class response

Through out the semester and through each paper I wrote, I think I definetly grew as a thinker and a writer. I have had to do book reports and such in the past but have never had to write a paper focusing on a specific idea, quote, or panel. As I began the semester and as the semester ended, I saw improvements in my writing. I was able to create a thesis and base the rest of my paper on it. Looking back on my first paper my thoughts and ideas were scrambled around the paper, after taking into consideration the feedback on my papers, I was able to organize my thoughts and think deeper. The close reads challenged me the most, not only because they need a lot of thought, but they also are so free and open. In the past, I was assigned papers with outlines to follow or specific guidelines, but in the close reads I was asked to share my own thoughts and ideas and create my own interpretation. I connected with all the texts throughout the semester in one way or another. Having never read any graphic novels before, I took a certain liking to them. "Blankets" stood out to me the most this semester. On the other hand, Shakespeare is always going to be tough for me to read. I love all the stories, but actually reading them is different. I think it is mainly because of the language he uses. The story doesnt seem to make sense when i read it myself. The graphic novels at first were challenging. When we first read ABC they seemed intimidating. But once we started to read them, it became natural. I will defiantly continue reading them. I love the idea of blogging for this class. A couple reasons why: I get to see what other students are thinking, I can have access anytime i want,and it is alot better than handwritting. This class has helped me to be able to think critically about different kinds of texts. Without writing the close reads i think i would be lost on where to even begin.

oberon/ puck

I thought the relationship between oberon and puck was the most interesting or easiest to follow. Puck is a little messanger who loves to please king oberon. When puck gets orders from oberon he replys with things like "I go, I go; look how I go, Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow" It seems that puck would do anything for oberon and he really looks up to him.

MEDIA KILLS












Women have been subjected to many different kinds of influences pressuring them to have a certain body image. Throughout the years the perfect image has varied but still remains a strong focus in the lives of women. However, most recently it seems to be the same ideal within the minds of women. Media is to blame for women who struggle for that perfect apperance. Woman are suffering from eating disorders, addiction to diets, over-exercising, depression, low self-esteem, and obesity more than ever. Magazines, T.V. shows , musical artists, commericals, and movies all present women who are paper-thin and gorgeous in a way that makes them seem larger than life. Many women even go to the extreme of surgery as they try to achieve the 'perfect body' image. Consciously or not women absort these images from the media and try to re-create that same look.
Dove recently started a new campaign called, "Campaign for real beauty." The campaign asks the question, "How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?" The answer is the media. Dove presents the viewers with a short video clip. Watch this.
Evolution Film.






This short film actually shows the viewers a woman completely changing the way she looks to become 'more beautiful'. She is a normal looking woman, but not yet billboard material. She must undergo a complete make-over. Not the type of make-over that consists of just make-up and a new hair style. After her pictures are taken they are sent to the computer screen. There the pictures get another type of make-over. Using a computer program her lips are plumped up, her neck is elongateg, her eyes are blown up, and her hair is made to look thicker. At the end of the ad a message shows up on screen, "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." A study conducted by Dove shows that only 2% of women around the world would consider themselves as beautiful, and 81% of women in the U.S. strongly agree that the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can't ever achieve."



The Dove websites provides thier viewers with a forum where people have created a discussion based on the question, "Does true beauty really have to fit into a size two?" This goes to show just how much women are affected by the media. As you can see it does not matter what the age of the women are. They have been subjected to the media starting at a very young age. A study conducted by Hayley Dohnt and Marika Tiggemann found that, "As early as school entry, girls appear to already live in a culture in which peers and the media transmit the thin ideal in a way that negatively influences the development of body image and self-esteem. " (929).



Our society needs this kind of wake up that Dove is creating. As well as Dove, other types of sources are using different forms of media to send out the right message to women. It will take a lot of these small wake-up calls to reverse the curse media has left on women, but every little bit counts. The musical artist Pink has created a music video showing young women constantly trying to be something they are not. Watch this.
http://www.dove.us/#/thewomen/videos.aspx/




It is now safe to say that we live in a culture in which our role models are celebrities and models. A culture who's entertainment is Dr. 90210, Nip Tuck, America's Next Top Model, and Celebrity Fit Club. If you were to go into a third grade elementary class and ask them what they want to be when they grow up, a little girls reply will be, "I want to be like Jessica Simpson." Children are bombarded with these images through magazines, billboards, T.V. shows, and movies. What ever happened to children wanting to be firemen, teachers, police officers, or astronants? Our society has covered that up with something that is un-achievable. University of Wisconson-Madison postdoctoral reseacher Shelly Grape agrees. She says, "What's happening in our society is that many women are striving toward something that's not very realistic or obtainable, and that leads to a lot of health consequences." (656) That little girl who wanted to be just like Jessica Simpson, will never be just like her. While she grows up and begins to realize that, it will make her self-esteem go way down. Shelly Grabe hopes that, "wider recognition of the media's role will encourage people to see the issue as a societal one, rather than as a problem of individual women as it's viewed now." (656).

