Castaway was released in 2000. It was produced by Robert Zemeckis. Castaway is a very prestigious film, and has won numerous awards. Some of the following recognizes include the 2001 Oscar Nomination, 2001 Golden Globe award, and the Bogey Awards in Germany. It also received an outstanding rating of 7.5 on the IMDb critics board. Leading actors include Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and Paul Sanchez. Castaway is not only well made and loved by millions of people across the world, but is it also a prime example of the many issues in the world today. Castaway is not directly based off of The Odyssey, but it follows the same concept of a series of events in which the main character learns life lessons. Castaway starts with the main actor (Tom Hanks) on an international flight. His job as a FedEx Executive forces him into an obsessive compulsive urge to constantly be on time, no matter what the situation. His flight crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, and he ends up stranded on an island. He is announced dead to the public world, and is erased from existence. He then faces the feat of surviving the wild, and forgetting everything he ever knew; including is compulsive urge to be on time.
Castaway is a prime example of the issues of the current world because it expresses what human nature is, and what it should be. His compulsive urge to be on time is something that we have all adapted, and it is changing humans as a whole. When he is marooned on the island, he must loose that urge in order to survive, and in return it changes him as a being. He is rescued at the end of the movie, and when he returns to society, he is a completely different person. He learns what life really is, and that his job as a FedEx Executive is not the only thing that matters in life. This is related to The Odyssey because it projects Tom Hanks as going through a series of events that change his mindset, for better or worse.
The aforementioned thesis was that Castaway was an indirect homage to The Odyssey, but in different ways. This is similar to what Odysseus went through with his trip home to Ithaca. There is one difference though; The Odyssey is a physical trip through Homeric Greece, and Castaway was a physiological trip through the mind of Tom Hanks.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Book Report - Febuary - Quality Evaluation Essay
The book I read was 'Deadly Feasts', written by Richard Rhodes, in 1997.
As for the legitimacy, I felt that this book was very reliable and well written . It
had directly used the names of real doctors (Creutzfedlt, Jakob, Gajdusek, ect)
who had studied an actual disease (Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, ect) The use
of actual names was very supporting to the credibility of this book. Doctor
Gajdusek is a well respected neurologist, and his research is well credited as
being the foundation of neurology for the early 1900s and early 2000s. Although
Deadly Feasts was written quite some time ago, and that may raise suspicion on
the reliability of the research that Rhodes used to write Deadly Feasts. Gajdusek
was one of the first neurologist doctors to professionally and extensively research
the virus of Kuru, so whatever he 'discovered' was practically put down in pen.
here have been challenging sources since his death in 1997, and most of his
research is still held as true to the medical world. Neurology is a shady subject,
as we do not have full understanding of how our brain works, so it is hard for
professionals to tell what is right and what is not.
The quality of the actually writing was outstanding. The author, Richard Rhodes,
is an author of non-fiction. He has written many other books including The
Making of The Atomic Bomb which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction.
The language used in 'Deadly Feasts' is of a higher reading level, and it can be
hard to understand if you have a declined knowledge in the medical fields. It uses
some very large words, such as "encephalopathies", (page 193), which spellcheck
does not even know. There are also some parts of this book that may make the
weak of heart nauseous, as it talks about some sickening subjects such as the
Swiss swine investigations (page 216).
In conclusion, this book is very reliable but hard to understand. Although the
book is similar to the Hot Zone, as they both focus on severe diseases in remote
locations of the word. The Hot Zone does not require as much of a medical
background, and it sticks to one story line throughout the book. Deadly Feasts is
a bit jumpy in information, as it does not focus directly on one case, but rather
the disease as a whole. Deadly Feasts actually references The Hot Zone (page1).
The connections that Deadly Feasts makes, to both doctors and other books,
fortifies its credibility. My final opinion of Deadly Feasts is the following:
Deadly Feasts is a reliable and well written, but hard to understand non fictional
story of the research of doctor Gajdusek, and the virus of Kuru.
Note - This was manually double spaced, sorry if any of the formatting looks odd, but I do not have Microsoft Word on my computer.
As for the legitimacy, I felt that this book was very reliable and well written . It
had directly used the names of real doctors (Creutzfedlt, Jakob, Gajdusek, ect)
who had studied an actual disease (Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, ect) The use
of actual names was very supporting to the credibility of this book. Doctor
Gajdusek is a well respected neurologist, and his research is well credited as
being the foundation of neurology for the early 1900s and early 2000s. Although
Deadly Feasts was written quite some time ago, and that may raise suspicion on
the reliability of the research that Rhodes used to write Deadly Feasts. Gajdusek
was one of the first neurologist doctors to professionally and extensively research
the virus of Kuru, so whatever he 'discovered' was practically put down in pen.
here have been challenging sources since his death in 1997, and most of his
research is still held as true to the medical world. Neurology is a shady subject,
as we do not have full understanding of how our brain works, so it is hard for
professionals to tell what is right and what is not.
