i enjoy sitting in the dark by myself.

Acquainted with the Night
Robert Frost
(1874-1963)

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain – and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.



I have been one acquainted with the night also.
The night is the best time for thinking. And this poem by Frost, is all about thinking and being within yourself. Its not about actually walking passed the limits of the city. Its about being so inside of yourself that you continue to walk and wander and think and discuss with yourself. Its about understand who you are, and where you are going, and what it is that you believe in and why it is that you have come to believe it. And this poem kind of reminds me of this summer when I would talk to this friend of mine. And it would be late at night, because he was us an insomniac and was always awake and ready to discuss things. And he would always want to discuss what you believe an how you come to believe it, and how to make sense out of your life… he is kind of deep. But anyway, we would talk about these things and not really come to an answer but because we were discussing them, we came to an understanding. I think I just made myself sound really smart, discussing the meaning of life and all, but it really isn’t that much.

ohhh sorry mrs. pfan.... my bad.

Yeah I know I know, I'm a slacker.
I haven't blogged in ages.
and I think I am so far behind that writing them now will do me no good.
Therefore, In this one blog I am going to write about the end of The Awakening.

Okay.
The end of the Awakening. Edna dies...in the ocean... surprise surprise. Stupid ocean....how fitting?
Anyway.
She drowns the ocean. Earlier when she swims out, she finds it empowering to do something that no women has done before, and to go beyond her comfort zone. So I find it fitting that she drowns while doing something she finds empowering. The way she decided to change her life and live basically as a creole man, was empowering to her. What she couldn't understand or comprehend was that she could not keep up both this new lifestyle and her old. Trying to keep up both, and not knowing what she wanted led to her mental downfall. So then when she was swimming, something also empowering, she swam passed her limits, and couldn't handle it, and drowned. The main thing that I was discussing with myself in my head as I was reading was, Is it a suicide? or was it accidental. I can't decide if she swam out on purpose with the intention of swimming until she drown or if she swam out for the feeling of the empowerment and got caught up and swam too far and drown... OR did she swim out with the intention of empowerment, and then decide in the middle of it to let herself swim further and drown. or i guess she could have gone out for empowerment and then realized she was out too far, and then decided not to turn around.. but that is similar to the third one. I am leaning towards the third one.

suppression.

A Work of Artifice

Marge Piercy
(b. 1936)

The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers
the hands you
love to touch.


When I read the first line of this poem, I will not lie, I laughed for quite a while. I have this long running joke with Aly Hughes about bonsai trees. Then I decided to read it for real, and I was like… dayummmm this is not funny. The author uses the tree to exemplify suppression. In particular is is about the suppression of girls in Asian countries. When this was written feet binding was a common practice to keep women from having their feet grow because small feet were considered attractive. This poem is about not conforming exactly but living up to the level that society has set for you. Women are taught from a young age what they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to look like. This poem is about starting when girls are young to suppress any thoughts other than what society wants them to think. Not only is it about suppressing those thoughts, but about replacing them with thoughts that societies pressures are right and they are happy living life like that. Now, don’t respond to this response to tell me that it is not only women who face these pressures. Men also face them. But this poem is about women, and I am a woman. Therefore I wrote it from a woman’s perspective. The End.

i totally swam in the ocean and i was sooo empowering

Enda has been trying to learn how to swim the entire summer. One day she gets the courage to just try and swim as far as as she can. She is swimming as far as she can and must swim further than any woman has swam before. Symbolism much? This scene is a metaphor for the entire novel itself. Edna wants to break out the the role that women are supposed to play. when she swims out she thinks that she has gone so far, but in reality she hasnt. In the rest of her life she is breaking out of her comfort zone, but to others she isn't doing that much.

but what can we do?

1943

They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium
Ed Monahan knocked out Dominick Esposito in the first round

of the heavyweight finals, and ten months later Dom died
in the third wave at Tarawa. Every morning of the war

our Brock-Hall Dairy delivered milk from horse-drawn wagons
to wooden back porches in southern Connecticut. In winter,

frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles,
Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf,

or the right engine faltered into Channel silt, or troops marched
—what could we do?—with frostbitten feet as white as milk.

—Donald Hall


So. This poem is epic. I really like how every two lines have both a line about home and a line about war. They relate war to everyday life, but show that life at home is never going to prepare them for war. At the beginning they think that they are being prepared for it. At the end they realize that they will never be able to do anything for home. All the can do is wait and watch and hope for the best. They use everyday work to show that they will always be trying to do something to help. oh hey. Conrad. you have to immerse yourself in your work to not let the reality get to you.
score:
Me: 1
FW: 0

to the beach.

So. Edna is not a mother woman. Adèle is a mother woman. Yet they are still best friends. Personally I think the reason they are friends is because they each want what the other has. Adèle wishes she was more like Edna. Edna has a different point of view on everything because she wasnt raised in the creole society. I think Adèle is almost jealous of it. Edna is jealous of the feeling that Adèle has for her children. She almost feels guilty because she doesn't feel the same way. yay best friends

Edna, you know she got made fun of for that as a child

So basically. Edna is the coolest. First her name is Edna, you know she got made fun of for that as a child. That just makes her a better character. In the first four chapters/ little paragraphs, all we basically find out is that Edna is the main character and she is not a creole. She is married to a creole, but only because he fell in love with her and she is just settling. She has no concept of the creole culture. Scratch that, she does have the concept, of it. She knows how she is supposed to feel and act towards her children, husband and society, but because she was not raised in this environment she doesnt know how to react and respond to it. Adèle Ratignolle is introduced to the story. She is used the absolute perfect creole woman, who takes care of her children and husband and has no other worries in the world.

Ps. im likin' this book.

beginning again

Beginning Again

“If I could stop talking, completely
cease talking for a year, I might begin
to get well,” he muttered.
Off alone again performing
brain surgery on himself
in a small badly lit
room with no mirror. A room
whose floor ceiling and walls
are all mirrors, what a mess
oh my God—

And still
it stands,
the question
not how begin
again, but rather

Why?

So we sit there
together
the mountain
and me, Li Po
said, until only the mountain
remains.

