"Communist Utopia"

Communism is indicated by a uniform/mono-color scheme and the watching eyes. Another indication is the decaying or dying appearance of the objects.
He titled it "Communist Utopia" because this is his idea of what communism would be like and what he believes communists want to do to the general public.

"Soma" by The Strokes

"Soma" is a song written by The Strokes in allusion to a drug used to relieve stress or pain in the book Brave New World. The theme of the song is that the majority of people chose to be ignorant if it provides bliss. The song explains soma as something people take when hard times "open their eyes" and they see pain in a "new way". This is saying that when people start to think for themselves and experience revelations while in pain, they tend to disregard it and turn to soma, or some other kind of temporarily distracting thing (such as drugs or alcohol) to relieve themselves of the pain (as well as the newly learned or discovered concept which arises from the pain). This reveals to the audience the general mindset humans have when it comes to pain, according to the speaker's opinion. In the song, the line "tried it once and they liked it, then tried to hide it" is talking about when people chose not to be ignorant for a while, discovered something, and then reverted back to their blissful distractions. Because learning something is exciting, but in the case of Brave New World, forbidden, if someone didn't take soma, and let pain change them and make them individual, it was shameful and something worth hiding. This causes a widespread ignorance in society, which is also present in reality, due to a distraction from natural emotion or thought. One of the last lines of the song says, "and these friends, they keep asking for more". This is speaking about how a lot of people like these distractions from emotion and thought, and will continue to try and distract themselves. The idea (brought up in the lyrics of the song) of a majority of people choosing distractions over pensiveness and asking for more soma represents a common yearning for bliss in society rather than individual thought.

Sentence Purpose Breakdown:
1. Provides introduction to the topic, as well as some background for the subject
2. States the theme of the
3. Introduces a piece of the song
4. Explains the piece introduced
5. Tells the purpose of the piece
6. Introduces a second piece of the song and explains its meaning
7. Explains meaning in context of BNW
8. Explains effect of concept on society (BNW and reality)
9. Introduces a third piece of the song
10. Explanation of meaning
11. Ties ideas back to theme

"Loss of Innocence" by Bottacelli

Innocence is a child-like ignorance to the use or presence of something evil. Something intangible can be lost when it is impossible for one to return to the same mental state that one had when the object or concept was "present". Dark shades tend to hint to something bad and/or evil. One can assume that in the painting, these dark shades represent the revelation of something maleficent to the woman featured in the painting. The colors in this piece seem to get darker as one looks from the left to right of the painting. One can assume then, that towards the left of the painting, more innocence was present in that version of the woman (shown three times throughout) then later on in the right side of the painting. To those who are not innocent, being naked is known to be a bad thing. This loss of innocence, occurring to the woman, is the cause for her trying to cover her bare body with her hair and with the cloth. It is a common belief that innocence is lost when one loses their virginity, which is what seems to be happening in the left of the painting, when the woman is with the man. He is holding onto her, on the left, and trying to blow the cloth off of the middle figure (which is also her).

"Young Life" by Bo Bartlett

The artist is trying to say that with age, comes responsibility. This can be implied by looking at the deer above the head of the couple (being young adults) and the gun in the adult male's hand. It is typical thought that the "breadwinner" of a family is a responsible male who hunts and kills animals to provide for his family. This is the thought that Bo would have grown up around, being an American male born in the 50's. This shows in his painting, where this responsibility seems to weigh down on the older male and his wife or girlfriend (in the form of a dead deer), while the younger male (a child) seems to be apart from this weight, holding a stick (probably for playing) instead of a gun (for killing and providing). The artist is also trying to say that young adults are dependent on each other. This can be implied from the way the couple are standing; the male is only touching the ground with one foot, causing him to have a sort of lean on his girlfriend/wife, and she is in turn grasping onto his torso and leaning on his shoulder. The artist is also trying to show that responsibility is just as inescapable as age. As one can observe, the older male looks somewhat bound to the earth through the colors of the ground, his shoes, his pants, jacket, and even through the deer which is lying above him. This binding is less present in the younger boy, but still holds a presence in his shoes and the stick he is carrying  These connected colors represent the binding of human beings, possibly particularly males, to inevitable responsibility for a future or present family.