The quality of the actually writing was outstanding. The author, Richard Rhodes,
is an author of non-fiction. He has written many other books including The
Making of The Atomic Bomb which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction.
The language used in 'Deadly Feasts' is of a higher reading level, and it can be
hard to understand if you have a declined knowledge in the medical fields. It uses
some very large words, such as "encephalopathies", (page 193), which spellcheck
does not even know. There are also some parts of this book that may make the
weak of heart nauseous, as it talks about some sickening subjects such as the
Swiss swine investigations (page 216).
In conclusion, this book is very reliable but hard to understand. Although the
book is similar to the Hot Zone, as they both focus on severe diseases in remote
locations of the word. The Hot Zone does not require as much of a medical
background, and it sticks to one story line throughout the book. Deadly Feasts is
a bit jumpy in information, as it does not focus directly on one case, but rather
the disease as a whole. Deadly Feasts actually references The Hot Zone (page1).
The connections that Deadly Feasts makes, to both doctors and other books,
fortifies its credibility. My final opinion of Deadly Feasts is the following:
Deadly Feasts is a reliable and well written, but hard to understand non fictional
story of the research of doctor Gajdusek, and the virus of Kuru.
Note - This was manually double spaced, sorry if any of the formatting looks odd, but I do not have Microsoft Word on my computer.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Book Report - Febuary - Reading Summaries
Book Report - Deadly Feasts
Reading Summaries
Section 1 - Among the Cannibals
Chapter 1 - I Eat You
As you can most likely tell by the title, and the fact that this is the beginning of the book, this chapter is an exposition. This explains what exactly the book is about, as the title is somewhat vague. The title 'I Eat You', gives away the fact that this has something to do with cannibalism, which it does. This chapter gives a setting, South Asia, and a subject (Cannibalism and it's infection consequences) for the rest of the book.
Chapter 2 - Kuru
This chapter is like a more in depth exposition than the first chapter. It gives an insight to what disease we're talking about, and where exactly it is. The chapter is focused around the disease 'Kuru', which is a very deadly neurological disease (meaning it decays the brain), in Indonesia. As you may of guessed, this degenerate disease enters the body heretic-ally or by the eating of a human who has died of Kuru. The people that this book focuses on, as revealed in this chapter, are the Fore, and other natives of Indonesia. These Fore and other natives have a very sick and dangerous tradition of eating the dead, as they believe it gives the souls a resting place in the stomach of the living.
Chapter 3 - Dr. Creutzfeldt and Dr. Jakob
This chapter is about two doctors, Creutzfeldt and Jakob, who together put together findings of a new virus: CJD. This is also fatal neurological virus that kills 100% of it's infected, and is only slightly more common than rabies. This disease is known to spread throughout the world. CJD, or more commonly known by its disease cousin, Mad Cow Disease, is a very cruel virus. It slowly eats holes in the brain causing very peculiar uncontrollable actions such as twitching eyes, flailing arms, and even random screaming or laughing. This chapter tells the story of the connection made between Creutzfeldt, Jakob, Gajdusek, and Zigas (discoverer and researched of Kuru (Zigas and Gajdusek)).
Chapter 4 - Across the Species Barrier
This chapter is the connections Gajdusek makes between species. Gajdusek travels around the world looking at different disease cases, including Malaria in Libya, and blood virus's in the uncivilized lands of New Guinea. After returning to the U.S. to further his research on the disease of Kuru, Gajdusek starts to draw out the connections between species, most importantly primates. This is happening in 1960, and Gajdusek knows little of "Transmissible spongiform encephalitides" right now, and this is the research that open the door to what we now know as Mad Cow Disease.
Chapter 5 - The Life and Death of Georgette
The chapter starts off by re-introducing the Kuru disease. They further explain the research they will be doing on the disease. As Kuru is a neurological disease, it is only found in specific species as different species have different brains. The closest primate of human's are chimpanzee's, and as you can guess, they do neurotic research on these animals. They study Parkinson's, Kuru, ALS, and other diseases/virus's on a chimpanzees. The chapter starts by telling how the doctor hated testing on chimpanzees, as he viewed them as 'too human'. The chimpanzee they test Kuru on is named George, but after testing they realize that they have mistaken her gender. George becomes Georgette! Unfortunately a researcher who had Tuberculosis came to the testing facility and infected all of the animals, and Gajdusek had to bleed all of the animals out and preserve their brains.
