Green Light

After semester 1 of english has speedily flown by, I am going to have to go with true on that statement.  I really enjoyed English 213 and had fun with the many things we have done in class.  The topics that we have done in class are very interesting and thought provoking and I loved hearing and participating in class discussions on these topics, such as evil.  All of the different people in the class really lead to some interesting views, which is really important to a learning enviroment.  Another thing that I really enjoyed was when we did the MacBeth project.  Having a competition really motivated me and my group and made the project much more fun.  I really enjoyed working in groups and talking to people that I had never really talked to before.  By working together for a common cause of defeating McGeary, it really brought the class together.  And of course the blogs are a large part of sharing ideas and getting thoughts into writing.  I feel that the blogs really help in expressing ideas with worrying about being too informal for an essay or whether or not the ideas fit into the essay.  Writing blogs has helped me enjoy writing a lot more in the short time that we have been using them because it is much easier to share my ideas and still be open to ideas of others.  English 213 was awesome and I am sure that under Mr. Wasserman’s guidance, English 223 will be just as good or better. 

As I read A True Tale of Slavery by John S Jacobs, I found many similarities and differences between it and other slave narrative.  One interesting thing that I read was how much John Jacobs was impacted by his family, specifically his father, when growing up.  Many times, slaves were separated from their families, so it was interesting to see how Jacobs lived his life differently because of the initial involvement of his family.  Jacobs’ father was an important figure in the early part of his life because he taught many values and behaviors that Jacobs would need in order to gain his freedom.  For example, Jacobs’ father provided him with his initial hate for slavery:

Yet, it is said by slaveholders and their apologists, that we are happy and contented. I will admit that slaves are sometimes cheerful; they sing and dance, as it is politic for them to do. I myself had changed owners three times before I could see the policy of this appearance of contentment. My father taught me to hate slavery, but forgot to teach me how to conceal my hatred.

Jacobs had the hate for slavery and the motive to be free of it, but in order to do that he would have to remain calm and make it seem as though he was content as a slave.  When Jacobs mentions singing and dancing, it reminded me of the excerpt from theh Frederick Douglass narrative that we read in class.  Douglass says that the singing and dancing of slaves was a way for slaves to act like they were happy, yet still express their unhappiness.  By mentioning this, Jacobs shows that while he was young, he could not grasp the concept of hiding his anger, but as he grew older, he was able to conceal his feelings, which allowed him be under less suspicion of running away.

Another interesting thing that Jacobs did in his narrative was the way he named all of his owners and other white people.  Instead of using their full names, he calls them by only their last initial, such as Mr. C, Dr. N, or Mrs. K.  By doing this, Jacobs makes these people seem less human to go along with thier cruel actions towards slaves.  This was a very subtle, yet strong technique that became very effective when characterizing these different people and it showed Jacobs’ feelings toward these people. 

Overall, I couldn’t really find much that related to Huck Finn in this narrative.  One thing that was similar to it was often treated fairly by his owners, yet could never be content with the life style of a slave.  This is similar to how Jim was not treated unfairly, yet was still upset that he was a slave and separated from his family.  Both of these show that the life style of a slave would always be unfair because it would never have the same luxuries as the white owners did.  Jacobs’ narrative is a strong view into his life and shows his unique experience as a slave.  I felt that it clearly showed that although slaves were uneducated, they were still able to plan escape and anc intelligently.  Jacobs’ experiences were important in empowering other slaves and helping them gain freedom.

Becuase I forgot to do the pre-reading post, I will quickly say what I initially wanted to find out when reading the slave narrative.  From reading slave narratives previously, I knew that the individual experience of each slave is different in many ways, yet they all have similar aspects.  Most narratives are stories of how slaves break free of slavery and the oppression of their owners.  While reading the narrative, I expected to find out about the unique experience of the slave that wrote it as well as how similar it is to the other slave narratives that I have read in the past.

The Colbert Report is one of numerous satirical shows in todays media that focuses mainly on politics.  Colbert himself is also sometimes a very over-the-top character in his show.  His character commonly agrees with the Republican Party on issues and always comes up with ideas on how to enforce their policies.  These ideas would be considered abrasive and unnecessary if the politicians were to actually enforce them, but because Colbert does it in a satirical fashion, people are able to see that these ideas are ridiculous and would not be affective.  Some times, the lengths at which Colbert’s satires go tend to give the audience the feeling that he does not support the Republicans, but is instead completely mocking them.  The sign of good satire is being able to trick the audience and make them confused as to whether or not the person is joking or is completely serious.  Colbert has this affect on me everytime I watch his show, and I feel that he is a very good satirical artist.

In this day and age, the majority of people will define racism as being discriminatory actions taken against a certain race or group of people.  However, is it possible that racism has evolved so drastically that we can no longer recognize it within society and even within ourselves?  Professor Jack Dovidio, of the University of Connecticut, adresses this possibility in his research:

“Contemporary racism is not conscious, and it is not accompanied by dislike, so it gets expressed in indirect, subtle ways,” (taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/racism.poll/index.html)

This is a very intriguing concept that actually makes a lot of sense.  People today are too caught up in trying not to be racist, that they make themselves more racist that they would be by just acting normally.  If someone is overly positive and kind to a person of another race, then they are being racist, but just in a different way than traditionally thought.  Unfortunately, until everyone in the world can look at each other and not see anything other than another human being, then racism will still exist.  If being positive can also be considered racist, then what direction do we have to go in order stop being racist? Not do anything?

