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.