Rebecca Snyder Public Feed
David & David Podcast #3: Author's Intent
David & David Podcast #2
Ames, Solace. “REVIEW: Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway.” Dear Author, 5 Dec. 2013, dearauthor.com/book-reviews/review-garden-of-eden-by-ernest-hemingway/.
This article was an insightful analysis of the novel. The author is a write herself who reflects of Hemingway's style, as well as the overarching themes in the book. She touches into the ideas around gender roles that play into the relationship between David, Catherine, and Marita. She also makes a valid point that it's hard to catch on to all of what's going on in the novel because of Hemingway's style, the reader can't always tell where they're making love, etc. As far as discussing the Marxist lens, she talks about how Catherine uses her abundance of money as a hold over David. She talks about how the book is hers since she funds it, and this comes into their relationship as a clash between social classes.
Young, Philip. “Ernest Hemingway.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Aug. 2018,www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingwa
I found that this source was very helpful in understanding the way that Hemingway's life went and noticed some things from is real life that could have influenced his writing in the Garden of Eden. One of the first things I noticed was the similarities in the profession which he and David shared, writers. Similarly to him he also struggled in his upcoming to a writer, "Hemingway renewed his efforts at writing, for a while worked at odd jobs in Chicago". Which makes it clear that having a job and money is something that is essentially important for all. Additionally, Hemmingway went through a hard rejection and loss of his wife and child which I think would impact him to see sex as a thing of the devil in the novel.
The central focus of the article is to highlight the fact that authors essentially come in to each piece with an unrealistic/ bias interpretation of specific things, given the socio economic background. This helps the listener understand that because Hemingway at the time of writing the novel was wealthy had an unrealistic grasp of the impoverished two main characters. "Marxist literary theory suggests that all literature is a product of the class and financial conditions in which it was created. " Because of this article the listener can understand the apparent bias towards a wealthier style of living and he rejects the beauty of a lower lifestyle.
David & David Podcast #1
Reconstruction of Memory - Becca Snyder
We reached the room and crashed on the twin sized bed. Our clothes were ripped apart and there was dirt lining our faces. All I could think about was that bridge. I remember her telling us there wouldn’t be a problem. My head was buried in the pillows, the only thing I could imagine was the pulling, and the lights.
That night the town was lit up for festivities. This is where we were at first, lighting sparklers and giving life to the abandoned halls. Barbara told us of this day. This was the one day that there was light on this street. Other days were overshadowed with broken street lamps and empty buildings. Barbara looked up to the dark mountain, pointed, and said that was our goal. So we followed, not knowing where or when we’d be back, or if the light would persist. This uncertainty was frightening. The road we walked on was winding and losing its way. A light was on. It revealed a towering spiral staircase. We weren’t to step on it, once someone steps on it, it buries into the ground with its crumbling rust. The other side was steep and daunting. So we went up, holding on to the stone of the Neretva water treatment plant, hoping the moisture wouldn’t result in a long fall. My hands were trembling with this fear, Barbara said it would be okay, but the trembling wouldn’t stop. There were screams from above telling us to continue, screams we couldn’t recognize, so we went up until there was a cage, hoping to ignore the loud noises surrounding us. The cage was in the shape of a cube with rusting green paint giving it color. The darkness didn’t reveal any inhabitants, and no noise that would hint to these screams. So it was safe to climb over, holding on to the small openings it gave, furthering our exploration closer to the screams. Again, we went higher until we could see the other side of the bridge. Barbara looked at me, “That’s where we’re going.” Her finger directed us to the other side, with large square gaps in the center. There were letters all over it, in different colors and sizes. I guess it was the words of those who were there before us, warning of the trek. The screams seemed to be of the same genre. Warnings. Warnings Barbara wouldn’t take. She swore it was still safe. None were in our language, so none proved useful. Looking to the forest there was darkness, looking to the town there was a circle of fire, glowing. I wished we went back, when the light was still there. The holes were big and under them was a heavy stream of water coming from the treatment center. Splashes rose like there was life under, some world we were interfering with. Our legs fell over the ledges and felt the nips from the waves pushing them different ways. Our legs crashed into each other. Our legs felt the movement of the monster. Our legs were the ones who knew.
