Bianca Duarte's Blog

       Over the past couple of years, I have been a large fan of baking. It started out with buying the box cake and brownie mix at the store, but I eventually found myself making recipes from scratch and sharing with those I love. For some reason, I found a fascination with discovering new recipes, and I began researching recipes to make varying from snickerdoodle cookies to chocolate macarons. Baking cookies may be easy, but when it comes to more intricate baked goods such as French macarons and tiered cakes, you must be very precise or else the result will not be what was expected. Over quarantine starting in August 2020, I decided that I wanted to share my love and passion for baking with my community in Gilroy and the surrounding cities as well as family and teammates. I began running a small baking business named Bianca’s Baked Goods(@Biancas.bakedgoods on Instagram), and I ran each and every part of this small business.  It was challenging at first as I handled scheduling, produ

    The trip to archives and special collections on Thursday was very interesting and informative. I learned how sacred and important some works can be, and I also find it fascinating how the books and texts downstairs must be kept to a certain humidity and temperature to preserve the pages and overall wellness of the books. One part of the trip that I found to be very engaging was the fraternity incident because Kelci stated that some articles and pieces from that incident became public very recently. Kelci mentioned that if we would like to read about it now, we definitely could and maybe uncover a story or simply read it to be informed about the history of a fraternity at Santa Clara. I also enjoy how much of a variety there is regarding the texts because I was expecting there to only be books, but from Kelci’s tour, we saw that there were photographs, a few paintings on the wall, and even an old gun which was very surprising to me. One thing I loved learning about is how to look at

     I have been thinking about many topics for the intertetuality final project, and I have decided that I would like to base it off of literary texts that depict a defiant female protagonist. I find many real life feminist figures and cultural leaders to be very intriguing, so I believe this topic will be very interesting to me. In this class specifically, I definitely find Aneeka to be very bold in Home Fire. I also give props to Antigone for being so strong headed and persistent with her beliefs even though she knew that she would be killed for sticking to them. I tend to admire many female protagonists that go against the status quo, and I would definitely like to do a deep dive on other texts that include this same plot structure and include a character like this. I would like to focus more on women of color who battle against certain rules or face different challenges who are also headstrong and stick to their core beliefs. I have not read many books with a strong female protago

       I seriously can not believe that we are halfway through the fall quarter. These past five weeks have flown by so fast, but within these five weeks I have enjoyed an abundance of class activities and projects. One of my favorite activities in this class is the blog post assignment that we must complete and comment on each week. It is a great way to connect to the work of our classmates and we are able to explore the different formats everyone uses for their blog posts. I enjoy reading the comments on my blog posts from my classmates because it adds to my own understanding of the work we are reading at the given time. The research excursions are very helpful and allow us to deep dive into a certain topic which is why they are also one of my top favorites. It is very fun looking into other people’s research excursions, especially on a topic similar to the one I did to see how other people interpreted the topic and what important issues they dove into in comparison to my research. I

       I am not quite sure who Tiresias’s parallel is in Home Fire, but the best character that I believe could be a parallel to him is Terry Lone, Karamat’s wife. Although I know that the  parallel of these characters may not be obvious at first, I do believe there are many small similarities specifically in the end of Home Fire and in Antigone. Both characters show up towards the end of the play/novel, but they are very impactful in a way to one of the main character’s. In Home Fire, Terry stands up to Karamat towards the end and essentially threatens Karamat to go to her, and he eventually chooses her. She is very intelligent and tries to steer Karamat away from getting into complicated situations and making an even worse rep for himself. She also criticizes Karamat for making Eamonn look like a fool to the entire world. Terry tries to change Karamat and make him a better person, but in the end, Karamat does not have the strength to completely change for the better. In Antigone, Tir

      After reading the beginning of Antigone and after finishing Home Fire , I noticed many similarities and differences between the parallel characters in both pieces of work. There is a direct connection between Isma and Ismene, Antigone and Aneeka, Creon and Karamat, Parvaiz and Polyneices, and Haemon and Eamonn. The names of these characters are fairly similar, but the similarities and differences I found to be compelling was the parallelism between Isma and Ismene. To state the obvious similarity, Isma and Ismene both have a brother who is shameful and is deemed as a traitor. They both also have a sister that is very headstrong and passionate, which differs from Isma and Ismene’s personality. Isma and Ismene are both very careful with following rules, and they tend to stay safe rather than go against the law. Both of the characters are also willing to suffer the consequences as well. One minor difference is that Isma is more sensible than Ismene and although Ismene is very carefu

  After viewing the second lecture of Antigone, I was left with an abundance of knowledge regarding the print and publication history which is very useful to my overall understanding of the play. Like Dr.Burnham mentioned in the lecture, it is very fascinating to me that a performance that is performed in the festival of Dionysius in 441 BC can evolve and become a PDF version of the play that we are reading in class. It reminds me of ancient Greek dramas or tragedies that went from the original version to the pdf version that others analyze and enjoy. Another thing that intrigued me was that the first findings of the original play Antigone was found in Oxyrinchus, Egypt. The earliest scraps of papyrus were found here which included the earliest content from antigone, and those scraps were found nearly 600 years after the play was performed. This information truly interested me because I find it fascinating how a play can be carried on for so long, and although the current plays may not

