? 
They romanticize the idea of living in Budapest. They dream of moving away any place they deem to be less harsh of a reality. They believe that the only way to make it out is through cleaning up after others. They justify stealing because they are doing it for survival, not simply for the thrill.
What are the precise strategies that are used by its creator to convey the world to us and us to the world? 
The main strategy in this story comes from the use of description and colorful language. The author makes up visualize the neighborhood. She describes everything in detail from the shapes and sizes, and colors of guava fruits to the experience of passing waste through the childrens bowels. Nothing is off limits.
How are our characters connected to the world? 
The characters know that this is their reality. They may never make it out of the slums, but they dream of it. They want to live like those in Budapest. They want to move away to America and plan to study hard to achieve this goal. They want to do better for themselves, but the societies around them are toxic. They see a woman waste food while they starve and it angers them. They are angry with the world for not seeing their stuggle, and they want out.
And how are we the viewer or reader or player connected to the world?”
We are outsiders looking in. We are the people living in the beautiful houses. We see our neighbors struggle. We know that there are plenty of people in this would that would even be happy with our leftovers. Instead of truly trying to help, many of us run and hide in our comfort zones and pretend like theres no problem at all.

            

Even the Queen Lusts, for A Good Man is Hard to Find

Are there any female characters in the work that you identify with?
I probably most closely find a relative connection with the main character in Lust. Through out history, women have been told that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. They were forced to remain "pure" or "untouched" in order to be considered desirable. Even if a woman was robbed of her virtue she was the one punished most harshly. Even today if a woman decides she loves her body and wants to wear something that she feels sexy society calls her a slut and tells her that if she wants respect she has to dress less provocatively. People forget that we were all born naked. To show off skin is normal. It should be celebrated that people have released enough insecurities to allow themselves to embrace their sexuality. She and I share the same idea that liking and having regular sex shouldn't result in a "He's the man" for one sex and a "What a total slut" for the other.How are relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles) portrayed in the story? 
In the story A Good Man is Hard To Find, the men are seen as the ones in total control. While driving down to Florida it is the father figure that is calling the shots on everything from the routes they take to the stops they make. When they meet The Misfit, the first thing he does is take away the head of control to show how chaotic the following events would be. He proved that this was his show and that there would be no competition at all. Both men commanded respect. Both men had to have their way.What are the power relationships between men and women in the text?
I think the best story that represents the power of relationships between men and women would be Even the Queen. Although there is only one male figure in the story, the women talk about the struggles they faced to manipulate their bodies. On one had you have the cyclists, who feel like the miracle period-stopping drug was put in place by men as away to take away a woman's femininity. They failed to realize that it was feminists who had to lobby and fight for the drug to be FDA approved.All of the women in the story were in positions of power. The grandmother was a treaty negotiator for the UN. The mother was a judge. The sister was a mother. All of them had strong roles that are of the utmost importance in society. The main male figure, the mother's secretary, was forced to listen in to get a male perspective, and as a male I could understand the discomfort he experienced while listening to the women speak about menstruating.

Westerns

Growing up I never cared much for westerns. To me they portrayed a terrible time in American history where the "heroes" often abused women and minorities. I was sure that the whole lot of them were rotten until I saw True Grit.

My favorite character in True Grit would have to be our protagonist, Mattie Ross. I feel like if I were in her situation I would do exactly the same as her. I wouldn't let two men that I hired tell me I couldn't tag along if I wanted to. I won't let a man give me a bad deal on a trade because he thought I wouldn't know any better. I would fight for what I believed in, and deal with the risks to get what I wanted in the end.

The American mythology imposed by Western films, glorified drinking, womanizing, and protecting your town. There was always a bad guy that would come into a city. They would begin causing trouble, robbing banks, raping women, being terrible people. Then comes in a man on a horse known for shooting bad guys. He always was a little rough around the edges, devilishly handsome, and faithful to the woman he loved.

Westerns told us that when things went bad, the only way to settle things was a shoot off. Everyone in the town would crowd around these two gunslingers and watch to see who had the fastest draw, because what else were they going to do? Other than shootouts the other crowd gathering celebrations involved hanging people, dancing, and bar fights.

Pride And Prejudice.

When we were told to read this book, I cannot say that I was excited. From what I thought I knew about the book, I had no interest in picking up a copy and devoting my time to it. I was wrong about what I thought. I thought the book was another one of those love stories where the female lead would be swooning over a womanizing man that didn't deserve her. What I found was that Elizabeth was actually a strong independent woman that didn't allow status to influence her life choices.

Elizabeth is a lot like the women of today. She wants an education. She wants to earn her place in the world. She understands the constraints imposed on her by society, but works to break them. She doesn't fall in love with Darcy's money. She doesn't fall in love with Darcy's social status. She doesn't fall in love with Darcy because of the joy it would bring her mother. She falls for Darcy out of the goodness of his heart, and that makes all of the difference.

Although there are some people even today that chase zeros and dollar signs, I like to believe that the general bulk of society is all for equal partnership and working to support each other in a relationship. Actually, that's one of the first questions asked on a first date, if not before. "Do you have a job?" Followed by "Where do you work." For those that chase zeros and dollar signs they may also throw in "How much do you make?"