Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
This is Water - Essay Analysis
"This is Water", this essay was written by David Foster Wallace, only to be delivered as a speech to the university graduates of Kenyon University. The speech covered and conveyed a significant aspect in life that the majority of people don't notice. It managed to portray freedom as being so important and easily configured. The purpose of the speech is to implement a simple yet primary lens, which life should be seen through. The moral of the phenomenal speech is to is to not consider the questions about the life after death, as a person must self adjust oneself to be aware consciously live the life before death.
The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.
The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.
"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.
The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.
The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.
"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Munro Literature Reflection
Literature is a skill that the majority of this generation appears to lack in. It consists of a wide range of literary works such as classical well-known novels, inspirational poems/ speeches and so on. It is important to have knowledge and skill in literature as it allows the reader to grasp the knowledge that is needed in order to further comprehend language as a whole and engage in more sophisticated thoughts and conversations. It also betters our ability to read others and interpret their body language and thoughts.
Women's literature, to be specific, is a kind of literature that can be used to express a variety of different thoughts and views. As a result of women's literature, people started to see things and understand them from different angles and perspectives, allowing them to understand how women view the world and the society as a whole. With it readers can form a less biased judgment about women and their values.
The themes and values of Munro's social realism were significant during the mid 1990s. This is due to the fact that her short stories managed to focus on women, and how they struggle to the fact that it was the 2nd wave of feminism at the time, so there we see a link that shows the significance of her themes. Munro stresses in her short stories, on bringing attention to women from their own perspectives, while also including different kinds of women from all ages, contributing to women's literature. Seeking equality in society, her short story "Boys and Girls" targeted the idea of gender roles, which took into consideration the expectations that people from either sex live up for.
The reason behind me admiring Alice Munro's short stories and techniques, was because as a reader a person wants to read and learn something different. The thing that was different and impacting, was how Munro managed to write her stories surrounding women as the main characters. In addition, the fact that she managed to make her stories informative and give perceptive without having to write anything much longer than just a typical short story, made her stories appealing and enjoyable.
Women's literature, to be specific, is a kind of literature that can be used to express a variety of different thoughts and views. As a result of women's literature, people started to see things and understand them from different angles and perspectives, allowing them to understand how women view the world and the society as a whole. With it readers can form a less biased judgment about women and their values.
The themes and values of Munro's social realism were significant during the mid 1990s. This is due to the fact that her short stories managed to focus on women, and how they struggle to the fact that it was the 2nd wave of feminism at the time, so there we see a link that shows the significance of her themes. Munro stresses in her short stories, on bringing attention to women from their own perspectives, while also including different kinds of women from all ages, contributing to women's literature. Seeking equality in society, her short story "Boys and Girls" targeted the idea of gender roles, which took into consideration the expectations that people from either sex live up for.
The reason behind me admiring Alice Munro's short stories and techniques, was because as a reader a person wants to read and learn something different. The thing that was different and impacting, was how Munro managed to write her stories surrounding women as the main characters. In addition, the fact that she managed to make her stories informative and give perceptive without having to write anything much longer than just a typical short story, made her stories appealing and enjoyable.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Tupac "Changes" commentary
Tupac, who was killed in 1996, was an American Rapper. Many of his songs feature the struggles that many people from black ethnicity have to cope with. The rap song "changes" carries with it Tupac's own lived experiences. The lyrics sheds light on significant issues consisting of violence, poverty and racism, all beholding a strong message of peace and equality.
In the third line of the song, "Is life worth living? Should i blast myself?", we can view it as a rising action, where Tupac is introducing an internal conflict to us as audience, which is a conflict of a struggle occurring within a character's mind. Then Tupac moves on to say in the next few lines, "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch", these lines further illustrate the internal conflict the author Tupac is struggling with, we are given an insight of how many people from black ethnicity live in poverty in America, and are not given the same opportunities and living standards, so they divert into doing wrong in order to move on. Tupac keeps on repeating and stating that he "sees no changes", further demonstrating his eagerness to see people from his culture and from black ethnicity, to be recognized by society and be equal.
Various Poetic features were in play and enhanced the message delivered to the audience, such as an anaphora, rhyme, allusion, free verse, Irony and metaphor.
Anaphora is a word or phrase that is repeated at the start of lines, "I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself ... I see no changes, all I see is racist faces", these previous lines carry an anaphora within to be delivered to the audience. A rhyme is an important component that can be very common in songs, which is considered to be the usage of matching sound patterns of different words at the end of different sentences, evident in the lines "Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, Crack you up and pimp-smack you up". An allusion was also present, which is when the song writer or author refers to another text, person or an event, for example "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead".
Ironies were also present in the song, which are words that convey a meaning different and opposite of their literal meaning, such poetic devices are used by authors who are discussing an issue where they are resembling a minority or a lost cause, this can be shown in the lines "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare", in these previous lines, Tupac asks to hand drugs down to kids, however the intention is to show how desperate people can get for fighting a case that is being looked down upon. Last but not least, free verse, a piece of text written in free verse is intended to not have any rhymes or a basic regular rhythm, this was clear in the lines "We gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live And let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive".
In the third line of the song, "Is life worth living? Should i blast myself?", we can view it as a rising action, where Tupac is introducing an internal conflict to us as audience, which is a conflict of a struggle occurring within a character's mind. Then Tupac moves on to say in the next few lines, "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch", these lines further illustrate the internal conflict the author Tupac is struggling with, we are given an insight of how many people from black ethnicity live in poverty in America, and are not given the same opportunities and living standards, so they divert into doing wrong in order to move on. Tupac keeps on repeating and stating that he "sees no changes", further demonstrating his eagerness to see people from his culture and from black ethnicity, to be recognized by society and be equal.
Various Poetic features were in play and enhanced the message delivered to the audience, such as an anaphora, rhyme, allusion, free verse, Irony and metaphor.
Anaphora is a word or phrase that is repeated at the start of lines, "I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself ... I see no changes, all I see is racist faces", these previous lines carry an anaphora within to be delivered to the audience. A rhyme is an important component that can be very common in songs, which is considered to be the usage of matching sound patterns of different words at the end of different sentences, evident in the lines "Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, Crack you up and pimp-smack you up". An allusion was also present, which is when the song writer or author refers to another text, person or an event, for example "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead".
Ironies were also present in the song, which are words that convey a meaning different and opposite of their literal meaning, such poetic devices are used by authors who are discussing an issue where they are resembling a minority or a lost cause, this can be shown in the lines "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare", in these previous lines, Tupac asks to hand drugs down to kids, however the intention is to show how desperate people can get for fighting a case that is being looked down upon. Last but not least, free verse, a piece of text written in free verse is intended to not have any rhymes or a basic regular rhythm, this was clear in the lines "We gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live And let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive".
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