McB Act 5

Finally, the last blog for Macbeth! I decided to use a quote about Lady Macbeth since I'm writing my paper on her and Macbeth's transition into madness. Lady Macbeth has been sleepwalking and talking in her sleep and basically going crazy because of the things that she has done. Her lady in waiting and her doctor are watching her and talking about her in scene 1. On page 208, the Doctor says "This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known/ those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily/ in their beds." He is saying that this disease or illness that she has cannot be cured by him. This is obviously an image of illness and Shakespeare is setting the scene for Lady Macbeth's death to come. The next image I chose is on page 214 is Macbeth who says "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!/ Where got'st thou that goose look?" He is saying this to a servant that comes in to tell him about the forces outside the castle. I like this quote because it shows that in this play black and darkness are associated with the devil.

McB Act 4 Scene 3

The image of darkness continues to be present in this act especially since there is a lot of talk about MacBeth's doing.On page 186, MacDuff says "This avarice sticks deeper: grows with more pernicious root" this is an example of planting imagery. He is saying that the greed is more deeply planted. This is Macduff talking to Malcolm about the throne. This is also the scene where MacDuff is informed of the murders of his wife and child. On page 194, Ross says "your castle is surprised; your wife and babes savagely slaughtered" this is an example of injury, and as we know they were murdered because of MacBeth. And on page 188, Malcolm says "wiped the black scruples" which is an example of darkness again. He is saying that he has wiped the black suspicions from his soul.

McB Act 4 Scenes 1-2

Throughout this act there is a lot of darkness, I think partially because Shakespeare is showing that MacBeth's transition into evil has taken a toll on everything and everyone. The first scene in this act is the witches and has mainly darkness imagery. On page 162, MacBeth says "How now, you secret, black , and midnight hags!" Here is of course speaking to the witches. But here there are two images of darkness, the black witches, referring to their black magic and midnight referring to dark night. The darkness here is meant to show the evilness of the witches. On page 182, MacBeth says "Bleed, Bleed poor country" here is talking about his country, Scotland and this is during his conversation with Malcolm, so he is saying that his country is being hurt by MacBeth, this is an example of injury.

McB Act 3 Scenes 4-6

Most of the imagery in this section of reading is in Scene 4. On page 134, MacBeth says in line 23, "Then comes my fit again:" He is talking about his mental illness here. He says this after the 1st murderer tells him that Fleance escaped when they killed Banquo. This is his reaction to the news. Then right after MacBeth the murderer says in line 29, "With twenty trenched gashes on his head" here he is describing what he and the other murderers did to the body of Banquo and this is an example of injury imagery. On page 136, Lady MacBeth says to the Lords in line 65, "The fit is momentary" she is talking about MacBeth's reaction to seeing Banquo's ghost. She is trying to convince them that it is just a short and not important fit. This is an example of mental illness imagery. On page 142, MacBeth has the start of a monologue at the end of the page, in which he says "to the weird three sisters" which is of course an example of strangeness and is referring to the three witches that have been mentioned throughout the play. Then he goes on to say in line 162, "I am in blood" which is an example of injury imagery. He is saying that he is standing deep in blood because he has been involved in so many murders, and he goes on to say that he cant go back now because he is just too far in. He is saying this to Lady MacBeth.

McB Act 3 Scenes 1-3

In this section of the play there is a pretty good mixture of the different kinds of imagery. On page 110, Banquo says "As the weird women promised" which is a common example throughout this play of strangeness. He is of course referring to the three witches. On page 112, MacBeth has some lines which have 3 kinds of imagery. "We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed" which is an example of injury, "with strange intervention" which is an example of strangeness and "Till you return at night" which is an example of darkness. When he is talking about his cousins, he is talking about the injuries they have recieved, and with the strange intervention it literally means just that. And of course we all associate night with darkness, which is third image in this monologue. On page 116, MacBeth says "to half a soul and to a notion crazed" which is an example of mental illness, and he is talking about madmen. Then on the same page, MacBeth says "Our point of second meeting" which is an example of double imagery. On page 118, the 1st murderer says "To mend it, or be rid on't" which is an example of sewing.

McB Act 2

In class I was assigned strangeness to put up on the board, so since I have it already marked in my book I decided to focus on the strangeness imagery in my blog for this act. The first image of strangeness is on page 72, when Banquo says "He hath been in unusual pleasure." In this section Banquo is talking about Duncan, and how he has been in such a good mood since the battle, which apparently is not normal for him. The second occurrence of this image is on page 74, and is once again Banquo who says "I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters." In this case he is of course talking about a dream he had about the three witches. Then on page 90, Lennox says "strange screams of death." In this case, he is actually talking about strange screams of death that are heard by the people during the storm. He is discussing the night that MacBeth killed Duncan. On page 100, there are two images of strangeness. The first is when the Old Man is talking, and he says "Hours dreadful and things strange" and the second is Ross who says "And Duncan's horses- a thing most strange and certain-." They are both discussing how unusual the night in which Duncan was killed has been. Shakespeare keeps describing the night and what has happened as strange. This helps the story and makes it all the more intriguing about what is to come.

McB Act 1 Scenes 4-7

This section of reading had a lot of all the kinds of imagery, so I tried to use examples of most of them. On page 46, Duncan says to MacBeth, "I have begun to plant thee, and will labor to make thee full of growing" (pg. 28.) This is an example of planting imagery. Duncan is saying that he will reward MacBeth for all that he has done and he has Duncan's goodwill. On page 58, Lady MacBeth says "All our service in every point twice done and then done double" (pg. 58.) This is an example of the doubles imagery. She is saying this while talking to Duncan and telling him how much she and MacBeth appreciate what Duncan has done for them and how even if they repeated the kindness and doubled it, it would not be enough. On page 54, Lady MacBeth says to her husband "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters" (pg. 54.) She is saying that people can easily read strange things on his face. This is an example of strangeness imagery. And then on page 48, MacBeth says "Let not light see my black and deep desires" (pg. 48.) He is hoping that his "dark," (meaning bad) desires and plans will not be exposed. This is an example of darkness imagery.

