As a little kid I was always a fan of Disney fairy tales. I remember seeing Beauty and the Beast with my dad in theatres. I remember watching Cinderella with my aunt and family before dinner. I remember almost all the movies, especially Snow White. I remembered snow white for her beautiful black hair, fair skin, and heart of gold. I can remember all the odd little dwarves but not their names. I also remember the beautiful evil stepmother and role as snow whites horrible nemesis. I can remember all these things and it is not until now that I can fully understand how deep every character’s meaning.
Two women are featured in this movie and three have roles. Snow White’s biological mother is dead, rendering her powerless. Snow White must be the dumbest girl I have ever been forced to watch star in a movie. The dwarves tried to tell her not to listen or take anything from strangers and not only does she ignore their warning, SHE TAKES FOOD. And of course this leads me to her Evil stepmother. The one women with power in he story and she uses it for evil. I find it interesting Disney chose to make a woman, particularly a stepmother, the nemesis in most of their movies. What does all this teach our children? That most women with power, a queen, will use it for harm? To be good they must be beautiful and stupid? And if they do mess up, eventually their prince will come along and clean up their mess? Mulan was past my generation and at the moment I cant think of another Disney movie with a powerful women taking the lead role. What was I taught?
Friday, April 4, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Emerson's Nature
“Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.I am glad to the brink of fear.”
The ideas Emerson alludes to in the first chapter of Nature are ideas I am well acquainted with. I read Walden last year and have studied the concept of transcendentalism. My favorite excerpt from Emerson’s first chapter is around the end of the chapter. Emerson talks about nature’s impact on our moods. He explains that nature can make us both happy and sad in an instant. This idea especially speaks to me because sometimes I can be feeling fine and content then I step outside to a beautiful day and I feel euphoric. Simply the smell and view of nature can bring me great happiness and joy. This can also happen in dismal surroundings as Emerson explains. Nature’s affect is unexpected and involuntary. I would even take this concept further and connect it to music. One song can change your life. You can be in a terrible mood and suddenly hear a “poppin” song and feel a sudden burst of happiness. A song, like nature, can evoke many emotions in a person.
The ideas Emerson alludes to in the first chapter of Nature are ideas I am well acquainted with. I read Walden last year and have studied the concept of transcendentalism. My favorite excerpt from Emerson’s first chapter is around the end of the chapter. Emerson talks about nature’s impact on our moods. He explains that nature can make us both happy and sad in an instant. This idea especially speaks to me because sometimes I can be feeling fine and content then I step outside to a beautiful day and I feel euphoric. Simply the smell and view of nature can bring me great happiness and joy. This can also happen in dismal surroundings as Emerson explains. Nature’s affect is unexpected and involuntary. I would even take this concept further and connect it to music. One song can change your life. You can be in a terrible mood and suddenly hear a “poppin” song and feel a sudden burst of happiness. A song, like nature, can evoke many emotions in a person.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wright's Realization
At the end of the book “Black Boy” Richard Wright comes to a conclusion. Wright realizes America still has a long way to go before equality rings true. Wright says, “It’s going to take a long and bloody time, a lot of stumbling and a lot of falling, before they find the right road. …Until they learn how to live.”p 382. Throughout the entire book Wright is looking for the meaning behind meaningless suffering and how to put a stop to it. By the end of the book Wright has taken on a more resigned and dejected tone. He will continue to try to educate the minority and fight for what he believes is right. His only hope: an answer. I find the ending hopeful yet harshly real at the same time. I agree with Wright, all one can do is not give up and eventually wait for the change that is needed. Wright says he hopes to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human. I think most people do not realize this quality exists, none the less within them. Wright’s fight is one I wish we all realized we must participate in. Everyone is equal. Everyone deserves equal opportunity for success in life. Unfortunately that is not The United State’s law or government. In response we as a country must not give up our fight for liberty and the right to the pursuit of happiness.