—Franz Wright

What
the
hell?
I have no idea what this poem is trying to tell me. He says ceasing to speak for a year will help him get well. But what is wrong with him? Is he sick? Mentally? Or does he actually have an illness? Then he starts talking about performing brain surgery on himself. Why? Because he feels like he has to do everything himself with no help? That he is on his own for everything? Or is it because he has to reinvent himself? A room with no mirror, so that he cannot do the surgery well, but the room is made of mirrors so that he has to look at himself. It makes me think that he doesn’t like himself and doesn’t want to look at himself, so the mirrors are a bad thing. He asks why he should begin again. Why should he reinvent himself? I don’t think he comes to a conclusion. The last part is what throws me. I have no idea who Li Po is, or what mountain he is talking about. I just don’t get it. This poem just makes me ask questions. I can decide what I want it to mean, but the last part I don’t even know what to decide it means. Therefore after the question why, I give up trying to figure out what it means to me.

of course his last words were about me. i mean.. look at me

The very end of the story, Marlow is back in Europe and his hardened but the darkness. He is not taken over by the darkness, and dark himself, but it still has effected him. He no longer has the European mindset that everything he does he is helping or that his way is the most superior. He no longer has an idealistic view about everything that happens. He is annoyed with people that think that everything is perfect or that what they are doing is perfect. He doesn’t know why people can’t see things the way that he does now. These people have never really met anyone who thinks like Marlow does because not many people come back from the darkness. Marlow goes to see the Intended and she is also of the European mindset and is still in mourning over Kurtz. Marlow just tells her what she wants to hear about Kurtz’s final words because he doesn’t want to deal with her and her thought process. Marlow explains that the darkness of the room and the shadows are creeping in on her. She will be no longer innocent soon enough.

the horror.

In the first section of reading in the third section of the story, Marlow is on his way back out from the Inner station and back to Europe with Kurtz. Kurtz is still very ill but he does not want to go back to Europe. He likes it in the jungle because he is worshipped as a god. The natives treat him as a god because he speaks to them with authority. His voice, which is talked about throughout the story- Kurtz is a voice- is what makes him look like he is something to worship. He thinks he is in control of the darkness but the darkness is in control of him. He is now even keeping the heads of the ‘rebels’ and putting them on posts to remind himself that he is superior to the natives. When he is dying his final words are ‘The horror, the horror.’ This could be a realization that his life was horrible and all of the horrible things he has done he is now sorry for. And that he has broken away from the darkness in this time before death and has realized what he has done wrong. It also could be that he is sorry that he is dying and cannot stay with the natives that love him and worship him so much. Either way he is still dying and the horror is some sort of realization.

the darkness isn'y just black. its a gradient.

In the second section of part two, we finally get to the heart of the darkness. The darkness has not consumed Marlow, but they are at the Inner Station.

This section flashes forward to a time when Marlow has already met Kurtz. It is really confusing because it makes you think that he is meeting him and that Kurtz is already very corrupt by the darkness, and that the has dark thoughts and intentions now. But the point of it is to show that Marlow knows now after the fact that his first impression was not exactly what Kurtz truly was.

When Marlow does meet Kurtz he realizes that he is a ‘voice.’ His main power is his ability to speak and be heard. Even the Russian is enthralled by him, because when Kurtz speaks you listen. The natives treat him like a god. It is not because his ideas or anything is so grand. It is just his physical presence he has that commands attention.

Good intentions, wrong idea

In the fist section of part two of Heart of Darkness, Marlow is on his way in to the Inner Station. He is actually on the boat now and is physically on his way down the river.

While he is sleeping on deck, he overhears his uncle and the Manager talking about how they wish that Kurtz was dead. They think that all Kurtz wants to do is rise up through the ranks and take over the business and make money. Marlow knows now that this man is powerful and that people that have been consumed by the darkness don’t like his view on what they, as Europeans should be doing there.

Kurtz’s plan is to help the natives become more civilized. He has good intentions with his plans. This scares the people who are already in the darkness because they just want to make money and do not view the natives as people. And if they aren’t even people, they don’t need to be civilized.

uneasiness in the darkness

In the third section of reading Heart of Darkness, the Manager comes into the story.
The Manager is on the ship that is going to take Marlow to the Inner Station. He gets on the ship and shakes his hand and the Manager gives him a smile. This smile wasn’t even a smile, Marlow remembers. It was a look or a grimace, but not really a smile. His smile like face made Marlow aware that this man had almost zero emotions. The emotionless of the Manager made Marlow uneasy, and he didn’t know why, which is what scares him.

The uneasiness that he feels and the emotionless ness of the Manager are supposed to be like a warning that this is what happens to you when you are in the Darkness for too long. You either cant handle it and have to leave or die, or to be able to handle it you have to let yourself be unaffected by any of your surroundings. Marlow becomes uneasy because he knows he will be affected by what is around him.

Internal Struggggggle

In this section of reading of Heart of Darkness, a lot has happened. Marlow has gone through all of the motions to be able to go to the Congo, and has now arrived in Africa, waiting to get onto another steamer to get to the Inner Station. He has now walked and traveled across the land, to see the natives and how they are ‘natural.’ He knows that they are supposed to be there and he, as a white man, isn’t.
He notices that the reason he is there is not because he thinks that he should be reforming everything that these natives were doing. He wasn’t for the cause, he was in it for the adventure. He knows that what he is doing there is wrong, but at the same time he doesn’t feel that these natives are equal by any means. He thinks of them as animals or creatures, only free when they have died. This is his main internal struggle.

Lost Brother- Poetry Response

Lost Brother

I knew that tree was my lost brother
when I heard he was cut down
at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years;
I know we had the same mother.
His death pained me. I made up a story.
I realized, when I saw his photograph,
he was an evergreen, a bristlecone like me,
who had lived from an early age
with a certain amount of dieback,
at impossible locations, at elevations
over ten thousand feet in extreme weather.
His company: other conifers,
the rosy finch, the rock wren, the raven and clouds,
blue and silver insects that fed mostly off each other.
Some years bighorn sheep visited in summer—
he was entertained by red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits,
horned lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered.
Beside him in the shade, pink mountain pennyroyal—
to his south, white angelica.
I am prepared to live as long as he did
(it would please our mother),
live with clouds and those I love
suffering with God.
Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down.

—Stanley Moss

On the surface this poem is about a tree that knows that it is just a tree that will never surmount to anything because it will eventually be cut down or die and fall.
The author is using a tree as his character and point of view because when people think of trees they think tall and stable. He is using the tree as his metaphor for people in society. We all compare ourselves with others and want to be as good as someone else. We want to make our parents or anyone else who’s approval matters to us, proud.
The point I think that the author is trying to get to is, that we as humans have faults and we all will compare ourselves to others, and will always try to be better, but the important thing is not to be as good as someone else, but to be as good as you can be because life is too short not to live it to your fullest potential. Sooner or later some bag of wind, or something, will be your downfall, or your end, and you want to have your past be the best it could have been.

stupid selfish girl

Eveline is about a girl who is getting ready to leave her home and bad childhood to be happy with someone who loves her, but then can’t do it.

