A PIECE OF STEAK: Jack London Boxing Story // Jhónatan Ellí Villarreal A00811946

It’s a very interesting story, the purpose of the story maybe it’s to show us how our decisions take us to the ruin if they are bad, Tom king was a successful fighter but in the end he haven’t any money. His family was lack of many, he was having a lot of problems providing to his family. The author show us his live on a way to teach us how difficult it can be for some people, no everybody have all the opportunities that maybe we let pass because we don’t even care about it.

The perspective about the world is that there is young people that doesn’t know what are they doing, they have no experience of the world, and there is the people that have already lived but maybe they live thinking in the past, maybe they could live in a better way or take better decisions.

The story its organized in a way that it starts showing us a good life, and then it starts falling till he have nothing.

Nothing lasts forever.


We need to try to empathize with the lives that other persons could be living, try to understand what they feel, what they are passing through, maybe in that way we could appreciate the perspective of his words.

Self-Portait Caterina van Hemessen (1548)

The self-portrait of Caterina was painted in 1548. She painted it at her early age of 20 years old and she became famous after people knew about it. Some critics think that maybe she was helped by his father because his father was a painter. This painting is famous and really important for female painters history because was the first self-portrait ever seen by a women.

This painting is also really weird because Caterina paints herself at her work station with her different tools for her to paint, and it also shows by her dressing code that she was well educated and came from a wealthy family. 


MAURICIO MIÑARRO RUIZ A01191626

Self-Portait Caterina van Hemessen (1548)

A piece of steak - Regina Llorente

A piece of steak


This short story written by Jack London talks about an ageing prize-fighter who was once a champion against whom many a contestant fell flat. Today he is in the doldrums with little money even to buy food. He has had fewer and fewer chances of fighting and he is too weak to take up any rigorous work even if it comes his way.

More and more young pugilists are rising and they are able to offer resistance to this man advanced in years, though he may not be lacking in experience.


I believe is a moving story. You might say that old people are replaced by younger ones, or that you must get a profession that can feed you even when you get old. Basically the idea is the old people being replaced by the young, who will be replaced at a certain moment as well.

A PIECE OF STEAK

 Jack London Boxing Story: A piece of Steak is a story with many interpretations and lessons for the readers, basically presents how youth and wisdom are related. This is what the author tried to accomplish, by presenting a 2 contrasting box fighters, a old but wise man, and a young, unexperienced guy, describing the fight round by round. The issue presented, is how  getting old gives you a big perspective of what to do, skills and cunning, but the way to acquire this is paying with youth, vitality and physical capacity. 

The main character, Jack King, was fighting, and during the rounds the internal revelations, that he was not young any more, were evident. This was presented on the rounds the fight lasted, what happened on every round make it more evident.

The author thinks that the world has experienced and unexperienced people, and how does youth from unexperienced ones is exchanged for wisdom, having physical repercussions. This perspective is justified, in our daily life, on school, work or social environment. To enter the author's perspective we must realize, as young or old people, that our life has a certain orden and evaluated if we follow this paradox.  

Dario Sanchez A01044994

A piece of Steak – Carlos Alvarado Herrera A00814596

The story wants to describe how sometimes we don't know the people's reasons to do something, in this case Tom King fought for his life and his family's and Sandel for fame; and for us to start thinking in how can we act now to get a better future.

The main problem of the story was that Tom King's family has lack of money needed to raised their children and support them all. In addition Tom King was a box fighter when he was younger and he seems to be some kind of nostalgic about that, he said he didn't had a proper training and expressed how painful and dificult it was for him.

The story has a linear sequence where is first described how was Tom King's life and how his past was, how he suffer with every fight he faced and now the present life, how poor they were so he had to earn some cash winning the battle against Sandel.

Surely we can say his thinking is justified because he shows how important is to live everyday like it was the last one and so on this present would soon be our past but with this you can change the future to a better one. 

"A piece of steak" - Valery Valdez

We can say that this story is very interesting in each paragraph written. He shows how life progresses so that it seems that one could not do anything when in fact everything depends on us. The human ever thought of success as the end of the road without taking into account that this goes along with the accomplishments day by day. This little story of Jack London gives us to recognize that as our present becomes our past, it also can mark our future if we let it. He makes us to see that everything has an end and there will be more stressful days than others.

