English Blog: 3/25/13 What does Nick Really Think?

Nick declares at the beginning of the novel that  he reserves all judgements on all characters per his father's suggestion, but throughout the novel, we see he still has opinions and judgements about the other characters and the events they participate in.


Nick, despite his intentions, judges all the characters in the book. Initially, he thinks of Gatsby as this wonderful, mysterious man (as Nick talks about him in a fascinated light), but then he finds him boring.....which was strange....he finds him distant for a period of time. But by chapter 5, Nick starts to really get to know Gatsby. Nick thinks Gatsby this childish boy, who is just scared to talk to his crush. Nick goes from seeing him as this great man to the seeming boy that he is around Daisy. So, on the whole, Nick is fascinated by Gatsby's seemingly ever changing nature. On page 91-92, he talks about the three states of Gatsby, which ties there.

Nick thinks that Daisy is confused and conflicted. She basically fights and battles with her husband, and per Jordan's story, might be thinking of something else. Nick thinks fondly of her, as is evidenced through his consistant talk of her enticing voice, but initially finds her shallow, emotionless. But this is changed slightly later around Gatsby in Chapter 5, and around Gatsby seems to bring out a deeper side of Daisy. Nick feels Daisy wants to leave Tom, this brute of a man, for someone better, but at the same time thinks she feels obligated to stay.

Nick initially perceives Jordan as being aloof, with a sort of "nose turned up" personality. This is later confirmed at the first party, as his assumption that Jordan is a total gossip is cemented. Additionally, Nick sees Jordan for what she truly is, a pathological liar. Yet, the most interesting thing about this, is while he almost knows it's true, Nick still seems interested in her romantically.

Nick portrays Myrtle as this person who looks out for her own interests, specifically in the money department, through his narration. The primary reason she married Mr. Wilson, as he quotes her, was she thought he was rich. And Nick would have us infer that this is the primary reason she has an affair with Tom, referring specifically to the scene where Myrtle gets Tom to buy her several things, among them a puppy, that she really doesn't seem to want or need, but wants for the sake of taking advantage of Tom's money.

Finally, Nick's opinion of Tom seems to be rather low, almost sympathetic. In the opening sequence where we meet Tom, he is described by Nick as this person whose best days are behind him, one who is searching for one last great football game. This opinion is seemingly continued when Nick relates Tom's mostly ignorant rant about "the Nordic race."

BP Propoganda

First video
Glittering Generalities: "we are working hard," "I'm deeply sorry."

Second video
Glittering Generalities: Emerril literally spent the entire time talking about how they're "working hard," and how he spends the entire time talking about things which he doesn't fully understand.

Testimonial: He's pretty famous, but knows nothing about any of this stuff.

Third & Fourth
Testimonial: both were Olympic athletes for 'Merica.

Transfer: Lolo Jones holding the American flag, and then showing a BP (British Petroleum, ironically) logo shortly thereafter, thereby transferring the positive feelings associated with the flag to BP

On an irrelavent note, they talked about overcoming obstacles that aren't even remotely related to anything that BP does....

Fifth
Card Stacking: they talked the entire ad about how gulf tourism has had it's best year after the oil spill, and said how well the Gulf is doing NOW, not how it was doing when the oil spill happened.

English Journal 2/4/13 Super Bowl ads

Tide:
-Pathos (humor, appeal to passion for football)
-Target audience: football fans (especially women who are football fans who wash clothes)

VW Beetle:
-Pathos (humor, "feeling good")
-Target audience: People watching the superbowl

Oreo
-Pathos (humor, straight up absurdity)
-Target audience: People watching

Budweiser
-Pathos (sentimentality)
-Target audience: As sexist as it unfortunately seems to be, women.

English Journal: 1/16/13

'50s and '60s

New Country Corn Flakes
Appeals:
-Ethos: General Mills makes it, "the way they should." But more importantly, General Mills is an established brand
Fallacies:
-Half-truth: Doesn't say anything about how they taste, only about the texture (they don't wilt when you pour on milk)

Alka-Seltzer


'70s

Delk
Appeals:
-Logos: It's cheaper compared to others and is long lasting
Fallacies:
-Glittering Generality: Ward off trouble, "for a very long time."

English Journal 1/10/13 "Chain Gang"

Summary: People are working hard (whomever they are) and they're seemingly wasting their life away working at whatever they're doing (I doubt that the "chain gang" is literal)

Analysis:
-Chain gangs often do things in time together uniformly
   >At the time the song was written, suburban "cookie-cutter" America was just getting started...maybe a poke at the synchronization of the new American lifestyle by comparing it to a chain gang.