Politicians vs. Artists
Wright states that the artist and the politician stand at opposite ends of the poles in chapter 19. Half of Wright’s reason for this assertion is artists must be emotional and then publicize their emotion. Politicians must be impersonal and logical in life. Both are working for the betterment of mankind and end up struggling over how much help they offer the world. The artist can offer suggestions or other aspects for doing things while the politician sneers at this meager contribution. I happen to agree with Wright. I believe politicians only look at the facts of a country, trying to serve a majority. I believe the artist looks for any and all suffering and tries to embody this suffering in their work. Both occupations influence the other but both worlds never seem to collide.
Art Influence
http://artbozeman.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/kevinconolly-mangirlandboy-clujnapocaromania.jpg
I was about to start a tedious expedition in search of the perfect picture when I was pleasantly surprised. I opened my internet explorer page to my yahoo home page and found the opening news story to be directly related to art.
Kevin Connolly was born with no legs. Rather than succumb to depression and personal defeat, Kevin Connolly chooses to live an exceptional life. He holds an Olympic medal and has traveled through Europe and Asia, feats most Americans have not accomplished. While in Europe, Connolly took a picture of a man he knew was staring at him. This picture eventually evolved into 32,000 photographs of curious onlookers to Connolly’s circumstance.
Connolly says he takes the pictures because when people are looking at him with pity or curiosity or disgust it opens them up. One can see into these people, into their souls. Connolly also he likes to make sure he is not looking at them when he snaps the shot because you get a personal and emotional shot of them.
Connolly’s story completely captured me. (side note: I found it serendipitous that I would find this news article before I even started looking for pictures.) I went though numerous photographs trying to find one that I personally connected with. I decided on a photograph of a little boy and girl and their father. I chose this photo because there is something about the boy’s eyes and demeanor. His upper body is pulling away from the camera and Connolly. Is this out of disgust or fear of what is different? His eyes are drawn which gives him a look of disgust. I doubt the boy actually feels disgust toward Connolly so what are the boy’s eyes saying? I see sadness and shock, a bit of both. I think it is interesting the boy pays complete attention to Connolly while his father and sister seem to be engrossed in other thoughts. His sister is looking through Connolly; slight curiosity shown in her face. His father is not even paying Connolly attention.
I think what is shown in the photographs is important but I think the what is an even greater question. Why do people, such as myself, make such looks toward people that are different? Obviously we are surprised and shocked by what we do not know. I also think we don’t want to understand what we don’t know. I think it’s easier to not try to understand some one else’s pain because that requires letting your guard down and thinking. People don’t want to accept that someone else is in real pain because that would be accepting there is a problem in the world. Accepting there is a problem in the world means a change must be made and that requires work and people don’t want to work.
I was about to start a tedious expedition in search of the perfect picture when I was pleasantly surprised. I opened my internet explorer page to my yahoo home page and found the opening news story to be directly related to art.
Kevin Connolly was born with no legs. Rather than succumb to depression and personal defeat, Kevin Connolly chooses to live an exceptional life. He holds an Olympic medal and has traveled through Europe and Asia, feats most Americans have not accomplished. While in Europe, Connolly took a picture of a man he knew was staring at him. This picture eventually evolved into 32,000 photographs of curious onlookers to Connolly’s circumstance.
Connolly says he takes the pictures because when people are looking at him with pity or curiosity or disgust it opens them up. One can see into these people, into their souls. Connolly also he likes to make sure he is not looking at them when he snaps the shot because you get a personal and emotional shot of them.
Connolly’s story completely captured me. (side note: I found it serendipitous that I would find this news article before I even started looking for pictures.) I went though numerous photographs trying to find one that I personally connected with. I decided on a photograph of a little boy and girl and their father. I chose this photo because there is something about the boy’s eyes and demeanor. His upper body is pulling away from the camera and Connolly. Is this out of disgust or fear of what is different? His eyes are drawn which gives him a look of disgust. I doubt the boy actually feels disgust toward Connolly so what are the boy’s eyes saying? I see sadness and shock, a bit of both. I think it is interesting the boy pays complete attention to Connolly while his father and sister seem to be engrossed in other thoughts. His sister is looking through Connolly; slight curiosity shown in her face. His father is not even paying Connolly attention.
