#16

Ooh goodness, where do I start on this crazy class we all have gotten through? This class has been hands down one of the hardest classes I have ever taken and hopefully I did well in it. I like to think I did well and I feel pretty good about getting a good grade. But anyways I do not know if this semester was just a very busy one but I feel drained and cannot wait till Friday is over with. Starting from the beginning of the semester I knew that this class was going to be difficult but I really had no idea how strenuous it was going to be. I think it was the heavy workload each week that really got to me; it never seemed to get any easier, just harder as the weeks went by. There was never a break in this class as I sometimes had in other classes. I suppose this is a good thing because I never had the chance to get lazy. I simply did not think of not doing English homework because there was always something due or due the next week. So in the end this nonstop stream of work always kept me working and productive. Not to repeat myself but I am so super happy that we are almost done and I just want to say that everyone should give themselves a pat on the back for making it this far and not giving up.

This class was really great for me because it made me appreciate writing again. I have always been all right with writing and research papers. Do not get me wrong they are not my favorite thing to do, but I do not hate them with a vengeance that a lot of students seem to do. So with all the writing we have done in this class my writing skills have improved throughout the weeks. My analytical skills have also improved and this is an essential skill for everyday use.

I really felt that even though this was a totally online class that we all made friends or at least connections with the other students in our class. The group projects and all the peer editing really gave us an opportunity to share and be open to other students. It is always nice to have friends in the classes we take and this human connection was not lost in this class even though it was all online. And that this connection was not lost is an amazing thing and we created an online community or sorts where we all learned together.

What killed me the most this semester was the research paper. I am still stressing over it and hopefully I can get most of it finished today. I have a solid draft but I still have some more ideas to put into it to flesh it out a bit more. But this paper has been my bane and I cannot wait till I hit submit and do not ever have to think about it again! 

#15

English has always been one of my strengths throughout high school and now in college. I have always been an avid reader throughout my life and this is why I think I have enjoyed all my English classes and done well in them. Do not get me wrong, this semester has been a toughie and I am still swamped with stress and worry about this class. But on the whole I think that this class has helped improve my writing skills. The blogs especially have helped me a lot. These blogs have forced me to write short essays every week and practice my writing every week. I think that this weekly writing has really helped me throughout the semester. Everyone knows that practice makes perfect and this is what I found the blogs to be: practice. So all this practice has made my writing to become better and better; and I find I am more comfortable writing to people and not just writing to merely fill the word requirement.

The group work and the responding to each other’s work has also helped me in reading others work and figuring out what can be worked on. This reviewing of other’s work has shown me the common mistakes that everyone’s work suffers from and to stay away from these common mistakes. Reading my peer’s work has also shown me different writing styles and this has helped to strengthen my own writing voice. In addition I have really enjoyed the feedback from most of my group; they really try to give the best constructive criticism and do not put your work down at all. There is only so much you can do to your own paper and it is so very helpful to have other students read your work with fresh eyes. They can usually see things that you miss and this peer review has really helped my work tremendously.

Another thing that has helped improve my writing has been all the papers we have done throughout the semester. Now I do know that this is an English class but it seems that the topics we have had to write on are much harder and thought-provoking than any other English class I have had. The issues we have had to take a stand on have made me really think, and I have had some trouble with writing on them. These papers have made me become a better writing and have pushed me out of my little comfortable writing shell. And this is what any good class is supposed to do, make you think outside of the box and question the things we take for granted.

And of course what has, in my opinion, helped the most have been the books. Everyone says that if you want to write better than read more, and I agree with this one hundred and eighty-nine percent. Good books are the key to learn how to write well and they introduce you to so many different literary styles and voices. To learn how to improve your own writing then just simply read others writing.     

