On the Water Front Post

There are two sides to every ethical arguement and in On the Water Front there are two literal sides that start meshing as one. In the beginning there are the priest and Esy, people who don't understand how the docks work and just want to make everything right. Then there are the people who work on the docks, who play "D and d" because they are on the inside and have to protect their own and themselves. The workers and the mob see as anyone who stands up and tells how it really is on the docks as a squeler because it puts everyone of them in harms way. On the other hand, the priest and Edy see the ones who tell as strong and good human beings. They see it this way because they're outsiders when it comes to working down there, they don't know how it is. As the movie continues and Terry starts to think that maybe he should tell the truth, the two groups blob together. First it's Terry who sees, becuase of his brother's death, that pretending you don't know anything isn't best, people still get hurt, but if you tell the truth things turn out better in the long run. Still, the other laborers don't see it that way until the last scene where Terry and Jonny Friendly fight. Then, they too realize that it's okay to say what's going wrong because it will be best for the majority. This is emphasized when Jonny Friendly is lost in the sea of men, on his own showing that now he is the only one who says people should act is they don't know anything. Proving that truth does triumph over lies.
Personally, I don't agree with Jonny Friendly. Loyalty and fear only get you so far before you have to face reality and see the world how it is. This sad, I sympathize with Terry because it takes a while to realize this and everyone has to take their own path to get there, no matter how long or short. Ethical values are a personal belief and they must be found on one's own terms, no one can force them upon someone else. On the Water Front shows this very well when Edy tries to give Terry Joey's jacket, but he won't take it. He needs to deicde for himself, and eventually he does. Plus finding what you're ethical values are makes them more obvious and one has a stronger pull to follow them. Watching movies like these help me decide what my ethical values are, and for right now they go along with Terry's.

Quarter 2 Blog Question

Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons, focuses on when you should stay loyal to your family and when it's appropriate to conform and follow society's ethics. One of the most interesting and shortest ways Miller explains this is through Larry, the son who was lost in the war. Even though Larry is dead, much of the tension between the Keller family centers around him. Kate Keller, his mother believes that he is still out there somewhere, but her son and husband don't feel the same way. In the end of the book the audience finds out that Mrs. Keller is wrong, Larry is dead, not only that, but Larry ended his life on purpose. In a letter to his fiance, Ann, Larry explains he is so disgusted by his father's crime that he can't live with it. Larry says, "Yesterday they flew in a load of papers from the States and I read about Dad and your father being convicted...I can't tell you how I feel- I can't bear to live any more" (83). Larry is so ashamed and embarrassed my his father causing the twenty one deaths, that it's too much for him. In this situation Larry is choosing society over his family in a very extreme way. His death has many repercussions in his family. Although the play takes place three years after the loss of Larry, the pain of not having him there is a central topic. His mother explains her pain by saying of Larry, "Because if he's not coming back, then I'll kill myself!" (22). Since Larry payed attention to what society said then what his family needs he causes a great deal of pain, especially for his mother. If he had not overreacted and ended his life, essentially noticing that the security of his family was more important, the Kellers would have had less pain. Miller shows that one should side with their family through Larry by showing the horrid trouble his death caused his family.
I don't agree with Miller's view on ethics, your family is important, but not important enough to kill for. Everyone is related and has family, which means that if you kill a person, there is someone out there mourning just as you would be if a relative of yours was murdered. If what you're doing is hurting others, even if it is for your family, it isn't okay. It is more surprising to see that a father killed his son rather than just some stranger murdering a boy, but it is the same crime and either way a life was ended. People are all equal and to sacrifice one for another becuase you share blood or closeness is not right. A life is a life.

Quarter 2, Post 3

The House at Sugar Beach takes place when the main character, Helene, is almost eight. I have forgotten, really what it's like to be that age and this is a great reminder. In my reading for this week, Cooper describes her fascination and fear of death. She explains how she would keep repeating, "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take" (23). Saying this gives her a sense of security, but it seems to help her somewhat. Death seems like an odd and mature subject for a young girl to fret about, but as you keep reading it becomes obvious why she is worried about death. In Helene's house there are many precious things because she comes from such a upper class family, things like ivory and jewels. Since they have all this amazing treasures, rouges come in at night and steel from the house. This must be very traumatizing for Helene, knowing that she is upstairs in bed while dangerous people are only a few floors below. I can't imagine how I would react to that. Helene becomes very scared and starts making stories up about the rouges. She decides, "after the rouges' third visit, I realized the rouges were actually heartmen...they weren't coming for ivory and paintings. They wanted me!" (24). Since she is only seven, Helene has a huge imagination and must be very scared, so this her way of rationalizing what she doesn't understand. With this stress and burden on her there is no way she can live normally, I know I wouldn't be able to.

