How and Why...

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As you enter the story you come across an italics passage right before Autumn. For me, I look at this passage as setting a scene for what is to come in the story and in the fall. There are a lot of hidden passages.. When you take a look closer you see.... "It we planted the seeds, and said the right words over them, they would blossom, and everything would be right." When i read this passage I think of it not in the sense of marigolds as the author begins talking about the growth in the fall but also in the sense of the struggle the family is going through. This quote allows you to look at the idea of having a child and influencing it in life to grow up. This passage allows you to closer look at the family struggle of acceptance, at the end of the passage you hear of crops not growing and the loss of a child. This leads you into the story and sets a ton for the inner fight the characters will have to over come. But as the italics passage is summed up you see the words how and why not in italics this allows you to see where the story is taking its path...

In Class

Thesis!

As Emerson speaks on individuality and integrity you have to wonder, has Americans become too consumed with their own egos to realized we've lost our originality, that everyone wants to be someone else?

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P.S. It's early.

Assignment for Today!

Lately what I feel we've been talking about in class and throughout all our reading is the ideas of stereotypes in America and the feeling of not wanting to be who you are for something you cant help. In American Born Chinese you have three stories, two of which there is a monkey and a boy both who don't like who they are. The monkey doesn't want to be a monkey anymore so he wears shoes, and the boy doesn't want to be Chinese anymore so he becomes an all American boy, but they're all brought together in some sort of twisted fate that links the boy and the monkey together through a stereotype of Chinese people. The boy sees the horrible things people interpret when they think of the stereotypes of the Chinese and the boy realizes that it isn't so bad anymore to be Chinese and that it can hurt people when you disown them for their race.
This all ties closely into other readings we've encountered, the poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson allows you to see that not wanting to be yourself and is inevitable going to destroy you that there is no point in being something you are not because it won't make you happy in the end. Why don't people want to be who they are... because someone has hurt their feelings made fun of their skin color, their weight or their looks. In general no one likes to be made fun of and many stereotypes and plain ignorance ties all of these together. In the dove commercial we see a betrayal of the fashion industry to distort the image of a woman to make her
"more" beautiful, and people look at her with envy that she is a beautiful woman but in real life she isn't a woman at all shes created. This all leads back to the concepts that bell hooks brought forth about the media effect the youth of America, that young people today are controlled by the idea of pop culture. That the media and the industry executives are manipulating the system and filling minds with racism and stereotypes. What kind of world are we living in, that an industry wants us to fall into the stereotypes because it makes more money. But in the end the only ones getting hurt are all of the young people absorbing this nonsense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTzY-o-Y4y8

To be great is to be misunderstood.

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse..." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is a close comparison of the the story of the monkey king and the little boy Jin, in the book "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang. The story of the monkey not wanting to be monkey but be a god and the little boy who is out casted by being a chinese boy. This quote allows you to take a look inside the beauty of being who you are and not being something else because when you lose the true you, a part of you is lost in the crowd. You can't be ashamed of what is attended for you because you will never lose what is truly intended for you, it just may take some time to realize the beauty of being yourself.

American Born Chinese...

When asked to read this text I yet again was discouraged because I figured I couldn't really get into the Scott McCloud book - Understanding Comics. But this story was captivating for my mind. When I first began to read the story I started with the story of the monkey king, I was so interested i skipped over to the next Monkey King chapter and read that. Then I went back and read the story of the little boy moving to a new school and how hard it was for him to adapt. It was a sad story because of course the "american" children were mean to him because he looked different. So as I skipped ahead and read all of the little boys stories I realized just who the next chapter was. So I read the final of the three chapters and read the whole book in less than an hour. I feel as if this story is one that can capture the mind and hold on to it because in a sense it was an old chinese proverb, and there was more than meaning behind it...

