~American Dream~

The Great Gatsby’s funeral shows how breakable Fitzgerald thinks the American dream is. Looking at all of Gatsby’s “popularity” only about 4 people show up. Fitzgerald shows his belief on how fast the materialistic American dream can slip away.

~American Dream~

The minute that Gatsby had died we got to see how he is honestly viewed. Because now that he is dead & no one can mooch off of him anymore so no one cares about him. As we realize that few people honestly care about Gatsby we realize what people really saw him as, a rich giving show off so he could get what he wanted. He was a selfishly generous person.

~Colors~

Nick uses the green light at the end of the dock to represent the American dream. It is something that we try for & fail but we continuously pick ourselves back up & try again even harder than the first. Something that we cannot escape striving for because we want it so bad. As Nick says “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” No matter how many times the boat flips over we keep going & going & going.

1. Gerbner & Gitlin agree that this debate goes way above & beyond media violence, but straight to the root of the problem. All the blame is on the shoulders of those who own the networks, but it is the people who are responsible for what they show on the television.

2. Gitlin tells us that Japans media violence is worse than ours is, but don’t you find it weirs that their crime rates are way lower than ours. He seems to believe that the more violence available to the US, the faster crime rates would go down. Gerbners response is one of great shock, that Gitlin would use that study as proof because he thinks it assumes that violence is the only reason that social behavior is bad. (I don’t agree with Gitlin at all)

3. Gerbner believes that the V-chip is not the solution to the problem.  He thinks that it doesn’t fix the problem in the least, it just hides it. Gitlin is not really against the V-chip, seeing as how he believes that any power parents can have over censoring the tv is a good thing. He believes that that is the way to fix the problem because media violence isn’t going to just vanish anytime soon, & this solution makes both Gerbner & Gitlin happy.

4. Gitlin believes that the big amount of tv violence doesn’t have any real important consequences. It may be a small part in the problem but it is not the main part. Gerbner believes the exact opposite. He thinks its one of the biggest causes. Though he does agree that it is not the only cause. But Gerbner is more concerned with citizens taking control over the airways again than with the argument over media violence.

Synthesis is pretty much analyzing an argument. There is an argument in a synthesis paper, but, both sides of the argument are there, & they both have cited information that the author found. But the topic has to be thoroughly researched & the author’s smarts should show through their synthesis paper.

1* Putman establishes his credibility by citing where he gets his information from, such as from Time Researches John Robinson & Geoffrey Godbey. His credibility is also made believable because he is a professor at Harvard.

2* Cited in selection

* Constock: Evolution of American Television
* Robinson & Godbey: Time For Life
* Needham: Where Does The Time Go?
* Kunstler: Geography Of Nowhere

3* The information in footnote 13, gives us stronger evidence that this piece of information is reliable.

4* The information in footnote 14 is necessary because it provides proof to reader & it makes the writing more reliable.

5* Putman uses the information in footnote 15 to support the idea that the percentage of people spending more time at home were watching TV & that it rose about 10% in 24 years. By giving us this statement, “TV is my primary form of entertainment,” Putman gives us the information we need so we can conclude that more hours of the day are being spent watching television than anything else.

6* By citing Kunstler’s view, it puts Putman in more of a neutral position because his point of view doesn’t appear as “extreme” as Kunslter’s. It’s his own safe way to support his argument because he himself isn’t making the statement.

7* The notes & sources that Putman gives us, shows that he has done a lot of research on this topic & has a lot of knowledge about it. It also helps his article to be more believable.

