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.