Chapter 6 - The Cannibal Connection
This was an extremely interesting chapter. Most of the chapter was the doctor's talking about the research they had done, however one small bit was very interesting to me. A scientist had trained planaria-small flatworms that live water and moist soil-to find their way out of a simple maze. The scientist then killed the planaria, and fed the remains to another test group of planaria. The test group was able to remember their way through the maze! I found this to be an extremely interesting, and disturbing chapter for one reason. If knowledge is commutative by digestion, is the understanding of the universe and everything within it possible by cannibalism?
Section 2 - The Strangest Thing in All (of) Biology
Chapter 7 - The Disease That Wouldn't Die
This chapter explains very deep neurological research, most of which I had a hard time understanding. They begin by studying the reproductive process of live birthing mammals, and end up studying the cells that a female's egg has. These cells act as as a storage of information for the organism's entire life. Through the research done at Gajdusek's laboratory, he was looked at as a clinical study. After the research done on cells and Kuru, Gajdusek was renowned as one of the master TSE scientist's of the time. If a neurological disease ever became fatal, people turned to Gajdusek.
Chapter 8 - High Tech Neocanniblism
This is also an interesting chapter! In this chapter we meet a new ophthalmologist, Dr. DeVoe, who performs a surgery on a woman with a faulty cornea. The facility receives a cornea harvested from a man with CJD, who miraculously had the same optic nerves and blood type has the woman. The doctor's did not know that the optic nerve of the man had been infected with CJD when harvested though, and later gave the woman CJD. She died 18 months after the operation. The interesting part is how a neurological disease can infect the parts of an eye without actually manifesting the cornea or optic nerve itself!
Chapter 9 - Infecting Children
This chapter starts of with Gajdusek winning the Nobel Prize in medicine, but not actually knowing that he had won it as he was busy researching Kuru and CJD. During his research, Gajdusek had learned that the growth hormones that doctor's extracted to inject into children can actually concentrate CJD agents. Growth hormones are used to counteract dwarfinism, and as thousand's of children had to be treated for this world wide, CJD could have turned into something MUCH larger if those growth hormones had been infected.
Chapter 10 - A Candidate for a Modern Wonder
Chapter 10 is like a progression down the body. In chapter 9 we discussed the effects Kuru can have on the eye and optical degeneration it has, and it the previous chapter we discussed the effects that Kuru has directly on the cranium. In this chapter, Dr. Gajdusek explores the similar effect that Kuru has on the spinal cord, and the possible reasoning for the uncontrollable movements that Kuru causes, both physically and mentally. Kuru shows similar signs as multiple sclerosis, and other crippling diseases that eventually lead to incapacitation and immobilization. Kuru is beginning to look like the combination of all crippling and degenerate diseases.
Section 3 - God in the Guide of a Virus
Chapter 11 - Meat Bites Back
This chapter is similar to chapter 5, where we cross species. This time British farmers notice many similar symptoms in their cattle, possibly a variant of Mad Cow Disease. It was Dr. Whitaker who addressed this case first, who was a British Veterinarian. The first case of 'MCD' in Britain occurred on April 25th, 1985, when Whitaker received a call from one his local dairy farmer clients. The cow was diagnosed with 'ovarian cysts', which cause much of the aggressive behavior and nymphomania described in the cases. (Yes this may sound contradicting to itself, if you understand what those words mean, but you must remember this a neurological disease) Although the bovine specimen appeared to have been treated successfully, but it had died a year later due to similar symptoms of Kuru. The diagnoses was not BSE, but rather something to do with the diet of the cattle. As cows are fed much more often if they produce milk, there were many more cases in these cattle than there were in cattle raised for slaughter. These cattle produce 30-40 pounds of milk a day, or 1,250 gallons of milk per lactation. To produce these extreme amounts of milk, they must be kept on a good diet. As cows are fed many pounds of grass as it is much more efficient to do so, the farmer's must be careful when giving them the required nutrients. This means that when cows do have to take the required amount of protein, it comes in BIG amounts at one time. This is because the base diet of grass is much cheaper and easier, as opposed to feeding them expensive foods with more nutrients and minerals. The several hundred BSE-like cases through England and Wales are presumed to have been caused by an issue with the protein supplements.
Chapter 12 - Ice-Nine
This chapter discusses Gajdusek in his later years. Gajdusek had not gotten a proper diet throughout his years, and by the end of his career he was nearing 300 pounds, gray hair, and poor health. This is not surprising considering his time spent around deadly diseases and savage natives. Gajdusek had started his carrer at a wiry 140 pounds, with black hair. Gajdusek was never mistaken for his powerful intelligence, however.
Aside from describing Gajdusek, this chapter goes on to explain several other occurences involving bovine, around the world. When Gajdusek flew to London, he had gone to McDonalds, and was startled to see a notice in the window reading the following:
We are no longer using British meat
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
CJD had cost the British meat industry 37,500,000 million dollars a year. This was a great gain for the Dutch, however. This next bit of information is extremely disgusting, and if you're a pig lover, I advise you to not read any more of chapter 12.