My favorite set of panels in the story were those of the little boy, Jin I feel like for me he was the whole essence of the story, his journey was realizing that someone is always looking out for you and you should cherish your true friendships and not abandon them but grow from them. The little boy also was selfish and wanted to forget who he was he didn't want to be chinese american but just american, this was his journey of the soul searching and recognition of all that is true to knowing who you are as as person... When Jin was young and his mother would take him to the chinese herbalist and he would sit in his chair and play with his transformer toy he was in a sense foreshadowing to what he later wanted to become. Yet when you read these panels you see the herbalist wife she in a sense puts the idea of trading your soul for your inner most desires. This doesn't appeal to the little boy just yet. I think this story also allows "American" children to take a different perspective of what it is like to grow up "different" children lose their innocence occasionally and the story with Jin proves just that, and a good friend will always have your back.

This book really was a graphic novel, in a sense you could picture yourself in the story with the monkey king, feeling the frustration of being left out for something you cant help. When he was excluded from the dinner party for "not wearing shoes" when really it was just the fact he was a monkey you could feel the frustration when he attacked the bouncer, the animation in his face allowed to you take a look inside his inner emotions and relate to the frustrations we've all felt when being made fun of. The colors in this story we attention grabbing and allowed you to stay attentive and keep you interested in the story. In a way it played with your mind as if the color was a feeling. There were also changes of night and day in the story and you could see the change. In the end it was the color for me that I think kept me wanting more. I wanted to know what happened to everyone and it was an interesting twist, all i can say is by the end of the story i was left wanting more and more. 

Making a dollar...

When I began to watch the video last night there was another video by bell hooks that caught my eye. This was piece she did about patriarchy and madonna.  In this interview bell talked about how madonna uses her body and her sexuality to make money, and that despite her sexual exploitation of herself not following her moral beliefs she did it anyway to get ahead in the business. When looking closely into the movie business and the music industry you see people saying certain things, acting certain ways as a portrayal of all the things pop culture asks of them despite it going against their own personal views, just to make a dollar. There is a lot of pressure no a days on pop culture to create the newest most effective product for consumer. Yet many times african americans are falling into stereotypes and women are exploiting themselves sexual just to get ahead in the game. What has the industry become, but are we all just as guilty for listening and watching along? By seeing the music and entertainment industry act in such outlandish ways we are in a sense doing the exact same behavior and it is diminishing our moral values and instilling non traditional views in young minds.

American Gothic

My American Gothic...

When looking into the meaning of American Gothic through Bang's Insights we see many bold statements that you would never interpret by just looking at the a picture in one glance. These insights give a better understanding of what this picture really means...

• The upper half of the picture is a place of freedom, happiness and triumph. Yet when looking at this picture there is the top of a home the roof has distinct diagonal lines this implies the idea of tension. and the peek points toward the sky. The upper half represents a more spirtitual aspect of a picture and this seems as if there is anger in the air.
• The background of this picture is represented by a pale blue sky, lighted backgrounds allow the viewer to feel safer.
• The Viewer tends to feel more scared looking at pointed shapes or object so by the center of the picture holding a pitch fork it gives off a sense of fear, that he is claiming his place in the picture and he will not back down.
• This picture has pale colors it feels as if there is a sense of saddness in the air, that the inner turmoil of these people is all around them, yet the lighter sky perhaps mean there are better days to come.
• The man is the center of this picture his eyes are cast at you giving a sense of a strong leader where as the woman is looking at him for guidence as if she will follow him as he leads her.
• The people in this picture seem very stiff yet their bodies are completely verticle this gives the eye a more exciting appeal. This also means that the picture is rebeling the earths gravity and are reaching for the heavens.
• Perhaps this picture is misinterpretated.. Maybe theres a more spiritual interpretation
  

What is a "real" book?

I personally have never really enjoyed comics, I always thought comics at a young age were uninteresting and something boys did. I was by no means reading any other sort of book. Yet when evaluating the comic book I ignored it all together...

