Semester Reflection

This semester has been a different one for me is a few ways. I think I have definitely grown as a writer and have learned to accept new ways of learning. Comics had a huge impact on my semester. We went through a few different comic books and when we started the first one, I wasn't too excited. As we continued on with the first one and in to the next two or so, comics began to grow on me some what. I gained a better understanding for them and also gained more acceptance for this type of literature. I went in with the attitude that comics were dumb and had to relevance to my learning, and I came out with a whole new perspective. I actually enjoy comics (to an extent) now and have learned how to read them through the use of symbolism and such. This was definitely a challenge at the start of the course, but it got easier as the semester went on and actually became enjoyable. I feel as though I have improved my writing in a couple ways, but the one that stands out the most is i finally learned how to write a thesis! YAY! Only took me several years, but I finally grasped the concept of what a thesis is and how to actually write one and make my paper a successful one. I think my favorite texts were probably The Bluest Eye and Oranges because I think there are many people out there that could relate to both, weather it be being the outcast all the time or being controlled my someone in an absolute insane way. I really enjoy fiction, but fiction that could potentially be non fiction. I definitely think I responded to these to texts in the most positive manner, but thats not to say these were the only two I enjoyed. I struggled a lot with A Midsummer's Night Dream, but I don't think thats too suprising. Though the story is good (after looking at interpretations) the language was quite a struggle. It called for a lot of re-reading and still sometimes I wasn't sure what was going on. I'm not really concerned with this though because I feel like its something that needs practice. I feel the more I read novels such as Shakespeare, the better understanding I will eventually gain. I think the language takes a lot of getting used to. I really liked how we came up with our own thoughts about texts, then shared them with our classmates. I really think this helped a lot in understanding the texts and getting different perspectives on them. I disliked the seminar thing we did the most. I thought it was interesting to hear people's thoughts, but I also thought it was hard because a lot of the ideas were the same (since we were talking about the same parts with a lot of people) so I felt like there wasn't enough for everyone to say. Not that it isn't a good idea, it just wasn't one of my favorites. I think I have no doubt been challenged in my critical thinking and my close reading skills and I think it will really help me in the long run. I have learned to focus on a particular section and pick it apart and really make something of it. I didn't really know what to expect for this class because I had no idea what it was going to entail so I cant really say that I was hoping for much more. I really ended up enjoying this class because, although challenging at times I really learned a lot more than I ever expected. 

Gaiman vs. Shakespeare

Gaiman's text and Shakespeare's text are very different. For one, Gaiman's text is in the form of a comic. If this were a few months ago my views may be different, but after reading a few comics so far this semester I have gained more of a liking for them, so in this case I found Gaiman's text a lot more interesting than just reading Shakespeare's play script. Another thing that was different about Gaiman's text was the language that was used. Gaiman used more modern English, so obviously it was easier for me to understand. Though the concepts of Shakespeare's play were interesting and a lot of times just insane, it was often times hard for me to grasp those concepts and understand what exactly was going on, due to the Old English Language that he used. Both plays were comedic, which is why I was able to enjoy both, but once again the language in Shakespeare's version was much more difficult to interpret which made it a little less enjoyable because I was having to think about what exactly every line meant. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the Gainan's interpretation and I'm sure many people out there think it is destruction of Shakespeare's original version. I, on the other hand enjoyed it quite thoroughly and I do think, it gave me somewhat of a better understanding of Shakespeare's original. For example, I found the whole love triangle with Lysander, Hermia and Demetrius to be quite difficult to keep up with at times. But, in Gaiman's version it was straightforward. This quote in particular, tells pretty much exactly what is going on with out all the confusion,

 

                        That one up there, Lysander, 

                        he loves her, Hermia, but her dad, 

                        wants her to marry the other

                        one, Demetrius, see?

 

Instead of having in interpret every line of Shakespeare's play in order to know what exactly is going on, in Gaiman's version it is a little more straight forward, and for people like me that dont understand Old English, it is much easier to grasp. 

 

I enjoyed both versions, but I found Shakespeare's version much more complex and difficult to interpret, where as Gaiman's version I was given pictures and it was written in words I could better understand.

ACT 1, Scene 1 

Helena

How happy some o'er other some can be!

