Communism Utopia

Communist Indication
  The only color besides the eyes is red.

Artists View
  The artist views communism negatively, which can be seen in the way he paints everything very bleak.

Meaning of the Title
  He thinks that if communists were in control and had their way they would want to ruin society and destroy individuality.

Soma

      The theme of the song is that drugs shouldn't be relied on for happiness, more specifically here, soma.   Soma is the drug in Brave New World that people take when they are unhappy or upset. The songwriter uses negative words in regards to drugs.   The singer said things like "...tried to hide it" and "losing against their dreams." Normally, losing isn't good in any situation and hiding things indicates being ashamed of what they were doing.  He also gives off a feeling of negativity towards soma in his examples.  He uses examples such as "Soma is what they would take when hard times opened their eyes." He says the people are trying to make themselves not feel real emotions, because the soma creates almost a false reality.  Clearly the songwriter thinks poorly of people taking drugs to be happy.

1: Topic sentence
2: Explains what "soma" is
3: Support for topic
4: Example of word choice that creates a negative feeling
5: Explains the example
6: Second support for topic
7: Example of bad effects of taking soma
8: Explanation for quote
9: Ties up the paragraph by restating the topic

Don't You Want Me

What's going on:
Two people are fighting about a breakup.

Two perspectives:
Guy- He still wants her and feels she owes him
Girl- She wants to live her own life

I argued with my friend about whether blondes or brunettes are more attractive.

Young Life

Claim 1:
The man shot the deer.
-He is holding a gun.

Claim 2:
The boy doesn't feel at home
-He's wearing different looking clothing.

Claim 3:
The author is talking about the "redneck" way of life
-The two main people both look like your stereotypical redneck (shotgun, dead deer, pickup truck, orange hat)

2+2=5

Subject
It's about conformity

Tone
Cautious

Theme
Conformity is bad and if we don't keep it in check, we may lose our individuality.

Loss of innocence

Innocence is being uncorrupt or not knowing evil

You can lose it by learning about evil

Three things:
1. The picture is very dark whereas innocence is usually pictured or thought of as light
2. The person to her right is attempting to cover her, which could symbolize innocence.
3. She's not wearing anything, showing she doesn't understand being naked

"Shame"

     The song "Shame" by the Avett Brothers is about getting a second chance with someone. The use of the phrase "Boatloads of shame" gets this across by emphasizing how sorry the speaker is. He does not feel shame, or lots of shame, but entire boats full of it! Another word choice he uses to establish the feel of the song is "Blame." The speaker feels so strongly about it that he cries for it to stop, showing how he wants to apologize. The author saying he wants to fall back in love is about the clearest message he can send that he wants a second chance. If someone comes right out and says "I want to love you again" it's fairly obvious they are pleading for a second chance.

Blackbird

Three words
  1. blackbird- the marginalized people
  2. broken wings- lack of rights
  3. fly- rise to equality
They work in conjecture to establish that people should not be marginalized. This song may have been referring to the Civil Rights Movement.

Sign Language

Purpose
  The purpose is to show that being deaf isn't a barrier to love.

Three things the director does
  1. The shy nature of the protagonist makes you want him to succeed
  2. The fact that the pole is form his grandfather shows you the business is in the family
  3. The title of the video adds meaning because sign language is the language the deaf use to communicate, and he is a sign holder.

Love Language

Purpose
  The purpose is to raise awareness for the deaf foundation it mentions at the end.

Effective/Ineffective
  It was effective because it was entertaining. It made me happy, making me want to support the foundation. The choice to show only certain notes helped it because it got the video to the point faster. The setting also helped it because it was a common place that most people can relate to.

How does it make you feel?
  It made me feel happy, because in the end they end up with a functioning relationship despite her being deaf.

"Good Old Desk" by Harry Nilsson

S- The subject is his desk
N- The person who uses the desk is the narrator.
A- The audience is people who enjoy his different style of music
P- His purpose is to make you think about dependability.

Three instances
"Keep my hopes alive"
"Such a comfort"
"It's the friend I've got, a giant of all times"

"Semeadores" by Diego Rivera

S- The subject is the farmers
N- The artist is a hispanic who understands the workers' plight.
A- The audience is the rich upper class who have the power to do something about the common workers' working conditions.
P- The purpose of this piece is to show how monotonous the life of the common worker is and the gloom. The way the man's back bends with the terrain almost makes him start to blend in, showing how the average worker can be forgotten because he's just a peasant in a far off place.

Technique
By making the painting plain, he emphasizes the monotony of their daily lives.

The Pinch of Poverty

S- The poor
N- probably a non wealthy artist who is portraying his feelings
A- The audience is the wealthy that will buy or at least see it
P- The purpose is to show how difficult life is for the poor

Two techniques
The bright colors in the center draw the viewer's eyes towards the family
The rainy scene the family is in emphasizes the gloom that lingers over them all the time

The Singer Solution to Poverty

S- The article talks about poverty
N- The author is an extremely biased writer.
A- The audience is middle class Americans
P- The purpose of this is to convince people to give money. If we dig deeper, we can see that the author is attempting to guilt his readers into giving money by saying that because people CAN do something they MUST, else they become an immoral monster. He is so extremely biased in his article that I, personally, am turned off to it. My only wonder is if he lives in the real world.