Who are her brothers?
Why can’t she leave?
If you had such awful memories associated with a place, and had the chance to leave, why wouldn’t you?

Eveline is one of the most selfish characters I have ever read. Usually when you think of a selfish character all they want are material things or wealth or power for themselves. One could argue that if she were to leave her father and everything behind for her own happiness, she would be selfish. She is selfish because she will not leave everything. I think that by staying and letting Frank go, she is selfish. She is not scared or attached to her family. She is selfish and wants to keep her life how she knows it. She doesn’t want to leave the house she grows up in or her daily routine because she would have to start over and establish her own way, instead of following her father.
If I had such a horrible childhood, with an abusive father, and I had the chance to leave I would do it. She thinks that she is helping Frank because she doesn’t know if she loves him. She thinks it would be bad to leave and marry someone she doesn’t love. I think she did love him, and didn’t know it. I think because she had such a bad relationship with her father as a child and grew up for the most part without a mother, she doesn’t know what love is anymore, and cannot connect with Frank because of this. If she would realize that she was doing this, then she could see that leaving with him is the best thing for her. Bottom line. I don’t like her, yet I pity her.

over my head and around the corner

Araby is a story about an unnamed boy who is in love with his friend’s sister and wants to buy her a present at the bazaar.

Where does the boy live?
Why does a priest live in the house previous to him living there?
Do all children realize that their life is no longer great at some point?

When I first read this story, I barely got the main idea and plot line out of it. Apparently the plot line does not matter. The boy is in love with a girl and he wants to buy her something to show her his love, but when he gets to the bazaar, nothing is as grand as he had imagined it to be. I figured that this was a metaphor to say that children dream about what their lives should be, and then are crushed when they come to the realization that none of their dreams matter. Basically, this story went over my head and around the corner, as stated in class, because I didn’t get any of the religious symbols or society references when I read it.

all i wanna do is *bang bang bang* and a *cha ching* and take your money

A Good Man Is Hard To Find is about a family that takes a trip and gets lost on an accidental side trip where they HAVE AN ACCIDENT and run into some creeper people who stop to ‘help’ them.

Who is The Misfit?
Why is it so important to the grandma that they go to see this house?
Are people inherently good?

The theme of this story, although it is not crystal clear, is regret. To me I felt that every character was regretting something. The father was regretting bringing his mother along on the trip. The mother is regretting the way she raised her kids because of their manners. The grandmother is regretting telling them the house was in Georgia. The Misfit is regretting his passed life that he can’t seem to remember, and is even regretting that he can’t remember.
This is probably the most creeper story ever. It starts out nice and pretty with a little family going on a car trip with their grandmother. They don’t really like their grandmother because she thinks she knows what is best for everyone, but really has no idea what is happening in reality. Then they go down a dirt road because grandma said too and they crash their car and then The Misfit shows up and kills them all. There is no reason for him to kill them all, but he does because he thinks that if he has done one bad thing he should just continue to be a bad person.
The grandmother tells him that he is a good person and he is capable of good things because he comes from a good family. I think this is what makes The Misfit so angry. He doesn’t associate being a good person with coming from a good family. He associates his family with being a bad person. I think because he came from a good family, when he did something bad in the first place, they weren’t too fond of him after that, so he dislikes families now, and decides to kills this sorry family. He is most frightened when she touches him. He is afraid of affection, and his reaction is to shoot her.

ride your horsie into town

The Rocking-Horse Winner is about a boy who bets his money on racehorses to help out his family’s financial situation.

What does the mother say decides if you have money?
Why does the boy think he has to ride the horse to find the winner?
Is money really that important if you are just going to use it for material possessions rather than get out of debt?

There are a lot of stories that are centered around an object that helps the main character through a tough time or helps them find themselves, but a story that’s main character rides a rocking horse to find a winner is something new. I think its sad that his mother is so bitter about money the boy thinks he has to be lucky to help her. I feel badly not only for the boy but for the mother that they are so hung up on luck to be the deciding factor of how much money they have.
I love the simple rocking horse/ racehorse metaphor. The fact that they boy just rides a rocking horse until he sees the winner or until he finds what he wants is so simple that it makes the story so much better. He tells his mom that all he has to do is go where he wants to go and he gets what he wants. His mother cant understand that all she needs to do is make herself ‘lucky.’ The more she dwells on her poorness and unluckiness, the unhappier she becomes. Her son has figured out that he can do whatever he wants as long as he himself makes it happen.
I feel badly and take pity on the mother that only thinks about the money. When she is able to access the five thousand pounds, she spends it on material possessions to make her life the luxury it once was. She could have just paid off the debts they had and been satisfied in what they had. Because she spent the money, it just makes her want more, and the ‘whispering ’ in the house continues.

in blackwater woods

In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
—Mary Oliver









Love is the reason of life. At least this is what this poem is saying to me. The only way to fulfill your life is if you learn to use it. If you can learn to love and learn when to let it go, and continue to love even after letting it go, then you have achieved the meaning of love and of life.
Recently after dealing with the news of the death of Lucious, I have thought about the meaning of love. Lucious never said he was coming to teach the Yankees how to feed the poor. Mr. Webster made that up. He said, “I am going to teach those Yankees how to love.” Completely different I know, right?
Whether you have religious beliefs or not Lucious would reprimand those who came to ‘serve the poor.’ You came to ‘serve Jesus.’ But love, that was his main point in the same talk he gave every week.
He would explain to all the kids, that they had the best parents in the world. He would give reasons why we were in debt to our parents. Of course if you had never heard this speech before you start to feel pretty badly about yourself. But then, he says that you can get out of your parents. You say to your mom while giving her a hug, ‘I love you thank you for being my mom. For cooking for cleaning for raising me.’ And to your dad, “I love you thank you for being my dad. For working, for paying the bills for paying for my education.” And you were not welcome back if you did not do this.
I never know which kids actually go home and do this. I know that I never did. I tell my parents I love and appreciate them all the time, why would I have to do it this way?
After the funeral when I came home I went to my mother and said “I love you. You are the best mom in the world. Thank you for being my mom.” And to my dad when he walked in the door, “I love you. Thank you for being my dad.”

loveless life overcome

I Stand Here Ironing is the story of a young girl, Emily, as she grows up, through the eyes of her mother.

Who is Emily?
Why is it that her mother thinks about her while she is ironing?
Does the environment a child grows up in effect their lives once they grow older?