McB Act 1 Scenes 1-3

In the first section of reading there are a lot of images of injury, beacuse or the battle, so I decided to talk about those. On page 26, Duncan speaks of a bloody man and the sergeant while speaking of the battle, talks about Macbeth's brandished steel "which smoked with bloody execution" (pg. 26.) These are both images of injury in the novel. They are giving the reader a visual of what the scene would be like and especially when the sergeant is talking about MacBeth, the way he describes it shows that MacBeth killed many people in the battle, and he was respected. On page 28, the sergeant says "But I am faint, my gashes cry for help" (pg. 28.) This is once again describing the battle and how he was wounded and it has made him weak, and now he needs someone to see to his injuries. We learn from all of this imagery that this was a big and important battle. Also on page 28, Duncan says to the sergeant, "So well they words become thee, as they wounds;" (pg. 28) this is another image of injury and Duncan is saying that the news the sergeant brought and the wounds he has suffered give him credit.

The Movie

I did not get to see much of the movie since I had an appointment today during Brit Lit, however I did see enough of the movie to be able to see how the movie dealt with elements of the novel which dont directly transfer to the film. The monologues and lists are spoken directly to the camera, so I feel like it's really similar to the book. If I had not read the book, I really don't think that I would have liked the movie because of the monologues and lists. I just would have thought it was really weird. I feel like the movie did a good job of keeping that sense of the book, because it's really important. I think it's very effective and I am getting the same effect as I do in the book. I like seeing the movie versions usually because putting a face to the character really adds a lot. I think that John Cusack was perfect for this role. He does the whole Rob character so well. With other actors it would have been really weird watching them speak to the camera all the time and the top 5 lists.

the end of the book

I think the change came after Laura’s dad’s funeral. That is when he really starts to realize that he and Laura are meant to be together, in a sense. I think this time it is more believable. For a while though towards the end I got scared because he was crushing on the Caroline girl. I thought he might screw it up with Laura again over the crush. But then it seems that he got over it and decided that he should ask Laura to marry him, which I think is a big deal for him. She doesn’t accept but she appreciates the offer, which I think is funny. By the end of the book I definitely think that he has achieved peace. He actually seems happy and doesn’t seem to be pitying himself. He has the job that he loves and he has a girlfriend. I like the end of the book, it’s not a perfect happy ending like in a Disney movie, but it is kind of happy and I like that. Not only is he enjoying his job, but the people who are at the club are enjoying it too. It’s almost better then it was the first time that he did it. All of these people like the same music that he likes and I don’t know everything just seems to be going so well at the end.

Top 5 bad ways to break someone's heart

1)in a note
2) in a voicemail
3)on facebook
4)through a friend
5)text message

Chapters 22-26

I think his infidelity is caused by his fear of death. He doesn’t want to get too attached and then have his loved one die, so he cheats on Laura. I think this is a more legitimate reason then his other ones. This is something that I can understand, although I do not think that you should not get attached to someone because you’re afraid of suffering when they die. It’s like the old saying it’s better to have loved and lost to have never last at all. Rob’s reaction to Laura’s dad dying is that he doesn’t know how to feel. He says that people are supposed to wish things when other people die. They’re supposed to wish that they had been nicer or closer to the person who has died. But he doesn’t think that he should have done anything differently, he thinks that he treated his “common father-in-law” just fine. He says on page 230, “It’s just that I can’t find any mistakes and omissions. He was my ex-girlfriend’s dad, you know? What am I supposed to feel?” I’m not sure how I feel about his reaction to the death. I feel like he should feel at least a little sad because it was someone that he knew decently well. I think it is good that he isn’t dwelling on what he could have done better while Ken was alive. That is something that a lot of people do when someone they know dies but that doesn’t mean that you should think about the mistakes that you made while that person was alive.

Top 5 Movies that make me bawl

1. I am Sam
2.The Notebook
3.Tristan & Isolde
4.Mar Adentro
5 Big Fish

Chapters 14-21

Rob is trying to find out why they all left him or what went wrong. He gets some answers, one that was particularly important, I think, from Charlie. Rob always talks about how he is just an average guy and how he never understood why Charlie wanted to be with him in the first place. She was exotic and beautiful to him. But when he goes back to talk to Charlie she says that he had no self confidence, and he thought he was uglier than he was and that was why she left him for Marco. Marco was in a way more “glamorous” to her. All of the things that he talked about feeling when he was with her that were negative ended up causing her to leave. So, he does get the answers that he was looking for. I think that Rob is trying to learn from his mistakes; at least I hope that he is. I think it’s really interesting that went he saw Charlie again, the girl who ruined his life, he basically didn’t like her anymore. I think he even used the word hate. She wasn’t even with Marco anymore. I feel like Rob dwells on things way too long. He needs to be more positive and get over things faster. The dwelling caused him to drop out of college and I think caused him to have serious relationship issues from then on.

My top 5 Top 5 Lists

1. Places
2. Movies
3. Artists (musical)
4. Actors
5. Kinds of Food

The sad story

The woman’s name is Scarlett, and she is a waitress. She is 5 foot 3 inches tall, thin and has long, straight blonde hair that goes down to her waist. She loves to wear red and prefers scandalous things. Her life revolves around the baby. She loves to have fun, and is a good cook. Her bad qualities are that she is controlling, has a temper and can be promiscuous. She comes across as a dangerous flirt. Her weaknesses include ice cream and good-looking men. She hates her boyfriend (with who she had the baby) but depends on him for help with the baby and money and she hates her job. She loves to go out dancing and her baby.

