Walter's POV

All I want in life is to be successful.  I want to be rich.  I want to buy my wife a pearl necklace.  I want a yacht.  I want everything that comes with being rich.  This liquor store was going to be my chance to make it big.  Mama got a check for ten thousand dollars.  TEN THOUSAND!  I wanted to use it to invest in a liquor store with Willy Harris and Bobo.  We had it all planned out and the only thing that we needed was my share of the money.  But when I asked Mama, she wouldn't give it to me.  She said, "There ain't going to be no investing in no liquor stores."  And when I tried to talk to my wife about it she said, "Eat your eggs, Walter."  Nobody ever understands me.  All I want to do is make something of myself and nobody even gives me the chance. 

When the check finally came, Mama went and bought a house.  We were all fighting that day so she thought it would cheer us up.  Well it crushed me.  She took away my dream before I even got a chance to follow through with it.  There was no point of working if I didn't have anything to work for so I spent the next three days drinking at the bar.  I guess my boss called and complained because Mama showed up at the bar to take me home.  I told her how I felt and she felt bad for me so she gave me the leftover money, sixty-five hundred dollars.  She told me to go to the bank and put three thousand dollars into Beneatha's schooling and put the rest into a checking account for me.  

Instead of going to the bank, I gave all the leftover money, including Beneatha's money, to Willy Harris and Bobo for the liquor store.  If this investment worked, I could pay for Beneatha's schooling myself.  We were one big happy family for a while there.  When Mr. Lindner from the "Welcoming Committee" came over to try to buy the house from us, we declined.  There wasn't anything that was going to stop us from moving into that house.

Later that day, Bobo came over and told me that Willy Harris has run off with the money.  I was devastated.  I finally had the chance to achieve my dream and Willy Harris crushed it.  Our family also needed that money.  I knew I made a huge mistake so I tried to make it right by calling Mr. Lindner and accepting the money for the house.  Once he came over however, I knew I couldn't accept his offer.  If we gave in to the white oppression then how will the black equality movement ever move forward?  Money is still important, but sticking up for your family and yourself matters a lot more.

A Not So Perfect Fairy Tale

"The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has every aspect that is attributed to a "Once upon a time" fairy tale: a handsome prince, a beautiful princess, and a gigantic castle located in a scenic area.  However, the story is missing a "happily ever after."  In fact, it has the complete opposite of a happy ending; but that is the point.  Fitzgerald's theme is to show that material possessions do not measure how happy a person is.  He achieves this theme through the use of rhetoric such as the symbol of the diamond.  The gigantic diamond represents the wealth of the Washington's which is also the source of their happiness.  A diamond that large would have no value because "there would not be enough gold in the world to buy a tenth part of it" (87).  Since the diamond is not worth anything, no happiness can come from it.  Although the idea of a diamond mountain is as ridiculous as pink elephants, the story's theme can still be applied to today's world.  When I walk into the school lunchroom, I see almost everyone on his or her phone.  When people forget their phones, I hear them say that they feel empty and sad.  People need to realize that material possessions, such as phones, can't make them feel truly happy.  John T. Unger also fails to realize this.  Although he saves Kismine and Jasmine from the airplane attack much like Moses saved many people by parting the Red Sea, he cannot truly be called a hero because his view on happiness never changed.  He is unsuccessful in realizing that true happiness comes from the relationships people make and the experiences you share with those people, not from luxurious items. 

The American Nightmare - EC

Question: Is there a dark side to American success?

I believe that there is a dark side to the American Dream.  The American Dream is that someone can start out poor, work really hard, and then become really rich and successful.  This is really hard to achieve; but if someone manages to, it never is what they expect it be like.  A good example of this is Jay Gatsby.

Before Gatsby became rich, he was James Gatz.  The son of unsuccessful farmers, he always dreamed he should be rich.  He even said that "his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents" (Fitzgerald 104).  He was determined to become wealthy, no matter what the cost. Since he couldn't become rich legally, he became rich illegally.  He expected that once he was wealthy, everything would fall into place.  Daisy would be his and everything would be perfect.  However, this is not the case.  Daisy is married to another man, but this doesn't stop Gatsby.  He is prepared to do whatever is necessary to make her his "and to this conception he was faithful to the end" (Fitzgerald 104).  But Daisy doesn't feel the same way, thereby crushing Gatsby's dream; she states, "'Oh you want too much!'" (Fitzgerald 134).  Until the day he died, he never gave up on his dream.  He truly was ""faithful to the end" (Fitzgerald 104).  Gatsby did achieve the American Dream, but it didn't turn out to be everything he expected it to be.  