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

He will not know what all but he do know:

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities:

Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured every where:

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

My interpretation of what it is Helena is trying to say:

Helena feels she is just as good as Hermia, but apparently Demetrius does not agree. Demetrius doesnt know Helena loves him, he is too caught up in and in love with Hermia. As Demetrius is busy admiring Hermia, Helena is admiring and in love with Demetrius. I think she is trying to say that Demetrius is only seeing Hermia's beauty and what is on the outside, rather than what she is like on the inside. The only judgment Demetrius has is what he sees of Hermia, and that is beauty for which he has fallen for. She speaks of the immaturity of boys and the fact that Demetrius is committing perjury. She talks about how Demetrius looks at Hermia, but he took oaths that he was only Helena's. As soon as he fell for Hermia, all his oaths and vows he made disappeared and soon meant nothing.  She says she is going to tell Demetrius that Helena is leaving to run away with Lysander to get married. She thinks if he finds out about Hermia's flight, Demetrius will come back to her.

Titania and Oberon

This play was not interesting to me in the slightest and I'm going to have to say I had no idea what was going on throughout the majority of this play. I read it and even watched it and both left me confused. I had a lot of trouble remembering all the characters, which kind of makes it difficult to keep up with what was going on and to examine the relationships between characters. One relationship that I sort of understood and found some what interesting was the relationship between Titania and Oberon. Oberon is the king of the fairies and Titania is the Queen, aka his wife. Titania kidnaps an Indian prince, who Oberon wishes to make his knight. This causes conflict with the relationship between Titania and Oberon because Titania refuses to give up the prince. Titania refuses to sleep with her husband, until he rids the idea of making the boy his knight. As a sort of revenge Oberon puts a spell on Titania, making her fall in love with a creature that is half human half donkey. Oberon tricks Titania, while under the spell, convincing her to give him the boy and she does willingly. When she awakes from the spell the two reunite happily. I thought it was interesting how the two just forgave each other after the arguments they had and after Oberon took the fairy prince to be his knight...Yeah but over all I was pretty confused with what was even going on and with who for most of the play. 

Research Paper Thesis

The thesis I will be basing my research on has to do with self image and how media effects people in a negative way. I will be looking at The Bluest Eye, The Dove Ad, Emerson's quote, and then some articles, videos and websites that I will find on my own to relate to this thesis. 

Poem vs. Persepolis

I chose to compare the poem "On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam", by Hayden Carruth, and the book Persepolis. These two pieces of literature can be very closely compared. The fact that both pieces talk about War is the first way they are a like, but it goes much deeper than that. Both pieces bring about this feeling of numbness to to war and death. Death becomes "the norm" because it happens so often. In the poem the author mentions not only the Vietnam War, but a few other wars as well. His attitude gives the reader a sense that he is used to War. He grew up around war and was even in a war, and being surrounded by so much death and violence, war simply becomes an extremely normal thing. Like in the poem, the same goes for Persepolis. The story takes place during the Iranian Revolution, where the violence is horrendous. Prisoners being tortured, people being killed, yet instead of being saddened and shocked by what is going on (like they were in the start of the war), the characters in this book soon become numb to what is going on around them. It is not that they don't honor and respect those that die for them to stand up for what they believe, because this is not the case at all. They honor these people completely, but no longer does people being killed upset them, as much as it once did, because it is what they are used to. They hear of people being tortured and killed everyday, which is no longer out of the ordinary, but in fact quite ordinary. War simply a way of life. This conflict of war, in both pieces, forges an identity of numbness. Characters are simply no longer being effected on a  daily basis by the death and violence around them. Instead, this is a way of life they have accepted and become accustomed to. 

Balnkets!

The first panel I found interesting and would like to discuss is on page 13 where the boys are getting in trouble for not going to sleep. I found it very interesting how Craig's dad gets so much bigger than the boys as he's yelling at them. I think this is to show his authority over them and I think it does a very good job at showing this.

The next panel I would like to talk about is page 32 when Phil is watching Tom and Jerry. I think this is sort of comparing the relationships of Tom and Jerry to Phil and Craig. It seems as if Craig doesn't like his little brother much and in the panel you see Phil says "Run Jerry Run!". And then you see Craig say, "I hope Jerry runs off a cliff". So, I definitely think the author is trying to relate the two relationships at this point in the story in some way. 