Jack came out of the bedroom and yelled at Janet to give him back the picture. She told him to just pack his things and get out, fast. Jack saw her holding the baby and knew that it was the thing that mattered the most to her. I’m taking the baby he said. She screamed at him, telling him no way you’re crazy. But he said no, he wanted the baby and he would get someone to come get the baby’s things. The baby started to scream and Jack grabbed at the baby in her arms. She shielded the baby but to no avail and Jack got a hold of the baby. They both pulled, completely forgetting that the baby would get hurt. There were both trying to win and then the baby ripped.

The End

Chapter 7-13

Rob is conflicted because, like we talked about in class, he wants what he can’t have and when he gets it he doesn’t want it anymore. He only wants to be with Laura when she does not want to be with him. It’s kind of weird. And it is kind of bugging me a little bit. Towards the end of chapter 13 he calls Laura again and asks her about getting back together, so he’s doing it again. I don’t really know what is going on with Rob at this point. I’m a little confused. He seems to want to get back together with Laura. His relationship with Marie is nothing more then the one night that they spent together. Marie is similar to him in that she wanted him because she thought that he didn’t even like her. She was intrigued by him. But then after they sleep together, their relationship becomes kind of awkward and weird. Rob is behaving like this because he is still depressed about his relationship with Laura and then after sleeping with Marie she tells him that she just wanted to sleep with someone and it ended up being one of the first guys that she met in England. Marie telling Rob this and the awkward way that their romantic experience ended probably only made Rob's depression a little worse. Even though he says that the night had not been humiliating for both of them, I think that the way that it ended made it an overall awkward experience.

Chapters 1-6

Initially I felt really bad for Rob. He seems to have a lot of girl trouble and Laura left him. But towards the end my opinion started to change a little. Especially at the very end when the friend, Liz, only went to the pub to call him a jerk or something. So now I’m assuming that he did something bad that we will find out about later. I think his obsession with music and top ten lists is funny and works for him since he doesn’t really have a great life. I think he needs something like music, it seems to help him get through his breakups. As Rob’s mom says, almost all of his adult girlfriends leave him. And I think it’s partially because of what we talked about in class. Rob cares so much that it ends up working against him and freaking out or bothering the girlfriend so much that she leaves him. Right now, I don’t really sympathize with him anymore. I would think that he would be able to figure out what he was doing wrong by now. I still like his character, and I don’t really know why, I guess I’m hoping that he will be able to change and figure himself out and keep a girlfriend for more then a couple of years.

"How to Read" by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby’s philosophy about reading is if you are not enjoying whatever you are reading stop reading it and put it down. It doesn’t matter if it’s highly acclaimed by critics or on a list of the best books of the year, if you are not enjoying it it’s not worth it. I think this is great advice and I completely agree. A book should not be difficult to read. I love what Hornby says about the prose of a book and how it should not be super difficult to read and that when he is writing he keeps it as simple as possible because he believes that the words are not as important as the world that he is describing. I basically agree with everything that he was saying. I definitely have the same mentality when I’m reading a book, even if it is for school. If I am not enjoying it I probably won’t finish it and will end up using sparknotes or something. For example, for school one year we had to read the book Lord of the Flies. That was extremely difficult for me to read and I did not finish it, I just was not interested in how a group of stranded boys were surviving and going crazy. The whole story was just too weird and boring for me. Sophomore year we read the book Last Days of Summer. I loved reading that book. It’s hard for me to explain why the book was so good. It was hilarious and by the end I was laughing and crying at the same time. I think it was really well-written, not because it had big words but because it was written all in letters from a boy to his hero and I had never read anything like that before. I think it’s important for us to really be “sucked into” a book and I definitely was in the Last Days of Summer.

Feelings about reading

I usually find the books that I enjoy by recommendations from other people, whether it’s friends, family, librarians or people working in bookstores. It’s hard for me to describe what catches my attention about books, I like a lot of different types. I guess in my opinion trashy books would be romance novels and some teen novels which are not written very well and have basically no point. It is hard to say what exactly is quality but I am going to say that any book that is well written, has a point and makes the reader think and keeps the reader interested is quality. I think that every person has different tastes and opinions therefore it is hard to decide what is quality and what is trash. I do not think that matters what people read, unless they only read comics or children’s books. Even magazines can have informative and well-written articles. Some people just do not have the time to read books, even newspapers can be good to read. Each person deals with school reading differently. Some will read a little, skim, finish the whole book and some will not read a word. I usually read the whole book, especially if I like it. I enjoy reading, so when I’m asked to do it for homework I am usually pretty happy. Over the years my tastes have not changed very much. I’ve never been a big fan of books about the wilderness or war and I’ve always loved historical fiction and mysteries. My tastes have matured slightly, for example I have moved on from Nancy Drew. The only time that I tend to expand my choices is during school and I am basically forced to. I do think that it is worth it to try new genres because you never know what you are going to like and you never know what you might learn. Over the years I have ended up loving books that I never would have read if I did not have to for school.

The End of The Novel

At the end of the novel Joe realizes that he is the future. He is the future because the war is going to continue to produce people like him. People who are so close to death, and are severely injured. The gun is being pointed at the masters of the war. The gun is being pointed at them because they are the ones that are causing the deaths in the war. They are the ones that should be held reponsibile. They are telling the soldiers who to kill and what to do and yet they are not killing anyone themselves. I thought it was a good ending, but slightly depressing. I was definitely expecting him to die by the end of the novel, I'm surprised that he lived for years with a hole in his side, and barely a body. I thought the book was pretty good, Trumbo does an amazing job of writing something that seems so realistic and is so detailed. This is not the kind of book that I ever would have read on my own, so I'm glad that we read this book for class and the discussions that we had really helped explain the book to me, and made me understand and realize things that I never would have on my own.