I felt a grab pull me under the stream, it grabbed on to Barbara too. We were under, looking for oxygen to give us life. What was pulling us under? Our limbs crashed into eachother as our clothes were being shredded and faces brushed the mud below. We kept going and going down the stream. How long were we under? I don’t know. There was light on the other side, I could see it, but my focus was on breathing. In and out. In and out. My face peaked the water, I saw the light. Barbara pulled me out of the water all at once. My eyes went black.
That was all I remember. I wish I remembered more, how my clothes got shredded, who was the monster doing that? Now I’m safe. I’m on the twin bed. I’m safe.
Author's Note
For this reconstruction of memory I took stylistic techniques from both Atwood and Kesey. An important element of Atwood’s narration is that Offred recalls forgetting parts of her memory. She asks questions like “How old was I?” and creatively illustrates her memories leaving her head. She also described the desperation for wanting to keep her memories. I incorporated this into my writing where I have my character ask questions about what she forgets, she says things like, “What was pulling us under?” and “How long were we under?” My character also describes frustration in forgetting parts of the memory in her present reflection about the memory, “I wish I remembered more.” Atwood also uses repetition in her narration of memories to display a more realistic action of remembering. I use this multiple times in this reconstruction, “In and out. In and out,” and the repetitive phrase of “Our” in the beginning on consecutive sentences. As far as referencing Kesey’s writing, he used the technique of Bromden talking about what others told him in those moments. In my piece, my character often references and challenges was Barbara told her. This is her way of internalizing conversations in the moment.
Advanced Essay #3: Feminist Identity
Introduction
Feminist identity has been a topic discussed in more modern eras of what it means to fight for equality. This essay explores feminist identity in relation to what it means to be more feminine or masculine, and the connotations of such. I am proud of the ways I analyzed outside sources to develop larger themes and ideas presented in my essay. If I were to do this again I would connect more books and stories.
Advanced Essay #3
Reading sources that reflect how modern day feminism has attempted to shift the ways we raise boys to be the people that can shift society’s patriarchal agenda has opened my eyes. Many observations on recent interpretations of being a strong “feminist” consist of being a strong and powerful woman, both characteristics of stereotypically masculine demeanor. Women free of discrimination is one of the priorities of feminism -- being free of the patriarchy and being free to express themselves.
In the earliest days of feminist movement, there was a fight. Women were fighting for societal equality, in which was not granted to them in the extreme. Shifting to today’s age, the fight has not ended but it has been subdued. We as women have the right to vote, we no longer see the majority of us as housewives, and we no longer see marriage as quite the priority in its earliest sense. The fight has shifted from constitutional rights to the general state of societal norms. The patriarchal society we live in has not only dominated opportunities, but also the way certain versions of feminism play out.
My view of feminism is that it is a spectrum; there are different versions and interpretations of the main basis that female equality to men should be standard. Many modern feminists today preach an idea of strength and perseverance to get to the top where the men reside. Using a voice and screaming your strength, which in my eyes, can diminish the fact that we are women, and we can be feminine and still be a feminist. In her book “We Should All Be Feminists,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses a time where she was going to a class she was teaching and decided to leave her pretty dress and lip gloss at home. She replaced her ideal outfit with a blazer and pants to seem more respected. This respect, she came to realize, was her idea of respect that came from looking more manly and less feminine. In that moment she believed that if she dressed more like a man she could be respected as one. This is just one example of us as women claiming our respect that we deserve, but falling to the patriarchal demands of needing to look or act more manly to receive that respect. Chimamanda realized her mistake and changed her mindset, “I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femininity. And I want to be respected in all my femaleness” (Adichie, 39).
The action of looking more “manly” to be respected as one, may work for some feminists -- act as they wish to claim the position they deserve. However, I wish to be respected as a woman without having to fall into the trap of a patriarchal society that only respects women who can claim their actions as more “manly.” This plays back into the ways we raise boys and girls. The ideal of parenting which focuses on expression can implement feminism and not discourage a strong pinpoint on masculinity or femininity. Freedom of expression is the true meaning behind feminism. Freedom to obtain power and equality while also being able to be a woman should be the priority. Having to use “masculine” features in order to get that power takes away from freedom, and reestablishes the patriarchal motive that being a man is the only way to have that power.
Girls are told that if they dress a certain way they’re just demanding the attention of a man, and boys are taught to give that attention. When women dress more feminine they aren’t taken seriously because obviously (according to current societal attitudes) they’re “demanding extra attention from men and drawing focus from their point.” If we as women dressed more like men we wouldn’t be forcing additional attention. However, we would be losing our femininity and betraying the origins of feminism as being actions of women.