A later discovery in April of 1985, in the city of Zürich, Switzerland, the swine industry was severely harmed. The Swiss government had confirmed that two swine facilities had been feeding their pigs placentas-presumably from abortions. Placentas is the lining an unborn baby is surrounded in, which is removed during abortions. This being fed to millions of pigs, could of caused a plague like epidemic if any of the mothers were infected by Kuru or CJD, or any of the other hereditary neurological diseases.
Chapter 13 - It's Kuru and Nothing but Kuru
This chapter is outro for the book, and gives many statistic's and graphs. One I found quite interesting was the chances of getting sporadic CJD: 1 in 1,000,000. This is a chance more likely than winning the lotto, approximately 100 times more likely; so if you've won the lotto you might want to watch what you eat!
Reading Summaries
Section 1 - Among the Cannibals
Chapter 1 - I Eat You
As you can most likely tell by the title, and the fact that this is the beginning of the book, this chapter is an exposition. This explains what exactly the book is about, as the title is somewhat vague. The title 'I Eat You', gives away the fact that this has something to do with cannibalism, which it does. This chapter gives a setting, South Asia, and a subject (Cannibalism and it's infection consequences) for the rest of the book.
Chapter 2 - Kuru
This chapter is like a more in depth exposition than the first chapter. It gives an insight to what disease we're talking about, and where exactly it is. The chapter is focused around the disease 'Kuru', which is a very deadly neurological disease (meaning it decays the brain), in Indonesia. As you may of guessed, this degenerate disease enters the body heretic-ally or by the eating of a human who has died of Kuru. The people that this book focuses on, as revealed in this chapter, are the Fore, and other natives of Indonesia. These Fore and other natives have a very sick and dangerous tradition of eating the dead, as they believe it gives the souls a resting place in the stomach of the living.
Chapter 3 - Dr. Creutzfeldt and Dr. Jakob
This chapter is about two doctors, Creutzfeldt and Jakob, who together put together findings of a new virus: CJD. This is also fatal neurological virus that kills 100% of it's infected, and is only slightly more common than rabies. This disease is known to spread throughout the world. CJD, or more commonly known by its disease cousin, Mad Cow Disease, is a very cruel virus. It slowly eats holes in the brain causing very peculiar uncontrollable actions such as twitching eyes, flailing arms, and even random screaming or laughing. This chapter tells the story of the connection made between Creutzfeldt, Jakob, Gajdusek, and Zigas (discoverer and researched of Kuru (Zigas and Gajdusek)).
Chapter 4 - Across the Species Barrier
This chapter is the connections Gajdusek makes between species. Gajdusek travels around the world looking at different disease cases, including Malaria in Libya, and blood virus's in the uncivilized lands of New Guinea. After returning to the U.S. to further his research on the disease of Kuru, Gajdusek starts to draw out the connections between species, most importantly primates. This is happening in 1960, and Gajdusek knows little of "Transmissible spongiform encephalitides" right now, and this is the research that open the door to what we now know as Mad Cow Disease.
Chapter 5 - The Life and Death of Georgette
The chapter starts off by re-introducing the Kuru disease. They further explain the research they will be doing on the disease. As Kuru is a neurological disease, it is only found in specific species as different species have different brains. The closest primate of human's are chimpanzee's, and as you can guess, they do neurotic research on these animals. They study Parkinson's, Kuru, ALS, and other diseases/virus's on a chimpanzees. The chapter starts by telling how the doctor hated testing on chimpanzees, as he viewed them as 'too human'. The chimpanzee they test Kuru on is named George, but after testing they realize that they have mistaken her gender. George becomes Georgette! Unfortunately a researcher who had Tuberculosis came to the testing facility and infected all of the animals, and Gajdusek had to bleed all of the animals out and preserve their brains.
Chapter 6 - The Cannibal Connection
This was an extremely interesting chapter. Most of the chapter was the doctor's talking about the research they had done, however one small bit was very interesting to me. A scientist had trained planaria-small flatworms that live water and moist soil-to find their way out of a simple maze. The scientist then killed the planaria, and fed the remains to another test group of planaria. The test group was able to remember their way through the maze! I found this to be an extremely interesting, and disturbing chapter for one reason. If knowledge is commutative by digestion, is the understanding of the universe and everything within it possible by cannibalism?