Joe's desires

I kind of talked about Joe's desires in my last blog. What he wants more than anything is to have his limbs back. He wants to get out of the hospital and to feel the fresh air. He wants to be around people again. He is very lonely. And he wants to go out and show the world what war can do. If I were in Joe's position, I would only want some of the things that he wants. I would want out of the hospital for sure. I think I would feel like a prisoner just like Joe does. And of course I would want my limbs back. I cannot imagine having to live like he does. I think I would go crazy not being able to communicate, that would be so frustrating. I do not think that I would want to go around showing people what war is really like. I think it is important for people to see it, but I do not know if I would actually want to go around and do it. But I don't know it's hard to know how I would feel in his situation. I completely understand why Joe does not want Kareen or his mother to come and see him in the hospital because he is ashamed. It's really sad, but I think I would feel that way too. I know that it would cause a lot of pain for my family to see me in the state that he is in, and I would not be able to communicate with them or even see them and I just think that would be incredibly hard and cause a lot of emotional pain.

What Joe Wants...

What Joe wants more than anything is to get out of the hospital. And he wants his arms, legs, face and hearing back. He feels that he is imprisoned within the hospital and he is there for the wrong reasons, he thinks that he is being kept alive as an experiment. He wants out of the hospital so he can be around people again. Joe wants to be a display to show people the horrors of the war. The problem is the hospital will not let him out because he is evidence of what the war is really like. They do not want the citizens to see what is happening.

It's really brave of Joe to think about becoming a display for people to look at. But of course he would not be able to see the people are hear what they are saying. Although it is really important for people to understand just how horrible the war is. This will never happen though because he cannot even see and has no way to leave.

Joe's injuries

Joe is very badly injured. He no longer has his arms and legs, his face, we can assume, is scabbed over, he's deaf and he has a hole in his side which is leaking something. His injuries matter a lot because he wishes that he was dead. He says that he is envious of his friend Bill Harper, who died in the war. The only thing that Joe has left is his mind. He tries to communicate by wrinkling his forehead and tapping, but people do not understand. Like we talked about in class, he is as close to death as you can get. His state is extremely depressing to him, he talks about how he never thought this would happen to him. He talks about the ring that Kareen gave him and how now it is on a rotting arm. This book is extremely well written and it has made me tear up a couple times so far. I have enjoyed reading it even though it can be quite depressing at times.

"Once Upon A Mattress"

This musical portrayed women in one of the two most stereotypical ways. The Queen mother was overbearing, controlling, shrill and obssessed with her son and finding the "perfect" woman for him. Women are usually portrayed as being submissive and docile or they are the complete opposite and are like the Queen was in the play. She was portrayed as the bad character, she was preventing her son from marrying, she only cared about herself and no one in the kingdom seemed to like her. This kind of woman character has been portrayed in modern films as well like in Monster-in-Law and to a lesser extent in the movie Family Stone. What is interesting about this play is that the males are more like what women usually are. The son is a "momma's boy" and never stands up to her even when she is unfair and the King is a mute. I really enjoyed the play, the actors all did a great job and I laughed a lot! Good job you guys!

Wolfson's use of the court case Turner v. Safely

I think that Wolfson uses this court case as a rhetorical device to stir up emotions about how even people who are convicted of crimes, can get married but law abiding good citizens that are gay cannot get married. He is showing how we do not deny the rights of convicts but we deny the rights of gays which is discrimination. I that when people read about this it will really put the situation into perspective for them. It is incredibly unfair to discriminate and that is what is happening. I think this was a wise choice on Wolfson's part to put this in. I think it would upset people and they would come to realize, hopefully, that this needs to change. If the court considers prisoners normal people than it should definitely consider gay people normal people. This is just what I think of course, and reading about this court case really fired me up.

Analyzing the Plane Metaphor

Santorum is saying in his plane metaphor that a single parent home is less likely to be as successful as a two parent home, although both can be successful. I think that he uses some statistics that show that this statement has some truth to it, when he talks about the percentages that show that two parent households have less violent kids, less child abuse etc. Like I said in class though, those are just statistics. There are definitely families that only have one parent, or two moms, or two dads, or both parents that end up providing perefectly stable and loving environments and I think that is what it takes for successful families. Single parent households may have a harder time of keep the environment stable, and loving because I'm sure that they have a lot of stress and probably have to work and many other things that make them have to work harder. Santorum says that we would all choose the second plane if we could because there is a better chance of making it to the destination, and of course that is true, but people can't choose their families and cannot always choose their family circumstances. I definitely think that the circumstances of each family is what dictates whether or not, to quote Santorum, their family "plane crashes or makes it to the destination."

Appearances

I think that Vazquez does not disclose the fact that Brian and Mickey are not gay until later because she wants us to understand how badly people are being treated and even if they are not gay, but happen to look stereotypically slightly gay, then they are subject to the same treatment. I know when I first read about them I assumed that they were gay, and I think that was her goal. She is showing us that having gay characteristics is considered bad. This article is all about appearances, therefore the title of the article. I think that maybe the issue of antigay violence changes when we recognize that sometimes its victims are heterosexual because there might be even more sympathy, and sadly that might be what actually makes people want to do something about it, but I don't really know. Either way no form of this kind of violence should be happening anywhere, especially in this country.

