Young Life by Bo Bartlett - Painting

1.

• Claim: The family is a country family, living in a rural area.
• Fact: Many families in the countrysife own a pickup truck or hunter their own food.

2.

• Claim: The painting takes place in the 80's or 90's.
• Fact: Cars from the 80's or 90's had a boxy look to them.

3.

• Claim: The boy is not involved or important to the other two people in the painting.
• Fact: The boy is standing separately from the man and woman.

In Young Life, a well-known piece of art by Bo Bartlett, the main focus of the painting is a youthful boy and two relaxed adults. At first glance, it seems to be just a simple family on a hutning trip. Upon further inspection, the boy appears to be separated from the man and woman. This could represent how the boy has different ambitions in his life; he does not appear to be in the same position as the older man, showing he is not going in the same direction in life as the man is. His adversion to the other man in the painting could symbolize a parting or unimportance the two people have to each other. It can be inferred that the boy is not growing up to be like the male figure or the father in the picture.

Reading Critically: Summarization

Whether reading literature or an academic essay, there are obvious steps you must take in order to maximize your reading understanding and experience. First, examine the title. This will give you an idea of what's inside or a general tone or preference of the author. While talking about the author, it is very important to try and find anything you can about the author; background, special training, previous works, any special ideas or opinions. Knowing about the author will give you an idea into how the author writes and what you can expect as you begin to read. However, before you begin to read, you must try to find out where and when the work was published. Location of the publishing will help you identify the credentials; a work published in a respected journal will probably have much more authenticity and factual information than something published in a weekly tabloid. Date of publishing will help you know what tone the author may take on and also if the information is outdated or not.
After completing all of that, reading the piece is the next step. After reading, it's time to think critically. Analyze different parts of the writing to look for the main idea the author is trying to illustrate. You can now draw conclusions based upon what you have read and discovering the writer's assumptions. This allows you to link the ideas into a cohesive whole, allowing for full understanding. Evaluate your ideas and work them back into the writing, seeing if they make sense and are logical and factual. You may also want to look for a meaning behind the piece, the big picture the author is trying to get you to see. This is the big step because it gives you an abstract sense or feeling the author has intended you to feel. These are all steps of understanding your literature better, reading strategies that will facilitate your experience and help you reach literal conclusions much easier.

SOAPStone of Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out

Leah Pederson

SOAPSTone Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out

The subject of Dave Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is that women and men have their differences that can only be understood by the same sex. This idea is illustrated through the author first describing how he doesn’t understand women’s interest with cleanliness, and then as he shows women don’t understand men’s profound curiosity with sports. It’s known that men are very into their sports but women just can’t fathom why they are so important the men, and men feel the same way about the absolute cleanliness women strive for.

This essay was written during the current decade. This essay’s time is creation is illustrated by the conventional role of women (cleaning) and the popular interest of men (sports games). We also see this through the fact that the author is watching the World Series on television. The probable place of the essay’s creation is in America due to the strong interest in sports and how relatable the essay seems to the readers.

Dave Barry’s specific audience for Striking Out is mainly typical American men. The author’s target audience is exhibited by the disdain to women’s interest of cleaning and the keen liking to sports and sports games. We see this through the lack of understanding the author has with his wife’s housework and how strongly he feels about watching his sports games.

Barry’s purpose in Striking Out is to provide comedic relief to everyday events and poke a stick at American life. We see this portrayed by how the author explains how he cannot see the dirt his wife sees; “I go into the bathroom and it always look perfectly fine.” The author is showing that men don’t demonstrate such a fine interest in cleaning in women as do, and that women don’t care as much about sports as men do. He shows the second point as he says, “this is an area where men tend to fel very sensitive and women tend to be extremely callous.” We can see that the author is showing how different the two sexes are.

Dave Barry, a long time sports fan, believes that men are so absorbed in sports games that it seems ridiculous that women are not. This is shown as he describes how he was watching a World Series game and the women seemed extremely uninterested in it while he was simply hypnotized by the television. Dave Barry also believes that men weren’t meant to clean and cannot identify the meticulous uncleanliness that women see. He earlier explained how his wife found his son’s bathroom to be filthy while he saw it as perfectly clean. This influences the essay’s purpose by separating the views of men and women farther apart in these two areas of interest.

Barry shows a humorous and lighthearted tone about the subjects. He is not being sexist and he is not being arrogant about sports or cleaning; rather, he is just being truthful and honest. These attitudes are expressed with word choices such as “filthy” or “broadcast rays zinging through the air.” These show that the author feels strongly about his topic; women care too much about cleaning and men care too much about sports. It is not the author being ignorant about his topics, it is just him portraying typical American culture in a funny way.

Voice in Literature

Voice in literature is how the text is meant to be read, how you should imagine it differently from your personal voice. You can use punctuation, word choice, pause, metaphors, similies, irony, sarcasm, paralellism, etc.

I am enthralled to be in this classroom. This reflects my sarcast voice because when I'm sarcastic, I tend to use a more articulate voice and say my sentences with monotony.

I would talk around when asking for favors. You can't simply go up to someone and ask them for a favor; you must compliment them and make small talk before you ask them to help you.

Voice in non-fiction creates a personal touch to a character, making you view that character in a certain way. We normally avoid slang and first person in non-fiction.

To develop your voice, you should understand how you speak and how you can put that voice into your writing. You must translate it into your own writing, but you musn't be completely forward with it.

Kandinsky vs. Pollack

1. I like the Pollack better because it has a wild and jungle feel to it. It's sort of earthy. The Kandinsky has a lot going on in it and I didn't know where to focus and begin looking.
2. The Kandinsky would be more pleasing to look at because it's brighter and more colorful when you see it. There are many, many things to focus on and can keep you entertained for a longer period of time vs. the Pollack painting.