Section 2 - The Strangest Thing in All (of) Biology
Chapter 7 - The Disease That Wouldn't Die
This chapter explains very deep neurological research, most of which I had a hard time understanding. They begin by studying the reproductive process of live birthing mammals, and end up studying the cells that a female's egg has. These cells act as as a storage of information for the organism's entire life. Through the research done at Gajdusek's laboratory, he was looked at as a clinical study. After the research done on cells and Kuru, Gajdusek was renowned as one of the master TSE scientist's of the time. If a neurological disease ever became fatal, people turned to Gajdusek.
Chapter 8 - High Tech Neocanniblism
This is also an interesting chapter! In this chapter we meet a new ophthalmologist, Dr. DeVoe, who performs a surgery on a woman with a faulty cornea. The facility receives a cornea harvested from a man with CJD, who miraculously had the same optic nerves and blood type has the woman. The doctor's did not know that the optic nerve of the man had been infected with CJD when harvested though, and later gave the woman CJD. She died 18 months after the operation. The interesting part is how a neurological disease can infect the parts of an eye without actually manifesting the cornea or optic nerve itself!
Chapter 9 - Infecting Children
This chapter starts of with Gajdusek winning the Nobel Prize in medicine, but not actually knowing that he had won it as he was busy researching Kuru and CJD. During his research, Gajdusek had learned that the growth hormones that doctor's extracted to inject into children can actually concentrate CJD agents. Growth hormones are used to counteract dwarfinism, and as thousand's of children had to be treated for this world wide, CJD could have turned into something MUCH larger if those growth hormones had been infected.
Chapter 10 - A Candidate for a Modern Wonder
Chapter 10 is like a progression down the body. In chapter 9 we discussed the effects Kuru can have on the eye and optical degeneration it has, and it the previous chapter we discussed the effects that Kuru has directly on the cranium. In this chapter, Dr. Gajdusek explores the similar effect that Kuru has on the spinal cord, and the possible reasoning for the uncontrollable movements that Kuru causes, both physically and mentally. Kuru shows similar signs as multiple sclerosis, and other crippling diseases that eventually lead to incapacitation and immobilization. Kuru is beginning to look like the combination of all crippling and degenerate diseases.
Section 3 - God in the Guide of a Virus
Chapter 11 - Meat Bites Back
This chapter is similar to chapter 5, where we cross species. This time British farmers notice many similar symptoms in their cattle, possibly a variant of Mad Cow Disease. It was Dr. Whitaker who addressed this case first, who was a British Veterinarian. The first case of 'MCD' in Britain occurred on April 25th, 1985, when Whitaker received a call from one his local dairy farmer clients. The cow was diagnosed with 'ovarian cysts', which cause much of the aggressive behavior and nymphomania described in the cases. (Yes this may sound contradicting to itself, if you understand what those words mean, but you must remember this a neurological disease) Although the bovine specimen appeared to have been treated successfully, but it had died a year later due to similar symptoms of Kuru. The diagnoses was not BSE, but rather something to do with the diet of the cattle. As cows are fed much more often if they produce milk, there were many more cases in these cattle than there were in cattle raised for slaughter. These cattle produce 30-40 pounds of milk a day, or 1,250 gallons of milk per lactation. To produce these extreme amounts of milk, they must be kept on a good diet. As cows are fed many pounds of grass as it is much more efficient to do so, the farmer's must be careful when giving them the required nutrients. This means that when cows do have to take the required amount of protein, it comes in BIG amounts at one time. This is because the base diet of grass is much cheaper and easier, as opposed to feeding them expensive foods with more nutrients and minerals. The several hundred BSE-like cases through England and Wales are presumed to have been caused by an issue with the protein supplements.
Chapter 12 - Ice-Nine
This chapter discusses Gajdusek in his later years. Gajdusek had not gotten a proper diet throughout his years, and by the end of his career he was nearing 300 pounds, gray hair, and poor health. This is not surprising considering his time spent around deadly diseases and savage natives. Gajdusek had started his carrer at a wiry 140 pounds, with black hair. Gajdusek was never mistaken for his powerful intelligence, however.
Aside from describing Gajdusek, this chapter goes on to explain several other occurences involving bovine, around the world. When Gajdusek flew to London, he had gone to McDonalds, and was startled to see a notice in the window reading the following:
We are no longer using British meat
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
CJD had cost the British meat industry 37,500,000 million dollars a year. This was a great gain for the Dutch, however. This next bit of information is extremely disgusting, and if you're a pig lover, I advise you to not read any more of chapter 12.
A later discovery in April of 1985, in the city of Zürich, Switzerland, the swine industry was severely harmed. The Swiss government had confirmed that two swine facilities had been feeding their pigs placentas-presumably from abortions. Placentas is the lining an unborn baby is surrounded in, which is removed during abortions. This being fed to millions of pigs, could of caused a plague like epidemic if any of the mothers were infected by Kuru or CJD, or any of the other hereditary neurological diseases.
