Yellow Paper

After reading the story, what I guess what the story is trying to convey is that the only thing that the woman wanted was just a little independence. From the beginning, she describes how controlling her husband is and how he barely lets her do anything. However, towards the middle all the way to the end of the story, she finds that she has a little more independence to herself than she actually does. Her husband moved her into a playroom in the top of the house because she felt that she should have her own independence. That al so says what the message of the story is which is that everyone wants to have a sense of independence about them. This message can be plainly seen by reading the essay because of how she talked of how her husband always try to keep her from achieving or doing something for herself because he always had someone or he himself was their to help her whenever the narrator was sick or needed help with something around the house. At the end of the story, I would say that she was able to at least make a independent decision which was how ugly the wallpaper was in the room she was in and tore it down without the consent of her husband or anyone else. One of the symbolisms’s that i caught while reading the text was when she used the phrase, “The lines on the patterns of the wall committed suicide” which just basically means that the lines on the patterns on the wall had no form to them at all, but they just split off in all directions. The other thing that I found symbolic was the description in the beginning of the article by which she is describing the old house as an ancestral hall. The meaning of this phrase is that many people beforehand probably did and what affects that they had on the house. The last symbolic interaction that I noticed was how she used a certain number of different metaphors as a metaphor a way to describe how feeling was. My guess was that maybe using the moon and describing it as just something plain and to keep in bars was just a reflection of her life because when it came down to it, she really had no control over life. It was the thoughts and ideas of her husband and others that made her feel less independent and like she was trapped within her own life. What seemed odd about the story was that the way she starts off telling it you would think that it is a horror story because of the descriptions of the old raggedy house and her concern about spirits that could lurk in the house, but it actually turns into talking about her own personal experiences within the house. Using the horror approach beforehand probably was used as like a metaphor as to describe her own displeasure able and horrifying experiences that she considers that she had in the house.

Movie Article Blog

There were actually two versions of the Malcolm X movie that I actually viewed. The first version was more of a low budget documentary type of movie and the second version was a big theatrical blockbuster reenactment of his life. After reading the article on how most movies are made, I could say that the low budget documentary version was more of a straightforward movie meaning they had no type of little extras or special effects thrown in. The movie was narrated the whole way through from the time Malcolm was born all the way up to the point where he was killed. Another part that I read from the movie article that applied to this one was how most movies don’t really have a moral or meaning to it. Seeing as how it was a documentary movie, I could see why there was no moral because the narrator was just giving the audience an insight on who Malcolm X was and what type of person he was. Another thing that I thought about after watching the documentary was the part in the article where it talked about who made the movie. After watching the documentary it really made me think about that, because you really can’t just say who made the documentary, because in the end its all nothing but random footage taken from when Malcol/m was alive. That scenario kind of conflicts with what the author described in the article on how every movie has a director, because there really is no need for a director since there is no acting involving. The only people involved with this documentary were mainly writers for the narrator and producers to help promote the documentary. Now, when it comes to the Spike Lee version of Malcolm X, It can be said that it is more of a theatrical blockbuster. Spike Lee’s movies have always had some sort of meaningful morale to them. One of the facts that were stated about movies in the article was how they like to express some sort of form of enthusiasm, nightmares, and prejudices. This movie helps to express some of those things mainly because of the way it was directed and wrote. Spike Lee is a director who likes to make movies that are based on the struggle of African Americans in America and how they should learn to better themselves in order to prosper in today’s society. Throughout the movie, the pain that was expressed through the director’s vision was put into effect on Malcolm’s life. They put a strong emphasis on how he grew up and the trials and tribulations he went through to become the political activist that he was. I think putting emphasis on something like that actually coincides to the main point of what the moral of the movie is. I think that goes into the fact of how somebody who could mess up their life that badly and wind up in prison could rise back on there feet and become one of the most famous people in American History. In the end, when I think about it, I don’t think that the movie was meant to be a huge blockbuster like some of the movies that are made around action and suspense. This movie was made to put emphasis on one of America’s greatest political activists and not to spice it up in order to please the eyes of diehard blockbuster movie fans. That Idea is thrown into the last page of the article as to where it says, “If luxury and energy were all we communicated in movies, it would be a disturbing and discouraging thought”. That is true in a sense, because if all movies were made without putting the straight facts on how a real event occurred, everyone in the country would be completely ignorant about what actually happened in the past. All in all, I can say that the article related to my movie experience because it made me think of the direction that the movies were going in especially in the Spike Lee version. The article helped me to understand what type of person the director of the movie could be by just watching what type of acting was involved and also what type of values were put in to help people understand what the director and the rest of the crew were trying to get out. As for how to use the article as a source I would say that I would use it to help describe what kind of movie I was watching and it could help me to decide whether what type of meanings or values that the movie was trying to instill within the audience. Probably the biggest part of the article that could be used as a source would be to tell whether or not a movie actually stood by what actually happened, or if it just went all out and threw in things to pump the movie up a little.