The deepest bubbling down of this comes into how we perceive gender, and the stereotypes of such. What does it really mean to a boy or girl besides the genetic origins of sex? We as people have evolved and changed, and with that change comes another spectrum of gender and what it means to look or act like ones assigned sex. These roles and ways ones gender should dictate how they act is the poison behind it all, and the reason why some are treated with more respect than others solely based on how they choose to identify.
All of us, not just men, are taught to be tough in order to be respected. The human feelings of being sensitive are often frowned upon, and our empathetic humanity forgotten. When being sensitive is accepted, is when we as a society see it as only a feminine feeling, calling people names for expressing emotion. This is where we have to change to accept our humanity between each other, and accept that it’s natural to have feelings. It’s natural to want to be ourselves in a society who doesn’t let that thrive.
Works Cited
Velasquez-manoff, Moises. “Real Men Get Rejected, Too.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/real-men-masculinity-rejected.html.
Black, Michael Ian. “The Boys Are Not All Right.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html.
Berlatsky, Noah. “Can Men Really Be Feminists?” The Atlantic, The Atlantic, 5 June 2014, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/men-can-be-feminists-too/372234/.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. Anchor Books, 2015.
Advanced Essay #2: Language in furthering cultural literacy
Introduction
This essay details experiences in my life with literacy and explains the ways in which the ability to get a bilingual literacy should be accessible to all in creating a more just society. I am proud of the ways I connect personal experience with evidence from other personal accounts and broad ideas. With more writing I would improve on adding more perspectives and making the scenes from my personal experience much more specific.
Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to tame a wild tongue .” Everettsd, www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf.
Advanced Essay
I entered my kindergarten classroom literate in English, and left literate in two languages. This was a phenomenon I couldn’t fully process as a five year old. My brain swirled in circles, as a child does, and learning two languages at once just became custom. I started by learning Spanish the way I had learned English years before, Maestra Maricarmen would point to a grape and we would all respond in unison, “uva.” I spoke Spanish all day long, to the point where it felt weird when I would go home and have to speak English. I ate dinner and went to bed like the usual kindergartener, with the thoughts off all of the things I had learned and had yet to learn. My eyes slowly started to drift into dreamland. My mind began to swirl into a scene where I was doing my homework and my mom was standing above me. She was speaking and speaking in a way I had never realized her do before.
“¿Qué dice la pregunta 5? Creo que la maestra equivocó.”
Through my dream I slowly started to realize what was off, my dream was in Spanish. My body jerked up in shock. What just happened? The sun was slowly rising through the shades on my window. I could feel my eyes droop back into dreamland and I fell back asleep.
As my literacy in two languages was growing, I realized parts of my learning experience that were changing. I was becoming more culturally aware solely through the ability to communicate with others and connect through a common factor. When we went to the Mexican market on the corner, me, the 7-year-old, was the one who would talk to the owner. When I read books, I was able to read about Latin American culture in the language they speak. When I went to class, I was able to communicate with students who didn’t speak any Spanish. When I travelled with my family, I was the one who got us around. These experiences made me realize this great power that I possessed. It was an ability to communicate with others who had very different backgrounds than myself.
Sixth grade began with a huge influx of new students, most of whom were Mexican immigrants who arrived in Philadelphia a few months before. One of these students, Brenda, was seated right next to me in Maestra Antonia’s class. I looked to her and asked, “¿Hola, cómo estás?” She looked at me with a smile and responded, “Bien, eres la primera Americana que ha hablado en Español a mi.” In translation she was saying that I was the first American who had spoken in Spanish to her. Over the years she would always look at me during class and smile, realizing she was in a community that accepted her culture. The school was full of diversity in language, and we were all learning more Spanish together. This power of multiple literacies helped with the ability to communicate with people comfortably in their own language, instead of the much too common story of other language speakers having to adapt to English for the comfort of others.
The immersion school environment that I had become used to and loved went completely against the idea that “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, 34). Culture and language was celebrated in every course. The ideology was led through further understanding from communication and adaptation.
People are so often limited to their world by the language they speak. They lack perspective on culture because of the vast majority of people they can’t communicate with. This creates ignorant conflict of the oppressor versus the one being oppressed by the lack of ability to express their full culture. This comes into play in the oppressive manner that America treats language and diversity, where it backplays in the constitution itself, “Attacks on one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment” (Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, 34).