The final panel I would like to discuss is on page 190, but is something I also noticed a lot throughout the entire book. I found this book to be very multimodal, especially in the sense that I feel like I can hear everything going on in the book. On this page especially when it says "sniff sniff" by Ben's face. I felt like I could completely hear the sound of this especially because of the winter scene this panel takes place in, when its common to get the sniffles when it is so cold out. Also, when Raina's sister is attacking Craig, sitting on his back. You see the words "pat pat" and "ha ha ha" as she's hitting him on the back and joking around with him.

BELIEFS!

I believe in a lot of things. On a religious aspect, I believe in God. I am Catholic and was raised that way by my parents, and share the believes of the Catholic Church. On another level, I believe in our freedoms as American. Although I am Catholic, I believe in the freedom to choose your own religion and practices and respect for those who choose differently than me. I believe in living everyday to the fullest, and not taking anything in life for granted. And finally I believe in being thankful for everything you've got in life because there are so many other people out there that are worse off than you. Like I said before, my parents are the ones that raised me to be Catholic, and not only did they influence me on a religious level, but on all of these things I now believe today. My parents taught me never to judge and to respect those different from you, which is why I feel that I have so much respect for those of other religions and really feel like everyone has a right to believe what they want. My mother always taught me not to take anything in life for grated because in the blink of an eye it could be gone, and I try my best to keep this in mind as much as possible. She also taught me to be thankful for everything in life and I feel that I truly am (although there are always times where we get a little selfish as humans). I've seen how much better I have it than a lot of people in life and really understand why my mom raised me the way she did, in teaching me all these things. The book Oranges are Not the Only Fruit is based completely on beliefs. Janette's mom is a religious fanatic, so this is the way Janette was raised. Those that did not have the same beliefs as her mother, were considered "heathens" and "the devil". Everything Janette's mom believed, was right and everyone else was wrong. Homosexuality was considered a sin, and this was challenged by Janette, first with Melanie and then with Katy, both girls who she had intimate relations with. Finally, at the end of the book Janette decides to leave their church. She has a sort of a self revelation and realizes, this way of life she was raised to live is not who she is and who she is supposed to be. She has accepted that she is not the person her Mother wished her and raised her to be, but it is still difficult for her as her mother is constantly putting her down and calling her a "sinner". Even though she has accepted the fact that she will never be the religious fanatic her mother tried to raise her to be, she still struggles with the question of then who is she supposed to be? 

Close Read of The Bluest Eye!!

So far, I have found this book to be very interesting and a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I haven't gotten as far as I should be in the book, but have really liked how the author uses the different seasons to tell the story. Iconography plays a HUGE role in this book, which, in my opinion is really what makes the text so powerful. The ideas about the dolls and Claudia's hatred of white dolls, actually has to do with her resentment of white girls. The symbolism and iconography of this book are what I like most about it so far.

Working Thesis

I'm not really sure exactly what I am going to be working with yet but something along the lines of iconography. Maybe a question like, how is iconography used in comics, by the author, in order to give the reader a better understanding of the text? And then since I will be focusing on comics, I will talk mainly about American Born Chinese and McCloud's Text. That's pretty much all I have so far. Any suggestions would be great!

Being True to You

"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, as his portion..." -Ralph Walter Emerson

I noticed a lot of conversation and similarities between this quote by Emerson, with two of the characters in American Born Chinese, and in the Dove ad we watched today in class. The basic meaning that we came too, for this quote, was that you shouldn't be ashamed of who you are and you should never try to be something or someone you are not. Beauty is within and we need to remember that in order to maintain who we really are. This quote works directly in conversation the a couple characters in American Born Chinese. The first character is a monkey. He doesn't want to be a monkey so he tries so hard to turn himself in to something that is unrealistic. He begins taking on human characteristics, one being wearing shoes. He then tries to become a God, but in the end is buried by rocks by an actual God; the moral being being something you are not never gets you very far. There was another character in American Born Chinese that came to a new school from San Fransisco, but because he is Asian it was assumed he came right from China and many other stereotypes were placed upon him. He was treated poorly and constantly insulted by classmates. Later on, another kid comes from Taiwan and is treated just as badly by his classmates. The boy tries to make friends with the kid from San Fransisco but he is turned down and treated poorly. This shows that the kid from San Fransisco is being someone he is not because he is acting in a way that he thinks his classmates want him to act. He didn't like being treated badly, yet he is doing the same thing to someone else. Eventually he realizes he can be himself and the two become friends. Finally, there is also a conversation with this quote and the dove ad that I noticed. The entire dove ad is about staying true to yourself. It shows an average girl who is literally transformed by makeup and computerization's to become, what looks like a completely different person. The purpose of this ad is to show that even with all the make up and what not it doesn't make the person who they are. We cant look perfect because the perfection we see on billboards isn't even real. It is fake and computerized but it makes us feel like we need to look like that to feel OK about ourselves. All in all, all of these pieces of literature are conversing with each other about the importance of staying true to yourself and that beauty comes from within.

