Assignment #8

The extrordinary pantene commercial clearly developed the ideas of a short story. The setting was in an asian urban city, sometimes in a music studio and sometimes just out on the street but also at times, a field was shown with the main character playing her violin, free of society.

The characterization in my eyes shows some typical character traits but it was shown indirectly through the dialogue and the characters’ actions. There was a young ambitious girl with some sort of hurtle that she had to overcome because of society’s generalizations, but also because of her own doubts in herself. The character of the mentor inspired her to be what no one expected of her and to believe in her dreams and her talent. Then of course there was the typical mean girl that went to the same school as the main character. The mean girl teased and put down the violin girl because she was intimidated by her natural abilities despite the violin girl’s disadvantage of being deaf.

The video developed both an external and internal conflict for the young violin girl.  The external conflict that she encountered was obviously between herself and the mean girl. The mean girl constantly picked on her, pushed her, and bullied her in all aspects. The mean girl took out her jealousy and secret low self esteem on the violin girl in the form of bullying her mental and somewhat physically. The external conflict with the mean girl, I think, was a major factor in creating an internal conflict for the deaf violin girl.  The internal conflict that the violin girl dealt with was a conflict of self doubt and fears of going against the crowd. She was afraid of trying to do something everyone was telling her she couldn’t possibly do. The mean girl says, ” And a deaf tried to play violin..” and slowly the violin girl starts to believe she can’t or shouldn’t. But she eventually overcomes her fears and blows them all, including the mean girl, out of the water with her amazing skills.

The symbolism that I really noticed in the story, was the violin and the violin player’s deafness. To me, her deafness symbolized the struggles and hurtles you have to overcome when you try to reach your goal. Sometimes it seems like its just fate or impossible to rise above it, but if you believe in yourself and your abilities, nearly anything is possible. The violin also hed alot of symbolism to me. When she played it at the classical competition it was taped up after being broken, and I told that was incredible symbolism. It represented to me that even after something feels like its falling completely apart and you’ll never get it back together, with alittle faith, determination and duct tape, anything can be put back together.

The protagonist was the deaf girl who played the violin and overcame her fears and struggles. The antagonist was the mean girl who said that a deaf girl couldn’t learn to play violin, and the society that believed it was impossible.

The irony in the video was that the deaf girl who couldn’t even hear what she was playing, managed to steal the classical music show. She surprised everyone who thought she couldn’t do it and she beat the mean girl’s show by a landslide.

To me, the climax of the video was when the deaf girl played her violin solo at the competition. That was the part of the video when the tables turned and the mean girl, the antagonist, had to find out that she couldn’t keep the violin girl from reaching her goals and fulfilling her dream.

The theme of the pantene commercial was that no matter how many hardships you encounter, it always pays off to be true to yourself.

Ford Commercial

Assignment #7

The video of the lyrebird singing its courting song mostly just amazed me. At times I thought the sounds were edited into the video because I had no idea that it was possible for a bird to make the sounds of a siren or a chainsaw. The lyrebirds’s ability is startling and beautiful, but in watching the video and hearing the machinery sounds produced by the bird, it raises the issue of “civilization” on wild animals. Personally, I’m not an environmentalist out to save the world, but I do have some concerns and opinions about man’s effect on the habitats and habits of species all around the globe. The lyrebird’s siren singing and chainsaw mocking is just one example of how man has interferred with the natural beauty of ancient species and climates. Another example is that many animals have lost their instinctive fear of humans. The mere fact that the bird had heard enough sirens and chainsaws to mock the sound perfectly is worrisome.  Civilization and it’s “improvements” are constantly encroaching on nature’s natural cycle. Maybe our “improvements” and “advancements” for “civilization” and “society as a whole” are not really beneficial to ALL creatures of our planet. Humans, after all, have the tendency for selfishness and personal gain.

So next time someone talks about how great new land and development is for their jobs and industry, maybe this question will pop into your head: “Is it really a good thing when birds can imitate sirens?”