Blog #4

The argument that I got from the Evolution of Beauty advertisement was that you have to be beautiful in order to be posted on any of their products, because the woman in the video originally was a regular woman, but they transformed her and used a computer to make her look better than she was. On the Playstation 3 vs. Wii video, I think the argument was that the Playstation 3 would be set for a more intelligent audience, but the Wii would be set for a younger more immature audience. I think the argument with the cinnamon toast crunch video was a little falsified towards the end, because it said that the cereal is made with no artificial flavors, however the little girl said that the cereal tasted almost as if it was homemade which means that it must have been made with a little bit of artificial flavoring. The argument for the Calvin Klein commercial would be that it advertises that if you wear Obsession cologne, women would fall in love with you. That is a farfetched thought because no one can just fall in love that easily. The Evolution of Beauty argument is manipulative because it tries to say that if you buy their product, you could look even more beautiful, which would probably make more women go out and buy their products. On the Playstation 3 vs. Wii commercial, it shows manipulation by using a half naked woman to describe the Nintendo Wii using sexual metaphors which would make the male crowd pay more attention to her and probably go out and by the system. The cereal commercial shows manipulation by telling how healthier the cereal is and what good it can do. The Calvin Klein commercial shows manipulation by showing that just wearing that fragrance can help a man get a girl, which would probably make a male go out and buy it. I don’t think that the commercials are really harmful because they don’t show anything explicit within the commercial or about the products. However, the only thing that I consider bad was the half naked woman because she is trying to appeal to a younger crowd who should not be exposed to that much flesh. The arguments do describe the products, but they really don’t go into to much detail into about what the products can really do. The only product that actually stuck out was the Obsession cologne, because they just told how the product could help a man get closer to a woman, but they didn’t really go into how the product is or even if it is expensive or not. I found an ad for a budlight beer commercial at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH28LNbHGbo. The commercial is actually kind of confusing because they really don’t make any kind of point of why people should by the beer. The commercial just starts by a man saying a greeting gesture was out and everyone just started slapping each other. It would have made more sense if they made it like the beer was so good it made you slap somebody, but the commercial doesn’t tell anything about the beer at all.

Blog 3

In my opinion, the structures that the authors of the articles start off with are in factual detail. Even though the introductions of the three articles start off with detailed facts, the argument point that can be taken out of context is about equality and recognition for all people and genders. For example, in Booker T. Washington’s article, he says, “It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any other occurrence since the dawn of our freedom”. What he meant when he said that is that if the two races stopped bickering and began to see each other as equals that would bring about a more prosperous country and society. However, there is a part in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that I think contradicts the idea of equality. That idea was when he said that “Our fore fathers brought upon this new continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. From my point of view, that is both wrong and right because even though they believed that, not everyone else whom lived back during that time did seeing as how they treated people of other races like they were nothing and not even equals. That opinion of mine kind of coincides with the article of women’s rights by Stanton. Stanton argued that even though women lived in the country, they were not receiving the same rights as other citizens which he thought they should. Besides all of that, what I think that these authors are trying to convince the listener of is that all people should be able to receive the same equal rights as any other citizen. This argument can easily be figured out like I said before by just reading the introductions. The article that I found the most moving was the one done by Booker T. Washington. I liked that one the most because I could understand what he was talking about when he went on to say how better the world would be if people of different races came to respect each others as equals. Every race has contributed something to help this world a better place; however, it is because the color of a person’s skin of why people can’t come to respect each other which I feel is very stupid. To tell the truth, I really did not find any of the arguments just surprising because the idea of equality and recognition for race and genders is something that I have heard about much before. The only thing that I can say about these arguments is that they kind of go into what I think how people should treat each other and not alienate each other. It was one thing that made me thinks and question and that was within Booker T. Washington’s article when he said, “Cast it down, making friends in every manly of the people of all races, by whom you are surrounded. I question that because when I look at the world today, making friends with people of other races is a lot easier said than done. There is so much racism in the world today it’s almost impossible to make friends with people of other races. But don’t get me wrong I do have friends with people of other races and if people could work on friendships like that, we could probably eventually learn to get along with each other better.