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.