Things my mother and other relatives taught me

This is how you set a table, these dishes are for special occasions, this is how you make an arrangement for the table, this is how you plant flowers, this is how you know when to water the plants, this is how you make your bed, this is how you peel carrots and potatoes, this is how you wash lettuce and fruit, this is how you cut an onion, light a candle when you cut an onion so you don't cry, this is how you pick herbs, this is how you cut herbs, this is how you cut flowers, this is how you roll out dough, this is how you know when cookies/bread/etc. are done, this is how you dust, this is how you dress on sundays, act like a lady, don't put your elbows on the table, chew with your mouth closed, this is how you iron shirts, this is how you wash dishes, say please and thank you, this is how you clear the table, this is what you do when you get cut or scraped, the list could keep going on and on. Obviously I do not remember everything my mom and other female relatives have ever taught me (well at least the ones on my mom's side of the family), but most of the things that they did teach me have to do with domestic duties. And this will probably be a common theme among the girls in our class.

Manliness and Sensivity

I personally think that a person can never be equally manly and sensitive. Most of the time, in my personal experience, men who are manly are not sensitive at all. Very rarely do I meet a person who is both manly and sensitive. So I guess I would agree with Mansfield in that the two qualities are not compatible. I do not know part of why these two qualities rarely exist in the same person but I think that part of it is because society expects you to be a certain way and maybe there is some other reason. When I think of these two qualities, I think of them being exact opposites, and I think that is partly because of the people that I know that are either very masculine or sensitive think badly of the other. I think this is a really hard question, I do not really know how to explain why they can never seem to exist together.

The Last American Man

According to Gilbert, Eustace Conway is the last American man. This goes back to when America was still expanding into the west and there were frontiersmen who lived out in the dangerous areas and had to live off the land and maybe not live exactly like Eustace did, but similarly. We have all of these tales today that Gilbert mentions in the book like Pecos Bill, Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyon etc. that were all frontiersman and lived like Eustace. When other people from around the world visited America and saw frontiersmen or people like them they were impressed and considered them to not only be part of American democracy and way of thinking but as what the definition of an American man is. A lot of us heard these stories when we were little and of course we admire them and grow up thinking that is what a "real man" or even a real American man is like. In Europe they do not tell their children stories like this, at least not that I am aware of. Eustace is going back to the original true American men by living like he does. He is actually living out what as Gilbert says in the book a lot of men wish that they could do or want to do but do not actually ever do it. There is a part in the book in which Gilbert talks about how when Eustace left Turtle Island and talked about his life men would say "I wish I could do what you are doing" and Eustace would say "You Can." But of course very few men would actually be as determined and committed as Eustace and go out and actually do what he did.

American vs. European attitudes toward women

Tocqueville talks a lot about the differences between how American and European women are treated. It seems like he mentions at least one in almost every paragraph, so I am just going to pick a few. One of I thought the most interesting things that he says about European men was that "It has often been remarked, that in Europe a certain degree of contempt lurks even in the flattery which men lavish upon women..." He then goes on to say that in America, men do not really compliment women but they often show how highly they think of them. Tocqueville also says that in America, a young and unmarried woman can travel long distances alone and not worry. So we assume that in Europe it is not that way. I think that is really interesting considering he wrote this in the 1800's. As far as democracy and the freedom of women, Tocqueville says that American democracy forces men and women to be on completely seperate paths. Then he goes on to say "the object of democracy is to regulate and legalize the powers which are necessary, and not to subvert all power."

I really like the way that Tocqueville ends his essay by saying that "...in which I have spoken of so many important things done by Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply, To the superiority of their women." I wasn't expecting this kind of ending and it was a nice a surprise because I guess I never thought that American women were better off than European women.

Snow White

I decided to use Snow White as my fairy tale. This is obviously one of the more well known fairy tales and I really liked it when I was little. Snow White lives with seven little man dwarfs in a house in which she cleans and cooks for them and as we all know she eats a poison apple and finally her prince charming comes and kisses her and they live happily ever after. Seeing Snow White acting like she does in the movie it makes girls think that they are supposed to cook and clean for men, look like her and prince charming will always come to save them. In all honesty I think when I was little I only thought about the prince charming coming to save her. But now looking back at this, Snow White's evil stepmom or whatever wants to kill her because she is prettier than her, we see her cleaning and cooking for a bunch of men while acting like it's so much fun, and when she is at fault after eating the poison apple, the man has to come save her. I guess I never really thought about it this way, but seeing a woman acting like this probably had some affect on me and maybe on some level showed me the way women are "supposed to be."

Oh Transcendentalism

I decided to choose the following lines from "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. "The eye is the best of artists. By the mutual action of its structure and of the laws of light, perspective is produced, which integrates every mass of objects, of what character soever, into a well colored and shaded globe, so that where the particular objects are mean and unaffecting, the landscape which they compose, is round and symmetrical." I really like these lines because I think they are so true. The eye is the best artist and Emerson does a really good job of explaining why it is. After he says this he goes on to say that there is beauty even in a corpse. I think I like what he is saying here because I have never thought about it this way. I think he does a really good job of explaining how the eye sees things and how light affects how we see things. I think obviously reading anything that Emerson writes to understand it you have to read through it a couple of times, and I definitely had to here. But the line the eye is the best of artists jumped out at me immediately.

Frida Kahlo Painting

I am going to blog about one of Frida Kahlo's paintings. It is called "The two Fridas." I saw the movie when it came out a couple of years ago, and I have been really interested in Frida every since. And then today in morning meeting, the presentation had the painting that I would like to talk about. The painting where there are two Fridas, and they are holding hands. One is the indigenous Frida and one is the Spanish Frida. This painting really makes me think when I look at it. The Spanish Frida is more pale, and has on a very lacy dress, and the indigenous Frida has on the traditional clothing and has darker skin. During morning meeting one of the presenters said that Frida is torn on the inside between her two nationalities in a way. And I would completely agree, she is two nationalities and I think it would be very hard to feel so torn. We have talked about this in class before, what it is like to be biracial and/or multicultural. She is painting about something that I think a lot of people today are also feeling. I chose this painting because I just think it is so interesting, and I love the idea that she looked different then what society accepted with the unibrow, and she was constantly making a statement. I know a lot of people think her paintings are so weird. But I think that is partially why I like them so much. They are unusual but they were her outlet, she led a really painful life, and you can tell in her paintings.

