Response 4, Part I

1959-1960:

As I sit in my house in South Florida, I cannot help the constant sweat that has been plaguing me over the past few months. I am not wise beyond my years, but I know enough to know a hurricane is heading this way. I have lived in Florida for all of my 22 years on this earth and have experienced many a hurricane. I have helped my father board up the house, we have stocked up on supplies, and hoped for the best, but I fear that this could be the last hurricane I ever encounter. No matter how hurricane proof my house is, and not matter how much food we stock up on, it would not matter if this storm were to hit us. It would destroy anything in its path. As I gaze eastward off the coast, all I can see is the red darkness building up its strength, watching, and waiting for the perfect time to strike. For it is only 90 miles away now, but it originated far far away. You see, this hurricane is unique; man-made even. It has the potential to destroy this country and any others that stand in its way. Turning on the news, you can tell there is much panic in the voice of the news casters. Some people are not worried, thinking or at least hoping that this country can use it’s technology to shield us from this red death, and some people are trying to figure out what they should be doing in case this storm hits. I am the ladder. My father use to tell me about hurricanes similar to this that he has lived through, but none of been a mere 90 miles off the coast. Every T.V. in America has been frozen on the news channel, receiving updates, and advice on what people should do in case this hurricane becomes a reality. But what can we do? Do we just go about our day like nothing is happening, do we sit inside and worry and feel sorry for ourselves for partly causing this hurricane, do we live life to the fullest on what could be our last days on this earth, or do we embrace the “angelheaded hipsters”, seeking for the heavenly connection? My father is a wise man, who has lived through times like these so I seek his advice knowing that he knows better than me what this country is going though. He comforts me by telling me to not just sit around and wait for the crack of doom from the hydrogen jukebox, but to have faith in my country. To have faith the the technology that we have worked so hard for, and to know that the leaders of this country will do everything in their power to protect us from the red doom just over the horizon. My father has seen worse in all his years on this earth, and so has this country. I have decided that no matter how bad or how close this storm gets, I will keep my faith in my country for as long as I call America my home.

Blog 4

Monday in class, we talked about subjective perspectives from Soviet Union citizens, and citizens from the U.S. during the Cuban missile crisis. Although we talked about how we felt each type of citizen would feel and react, we never talked about how the Cuban citizens might have felt. Well from the position of a Cuban citizen, they must have felt scared because they were in the middle of two super powers fighting to win a war. Although Cuba was building nukes on their land for the Soviets, they still could not have felt comfortable knowing that the U.S. and the Soviets had the power to just wipe them out. They felt the U.S. could do this which is why they started building missiles in Cuba in the first place, but I am sure some Cubans were still worried about trusting the Soviets.

Response 3

Part 1.)    There are many types of figurative expression in all of the poems we are assigned to read. Skunk Hour, by Robert Lowell displays figurative expression in only a few ways. For example, the poem seems to describe an old sea town, with an economy that has gone down hill. When he says “The season’s ill–we’ve lost our summer millionaire” is used as a vehicle which implies, or is the tenor that this town is going through hard times because a season cannot actually be “ill”. Losing the summer millionaire implies that it is in the winter months and times are tough. The “summer millionaire” implied as a tourist bringing his money into the town, which would in turn help out its economy. Some other vehicles he uses are the graveyard and the love-cars. These “love-cars” refer to people on the hilltop making love in their cars, or something of the sort. Sort of like a “lookout point” that you see in some movies where young people sometimes go on dates to hook up. “He climbs the hills skull in his Tudor Ford” means that he has went to the top of this graveyard looking for couples. Taking all of this in, Him stating that he is going to the graveyard looking for love implies that he is loveless in a way. He did not literally go to a graveyard and stalk people like a voyeur, but instead he yearns for someone to love in his life. I don’t quite understand this part of the poem, but I do not see what else it can imply. Now, the skunks in this poem are used as “vehicles” themselves. The Poem “Sestina” also uses some figures to imply things as well. For example, the teakettle shedding its “tears” as it is on the stove has an implied meaning that the child can sense her grandmothers sadness and that this makes the child sad as well.

Part 2.)    Chapters 3-4 convey a whole bunch of examples of our “society’s consensus at work”. I will take the example of the CIA, and its number of “covert” operations that were taking place during the cold war as an example. These operations were used to help achieve foreign policy objectives, because if necessary, the government would be able to deny any allegations. Back then, covert operations were just starting to become useful and popular. In today’s society, the general myth is that covert operations go on all the time, and that it is not only accepted, but necessary to stay one step ahead of the competition. This is how myths start. One thing happens, which leads to it happening again, and eventually it becomes common. Once it becomes common, people stop questioning it, and it eventually becomes part of the way of life. It is no longer questioned, but just thought of as the way things are. It becomes socially constructed and is agreed upon by the general population. In contrasting figurative expression with consensus discourse, one main difference that can be made is that in figurative expression, many people can have a lot of different interpretations on what is being implied, whereas consensus discourse refers to what is generally accepted by a group. When figurative expression is used, it is meant to make the reader think attentively about what is going on and why. Consensus discourse does not generally involve much though, just acceptance. This totally goes against the doxa and would work as an antidote because it would force people to actually think more about what they are doing, or what they value. This would in turn benefit society in some ways such as force people to think and gauge their own general opinion about general stereotypes. I do not see this ever happening as an alternative because that is just not the way people think. Some people think this way, but most people are not trained to think that attentively. 

