Memories

I have created three flipagrams for this blog post, all with pictures with Millbrook friends.

The first flipagram is compiled of pictures from my freshman and sophomore years of high school. These years are combined because I didn’t have enough pictures from each year individually. Although these pictures are definitely cringe-worthy, or include pictures of people that I am no longer close with, I tried to select pictures that were representative of those years. These years were formative for my entire high school experience. It was then that I met or became closer to most of the people who are my best friends now. To use the prompt you gave us, it was… unchallenging. I didn’t have as many stressors as I do now, and I generally had fun doing things with my friends. I chose this song, “Pompeii” by Bastille, because it was a hit of 2014 and pretty nostalgic when coupled with the slideshow of pictures. And can we all just appreciate how tiny Ian was and how much he’s glow’d up??

This next flipagram is compiled of pictures from my junior year. All of these pictures reminded me of some great experiences that I’ve had. I couldn’t help but smile when I watched it. Junior year was the beginning of the illustrious IB Diploma Program, hence the selection of the song “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten, which was a hit last year. Looking back at the entire IB experience, I am extremely happy that I made the decision to join, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Although it’s been challenging, the community is something I am extremely grateful for. As a whole, junior year, in a word, was… eye-opening.

Creating this last flipagram was sad for me because it is a reminder that I am nearing the end of my high school career. I chose a slower song, “River” by Leon Bridges, which is one of my favorite songs of all time but also kinda sad, which is representative of this past year. Senior year has been good and bad, but mostly good. This has also been the busiest year I’ve had in high school, both in and outside of the classroom. Although it’s been the hardest, senior year has definitely been the best year of my schooling career so far. There is no one word that I would use to describe this year. It was… challenging, tiring, amusing, action-packed, and sweet.

This entire blog post has forced me to be very nostalgic about my time at Millbrook. I love this school and I will be sad to leave it and its people.

Inside the Mind of Walt Whitman

Part 1:

When looking through Whitman’s notebook, I immediately notice that there is little organization. Besides the page breaks between thoughts, everything seems to have no order to it. This most likely means that Whitman used this notebook wherever and whenever to write down a thought exactly when he had it. This connects to a theme that Whitman displays throughout his poems: experience is more valuable than formalized learning. He probably thought of his best ideas while out in the world experiencing things. I noticed that there was a red stamp in multiple spots on the notebook, both in the writing section and in the drawings section. I am not sure what this stamp means but it most likely has significance to Whitman because he used it many times. Many times Whitman writes down ideas or actually writes out poems. He wrote down the idea “two characters as a dialogue between A. Lincoln and” Walt Whitman. This is significant because it shows the affection that he has for Lincoln and the importance that Lincoln had on Whitman’s poetry pieces after Whitman saw him for the first time. The notebook also includes many crossed out words, which shows that he filtered his thoughts and what he decided to put into his poems.

It also included words such as “philosophy, religion, questioning, [and] reasons”. Later he inscribes a poem idea called Ship of Libertad. It goes, “Ship of the world- ship of Humanity- Ship of the ages ?(ship that circuits the world  ship of the hope of the world- Ship of Promise”. Whitman thought a lot about humanity and what that meant, including how to connect to his reader. He also used dashed, parenthesis, and capitalization to convey his thoughts like he does in Leaves of Grass. In his notebook, he uses second person, which is interesting because I assumed that this was a personal notebook. Lastly, there are multiple drawings in the notebook, all depicting a version of a man. The first three are clearly of the same man, altered in some way. The second drawing was significant to me because the character had his hand stretched out, which might signify the relationship that Whitman wanted to make with his readers and all humans.

Part 2:

After looking at the notes, some details come into focus. Firstly, I learned that Lincoln and Whitman never really met or had a relationship, but Whitman would often watch him pass to and from his summer cottage when he lived in D.C. Also, he had dreams of creating books and other literary works including a brochure for the imaginary dialogue between himself and Lincoln. I also learned about the importance of the word “religion” in his notebook. Whitman included the idea that he wanted to reconcile two religions, just like he wanted to reconcile the two political platforms surrounding the civil war. This was all in an attempt to unite instead of divide people. This could also be the reason for why he used the Spanish word “Libertad” instead of the English word liberty.

The poem about the ship was important for many reasons. He wrote about the captain of the ship, metaphorically representing the president-elect Abraham Lincoln, and how he would have to go through many hardships and storms just like the ship. He equated the storm that the ship went through to the Civil war, and the doom that Americans would face if they continued on this divisive path. In addition to using the ship to represent troubles of the nation, Whitman was experiencing personal troubles around this time. With the beginning of the war, his publishers went bankrupt. Lastly, the drawings depict Whitman himself, each displaying different characteristics about the man, drawn by other people.


Quotations: The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Image: "Walt Whitman." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Mar. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

The American Dream?

The American Dream is the idea that every American has the ability to achieve and prosper no matter their circumstances if they employ work hard and dedication. It is founded on the basis of democracy and equal opportunity. The U.S. is theoretically a nation that has social class mobility, therefore any person, no matter what social class they were born into, can progress themselves and achieve whatever they set their mind to. While the idea is lovely and wonderful, the reality is a much different story. There are many studies that suggest people will most likely remain in the same social class into which they were born. As a result, the American Dream is just that, a dream, for many people.