American Born Chinese

After finishing McCloud's book and starting the book, American Born Chinese, I am really beginning to take a better understanding for comics and am beginning to have more of an appreciation for them and what the bring to me as a reader. In comparison to McCloud's book, I found this book as a much easier read and way easier to follow. The panel I would like to focus on and which I found very interesting was the panel where the boy, Chin-kee, goes to school in America for the first time. First of all, his name is Chin-kee, which the word "chink" is often referred to as a dereogetory comment towards Asians. I was shocked at the fact that the author would go that far, but I think it does an excellent job of expressing stereotypes against Asians, in general. This panel/section shows a young, Chinese boy, and his first experiences in an American school, while visiting his cousin in the US. I actually found a lot of what was happening in this section and the expressions used to hold very true in a sense. In my own experience, when people from other countries come in to the United States for the first time they are so excited to do so. A lot of times too, they are eager to learn. In this panel Chin-kee is so excited to learn and participate, while the other kids are so used to the education they are given that they show no enthusiasm to learning, what so ever. In every class they show him in, he is always raising his hands and answering questions. I also liked how it actually showed Chin-kee's difference in dialect because I feel it really held true. He knows English, but it's broken English, which is what you see a lot of times with those who have not been in our country for too long (I am impressed, none the less, because I don't think I'd ever be able to pick up a language as fast as a lot of people do).  The multi modality used in this section I chose, doesn't exemplify as much as in other parts, from what I noticed, but multi modality is used in the classroom setting, where most of the section I chose takes place. In the science classroom, a human skeleton is used as a visual aid. In English, the teacher is reading out loud to the class and in math equations are written on the board by the teacher. This portion of the text actually truly does exemplifies multi modality in the classroom and the different ways of learning and teaching that honor all of our different senses.  So far I have really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of it! 

Bell Hooks

I found Bell Hook's views to be very interesting and posing much controversy. I think the way she presented these concerns for racism and gender inequality, and what not, through the media is a very good way to go about it. After viewing all the clips shown through out the segment we viewed, it is all the more evident of what society makes us believe, and that the media is such a strong source that it can alter out actions, that much, SO easily. Her point on how the media is everywhere, and we all see it makes us feel as though we need to act in a certain way, or the person with this color skin is seen as a negative person amazed me in how true it actually is. Even after viewing all of those clips, I myself have seen how movies and entertainment can portray negative light on such sensitive issues, but haven't realized this so much in the past. I think all these topics of gender, race, etc, are very important to discuss, especially because of how the media often goes about portraying these issues. If we choose not to discuss them, then the images we see through the media are the ones that will stick with us and we will most likely believe to be true. I don't necessarily believe we always do what the media tells us to, but we see it and often act unconsciously after viewing it. 

American Gothic

I chose to interpret "American Gothic."  A lot can be taken from this picture when applying Molly Bang's theories and even some theories of my own. Judging by the positioning of the two people in the picture, I took from it that they are a married couple. Eye contact says a lot in this image. The man is looking directly at us, as we view it showing a clear sense of dominance. Where as, the woman's eyes are veered off in another direction, not making direct eye contact, thus exemplifying inferiority to her male partner and that clearly she is not the dominant one in this relationship. Her not looking directly ahead shows, to me, insecurity, and that she knows who is boss and that indeed it is not her. Molly stated that the top half of the picture is a place of freedom, happiness and triumph where as the bottom half feels threatened, heavier and sadder. This is definitely exemplified in this picture. The bottom half is where the couple is located and they look extremely unhappy. The top of this picture is surrounded by landscape and a nice house. Its odd too because Molly talks about how we feel more threatened by pointed shapes and more secure by rounded ones and I find this to be true as well. The pitch fork, for example, actually is a curvy shape and doesn't seem to scare me as a reader. I feel if it was more straight edged I would definitely feel more threatened as a viewer, but it doesn't at all scare me as a reader. I found this to be a very interesting picture to interpret and although I interpret it one way, I'm sure others may see it differently. 