The main problems seen in the story is the lack of money to support the family and the nostalgia of his past wanting to re- live it. It also can be well seen that he have had great and painful experiences whose author describes them meticulously making the reader understand the feeling of the character.

These well-described experiences are organized so that they can be seen and understood in the moment when they are referenced. The way the author see the world and how due the people live, is represented by the way he narrates a simple everyday of  life that most people live without realizing it; And the way he tell it, makes yourself feel familiar with the situation of the boxer Tom Kings .

FULL SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS

Fri March 28th:

Presentation in Pairs

Andrea Torres & Scarlett Garcia ‘Topic TBC’ (Persuasive, Informative)

Daniela Grijalva y Mauricio Miñarro, ‘Comparison of Labour Conditions’ (Analytical)

Film

No se aceptan devoluciones (Darío Sánchez)

Wed April 2^nd:

Solo Presentation

Scarlett Garcia - Gaudi

Regina Llorente – Topic TBC

Fri April 4th:

Presentation in Pairs

Daniela Martínez and Omar González, ‘Modern Art’ (Analytical)

Film

Tlatelolco 1968 (Sergio Perales)

Solo Presentation

Sergio Perales: Division Minuscula

Carlos Alvarado Herrera Film: Captain America

Wed April 9th:

Film

Scarlett Garcia – Hunger Games or NARNIA

Regina Llorente Suarez – Billy Eliot

Jhónatan Ellí Villarreal – forrest gump

Solo Presentation

Claudia Sanchez – Bauhaus

Fernando Davila - Topic TBC

Daniela Martínez – Comparing bands.

Wed April 23^rd:

Film

Diego Jimenez – Lord of the Flies

Daniela Martínez – Harry Potter

Fernando Davila – Movie TBC

Solo Presentation

Alejandro Partido – Band: The Beatles.

Valery Valdez – Topic TBC

Daniela Grijalva - Edgar Allan Poe

Fri April 25th:

Film

Daniela Grijalva – Holes

Solo Presentation

Omar Gonzalez – JK Rowling

Diego Jimenez – Topic TBC

Andrea Torres - Social movement and film “Tlateloco”

Presentation in Pairs

Carlos Alvarado & Darío Sánchez ‘When Med and Tech collide’ (Informative)

Wed April 30^th:

Film

Omar Gonzalez – Warm Bodies

Andrea Torres – Film 257 days

Solo Presentation

Jhónatan Ellí – Topic TBC

Darío Sánchez - Trova Cubana - Silvio Rodriguez

Mauricio Miñarro - Film

A piece of steak - Fernando Davila Carrillo

We can learn many things from this story, the most important thing that called my attention was the situation Tom King was living, he had had everything in life, but all that was gone, everything he had after all was his family and a bunch of debts.
All the fights he had fought damaged Tom King’s body. His best shape was gone through the years. He had no money to feed his family, his situation was miserable, and he knew he had no choice but to win the fight against Sandel. Tom was fighting for living while Sandel only for money and fame.

The story begins with Tom King’s situation in society, which was very low. The story gives some parts of Tom’s best days, when he had money and he could have a piece of steak anytime he wanted. However, what we can learn from this story is that nothing lasts forever. Youth is the most valuable thing life can give us.
I think this sentence is the one that best describes this story: “He (Sandels) lacked the wisdom, and the only way for him to get it was to buy it with Youth; and when wisdom was his, Youth would have been spent in buying it.”

Omar Gonzalez A01196042

A Piece of Steak

What is the purpose of this book?

A Piece of Steak by Jack London tells the story of Tom Kings, a box fighter who struggles to get income for his family. I feel that the purpose of this book is to put our lifestyle into perspective with that of a professional athlete and to get the reader more emphatic about the struggles Tom goes through. Ultimately I believe that this was a way in which the author showed that we should never take anything for granted.

In this story, the author is trying to portray the hard life of a box fighter. He develops the story around the fact that Tom used to be one of the best in the business but then due to aging and new up-and-comers he's having a hard time getting enough income to provide for his family and how he may not have as much matches left as he thinks.