I really liked the story I Stand Here Ironing. I feel the underlying theme is the depression of Emily. Emily didn’t grow up with her mother around to show her that she loved her, so she grew up stiff. When she was sent away to school, where she ‘wasn’t allowed to love’ she began to shut out emotion. When her mother tried to show her compassion, she would pull away. Because her mother was never able to be there to show her what love was, she was never able to experience it or reciprocate it. Her depression affects her life and she begins to lose weight and is always put off to the side. Once she was finally able to be home with her mother, her mother needed her to grow up quickly and be another mother. She was never given the opportunity to know the love from her mother or to be a child. When she finds that she is good at impressions and stories, and finds her place, she finally experiences happiness. She was able to overcome everything that she went through as a child to become a happy human being who is able to communicate her feelings. Because of this she is able to understand that her mother never wanted to hurt her, and can forgive her. Her mother is upset that she had to put her daughter through all of it, but is happy in the end when Emily finds her place.

wow... im learning a lot

The Lesson is a story about impoverished children taking a trip to an FAO Schwarz and coming to a realization that there is a class divide in America.

Who is Sugar?
Does the girl telling the story realize what is happening in America?
Is the only way to eliminate or change the class system for the lower class to rise up and demand change?

The kids have some idea that there is a class system in America. They know that they are poor and that the don’t come from a great neighborhood, but they don’t really know what that means in the context of things. When they see that there are people who buy toys that cost more than all the food their families can eat in a year. Sugar spews out what Miss Moore wants to hear, but then does not really think about what she has just said. She doesn’t act on it. The girl telling the story doesn’t tell Miss Moore what she wants to hear because she thinks that if she verbalizes it than it exists. As long as it isn’t verbalized it doesn’t exist in her mind. She does know what is going on, she just doesn’t want to give Moore the satisfaction of her knowing and acting on it.

realizations aren't quite so grand as you planned

Joe realizes at the end of the novel that democracy is not worth fighting for because democracy is not a concrete idea and democracy is what is making him fight. He hates that they are makign him fight. He is fighting and fighting for something that he doesnt believe in and when he realizes this he turns the gun that they gave him to fight on them. He turns the gun on the people who are making him fight. These people aren't even fighting for themselves, they are making people fight for them. THis is why Joe turns the gun on them.

and we'll keep on fighting to the end?

Joe just wants to get out of the hospital and get back to America. He wants to show people the horrors of the war and he wants to show people that they shouldn’t fight a war if they don’t know what they are fighting for, if the people who are telling you want to fight for aren’t even fighting, what is the point of fighting. He wants you to fight for the right not to fight.
If I were in this position I really don’t know what I would actually do. I’m not a fan of saying ‘I would do this’ because I have no idea if I would really do that. That may be the ideal. It could be what I would want to do, what I would hope to do. But I have no idea if that’s what I would really do. I would hope that I would be wanting to fight for my right to fight. Like Joe, I do think you need a concrete thing to be fighting for and not an abstract idea. Although life is not a concrete idea, if I was lying in a hospital bed, perhaps in Britain, with no arms, no legs, no face, I would fight for my life. I would not let myself die. I would not want my spirit to die. Joe does this too by deciding that he would turn the gun on those making him fight. I would like to think I would turn the gun on those telling me I wasn’t supposed to survive.

oh hey buddy, we dont give two shits about you

He wants to be an exhibit to show the horrors of war so that he can make money for himself so he can be sent back to America. It’s against regulation because they don’t want people to see the horrors of war. Its not really against regulation but the hospital just doesn’t want to deal with him. They want him out of sight out of mind. He doesn’t matter to anyone and this bothers him. It is even worse because they listen to his wants once they figure out his Morse code communication and then when they say no, they don’t just say no and crush his thought, but they sedate him so they don’t have to deal with him. He then realizes that he really does wish he was dead.

hey guess what. youre screwed

Joe is basically screwed. He has no arms, no legs, no face, and he is deaf. He has no way to communicate, at all. No one knows what he wants or his thoughts or feelings. He doesn’t know what day it is, what time of year or what to do. He is basically dead. It is hard for him because he is trapped in his own mind. He knows he is going to go crazy if he can’t figure out the difference between when he is sleeping and dreaming and when he is awake and conscious of his thoughts. He figures out a way to tell what time of day it is by listening for the nurses. He decides to teach himself something new every chance he can. This helps him from going insane, but he still can’t communicate which is the most difficult thing for him.

gender issues

In the musical, which was pretty good fyi, there were some distinctive gender roles. Of course there was the Queen as the overbearing mother who was in charge of everything and almost overly in control. You would think this was about a strong woman figure, but everyone hates her. To me this shows that women arent suposed to be powerful. They are supposed to be strong and stand up for themselves, but they arent supposed to be powerful. Winnifred is a strong woman, I mean she SWAM the moat for God sakes. But she is looked down upon by some as not womanly enough. She is not powerful though which makes her liked unlike the Queen. The King isnt allowed speak because of the 'curse' or whatever that deal was, but it represented the fact that the Queen was so overbearing. Because the Queen was such a psycho, the Prince was extremely meak. He wasn't manly! but thats why the manly Fred and the Prince made such a good couple.

marriage is not religious

Wolfson defines marriage as love and commitment and dedication to another person. He makes this his first task so that you know what he is basing his argument on. If he didn’t do this you could make up your own definition of marriage and all of his arguments could be made untrue and unreasonable. I think he definition of marriage is the way that most people would define it. Others would add in a religious aspect to it, but in reality religion is not marriage. Marriage is a commitment of love between two people. For the things Wolfson is arguing for, the rights that come with a legal marriage, this definition and not a religious definition is sufficient. Others who add in the religious marriage, must take notice that he does not want religious rights, he wants civil rights. That is what I think people get hung up on.

airplane down?

You don’t want to be on the plane that has a 32% accuracy. You want to be on the plane that has the closest to 100% as they come. Single parent families statistically do not produce mentally healthy or successful kids. “Normal” families (Santorun’s normal) have a much higher success rate. The analogy is illustrating that normal families work better and therefore should be promoted.
Santorum in this article does admit that non-normal families can be successful, but I don’t think he talks about it enough. Of course he does this on purpose to make sure his point is the obviously better one, but I still think it looks like because he glossed over this it shows that he knows there are many successful non-normal families but doesn’t want to admit it. I think he should have spoken about it more to show that this is not what he was doing (but perhaps this is what he was doing?).

surprised much?