"Blackbird" by The Beatles

The "blackbird" may be symbolic for certain groups/individuals in the society of the time that had previously held back by social standards restrictions. When the song says, "blackbird fly" it could mean that the suppressed peoples should speak out and take to new opportunities, and that "flying" would heighten their quality of life ("fly" has a positive connotation and is associated with freedom). The phrase "light of the dark black night" is symbolizing the promise of changing times. Because "light" has a positive connotation, usually meaning an opportunity, it implies that the "dark black night" (meaning the unknown of the changing times) may hold something good for the "blackbird" or suppressed peoples. All of these symbols come together to create the single effect of hope to those individuals waiting for social change.

2+2=5 by Radiohead

The subject of the song is conformity and reactions to conformity. The tone at first is defiant of the conformist society, using words like "forever" and "stay" to express a firm resistance from the subject, but as the song comes to an end, the tone becomes uncertain using words like "maybe" over and over to express the faltering of firmness as the speaker begins to conform. The theme of the piece is "conformity is persistent and eventually inevitable".

"Don't You Want Me" by the Human League

The two perspectives are from one person who wants to leave and another person who does not want the other to leave (in terms of a relationship). When the two met, the woman was a waitress at a hotel. During their relationship, the man helped the woman to improve her career. Now that she wants to become independent, he feels as if it's unjust because she owes him for all of the things he has done for her, while she feels like she would've done it on her own if necessary, and that it is her right to leave. The reason they see the same situation differently is because of their opposing wants, needs, and opinions. For example, I once had a terrible boyfriend. While I needed someone less obnoxious, he needed someone who was willing to put up with his obnoxiousness. Therefore, I dumped him.

"Shame" by The Avett Brothers

The subject of the song is the mistakes the speaker has made, and the tone is humble. The first word that brings out the tone is "please", which gives the listener the impression that the speaker is begging the person whom the song is for, and thus creating this image of the speaker viewing himself as lesser. The title of the song, "shame", also adds to the tone by showing that the speaker has self-awareness and repentance. Thirdly, when the speaker talks about himself subjectively, using the term "strutted", he shows that he knows he was once arrogant and can now reflect on that and be remorseful for his actions. All of these words reveal how diction help tie together the "humble" tone and feeling of the song.

Sign Language

The single effect of this video was understanding
The monologue with the man speaking the things that were on his mind gives the audience empathy for the characters
The camera shots of the characters from far away at first and close up later (particularly the girl) help the audience to feel less distant from particular characters (the girl) as the video progresses
The upbeat music helped the mood of the video to be positive, creating a positive outlook on interactions between people 

Love Language

The purpose is to teach the audience that the deaf are just like other normal people and to give the audience empathy and understanding for these people. The film is effective in showing the two young people (one of them is deaf) having a normal conversation through post-it notes. The pieces of conversation and the smiling and nodding interactions occurring between the two people before her disability is revealed show us that her deaf state does not define her. At the end, the viewer is left with a positive feeling that breaks a potential barrier that the audience may feel between themselves and the average deaf person.

Semeadores

The theme of this painting is the hard-working lifestyles of the overlooked Hispanic farmers. One can tell because the painting displays people looking down, focused on their work, without visible faces. They also appear to be connected to the field, as if it is their rightful/dutiful place in their community. From this painting, we can assume that the artist was part of the Hispanic farming culture from how much he seems to have observed and thought about this seemingly simple lifestyle. This is relative to the theme because one can infer that the artist thought these farmers needed more recognition from the people who bought his paintings (the wealthy) and he may have also wanted to promote farming in showing it as an honorable job for the strong, diligent, and responsible members of a culture, these farmers being the ones providing food for others.