I think what is shown in the photographs is important but I think the what is an even greater question. Why do people, such as myself, make such looks toward people that are different? Obviously we are surprised and shocked by what we do not know. I also think we don’t want to understand what we don’t know. I think it’s easier to not try to understand some one else’s pain because that requires letting your guard down and thinking. People don’t want to accept that someone else is in real pain because that would be accepting there is a problem in the world. Accepting there is a problem in the world means a change must be made and that requires work and people don’t want to work.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Parenthetical Passages
Wright has grappled with American ideas throughout the entire first half of his book, Black Boy. He has tried to understand how to live in a white man’s world, how even an established black man is controlled by the white men, and searched for truth in damaged world. By chapter 15 Richard seems to answer his questions more, especially through parenthetical passages. A large part of this chapter is dedicated to Wright describing the women he works with and their goals and views on life. Wright speaks of these goals and dreams then comments on them through a parenthetical passage.
The women Wright works with think only surface thoughts and hope for only simple things. Wright is puzzled by these women’s thoughts and comes to a conclusion. Wright says, “They knew nothing of hate and fear, and strove instinctively to avoid all passion.” What Wright means is they had never lived a life like his, a life that involved survival and intelligence. If you have never been forced to survive and stare gritty life in the face you cannot fathom passion. Wright continues to brew over this thought.
Wright then comes to the conclusion this is the way most people live. Wright says, “The essence of irony of the plight of the negro in America, to me, is that he is doomed to live in isolation while those who condemn him seek the basest goals of any people on the face of the earth.” Wright believes he is oppressed by a culture in which the people have no thoughts of importance or goals of worth. Wright thinks that if his sufferings were for the greater good, “some remote, high, sacrificial end”, he could be reconciled with the white man. But Wright knows they look outwardly, seeking only material objects. I believe this still goes on today.
We endorse only buying “American-made” goods. We push to get illegal immigrants out of this country. Do people not understand America can not flourish alone? Do people not understand the backbone of America is immigrants working the minimum wage jobs we are unwilling to do?
The women Wright works with think only surface thoughts and hope for only simple things. Wright is puzzled by these women’s thoughts and comes to a conclusion. Wright says, “They knew nothing of hate and fear, and strove instinctively to avoid all passion.” What Wright means is they had never lived a life like his, a life that involved survival and intelligence. If you have never been forced to survive and stare gritty life in the face you cannot fathom passion. Wright continues to brew over this thought.
Wright then comes to the conclusion this is the way most people live. Wright says, “The essence of irony of the plight of the negro in America, to me, is that he is doomed to live in isolation while those who condemn him seek the basest goals of any people on the face of the earth.” Wright believes he is oppressed by a culture in which the people have no thoughts of importance or goals of worth. Wright thinks that if his sufferings were for the greater good, “some remote, high, sacrificial end”, he could be reconciled with the white man. But Wright knows they look outwardly, seeking only material objects. I believe this still goes on today.
We endorse only buying “American-made” goods. We push to get illegal immigrants out of this country. Do people not understand America can not flourish alone? Do people not understand the backbone of America is immigrants working the minimum wage jobs we are unwilling to do?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
End of Part Deux (isn't that 2 in french?)
At the end of part I Wright decides to move north with Aunt Maggie and his brother and mother. I may have misunderstood the prompt, but I believe this change to be a positive one. Wright was walking down a dangerous road in the South and he was walking closer and closer to getting himself killed. Moving North was safer because in the north he is unnoticed and lost in the gulf of people. The problem with Wrights move north is I think he believes it’s the answer to his problems. Moving north is definitely advantageous to his life but it will not end his trials and tribulations. Even in the north Racism runs deep, a lesson learned when Wright was selling KKK papers. I would like to think Wright’s life gets much easier in Part 2 but from the first half of the book I’ll bet not.
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