Other countries treat bilingual education as a vital element in the education system where kids leave bilingual or even trilingual. The American school system sees literacy in two languages as a waste of resources and laughs at that vital element. In result, children aren’t given enough language courses, of which are treated as extra instead of a main course. This limits the ability of students to acknowledge changing diversity and see the broad places that the world has to offer, because of the lack of a diversity in literacy. This in turn changes the way that students of diverse backgrounds are treated, their languages are seen as less and a waste of time to deal with. Those students are treated as dumb and not brought to their full potential because of the way the school system places them in a, “dumping ground for the disaffected” (Rose, I Just Wanna Be Average, 2). Diverse versions of literacy create a more culturally literate and accepting society.
Works Cited
Rose, Mike. “I Just Want to be Average .” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Cvq7ioloJpN2JmMDk3ZWQtYmI5OS00OTM3LTk5MDctZWMzZTViNGVhNjBi/view.
Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to tame a wild tongue .” Everettsd, www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf.
Advanced Essay #1: Sleep tight
Introduction: Sleep tight touches on the ideas surrounding childhood. This piece is meant to make the reader think about changing perspectives through growing up and the things that alter excitement. This idea came from writings of scenes from life, where I instantly started to think about the things that made up my childhood experience. The two scenes that were chosen were some of the immediate scenes I thought about with how adults comfort us, and then the change to where we need the comfort of adults to decimate self consciousness. I’m proud of how the scenes loosely connect to the theme I was trying to build in abstract ways that make the reader think. As far as areas for improvement, I wish I could’ve gotten my ideas out more clearly in the conclusion to fully make the theme translate to the reader.
Sleep tight
I woke up christmas morning of first grade and snuck down the stairs at 6AM. I carefully took each step in order to not cause a creak, which would wake up my parents. With a thump, I saw my brothers curls peak through the darkness. A light flashed as my brother turned on his little blue flashlight to reveal the outline of everything in the living room. He scanned the room with his light and stopped in the center. The line of light revealed the wooden toy market that was at the top of my wishlist. I couldn’t help but let out a screech. We scurried over to the market, pulling out the small green containers in the front where toy food would sit.
“Where’s the food?” asked my brother.
“Flash it towards the back,” I replied.
My brother flashed the light on the back of the market to reveal boxes full of toy food. We immediately unpacked the boxes and poured them into the green containers. For the next hour we played with the wooden food kits that velcro together and cut apart.
A nice toy food breakfast was prepared for our parents. Soon after, my mom walked slowly down the stairs just having woken up.
“What are you guys doing up so early? And already opening your presents?” she asked.
“Mama we made you breakfast!” I gave her a smile that filled my face.
“Oh hunny thank you.” She responded as she pretended to gobble up what we had prepared.
I was so excited that my mom had enjoyed what we made for her. The simple childhood innocence of the belief that she would always be happy with our play, when as I look back I see the how adults play along with the innocent fun. In reality, she would never act like she disliked what we had made. As more growth occurred this innocence grew up into more self consciousness and inability to enjoy as many of the smaller things.
My mom walked to the left corner of my room and switched the light off. She then walked towards my bed and pulled the sheets to my shoulders, kissed me goodnight, and said,
“Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“But Mama what if they do bite?”
“Then you call me up and I will scare them away.”
“Okay, stay outside my room until you see that I fell asleep,” I
replied in fear that my mother would leave me alone before I fell asleep.
I felt my eyes getting heavy and my body start to relax. As soon as my eyes fully shut, my anxiety set it and I shot straight up from my bed.
“Mom!”
I heard her voice lightly assure me that she was still there. Then I could relax and rest again. As soon as my eyes fell heavy and closed again, I heard the hallway light switch off. My body jolted up once again,
“MOM.”
Her voice arose again and assured me of her presence. At this point I was so tired my body fell right back into to my bed. Once again, my eyes fell heavy and this time stayed shut through the night.
This feeling of fear in falling asleep alone lasted until 5th grade, when I finally realized my mother would never leave me alone in the house and that she couldn’t scare away the bed bugs any more than I could. My anxiety surrounded the innocence of not wanting to be left alone because I wasn’t big enough to fight whatever might come in during my sleep. This fear was influenced by more self consciousness as I had grown up from the cloud of enjoying every small event.