Some issues raised are not only his aging and losing dominance in the ring but also how Tom had come from battling the old aging guys to him becoming one of those old aging guys, in the story they called him “the grizzled old chopping-block that guarded the highway to fame and fortune”

They sure give out a lot of experiences from Tom's past, the portray him as a hero that can't go on forever, he used to be the World Heavyweight champion and now he's the unsung hero. Some evidences of this is how they show how Tom has changed his perspective about everything and he cares more about it now that he is old in comparison from when he was young. They've organized this in such a manner that really makes you feel bad that Tom can't go on for much longer and that he probably won't be able to fight too many more matches.

The author thinks about the world in a way that needs years of experience to look at it from that point of view. He goes on about how experience is payed with youth and when you finally have experience you have no youth left. I do think this thinking is justified because no one can be born good, everyone needs experience to get better. And you have to get older while you get this experience, its the way life is supposed to be.

We can be empathic about what he says by trying to think what it must feel like to be a boxer in your last years and how he portrays Tom to be a intelligent man who wants to fight more matches.

Sergio Perales A00812401

"A piece of steak"

•      What is the purpose of this book?

By analyzing the historical context and the situation in which the main character "Tom King" finds himself in. We see that the main character is a boxer that is barely able to feed his family due to the fact that boxing is not a stable form of incoming converting itself into an economic problem that puts him and his family in debt. The purpose of the book is for the reader (us) to analyze different ways of work and for us to realize that back in the old days work was physical and when a person's health and physical status deteriorates so does his possibilities of getting a job. 

•      What is the author trying to accomplish?

For us the readers to understand and appreciate the sacrifices and hard conditions of work before the era of work in offices ever appeared. Today we live in a society in which very little percentage of work is physical and most of it is done by our advanced technology and most of our work involves computers and tasks that don't necessarily deteriorate your health. 

•      What issues or problems are raised?

The problems of a deteriorating health and strength can result in a loss of a job and the failure to provide for your family due to someones weakness. So why is this a problem? it is because our working capabilities in retrospect to physical labor demands from our bodies a great number a strength and stamina and for that you need good food as said in the book. Once you begin to weaken, it results into an economic downfall and slowly a person begins to realize that without his physical capabilities he is nothing and useless. 

•      What? data, what experiences, what evidence is given in the story?

• "He felt weak and sore, and the pain of his smashed knuckles warned him that, even if he could find a job at navvy work, it would be a week before he could grip a pick handle or a shovel. "
• sign of physical weakness

• "Ay, I gotter do 'im," he repeated. "That's all there is to it. I jus' gotter do 'im."
• representing the fact that boxing is a win or lose situation and agresiveness is needed to bring home food foe the family

•      How is this data or experiences organised?

It is organised in a way that starts out somewhat good in which economic problems slowly start to drip in and end up having severe consequences on Tom King's Health and directly affecting his family due to the fact that he is unable to compete and win money as he used to. 

•      How is the author thinking about the world?

The Author thinks about the world as a cruel environment in which you have to fight each other to guarantee the survival of your kin, much like in the animal kingdom, In boxing, your physical strength, stamina, and Technic determines the possibility whether you bring food to the table for the family or not

•      Is his thinking justified as far as we can see from our perspective

His thinking is justified because that is how the world runs today, humans compete each other to get into the market the best of the best products in order to bring back money to their respective families and guarantee its survival 

A Piece of Steak - Alejandro Partido A01270265

Your analysis must answer the following questions:
• What is the purpose of this book?
• What is the author trying to accomplish?
• What issues or problems are raised?
• What data, what experiences, what evidence is given in the story?
• How is this data or experiences organised?
• How is the author thinking about the world?
• Is his thinking justified as far as we can see from our perspective?



• How can we enter his perspective to appreciate what he has to say?


The purpose of the book is showing the misery and nature of poverty, the book try to tell us that someday everything will end, and it doesn't matter how many things we had in life, once it ends, we won't have anything. The author tries to tell people to make the best of their life while they can, since we don't know when everything will end. The main problem was that Tom King was getting older, and since he wasn't young enough to win fights, he didn't have any money to have a normal life. Boxing was all that he could do, and he would have a hard time finding a job that didn't include fighting with another man. The information given to us about King is interesting, the author wrote about King's prime time, and his not so young age. The author tells us about how hard was for him to get money, and if he didn't win, he couldn't be able to afford a ride back home. The author tries to tell the readers about how hard life is for some people. not everyone gets an easy life with luxuries. A lot of people in the world suffer everyday to get a penny, and they have to work hard enough to get it, the author explains it perfectly when he talks about King's life. The easiest way to enter his perspective is to think about ourselves as Tom King, having to fight for money, and struggling with life everyday, understanding his feelings and current situation.

