Inner Thoughts

      This week we read a couple of pieces that focused on language and how it affects peoples' lives.  This really interested me because I myself have seen and experienced how much language can impact someone's life.     Language and English in general is by far my favorite class!! (no sarcasm whatsoever). I just love walking into a classroom and seeing an inner circle and outer circle of desks. But I have to admit, English did teach me the importance of language in everyday life. This made me research more on language and its effects on people.      Firstly, what are the possible downsides in not having good literacy skills? Well biologically speaking, literacy skills are directly related to a various number of skills such as visual memory, visuomotor skills, visuospatial skills, and etc. So, the downside of not trying to develop literacy skills? All these parts of the brain not being activated. I used to just "like" writing because I wante...

    For this week, we needed to do a blog on a satire article from The Onion. I chose the article on Norway hiding its standard of living from other countries.      This article talks about Norway downplaying its standard of living in order to make the other nations to not feel too bad. The amount of irony this article has is absolutely insane. It starts of by saying "Norway did not wish to rub it in" while proceeding to give a completely rundown on why it's better than every single country. But to be honest, this does reflect many countries, mainly the US. While yes, it is true that US has a pretty developed economy compared to probably every other country, that does not necessarily make it THE BEST country. But guess how the media portrays America? As the utopia of everyone's dreams. It has become so prevalent that statistics show hundreds of thousands of people immigrating to this country in hopes for a better life. This is pretty much what the article is try...

      This week one of the prompts that we discussed was about the "talent of ridicule". This so-called "talent" in my opinion can bring many benefits to society as long as a certain line is not crossed. This talent comes in many forms, namely bullying, be it over technology or just plain in person bullying.      Bullying is taught from a young age as a very improper and impolite thing to do, and for good reason of course. But bullying can be, and is in many situations, used as a form of motivating or inspiring people out of their troubles, misery, or any bad habit they might have. The only way for this to help people though, is only when this "constructive" bullying does not cross the line into actual physical and mental abuse. The problem is that many people do not understand this and knowingly or unknowingly cause consequences from causing trauma all the way to even suicide. Statistics have shown that 27% of bullied students have said that it lowere...

      For this prompt, I chose to talk about probably my favorite toy I used to play with growing up: Legos. I was a huge fan of the lego movies and shows - shows like lego ninjago - growing up, and when I saw that there were toys made that resembled my favorite characters and everyone also had them, I knew I had to get them. Funny enough, legos helped me meet new people and make new friends. Since I had a toy what was "popular", I was able to talk about it to everyone, including people I did not know. This allowed me to make new friends, who I still talk to many years later.  Looking back though, I see that maybe these toys that are defined as "popular" are probably not liked by everyone. Speaking from my own experience, I remember how so many toys that I had my parents buy for me, such as the pokemon cards and yu-gi-oh cards, were mainly because everyone else had them and I had a sense of being left out. I think this might be a case for many people, as years pass ...

     This week we finished reading the second volume of Maus, while I liked the first volume more and would rather talk about that, I guess I have to talk about the second volume. While reading the second volume, I noticed that two specific motifs were being carried throughout the book, from volume 1 as well, these were masks and trains.      I feel like the masks represent two things, the stereotypes placed on people and the sense of identity. For example, mice were chosen to represent the Jews since there was a stereotype of Jews being known as "crafty" and "miserly" people who liked to hoard everything. But the main message that was conveyed by the masks was the loss of identity for the Jews and the lack of a sense of individualism. When Anja and Vladek were forced to leave their shelter into the town. They could not be themselves due to the fear of being killed or captured. To ensure their own safety, they had to pretend that they were polish. During th...

      For this blog I chose to analyze a couple different pages and panels. Throughout Maus, the author is trying to make an argument on trauma and how it is passed down generationally or how trauma is shaping the behavior of the affected people.     Starting off, on page 67 we see Artie and Vladek talking about Mala. Vladek mentions how all Mala does is talk about Vladek's money and will (Panels 2,3, and 4). Due to these comments on Mala, at first she might appear as someone who does not care for Vladek and only cares for his money. But thinking about it more, I realized this is her way of venting her trauma. During the war, many people were only given coupons and ration books to buy food, and most of the time the amount of food was hardly enough for a family. Due to this, money was an incredibly important aspect of every person's life, money represented probably the only way of survival for everyone. Especially to Mala, who had a job to clean up "the peop...

 For this blog on Sweat I chose the prompt regarding the career of Lynn Nottage based on "making invisible people visible".     To begin with, throughout Sweat we can see the contrast between two different worlds. One on a global scale and one within Reading (the setting for the play). This contrast can be seen before every scene. For example, in Scene 1 of Act 1, it is stated that the "Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 776.68 points"(5).This is contrasted with the people of Reading celebrating at the "Annual Fall Festival" at a farm (5). For the people of Reading, the outside world is "invisible" and vice versa. While the world is undergoing massive change, many citizens are oblivious to it. The changes to the world are quite literally "invisible" to the people of Reading. Even though the world itself is invisible, the effects are not. The effects of NAFTA for example, have influenced all areas. Even in Reading, people are being laid ...