      I personally found the introduction of Antigone to be very helpful and it was a good way to open my eyes to the foundation of the play. I find it interesting that there is a very long and complicated history in the background of Antigone. I also find it fascinating that the time period Antigone occurred is very early; 441 BC is a long way back which is surprising to me. I also found it unique how the tragedies forced populists to think about their own role and reflect on themselves. The way the viewers would watch the play is very compelling to me because watching the plays was communal and there were not any crazy fees. The ambiance and atmosphere of viewing the play also struck me because usually, we watch a play in a theater, in the dark and usually cramped next to a large amount of people. It is common for the viewers who have the better seats to have paid more and the viewers in the back have the “cheaper” and worse seats with a bad view. I can relate this to Hamilton at The

       Although there are many symbols that I identified in Home Fire , one recurring symbol would be the cold weather, and more specifically the appearance of snow. Throughout the novel, snow, ice, and the cold weather specifically appear when the plot gets tense or conflict arises. We see this many times in each section, and I found it very interesting how I was able to locate the situations that involved cold weather. For example, one of the first instances of snow is introduced in Isma’s section, and it states,” One morning he was late to the cafe. She thought it was because of the weather-winter had returned. Snow slashed upon the window panes, the sky was white, cars alerted cops that they’d overstayed their two-hour parking limit by the depth of snow on their roofs”(Shamsie 34). As soon as the snow began to show and the cold weather entered, things began to change. First, Karamat Lone became appointed as the new Home Secretary which changed the relationship dynamic between Isma

       When being introduced to Neatline, I was fascinated by the tools that were available to create a detailed mapping of a location. Although Neatline is very new to me, I feel more confident in navigating the application, and I hope to learn more features to enrich my Neatline experience. To me, Neatline is very interesting because there are many features such as drawing points, lines, polygons, and modifying the shapes and colors to fit our needs. I feel very grateful that we were able to learn how to use Neatline in class because it allows us to add another tool and resource to use for our research excursion. I also am grateful that we have resources to ask how to find our way around Neatline and that there are tutorials on Camino to help us navigate our way in Neatline. I can’t wait to use Neatline in one of my research excursions. I would love to use Neatline for the upcoming project, but I have already started it and I am almost finished. I may work with Neatline and play arou

       One important theme I gravitated towards in Home Fire is the theme relating to the media. I specifically found an interest in the theme regarding the media when Parvaiz died and the spotlight was on him, and eventually Aneeka when the public found out about her relationship with Eamonn. The media sees Parvaiz as a terrorist from the beginning, but as a reader we know the truth and the steps it took Parvaiz to get to the position he was in which resulted in his death. Even if the media knew Parvaiz was heading to the consulate to find help and get out of his situation, he would still be painted as the rebel and terrorist going against his people. In Aneeka’s section, the media presented Parvaiz as a terrorist following his death, and the media is using Parvaiz as an example in this situation. When the media began speaking about Parvaiz in a negative manner, one source stated,'' It's a cause of profound concern that the children of jihadis, many of them British-born, a

       After getting Kelci’s overview of doing research on scholarly sources in our library, I do not have any questions as of now regarding finding resources for our research excursion.  Having Kelci come into our class and work through finding articles definitely makes me feel relieved and more prepared to dive into the research excursion. I am not worried, but more curious about which research excursion choice I will choose because I have taken a liking to a few. I will definitely narrow down my choices and pick the best option for me. Other than choosing a topic and research excursion option, I am feeling pretty calm and confident. Although I have not done much research before, I found Kelci very helpful and I will definitely be reaching out to her in the near future. I find the Santa Clara University Library Website very fascinating and I also feel very comfortable navigating the page correctly. I found it very interesting that Dr.Burnham stated in class that even some seniors do

       I believe there are many reasons why Shamsie gave each section of the novel a different character’s perspective. First off, I believe Shamsie sectioned her novel because it allows for the reader to gain a deeper connection with the speaker as they go through their own thoughts and feelings. With the changes in perspective, we are able to delve into the speaker’s daily lives and see their side without having any bias. By the end of the novel, we will be able to understand the exact thoughts, feelings, and interactions each character has gone through. Shamsie also uses this tool in order to make the novel clear for the readers to understand. Providing the different character perspectives also allows the reader to follow and watch how the character develops over time. If the entire novel was written from a first person point of view, the reader would not be able to make their own unbiased judgements on each of the characters. For example, if the novel were to solely be told from Is

      So far, many Muslim traditions and values have sparked my interest in reading Home Fire . Although I have some background knowledge on these topics, I do not consider myself an expert, and reading this novel has me questioning my own understanding of Muslim culture. The first subject I have an interest in is learning the typical relationship dynamic between men and women in Muslim culture. Although it is now the 21st century and times have changed, I find learning about the dynamic in Muslim couples intriguing. For example, in Mexican culture, back in the day the traditional idea was that the men work all day to financially support the families and the mother has a responsibility of taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning, and eventually having more children. What struck me was when Eamonn was almost waiting around for Aneeka to show up which goes against many power dynamics in relationships. In “traditional” relationships, usually the men would make the women wait arou