Blog 3

After reading chapters 3-4 in The Cold War and trying to find associations that pertain to society today, I found it quit interesting when the author started talking about the CIA. He notes that during this time, covert operations started becoming extremely more popular for a number of reasons. One of them was for the simple fact that the government could deny something is necessary. This got me thinking about the movie Charlie Wilson’s War and how the CIA was used in this movie to help supply the Middle East with weapons to help fight to Soviets. Covert operations pretty much started back then, but now in society today, covert operations are pretty much commonplace in the government. Not only in the US, but in every other dominant country, covert operations are practiced and the consensus is that it is necessary. Ho2 did it become this way? I guess it just gradually became more and more accepted until it was part of the doxa.

Response 2:

After reading Good Country People, both aphorisms, “A man’s character is his fate”, and “All is flux nothing stays still” can be applied to a few characters in this story. To me, “a man’s character is his fate” means that what one decides to do, will have an impact on his future, and that one can choose the type of character he decides to portray to influence the life he lives. A good example of this is Manley Pointer. He goes from house to house pretending to sell bibles, but in the end lures some unsuspecting  female off and takes “interesting” things from them by making them feel like he cares about them. He says that “I been believing in nothing every since I was born”. This is his established character that he stick with his whole life, so in turn, his fate is to always be on the run stealing form people. He knows he is wrong, which is why he changes his name, and doesn’t stay anywhere long. One could even say that since he will not live long, his bad character will equal his death, unless that was a lie also. This aphorism could also mean that if you have bad character, the resulting effect is bad Karma or bad “fate”. If you were to look at it this way, then one could assume since he has bad moral character, he will one day get caught and spend time in jail, or even death. You can also apply this aphorism to Joy. From the start, she is rude, does not have any faith and does not believe in anything. For people who believe in karma, her bad character influences her bad fait of getting her leg taken from her and left alone in the barn. 

As we talk about old world order and new world order, I think Joy had a more new world order perspective because she had no faith or belief in God. She has more belief in science which is apparent in the book Mrs Hopewell found in her room. But ironically, Mrs Hopewell says that Joy’s occupation as a philosopher dies years ago with the Greeks and Romans which could refer to a more old world order point of view. Joy’s view of good country people is also of a more old world order point of view because she thinks that they are just stupid and that her, being a college graduate would be able to outsmart any country person. She later finds out that her opinions about country people were wrong, when he tricks her and steals her leg. After this, I am sure she had a different perspective of country people…a new world order perspective in fact. This leads me to The Cold War and the aphorism “all is flux, nothing is still”. The Cold War talks about the end of WWII and the events leading up to the cold war, and the events that occur during. This was a time of extreme change, not only for society but also for the economy. Even today society is continuously changing. Change in opinions that people have of other people are always changing. People use to hate African Americans, and other minorities. while some people are still in the old world order of thinking, many people have changed their opinions. Joy, will surely have a completely different view of country people form now on. After reading the first few chapters of the cold war, I can more understand why Stalin did the things he did, while before, I just assumed America was the force of good, while Russia and communism were evil, even though the idea of communism isn’t really bad, My point is both The Cold War and Good Country People both portray example of flux throughout time and that people and society will continue to change as time goes on.

Blog 2

While in class today, we talked about the Cold War, Stalin and general myths that we have conceived of have heard of over the years and where we got our ideas. After thinking about it, the Cold War was not a huge topic while I was in high school. We mainly focused on the world wars and the Allies and Axis’s. From what little we talked, the impression on the Cold War that I got was that we were the good guys and Stalin and the Soviets were evil. I remember that during the week we touched on the Cold War, we played the board game Risk, to emphasize how the Soviets were trying to take over the world. The funny thing was, during this week, we were not really taught anything. We just played the game over the week long period. Also, the media has influenced me in a few ways. The movie Miracle, made the Soviets seem evil and the USA the heroes of the story. With so many things influencing a USA=good vs Soviets=bad sort of attitude, it is hard not to develop that myth for yourself.

Response 1

 1.)     Ragtime music became a popular form of music, especially in North America, back in the early nineteen hundreds, and originated in African American communities. I find it ironic that it became popular considering how prevalent racism was back in that time period. This form of music often used racial slurs which eventually created a number of derogatory imitation songs which were referred to as “coon songs”. The title seems to work perfect because racism is a major theme portrayed in this book by a number of characters such as Father, Coalhouse, Booker T. Washington and more. 