Realizing Reality

This week, we read a speech given by David Foster Wallace to the graduates of Kenyon College in 2005.  In this speech, he talked about how "the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about."  This reminded me of Tony Stark because he couldn't see that his weapons caused more harm than good until he experienced it himself. 

Before Tony Stark became Iron Man, he was the CEO of Stark Industries, a weapons company.  He designed and created weapons for the U.S. military but his weapons were sold to other countries as well.  Tony only wanted his weapons to be sold to the United States, but he was too involved in his "lens of self" to realize what was going on.  All he cared about was making money and partying.  He was too distracted by his own needs that he never paid attention to what was going on "right in front of [him]."

That all changed when he was kidnapped in Afghanistan after he gave a weapon demonstration to the U.S. soldiers.  While he was there, he realized that the same weapons he created to protect innocent people were also the ones the terrorists were using to hurt them.  He escaped the cave he was held in by creating the iron man suit.  After that, he improved his suit and started using it help people because he finally realized that he is not the "center of the world." The world was suffering because he was being "self-centered" and he wanted to put an end to it.  Tony started to "experience" events in a new way, which is all David Foster Wallace asked for.

The Necessity of Punctuation Rules

Set rules of punctuation allow writers to express their feelings and tone in their work, much like pauses and changes in pitch do when speaking.  Looking at the photo above, Snoopy's feelings are clear because the punctuation rules state that question marks show confusion and exclamation points can show anger or shock.  If these rules changed, the meaning of this cartoon would be misinterpreted and the feelings the artist originally wanted to convey would be lost.  In "Notes on Punctuation", a colon is said to "give you the feeling of being ordered around" and exclamation points are "irritating" (Source D).  These connotations that are linked to the punctuation reveal the many ways that they can express an author's feelings and create tone.  Elizabeth Austen in "On Punctuation" uses flowery language in poem to express her emotions because she didn't use any punctuation in it.  It is a waste of time for an author to use more adjectives than needed to convey tone when a simple piece of punctuation would suffice.  Ben Dolnick in "Semicolons: A Love Story" hated semicolons but then discovered that "no other piece of punctuation...captures the way in which our thoughts are both liquid and solid, wave and particle" (Source E).  He realized that no other piece of punctuation conveys the same meaning as a semicolon.  Each piece of punctuation has its own feeling associated with it.  By changing the rules, it would lead to the misinterpretation of tone and the emotions the author originally wanted to convey would be gone.

The Power of Society

"You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source.  Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction.  It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.  The master had said, 'You are ugly people.'  They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance.  'Yes,' they had said.  'You are right.'" (Morrison 39).

This passage, I believe, is the most important passage in The Bluest Eye because it explains why the Breedloves are ugly.  They are not physically ugly, but since they believe they are, people consider them ugly.  The "all-knowing master" who has given them the "cloak of ugliness" represents how white society has created this beauty standard that is impossible to live up to.  The movies, magazines, and all other sources of entertainment depicted only whites, creating a standard that you had to be white in order to be beautiful.  Since the Breedloves could not find anything to contradict this statement, they believed it to be a fact.  


A similar situation happened in The Avengers to Bruce Banner, otherwise known as the Hulk.  When Banner's heart rate gets too high, he turns into the Hulk.  When he is the Hulk, he doesn't have control over himself and can cause a lot of damage.  Because of this, society views the Hulk as a bad thing that needs to be contained.  This causes Banner to hate the Hulk side of him and to wish it wasn't there.  The Hulk is not a bad thing, he ends up saving the day at the end of the movie; but since society deems him as terrible, he ends up believing it just like the Breedloves did.  Tony Stark, however, does not view the Hulk as a terrible monster.  He, in fact, views him as an asset.  When Tony compliments him on being the Hulk, Banner accepts the compliment very lightly because he doesn't believe it.  Tony manages to convince Banner by the end of the movie that the Hulk might actually be a good thing.  That is the difference between Banner and the Breedloves, Banner had someone to convince him that society is wrong to make him believe that the Hulk is a bad thing.  Maybe if the Breedloves had their own Tony Stark, things would have ended differently.

Skinny Steve

This week, we read a few chapters in The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.  The whole book is about how women's beauty standards affect women but while I was reading it, I started thinking about the societal standards for men.  In doing so, I realized that those standards had a huge impact on Steve Roger's (Captain America) life.

Back before Captain America was Captain America, he was a short, unusually skinny man from Brooklyn, New York.  Before the procedure, girls ignored him.  After the procedure, girls loved him.  Everything stayed the same except one thing, his body.  In order for a man to be considered handsome in society, they have to be tall and muscular.  Steve Rogers is the total opposite of this standard so it is no surprise that he is having trouble finding a girl.  