Of all imformative methods used by the media today, satire is often extremely effective.  Rather than become involved in discussions and news stories about serious topics and problems, it is much more comfortable for people to view these things from a comedic standpoint.  By using satire, we are able to see how serious these problems are and at the same time seeing how ridiculous our current problem solving efforts are.  The main problem with satires are the people who do not feel as though the problems are rightly adressed.  They would rather be politically correct than face the true problems with the country.  The movie Borat is a great example of this.  I loved the movie and saw it twice because I felt that it passed along good messages in a truly satirical fashion.  I probably liked the movie much better than some people because I already knew that most of these problems existed and had no problem with seeing them adressed.  However, the people who were pranked in the movie, who are now suing the movie’s makers, may not have been able to see that the movie is important in the progression towards solving these problems.  These people’s statements are very ironic because they add to the satircal ideas in the movie and show that many Americans are ignorant to the issues that occor within their own nation.  Satire is an important method in realizing the issues that plague the world today.

I have read the posts on the death penalty discussion by some of the other people in our class, and a common thought is that the death penalty should be acceptable as long as the ways the people are put to death are not cruel or unusual. However, there is something seriously disturbing that I find about this thought. The Constitution clearly states in the Bill of Rights that prisoners should not have cruel or unusual punishments placed upon them, not cruel or unusual deaths. Could it not be argued then, that death is a cruel or unsusual punishment? This all relates back to our unit on evil. While it may  be argued that a person deserves death for something that they did which was so “evil” it could not be forgiven, it could also be argued that this person is only being put to death as a way of getting rid of something we are scared of and do not want to face. By eliminating our fears we are not getting a point across, if anything we are giving more power to this “evil” that lurks within the condemned person. Now, I am not saying I am against the death penalty, but I am saying that we should consider these actions more carefully before we impose punishments which reflect those actions of the very people who we are punishing.

For our assignment to watch a movie of a Shakespeare play, I watched She’s the Man, which is a modern day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  Although set in present day America instead of Italy and around the Medditeranean as the original one was, this movie did an excellent job of sticking to the original plot while making it enjoyable for modern audiences.  One thing that made this an obvious adaptation is that the four main characters from the play kept their same name in the movie.  Also, while names like Malvolio could not be used for modern day, the writers kept the names similar, such as changing Malvolio to Malcom.  The setting is at a school named Illyria, which is also, not so coincidentally, the name of the island on which the original play takes place.  The plot is also very similar to the original one.  Viola, in the movie, must pretend to be her brother in order to go to his school and try out for the boy’s soccer team, because the girls’ team at her school got cut.  While at the school, she falls in love with her roommate Duke Orsino.  However, Duke likes Olivia who does not want him.  Then, Olivia falls for Viola (in disguise), making things really complicated.  Viola’s brother Sebastian then comes home and things get even more complicated.  In the play, Viola and Sebastian’s ship gets into a wreck and both of them think that the other drowned.  Viola then takes on the appearance of her brother so that she can be hired on the island.  She is hired by the Duke, Orsino.  Orsino is love sick for Lady Olivia, who controls the other side of the island.  Lady Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola and tries to get his (her) hand in marriage.  Then, when the real Sebastian comes looking for Viola, he accidentally marries Olivia.  The two plots are very complicated, yet very similar at the same time.  I really enjoyed She’s the Man and thought it was a very good adaptation of Twelfth Night.

After reading A Problem from Hell, I am much more knowledgable in the topic of genocides that occured during the twentieth century.  Although many history books may be boring and not interesting, this one is definitely not.  Samantha Power is an amazing author and I was fascinated while reading her book.  I now see the relation of evil and genocide much better.  It is inexplicable that after many countries vowed that genocide would never occur again, it did many times after.  The evil that occurs when millions of people are murdered is very great.  I cannot imagine the type of person who could order such a thing to happen.  Genocide is indeed evil. 

In the second part of A Problem from Hell, genocides in Iraq, Bosnia, and Rwanda were examined.  In Iraq, during the war with Iran, Suddam Hussein had many Kurds killed or sent to buildings where he could keep track of them.  This was meant to keep all Kurds under control while the war was going on.  With death as a punishment, most Kurds obeyed.  In Bosnia, the government began to detain Muslims and Croats (people from Croatia).  The detained these people in order to stop them from becoming independant from the country.  The Croats had already declared independance, and the Muslims already relied solely on international connections, so the government began to become concerned.  In order to keep these groups from becoming independant, they were put into camps where thousands of people died.  In Rwanda, with the civil war going on between the Hutu government and the Tutsi rebels.  After Rwanda’s president was killed, the other Hutu leaders took extreme control.  Under their rule, thousands of Rwandans were brutally killed. 

All of these genocides occured because the government was trying to keep control during times of warfare and chaos.  However, it should never be acceptable to throw away the lives of people just for the benefit of the government.  It is truly evil that millions of people were slain just for this reason.