Coalhouse  Walker is a very interesting character when you talk about racism during the early nineteen hundreds. He was a African American ragtime pianist and the father of the baby that was found buried alive by Sarah, and eventually gets Sarah’s courtship. Coalhouse was also well-off and drove a Ford Model-T which was a good car at the time. Not many African Americans were well off back then because there was still much racism and segregation. Coalhouse is a very well spoken, proud individual unlike many other African Americans during this time. Later in the novel, a number of things happen to him which make him change. He is confronted by fire chief Willie Conklin and his crew who vandalize his car, he is arrested by the police when trying to seek help, lawyers will not help him, the courthouse “loses” his paperwork, and his wife, Sarah eventually dies after being beaten by secret service. Because of his expectations of how he should be treated clash with how other people treat him, he eventually breaks from his original persona and becomes the “angry black male”. He eventually leads a rebel group to J.P. Morgan’s library with the intent to kidnap him and kill Conklin. This is when his new personality clashes with Booker T. Washington’s, who urges him to not set his race back by acting out on his intentions. He eventually agrees and after letting his rebel friends escape, he surrenders but it gunned down in a hale of gunfire. It was said that he was reaching for something and that is why he was fired upon.                                                                                                                                                                                                   The function of Coalhouse in this novel is to portray how African Americans were treated back then. There was racism everywhere to the point that when Coalhouse needed the help of police officers, he became the subject of their scrutiny. His character functions as a way to describe what type of race relations African Americans were going through at the turn of the century. Although many African Americans did not speak up against racism, or challenge the way they were treated, some of them did, so Coalhouse was in a way representing all of the African Americans  of his time who had also challenged the racist consensus or doxa. In a way, Doctorow was reenforcing homogenized myths, such as black people not having the rights and respect they should have, and being, in my opinion, slaves of the system, but he does this uniquely in how he first portrays Coalhouse as a well spoken, well off, proud African American. To introduce his character with qualities that go against the general consensus of society during that time period, he was able to show the subjective view of a black man who was economically well off in society, change into what society refers to as the  stereotypical”angry black male”.

2.) As we talked about in class, a metonym is a way of describing someone or a situation indirectly by referring to things around it. I believe Coalhouse wasand still is a metonym for strong African Americans who stand up for their rights and who demand respect. In a way, he could be a metonym for the Black Panther Party. They fought for black power, and although Coalhouse was not necessarily fighting for black power, he was in a way fighting for himself as a black person againest the general consensus when he became a rebel. He used agitation to get his way much like the Black Panthers did during the 1960’s and seventies. They also fought against police brutality, which Coalhouse’s wife was a victim of, and so was Coalhouse himself in a way. Doctorow could have had social movements such has theirs in mind when creating Coalhouse.                                                                                                                                 While I agree that a social network is not homogenous, in that people change as the time changes, I will say that general consensus can be homogenous throughout history in the way some people think about different race’s or gender. Maybe I did not quite understand the question, but I really did not get a new understanding of American society after reading this.

Blog 2: Ragtime

Before reading this book, I had my doubts about whether or not I would actually be able to get into this book and enjoy it like some other of the books I have read. To be honest I am not the reading type. Although I have enjoyed the books that I have read, I find myself always distracted by other things and can never find time to read, or at least never make the time to read. In having to read this book for class, I found myself not being able to put it down. The way all of the characters have their own lives, but somehow cross paths, of affect one another was very intriguing and I wanted to find out more. As I read, I never really chose one specific character to keep an eye on because each character was unique in his/her own way. After reading it, there were a couple of characters that stood out to me. Tateh, was one of these people. I just found it so interesting of how when he was first introduced he was thirty-two years old selling silhouette portraits on street corners with his daughter. He seemed to be sort of a bum. Then as the story goes on, he moves form streetcar to streetcar and eventually takes a job at the wool mill and gets involved and barley escapes the violence of the textile mill strike. He becomes destitute in Philly where he sells a book of portraits and the next time you see him, he is very well off and has changed his name to Baron Ashkenazy. Then, he ends up meeting Mother after Father dies and they marry and have children. Where Tateh ends up at the end of the story was a complete surprise to me because I thought he was going to be unsuccessful throughout the entire story. I also found that his story was the most interesting because I feel like he went through the most drastic change from being a nobody, to a millionaire. The entire book made me think about how many directions a persons’ life can go, and what one can accomplish.

Death of a Salesman

This is the first time I have read this, and I must say I really enjoyed it. I found it pretty depressing, but I guess the name should have clued me in on that. As we were discussing characters in class, I felt like Linda was the one who was holding the entire family together. It was her that Biff, and Happy would contact, and even when they wanted to let Willy know something they would contact her to let him know. She seems like she was the only normal one, but in a way I felt like she was in denial of the families entire situation, but not exactly in the same way Willy was. I also felt like Willy wasn’t trying to forget his past, I felt like he missed his passed and did not want to ever give up on his dream that he was going to become someone more important than who he was. The fact that he couldn’t ate him up inside.

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