Mark Twain’s idea is that for someone to prosper in a time where problems overwhelm the society, that someone must seek help from others. Nobody can get along in life alone; we have to work together with other people in order to get by well. Today we live in a place with a system that not only do humans rely on eachother but every living thing depends on the other to survive & continue to make well in this world. We need to make ourselves work together in our times of need. Only then will the world work the way it’s supposed to.
“There is power in numbers”; this quote motivated the start of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s & 60’s. MLK was a very independent person but he could not make a world accept colored people without the help from all the others. “In matters of large movement”, such as the Civil Rights Movement MLK had help from multiple religious groups & other supporters in accomplishing his dream of worldwide acceptance. Even today without the support of many groups & individual elections this dream would not could not exist. No president can accomplish his promises without needing help from others. They have to work together as one & they have to accept any of the consequences thrown their way, like the people that helped the Civil Rights Movement along, they all endured the pain & suffering they knew they must face to achieve their goal. Being dependent on others means you must “think” & “feel” with everyone else, & “suffer” the consequences together.
Even though being independent is one of the biggest steps in becoming an adult, we all still need help from time to time; no one can do everything alone. Being independent is one of the ways to venture out & to try something different & start your own life, I mean yeah there will be times when even the most independent individuals will need help they might not be able to admit it right away but they do need it.
Yes, being independent is a great start for your life, you will still need to be dependent upon others every now & then. Like I said earlier no one can do it all alone Especially in a time where it seems like all the problems of the world are on your shoulders.

The idea that in order to gain peoples liking, you need to relate with them is widely known & is true in many circumstances. Like during school elections, most of the candidates will try to get their voters to like them better than the other candidates. Whether that be by giving them free things (like Niko’s glasses) or promising them something that is widely wanted. They will go to great lengths to win their votes. Candidates often try to receive popularity by fitting in with the normal everyday crowd or going above & beyond what is normal to draw attention to themselves. Your friends or classmates most likely won’t think you are a freak by “fitting in”, & then you can gain more support and improve your status or they’ll think you’re a freak & vote for you for just that purpose. If you are more popular you’ll gain the most votes. This method of being one with the majority is very logical, but as I’ve just said the exact opposite could very well lead to success.When you are able to break free from the “normal” & stand out, it will most likely prove to be more successful than by “fitting in”. I mean look at Niko. He is probably the weirdest person you will ever meet, & he won the treasurer election this year. I’m not sure if Niko is the popular guy here at Fife but people voted for him because he is so outgoing & fun. He isn’t your normal average teenage boy either, but because he is so unique, people voted for him because they believed he would bring life to the school. People like to see new stuff because it’s refreshing. It’s a break from the normal everyday thing.Even though Mark Twain’s idea fits in with the majority thinking of our today’s society, it is actually way more fun to be different & to just be yourself.

1. Mark Twain’s purpose in Corn Pone opinions is that no one really makes their own decisions, everyone just goes along with what everybody else is saying.
2. When Twain says “I” he is talking about his opinions & what he has to do, but when he says “we” he expands the situation to the entire audience.
3. The anecdote shows how he believes people make decisions. It sets the tone for the topic. It really doesn’t distract us at all.
4. Jerry thinks that everyone gets their opinions from everyone else, Twain thinks that even though most people do get their opinions from others, one person had to come up with that specific opinion first.
5. The appeals (hoopskirts, bloomers and wineglasses) strengthen his because they are great examples of how everyone follows the 1st example, given that the person started it has some credibility.
6. It’s ironic because calculations are supposed to be facts. The opinions that everyone thinks are not set in stone, like facts are.
7. I think his purpose for making the 3rd paragraph so long was to help get as many examples into one paragraph before the reader stopped for a break, he did this because he thought that it would help get his point across. If he were to break it up more I think it would be when he says, “Broadly speaking, there are none but corn pone opinions.”
8. Twain is saying, that while men are supposed to be the leaders of our society, they really just follow the crowd like everyone else.
9. I think its almost like putting quotation marks around the words, it makes the reader really pay attention & he puts his voice behind them

11. When Twain says “if Eve should come back” that is a hyperbole because walking around naked, would be way over the top.  For him to say, “A nobody introduced the bloomer” I think that he is wrong  because everybody is somebody its just a matter of who you are.

Jody Heyman’s essay “We Can Afford to Give Parents a Break” holds multiple patterns that hold it together like peanut butter does for a peanut butter sandwich. She uses exemplification as well as comparing & contrasting, she uses this the most, she has a lot of facts & they help the reader understand the way the United States system works compared to all other competitors. She also compares the benefits a mother gets between the benefits a father gets, & while the mother would need more days to care for her kids, the father gets more. With all her cold hard facts & what not she makes it clear to the reader what her point is.