Quarter 2, Post 2

My reading this week for The House at Sugar Beach explains the lineage of Helene, the main character. Since it is an auto-biography it's in first person and as Cooper talks about her amazing family history she writes it as if it is nothing and very matter of faculty. She talks about one of her less accomplished relatives like this, "Cecil Dennis, the minister of foreign affairs, was my cousin, although we called him Uncle Cecil" (12). Cooper is related to these amazing historic figures of Liberia, but show that her eight-year old self doesn't see them as anything but aunts and uncles. The position that Helene is in is like being somehow related to all four of America's founding fathers. Or as Cooper describes it, "Daddy had clout, but Mommee ruled Sugar Beach" (13). It's very interesting to view the royal class from the perspective of a young girl when the royal class is all she knows.

Quater 2, Post 1

This quarter I'm reading The House at Sugar Beach for my outside reading. It's an autobiography by Helene Cooper who's, "family and the rest of the descendants of the freed American slaves who founded Liberia in 1822" (Cooper 6). In the start of the book the first thing that I noticed that there was a lot of division in the story. First, by gender. Cooper talks about their guard sleeping in the "boy's house" (5). She references again later. This seemed strange to me, to have have separate houses for the genders. It might have something to do with them being in another country with different customs and culture. Another part that could play into it is the time this book takes place. Helene is growing up in 1980 and 1970. Although we saw women as equals in America, it was not the same around the world. That's not the only separation, she mentions how when the freed slaves moved here the natives called them "Congo people" and how the freed slaves called the natives "Country people." The huge amount of separation in the book seems like it will lead to conflicts further along in the book. Especially the division between the two kinds of people. If they don't get along and still live in the same place, there will be a lot of tension.

She Couldn't Call it "Rape"

For the last blog of the quarter I read an article in People (yes, I know, People, but it was an interesting article). Tory Bowen was 21 when she woke up to find she was being raped. She tried to stop the man, but he said that she had consented the night before. She didn't remember this though. Eventually the police did arrest the man who had raped her and the case went to trial in 2006 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Judge was Judge Jeffery Cheuvront and before the trial he met with Bowen to discuss the case. To her surprise the Judge said that she, "could not use the words 'rape' or 'sexual assault' while testifying, nor could she say she thought Safi [the rapist] drugged her" (84). This caught me off guard and I had to read it a couple times to understand what that meant. To think that you were raped and now this was thrust upon you seems horrible to me. I can't fathom how this could even happen, it's America, we have freedom of speech. It says so in our constitution. I had to double check that the story was actually happening in the US. The Judge defends his view by writing, "To many people the connotation of the word 'rape' involves a vicious and violent assault involving force" (84). This, "would be 'inflammatory' to use it" (84). But no matter what way you put it, there is nothing that excuses this injustice. The first amendment gives us Tory Bowen the right to call it rape, sexual assault or an elephant. If we take this right away, the next thing you know they'll be blaming the victim for the assault. Weisensee, Nicole Egan. "She Couldn't Call it 'Rape.'" People. Oct. 27 2008: 83-84.

Film Reading

This weeks blog must be about film and photography and I couldn't find anything to read, but then my mother emerged from the basement with a book called Understanding Film. It seemed to easy, but it worked perfectly. The college text book, by Louis D. Giannetti, is split up into many different sections, I read one on lighting. The book talks about how much harder lighting movies is compared to photos. When lighting a movie the designer must make it so that everywhere a character goes there is good lighting. Unlike a photo, where the subject doesn't move. Also, it talks about the different feelings light gives us. Giannetti describes light as a, "...security, and any blockage of light is therefore a threat to this sense of safety..." (25). The most interesting part of the reading is when it talked about how Hitchcock would tease the audience with his use of light. He would, "...deliberately reverse light-dark expectations to puncture our smug sense of security" (22) This was a very interesting read. It gave me a lot of information about the different types of lighting and how we instinctively react to it. Giannetti, D. Louis. Understanding Films. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1976.