Back to the Dove ad, I think it was very smart of them to step out of the norm, and create a campaign geared towards 'real women'. When women see this ad it reminds them to just be themselves and not like Jessica Simpson.

A poem written by Alyssa L.





One of the many young women struggling with self-confidence issues.



Bottle up your adipose tissue! Quickly now!





"I'm so fat."
"Ugh, look at these love handles.
"Sorry, I can't make it. I've got an appointment to get my nails done..."
Plastic surgery can change your body.
And once that's done
You can all look the same.
Squirt your tans out of a bottle.
Suck your fat out into a bottle.
Pick your hair color out from a bottle.
Then, when you finally all look the same
you'll all be beautiful.Right?
I wish that I had known sooner
that happiness comes in a bottle.

Works cited

Pressures to Conform. Celia Milne. Maclean's. Rogers Publishing Toronto: Jan 12, 1998. Vol. 111, Iss. 2; pg. 60, 2 pgs

University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sweeping analysis of research reinforces strong media influence on women's body image. (2008, May). Women's Health Weekly,685. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1482251911).

http://www.dove.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

http://allpoetry.com/tag/show/body+image

Thesis

The universal problem of incest has more affects on people that meet the eye.  For authors, writing about their issues may be easier to do then speaking about them.  Through out their text, authors like Toni Morrison and Craig Thompson weave in this powerful and sensitive issue.   

I want to attempt the multi-genre option.  

Satrapi vs. e.e. cummings

I compared a panel on page 10 and the first line in "Next to of Course God America I". Satrapi writes on page ten, "The year of the revolution I had to take action. So i put my prophetic destiny aside for awhile." Satrapi was a young child who believed her destiny was to be a prophet of God. But when her country started to undergo the revolution she put that aside as she tried to help her country. In the poem, "Next to of course god america i love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth on," Both Satrapi and e.e. cummings have a huge place in their hearts for God, but right beside that is their country. Iran for Satrapi and America for e.e. cummings. This becomes a confict in their lives trying to decide which to side with, God or their country. Satrapi becomes torn because she has believed for awhile she is not menat to do anything else but be gods prophet. She tells her classmates and her teachers call up her parents and say they are worried about Marjane. She then covers it up saying Oh no i want to be a doctor. KNowing in her heart thats not at all what she wanted to be. In the very beginning of the book God is around alot more frequently. She writes that he comes to see her every single night. After the start of the revolution we see less and less of God. Which eventually defines who they become.

Blankets

The panel on page 158 is of Raina.  She is the only person on the page which shows her lonliness.  The area surrounding her is all white as oppose to most of the panels being very dark.  Also different from the other panels in a very spacious way.  Many of the panels have multiple sections and over lap each other, but in this one the space is empty, and there is so much extra room.  Raina looks said as she tells Craig the bad news about her parents.  He is suprised to hear she has come all the way to Wisconsin, only to find out the roads are blocked off and can not make it.  

Another panel I would like to write about is on page 87.  This panel is of Craig asking God for forgiveness.  Craig has snuck out of his cabin and into the rec room.  The top sketch of Craig is not blocked in by lines but by the hum of the heat blowing.  Craigs eyes are closed as if he is meditating.  He asks Gods forgivness and looks very depressed.  In each panel Craig appears to get smaller and smaller.  By the last panel he is very small and the bubble reads, "PLease forgive me."

Believe

I think that just like Jeanette, when I was young I followed my Mom in every way.  Jeanette thought her Mom knew everything, they believed in the same way.  I believed in my mom, not really religiously but in every other way.  I think the people who bring you into the world leave the biggest mark on your life.  When I was younger I thought everything my Mom said was true and I believed her.  Not to say that she was wrong about things, she is a very smart and honest person.  But when it comes to a lot of situations on views, it is very important to find out for yourself what to believe in.  

In Jeanette's situation the believe of purity is very important.  When she begins to get "un-pure" thoughts, she becomes confused and nervous.  At first she was convinced to repent by the paster, her mom and other church members.  When Jeanette began to get the feelings again she believed it was okay and she wasn't going to let other people tell her how to act and feel. On page 127, Jeanette talks about how her mom wants her to move out and how most of the congregation agrees, but Jeanette talks about it in an okay matter. At the beginning it would have killed her to know how much she disapointed her mother.  But by the end of the story she knew what she believed and wouldn't let any one tell her differently.  

Oranges symbolically represent pure thoughts, a curing tool and hope.