English Journal: 1/9/13

'80s Commercials Vol. 9

Mitsubishi Electronics:
-Appeals: pathos, ethos, logos
-Target audience: people with disposable income

Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
-Appeals: ethos, pathos, logos
-Target audience: younger people or people who watched Frankie Avalogn.

Apple IIGS
-Appeals: pathos, logos, ethos
-Target audience: parents

English Journal 10/2/12. "Young Life"

Claims:
 -The man shot the deer
 -Bartlett is illustrating stereotypical "Redneck" America
 -Bartlett is praising stereotypical "Redneck" America

Support (to each claim, respectively):
 -The deer doesn't appear to be alive, and the man is holding a shotgun
 -The man owns a shotgun, a pickup truck, and hunts, all stereotypes of a redneck
 -The dead deer, the powerful position of the shotgun in the painting.

English Journal 11/9/12, "2+2=5"

Subject: Loss of free will? Conformity?
Tone: Negative, "devil's way"
Theme: The strong pull of conformity on society, even on the strongest

English Journal 10/25/12, "The Loss of Innocence"

Innocence is the lack of knowledge or lack of acknowledgement of evils in the world, whtever those are for you.

Loosing innocence is whereby one either gains knowledge or acknowedges the eveil, whether specific or broad.

I, honestly, have no idea about what symbolizes the loss of innocence or the loss of anything for that matter besides the obvious representation of the nakedness trying to be covered up by the woman on the right. After this point, I'm going to punt. The falling petals show the descent of the person from an innocent person to that of the world.

English Journal 10/22/12, "Don't You Want Me"

What's going on:
     A man basically made a woman's career, and loves her. He sees this as love. The woman, however, was going to do something with her life, and this guy happened to the vehicle, so she doesn't see this as love.

How is it possible to have such conflicting views on the same situation?
     Everyone has his or her own views, values, or other things the want to protect, including their ego.

English Journal 9/27/12, "Blackbird"

Symbols:

Blackbird = people struggling for civil rights in America

Broken Wing = wrong done to these people

Dead of Night = hope in darkness

English Post 9/26/12, "Shame"

The subject is the author's previous treatment of his love. The tone is a feeling of remorse. The author is regretting a past action or actions. In the refrain, the repetition and magnitude (boatloads) of shame demonstrates a regret of past actions.

English Post 9/6/12 "Semeadores"

S - Workers/ Farmers

N - The artist (Diego Rivera)

A - The people who don't work in the fields (middle, upper classes)

P - To portray workers working, perhaps who are working to hard, as one of them is bent double from the strain of his work

English Journal 9/5/12 "Good Old Desk"

Subject - His desk and its many good qualities

Narrator - Harry Nilsson; his only bias appears to be towards his desk

Audience - Anyone who will listen to his praise of his desk

Purpose - To laud an everyday object that's dependable


The Desk is a symbol for God (Good Old Desk)??
Originally, I thought it was a silly song that was just for fun, but now that I know about the symbolism, it makes a little more sense and is a great deal more meaningful.

English Journal 9/4/12

The Pinch of Poverty
(Painting)

Subject-
Poverty; affected families

Narrator-
(No narrator)
Bias; cares about poverty

Audience-
Middle to Upper classes which either ignore, glaze over, or don't know about poverty

Purpose-
To expose the world, specifically the wealthier parts of it, to poverty and its affects.


2 Artistic Choices:
-The brighter colors of the flowers and the baby wrap contrast sharply with the rest of the painting, which has much duller colors, which I think is used to draw attention to this presumably impoverished family, and how it should be noticed.
-The positioning of the girl in the foreground, who is stepping forward and away from the rest of the family, shows how much independence many children in poverty must show to support their family, further exposing the affects of poverty.

English Journal: 8/20/12

How do you define culture?
     Culture is what you are exposed to and what you absorb from your surroundings (like it or dislike it).

What makes up a person's culture?
     What they are exposed to. This can include literature, spoken stories, music, points of view, political perspectives, etc. You develop opinions about what you're exposed to, regardless of whether or not you like it.

Is culture intrinsic or extrinsic?
     Extrinsic; you can only react to what you've been exposed to.