Childhood, comfort, innocence, growth, all often come together. New experiences for a child enable growth out of comfort. As a child grows, they often embrace it as “I’m a big kid.” This growth decimates the innocence. The innocence we as older people often long for. The innocence that enables enjoyment in all of the little things we still wish we could enjoy. The ability to be free with comfort and others are elements of childhood that we look back on and question the ability to receive again. The ability to be free and comfortable with ourselves is an ability few possess past childhood. This is the comfort of childhood, where your ideas and actions are always sweet, and not an annoyance. This comfort doesn’t grow until our ideas could be shot down. The ability to look past self consciousness and into self comfort is an ability many of us wish we continued to possess. It’s an ability I wish to still posses.
The Power of Savagery
Power is an inevitable element in society. People’s need to have such power in order to control or influence others is a natural human instinct. The need for power always changes the actions of people. It can either alter one’s morals or feed to their fear of distrust. The way one deals with power shows how people deal with situations they don’t understand. The world has seen their share of lack of leadership, and their share of leaders who many should stand up to. These communities all deal with that change in different ways, whether it’s savage or civilized. A savage reaction would be acts of violence and no control. Civilized points to organized control. Overall in systems with unidentified rules, people act in savage ways when they don’t understand a situation, hold the want for continuous power, or are told to from a leader.
William Golding tackles these ideas in his novel Lord Of The Flies, where a group of young British boys crash on an island without any adult supervision. Ralph, one of the boys, gets everyone together by blowing into a conch shell, leading all of the boys to meet on the beach. The first thing the boys take action on is deciding who will be their leader, as an act for the need to have someone to look towards. This vote is concluded, “Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air. Ralph counted. “I’m chief then”(23).” Without the obvious power being in adults, since there are no adults, the first instinct of the boys was to figure out who would take that place. This action plays into the idea that people feel the need for a leader to look to for guidance. When the idea of leadership and power arises, then someone will come out and proclaim leadership. This is much like how Jack immediately said that he should be leader before the boys voted, “I ought to be chief, (22).” This is a want to have someone to look to in order to have control and order within a group.
After the boys decide on Ralph as leader, they set up camp and build a signal fire. A few days into their survival, two of the boys come back to the camp claiming to have seen a beast. The other boys react to this discovery, “The circle of boys shrank away in horror. Johnny, yawning still, burst into noisy tears and was slapped by Bill till he choked on them... “This’ll be a real hunt! Who’ll come?” (100-101).” The boy’s reaction to the discovery of the beast is of extreme shock and horror. This is one of the main fears that the boys deal with throughout the novel. They seem to not know how to approach it until Jack takes the lead on going to hunt “the beast,” and presents his idea as bigger and better than the rest. This action of hunting represents how we, as humans, attack things we don’t understand, and follow the lead of whoever steps up, even if it is savage in nature. After Jack receives backlash for his idea, he attacks those going against him by saying, “You’re always scared (101),” and “This is a hunter’s job (102).” This was the beginning of the power struggle between Jack and Ralph. It comes to show how Jack’s belief in holding power is to push down others in order to put down their stance on their own power. His power changes him to begin taking steps of savagery. The attack on the others in the group by Jack is a result of his own fear of the beast and losing power.
We see his savagery as a result of power come to life when he gets most of the boys to join his tribe of hunters. The group with Jack is continuously very frightened of the beast and sees the reaction to the situation as automatically killing it. When they kill pigs for food, they chase and chant around them. This ritual continues when they find “the beast” in their eyes, or Simon in ours as the readers. They overlook the appearance of “the beast” as Jack’s fear takes the lead in immediately reacting to this unknown creature. “”Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Now out of terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind (152).” Jack’s fear of losing power has led him to act in savage ways and immediately react to everything with violence. This role of leadership also leads those under him into savagery. He forces them to kill, kill, kill, and they follow since they look to him for guidance. The boys are scared of the beast almost as much as Jack is of losing power, therefore they listen when the savage acts come to be Jack’s decision.
These themes of leadership and savagery can be seen in the real world by looking into the situation in Myanmar. Following a military coup, the rule of law was eliminated almost entirely. Burmese women were mistreated and abused on a wide scale. Small militarized enforcement began to occur where the “law enforcers” of certain districts abused their power and took over the people, telling them what to do and enforcing rules that were never legally put in place. People looked to these people of leadership for guidance despite their savage ways, which then led to a population of violence. These people in power then reacted to a small group they didn’t fully understand, a muslim minority. The militarized enforcement abused, raped, and tortured people of the Muslim minority. These savage acts were based off of the want to marginalize people in cruel and unjust ways, and was held because of a government who hasn’t had a democratic leader until recently. This situation is representative of how the savagery was enforced by power, promoted by fear, and spread by other’s fear looking to the position of power.