Chapter 13 - It's Kuru and Nothing but Kuru
This chapter is outro for the book, and gives many statistic's and graphs. One I found quite interesting was the chances of getting sporadic CJD: 1 in 1,000,000. This is a chance more likely than winning the lotto, approximately 100 times more likely; so if you've won the lotto you might want to watch what you eat!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Book Report - The Essays - Part 2
Essay 1 - Impact Essay
Everybody's Protest Novel
Author: James Baldwin
# marks the beginning of my essay
Yes, I am choosing the same essay twice. I honestly thought the highest of this essay, mostly because of the fact that I could understand it. Much of the other writing's did not use the modern type of English, and where hard to in fact. I choose this essay mostly out of process of elimination, however that is not to say this is not a bad essay.
#Even if there where other essays, I would continue with my choice for the impact essay. This is because I am very aware of the issue of current day racism. This essay does not directly focus on that, but rather the hidden discriminations and racially based decisions of the 1940-1960 era. He gives clear examples of hidden racism throughout the essay, as the entire writing is focused on the issues of lower respect for African-American's, even in such famous novels such as 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. This still applies to current day issues, just not as obviously. This essay impacted me the most because I was happy to see a piece of writing that could open the eyes of others to indirect racism. Racism still exists in America, even though people deny it. This essay also related connected to me on an emotional level, because I am to aware of the slightest racial discriminations in films and writings. I think the author is somewhat similar to me, and that is was really made this essay stand out. The language he uses on page 17, 'black equates with evil and white with grace' was a very strong piece of writing as it spoke the true mind of racist's in the 1940's, and possibly even today. I think he may of been taking a psychological point of view towards racism, as black is generally associated with darker or bad places you don't want to be. White is generally associated with Heaven, and other bright happy places. With the combination of personal connections, strong language, vivid sensory, and the ability to take multiple points of view really left the biggest mark on me.
Everybody's Protest Novel
Author: James Baldwin
# marks the beginning of my essay
Yes, I am choosing the same essay twice. I honestly thought the highest of this essay, mostly because of the fact that I could understand it. Much of the other writing's did not use the modern type of English, and where hard to in fact. I choose this essay mostly out of process of elimination, however that is not to say this is not a bad essay.
#Even if there where other essays, I would continue with my choice for the impact essay. This is because I am very aware of the issue of current day racism. This essay does not directly focus on that, but rather the hidden discriminations and racially based decisions of the 1940-1960 era. He gives clear examples of hidden racism throughout the essay, as the entire writing is focused on the issues of lower respect for African-American's, even in such famous novels such as 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. This still applies to current day issues, just not as obviously. This essay impacted me the most because I was happy to see a piece of writing that could open the eyes of others to indirect racism. Racism still exists in America, even though people deny it. This essay also related connected to me on an emotional level, because I am to aware of the slightest racial discriminations in films and writings. I think the author is somewhat similar to me, and that is was really made this essay stand out. The language he uses on page 17, 'black equates with evil and white with grace' was a very strong piece of writing as it spoke the true mind of racist's in the 1940's, and possibly even today. I think he may of been taking a psychological point of view towards racism, as black is generally associated with darker or bad places you don't want to be. White is generally associated with Heaven, and other bright happy places. With the combination of personal connections, strong language, vivid sensory, and the ability to take multiple points of view really left the biggest mark on me.
The Book Report - The Essays - Part 1
Essay 1 - Mode Essay
Everybody's Protest Novel
Author: James Baldwin
# marks the beginning of my essay
#This essay was particularly well written. It was not only short and to the point, and easy to read, but did it also make a very productive use of the modes of writing. I will proceed to give you 2 individual examples of what I thought this essay expressed the best.
The first mode this essay really expressed was 'Exposition'. This is not a hard mode to express, but this essay really hit the nail right on the head. Several other examples of exposition can be found through this essay, such as the author beginning his disgust with the opinion of Miss. Ophelia's review of the book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The author later progress's to his opinion of the actual book itself, and what he thinks of the author, Mrs. Stowe. The exposition to these opinions can be found within the first 2 pages of the book. For more specific exposition detail on the Miss. Ophelia reply, see the bottom of the first page.
The second mode this essay really expressed was 'Description'. The author vividly described the hatred he has towards this specific novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', by giving the main issue's he has with this book throughout the essay's. He clearly states, in fact as clear as one can be be, on page 14 2nd paragraph; 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with 'Little Women' I find that to be most descriptive to my 6th sense, my brain. The word choice he used in describing his opinion was not only eye opening, but also very precise and intelligently stated.
Everybody's Protest Novel
Author: James Baldwin
# marks the beginning of my essay
#This essay was particularly well written. It was not only short and to the point, and easy to read, but did it also make a very productive use of the modes of writing. I will proceed to give you 2 individual examples of what I thought this essay expressed the best.