Wright's realization

The end of the book kind of depressed me. Wright comes to a realization that humans will never be able to unify. It seems like when he comes to this realization, it severely depresses him. He also seems to think that life will never be as good for him in America as he thinks it should be. So he eventually expatriates himself to Paris. I think in a way Wright is correct. The human race may never be able to completely unify. I do not like to think about that, because it depresses me, but I do think it is true. I do not know if there will ever be a time when all races will be treated equally, or when people will not be discriminated against because of their religion or sexual orientation. I hope that someday this will be, but it seems that people are, as we have talked about before, inherently subjective. And if there continue to be people who have prejudices, then they will continue to be passed on.

Politicians vs. Artists

I think I'm going to have to agree with Wright and say that politicians and artists stand at opposite poles. In my personal opinion, artists and politicians are very different. I think artists see the world in a different way than politicians. I think this is a really hard blog because I feel like you cannot compare artists to politicians. When I think of an artist you think of someone who is creative, eccentric, descriptive etc. When I think of a politician I think of someone in a suit, who likes to be in the public eye, and is not necessarily a pleasant person. Politicians seem to be involved in a lot of deceit, and are powerloving. Artists are more true to themselves and do what they want. Politicians often get caught up in lies and as we have recently seen scandals. Artists are more carefree. I'm having a really hard time trying to make my point about this, because I think this is really hard to explain. But if I had to give an example of two completely opposite people it would be a politician and an artist. Although, I could see how some people could say that they were similar, maybe in creativity or something like that. I think politicians are more extroverted and aritsts are more introverted.

Wright using parenthesis

Recently in the book, Wright has been using long paragraphs enclosed in parenthesis more commonly. One example of this is the first paragraph on page 267. I am not going to typed out the entire paragraph because it is quite long. But when Wright uses the parenthesis in the book it seems to be when he is explaining what he was thinking or how he was thinking at the time. I think this a good way to do this, and I think it is important to the story to get this information. In this particular paragraph Wright is talking about what it meant to be black in America, and how he "began to forge in the depths of my mind a mechanism that repressed all the dreams and desires that the Chicago streets, the newspapers, the movies were invoking in me." Not only is using asyndeton here like we talked about it class, but he is talking about how he tried to not dream about things that were coming naturally to him in his everyday life. He is in a way having us be in his mind, and know what he is was thinking at the time which is really interesting, and helps to explain some things.

The new move

I definitely think that the move to Chicago was a good thing for Wright and for his family. He has wanted to get out of the south for so long. And he finally had the chance, so he took it. He even said that if he did not leave when he did leave, then he never would be able to. And he also said in the book that if he waited until the whole family could go together, they would never leave. So him going first and then bringing the rest of his family was a good idea. The north will probably be at least a little better for him, although he still will not have it easy. There is a a reason why Shorty wanted to get out as well and why so many other blacks want out. They probably think that life will be a lot better in the North when in fact it will probably be just a little better. Overall, I think he needed to get out of the southern culture and the move was a good thing.

Wright's stealing

I really cannot decide if Wright is justified in stealing. A lot of people around him are stealing, so it was amazing he went such a long time without trying it. The reason that he is stealing is so that he can get out of his house and eventually move north where he thinks everything will be better. But stealing from your boss, like he did at the movie theatre, and from the grain house and from his neighbor were not the best choices. I know that he said in the book if he had not stolen and just worked for the money it would have taken a couple years for him to leave, and he could not stand waiting that long. And after he does steal, he feels badly about it. This is why it is so difficult for me to decide whether or not he is justified. It's like what we talked about in class, it is hard to say whether he is good or bad. I would have probably done the same thing if I were in his position.

"Learning how to live in the south."

When Griggs says that Wright needs to "learn how to live in the south," he is saying that Wright needs to learn how to conform and live in society. Right now, Wright is in danger of getting hurt because he is not conforming and he realizes that something is wrong with his society. Griggs is saying that in order for him to survive and keep a job in the south he needs to learn to behave a certain way around white people. He has to be more careful about what he says and does. As he has experienced before, when he does not keep himself in check, which he seems to have a hard time doing, then he gets fired from his jobs. There is a kind of behavioral code in the south between blacks and whites, and if you do not follow it you will be punished. When Wright is working in the optical shop and he is accused of not saying Mr. Pease, this is an example of one of the "rules."

Is Wright justified in refusing to say the speech?

I think that Wright is in fact justified in refusing to say the speech. First of all, the principal is trying to bribe him into saying the speech by saying that he was going to make him a teacher and he decides who graduates and who does not. This is ridiculous, and I do not think anyone should ever give in to bribery like that. I do understand that the principal is in a way trying to protect Wright from the white people that will be in the audience. And if he says something that they do not like, they might harm him or even kill him. If Wright did give in and say the speech, then he would be conforming to society. And he should not do that because the society he lives in is so messed up and unfair, and he had been working so hard not to conform.

Why is Wright so angry with his Uncle Tom?

He is really angry with his uncle because when his uncle asks him for the time, Wright says that its eighteen past five and then he says that it might be a little fast or a little slow. His uncle gets really angry with him and says that he is being "sassy." His uncle then wants to beat him. He says that he is going to give him "a whipping." Since Wright did not want to be beat for not doing anything wrong, he gets razors and threatens to cut his uncle if he trys to beat him. Wright is angry because his uncle wants to punish him for no reason. This sadly seems to be a common theme in his family. I would be furious if anyone wanted to punish me for doing something, that I did not do or did not mean to do, especially if it was a family member.