The Awe of Music

Laugh or the World Laughs at You

"Laugh or the World Laughs at You" is an article by Mark Leibovich that talks about when you're a politician and a public figure. The center point of this piece is Senator Palin and the recent jokes she has fueled. One of Leibovich's examples is her recent interview with Katie Couric talking about a clip, "...featuring her assertion that Alaska's proximity to Russia bolstered her foreign policy experience, fast became YouTube classics." Saying it caused Republicans to get the "heeibe-jeebies." Although, these jokes don't have to define your political career. He proves this using Dick Cheney as prof. Explaining it by saying Cheney has, "...provided a lifetime of heart-attack and hunting-accident humor...but will clearly go down as a serious, contentious and multidimensional figure in history." So, it seems that as along as you don't let the joke play you, it can't be too bad. Even if you are seen as a punch line, it could be good for your campaign. Don't you believe that there is more talk about Palin since the Tina Fey videos? In the end, is it good or bad to the the butt of jokes?

Leibovich, Mark. "Laugh, or the World Laughs at You." New York Times. 5 Oct. 2008, 3.

Homer: Feminist or sexist? Good Question. Let me answer it for you.

Homer portrays the goddesses as these powerful, cunning beings. So, one would think that he is an amazing feminist and I agree, to an extent. When it comes to the goddesses Homer is a very big supporter of women. He shows us their power by having Athena guide Odysseus through his travels. She is also the one who helps him fight off all the suitors. The goddesses are on a pedestal, they're angelic creatures and that's how Homer portrays them. Even when they are do wicked things, they're doing it with smarts. Plus, in the end, someone always benefits. Although, Homer's like of women doesn't go much further than the goddesses, so maybe when it comes to them he is only on their side because of their standing in ancient greek society.
On the flip side of that, Homer betrays regular women as helpless or just good for sex. Odysseus' wife is at home just waiting around for him and refusing to be with anyone else. This shows how Homer sees women as very weak and how much they depend on their man for normalcy in life. During his travels, Odysseus sleeps with many women making it seem like, really that is mostly all their good for. Or that was is what they're supposed to be used for; sex and reproduction, not much else. Some might see Homer as a great feminist, but once it comes down to it, he only sides with the goddesses because of their power. Everyday women, to him, are nothing to get excited about.

In Praise of My Bed

I read "In Praise of My Bed" this week. It's a poem by Meredith Holmes. I was looking through a book of poems trying to find one to read and I read this one. At the time I was very cold and extremely tired, having just gotten home from school and the poem said exactly what I was feeling. The line that hits me most is when Holmes says, "I do nothing, but point/my bare feet into your/clean smoothness" (275). It made me miss my warm, cozy bed and want to run upstairs and fall into it.
This feeling is not strange to others, our bed is a safe place where troubles just dissolve and our worries slide away. That's what the poem reminded me of. That's how the author views her bed, too. She explains how she can, "feel your quiet strength the whole length of my body" (275). We feel safe in our beds because they are so familiar and seem to have a magical way of making us want to melt into them and never leave. It also brought back the memorie of waking up on a below freezing winter morning and borrowing into your blankets, feeling the breeze on the top of your head. Your bed holds endless stories of sleepovers and nightmares making your bed on of the most worn out and loved places in the house.

Holmes, Meredith. In Praise of My Bed. Good Poems. Ed. Garrison Keillor. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.

Seeking A President Who Gives Goose Bumps? So's Obama

For this weeks blog post, I read a column from The New York Times. The writer, Maureen Dowd, writes a conversation between Senator Obama and the fictional president from the show "West Wing", Jed Bartlet. Before writing Dowd consulted the creator of the show to make sure that President Bartlet sounded authentic, which I think he does. Bartlet and Obama's conversation is about the ongoing campaign and the recent blows the senator's campaign has taken. Throughout the editorial, Obama is seeking advice from the all knowing Bartlet, which is extremely difficult because of the President's sarcasm and humor. Through the writing, you can tell that Dowd is a big Obama supporter and dislikes McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin. At one point Dowd says about her,"It's not bad enough she's forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage...she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in the same direction too?" I thought that this column was very humorous and entertaining, but I doubt it one who supports McCain would find it as funny. Also, it would be helpful if one watched "West Wing" but not necessary. It brings up good points against McCain and Palin, and although short, gets very heated. It's obvious Dowd is very passionate about the election. The last piece of advice that Bartlet gives Obama is something he says frequentlly on the show, "Break's over." "Seeking a President Who Gives Goose Bumps? So's Obama." Editorial. The New York Times: Sunday Opinions. 21 Sept. 2008: 10.

Hello My Devoted Fans

Hello all. I'm oh so very glad you've decided to come visit my blog!!!
I'm even happier that it works and I can now be graded on everything I put on here. Joy.
Toodles all.