The first mode this essay really expressed was 'Exposition'. This is not a hard mode to express, but this essay really hit the nail right on the head. Several other examples of exposition can be found through this essay, such as the author beginning his disgust with the opinion of Miss. Ophelia's review of the book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The author later progress's to his opinion of the actual book itself, and what he thinks of the author, Mrs. Stowe. The exposition to these opinions can be found within the first 2 pages of the book. For more specific exposition detail on the Miss. Ophelia reply, see the bottom of the first page.
The second mode this essay really expressed was 'Description'. The author vividly described the hatred he has towards this specific novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', by giving the main issue's he has with this book throughout the essay's. He clearly states, in fact as clear as one can be be, on page 14 2nd paragraph; 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with 'Little Women' I find that to be most descriptive to my 6th sense, my brain. The word choice he used in describing his opinion was not only eye opening, but also very precise and intelligently stated.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Book Report - The Assignments - Part 4
The Harlem Ghetto
Chapter 4 (Pg. 51-64)
Summarization -
As foreshadowed by the title, this chapter focus's on the issues with Harlem. The author shows an acknowledgement of the issue's with Harlem. The author uses this chapter to describe the unhealthy and simply inhumane living conditions of Harlem. He says that the condition's have not changed much since his childhood, which may be a taunt at authorities to clean it up. He also goes into grueling detail focusing on the lives of the citizen's living there, creating a mental scenery that was obviously implemented to fire up the readers into taking action for the cause.
Narratives & Details -
The main details of this chapter can easily be found within' the first page alone, such as the phrase 'All of Harlem is pervaded by a sense of congestion, rather like the insistent, maddening, claustrophobic pounding in the skull that comes from trying to breathe in a very small room with all the windows shut.' I find this to be a clear example of 'Description', 'Internal Monologue' and maybe even a bit of 'Diction'. Another possible taunt at authorities, or expose to the public, is in the first paragraph of page 51 where the author writes 'Rents are 10 to 58 per cent higher than anywhere else in the city.' This could be read as an expose to the public as if the author was trying to get people to fix the issue current in Harlem. I also find this statement to be a clear example of 'Exposition', as it presents the issue at hand in a clean and quick sentence, without actually going into detail.
Chapter 4 (Pg. 51-64)
Summarization -
As foreshadowed by the title, this chapter focus's on the issues with Harlem. The author shows an acknowledgement of the issue's with Harlem. The author uses this chapter to describe the unhealthy and simply inhumane living conditions of Harlem. He says that the condition's have not changed much since his childhood, which may be a taunt at authorities to clean it up. He also goes into grueling detail focusing on the lives of the citizen's living there, creating a mental scenery that was obviously implemented to fire up the readers into taking action for the cause.
Narratives & Details -
The main details of this chapter can easily be found within' the first page alone, such as the phrase 'All of Harlem is pervaded by a sense of congestion, rather like the insistent, maddening, claustrophobic pounding in the skull that comes from trying to breathe in a very small room with all the windows shut.' I find this to be a clear example of 'Description', 'Internal Monologue' and maybe even a bit of 'Diction'. Another possible taunt at authorities, or expose to the public, is in the first paragraph of page 51 where the author writes 'Rents are 10 to 58 per cent higher than anywhere else in the city.' This could be read as an expose to the public as if the author was trying to get people to fix the issue current in Harlem. I also find this statement to be a clear example of 'Exposition', as it presents the issue at hand in a clean and quick sentence, without actually going into detail.
The Book Report - The Assignments - Part 3
Carmen Jones: The Dark Is Light Enough
Chapter 3 (Pg. 23-43)
Summarization -
This chapter focus's on the 1955 Hollywood production of 'Carmen Jones'. Similar to the first summary, this article shows a disgust with the aforementioned production, as it inaccurately represents the historical culture of 'Negroes', and the production disgusts the author as it is often referred to as a work of art. This chapter was somewhat hard to understand as to what exactly the author is angered over, but from what I can tell it is the disrespect this movie had for historical figures.
Narratives & Details -
As said before, the main idea is the author displaying his strong hatred towards the production 'Carmen Jones'. Said on page 44, the production inaccurately represents 'Negro dance'. Also quoted on page 45 'that they (actors) sound ludicrously fake false and affected'. That is referring to the poor acting of historical figures showing no respect for Negro's. On page 46 the author mentions the playwright thinking of Opera's (which this was) as a fantasy and a tragedy, meaning the playwright cannot accurately portray slavery when he writes fantasy plays. This is one of the best 'Narratives' you'll find in this book, as the author uses descriptive thoughts to describe one another.