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”-Victor Hugo

#14

I think I am going to spontaneously combust this week, or if not this week then in the coming up two weeks. This research paper is going to cause my untimely death and I am so young too! I am talking five classes and working and these last weeks have been catching up with me. Not to  mention this paper that have been causing me so much stress, I have four other classes that all have final research papers and/or final tests that I have to worry about as well. I only have a few pages done of the actual paper and I am getting a bit stressed that it is due this Sunday. I do not know when I am actually going to find some time to sit down and really work on this paper. When I write papers it usually takes me a while to get into the mood to write and until I get into this rhythm of writing it is hard for me to write well, or at least to write something that I am okay with. With this paper though I am hitting so many walls and cannot for the life of me get into the mood I have to be to actually write something and progress with the topic. And this inability to write anything good is making me more stressed about it and more worried, and this causes me to push it off till later. This viscous cycle continues to today when I decided to write my blog instead of working on the paper. I am not happy with this decision of putting the research paper off, but until I am in the mood to write anything, the stuff I do try to write I will end up just deleting later.

I am just having a lot of difficulties trying to get my topic and focus together. This paper is giving me more problems than any other paper I have ever had to write before. I am planning to reread The Great Gatsby and Reading Lolita in Tehran this week, or at least skim through them to gather up my thoughts again. Maybe with the books fresh in my head I can sit down and really make some progress with my research paper. And maybe to help me with the problems I am having I will make an outline. I usually never do this unless I have to for an assignment or if a teacher asks for one. But maybe an outline will help me gather my thoughts together for this very important paper. It is just the overwhelming stress that just seems to be pouring over me, that is making me freak out right now. I have always been one to stress out about things but it seems this semester is the worst for me. Maybe I should meditate, do some yoga to help me relax, a massage would be heaven right now. Once I start feeling the paper and my topic a bit more I know I will relax about it a bit, but until then please do not get upset if I am a total jerk.        

#13

I think everyone in the whole wide world must have a Facebook now. Please do not mention MySpace anymore because it is dead and buried and no one is on it anymore. Now I am not crazy addicted to my Facebook account (though I will admit I was when I first made it) but I do go on often to see new posts and pictures that my friends publish to their walls. And most of the times I like to publish pictures from fun nights with my friends too. This is where things could get ugly. Some of the pictures that I post now without thinking could be very embarrassing in ten, fifteen, or twenty years. Now please do not think that I am out parting every night and dancing half naked on poles. This is far from the truth but there are nights where I will somehow magically get the day off from work and happen to want to go out and live a little. I just turned twenty-one for goodness sakes and I want to enjoy my youth! But these pictures that I post could come back to haunt me in later years.

I have pictures that I or one of my friends has posted where I am a little tipsy and acting crazy, or I am in the process of taking shots. This could eventually embarrass me when I am out of school and teaching. No one would want their child’s kindergarten teacher to be a party girl and to have pictures online of her taking Jell-O shots! This just could ruin my chances of getting a teaching position when I am out of school. And there is no way that I would allow a picture from my younger years lose me a job. But this is happening all the time now, and companies routinely have checks of their applicant’s online history. They check their Facebook, Twitter, and any other online social networking site they can find them on. And if they find anything that they do not like then there goes your chance of a job.

I think as we grow older we look back at our younger years and laugh at all the things and mistakes we made. But in today’s society those memories are usually online and we will have to deal with them resurfacing in our later years. People will be able to see all the posts that I have written in my whole history of online activity. People could see my old MySpace account that I could never quite figure out how to delete. And those pictures that I have on that MySpace account are from my high school years and they embarrass me now. So I cannot even imagine how red I will get if someone would show them to me in another twenty years. In our society today, with all these online social sites, we have to be so careful with the things we post and publish because they can always come back to bite us in the ass.  