PAIN vs. The Beatles

1. I like The Beatles' version better because it is original and is simply enjoyable. The dubstep remix was painful to listen to because the added bass didn't flow with the melody of the music and was taking a classic song and trying to remake it.
2. The original version of the song was much more pleasing to listen to because it had been constructed to make you feel thoughtful and sad. The dubstep was unnecessary and took away the feeling of the song it was intended to give you.

Sign Language: A short film

The single effect:
Happiness is not something you always need to search for. Sometimes, it's right in front of you. In order to see it, you must be open to the things around you, enjoying life as it comes, and finding beauty in the little things.

Three things that led to the effect:
1. The filming is up close and personal, we see his mannerisms.
2. He and the girl have the same rainbow gloves - an example of costume.
3. Irony is prevalent; he talks about his community but you see little of it.

If the camera's view was changed and not so up close and personal, it would change the single effect by not allowing us to see the happiness from Ben's point of view. Ben is very happy, but we may not see that if we are just observing him from a distance. Our perspective is much different than Ben's.

Harry Nilsson: Good Old Desk

Subject: Harry's "good old desk," his reliable object in his life.
Occasion: The 70's.
Audience: Adolescents, adults, religious individuals.
Purpse: To demonstrate how his desk is his escape, it's always there, etc.
Speaker: Harry Nilsson
Tone: Carefree, happy, caring, loving, thankful.

Nilsson is talking about his figurative desk, the thing that is always there for him. When he's upset he can turn to his desk; he can do the same when he is happy, angry, worried, confused, or anything else. His desk is like a good friend to him.

Good Old Desk is a symbol for Harry's relationship with God.
Support:
1. "It's a pleasure to see it's waiting there for me to keep my hopes alive."
2. "It's the one thing I've got, a huge success."
3. "It's the friend I've got, a giant of all times."

Shooting an Elephant

Leah Pederson

Shooting An Elephant: George Orwell

SOAPSTone

The subject of George Owell’s Shooting an Elephant is the effect of mob mentality and the pressure to do what the group wants. This phenomenon is illustrated with the event of the police officer being sent to control the elephant, but ultimately killing the animal as he realized that is what the crowd expects him to. We see this as the police officer goes to try to control the animal and then asks for a gun, later realizing as he asked for the gun, he gave the appearance he was going to shoot the beast and therefore he must shoot the beast in order to avoid looking like a fool.

Shooting an Elephant was written during the 1920’s. The essay’s time of creation is exhibited by the fact that Britain conquered Burma during a time period right before this. It is mentioned several times that the Burmans were running behind the police officer and that it was a time when the Burmese despised the English. The probable place of the essay’s creation is Burma as we can see that the first paragraph of the essay states they are in Moulmein in lower Burma.

Orwell’s specific audience for Shooting an Elephant is anyone who was alive during the time of the Anglo-Burmese Wars or for an anti-empiricist. The author’s general audience is expressed by the obvious written hatred for the British in the Burmese society as the Burmans openly expressed their dislike for the British police officer.  

Orwell’s purpose in Shooting an Elephant is to convey the hatred for the empirical societies and to show how an insane mob mentality could influence even the most sane mind. This spectacle is revealed as the police officer was standing in the crowd with the rifle in his hand, “And suddenly [he] realized that [he] should have to shoot the elephant after all.” The police officer had set out to simply calm the elephant until his owner was there to handle the situation, but as he asked for the gun he suddenly realized that the large crowd watching him expected him to shoot the elephant and do nothing else.

George Orwell’s, known for his anti-empiricist essays, believes empiricism was an evil thing but he was stuck in the hatred of the country he belonged to. This value is illustrated by the police officer’s want to help the Burmans instead of disregarding them. This value influences the essay’s purpose by having the police officer do what he thought was what the Burmans wanted, which was killing the elephant. Orwell, the great symbolist he was, believed the elephant stood for the weakening of the British Empire. The dead elephant stood for the British Empire being weakened by the persistent force of the Burmans. They wanted their freedom and the rifle shots indicated the distaste they expressed toward the influential empire.

Orwell articulates a hateful and displeased attitude about the empirical society the British created in Shooting an Elephant. These attitudes are expressed by the anger toward the police officer, who is British, and the British police officer’s secret agreement to the Burman’s feelings. This hateful tone prevalent throughout the essay portrays the unhappiness the Burmans felt to the British empire that controlled them at the time. 

Across The Universe: The Beatles

1. Imagines in the song:
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy
Heart drifting through my open mind

2. Many of these symbols are in context:
Rain- cleansing, continuity
Light- ideas, brightness, good, opposite of darkness and evil

3. Symbols:
Rain- a rainstorm is bad, foreshadowing to evil. However, simply rain is known as cleansing, pure, and peaceful.
Eagle- justice, honest, prestige
Making something more than an image is when it universally stands for something. It doesn't change in context and will always stand for that thing.

Rockwell's The Runaway Intro

America in the 1950's was bustling with important events and issues; the civil rights movement, better living, and new inventions. The 50's were known for their state of mind or way of living rather than just another decade. Life was peaceful, freedom and equality were emerging with the ideas we carry today. In Norman Rockwell's painting, you see a small child that appears to have runaway, sitting in a store and chatting up with a police man. At first,  it may seem normal, but once you realize the little child really has run away on his own, the "perfect" imagine of the 50's seems to melt away. No longer is this decade so innocent and wonderful our in heads. Rockwell's "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950's - an emerging counterculture that was not concerned with how things were but rather how they are.