Word Part Project

-Graph, -Graphy,-Gram

Assignment #5: Media and Self-Image

I read many blogs and internet articles on body image, and of course, many essays denounce and slam the media for creating these ideas about the perfect image. The funny thing about it was that every one of those articles had some of the similar criteria for being ‘perfect’ because even the people writing about how terrible the media is, know what the standards are to be ‘ideal’. Girls are tall, thin, tan, and preferably blond. Guys are tan, manly, ripped, dark-haired, and mysterious looking. Families and spouses should be attractive, athletic, and smart enough to make lots of money. Those are just some of the norms and of course, it varies from generation to generation. The media’s unrealistic portrayal of the best body is not a new phenomena. I’m sure many people can remember Twiggy.

She was a sensation and started a new trend in ‘mod’ fashion. Now you can see that skinny is not necessarily a new obsession, its definitely been around. And there is nothing wrong with being naturally thin with big round eyes, just like there’s nothing wrong with being average size and having a completely normal face in the crowd. What really matters or should matter, is what is inside. Your body should not define you, and a person should be proud and confident in themselves, and appreciate what their body helps them do. A person’s body should not be a display case, it should be respected for what it allows you to accomplish on an everyday basis (like walking, running, sleeping, and breathing). But the world and its ideas are not perfect, just like the media is not perfect.  I could name sites, advertisement, shows, and magazines that send the wrong image to people whether it be about body image, jobs, spouses, or families. The site I wanted to focus on however, was a positive body imaging site:

ABOUT FACE

This site is from a non-profit organization in San Francisco that is working to fight the media’s unfair body image interpretations. It had links to articles, documentaries and even examples from advertisements that are opposing the ‘ideal’ and skin-deep beauty. They organize ways for consumers to fight harmful advertisements by boycotting products. Its only a small step to combat the idealistic standards of our growing generation but enough people learn to look at an advertisement and think, “Well what are they selling and is that call for a ‘perfect’ weight or hair just a marketing stragety.”  instead of, “I’m going to buy that so that I’ll look like her, or so I can get with a guy like him.” If people learn to feel confident in what they do and who they are instead of what the mirror says that are, then maybe society can take a step in a new direction. A direction that includes both tall and skinny, and short and curvy people.

From About Face’s gallery of winners.

Usually the grass is greener on your side of the fence.

Pencil Face

The mood of the pencil face video to me was mostly just creepy. The setting of the video itself, an abandoned field just set the mood for a supernatural and confusing scene. The girl’s face exhibited confusion throughout most of the video and the pencil’s joyful facial expression just fed the mood of creepiness. The constant unchanging music also gave an eerie feeling to the scene. In the beginning, the girl is playing with old decrepit objects such as a wooden stick and an old pipe coming out of the ground, and this gives an out-of-place feeling right away. I think the moral or theme to the video is your imagination is important but it can also be dangerous and lethal. Before she had the pencil, she just made due with whatever old things she could find, but once she found the gigantic smiling pencil, she was able to create the things she desired with just a stroke of the magical lead. During the video I really got the sense of how important imagination is because without the pencil, she had almost nothing. So, really I agree with the message that I got out of it because even though imagination and thoughts are necessary to create and build new things, I also think that it can be dangerous if used in a wrong or careless way.

If I had a pencil that could draw me anything, I’m not entirely sure what I would draw. There’s is nothing that I desperately need. So I think I might start small to try it out, but I’d have to practice my drawing skills if I wanted anything specific. I certainly would not be drawing a big spiral circle. Most likely I would draw a car, just so I could have an extra cool weekend ride and I might draw money cause, as a teenager, you can never have too much money. I might also draw a camera cause mine broke in Florida!  I don’t think I’d try to draw anything too outrageous because I wouldn’t want to mess up the world. I’m normally a cautious person but I can’t say for sure what I would desire if I could draw anything. I’d probably be afraid something terrible would happen, like the girl being sucked into the whole, and that would keep me from being too crazy with my new imagination pencil.

Assignment 3: Sorting People

In the activity for ’sorting people’, I only correctly sorted five people out of twenty. I know that judging people based on only their appearance is morally wrong, but I guess I didn’t realize how inaccurate it really could be.  I found it difficult to try and place the people in their ethnic group by looks alone, but I had no idea that I would get so many wrong. I used looks alone to sort the people apart and that proved to be very ineffective. I tried to look at skin color, hair color, and eye color. However, some of the people were very hard to sort by that criteria alone, especially if you consider that they may have multiple ethnic backgrounds.