Topics for Solo Presentations

I want you all to use these solo presentations as an opportunity to share with your classmates some form of art, literature or critical thinking in which you are interested.

Choose either A, B or C. If you would prefer to speak about another topic, you must confirm this with me first.

A - Introduce one of the following:

1. A musician, band or type of music;

2. Writer, book or type of literature / theatre;

3. Visual artist, artwork or type of visual art;

4. Filmmaker or actor, film or type of film;

5. Fashion designer or type of fashion;

6. Architect, engineer or type of architecture;

7. Social movement or youth protest, eg. Occupy.

B – Analyse and compare two items from the following:

1. A musician, band or type of music;

2. Writer, book or type of literature / theatre;

3. Visual artist, artwork or type of visual art;

4. Filmmaker or actor, film or type of film;

5. Fashion designer or type of fashion;

6. Architect, engineer or type of architecture;

7. Social movement or youth protest, eg. Occupy.

C – With a focus on a writer or artist of your choice, design a persuasive presentation to convince your classmates that this writer or artist is of great social, civic or political importance.

Once you have decided your topic, we will organise a schedule for these talks. I have guidelines to help you prepare your presentation.

Second set of Film Introductions & Screenings

Everyone who has not already given an introduction to a film of their choice, or is scheduled to do so over the coming weeks, must give one of the following introductions.

The film you choose must be an adaptation of a novel, short story or play. In your introduction, you must cover the following:

1. Describe the original literary work: who wrote it and when? What is the main focus of the narrative? Is it remarkable for anything (eg. a strange style or plot)?

2. Find a quote from a review of the book that gives you a new perspective on it and helps you to understand it.

3. Analyse the changes made to the narrative (especially the ending), characters, setting, costume etc by the film. This is a formal or technical analysis.

4. Find a quote from a review of the film that gives you a new perspective on it and helps you to understand it.

5. Express an opinion about which is better: the book or the film – and explain why. 

Guidelines for 10 minute Solo Presentations

This is a very simple and professional structure that you can use for many different scenarios, including: a job interview, presenting research at an academic conference, sharing a report with colleagues, presenting findings of a study etc.

Slide 1: Your name and the title of your talk (0.5 min)

-   Introduce self, explain the title, put audience at ease.

Slide 2: Breakdown of 3 main sections of talk (1.5 mins)

-   Explain why you have chosen to focus on these 3 sections, why they are the most important aspects of the subject. Briefly (no more than a sentence) explain to the audience what it is you will cover in each section, why one section leads on to the next, and suggest what you will conclude (this should refer back to the title of your talk).

Slide 3-6: First section of talk (2 mins)

Slide 7-10: Second section of talk (2 mins)

Slide 11-14: Third section of talk (2 mins)

-   In each of the 3 sections of the talk, include some images with captions but no text on the slide. Speak without notes, pointing sometimes at the image, but otherwise looking directly at the audience, explaining the story of the image they are looking at.

-   In each section, include an audio or video clip for variety and to keep the audience interested.

Slide 15: Conclusion of talk (2 mins)

-   In this slide, you should have an image or very small amount of text, possibly a quote from an authority on the subject. In your conclusion, you should either make a joke, or suggest that the issues covered in your talk raise an important question and you would love to know what the audience think (either approach helps to generate a good question-and-answer session afterwards).

‘A Piece of Steak’ Andrea Torres

•      What is the purpose of this book?

The purpose of this book is basically, show human misery, that is, that no matter how successful we are, how much money we have, the skills, intelligence, everything has an end.

•      What is the author trying to accomplish?

The author is trying to make us realize that life passes by, and we have to do the best of it, because everything can change in a blink of an eye. Also one important insight is that when we are being successful we should administrate our earnings for the future that it’s unknown.

•      What issues or problems are raised?