By looking into savagery as a result of leadership in Lord of The Flies, as well as Myanmar, we see how people look to positions of power for guidance, and follow the savagery. When people fear something, they immediately look to and follow whoever gives a solution that is informed as the most powerful. One in power may use savagery as a form of showing this power, as a result of their own fear of losing it. When savagery is promoted, there is a constant battle of more power between the people. This fear with savagery also turns to things we don’t fully understand. This comes to light when people’s immediate reaction to the unknown is to attack, much in the way the boys attacked the unknown beast.
Works cited
Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
"Stanley Milgram: Obedience to Authority Or Just Conformity?" PsyBlog. N.p., 18 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/02/stanley-milgram-obedience-to-authority.php
"No Rule of Law." No Rule of Law | Social Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.socialwatch.org/node/10920
Fisher, Jonah. "Myanmar Muslim Minority Subject to Horrific Torture, UN Says." BBC News. BBC, 10 Mar. 2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39218105This is the day
Mama wants me to stand up for myself. Mama said that I need to stop crying every time someone gives me a mean look. Mama wants a strong boy, a winner. Mama made me go on that mat and look at the other boy my weight. I never win. Mama said it would make me stronger. She said it would make me not fear the bullies. She said that the second I saw another kid across the mat I would be fearless, and I would fight. She said it would make me the bully. Mama doesn’t want a scrawny boy. She wants a big strong boy, one that looks like you.
Every match I look up at the stands, I see Mama’s face. She’s happy when I’m standing. I look over when my head is on the mat, when the boy is pushing me down. That’s when mama’s mouth turns down and her eyes look away. That’s when mama looks sad. She tells me to look at you before I leave. She tells me to look at something strong and I will feel strong.
Look at you. You are strong, you win. Every match I set up between you and Blue, you win. I need to be like you. Emotionless, yet strong. Mama wants a you. I am not a you. You wouldn’t cry every time Coach says to be stronger. You wouldn’t cry every time your head is hit to the ground, but your head would never be hit to the ground. I can’t be the bully when all I get is bullied. Looking at a stronger guy across the mat is bullying. Coach is a bully. Coach tells me to stop being a weak little boy. He says that the boys that beat me aren’t weak and they don’t cry. He says I need to be like them, I need to stop crying because it won’t get me anywhere. Him and Mama are right. I’m weak and worthless. I never win, they have nothing to be proud of. They make me do this. They all make me cry. They all make me feel weak. Mama just called up to my room, we have to go. Mama I’ll be down in a minute. I just need to get my suit on. Where are my ear protectors. Okay I found them. You are strong. I can be strong. I will be strong. This is the day I won’t cry. I will be like Red, a mighty and strong fighter. The one who wins. Plastic, but a winner. Mama doesn’t see how much I want this, how I fight, but she will see today. This is the day Mama’s mouth won’t be turned down. This is the day she will be proud. Maybe Coach won’t yell at me if I win. Maybe he’ll talk to me like he talks to the other boys.
Analyzing the work of Malala Yousafzai
Changing an image presented by media
We, in America, often have this negative view on poverty, this image that in impoverished communities around the world there are skinny unhappy kids living in small broken homes. Media, literature, and people in general tell a single story about poverty, to make the viewer upset about the issue and view it as a bad part of the world.
I’m not dismissing all of these stories, but I know they aren’t universally true. I know this from my trip to Nicaragua.
It was the third day of our one week trip and the impoverished area we visited really made an impression on me. We were around the capital, Managua. The first 2 days were spent shadowing at an elite school and exploring the history of Managua. For the next three days we were going to be driving an hour out of the city to a rural area where people who had been living in the city dumps had been pushed to. There, we would be working with the Chacocente school, a small Christian school that took over the one room public school previously there. They were working with organizations around the world with the mission of providing their students with a well rounded education that could compete with the rest of the world.