English Journal: 8/17/12

Facts:

1. There are three people in the painting
2. The seats are gren
3. There is a special today

Claims:

1. The policeman is talking and lecturing the boy
2. The boy seated right has run away
3. This painting is of the '40's or '50's

The Pearl Response 2

The last 50 some pages of the book start off with the one moment we've all been waiting for: Kino finally gets to sell his pearl and begin his life of wealth. However, the dealers would only give him a fraction of what it is worth, and so, instead of staying and bargaining, or taking the small fortune they offer him, Kino plots to leave this town and go sell his pearl at the capitol, a scary place many miles away. What I find interesting is that Kino could've easily stormed off and come back another day after seeing that the dealers were lying. But instead, he ends up preparing to leave for the capitol and murdering someone. I just wonder why Kino didn't keep a more level head through all of this, and I think it is Steinbeck telling us a moral of the story: wealth, especially potential wealth, can drive us to let our emotions control our actions. I like how Steinbeck subtly shares this moral without coming right out and stating it.

Additionally, a question I have that has been left unanswered. How was Coyotito killed?? I thought that Kino moved and struck the man with the rifle before he could fire and silence the "coyote." But then when Kino and Juana walk back into town, Coyotito is dead, which left me wondering. And finally, who are the men that Kino kills or injures throughout the book? It's never revealed who Kino slashes in the doorway of his house, or who he kills on the path leading to his house, or who the two trackers are, or who the man on the horse with a rifle, who we seem to pay particular attention to, is. All this uncertainty could've been cleared up in a sentence or two at some point when the book wrapped up, but instead Steinbeck chooses to leave them nameless, which is interesting and as a reader quite frustrating.

The Pearl Response 1

Steinbeck starts his story with the songs that Kino experiences. The songs are simple, and have been heard by people such as him for many centuries. I like how Steinbeck starts the story by introducing a concept that pervades throughout the whole book. I think that without this introduction, a reader would have to waste time later on trying to figure out what he is talking about.

Additionally, what becomes of the seven small pearls that Kino hands the doctor's servant? Maybe I read this wrong, but does the doctor just keep them? I don't recall the servant handing them back to Kino. And then Kino just let's the doctor take the seven pearls which he has worked so hard to get? Granted, they're small pearls, but still, those are his livelihood, pretty much everything he has to live on. I don't think this is an intentional choice by Steinbeck, but it makes me wonder why it happened this way nonetheless.

And finally, I find it interesting that this pearl can change the fate of this entire town; everyone could benefit from Kino's new found wealth, as Steinbeck shows in the beginning of chapter III. Everybody from the lowly beggars all the way to the wealthy doctor can gain from this "Pearl of the World." Because of this good feeling I as a reader get from the good this pearl can do, I, as a reader, have a more intense feeling of hatred toward the stranger who tries to steal it.

Pygmalion Response 2

Well, having finished the play, it's interesting to look back on my first post and to see how many things I've figured out since then. Firstly, that Shaw is writing in a time where public schooling did exist, how ever crude and generally unavailable it was, a slight difference from what I wrote previously. Secondly, I found out why Shaw includes the mother and daughter in the opening scene, as they play a key role in Act III. The mother and daughter, who we now know as Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill, are (ironically) present at Liza's, "first appearance in London society of the professional class."

Having made my peace with my previous post, I'll move on to the rest of the book. One of the first things from Act III that I became aware of is a sense of knowing how beautiful Liza looks like without having actually seen her at the reception. As a reader, I need not see a picture of what Liza is wearing as she walks through the room or see a video of her walking through the crowd to know how stunning and elegant she looks because as I reader, I know all about Liza and how hard she has worked for this. I hardly need a description to know that she looks absolutely gorgeous, because Shaw has done a marvelous job revealing this character to the audience. Also worth noting, Shaw is able to skip the entire 6 month process of Liza's learning and still is able to convey that Liza has worked as hard as possible and even before her first appearance in higher London society, we know that she will be a lady. I think it's amazing that Shaw can develop a character such that we know her so well that we can infer about the present results of past actions and even about future actions.

And my final word on the play is how Shaw chooses to the play. He leaves the future in so much question. The dialogue between Professor Higgins and Eliza leaves me as a reader wondering whether or not Eliza is ever coming back. As a reader, I am unsure whether or not Eliza is being serious or sarcastic, and I guess we'll never know how it turns out. I find that very intriguing and at the same time extremely frustrating that Shaw ends the play this way.