This is the scene: George W. Bush Jr. gives the keys of an old beat up car with no engine in it to a little John McCain. Simple enough but in my opinion very funny, the two characters are ones that we instantly recognize and if anyone has a problem recognizing the McCain character then there is a strategically placed campaign button on his chest that reads McC. The clothes also struck me when I started analyzing this comic. Bush is dressed in a black suit with a white shirt. He looks very professional. McCain on the other hand is dressed like a cross between a small child and a computer nerd. He has a white collared shirt with his huge campaign button covering most of his chest making him look smaller. He has dark pants on with tennis shoes on his feet. McCain’s whole outfit makes him look like an inexperienced child being given the keys to a car that he can’t even see over the steering wheel! The dialogue between these two well known characters is very simple consisting of only three words “She’s all yours…” Their gestures are what add to the humor of the cartoon. Bush seems very pleased to hand over the keys of the completely destroyed automobile that he has been in charge of for the last few years, and of course this automobile has a license plate that reads GOP. McCain on the other hand does not happy at all to have to take the keys to that awful car. He grimaces and tries to smile but it just comes out very bad. The car itself is what makes the whole comic in my opinion. All the tires are missing and it is propped up on cement blocks. There is a jack holding up the back of the car as if someone had tried to fix the tires but even started it. The door is completely gone and the springs are coming out of the upholstery, and the windshield is totally cracked. The engine is gone from the car, and it is hanging from a tree in the background. There is even a squirrel sleeping in the top of the car. And as the license plate suggests this car stands for the Republican Party. It is a metaphor for how beat up the Republican Party has become. It is a party with no hope of running again (no pun intended) and poor McCain has to try to get it back on the road.

Of course to think this comic is funny you cannot be a Republican or be conservative. It is directed to Democrats and those who do not believe in the Republican Party. Since I am not a Republican I laughed when I saw this comic. It is just really funny to see how beat up the car is and to see McCain’s face. He just looks like a little kid being given the keys to a car that he is too young to drive.      

#11

  

William Shakespeare, William Yeats, Stephan King, Salvador Dali, Oscar Wilde, Isabel Allende, George Washington, Tomas Jefferson, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Snoop Dogg all have one thing in common. They have all been users of a plant native to Central Asia. This little, leafy plant has been in use from the third millennium B.C. for recreational, religious, medicinal, and spiritual purposes. And it has grown (no pun intended) to be one of the biggest debates in today’s American culture.  This plant is called cannabis, or simply known by marijuana.

Proposition 19 was a ballot initiative on November 2, 2010. This proposition would have legalized marijuana-related activities in California. The use of marijuana is allowed for medicinal purposes, but this bill would have allowed everyday people to posses and smoke marijuana in the privacy of their own home or a public establishment licensed for onsite marijuana consumption. If this proposition had passed then any California citizen could have legally up to an ounce of marijuana on them for personal use. The last thing that this bill would have allowed was for the actual growing of marijuana as well for personal use. This bill as everyone knows did not pass but is regardless still a major issue in today’s society.     

Those who were and still are in favor of legalizing marijuana say that this legalization would help lessen the drug trafficking we see from the Mexican drug cartels, because according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy sixty percent of the drug cartel’s profits come from the sale of illegal marijuana. With this profit gone it would cut more than half of the money the cartel makes. Another benefit would be a saving all the money spent on law enforcement for marijuana-related offenses. If it was made legal then the state could tax it creating millions of dollars in tax revenues. Another benefit that many do not think of is tourism and the sale of pipes and marijuana paraphernalia. If people go to Amsterdam for the legal marijuana, I am sure they would much rather go to California to have legal marijuana in a beachside smoke house.

Of course there are many opposed to this idea of legalizing marijuana. Those parties against it believe that it is a direct conflict with Federal Law that states that marijuana is not to be sold and is illegal. Another reason they have is that with the legalization of marijuana would come numerous complications with trafficking, arrests, and possession. To counter the money that many believe would be created with the legalization those opposed say that the increased government activity would use it all up, leaving the United States coming up even. Opponents also believe that it could create a huge public safety risk, creating more accidents while under the influence, and hospital visits. Another complaint is that it would out the growers of medical marijuana out of business if anybody could grow their own plants.

So we have opposition from both sides and at every different level of government. We shall have to see what happens in the coming years, who knows marijuana could become legal in the next ten years or it could stay illegal forever.   