The reason Vasquez waits to tell you that these men are straight is because she does want you to think that they are gay. She wants it to be a shock when she tells you that they aren’t. She is making a point to say that people are judged by their appearances all of the time and sometimes appearances are just that, they are not how the person truly is. I don’t think that knowing some victims of antigay violence are heterosexual changes the issue. I think that violence regarding antigay movements are equal no matter who the victim is. They are still sending out the same message. It is not the message we want stopped. Everyone has their own right to say that they think being gay is wrong or immoral, or whatever they think. What they do not have the right to do is violently attack and demonstrate this. No view on a lifestyle is worth violence.

be a lady

Be strong, be what ever you want to be, let your voice be heard. Be a mother, teach your children well, watch what you say as to not offend anyone. Be nice, play with others, include others. Be a mother, wash the clothes, don’t let your father do that laundry, he will shrink everything. Be self sufficient. Cook dinner on time for when your husband gets home. Make one dinner and if you don’t like it, tough luck. Be a mother be self sufficient, don’t stress yourself out. You can’t control everything. Pray every night before you go to sleep. Pray for others before yourself. Care about others, put others before yourself. Don’t let others under appreciate you. Let your voice be heard. Be a lady follow the rules, this is proper etiquette. Keep your hands in your lap while you eat. Don’t play with your food. Don’t swear, ladies don’t swear. Keep your morals. Have high standards for yourself and others, but don’t be disappointed if you or someone else fails to achieve them.

manly man?

Manliness and sensitivity can exist in society together harmoniously, but they don’t usual exist equally within one person. People can be both manly and sensitive, but they are not 50/50. If a person is manly, it is not likely that they will openly show their feelings. They could however, enjoy a romance novel, or something that has been deemed sensitive, although they would never announce this to society. Someone could be sensitive, but not necessarily fight people just for fun. They could be a fit person and lift weights, or enjoy some other ‘manly’ activity. They both exist within each person, its society that makes people pick which one to show. They exist within the person, but outwardly they may not been known.

its his own fault he's the last

The reason Gilbert thinks that Eustace is the last American man is not only because he is the last man to live like those of the frontier, but because of his mindset. Eustace is not the last because no one else can do this. Of course there are other people out in this country who could become entirely self-sufficient. There could be others. The reason that the is the last is because he sets such high standards. There is a difference between just being self sufficient and being self sufficient in Eustace’s mind. Eustace shuts himself off from the rest of the world in his self sufficient-ness. He tries so hard to get people to be like him but there really is no way he can get that to happen because he has closed himself off from the rest of the world. In my opinion Eustace is working his ass off trying to get all this done, but because he is so, well Eustace, he cant see that it is never going to happen for the very reason of him trying to do it.

cooking cleaning having babies is democracy

Tocqueville says that women in Europe are seen as equals of men in every way. Women are told that they can do or be whatever they want. They are complimented and are put up on a pedestal. Tocqueville doesn’t like this because he thinks this makes weak men and disorderly women. This would then lead to a failure in society. In America women and men are in separate spheres. Each has their duties and responsibilities. Each is allowed to excel as far as they want within their sphere. This creates equality between the two because there is no competition or comparison. This he says is democracy.

older brothers stick up for the little sister

When I was little I learned the story of how Hansel and Gretel got lost in the woods and ended up in the witch’s house about to be eaten. I of course learned from it that I should follow the rules and not go into the woods when my dad told me not to. I can’t say that this was my favorite story when I was little, but I thought it was a good one that exemplified what a lot of stories I was told taught me. In the story, whenever something goes wrong Gretel just cries and cries while Hansel fixes everything and comes up with a plan. This story and many others told me that I was supposed to sit back and always let the boy take care of me. The brother, or the boy will always stick up for you. Of course now I have learned that I can stick up for myself, but before I was really old enough to think for myself this was what I thought. I thought the boy would just always stick up for you. I now know, sometimes you have to stick up for yourself, or even the boy.

nature is beauty or beauty is nature?

‘From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea. I seem to partake its rapid transformations: the active enchantment reaches my dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements!’

This passage from ‘Nature’ shows that we do not get to decide what nature is. We do not get to decide what beauty is. Nature itself decides what beauty is and because we are a part of nature, we are a part of the beauty of it. We are wrapped up in it and surrounded by it. We are almost like passengers because we are not in control of the rapid transformations, but we are still a part of them. And we watch them not only with our eyes, but also with our whole bodies as we partake in the active enchantments. Emerson writes that nature deifies us with few and cheap elements almost as if he is upset, but he says it not out of disappointment, but out if amazement. He wants to know how it is that nature does something so good with so little.

its okay to be a kid

When we were assigned this blog, to write about a piece of art that meant something to us, something we connected with, and something that helped us make sense out of life, I started to look for a piece that were deep and meaningful. I looked for something that I could get a lot out of. I found one. It’s a photograph of a woman looking out of the window. She looks like she is longing for something. I really do love this picture. {} … But, I must say that I was looking through more art to try to se if there was something I liked better, something I connected with more. I found a drawing. I knew I had to use it for my blog. I know that most everyone in the class will find some painting with deep meaning, or a painting that is really famous. You could say that I wasn’t taking this seriously based on the picture, but I am completely serious. This to me, means that it is always okay to be a kid. You don’t have to be serious all of the time. You don’t have to pick the most serious piece of art and explain why its important and analyze why the artist painted it a certain way.
I like to not be serious all of the time.
I picked this drawing, which I swear was in the MOMA, because its something that I love, its something that my family loves and bring us together. Most people know that I am pretty close with my family, so this is something that is small and silly, but really important to me.

ignorance is never bliss

At the end of the novel Wright comes to the realization that the world is never what it seems to be. He feels like no matter what people will never be able to unite. He knows that the best way to make sense of everything for him is to write. He starts to and he tries, but he can’t. He says he will sit and wait until he can because he knows it is the best way to figure out the world. He knows that if he can help himself through writing, he can maybe help others when they read it. The more people that can make sense of the meaningless suffering, the more connected and less superficial people can become.
I agree that Wright needs to continue to try to write and try to figure out what is happening because that is the only way he will ever feel accomplished or satisfied. Everyone needs to continue to do what helps them make sense of the world, because without anyone making sense, the world and people would be walking around being unaware of their surrounding, and being uninformed and ignorant.