Our drive to the school started at 6 in the morning. After an hour on highways, we pulled off onto dirt paths leading through farms and empty fields of dust. On the side of the road there were tall horses, so skinny you could count each rib. Next to them were little dogs, their legs so flimsy they were struggling to walk. Looking past the animals were small houses built from reused tin roofs and big cement blocks. No running water or full electricity was obvious. This image of poor communities was one I recognized, probably from the way the media represented disparity. I was prepared for what was to come, the sad kids who were losing their will that I had seen in commercials asking to donate for ending world poverty.
We finally pulled up to the school buildings and hopped out of the van. I could immediately feel the dust and heat affecting me. The head of school came over to us, “Hola nuestros visitantes, should we start your tour?” He began to walk us through the close school buildings, each a small classroom. The computer lab was our last stop, a small room full of 2005 Dell laptops. “All of our computers are donated from schools and people from around the US who have no use for them anymore, we are very fortunate to be the only school in the area with computers,” the head of school explained. It really hit me then that the things we throw down as worth nothing really changed their opportunities for education and to communicate with people in the world.
Next, we were going to spend the rest of the day with the students of the school at their field day. We began by playing tug of war over a mud pit. We pulled to our side, they pulled to theirs, and we all couldn’t stop smiling. I looked around and everyone was happy, even the ones I least expected.
The kids of the school were put in a horrible situation by our standards. But looking around this community, they weren’t pushed down by it. I came to the realization that they knew no different, this was how they lived and they hadn’t experienced anything else. I had been very narrow minded before this experience, expecting them to look the same as all those commercials make impoverished people out to be. I’m sure if any of us had been put in this situation from birth we wouldn’t sit and cry about what we didn’t have, because we didn’t have experience of what we we were missing, it was just a form of living. The heat all day led to more complaining than I saw any of the kids of the community complain about. We got more upset by the little unnecessary things we were missing for a few hours, than happy about all the great things we had that they wouldn’t be able to imagine of. When we gave the students little presents, we made them all bracelets, they were full of joy, smiles, and thankfulness, even though these gifts wouldn’t change their living at all. This made me think about how I can be more appreciative of everything in my life and be ecstatic about the little things people do for me that might not mean too much as far of survival, but a lot as far as caring.
Macbeth Playbill by Becca and Avi
We chose to do a Playbill for a few reasons. First, it’s an element to the play that can’t be forgotten. Every time a play is scene, the audience receives a Playbill. Therefore, we believe it’s more connected to reality than doing a game or other formats. Second, it’s a straightforward way to explain the play and everything we have learned from it. Third, the creativity that can be expressed in a Playbill really appealed to us. There were so many ways to make it our own and it was fun to organize and format every included element.
Every element of our playbill relates back to the ideas and elements of Macbeth. First, our cover says that our version is shown at The Globe Theater. We decided on this theater because it was one of the main theaters that Shakespeare's plays were performed. As this is a Shakespeare play, we thought it would be a suitable stage. The image on our cover has an outline of Macbeth’s face. But there are more elements to the cover. First, there is a floating bloody dagger to represent the bloody dagger hallucination from act 2 scene 1. Second, there’s an image of a crown in the window to represent Macbeth’s longing to become king and how it is within reach. Third, in the other window there is a star and a fire. This represents the quote from Macbeth in act 1, scene 4 when he says “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
Next, we chose the actors to play the characters. All of the actors were chosen based on the roles they typically play. Some actors are known to play leads well, so we chose them for Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo. Some actors are also good at playing certain types of roles. For instance, Donald Sutherland is playing King Duncan due to his past experiences of playing kings and because he looks older and wise. The actresses to play the witches were chosen due to their past experiences of playing witch-like roles.
Our ads were based on common things of the time. For example, one of our ads is for the “best ruffs in England”. A ruff is a piece of clothing, somewhat similar to a scarf, that both men and women wore in Elizabethan times. The second ad is for another Shakespeare play called, The Tempest. Typically playbills have ads for similar productions so we thought The Tempest would be perfect.
Every act summary was written based on notes taken for each act. The main events were explained so that the reader can follow along through the play if they find themselves lost. We also explained crucial elements that could be easily missed. Costumes were chosen based on typical costumes in Shakespearean plays. Macbeth has an outfit for the beginning when he was a soldier, as this doesn’t require royal garb. When he is king he wears a crown and more royal looking capes. Lady Macbeth wears a gown the whole play, as this is common for a wealthy woman of the time. King Duncan wears a crown and royal cape for the extension of his life in the play. Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, and Fleance all wear similar clothing typical for a wealthy man of the time. As they aren’t kings, they don’t wear capes but since they’re wealthier they still wear nice clothing. The murderers all wear black clothing to show contrast with the other characters and disguise on their mission. The witches wear long black capes and have beards, as described in the first scene of the play.