What's Are Real Books?

Real books, to me, are anything you can open up, read and get something from. Anything providing some kind of information or some sort of story about something, I consider to be a book. A book doesn't have a certain length or certain requirements, in my opinion. When you think of a book you don't tend to think of newspaper articles and magazines, but I feel these are just as important as books, because they are providing some sort of information, therefore I classify them with books. I try not to show prejudice towards literature I am unfamiliar with, such as comic books, because, as stated in my definition of a real book, a comic book is included. Although I don't really enjoy literature like graphic novels and comics, in no way does that mean to me that these aren't books. If I read these types of literature, I may not particularly enjoy them, but ultimately I will get something from them. Whether I liked what I read or not, to me it is nearly impossible to get absolutely nothing from reading. 

Multimodality

As stated in the second paragraph of the article,

"Multimodality, multisemiotics, and multiliteracies emphasise the many ways and contexts in which people experience communication and come to develop understandings." As the article goes on it discusses more in depth how these different concepts do exactly this. Multimodal learning is everywhere and most of us don't even know it. In reality we are actually experiencing it all the time. School is the one place that is most obvious, where we experience these ways of learning, because of the many forms of communication that are presented in the classroom. We have lectures, readings, writings, etc which are all different forms of communicating and getting points across to students; This is exactly what multimodality is. It is the different ways of communication leading to the different understandings we take from what is being taught. 

The author himself actually speaks about how we are beginning to shift away from the traditional written and spoken words as means of communication and move in to other forms film, music, multimedia, etc. This article was especially interesting to me. Even though we are constantly living and learning in a multi modal way, we don't necessarily realize it, or at least I don;t anyways. It gave me a different out look on how many different ways there are to learn, which can defiantly make things more interesting and exciting. Rather then sticking with one way of learning all the time, there are so many other ways of communicating things to people leading them to many different understandings, which can actually be a good thing. It was really cool to me to think about how we use all our senses for communication because typically that is something you look past in everyday life. It's shocking to me all the other ways of communicating there are now (the Internet, multimedia, etc.), but I actually thing it's a good thing. I think the more ways there are of communicating, the more opportunities for people to understand what is coming from what is trying to be taught. I thought McCloud's text was rather confusing to me. A lot of it didn't really make sense to me and I think the main reason for that is that I am not one for reading comics. I was very distracted by the pictures, which interested me a lot more than what was actually being stated in the comic itself. Over all, I thought this was a very interesting article!

What is an American?

Many people define being an "American" differently. To me being an American doesn't necessarily represent the color of your skin or if  you originated from the United States of America. To me being an American means taking pride in the country you are living in. I think being proud of our country exemplifies the character of a true American. I believe a true American must also show a great amount of  respect for their country and the people in it. If you don't respect the land you live in and the people you live among, than I don't feel you are appropriately representing the United States and to me this is truly not American. Being an American means supporting your country and doing everything you can to make it the greatest country possible. Being an American has to do with loving the country of the United States, supporting it  always, and respecting it and taking pride in it. To me, this is truly how an "American" can be defined. 

USA Gymnastics

I chose an image of the 2008 Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team. I did competitive gymnastics for thirteen years, so I am a very big fan of the sport. I love keeping up with the sport, watching meets on TV, and even attending meets myself. Gymnastics is definitely my favorite sport!

USA Gymnastics 

Literary Theories: Assignment for 9/8/08

Though I found many of these theories very interesting, the two that I found the most interesting were popular culture and biographical. I am very interested in popular culture and what is going on in the world. I try to pay close attention to what is going on in the media and reading about what is popular among what types of people in the world and things of that nature often grab my attention very quickly.  The biographical theory is another theory that really catches my interest. Reading about people and their real life struggles, accomplishments, successes, etc. is just fascinating to me, what is probably why biographies are one of my favorite types of literature.