#10

In 1960 the social norms were much stricter than they are today. In the 60s the rigid, social norms that had been in place for so long had started to finally break down. We had the rise of the counterculture and the Hippies with their motto of “Free Love”. But the conservative group still controlled what was deemed socially correct and the opposing social movement was labeled immoral and wrong. So we can see the beginning of the movement of the relaxation of certain social taboos, but it is not until our modern ear that we have seen the culmination of these social movements. And the biggest example of this changing social attitude can be seen in the language we use and the language we still do not use in the media. Many of the shows popular today would have been taboo in the 1960s. I believe that as society progresses we become more accepting of the taboos of the previous generations. So where does this acceptance stop, or does it only keep progressing until there are no taboos left in our society?

With this new acceptance of language taboos of the past our media has started to show topics and say words that have never been allowed before. On television today we can see women talking about having multiple sex partners, people cussing when they get mad, violence is seen running rampant, and we even have a show that stars competing Queens! We have progressed past the taboo social norms of the past and we actually have reality on television now. Before it was all white picket fences, perfect families, and there was no such thing as violence or cuss words on the television. Now we can see some of the issues and people present in our society. It is so great to turn on the television and see people talking about sex, talking about having children before marriage, to see homosexuals, people of ethnicities other than White, and pretty much real scenarios of modern life. We have progressed past the fake imaginary world that was allowed in the 1960s to showing real life events and characters on the television.

A great example of the acceptance of taboos of the past is that cuss words are now heard on television. It is a fact that everyone in this world has let slip a few cuss words or uses them on a regular basis. Now there is still some resistance to having obscene language allowed in the media but I think it is a useless battle. We have realized that this coarse language is essential to create a level of realness on our television shows because it is so much part of our society today. If a show is not merely using cuss words for shock value then I think that this showed be allowed in the media and not be censored. If someone does not approve of the language then they can simply change the channel, no one is forcing them to watch it!  

#9

We live in the Unites States of American and it is the year 2011. With his statement many would believe that we live in a very diverse and accepting culture. That our citizens enjoy lives full of freedom and are not insulted by racism and sexism anymore. That was old news people; we live in the twentieth century now! Well this belief is completely wrong! Please do not misunderstand me, our country has made huge strides in the field of liberty and erasing and form of discrimination, but it is still present in our society. Nowhere in our society is this issue more apparent than in our media, seen everywhere from the movies that we watch, television, the books we read, and music are all charged with discrimination against ethnicities and sex.

I want to focus on movies, because everyone goes to the movies and they have such an influence in our pop culture and society. Superbad, Shoot ‘Em Up, John Tucker Must Die, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Sweet Home Alabama, all of the Fast and the Furious. All of these movies are misogynistic, a touch racist, and have very stereotypical female characters. This discrimination against females is even seen in our family movies. Movies such as Madagascar, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Ice Age all have few female characters; there are always the sidekicks, never the main character. A study I found on News Week shows that there is one female character to every three male characters in family movies, and this is weird that most of these female characters are scantily clad and very pretty (think the Little Mermaid). A study from the University of Southern California analyzed 122 family films between 2006 and 2009 and found that only 29.2 percent of the characters were female. One in four of these female characters wore sexy or alluring clothing, and was also more likely to be pretty. One in five of the female characters had their bellies showing. One in four female characters were shown with a waist so small that “the authors concluded it left ‘little room for a womb or any other internal organs.’ Maybe we could carry them in our purses?” I was shocked when I read this study, and I looked back at all my beloved films from my childhood. Most of them had little to no female character or where inferior to the male character and had to be saved by them. My favorite movie when I was little was Snow White and it is the worst movie if you think about it. Snow White had to live with seven ugly, old men (don’t want to say this, but this would be a great idea for a porno) and in the end has to be kissed by another man to save her. How is this possible in our family films! Most of the movies listed above also have little to no characters that are African American, Asian, Mexican, or any other race out there. Some do have other races but the characters are usually very stereotypical. A perfect example is the Fast and the Furious movies, most of the characters that are non-white are criminals and hustlers.