Culture

Define a person's culture.
  A person's culture is the behaviors they have learned.

What makes up a person's culture?
  Likes and dislikes, emotional reactions, family ties, language (word choice), religion

Is it intrinsic or extrinsic? Explain.
  It is extrinsic because we are not born with culture.  If I am born to an American family and then grow up with an Australian one, I'll grow up acting and talking like an Australian.

Norman Rockwell's Runaway

Three facts:
  1. The child is wearing a yellow shirt
  2. They are in a diner
  3. The child and officer are sitting
Three claims:
  1. The police officer is scolding the child
  2. The diner doesn't get much business
  3. The child is the runaway
Analytical Statement:
  1. The painter was making a statement about how running from our problems won't get rid of them.

The Pearl Post 2

  Halfway through the book, Kino's rapid change to a greedy, paranoid character is really showing through his goodnatured side we saw in the beginning.  John Steinbeck really showed just how drastic the change was when he killed the man who was assumedly trying to take his pearl.  His paranoia seems almost too rapid since our original impression of him was an easygoing, family-loving, simple diver.  When he begins his journey to go to the capital, he almost appears to not even care about his family anymore and it is about him getting what he wants (money). Although money seems to be his main motivation, I also think that he is trying to prove himself to everyone and that HE was given the pearl and HE was blessed by the gods. I felt sorry for his wife especially since he starts treating her like nothing because he is so consumed with selling the pearl for a  price reasonable to him.
 
  The end really seals it for Kino.  His house is burned, his canoe broken, his reputation in shambles, what more could happen to make him worse off? One of the last things he has is taken away from him, his son. I think this is really the crowning moment that gets across Steinbeck's point. Greed like Kino's will only destroy you.  If only he had taken what the pearl buyers offered him, he would still have all those things mentioned earlier. I almost felt sorry for Kino.  At least in the end he finally comes to his senses and throws the pearl back from whence it came. Kino is humbled when he returns to town and realizes how greed will only lead to problems. He has found that he is not a god and should have given in to the ways he has always known.

Pygmalion Post 1

  I am not much of one for the play format and would rather read a different format.  My first impression of the book was that it was going to be about Fred and that bunch.  The way in which he introduces the character I felt was the main character (in my mind Higgins) was very well done though.  I thought at first that this was some kind of story where the main character is writing or something like that. It didn't take me long to figure out that isn't how the book is however. I found it strange that the plot is simply a bet between the two men.  When they just took Eliza away, I couldn't tell if they were kidnapping her or if they were deaf or what. Seeing as today to do something like that would get you arrested I was shocked. Another thing I didn't understand was Eliza's father selling her.  I did not understand how he was "selling" her.

  The description of Higgins's house to me sounded very boring and relatively empty.  His way of manipulating her made me not like him very much since he seemed to only want to have a fun time with this girl's whole life. I suppose it was her fault going to him, but I bet she never expected to be completely transformed as Higgins plans. I suppose Higgins makes up for his verbal abuse since he does provide her with shelter, food, and clothing. I can't really tell if the relationship between these two characters is positive or negative.  It seems to me that Eliza is starting to take a liking to Higgins despite the terrible way he treats. His view of her that she is just a peasant doesn't seem like it will change, but only time can tell.

The Pearl Post 1

   
     My first thought when I looked at the cover was dismay since I saw that John Steinbeck wrote it.  I was coming home from a trip recently and caught an audiobook on the radio, that book being "Of mice and Men." I listened for as long as I could take, constantly hearing about George and his rabbits. I didn't catch it till the middle either so that spoiled it just a wee bit more. Anyways, after reading a few pages into the book I gained a better image of Steinbeck and that he does have more to talk about than simply rabbits.  When I first started reading, I thought the setting was somewhere in Japan because I remember reading a James Bond book where there were divers that weren't terribly advanced and lived in a village. Later when I mentioned that some king of Spain had become rich off this coast I realized it was central America or somewhere near there. I found the way he used songs to be very interesting.  The way he made all of Kino's thoughts able to be summarized through songs was a choice that would have never come to my mind.
   
     About a quarter of the way through the book when Kino found the pearl, I thought he was probably going to be very gracious and accept whatever was offered to him.  The way he used the doctor to picture greed and show that Kino was fairly different really reinforced the idea that his change later was drastic. When he went to go sell the pearl, it surprised me that he didn't take the offers given to him. He had seemed desperate enough to do anything to have his child healed. The way the doctor suddenly had this air of helpfulness about him should of course make him question why, but I wonder if he was just being paranoid when he convinced himself what the doctor was doing was bad. I also questioned why the author had chosen to turn Kino into exactly what he hated.  It also seemed strange to me that Kino still hated the doctor and everything like him, even though he was "healing" his child.