they will never understand

I do agree with Wright’s idea that artists and politicians stand at opposite poles. The artist will always look at life and analyze it. They don’t just take it at face value. They will sit and wait and watch life until they understand what it is. Wright himself does this. He uses writing to figure out what life is. He uses writing to question what life is, to find out what the meaningless suffering is.
A politician does not what to know what life is. They don’t sit around and wait for the answer. They decide what the answer is, and don’t care if it is real or not. They just pick what they think it should be, especially the Communist Party. A politician, like Ed Green can’t understand why Richard would want to write about a person’s life. Richard is just learning and telling as many stories as he can to help himself and others find out what the reason for the meaningless suffering is. A politician, can’t understand this and will automatically think that, because the artist is questioning life, and will not just accept what they are being told, that they are a threat to society.

older and wiser

On page 265, the entire page is full of insight from the older Wright, writing the memoir and thinking back. The first paragraph says ‘(It was not until I had left the delicatessen job that I saw how grossly I had misread the motives and attitudes of Mr. Hoffman and his wife. I had not yet learned anything that would have helped me to thread my way through these perplexing racial relations. Accepting my environment at its face value, trapped by my own emotions, I Kept asking myself what had black people done to bring this crazy world upon them?)’
These thoughts are almost like after thoughts. Obviously these are thoughts as an adult, but they don’t seem like he wrote them in because he premeditated them. They feel like as he was writing this, he realized this and wrote it in, so that the reader knew his thought process. Of course he probably did think about these before he wrote them in the book.
In this particular passage, he talks about why would a white Jewish couple want to hire a black man. All of his life he would think that they would hire him because he was black and just as low as they were. They then had something to control. He thinks this until he finally realizes that they just hired him because they needed help. They didn’t think much of the fact that he was black. He talks about being trapped in his own emotions, and to me this means that because he has always been taught to think this way, it is really hard for him to think any other way. He knows that he should start to be more open minded like the rest of the North, but he can’t. He asks himself what had black people done to deserve this. They have done nothing, but because they were raised in the south, they do not know any other way to think. This is why they have a crazy world upon them. In the South, it is because of the white people there. In the North it is because of the way that the white Southerners have made them think to bring this world upon them.

now or never.

A the end of the first part of the book, Richard has decided that he should move to the North. Of course he has already decided this, but now he has decided that he isn’t going to wait. He knows that if he waits and tries to save enough money before he leaves he will never get out. He decides that the best thing to do is to get out now, while he has the support of his brother and his mother. I think that this is a positive change. He even says himself that if he doesn’t leave now he might end up like Shorty, something he would rather die than do. With anything in life the longer you wait the less likely you are to do it. Leaving for the North now, and then making the money to bring his mother and brother up is the second best major decision yet in the book, the first being his decision to move North in the first place.

give in to get out.

Stealing. Richard, while working at the hotel is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to steal. He knows that morally stealing is wrong. He also knows that the white race, and even the black race have decided that, and expect him to steal. Richard is a poor black man. They expect poor black men to steal. Society expects Richard to steal. All of his life he has lived against the expectations of him because he is a poor black man. He wants to get to the North because in his mind, the only way to be able to live without these restrictions is to get out of the South. He knows that the sooner he gets out, the better. Stealing will get him out faster. This is when he decides that he will do anything to get out. In his mind he justifies stealing. They already expect him to steal, and even he doesn’t they will still suspect it, so why not just do it. I agree that this is a good justification, but I think this makes him extremely hypocritical. It makes perfect sense, but he has done so much to not give in. He gives in to get out. I too would steal to get out. I won’t deny that. I just feel that if he truly wanted to rise above what is expected of him, he would have found another way. He obviously regrets stealing, considering he starts sobbing in the train during his trip to the North. Perhaps this is why I don’t think he is good, or bad. He is neutral.

give up. give in. eat

When Griggs says that Richard needs to learn how to live in the South, he means that he needs to learn how to act around white people. He doesn’t have to like the white people, he can continue to hate them like he does, but he must hide it. He must act like a black person. He currently doesn’t act like white people are superior, and he must stop this. The way that Richard acts gets noticed by the white people in town and he is ‘marked’ he is now always being watched. Richard says that the problem with black people is that the do too much waiting. Griggs thinks that Richard is too impatient. His impatient ness is really his way of not submitting to white supremacy. Griggs says that he must pretend that he has given in. To Richard this is the same thing.

words. speeches. never give in

I think that Richard is perfectly justified in giving his own speech. Giving the speech that was written for him is admitting that whatever he has to say for himself isn’t good enough and that he is inferior. Giving the speech that was appropriate to be heard by white people, to Richard, is like saying that he knows he is not good enough, or smart enough to express his own thoughts. When he gives his own speech he says what he wants to say, but he has to leave before anyone can say anything to him. He cannot be truly proud of his words because he knows that they may not be received well. Even when he does what he knows is right he might be punished for it.

Grr angryyyy

Richard becomes so angry with his uncle when his uncle comes into his bedroom and asks what time it is. When Richard replies, with the time, his uncle doesn’t believe him. Richard checks the time and says he was close enough. This angers his uncle and he wants to beat Richard for being disrespectful. Richard becomes so angry because he is going to be beaten for something that he didn’t even do, and even if he did it was not worth a beating. His uncle takes out all of his anger on Richard. The reason that Richard gets angry at his uncle is because he is tired of being punished for things he doesn’t deserve. He is tired of submitting to others especially white people, and his uncle is just one more person he is tired of listening to.

YAYYYYY BLAZERS

Yaay Blazers!
good luck at State

Katie
Ieysha
Maggie
Brittney


ps. class was no so perky without maggie.

superiority✓ self expression✓ original thought✓

Wright feels gratitude after writing because he just did something for himself. He is happy with the story he created out of his own mind. Because of this pride, he goes to share it with the neighbor girl, who doesn’t understand why he would write something for fun. She still can’t understand why, even after he explains that he just felt like writing.
He likes that he did something that was his. Not many other people, and really no one he knew wrote just for fun. He feels superior, and important for this.
Before the discussion of this in class, I thought that the main reason he felt so satisfied was because it was his own work. It wasn’t something that he had been told to do. He is told what to do throughout his entire life, and he finally did something just because he wanted to.
I guess this still could be part of the reason, but after the discussion I see that it was more for the feeling of superiority.

numb. unresponsive. proactive.