  

#8

Are you feeling down lately and feel like your totalitarian government is just becoming too much? Getting fed up by having to wear your hot, sticky chador in the summertime? Frustrated that you can’t even have some cool, sweet ice cream to beat the heat because it is inappropriate for you to be seen licking something in public? If you answered yes to any one of these questions then I have the perfect product for you ladies! Presenting the fabulous escape from all your daily problems, I give you the wonderful (and very portable) Reading Lolita in Tehran! This wonderful novel is written by Azar Nafisi, an acclaimed writer and professor. Through this novel readers can escape their own crazy world into a world of strong women struggling to find happiness and individuality in a world of struggle. In a world where women are taught to fit in and in no way stand out of the crowd. Nafisi writes a touching, brilliant memoir on her own life struggle to find an outlet of freedom through great works of fiction. Learn all about some of the best in literature from Lolita to Pride and Prejudice. Throughout this novel the readers will fall in love with all the wonderful people and come to hate some. Some of the characters you will adore include: Nassri, the indescribable Cheshire cat, Yassi, the comedian, feel for Azin, love the magician, and of course the author herself. These touching people learn to cope and find an outlet from reality. If this escape from reality is what you are looking for I suggest you read this wonderful novel ladies! And if your local bookstore has been closed down, then please to not hold this ad agency accountable for any incarceration for getting caught purchasing this novel from the black market. The suggestion this agency provides is that you find a like-minded women that all ready owns this wonderful novel to simply let you photocopy all three hundred and fifty-six pages! But back to this wonderful product of literature, these fantastic individuals will touch your heart and you will fell for them through their hardships and happiness. What this novel best portrays in the power that fiction and literature has for people. With fiction you can grant yourself access to a world where anything is possible, a world where it can be anything that you want. This escape is used by the members of Nafisi’s book club from their own constricting world. If this escape appeals to you then we have a fantastic contest for you ladies reading this ad! If you create your very own book club, like the very one in Reading Lolita in Tehran, and write to this agency of your intent then we will send you three copies of this wonderful novel to start your group’s collection! And if you act soon and write to this ageny within the next two business days then we will double the amount of Reading Lolita in Tehran and throw in a copy of The Great Gatsby!

#7

Nonverbal cues are some of the ways that we project our feelings and intentions to others. Sometimes a look can tell more than a conversation. In the game of poker the players look for that certain tell that allows them to figure out if their opponent is bluffing or not. This search for the “tell” of others allows us to understand what another is really feeling. I have many tells that project certain feelings and ideas to others around me. For instance my body language is normally very open and welcoming, I am a big people person and I like meeting new people throughout my day. So my body language reflects that to others. When I am mad though I tense up and you can clearly read it on my face. I get flustered, hot, and do not talk as much as I usually do. I also supposedly make a certain face when I am angry, an old friend and coworker of mine pointed it out to me one day at work. People can usually look at my face and that instantly lets them know how I am feeling. When I am happy I smile a lot and look cheerful, my face is pretty much like a book. I like to think that I have a good outlook on life and figure that we only live once so why not try to be happy most of it. I think that others can see from the nonverbal cues that I feel this way and respond well to it.

I also dress I bit differently than most, I really dislike clothes from stores like American Eagle and Abercrombie and Fitch.  It never really appealed to me and I like to draw my inspiration from different decades instead of this one. I like the fashions from the forties, fifties and this reflects in my dress style. I love, love thrift stores and rather go to them instead of the mall. I do have to admit I shop at Forever 21, and I am so happy to see floral popular again because I have a place to stock up before it goes out of fashion again. And then I am left with having to look hard for it again. My friend say I dress like a grandma and the customers I have at work dig the whole retro look I have. I just like to play with the clothes I wear and believe that they say a lot about the person you are so I pay attention to what I wear every day. So if a stranger was to look at me dressed on a normal day I think they would pick up that I am a person who likes some thins not very mainstream and have different taste and likes. I love when people like what I am wearing and we have a moment were we connect. Fashion bringing people together! That sounds very silly, but the nonverbal cues given out by people can either project that they are open to communication or that you should not even go near them. These cues are a powerful tool that allows others to glance for a moment, into a person and guess who they really are.   