In the picture to the left, it is clear that this women really likes Steve.  However, if he had walked into that room before the procedure, the women would have totally ignored him.  Even though this movie takes place in the 1940s, this standard still exists today.  There aren't very many movies where the main character is a short, skinny man or a man that is on the heavier side.  Also, there aren't really any magazines with pictures of men that aren't tall, muscular, and tan.  It is sad that society cares more about someone's physical appearance than their personality.

The Seed of Hope

This week in class we read two prologues from The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.  In the second prologue, it explains the important details of the story so the readers can focus of the novel and not on their emotions.  The second prologue also talks about hope which reminded me of how Captain America is the "seed" of hope when an evil organization with intentions of taking over the world, HYDRA, plans to take over SHIELD.

When HYDRA is about to take over SHIELD, everything is in chaos.  HYDRA is about to win and all the SHIELD agents have lost all hope.  When everything looks grim, Captain America comes along and delivers a really inspiring speech that gives the agents confidence that they have a chance of defeating HYDRA.

The two sisters in the prologue have also lost all hope, except no one is there to bring that hope back.  The word "seed" in this passage represents hope. They said they searched everywhere but the seeds "did not sprout."  After a while, they came to a conclusion that it was not the seeds fault that they didn't grow, but the Earth's.  They believed that no matter how much hope for change they have, it will never grow because society is unwilling to accept it.

I don't believe that is true.  No one has really stood up to the societal standard of beauty so it is unfair to say that society won't accept this change.  One of the sisters even says that "if we planted the seeds, and said the right words over them, they would blossom, and everything would be all right."  This is exactly what Captain America did during the HYDRA attack and this is exactly what we as a society need to do in order to make a change in the way we see beauty. 

Spider-Man

This weekend, we read a piece by Toni Morrison called "[This Amazing, Troubling Book]".  In this piece, Morrison analyzes Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through her perspective.  We read Huck Finn over the summer; however, after revisiting this novel through Morrison's piece, I have discovered many similarities between Spider-Man and Huck Finn.

First, they both have a fatherly figure other than their actual dad.  For Huck it is Jim and for Peter (Spider-Man) it is his Uncle Ben.  It is because of their fatherly figures that both Huck and Peter become the heroes we know and love.  Because Jim is captured and is brought back into slavery, Huck finally overcomes all his doubts and sets a moral code for himself which leads him to rescuing Jim.  Since Peter indirectly caused his uncle's death by not stopping the thief who then goes on and kills Uncle Ben, Peter decides that he will only use his powers for good and not for selfish reasons.

Second, even though society puts all this peer pressure on them to change or to stop doing what they are doing, they always follow their conscience because they know what they are doing is right.  Everything in Huck's society has influenced him to believe that he should return Jim to slavery; but, in his heart, he knows slavery is wrong and will do anything to keep his friend and fatherly figure out of slavery.  In Spider-Man's society, everyone thinks he is a menace.  They think he should stop terrorizing the city, even though he is actually trying to help.  This doesn't faze Spider-Man, however, because he knows what he is doing is for the greater good and intends to protect New York and everyone in it.

The X-Men and Hester

This week, we finished reading The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  In the novel, Hester has committed adultery and is forever labeled as an outcast in her society.  This particular aspect of the book reminded me of how the X-Men are also outcasts in their society.

Since Hester isn't accepted in her society, she lives in a cottage in the woods.  Similarly, the X-Men live in a secluded house under the name of "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters" so no one will know that mutants live there.  In the beginning of the book, Hester spends most of her time helping the less fortunate; however, this doesn't change the views of society towards her.  The X-Men are a superhero group whose goal is to protect the citizens of their city. Yet despite all their efforts, the people still view them as dangerous outcasts.  Over time, people start to view the X-Men as heroes just like the citizens in Hester's town start to view the scarlet "A" as "able" instead of adulterer; but they can never escape the fact that they are outcasts.  

Under all the similarities between Hester and the X-Men is one difference; Hester defies the stereotype that men are stronger than women while the X-Men embrace it.  Hester, a woman, is portrayed as being very strong while Dimmesdale, the partner in her sin and a man, is portrayed as very weak.  He even goes to Hester for support because he can't handle all the guilt as well as Hester can.  On the other hand, the X-Men support this stereotype because even though there are woman in the team, they still call themselves the X-Men.  They want to seem strong, so they do this by using the word "men" and not "group" or "people".  Even though they differ in this stereotype, Hester and the X-Men's lives are very similar. 