S: workers (farming)

N: good worker, pro-labor

A: rich, influential people

P: to produce thought about the respectable living of a hard-working Hispanic farmer 

"Good Old Desk"

S: a desk
N: the desk's owner
A: anyone who regularly listens to his music
P: to make his listeners think about their relationships
He is talking about a relationship he has in his life. After hearing what the song alluded to, I thought the song was a little more meaningful and less abstract.
1) "always there, it's the friend I've got, a giant of all times"
2) "such a comfort"
3) "keeps my hope alive"

The Pinch of Poverty

Subject: poverty, and poor families
Narrator (artist): likely poor (artists didn't often prosper this time) and grew up in a poor community/family
Audience: rich art-buyers, general public, upper class
Purpose: to make the viewer stop and think about the impoverished people they probably see every day and overlook, and also to show that the people in poverty need their help
By just looking at the despairing faces of the family and the dreary atmosphere around them, you can tell the artist is meaning to portray poverty in a negative light. The artist's vision about poverty is that it's overlooked too often, and that people should pay more attention to the families that, for example, are selling flowers on the side of the street. By using position, the artist has made the girl with the flowers looks like she's advancing towards the viewer, almost as if she is requesting, or offering an opportunity to the viewer to help them. By using color and shading, the artist has made the mother, little boy, and baby blend in with the background, emphasizing how easily ignored the poor population is. 

Culture

I define culture as: the lifestyle and attitude of a particular group
What makes up a person's culture: the way they interact with others, dress, spend their time, and express themselves
Culture is extrinsic. The way you act/think/dress is influenced by your surroundings and by the social standards you spend an extended amount of time living around

Sherpa Culture

Claim 1- Sherpas are sociable with the climbers
Support: When Krakauer tries to help Ang Dorje dig, but quits because he is too tired, the sirdar laughs and jokes, "Are you not feeling good, Jon? This is only Camp One, six thousand meters. The air here is still very thick."
Claim 2: Sherpas are bold and often reckless
Support: When the Sherpa was showing signs of altitude sickness, "Ngwang ignored Scott's instructions and, instead of going down, went up to Camp Two to spend the night. By the time he arrived at the tents...[he] was delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing  up pink, blood-laced froth..."
Claim 3: Sherpas are reverent
Support: "Sherpas venerate a tangled melange of deities and spirits...paying proper homage to this ensemble of deities is considered crucially important to ensure safe passage..."

Journal #1- "Runaway"

Facts: A police officer is present; two people are in a diner; a child is wearing a yellow t-shirt
Claims: The policeman is kind; the child is stubborn; the man behind the counter is friendly
Analytic claim: The painting means to express a child's ignorant defiance of adult authority 

Pygmalion 2

As mentioned in my first blog post about Pygmalion, there wasn’t much romance in the play, and there’s certainly not any between Mr. Higgins and the “Flower Girl”. Though many would expect, when the two adult main characters are a man and a woman, that there must be some chemistry between them—this is not the case. Henry and Eliza are only friends and I think that’s one thing that really makes the play stand out as a “classic”.

            George Bernard Shaw understood something very well about Eliza and Henry that I believe he wanted to teach his audience: to push them into love would be a hopeless-romantic’s destruction of the characters. Contrary to popular belief, men and women in novels, stories, and plays can just be friends. Actually, as Shaw helps bring us to understand, often times, it’s a better fit for the story if they remain apart.

            The author was well known to be a feminist, which I believe is why he wanted to show his audience a woman who did not need the love of Mr. Higgins. Some would argue that Eliza couldn’t have been a feminist character because she was, well, quite pathetic for much of the scenes, and constantly had emotional outbreaks (a common stereotype for a young woman). However, I think that she was ultimately fairly independent and self-dignifying. By refusing the idea of marrying Henry, Eliza was refusing to put up with the mistreatment of a rude and stone-hearted man, no matter his good intentions. And as for choosing to marry Freddy, it showed her doing the most responsible thing. She did not do it because she was weak, but rather because she set her standards to someone who would let her know she was appreciated, and because she knew he was weak and may need a person like her.