#6

Communication is the way that we explain ourselves to the other people around us. Without out it we would not have any family, friends, relationships or societies. Through communication we build and strengthen relationships with our family, friends, and those around us.  Without this communication relationships can weaken and a distance of can grow between people. In my family everyone is supposed to be close and have close family bonds, but this is not the case. Yes I do have strong bonds with my all sisters and some of brothers, but with my father this is not the case. My sisters and I have always been close and I have always confided in them and talked with them. They have been the ones that helped me when I was having issues or most importantly boy trouble. They have given me the talk about the birds and the bees and given me advice from their own personal experiences. Without them I would have been lost and probably would have made some very bad decisions by now. But thankfully they were always there talking and giving me advice.

On the opposite of all this communication was that relationship I have with my father. If communication ran rampant between my sister’s and I, then it was frozen in solid ice with my father and I. When I was eight my mother passed away and I was left with just my sister still living at home and my father. To provide for us my father worked long hours and usually would get home around six or seven every night.  So I did not spend much time with him during the week and during the weekend he was found outside tending to our grass and doing outside chores. Communication never really grew between us and this chasm was created and it continued to grow as I grew older. As I grew older this gap was never really addressed and it remained the same with neither my father nor I trying to fix it. The lack of communication created a strained relationship between the two of us and it made us almost strangers living under the same roof.  This feeble father-daughter relationship was really thrown to the wolves when my father’s girlfriend came to live with us. Now for the record let’s just say that she and I do not at all get along. So any communication that existed before was nonsexist as soon as the girlfriend moved in; and any communication was not really communication but arguing and yelling. And when the girlfriend and I would get into arguments my father would simply say that I needed to try to get along with her and treat her as part of the family now. This never happened and will never happen.

Even to this day I do not have a close relationship with my father. We do not talk and spend time together like some fathers and daughters do. The lack of communication throughout our lives created this.

#5

English is on its way to becoming the main language of the world. There are more nonnative speakers of English than native speakers now, just in China alone there are more children studying English than there are Britons! With all this globalization of the English language there is bound to be some effects on the language itself. The English language is evolving and changing more rapidly than ever before seen, with all these nonnative speakers changing and adding to our language. English is evolving into different dialects around the world were each version of the English language is very different than the next. Just in the United States we can see the change with our huge Hispanic influence. New words such as enchiladas, chimichanga and leche are known to all Native Americans. Spanglish is spoken everywhere and many Hispanic nonnative’s are infusing the English language with their bold culture.

This changing of our language can be seen throughout the rest of the globe as well. Carla Power writes in her article titled “Not the Queen’s English” that “the new English-speakers aren’t just passively absorbing the language they’re shaping it.” Power continues on that “New Englishes” are being created everywhere in the world. These new dialects of the English language are complex and completely different from the other. We have Englog (Tagalog-English), Japlish (Japanese-English), Hinglish (Hindu-English), and a different version of English spoken in South Africa that they obviously have not come up with a nifty name for yet.

English is becoming the main language for anyone in the world to learn and communicate in if they want to succeed in the business world. Millions and millions of citizens from every country are clamoring to learn this language to better their chances of making a better living for themselves and their families. So with all these different people learning one single language there will be the evolution of the language. When any person learns a new language different from their own they will always have trouble mastering it. I know when I took French class during my second semester at AVC I had some trouble, luckily for me though French was similar to Spanish another language I am somewhat proficient in. But imagine a Chinese middle schooler trying to learn our language which has nothing in common with their native language. Of course these new speakers are going to change some words and make it easier for them to learn the complex English language. With all these new cultures and personalities learning and speaking our language there is going to be splicing and infusing of their languages and cultures into our own. The globalization of the English language is having an extreme effect on the language we all speak in the United States. New dialects of our language are growing everywhere on the globe and soon we may not be fluent in our own language. This evolution of language and culture is inevitable and I think it is something that should be embraced and not something that should be frowned upon. 