Relation between texts

Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.- Emerson

I think this quote from Emerson relates to American Born Chinese through the monkey king. The monkey king singled himself out from the gods, the other monkeys, and who he really was. He tried so hard to become something he wasnt. In the end, his creator punished him and he was stuck under a rock for hundreds of years. If that isnt suffrage, i dont know what is.

American Born Chinese Response

My first impression of American Born Chinese a little confused. While reading there was an overlying comedic feel, but underneath there were significant stereotypes. When the little boy Jin Wang arrives at his new school his teacher mispronouced his name and assumed he was from China, when he was really from San Francisco. He was bullied because his classmates were not used to having friends with different cultural backgrounds as them. Also while reading, I felt as if each story had a strong moral. The Monkey story for sure. The moral being that God created everyone for a reason just the way they are, but the monkey tried to change himself into something bigger and stronger. In the end he ended up being punished.
On pages 32-33 Jin Wang is being harrassed. Three kids see Jin Wang sitting alone eating his lunch. Being the new kid and supposedly from a foregin country, he was the perfect target. One of the boys rudely says that Jin Wang is eating a dog, because he must have heard somewhere that Asians eat dog. He yells at Jin Wang to stay away from his dog. Jin Wang calmly sits there and says that they are only dumplings. One of the three kids gets annoyed by the first boys remarks and tells him to be cool man. They start to bicker back and forth, the rude boy calling him a pansy-box. The three boys start to walk away and say, "Come on. Let's leave bucktooth alone so he can enjoy Lassie." The third boy laughs and says, "HaHa, bucktooth!" I noticed he actually his big teeth and Jin Wang does not at all. Walking away the second boy who stood up for Jin Wang, turns his head and looks directly at him. As if to say he is sorry for how he is being treated. Jin Wang continues to sit alone and eat his dumplings.

Response to Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks talks about Hollywood as one of the sources which constitutes rascism and sexism. She talks about Hollywood, which consists of white male directors and producers, who can show any images they feel will ad "zing" to their film. For example they with chose a black theif instead of a white. She does not approve of the way they portray women in films either. I believe film is a beautiful art form and those kind of things should be shown on film. It is the viewers who take these images and create their own thoughts about it. In the film, Kids, a black man gets beaten down by a group of kids. Hooks says that man was chosen to be beat up solely because he was black. I disagree because a black man is in the group of kids getting beat up. I have seen that film and it contains many different races in all different ways. It does not target black people by any means. I think Bell Hooks makes a lot of strong points but goes a little over the top.

La Guernica Interpretation

Bang talks about how vertical shapes are more active and in Picasos' piece, La Guernica, he uses many vertical lines and triangular shapes that may represent a lot of movement. She also talks about diagonal shapes, which many of them are in this piece, giving a sense of tension. In La Guernica tension is jumping off the pages. Behind all of the painfull faces there are dark and light diagonal shapes. Bang writes about how the center of the page is the center of attention. La Guernica is about the Spanish Civil War and in the center of Picasos' painting there is a hand holding a diamond shape, half being black and the other white. This gives a sense of the two opposing forces. Where as in other sections of the painting, different (or the same) hand is holding what looks like a light, a broken sword, or a fallen child.
Bang also writes about a light background vs. a dark background. In La Guernica, the background is black, Bang interprets this as unsafe because you can not see as well at night as you can during the day. I defiantly would not feel safe in the painting. Bang writes about how the top half of the page represents freedom and the bottom represents a more threatened feeling. In the painting, a hand is holding a light, it is centered in the middle, and grounded (fallen) at the bottom.

What are real book?

I don't think there is a standard for what a real book is. Many people may think a real book has chapters, characters, a plot and a story line, etc. But really any sort of put together text can be called a book if the author feels it is.
I know when I was younger I would never think to call a comic book a real book. Comic books were like my stuffed animals or dolls but for boys. I may have even thought they were silly. Now, when I think about comics, or graphic novels I would defiantly consider them as real books. In some ways, comics may even more diffucult to write and even harder to read. A lot of thought is put into them, and they deserve just as much respect as any novel gets.

Multimodal Literacies

Multimodal, multisemiotics, and multiliteracies are defined in the article as better means to help educate. This new form of literacy helps children relate to the different types of communication. They can identify many different aspects of communication that they use through out their everyday lives. Because we have so many different types of communication that we use daily, it only makes sense to begin to teach through them.

What is an American?

An American does not have to be born in America to be considered one.  Americans just have to believe in their country, work together to make it stronger, and stay faithful during lesser times.  I also believe it takes all different kinds of Americans to make our country as beautiful and free as it is.  It is hard to say what an American looks like because we do not all look the same.  Many Americans come from other countries to live and work in America.  I have an uncle who lived in Napal his whole life, then moved to America to start a family.  After twenty years of living in America he finally became a legal American.  In my opinion, I am not sure how the government can draw the line between legal and illegal immigrants.  He was working, paying taxes, and living here just like anyone who had been born here.