We chose three sets that apply to the most influential scenes and can be used for the most scenes. The set for Banquo’s murder can also be used for the scenes before they attack the palace when they cut down trees and when Macbeth is murdered. The table set where they host the dinner can be used for all scenes in the palace that don’t take place in the bedroom. The bedroom set is used for the scene where Lady Macbeth is going crazy but can also be used for all scenes that take place in the bedroom and conversations in the palace between her and her husband.I worked with Avi Cantor on this project.
Below are pictures of our process. The calendar we came up with, our brainstorm, costume page table, and actors description table. The last image is the pdf of our final product.
Growing up online
In class we watched Digital Nation. This show was about instances that occurred online and how communities have reacted to the growing environment online. The most memorable thing about this show to me is when the mother emailed the whole school about a concert a large group of students went to and their maybe inappropriate behavior there. It’s important to watch shows like these in order to realize the consequences of what we post online and how it can affect our world outside of the internet. In order to keep my future family safe online, I will make sure everyone knows the consequences of online activity. I will also make sure they are aware of the people online and how to not give out private information. It’s important to talk with our family’s about internet safety because it’s a resource that affects us all and can be very harmful. It’s important that it’s a common discussion so that everyone develops good common practices. I would tell parents to talk openly about online activity and teach their children good practices so that they keep those ideas in mind while online.
Revised Slide
The critique gave me a lot to think about for my slide. First, people said the color in the Philly symbol was a bit out of place. I wanted to keep the color but make it pop less. Therefore, I used the tools in recolor to make it darker in order to blend in more. I feel that this made it go better with the slide. I also recolored my name to make the Philly symbol match better. I made my name a very dark blue which matched the symbol. Another critique was that the images should be closer in size. The first thing I decided to do in order to combat this was enlarge the shoes and make them bleed. This gave me more room for the other images and included another element of design. I also feel that it made the slide more visually interesting. By doing this I had more room to enlarge the other shapes, and I did so. I also enlarged my name a bit so that more attention was drawn towards it.
My Slide
For my slide I wanted to do an abstract representation of who I am. I decided to use 4 figures of things that I feel have defined me; philly, soccer, ballet, and travel. As for the colors I decided to use the tip they gave of contrast. The image for Philly is the only design with color and I decided to make the rest black and white to make it pop. I made my name big and in the middle so that it is more obvious. I also made my images varying sizes to make the look interesting and varied while also keeping them in a similar size range. To get repetition I made multiple figures black and white so that the viewer can spot a trend. I also used shapes as a point of attention where two figures are circles and the others varying shapes.
Bullying lesson- Becca Snyder
Today in technology class we watched a video about bullying and a kid named Jack who was bullied. In this video we were taught about the eye emoji as a tool online to show web trolls that we see their bullying. This tool is a way to stop bullying or at least stop being a silent bystander. This video reminds me that there is always a way to stop bullying and help people who are being bullied. The eye emoji is an action online to prevent further bullying.
The second part of the activity was to google ourselves and a partner. When I googled myself I didn't find any pictures of myself but I found lots of other people. Based on those pictures of others I look like a fun party girl. I also look friendly and family oriented.
The goal of internet trolls is to make others feel badly about themselves in order to feel better about their life. Internet trolls try to keep online anonymity. A good part about online anonymity is that no one knows who you are, so people can't stalk you. A bad part about it is that it encourages bullying behavior because no one knows who's behind the screen and if someone is in trouble online you don't know who you're reaching out to.
Home Network, Becca Snyder
In this unit I learned a lot about my home network and how networks work. My network includes a motem that connects to a wifi router with an ethernet cable. Off of that router there is an internet music player connected by a cable and through wifi there are 4 phones, 4 laptops, 2 ipads, 2 tablets, and a wifi extender. There is also a switch connected to the router which extends internet to an xbox, a desktop computer, and another wifi router for my dads office with a separate firewall. The switch also connects to another wifi router which connects to a printer connected through wifi. I learned a lot about how different things can connect and not connect. I learned about how a motem and wifi come into play for providing internet and wifi to a house. I would tell people that you can connect devices to a router either by using the wifi connection or through an ethernet or fiber cable.