#4

Artist:

At first glance the beautiful colors of blacks and grays envelope my eyes. The blouse is of a soft, form-fitting black fabric that follows the contours of her collarbones down in a curvaceous circle. The sleeves are of lace of the same hue of the blouse and the soft color of flesh peeks through the lace. In the indentation above her bosom a necklace of a Day of the Dead skeleton nestles and flashes at my eye. The pants are of tight grey material that follows the curve of her thigh and legs and stop at the ankle. The metal rivets at the pockets blink and flash in the bright sunlight. Lastly are the small dull, black flats that envelope her feet. These flats have flecks of color about them that reveal stains of brown and grey, I wonder if they are small spots of oil paints. Maybe she too paints the beautiful world around her; I should ask if she would like to partake in a double espresso with me at that coffee shop near my studio….   

Tailor:

Looking at this girl’s outfit shows the perfect example of extreme tailoring. The unwrinkled shirt is a scoop neck comprised of a black cotton-nylon mix that has sleeves comprised of appliqué lace. The sleeves reach down almost to her elbows and thus she may have to hand-wash this shirt. Because of the cotton-nylon mix the shirt is form fitting and hugs her figure. This young girl is wearing a skeleton necklace and it rests above the shirt. She is also wearing grey denim pants made of a mostly cotton-spandex mix that clearly have been sewn. The pockets were made with small silver rivets and the pants appear to be a size zero. These pants have been altered after they were bought it seems by a novice sewer. They have been fitted to be much tighter than intended and one can see the new seam if you look carefully. Then on her feet are plain black flats.

Nudist:

This young girl has the most awful, restricting clothes I have ever seen. I wonder if she can even breathe or feel her legs in those tight pants! She is being seized at the top by a tight shirt that covers almost every inch of her skin from the warming rays of the sun. And needless to say she is probably being encircled by a rigid wire bra that shoves her breasts up and cramming them together unnaturally. And look at those pants she is wearing, goodness I wonder if the blood has stopped circulating throughout her legs. I do not understand how she could wear those pants and successfully function throughout her day. Can she bend over without splitting them open or even run through a field of flowers and fully appreciate the feel of dew-stained petals against her skin? I think not. This girl is also wearing black shoes that appear to be barley anything; maybe like me she loves the feel of the Earth beneath her toes. 

#3

Some speeches have been so moving and powerful that they have withstood the test of time. Speeches such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” and Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”. These speeches touché the heart of American at the time they were given and continue to this day to strike a chord. These two speeches both have some factors in common and many that are not similar. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” has addressing the repressive and hatefully discriminatory view towards African Americans at the time. While Sojourner Truth was speaking out for women’s rights, both African American women and for white women, in her speech “Ain’t I a Woman”. Both speeches though had similar uses of repetition.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech several words and phrases are repeated over and over. In the beginning of the speech the first phrase repeated is “one hundred years later”. This is repeated over and over, emphasizing that African American’s are still not free. That one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are still denied the freedom promised to them. Then using this literary tool of anaphora, King repeats the words “We must”, “we can never/cannot be satisfied”, and “go back to” Then the famous words “I have a dream” are repeated over and over again in the ending of his speech, sharing his hope that American will allow for all its citizens the freedom promised in the Declaration of Independence. Then the last words repeated are “with this faith” and “let freedom ring”.

In Sojourner Truth’s speech she addresses the subject of women’s rights and refutes the awful claims of the male speakers from throughout the day. Throughout her speech, Truth repeats the phrase “and ain’t I a woman”. She brings up every claim argued by the male speakers about the treatment of women and disproves it. One speaker believes that women need to be helped into carriages and over ditches, yet Sojourner Truth had never been helped into any carriage or mud puddle, and she asks is she not a woman?  She refutes all the claims brought up by the male speakers and shows the true power and potential of being a woman.

Both of the two speeches use the power of repetition to emphasize and increase the rhetorical effect. With the repeating of certain words and phrases throughout both speeches the listeners latch on to these words and they become more and more powerful. This use of anaphora increases the rhetorical effect had upon the listeners and draws them into the speech.