One of the problems we can see in the story is the lack of money and the hunger that King´s family suffers, also that he’s old and jobless; finding a job is hard for him because he’s not good at anything else than boxing. This show a common situation that many people passes through, people don’t study, they just go for the easy money and when they grow old the misery comes.  

•      What data, what experiences, what evidence is given in the story?

Some data that is given on the story is the present and the past life of the main character; they show how he is right now and how he was in his golden days.  Another experience that we can appreciate and I found very interesting is that the author while narrating the story shows us the feelings that the main character is feeling, and the dialogs or thoughts in his mind.

•      How is this data or experiences organized?

Fist we read and understand the way of life Kings has, the lack of food and money for his family, the way in which his wife intervenes and try’s to support him. After that we understand why they are in that current situation and how their life used to be.

•      How is the author thinking about the world?

The author shows us an aspect of everyday life that many people suffer. To earn the daily bread is not easy, you have to study and then work your life out to have a “proper” living, and if you decide to go for the easy money, as fast as it came, as fast as it will go.

•      Is his thinking justified as far as we can see from our perspective?

From my perspective, I think that this idea it’s true. Life is not easy, and if we want to guarantee it we will have to work hard for it.

•      How can we enter his perspective to appreciate what he has to say?

An easy way to enter his perspective is to put ourselves in the shoes of King, feeling his feelings, understanding his situation, and in that way we will get to understand his perspective. 

Rubric for Film Presentations

Film Fridays

• We will combine Presentations in Pairs on Fridays with the screening of a film.
• Each person in the class is to choose a film – in English! – that they love.
• When it is your turn for your film to be shown, you must introduce it to the class.
• This introduction will be 5-10 minutes long, and will cover the following questions:

Relevance: How is the film relevant for this course? 

What new perspective does it give to some of the concerns

of this course?

Social context: When is the film set? 

What was happening in the world at this time?

Director or Cast: Who is the director or lead actor? 

Quote them on the film.

Design (a): What is notable about the visual design of 

the film?

Design (b): What is notable about the soundtrack?

Reception: Find a review of the film by a

film critic that gave you a new way of thinking about it.

Wednesday Exercise (Homework)

Critical Thinking Exercise

Drawing on the ideas we have covered in class this week, write a 200 word analysis of the story ‘A Piece of Steak’ by Jack London: http://www.jacklondons.net/apieceofsteak.html

Your analysis must answer the following questions:

•      What is the purpose of this book?

•      What is the author trying to accomplish?

•      What issues or problems are raised?

•      What data, what experiences, what evidence is given in the story?

•      How is this data or experiences organised?

•      How is the author thinking about the world?

•      Is his thinking justified as far as we can see from our perspective?

•      How can we enter his perspective to appreciate what he has to say?

Schedule of presentations in pairs & Screenings and introductions on Film Fridays

Schedule of presentations in pairs

Feb 21st:

Valery Valdez y Sergio Perales, ‘The proximity of cities to natural resources’ (Persuasive, Informative)

Feb 28th:

Jhonathan, Alejandro y Fernando, ‘The Future of Video Games’ (Informative, Analytical)

March 7th:

Regina Llorente y Claudia Sanchez, ‘Sustainability and Green Architecture’ (Informative, Persuasive)  

March 21st:

Blank
March 28th:

Daniela Grijalva y Mauricio Miñarro, ‘Comparison of Labour Conditions’ (Analytical)

April 4th:

Daniela Martínez and Omar González, ‘Modern Art’ (Analytical)

April 11th:
Carlos Alvarado & Darío Sánchez ‘When Med and Tech collide’ (Informative)
April 25th:
Andrea Torres & Scarlett Garcia ‘Topic TBC’ (Persuasive, Informative)

Screenings and introductions on Film Fridays

Feb 21st: Alice in Wonderland (Claudia Sanchez)

Feb 28th: Pulp Fiction (Mauricio Miñarro)

March 7th: Finding Nemo (Valery Valdez)

March 14th: Frozen!!! (Carlos Alvarado)

March 21st: Nosotros los Nobles (Alejandro Partido)

March 28th: No se aceptan devoluciones (Darío Sánchez)

April 4th: Tlatelolco 1968 (Andrea Torres)