            The most significant reason that the author chose not to bring them together is that they just didn’t fit, no matter how much the audience might want them to. Had they fallen in love, it wouldn’t have worked with Higgins’s stoic behavior and careless self-absorption, or Eliza’s demand for respect and easily-offended nature. It would’ve soothed their need for balance, yes, but destroyed the carefully crafted conduct of the two characters. To make their relationship succeed, Shaw would’ve had to undermine the dysfunction that made the story so intriguing in the first place. To have them live happily ever after would’ve been too perfect, and that’s another thing the author wanted to show. I think with the ending, he wanted the audience to understand that friendships that aren’t perfect at all are sometimes the best relationships. 

Pygmalion 1

Many people would assume that My Fair Lady (the 60s movie that is based off of Pygmalion) is mainly a romantic tale, but that’s not entirely true. The story is more a comedy than anything else, and as for relationships, most of them involved are only friendships, and it would be a misunderstanding of the characters for one to think otherwise. Pygmalion, however, does contain some romance—that is, with language. While Eliza flirts with the idea of speaking like a duchess, Mr. Higgins shows the reader the beauty of the English language when spoken correctly. Reading this story helped the reader (myself included) to appreciate spoken word and embrace their stickler (as Lynne Truss would call it) side.

Throughout the story, Mr. Higgins calls Eliza a “creature with… kerbstone English,” a “squashed cabbage leaf,” an “unfortunate animal,” also says she’s “deliciously low—horribly dirty,” and names her “garbage”. All of these degrading terms; just because of the way she speaks! I fear what sort of names he would invent for me and my peers if he heard our pronunciation! Henry cries, “This is what we pay for elementary education… nine years in school at our expense to teach her… And the result is Ahyee, Bə-yee, Cə-yee, Dəyee.” I don’t have faultless English myself, but find this to be a fairly valid thing to be upset about.

 There are many students that go to school on the tax money of others that have only mispronunciation and slang to show for several years of English classes. Though I definitely don’t get as heated as he does, after reading the story, I can’t help but think maybe they should care a little more. There are many aspects that seem to define how others see a person: dress, attitude, actions, and yes: speech. Take, for instance, a politician. If a presidential candidate wants to be liked and respected, they know they must dress sharp and never attend an event in jeans, they have to watch what they do and say, and of course, how they say it. Poor speech, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the source of a lot of ridicule for celebrities and politicians. For example, take widely popular figures like “The Turtle Man”, who is mocked by non-supporters for having a thick southern accent.

So why shouldn’t I then hold myself to some kind of standard? If I’m going to some day have to do an interview for a job or make a formal presentation, I don’t want the interviewer or the audience to think I’m inadequate or uneducated. That realization, I think is the most important thing the reader gets out of Pygmalion. It makes the audience of the play want to watch themselves and in their minds, restores some form of value and respect in the correct usage of the English language.

The Pearl 2

Previously mentioned, reading “The Pearl” was not altogether pleasing, though it was insightful- but foreboding from start to finish. The largest lesson, in my opinion, that “The Pearl” teaches is the importance of listening to one’s sense of reason. The story is cliché: man runs into fortune (subsequently becoming stubborn and greedy) and just as quickly runs him (and a few close individuals) into the ground. But then, why is it that the reader doesn’t feel like they’re reading a cliché novel?

 I believe concepts of evil and forbearing give the tale a unique essence. Instead of greed (though this was clearly involved), the story circles around the ideas of universal balance, karma, luck, and inhuman forces that influence the lives of the people of La Paz. For instance, when Kino was just about to find “The Pearl of the World”, it was mentioned that you had to want it (“it” being a pearl- or anything of value found by chance) “just enough” but not “too much”.