Note: All times the word 'Negro' is used are not meant to be disrespectful or rude in any manner, but rather used for the most accurate representation of thought that I had at that time.
Chapter 3 (Pg. 23-43)
Summarization -
This chapter focus's on the 1955 Hollywood production of 'Carmen Jones'. Similar to the first summary, this article shows a disgust with the aforementioned production, as it inaccurately represents the historical culture of 'Negroes', and the production disgusts the author as it is often referred to as a work of art. This chapter was somewhat hard to understand as to what exactly the author is angered over, but from what I can tell it is the disrespect this movie had for historical figures.
Narratives & Details -
As said before, the main idea is the author displaying his strong hatred towards the production 'Carmen Jones'. Said on page 44, the production inaccurately represents 'Negro dance'. Also quoted on page 45 'that they (actors) sound ludicrously fake false and affected'. That is referring to the poor acting of historical figures showing no respect for Negro's. On page 46 the author mentions the playwright thinking of Opera's (which this was) as a fantasy and a tragedy, meaning the playwright cannot accurately portray slavery when he writes fantasy plays. This is one of the best 'Narratives' you'll find in this book, as the author uses descriptive thoughts to describe one another.
Note: All times the word 'Negro' is used are not meant to be disrespectful or rude in any manner, but rather used for the most accurate representation of thought that I had at that time.
The Book Report - The Assignments - Part 2
Many Thousands Gone
Chapter 2 (Pg. 23-43)
Summarization -
This chapter focus's on the broad generalization on the word slavery. The main subject of this chapter is to help people focus on the other aspects of the word slavery, as it was not just picking cotton in the deep south. It was written to open the eyes of people to the slavery in factories in the north, indentured servant positions everywhere, and the general discrimination and neglect that still occurs to this day.
Narratives & Details -
The main idea of this chapter, as said before, is too widen the view of whites towards our history and what still occurs today. As said on page 23, 'the story of the people is never very pretty'. which references the down attitude and negative history the people have experienced in the past and current times. The reference on page 24 'the loss of our own identity is the price we pay for our annulment of His.' is referring to the Christianizing of African's*, which caused the African's* to become conformed into American ways of life, and in return losing their own culture.
*When the 'African's' is said, it is referring to the African people that would soon become slaves through deportation; not the people of Africa today.
Chapter 2 (Pg. 23-43)
Summarization -
This chapter focus's on the broad generalization on the word slavery. The main subject of this chapter is to help people focus on the other aspects of the word slavery, as it was not just picking cotton in the deep south. It was written to open the eyes of people to the slavery in factories in the north, indentured servant positions everywhere, and the general discrimination and neglect that still occurs to this day.
Narratives & Details -
The main idea of this chapter, as said before, is too widen the view of whites towards our history and what still occurs today. As said on page 23, 'the story of the people is never very pretty'. which references the down attitude and negative history the people have experienced in the past and current times. The reference on page 24 'the loss of our own identity is the price we pay for our annulment of His.' is referring to the Christianizing of African's*, which caused the African's* to become conformed into American ways of life, and in return losing their own culture.
*When the 'African's' is said, it is referring to the African people that would soon become slaves through deportation; not the people of Africa today.
The Book Report - The Assignments - Part 1
Everybody's Protest Novel
Chapter 1 (Pg. 13-23)
Summarization -
This chapter was short and to the point. It focused on the author's hatred and disgust with the novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The author finds Mrs. Stowe (author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin') to be masking the true violence of slavery through a harmless novel she had written. The author of this article also accuses Mrs. Stowe of being a simple pamphleteer, who wants nothing more than to show slavery is bad, which is nothing near enough to create a novel, but rather a pamphlet.
Narratives & Details - The main idea of this chapter was the disgust the author had with 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and the evidence she has for making such claims against Mrs. Stowe. As seen on page 14, the author accuses Mrs. Stowe of being a pamphleteer, and not a novelist. She also says on page 13 that the book was nothing more than a weak attempt to show slavery is bad, but only mask the true violence in the process.
Chapter 1 (Pg. 13-23)
Summarization -
This chapter was short and to the point. It focused on the author's hatred and disgust with the novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The author finds Mrs. Stowe (author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin') to be masking the true violence of slavery through a harmless novel she had written. The author of this article also accuses Mrs. Stowe of being a simple pamphleteer, who wants nothing more than to show slavery is bad, which is nothing near enough to create a novel, but rather a pamphlet.
Narratives & Details - The main idea of this chapter was the disgust the author had with 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and the evidence she has for making such claims against Mrs. Stowe. As seen on page 14, the author accuses Mrs. Stowe of being a pamphleteer, and not a novelist. She also says on page 13 that the book was nothing more than a weak attempt to show slavery is bad, but only mask the true violence in the process.
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