I think that both would respond well towards each other’s oratory style. I think that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been a supporter of women’s rights and would have been clapping in the front row for Truth at that women right’s convention. And I am sure that Sojorner Truth would have been standing on the steps of Lincoln’s Memorial during Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful speech.  

#2

  Language is the way we communicate out thoughts, feelings, desires, and dreams to others. This ability of language is what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. In the essay written by Helen Keller, she writes that her acquisition of language is what “set her free”. This freedom given by language is also seen in Malcolm X’s Homemade Education. Both of these authors were unable to express themselves and this inability frustrated them immensely, worse for Helen Keller who had no means at all for self-expression. Malcolm X read and copied the dictionary teaching himself to read and comprehend the written language he so desperately needed to express himself with, and Helen Keller learned how to acquire language with the help of her teacher. Acquiring language allowed both of them to feel truly free, and gave them the ability of self-expression.

            

This power given to us by language is the greatest gift possible, in my opinion. Language provides us with freedom. It allows us to tell others and have them understand our feelings, wants, dreams, and desires. With the spoken or even written word, I can do almost anything. I can read books and understand the words and the deeper meanings in the story. I can write stories and letters that everyone in the world can read and understand what I am trying to say. With language I can talk to other people who I met throughout my life, I can introduce myself and explain how I am and what I want out of life. With language I can talk to my friends and tell them jokes, have conversations, and communicate our wants and desires. I can talk to my family and teach my baby nephews new words and help them to express their needs to the world and the people around them. With my little sister I can talk to her and help her with her homework, showing her what this word means or what a story is really about. And with my boyfriend I can express my feelings toward him and how neat I think he is, and he can tell me through the power of language his feelings toward me as well. I have always been an avid reader throughout my life and with through the books I have been able to visit places I have never been, and met people I will never have met normally. Through these books I have felt free and able to be anywhere and achieve anything. (That was a bit corny, sorry) But any person who read to escape their tedious and mundane life can understand those stories allowed them to go somewhere else for a while and escape from their reality. This written language is what allowed me to feel free.

Language is what allows us to communicate what we are feeling inside. This power to expresses our feelings are given to us only through language and is the gift given to mankind. I think the ability to express ourselves is the most important thing, and we must protect it, cherish it, and nurture it throughout our lives. 

            

#1

When someone says critical thinking my first thoughts are of high school. In all our high school careers we were taught how to think critically and to analyze thoughtfully everything put in front of us. All the novels assigned to us had to be read between the lines, and meanings had to be found throughout the book. When throughout my early reading life I had simple read books and never looked for hidden meanings layered in the text. I thought books were just interesting stories and that’s it. Then when I took my first honors English class I realized oh how I was wrong. Almost everything in the books we read had hidden meanings and was supposed to represent something greater than it was. Needless to say this whole “read between the lines” and look for meaning took me awhile to grasp. Critically thinking to me now is simply reading and looking at things, and not taking them at face value; always looking for hidden meanings that may lay somewhere deep beneath the surface of things. To not believe everything we are told and to question and think about the things told to us. Simply put, to me, critical thinking is to be smart about things and use your head. To not be a sheep listening and believing everything we are fed by the world around us. These high school English classes are the ones who helped me realize that this whole “using your brain thing” had a name; and that is was critical thinking.

In my life today I try to watch as much news as possible and to really think about what is being presented to me. To think questions such as: whether this station is biased and which way is it biased, what would that cause if they were in favor of one political side, is this story believable, is this station a credible source of information? Though having my life though causes little to no time to watch the news and this is a regrettable fact. My main outlet to use critically thinking is in my classes. In my classes I can read papers from other students, novels and textbooks. I have to analyze the text I have been given and truly understand what I am reading to learn it. This is the major outlet I have to use critical thinking, though I should use it in every facet of my life.

Hopefully with this class my analytic skills will improve and I will learn how to use them more in everyday situations and not simply in my classes. Analyzing the things around us is a very important skill that most of us do not use all the time, though we should. And hopefully at the end of this semester this class will have helped me to learn to use critical thinking in every second of my life. With this better view on the world I might start to see things that I have missed before and become more in tune with the things going on around me.