Blog post #3

-

 

This week, the pieces provided to us have been filled with many historical problems, and the action done to revive the communities’ beliefs and bring them together to take action. Adding on, these pieces also contain a lot of historical significance and problems with certain minorities, for example, in the piece Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, we saw the issue of voting brought to attention, and the author suggested taking action against the acts that were made to prevent them to vote, for example, the Poll tax, which is a tax for people to pay to vote, and since black people at the time usually had no job or money, they couldn’t afford to pay this tax, therefore couldn’t vote. Thoreau through word choice and metaphor persuaded his audience who are mainly the oppressed black people who can’t vote to retaliate against the government, however, in a way that would result in no injuries or violence, for example, he suggested using peaceful protest. He suggested that by simply not paying the tax and letting the government enforce the violence. His use of metaphor to compare the government to a machine also helped in this scenario, as he described it as, you can easily change it, etc. Another group that was discussed was the African Americans, in the piece, Because my father always said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock” written by Sherman Alexis, we see the problems that African Americans face, throughout the piece topics such as the problem of alcoholism which was the main focus of the piece was seen, however, the author used many strategies such as the use of humor to downplay the horrific effects of how the white society has destroyed the African American culture and has forever changed the landscape. To end on a positive note, we can learn from both these pieces and the problems addressed that there are many ways to lighten the problems today, although some must be heightened to be resolved, but in a world of chaos, it’s essential to look for the good and share it with others.

Comments

  1. ToroSeptember 22, 2024 at 12:24 PM

    When discussing your stance on Thoreaus piece, I liked your use of the word retaliate since it shows that there’s even an issue worth fighting for. The word shows that the government is wronging its people, which motivated them to fight back against its rule. I do think both of the pieces you mention do show the issues that racial minorities have faced within America, and what people over the generations have done to both fight against and cope with such problems that were placed up them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Language is stereotypical and hard

-
Image
Not many people realize that we stereotype before we meet a person, if we see someone with a unique name we might assume what kind of person they are. Or if their name is from a different country, say Iran, then some might make assumptions. That's what happened to Firoozeh where she vividly describes in her essay, The "F" word". During her application for jobs she never got a single interview, even though she, "graduated with honors from UC-Berkeley" but it wasn't only after she began to add her american name "Julie" into the conversation that job interview began flowing in.  This example not only shows that you can be limited solely based on your name, but stereotypes can also be made. Many people assume that I can speak, write, and read chinese, which to a degree I can. However, truly, I can barely read or write. But speaking is the easy part, because at home your always speaking your native language to your family and maybe friends.  As I e...
Read more

The Great Gatsby fan fiction

-
Image
“Ok… and do you know what car it was?” Asked the police officer. “No sir… bu bu bu butt, the color was some greenish-yellow, and the car had a distinct whine to it.” Answered Wilson. “I know whose car it was and what car it is.” Replied Tom from the dark. “Really” questioned the officer. “Whose is it?”   A week later I should have known. I should have told Gatsby. The body sprawled in front of me in the pool lay lifelessly, only a few yards away was Wilson's body. With a hole in his head. Despite all this, I couldn’t help that I was forced to keep silent. Tom had all the leverage and threatened to kill Jordan at the next golf tournament if I told Gatsby that Wilson was coming. Now the media is talking all about Gatsby, press flooding the gates, and photos of the Hellcat with blood on the front bumper flooding the internet. God, what do I do? Well, the most logical thing is to have a funeral. Halfway across the world “Oh, thank God for our wealth. How else could...
Read more

Types of ways to show information

-
For the last few weeks, we have been reading comic books, graphic novels, and whatever you want to call them, and then we have watched movies. These and many other formats can display information to viewers. But which one is the best way? For starters, novels that only use words are less descriptive than graphic novels. This is because you can only be so descriptive with words, while other formats, such as graphic novels and videos, are better alternatives.   In class, the graphic novel we used was Thi Bui's, the best we could do. Bui's decision to format her journey as a mother and as someone learning their history and culture in the form of a comic allowed us to learn more compared to the traditional novel. For example, simple things like colors helped us understand the background of her childhood and how Vietnam felt during the war.  Moving on, with the movie we were introduced to The Swimmers  which entails the story of three refugees and their journey to Ge...
Read more