The Bluest eye

Iconography was used in the bluest eye....I wasn't able to read the text over the weekend but will be by wednesday...sorry shannon

Thesis

How does the author use iconography in the story to persuade the audience to feel a certain way?

Do repetitions and patterns in the text help add to the story or take away from it?

How do multimodal elements draw in the reader? Does a piece of literature need multimodal elements to be a success?

Any suggestions on a thesis would be appreciated = ]

I was going to be looking into the iconography used in American Born Chinese. I will be focusing in on how the shoes and the transformer added to the story by foreshadowing and symbolism.

Wednesday Sept. 24 Assignment

A quote from Emerson can be used to describe the types of situattions the characters in American Born Chinese were dealing with. "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." This quote describes how people conform to what other people believe they should be like. As in American Born Chinese the monkey even replies when given a compliment "I am not a monkey." It is clear that he is a monkey but because of what other people consider the social norm he wants to become more like a man so he starts to wear shoes. He even goes as far as wanting to be a God, which we know is very unlikely. I think the quote and this monkeys situation are easy to relate to. Many people feel like they don't quite "fit in" when it comes to other groups. When you feel isolated you tend to try and be just like the people that are isolating you, so you will be accepted. This stage usually happens to people going through high school or any grade for that matter. I want to know where the social norm came from. I also want to know why so many people strive to become just like any body else? Both of these texts work together to try and prove my point that you can be what anyone else wants you to be but until you find out for yourself then you will never live a full happy life.

bell hooks

bell hooks has a very controversial argument. When she was talking about popular culture and the media being a main reason of why people have certain viewpoints or stereotypes, I agree with a little bit of what she is saying. hooks described the way women are portrayed in films is trying to suggest the degradation of women. A woman playing a prostitute in a movie suggests whore or slut and I believe that these words are used very frequently these days because of the popular culture. Movies can be a great influence on the way we think today, look at the Michael Moore films. People may not read up on any of the political battles that go on in Moore's films but once they see one they think they have all of the perfect information. bell hooks also talks about the word racisism, and how it keeps whites at the center of attention, as the racist. White supremacy, however, puts whites at the top of the list and how the other cultures think they are lesser than whites. This idea of bell hooks I do not agree with. White supremacy is the ridiculous idea that whites are the superior race. I believe that everyone is equal and should get the same opportunities from one culture to the next. bell hooks trys to make it seem like every other culture looks up to whites, which is not entirely true. I personally don't believe there is a todem pole of cultures with one one top and one on the bottom, every one is intermixed.

American Gothic

When looking at "American Gothic" I tend to focus on the man before the woman. My interpretation of this art is two farmers who are focused primarily on their crops. Both the man and woman have stern looks on their faces but I'll start with the woman. She is not smiling nor is she looking at the camera. This suggests to me that she is focused on something else that is going on besides the "picture" that would be taken or the portrait being painted. It seems that she is thinking of other things and because of the farm in the background I would think that her mind is probably on something with the crops. Her body language doesn't show any type of affection towards the man in the picture, I assume it is her husband but because of the lack of emotion she could also be a relative such as a sister working on the farm. Now, the man in this picture looks like a very hard working man. He is even posing with his pitch fork which I'm sure is a part of his daily life. The attire he is wearing suggests that he is very religious. The wrinkles on his face show many years of hard work and dedication. I believe the overall picture shows a husband and wife who have known nothing other than the farm for their whole lives. They are very conservative, religious people. The color of their clothing suggests these two things, the black and blues come off conservative. This picture shows the hardworking American. People who do what they must to get by.

What are real books?

Defining something as a real book is hard to do. There are many different types of things to read it's hard to say if they would be considered a book. Obviously something that is written as a novel is a book. Fiction, Fantasy, Non-Fiction, Bibliography- these are all types of books that you can find that are usually over 150 pages. What about the childrens books that are 20 pages filled with big pictures and only 5 words per page? Are these real books? I personally believe that this type of visual text should be considered a book. They help children learn basic skills like colors and shapes. With out these books then no one would have started to learn at a young age and life would be a lot harder. Comic books are a different story however. I don't really know what to consider them but I wouldn't say everyone is or isn't a book. I think it really depends on how long the comic is. If its just a one page comic then no thats not a book, possibly a story, but not a book. However, there are comics that are 20 pages long that take a while to read because of all the information through out all the pages. Honestly, I don't like comics. The only comics that I enjoy are The Farside, but other than that I do not like them. Children's books are fine because I believe they can teach valuable lessons while comics are meerly for entertainment.

Multimodal Literacies

The new form of literacy was described in a very unappealing way. It was very hard to keep focus because I kept getting lost in the article. Multimodality is about people all doing the same exact thing, I disagree with this. Everyone is different, there's no way to say that any two people will do the same thing in any situation. McCloud's book was driving me absolutely crazy. I could not catch any type of interest in this book because there was so much going on, on each page. I've never read a book in that format before so it was a shock how hard it was to read.

What is an American?

I believe there are many different ways to describe what an American is. First there is the person who came from the bottom and rose to the top, thats the "American dream" isn't it? There is also the soldier, the person who will fight for their country and die for it. To me a soldier is the most honorable American possible. A typical citizen is also another form of an American. I am not in the army, nor have I over come a very hard time in my life to reach fame. I am the typical American, going to school, working a part time job, just trying to live my life. Anyone living in the United States can make the argument of being an American. Putting a flag in your front yard shows your patriotism, it doesn't take much. An American, in my opinion, is anyone who has had to work hard, dedicate themselves to something, and work towards a goal. That goal can be whatever the person desires but hard work and dedication are qualities of an American.

Hey girl heyyyy

Hey there!! I chose this scene of peace because at first it caught my eye and I really like peace sign's in any form. Probably because I feel like a hippie at heart. I also chose this picture of a squirrel...because I love squirrels.

Peace.

Literary Theory

The two types of literary theory that I think are the most interesting are popular culture and biographical. Popular culture because I like to read about what other people are doing in the world and what is being talked about either literature, fashion, etc. Biographical because I like to read about what a person has done in life. Being first hand stories you really get to feel what the author felt and I think that's a really good quality in stories.