Agent Peggy Carter

This week, we read a story called "There Is No Unmarked Woman" by Deborah Tannen.  In this story, Tannen explained how women are marked no matter what they do.  There is no standard style or way of life a woman can have without being judged.  This piece reminded me of Peggy Carter's situation because she is marked for being one of the only women in the U.S. Army during World War II.

In this GIF set, Peggy is getting fed up with all the soldiers judging her because she is a women. The soldier named Hodge assumes that since she is a women in the army, she is there to hook up with the male soldiers. She is marked because mostly men made up the army at this point in time. Hodge wouldn't treat the other male soldiers like he treated Peggy; he would treat them with respect. He also mocks her British accent by calling her "Queen Victoria" and "your majesty". If a male soldier had an accent, he would not tease him; he would respect it.

In this GIF set, Peggy is offended that Steve Rogers (Captain America) sees her as a "dame" instead of an agent. He assumes that since she is a women, she is crazy to want to be in the army. Steve is marking her because it is unusual for a women to be in Peggy's position. If there was a man sitting next to him, he wouldn't have wondered why he joined the army because it was standard for a man to enlist at this time period. All Peggy wants to do is go about her daily business, but she can't without being judged.

                                                 

                                                         

Iron Man Actually Thinks of Others?

This week, we read a few chapters from The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  In those few chapters, we learn that Hester Prynne has been marked with a scarlet "A" on her chest forever serving as a reminder to herself and everyone around her that she has sinned.  Ever since she has worn that "A", no one has looked at her the same.  They only see her for her sin, just like Captain America only sees Iron Man for his narcissism. 

Iron Man's narcissism was first brought up in Iron Man 2 when the Black Widow was sent to see if Iron Man qualified to be in the Avengers.  He was rejected for various reasons, including his narcissism.  He acknowledges that he can be self-obsessed at times, but he has so many other great qualities that had been overlooked.  From then on, he will be marked in SHIELD's files as a narcissist. 

Captain America, who had just woken up from being frozen in ice for 70 years, reads SHIELD's files to catch up on everything that he missed.  When the Avengers finally team up, all Captain America knows about Iron Man is what is written about him in the files.  

During the movie, Captain America and Iron Man get into a fight because Captain America doesn't think he belongs here.  He says, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself."  Captain America needs to realize that there is more to Iron Man than his narcissism, just like there is more to Hester than her sin.

Stereotypes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

This week we read a few stories about stereotypes and it got me thinking about all the stereotypes in movies, specifically stereotypes about women in superhero movies.  Women in superhero movies are usually included for objectification purposes, love interests, and a supporting role for the male characters.

I felt the Marvel Cinematic Universe did a good job steering clear of these stereotypes until I did some further thinking.  The Black Widow , for example, is a very strong female character that I thought defied these stereotypes until I thought back to when she was first introduced in Iron Man 2.  Tony Stark objectified her by saying "I want one" when she walked into the room.  This is extremely demeaning because he refers to her as an object and not a human being.  Even though the Black Widow hasn't been associated with that stereotype since Iron Man 2, she still has yet to be in a role other than a supporting one. 


Another powerful female character that I thought did not fit into any stereotypes is Agent Peggy Carter.  When she is first introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger, she is portrayed as an intelligent and straightforward character.  But as the movie goes on, her primary role shifts from a strong leader to Captain America's love interest. 

Marvel is slowly trying to get rid of these stereotypes by possibly making a Black Widow movie and giving Peggy Carter her own show; but as of right now, these stereotypes still exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and many other universes such as DC.  The creators of these movies need to realize that these stereotypes are unfair to women and they need to stop incorporating them into their movies.  

Even Captain America has Survivor Guilt

"'The truth,' Norman Bowker would've said, 'is I let the guy go.'" (O'Brien 147).

Norman Bowker from The Things They Carried reminded me of Captain America in the way that they both suffer from survivor guilt.  Bowker and Captain America both tried to save their friend and both failed; leaving them to watch their friend die and ultimately blaming themselves for their friend’s death.  Bowker couldn't let go of the fact that he couldn't pull his friend Kiowa out of the waste.  He remembers himself thinking "not here...not like this" (O'Brien 143) which is exactly what Captain America was thinking when he watched his best friend Bucky fall from the train.  He tried to pull Bucky up, but the handle broke before Bucky could grab onto his hand. 

After the war, Bowker has a hard time adjusting to everyday life.  He wants to talk about the night Kiowa died, but he can't.  He can't explain his emotions so he spends most of his time driving around wondering what it would be like if he could talk about it.  While Bowker tends to dwell on the past, Captain America tries to take his mind off of the incident by focusing on the war so much that he forgets Bucky's death for a while.  He needs to get keep himself busy because he knows the guilt will eat him alive if he doesn't.