Superstition is something almost everyone has a little bit of. We’ve all thrown salt over our left shoulders at one point or another, and many of us have our own little rules for when we’re expecting good luck or bad. Though most of us would recognize this practice as frivolous, anyone who has read this book has noticed the spooky authenticity in Juana’s cries for caution and frantic attempts to follow her instincts. It seems that after the pearl came into their lives, Kino and his family were perpetually haunted by an evil force. And perhaps if Kino had paid a little closer attention to his wife’s claims and to the ringing of “the Song of The Enemy”, then he would have spared the state of his family and the life of Coyotito.

I think the reason Kino did not receive the expected riches was because he wanted them too much; the events that transpired were the perfect examples of how a man testing fate with stubborn ambition would surely fail. Every reader knew that the moment he (Kino) turned down the offer from the pearl-buyers, his decline was imminent. His drive to see his dreams come true would lead to his peril. Some would say it was the noble thing to do, to keep going for the sake of his family’s quality of life, his child’s chance for education and the opportunity to be prosperous. I would generally agree, except I think that near the end, he was doing it more for himself than for his wife and child; the “Song of the Family” was slipping far into the background for much of the time. Though this is sad to say, it may have been best for Kino not to have gotten so focused on his fortune, and maybe he should have accepted the small pay for the pearl and gone back to the life in which he was previously comfortable, using the pearl-buyers’ money to officially marry Juana. 

The Pearl 1

Reading the pearl gave the reader (i.e., me) a sense of appreciation; not just for the benefits and luxuries that are widely overlooked in the current culture, but for the seemingly simple ways of natives and their lifestyle. It was interesting to let the story engross my mind in the culture of La Paz, discouraging as it was at times. Often times, the average, middle class students of public schools in America forget that every day they are living in luxury. It was insightful to meet a people who, spit on by the more privileged in their town, were genuinely appreciative to rest their heads on mats laid on the hard earth's surface and to wake up each morning covering their mouths from the harmful, polluted air.
However refreshing this thought is, there were certainly aspects of the natives' lives that felt condemning when experienced by the reader. In our culture, children are all generally given the opportunity to succeed and to rise above any initial standpoint. For example, even if a child in modern America were to be raised in an impoverished family, their parents could send them to school, where, if needed, clothes and supplies would almost always be provided. If the child did well, they could eventually get scholarships, then jobs, and then a decent salary. Thus, an individual coming from a home with a total yearly income of about 20,000 dollars could potentially earn a salary of 60,000 dollars or more on their own.
When the current-day American reader feels the restrictions of an uneducated society living without the aid of social programs, they start to perceive the hopelessness that traps the natives of La Paz, despite their peoples'- at least on the surface- tranquil states of mind. The audience starts to get an itch in their brains; the itch every human being experiences when faced with an issue as helpless as this. Their minds desperately scratch at thoughts and schemes of ways to get out- couldn't they just escape? why don't they try to leave?- only to find themselves unsatisfied.
 I, personally, am not one to cry during movies or while reading books, but I can't say that I wasn't a little bit disturbed after reading about Kino and his family. Not only was the story filled with evil, misfortune, and greed; but the setting was drenched in tragedy. And the most disconcerting thought is that Kino, Juana, and Coyotito may be real. I tend to push fictional readings away from my mind with a self-assurance that "it's fictional". However, this isn't (sadly) really the case for The Pearl. There are many a culture- while I am living in one where many of my peers have almost unlimited freedoms and advantages- that are just like this depressing cluster of natives in La Paz. They are unfortunate; disrespected; and worst of all, cut-off from all opportunities for better life. And while I wish so much that I could erase the haunting woe of Kino's life from my mind, reading The Pearl is one of those experiences that a kid like me can look back on and think, "life for me isn't half bad."