Wright's gratification

Wright feels gratified after sharing his writing with his neighbor because as it says on page 121, his neighbor's "inability to grasp what I had done or was trying to do somehow gratified me." He does not even seem to know why it gratified him, because he goes on to say that "Afterwards whenever I thought of her reaction I smiled happily for some unaccountable reason." Maybe it was because he felt that he was smarter then her, because she did not understand it, and for once in his life he felt like he was a little better than someone else. I think it is unusual that he feels gratified that someone does not understand why he wrote something. I personally would want people to understand why I write.

His reaction to his mother's stroke

Wright does not handle his mother's illness very well. At first he was really scared, but then later in the chapter after his mother relapses he says that he grew numb to his mother's illness. And the family started to just accept the illness and used up all their money trying to help her. In the book on page 100, Wright says that his "mother's suffering grew into a symbol in my mind, gethering to itself all the poverty, the ignorance, the helplessness..." He also says that "a somberness of spirit that I was never to lose settled over me during the slow years of my mother's unrelieved suffering." His mother's illness had a profound effect on him.

"His cultural heritage"

Wright says that hating the Jews is part of his cultural heritage. He says this after he lists some of the rhymes that the black children would chant at the Jews. He says that it is ok for the children to taunt the Jews like this, they will not get into trouble for doing it. I think that it is ok for them to do this because they feel like they need to take their anger and their experiences of being mistreated and taunted out on someone. And the main other group around them that is different from them in some way is the Jewish community. It has become part of the culture because Wright has heard it since he was little, so of course he thinks it's ok. It has been happening around him for so long, and he learned from that example.

El tiene hambre

When Richard talks about his hunger in this chapter he is talking about how whenever he is hungry he thinks about his father leaving his family. When his father left they did not have the money for the food, so he and his family were hungry a lot. His father was the provider for the family. So now that his father is gone, he has a constant hunger and resents his dad. That feeling of hunger will probably stick with him the rest of his life, because he is never going to forget that his father ran out on his family. He is also in a way hungry for attention.

I think this book has been really interesting so far, and I'm excited to read more of it. I think Richard is a very interesting character, he is a little weird and in the first chapter I really hated what he did to the cat. I had to skip over the paragraph with the details of killing it.

Do I agree that we don't really need to go to school?

I definitely think that we could learn what we do at school at home. Our parents or other relatives could teach us Math, Science, English and Health. This can become a problem when relatives never learned very much math or science. Then there should definitely be places for people to go to learn these things, but we could live without school and still get an education. Home-schooled kids do just fine in life. I think that it is important to go to school at least at some point in your life to learn how to interact with others and to get other opinions and hear other views on different subjects. It's also important to learn how to think critically and some parents might be able to teach that, but most kids would get biased views of topics.

My nonacademic education

I definitely value my nonacademic education. We talked about in class, how school helps you develop social relationships, and I think that is really important in preparing you for life after school, and just everyday life in general. Most people have to know how to interact with people in order to be successful and live their lives to the fullest. We also talked about how we get to hear all different sides to issues, and all different opinions about a lot of things while at school, and not just those of our parents and families. This is also really important, since so many of us are so strongly influenced by our parents, and it is important for everyone to make up their own mind.

Day 2 of rhetoric on the town

Today was the double and there were some really good presentations. One of the ones that really surprised me was part of Alex's presentation. He had a two pictures up at once, one of Hillary Clinton and one of John McCain that were both from the today show or something. Both of them had the person's name and their political party underneath. Alex said that when they put on the screen what political party the person is who is being shown, people who are watching automatically decide whether or not they like that person based on what party they are. If a republican was watching the today show and a senator came on the show that they did not know and they saw that that senator was a democrat, they would probably immediately decide that they did not like that person. If they did not put what political party some of these people belonged to and the public could just hear their opinions on the issues, then I think that people would actually support the right people. I had not thought about this before, but I definitely think that it is true.

Rhetoric on the Town ... Day 1

One of the most interesting presentations for me today was Tony's. The billboard for the magazine The Economist was very clever and funny. A billboard like that would definitely get my attention. I love the picture of a person walking by and a light bulb lighting up over their head. This is good advertising. And it appeals to everyone because as we talked about in class, everyone wants to have good ideas, and everyone wants that light bulb to go off in their head. I also thought that the advertisement for the neighborhood was interesting. I have never really thought of these advertisements as being examples of rhetoric until recently. So this unit has been an eye-opening experience for me.

Funniest class of my life

I think that Wednesday's class was hilarious and so much fun. I really enjoyed watching everyone's commercials. I thought that they were all good, and they were definitely all entertaining. I have to say that one of my personal favorites was Brittney, Maggie, and Katie's. I think they did a really good job of making it look like a commercial that you might see on TV and their product was fantastic. Seeing Brittney pop up at random times was hilarious, and I loved the ending with the voice talking really fast, naming the locations where the product was sold. I also thought that Christina, Tony, Jordan and Eli's was really funny. Tony did a great job of playing the salesman, and Eli was hilarious with his facial expressions. I thought this was a great project, and a good way to get back into using rhetoric in a fun way. I know I had a good time making our commercial, and I have not had that much fun in class in a long time.

Pottery Barn

I thought this article, although quite long, was actually pretty interesting. I did not know a lot about Pottery Barn before reading this. I think we might have a Pottery Barn store in Keystone Mall somewhere, and I've walked past it, but I've never actually been in. The article makes it sound pretty good. I really like that they also have the five-point test for all of their product. The product has to look good, feel good, be high quality, has to be durable, and the final question: Would you take it home or give it as a present to your best friend." I think those are all really important things to keep in mind when designing the home products that Pottery Barn sells. I also think it is great that they now have PB teen and Pottery Barn kids. I thought it was really interesting to read about how their designers get their inspiration, whether it's by walking through a flea market or looking at polaroids of teenagers' rooms. I also thought it was interesting that they start working on their collections a year in advance, it just shows how much work they have to put into their collections. I definitely think I am going to have to stop by the Pottery Barn store soon, even though I have heard that their prices are pretty high.