After Wright’s mother has been paralyzed, he goes in to talk to her. She tells him that she cannot bear the pain any longer, and wants to die. Richard says that he is now numb to reacting to his mother. He no longer has a reason to react to her. She gave into her problems, and Richard does not want to do this.
Richard has a hard life, full of racial prejudice and religious pressures. He does not want to give into them, and just do what he is supposed to do. He will not just give in to the idea that as a black boy he is supposed to be poor and not amount to anything. He continues to try to find work so that he is not hungry. He works to fill both the hunger and the Hunger. Working fills the Hunger because now he has something to do with himself. He isn’t following the rules of his aunt or Granny.
Religiously, Richard says that while sitting in church, he is emotionally attracted to religion and God, but that it does not make sense to him, and he cannot believe in it. He wants to believe in it because it would give him hope, but he knows he cannot because of his life and the world around him. There is nothing good in his life to prove that there is this higher power. There is no evidence, therefore, he can’t believe in the religion that his grandma so desperately wants him to.

i hate you. why?. just because

He says it was his cultural heritage to dislike Jews because he and all of his peers were taught that Jews were ‘Christ killers.’ He was not so much directly taught to berate them, just that they were bad. He and his friends then kept taunting Jews, because they were supposed to. They were supposed to hate them and make them feel badly, because they were bad people, according to how they were raised.
This also relates to his hatred of inequality with white people. White boys always taunt Richard and his friends because they are black. Berating Jews was a way to make sure that someone was beneath them. If they couldn’t be as good as white people, they were going to make sure they were better than Jews. Socially and as a human, you want to be better than some other group. No one wants to be at the bottom socially.
The reason that disliking Jews was his ‘cultural heritage’ rather than just something he was taught is that he was never told to hate them, he just knew. It was almost instinctual to want to be better than them, and to make sure it happened by publicly showing disapproval of them.

yum. yum. eat 'em up.

Hunger. Well, Richard is hungry because his family cannot afford enough food since his dad has left them. Before he can make this connection, he is just always hungry. Once his mother helps him make the connection between hunger and his father leaving, he is Hungry. The hunger that he has now, the Hunger, is not so much for food. Of course he is hungry for food, but he is Hungry to fill the gap in his life because the hunger reminds him of his father, which reminds him of hate.
When his father offers him the nickel, his hunger makes him want to take it, but his Hunger makes him be able to say no. He knows that by accepting this nickel he is allowing his father to believe it was okay to leave the family and not support them financially. The nickel is only a temporary fix. He does not want his father to get away with that. Adult Richard says he knows that the next time he sees his father he will be a poor sharecropper, and then knows that his father’s lack of support comes back to haunt him, and does not get away with it.
Richard’s hunger starts to fade even though he is still physically hungry, because his Hunger, Hunger for anything, grows so much his hungry isn’t so substantial anymore.

boo school.

I think that a reason that we go to school is to learn things that the immediate people around us do not know. The other main reason is to gain new ideas and insight into issues that happen in everyday life. We need to learn to talk to other people and learn how to express our ideas so that others can comprehend it. We also need to learn how to receive new thoughts and perspectives and process them to be able to reject, accept or incorporate them into our own ideas, values and way of life.
We can find these things in other places, but it takes a person who wants to learn to find it. If everyone would go out and seek the information and knowledge they needed, school would not be mandatory. But, people do not do this. All people are not driven to find answers to questions they do not know. Because of this, we need school to make people learn.
I don’t think it should be abolished or anything, but I think that a school that taught all basic skills and taught everything it already does should be offered. A place where people can go to seek that information they needed, but not be mandatory. That way, people who are driven could go as much as they wanted and those who are not driven could go as little as possible. Now that I think about it, that’s a good way to continue natural selection. But, on the other hand, then there aren’t un-driven people to flip our burgers. BUT if there weren’t un-driven people, then flipping burgers would no longer be a remedial job.
HA. I think I just won.

honestly, who really cares about 'x'?

I do enjoy the nonacademic learning part of my education. I think that talking and sharing ideas is the best part about learning something new. I think when a new idea is presented, you can get a better perspective of it if you talk it out. You also learn more when you learn how other people think. If you only think one way for your entire life things would be pretty boring, and you would never develop viewpoints of your own. You will just regurgitate the information that was thrown at you in school or in life in general. If you don’t learn different ways to think, you will take everything at face value and not look into what they are really saying. You would buy things because they said they were the best, and not compare them to others.
Of course there are other parts to noneducational learning, but thinking is my favorite. I love new ideas and new thoughts. I like to defend my own ideas and challenge others. I like to hear others viewpoints and then maybe change mine if theirs make sense to me.
Other nonacademic education is important, but I think they all can fall under the category of ideas and thoughts. There are thoughts about religion and politics, as well as things like the meaning of life, and rhetoric strategies in advertising.
Although I like the academic part of education as well, I don’t think it would be as effective without the discussion and the sharing of ideas as well as learning to convey ideas effectively and converse in an educated manner.

around the town? pshh off the internet

Today I thought that everyone’s presentations were pretty different in a good way. I think its pretty cool that all of us found very different things to find rhetoric in. People used a variety of different stores, and things they really did find around town. I think the pictures that people actually took were more interesting, but some of the ones found offline were cool. Adds found online are usually really cool because you can search for exactly what you want, but when you find them in your life its pretty cool.
I do think that Alex’s (D) (R) rhetoric was really cool because he tied it back to his IC project. I hadn’t ever really thought about labeling people on the news as a rhetoric device. I just think of it as saying what they are. They are already labeling themselves because they declare what party they are, but I guess putting it in writing is different that just saying it.

LINES ARE EVERYYYYWHERE

Christina Lee’s Rhetoric on the Town presentation started out with a joke about lines as rhetoric. I was laughing hysterically because I knew she was going to do this before it happened, but later she and I talked about lines a little more. Lines really are rhetoric. Fences are lines that mean keep out, there are there to create a barrier. Lines in a parking lot keep cars in a line and in order. Lines keep things orderly. Lines really are everywhere. Now I don’t think all of them can be defined rhetorically, but a lot of them can. She also took some pictures of Valentine’s Day coupons. There was a set ‘for him’ and a set ‘for her.’ If you look at her picture you can see that the ones ‘for him’ were almost gone while the ones ’for her’ were in abundance. I think this shows that women are more likely to buy something like that and not be embarrassed by it, or to be attracted to a table full of things like that, filled with pink. The book store knew its audience and used their displays well.

kendal, kendal. funniest thing of my life

Today in class (aka yesterday considering I’m writing this a day late) we watched all six presentations, and let me tell you, most of them were hilarious. I think almost all of them used a form of humor to get the audience’s attention. Interesting… at least I think so. I thought that doing the commercial in person might dull the connection to the audience. It did not however. I thought that the two commercials done in person were just as effective as the ones that were filmed. Nick Martin’s group used humor when he and Liz were in the truck, saying how it sucked and then were in awe over the ‘Sparrow.’ Kendal’s group used humor with the 80’s Breakfast Club theme. I personally thought that was a unique idea because a lot of kids our age have seen that movie, or can at least relate to the stereotypes. Ethan’s group used the tag line, ‘It makes you do whatever you do, better,’ or something like that, which was funny. Maggie’s group had Brittney as their spokes person being loud and infomercial-ish, while Maggie was ‘asleep.’ Alex’s group also used humor with their ‘Or even if you are just Allie Cunningham and need water to survive.’ I think this shows that humor is an easy and effective form of rhetoric.