1.)
I think that this shows credibility seeing as to how he has so much experience. It is one thing to cite a source & then go study it, but in my opinion experience is way better than getting your knowledge from somewhere else.

2.)
He knows that Fb (football) & war are two things that his audience knows a little bit about so he uses those two things to compare knowing that he can find similarities in the two. In paragraph six he shows that the lingo of Fb and war are a lot alike.

3.)
He makes a quick & smooth shift by bringing in another aspect of the game. That its all fun & games when they are practicing or before a big game but when the pads go on & the ref takes the field its a whole different situation. He goes from a playful almost fun tone to a more serious tone.

4.)
It adds to his credibility & it shows that Fb is a lot like big business, you do what you have to do to get the job done even if it means having to endure a tiny bit of pain.

5.)
He counters this claim in the 16th paragraph. “What organized football did for me was make me suppress my natural urges and re-express them in an alienating vicious form.”

6.)
Soccer and b-ball have the same kinds of lingo. I’d have to say almost any contact sport, shoot even some non-contact such as baseball.

7.)
No I don’t think its necessary for the audience to know about Fb. It does help but it really doesn’t make that big of a  difference for the examples he uses. It seems to me that his audience is men or people who have played Fb because they can relate to what he is writing.

Shyla AriAnna

June 12, 2009

Ap period: 1

Shooting an elephant

Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant gives us a very strong example of just this topic.

Orwell says, “I had no intention of shooting the elephant – I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary – and it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you.” As you can plainly see he had no intention of shooting the elephant, he was simply going to do his job, which was to make sure that the elephant wasn’t causing any harm to anyone anymore. The elephant had caused a bit of a disruption but that was over. Orwell was just doing the right thing, double checking to see if anything else was going to happen. This is where he was right, just doing his duty, making sure that little village was safe for the yellow-faced people who lived there.

“I had halted on the road. As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” This is where human nature kicks in we all see something & can tell whether or not this choice is the right choice or that is the right choice. But in most cases the right choice doesn’t matter, it is what your audience wants that is most important because in this world we are always on a stage, wearing the right costumes, the right make-up, the right mask. “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” This is us as a whole. It is us that has to fight this battle against the evil… we have to be the super heroes fighting against the villain, the one who seems stronger & smarter & all around better than us but we have to fight against the grain against what other people want us to be if we do that we will cease to be different we will cease to be us we will be lost pieces of ourselves overstuffed with the little bits & pieces they wanted to shape us into. Now tell me is that who you want to be? Just a mindless soul wandering around the world aimlessly? This is what you would become if you lost yourself inside the mask that so many of us wear by trying to please everybody else even if that means doing the wrong thing. Most of the time we don’t even think about it, we just do what we know will please them, our puppeteers. “seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.”

We can’t just sit back and become the thing we fear the most, the ones we fear are the ones who push us to do the things we really don’t want to do, just like Orwell’s yellow sneering faces. I don’t want to become one of the many mindless people we fear of becoming. “He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy the conventionalized figure of a sahib.” If we stand our ground unlike Orwell did when he was faced with shooting the elephant. We will be able to be true to who we are inside. We have to be able to stand our ground and walk away without “shooting the elephant.” because after all, “A sahib; has got to appear resolute.” If we choose to act like a puppet we have to actually become one at one point.

Orwell had it right when he said, “he wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” We are all wearing masks some of ours fit better than others & refuse to take them off, some of us wear multiple masks & are trying real hard to peel them off one by on piece by piece, and there are others of us who are just trying on the mask to see how it fits and we are realizing it doesn’t fit no matter which way we try to wear it. Well you wanna know what I say? Well I don’t care I’m gonna tell you anyways, take it off chuck in the trash throw it in the ocean shove it down your garbage disposal, I don’t care what you do with it as long as you are bold enough to take it off walk around naked (meaning without the mask) & just be yourself.