Where I shop

I have two favorite stores, Nordstrom and Forever 21. They are pretty different from each other. I pretty much only shop at Nordstrom during their many sales, and Forever 21 whenever.

I shop in the BP section of Nordstrom, and it is quite different from the rest of the store. Usually when you walk into Nordstrom you hear soft music, there might even be someone playing a piano. But when you go to the BP section, it all changes. The area is much more colorful and there is a screen playing music videos in the back and the music is what is popular at that time. There are outfits put together with all sorts of accessories everywhere including a big selection of $10 sunglassses which I am obsessed with. And there is a section of BP completely dedicated to any accessory you could possibly want. I think that the music that BP plays, and the way that they put their clothes together influences me. They play music that I like, and I love the things they put together.

The great thing about Forever 21 is that their clothes are affordable all year round, you do not have to wait for sales. Forever 21 has a huge selection of all different kinds of clothes. I think that is why I like it so much, it is not just one style. It is almost overwhelming how much stuff they have in there, and I could easily spend a lot of time in there. The music in there is modern and louder than Nordstrom but not quite Hollister loud. Forever 21 is really bright and the music is usually upbeat so you are in a good mood while you are shopping.

No offense to anyone who really likes Hollister or Abercrombie, but I really do not like stores like that because it is dark inside, and the music is soooo loud and it smells so strongly in there, that I just do not like to be in there.

Super Bowl Commercials

Since these commercials were doing the Super Bowl, the ones that I saw were geared toward men. The first one that I saw was for Chase credit cards. It showed a man who was very James Bond like, going out and catching the person that was using his credit card. All during the commercial, the song "Secret Agent Man" is playing. At the end the man arrives back at the party he was at with his wife and tells her that he took care of the situation. The slogan is protection matters, chase matters. A lot of guys would like to be like James Bond, so it is kind of playing off of men's fantasies. And of course men are the "protectors" and apparently Chase is also a protector.

The other commercial that I saw was for the Ford F-150 pick-up. THe commercial shows the truck being swung around in a circle at high speeds by its tow hooks. Then it shows the sort of celebrity host of the show Dirty Jobs. He says "you can see how strong the tow hooks are, imagine how strong the rest of it is." Guys like their big trucks and for some reason they care about how strong they are, so this commercial is appealing to that. And I think mainly guys watch the show Dirty Jobs, but I'm not sure. But they are trying to use the celebrity appeal as well.

Our discussion

The discussion that we had in class was one of, I think, the most interesting we have had so far this year. At times, I think we can all get a little worked up and shout at each other, but I think it's good that a lot of us have strong opinions. I thought Tony brought up the interesting point that the reason all of these sexual ads are out there is for the shock factor, which can result in major profit for the company. Kilbourne mentioned Calvin Klein showing ads with border line child porn to get that shock factor and it had a huge positive effect on his sales. It is kind of sad that this is what advertising has become, but it's obviously working. Now we just have to figure out a way to fix it.

I also thought that Brittney and Ieysha brought up a good point when they said that people are probably not just going to stop buying a certain brand of jeans just because they have an offensive commercial. If people really like the jeans, they are going to keep buying them. This is I think part of why it is so hard to change advertising.

"Two ways a woman can get hurt"

I agree with most of what Kilbourne is saying in this section taken from her book. I definitely believe that the way women are portrayed in ads contributes to violence towards women. I think one of the most important things that she mentioned was that men are encourage to not take no for an answer. I think that is a huge problem, and can lead to sexual harassment. Some guys probably do not even realize that it is harassment because they think that they should not take no for an answer and the girl is not being serious. I've actually seen this happen. I really like when the author talked about how it is ok for little boys to say sexual things about older women and to look up their skirts, but if little girls acted that way, we would think there was something wrong with them. I had never thought about that before but it is so true!

There were a couple of things that I did not agree with that Kilbourne said. One was when she was talking about how a man was acquitted of rape charges against a woman, and Kilbourne thought that it could have partially been because the jury was made up of mostly women. She said that women can be especially cruel judges of other women's sexual behavior which she said was because we are so desperate to believe that we are in control of what happens to us. I do not think that a mostly female jury would want to acquit a man with a history of violence because they were cruel judges. I think women would be sympathetic, some of them probably had been sexually abused and they knew what it was like. They have to be cautious in their every day lives , so that it does not happen to them. I would have been more sympathetic because I am a girl.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this section of Kilbourne's book. I thought she made some really good points and made me think about things that I had not thought about before.

Commercials I saw

I was watching the E channel, and there were two commercials that I picked to talk about in here. The first one was a commercial for Febreze. This commercial was definitely geared toward women, and stay at home moms in particular. It showed a woman who was dressed in the typical mom clothes spraying Febreze on the furniture after the kids and dog had been on it to get that "fresh air clean" smell. The commercial showed the woman vacuuming and doing all of the other typical housewife duties. And of course the house and furniture were perfect. The commercial was appealing to women who are obsessed with that perfect image. This commercial was kind of similar to the one about the car that we watched in class today.

The other commercial that I decided to talk about was for the credit card Citi. It shows a father and a son who decide to go to Norway because it is the land of their ancestors and they do all this fun stuff and enjoy the culture. Then they look at some records and realize that they are in fact Swedish. The commercial ends with the son buying two tickets to Stockholm. This commercial has the family bonding appeal and the idea of taking great trips and creating great memories. It is appealing to the emotions of the audience which I think could be anyone in their early 20's up to 50's. I think it has a broad audience because there is that family appeal. It had a nice little comical part when they realized that they weren't Norwegian like they thought. The commercial ends with the motto "Citi, let's get it done."