just like when i was little, but now it costs me $1,000

The Pottery Barn Style article was really interesting because I don’t think about the actual products being a part of rhetoric. I usually think about the décor and the atmosphere of the actual store as rhetoric. The way a magazine is set up helps sell the product. I guess I never thought about how stores sell the same genres of things to get people to buy the products. Stores sell a style of products to get a certain kind of people to get interested and keep coming back. Pottery Barn does sell new items that feel like old items, that are more expensive than if you were to buy them somewhere else, but they are well made, which keeps customers coming back for more. Also because they sell the same kinds of things, people come back because it’s ‘their style’ or they want something to match what they just bought. The article talked some about customer service, which I also think is a big part of rhetoric. The way you handle your customers reflects in your sales, and keeps people coming back.

low prices without locking employees in at night

Well, when I started thinking about this topic, my first thought was Target. You have no idea how much time and money I spend there. Then I thought that it would be difficult because it doesn’t really set up a mood for the store as obviously as other stores, like Hollister with its blaring music and surf board display. Then I started to think more about Target’s atmosphere. It sets itself up to be a clean and organized environment with its white walls and floors. It’s separated into sections for easy finding. They try to give you the best quality for your money. And you can find basically anything you want in it. I think the reason that Target is appealing is because it is a ‘one stop shop,’ especially a Super Target. You can go in and get food, clothes, CDs, movies, and some footy pajamas for your best friend’s birthday in one place. You don’t have to spend so much time driving to all these other places. It probably also helps that I haven’t ever had a negative experience there. If I would have had something bad happen or something go wrong, then I might not feel the same way about it as I do now. Essentially, what I am saying is, Target is almost as tight as LaMags.

jinx you owe me a coke

The first commercial that saw and knew that I had to write about was the Etrade commercial with the talking baby. It has a baby sitting at a computer talking at the screen like it’s a webcam and you are on the other end. The baby explains how he is making all of this money and investing in stocks, because he never could before Etrade. He says, if he can do it, being a baby, anyone can. And then, the baby throws up. First you are staring at the baby because you think, ‘Wait. Babies don’t talk.’ And then it throws up. You aren’t expecting that. The commercial uses the shock value that makes you think again. When you have to think again, you are more likely to remember what the product is.

The second commercial that I saw was probably my favorite. Granted I didn’t watch too many, because I don’t usually watch entire football games. Not even the Superbowl. Nevertheless, as I was switching back and forth from Iron Chef to the Superbowl commercials I saw the Coke ad that starts with James Carville and Bill Frist, a Democrat and a Republican, arguing over an issue when they both say the same word at the same time. Frist says, “Jinx, you owe me a coke.” They head outside to settle the debt. They set aside their differences and ‘bond’ over Coke, as if to say, Coke can fix anything. It can even bring together a Democrat and a Republican.
I just thought that this ad was very clever because they used known people from each party, to get the ‘celebrity’ appeal. You then also know that they are both hardcore leaders. Plus it doesn’t hurt that this is an election year. But I’m sure that wasn’t a coincidence.

HEY EVEREYONE let's gang up on Tony and Alex!!!!

Yesterday's discussion in class was probably one of the best ones we have had. I think everyone added something too it which made it enjoyable, at least to me. The title of this blog is a joke fyi, because I know they were the two males who were disputed with the most, and I know that neither of them had a problem with it.
One of the points that I think we talked around, but wasn't ever presented, (because someone cough cough wouldn't let it be myyyy turn.) was that no one in the class could say that the objectification of women is not an issue. We talked around and around about how we liked or disliked Kilbourne's approach, but no one could say that they disagreed with her message.
Some brought up the fact that Kilbourne neglected to explore the objectification of men in the media. Whenever I heard this in our discussion I honestly wanted to scream. Yes, it is also a problem. Yes, it happens. No, we are not minimizing it. BUT THE ARTICLE WASN'T ABOUT MEN, HATE TO BREAK IT TO YOU. In case you didn't notice, it was titled Two Ways a WOMAN Can Get Hurt. I would totally read an article of the same content about men if you asked me to and discuss it. I may react to it like you did, and feel as though I was being yelled at or blamed. I am not scolding you for feeling that way, its perfectly legit, but you cannot say she does not talk about men enough because, she acknowledges its there and she doesn't even have to. The paper is about women. I'm sorry if you were ill informed.

go ahead and objectify me. its expected

I want to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Kilbourne, but I cant. I want to say that I do because obviously as a female I feel the pressures that she talks about. I can’t totally agree with her because I think she exaggerates every idea that she has. Of course she is doing this to make her point stronger. When you use extreme cases to prove your point, more often than not it is actually proven.
I think she looked way too far into some of the ads she talked about. Like the ad with the man boxing a shadow and the shadow was of a woman. I personally think it was actually his shadow. It was the same silhouette as the boxer.
Even though I think she exaggerates her points, I do still agree with her. Women are always and have always been objectified and thought of as property in the media. Industries know that sex sells and they use it to their advantages. One of her strongest points I agree with most; in some ads, there are men violating women and it is to be expected, like the ad with the little boy looking under a woman’s skirt, but if the roles were reversed it is unacceptable.
The other point that I liked was when she said that ads don’t cause violence, it’s when people start taking the ads as the truth and applying them to life that violence occurs.

did you really just assign me tv watching?

I honestly didn’t see many ‘good’ commercials as I was watching TV tonight. You know those commercials that you quote all of the time? The ones you may not remember what they were for, but you remember the commercial. I saw a lot of commercials for shows on the network. (Oh, I was watching Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel by the way.) And I also saw a lot of movie trailers. One commercial I did see was for the Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. They really played up the technology thing and made it seem that if you had this van you were up to date. I mean the chairs swivel for gosh sakes! Who doesn’t want that! At the end of the commercial it says, “this pick makes the parents almost as smart as their kids.’ And then it shows the bumper sticker on the car that says “Honor Student.” I thought the commercial was pretty clever because all parents want their kids to be honor students and everyone wants to be up on the latest technology. It even appealed to kids because the kids in the commercial were having fun with the seats that moved and the ‘game table’ in the center of the car.