It is important to realize that ethnicity does not make a person the way they are, and a person’s looks does not make their ethnicity. Just because someone has a certain hairstyle or type of clothing does not make it okay to label them. I was surprised to see how wrong my own pretenses about racial looks were. I guess I never considered that when I looked at someone, I might be completely wrong about them. This activity is similar to a slap in the face when it comes to racial and ethnic profiling. It’s terrible to think that at one point, it was a government agent’s job to look at people and place them in a group. If that person was wrong at the same percentage as me, then this country would have some very confused ideas about ethnicity. I believe that self-identification is the only true way to determine someone’s background, because  appearances should not define a person when it comes to a serious matter such as their ethnic background.

Its Official!

I turned in all my work, written, typed, and hole punched to the office this morning.  I’ve been typing and thinking so much in the past week, so I’m happy to have a break.  I ended up really liking the majority of all the reading, and I’ll have lots to say about all the books when I have more time. Right now I’m preparing to start back at school, which means shopping!

Finally Finished Finn

I just finished typing up my questions for Huckleberry Finn, and I had waited to do the last two essay type questions on the computer instead of writing my rough draft and wasting lots of paper. So I read over the two questions yesterday about laws and following your conscience, and I really had to put a lot of thought into those answers. I’m still not sure if I like what I wrote, but it was the best I could do to express my thoughts about it. Honestly, who has the right to say what laws are and aren’t moral, and why should anyone be able to tell everyone what they should do. I use the example of the death penalty in my answer. Who says its right to kill someone would may have kill others, but if you were the parents of a murdered child, would you still believe in that murderer’s right to live?

I know these are some really confusing questions, but that’s how I felt trying to answer the question of who has the authority because I really don’t know. Sometimes you should follow your conscience, but if it adversely effects another person’s life, then who gives you the authority to make that decision for them? I just wanted to write a little bit about that subject because it has taken a while to finish those last two questions because of my uncertainty with my own person thoughts.

Overall, I did want to say that I liked Huckleberry Finn. I started off disliking the book, something about the first 80 or so pages made it really difficult to read. But I absolutely loved the ending and the book overall.

I’ll write my opinions on the other books after I finish typing up the questions, and when I have more time because as you can see, I have a tendency to write quite a lot about what I’m thinking.Plus it takes me a while to get to the questions part, as you can tell, I only finished typing Huck Finn today and I finished the book a few weeks ago. Anyway, that’s all for now folks!

Summer Reading..

Summer reading, hmmm. I think I’ll start with huckleberry finn because I’m really anxious to read it. I hear it referenced all the time and I feel completely left out that I haven’t read it yet. My fifth grade class read part of it, but I skipped that reading mastery and so I never even looked at the story. So, that is my first book choice possibly, I’m not positive because I haven’t actually gotten started. I also wanted to pick a book that is generally liked because I find I stay more motivated if I enjoy the story; I usually put the book I dread the most as last. As for my strategy, I just go with the flow. It really depends on how much I like a book to how long it takes me to read it. Last summer, I put my reading off til the last month and I regretted it, and I just happened to love the last book I read, Mythology. I’m hoping that I’ll stay motivated to read the books early on since I actually have plans for the end of the summer. I enjoy reading outside and also on our couch that’s right next to this big window that looks out on my front yard. I really prefer to read with natural light, and my dad absolutely insists on it, haha. As for when I like to read, it varies day to day. Honestly though, unless I’m super interested in a book I won’t read in the morning. At the beginning of the day I like to do what I feel like and enjoy myself. I guess its the curse of being a procrastinator, but I tend to put things off until later in the day, when I have the least amount of time.  My strategy most likely won’t help anyone, but I’m always up for some good advice! I should probably do all the homework I’ve put off til tonight now. Guess that’s it for now! :]

First timer

Hey!  So, i’m a little confused about this whole blogging thing, but i’m sure i’ll eventually get used to it. I’ve never blogged for an assignment though it does seem pretty modern! =P It should however be helpful this summer with discussing summer reading, so that’s a bonus. I think this could be a good way to express my ideas because I don’t have to worry about an immediate or visual audience, and maybe everyone will be able to write what they really fell. Then again, sometimes I don’t always want my thoughts written down because they may change quickly. Anyway,enough rambling, i think that was an adequate first entry right? took me long enough to figure this all out,