What makes a real book? A book is anything you want it to be, bound together or tattered and torn part, our generation was use to books just being biographies, non-fiction and fiction. Yet times are changing. When the movie Sin City was released it brought to live a whole new form of filming, people were ecstatic about this new imaging and creative brought to film. Yet it was inspired by a graphic novel. Many other books as well in the genre of graphic novel are being brought to life through film. This is broadening our generation and allowing us to use our creative minds to better interpret stories.

Graphic novels are the new up and coming way of reading and learning… Or so I hear. So whether or not you are use to comics, or necessarily think of a graphic novel as a comic, this is a better way of using the multi-s to interpret the way you see, hear and experience literature. Despite the fact that Shakespeare may be rolling in his grave because literature has lost its beauty and passion. Times are changing and this is what is captivating the minds of our generation.

Multi This and Multi That...

When reading this article I found that the way the author describes multimodality, multisemiotics and multiliteracies in a practical way. He was able to take what the truths behind our everyday thinking process was and apply it to learning and experiencing things in life. No matter what it is that we are looking at for instance the basic reading of this article you are using all three of these techniques to better interpret and understand the point behind it. The beauty of the mind is it has the ability to break down and reconstruct ideas and thoughts and even our feelings on certain situations.

I find that I enjoy the evaluation of miltimodality, multisemiotics and multiliteracies because I one day want to become a teacher and I personally am a hands on reader and this theory is everything that is essential to teaching young minds. It is hard for teachers to get students to grasp what a topic is and have it really stick with them. Yet this theory allows the student to think "outside the box." Everyone thinks differently and feels differently about everything. 'i may run over a cat with my car, and I would cry. But perhaps someone who is a big jerk, and may be allergic to cats, is happy that there is one less cat for them to sneeze at.

No matter what the situation the beauty of it all is that the interpretation of any situation is based on the person that is experiencing it. Yet the multi-s is a good way to characterize the importance of the thinking process, that we all use in our every day experiences.

September 8, 2008 In Class Writing Assignment..

What Is An America?
It's hard to put into words just what an American is. When I think to myself, I am an American, I think of the safety and security of my future and independence, I see myself working hard next to all of my fellow Americans. Striving to become something great to better not only my future but the future of others. It's being proud and honorable. What is an American? More like what isn't an American. We are fortunate enough to live in a place where we have the right to chose our own path and speak our minds and think for ourselves. An American is a honor, a duty and most of all a privilege.

When analyzing the articles of Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman you see to different tales about the meaning of what it’s like to be an American. In a sense when reading Walt Whitman you see the pride in diversity and the ability to do what you love and be proud of what you're accomplishing. That everyone has their own story to tell and it's up to you to want to listen to the "song" people are singing.

Yet when reading the Langston Hughes poem you see a sadder side of being an American. You see the struggle of not fitting in to the "normal" standard of being an "American." The meaning of this poem is right in the title. The word too, mean also implies that the author is also an American no matter what the color of your skin. Though many people forget the beauty that we are all created different, the poems share a sense of pride in diversity. Though, Walt Whitman expresses the difference in the working world and between men and women. Langston Hughes brings forth the diversity in every one of us.

The beauty of being an American is that we don’t have to be like each other, that we have the power to think for ourselves and become the best person that we strive to me. Being an American is whatever you want it to be. I want to be.

Theory Analysis

The two theories I chose to discuss were socialist and feminist. First, by analyzing the theory of socialist you see the critical analysis of the struggle of people through social interactions. There is a constant struggle for social equality and throughout history we've seen the battle for social justice. By expressing interest in the socialist theory you can see the evaluation of how social change is a constant battle for society whether it is now or the nineteenth century. The socialist approach to theory is an important part of our everyday life. The socialist approach also ties into the next theory, of feminism. The feminism theory approaches how women have been an important factor in developing social change in the twentieth century. Women were looked down upon for many years and now as the times are changing and women are developing a status in the years leading to this point. Women are becoming a more dominant influence in society. The socialist and feminist theories are a beneficial way to analyze the personal problems people struggle with daily.