I would define wealth as the amount of money one owns. Having immense wealth means having enough money to support all of your needs and some or most of your wants. Wealth is monetary security. Those with tremendous wealth mostly live without the fear that an emergency would bankrupt them. The wealthy live with a certain kind of comfort. There are different origins of wealth, however. As evident in The Great Gatsby, there is “old” money and “new” money. “Old” money is familial wealth that usually increases with age because of interest and investments. Examples would be the Mars family and the Du Pont family. “New” money is when a person becomes wealthy themselves. Examples would be people like Viola Davis and Mark Zuckerberg.

Americans range drastically in wealth. The U.S. is split up into 6 socioeconomic classes: Capitalist, Upper Middle, Middle, Working class, Working poor, and the Underclass (1). The majority of Americans are in the Middle and Working classes, totaling 60% of the population. 13% are in the working poor class, 12% are in the underclass, 14% in the upper middle, and 1% reside within the capitalist class. I would define the working poor and the underclass as living in poverty. The average American, someone from the middle class, most likely was born into the middle class and probably has experienced financial insecurity but never legitimate poverty. This average American probably grew up hearing the message that he/she can do whatever he/she wants to do when he/she grows up. This average American probably believes in the American Dream because there are very public examples of its success (ex. Jay-Z, Oprah, Ursula Burns, etc.). Alright, maybe this average American has resolved that he/she is not going to be some famous, wealthy celebrity, but certainly believes that he/she can get a respectable job and education and maybe they aim for the white picket fence type of American Dream. The average American probably sees extreme wealth as unachievable but believes that a comfortable amount of wealth is conceivable.

As for poverty, I would probably say that the average middle class American does not fully understand the severity and the extent of poverty in the U.S., depending on where they live. Also, I would say that many Americans reserve adjectives such as disgusting, lazy, dumb for those who are struck by poverty. Because the majority of Americans have not experienced poverty for themselves, they don’t fully understand it.

Similarly to the average American, I myself have never experienced poverty. However, because of my privilege, I have been able to travel on mission trips where I encountered those living in poverty within and without the U.S. I’ve seen extreme poverty in St.Mary, Jamaica, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and right here in Raleigh. My opinion on poverty, especially within the U.S., is that it’s a vicious cycle and difficult to escape. Those who are born into families that have more money simply have better opportunities to succeed. I also think that education has direct effect on poverty and wealth. In my research for my extended essay, I discovered that women who received a significant amount of education in Pakistan had much higher chances of not getting caught in poverty which sometimes resulted in human trafficking. Overall, wealth and poverty are both controversial topics that I am interested in learning more about.

1. Ferraro, Gary, and Susan Andreatta. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. 9th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, n.d. Print.

Picture: https://ourfuture.org/20110419/the_american_dream_deferred_pt_2

Freebie

Freebie

IOC Practice

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5hAth47i1NIenhWZ3JpVDZuM0k/view?usp=sharing

Scoring:

Criterion A:

6, It is evident that I am knowledgeable about the text, but some points are not explained thoroughly and lack evidence within the novel. Also, some of the points are unorganized, which creates confusion about the novel.

Criterion B:

7, There is good awareness of the literary features used in the passage, but the significance could have been more in depth. Each literary feature includes examples and explanations.

Criterion C:

4, There was good organization of the whole commentary. It included an introduction, thesis, 3 main points with explanation, and conclusion. Within the explanations, there was organization with a general overview of the literary device, examples, and significance. However, some points seemed to be out of place.

Criterion D:

3, Appropriate language is used, with an adequate degree of accuracy and grammar. Some of my pauses and mistakes hinder the understanding of the commentary. The literary devices could have been more detailed. For example, I just used dialogue, point of view, and chronology without a descriptor attached to each.

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover, or Should We??

The first and second covers are both bright while the third and fourth covers are darker. The first cover and second cover also both have a girl on the cover. The fourth cover has what looks to be a human with some organs outlined. The first and second cover are intended to portray Kathy and her friends as humans, while the fourth cover more defines them as the whole of their parts, not simply a human. I think the intended purpose of the first cover is just to characterize the main character, Kathy, and give a face to the name so that the reader feels more connected to her as a human. The second cover has a similar purpose: the girl dancing makes her seem very human and innocent, which makes the reader sympathize with her. The purpose of the second cover is to show a desolate land that represents the dystopia in the novel. There is obviously something wrong in this landscape, and it is a dark and sickly color. Cover four is intended to show the purpose of Kathy and her friends, to be organ donors. The cover is very dark and scary-looking. I think this is to set the mood for the novel.

Cover 4:

(https://www.behance.net/gallery/1613117/Never-Let-Me-Go-(book-cover))

The first words that come to mind are organs, autopsy, dead, harsh, and wicked. It’s obvious that the figure on the cover is human, but with very negative connotations. The head and arms are cut off, which makes the figure look like a gory murder victim. If I hadn’t read any of the novel, I honestly would probably stay away from it. This cover makes the book look like it belongs in the horror genre. Now that I’ve read some of the novel, the cover seems very fitting. I think that the barbed wire and faded bars around the body signifies the inescapable life that has been set out for Kathy and the other clones. They have been created to donate organs, which is represented through the distorted drawing of organs on the body. I think that the rest of the body is not shown/cut off because it is useless to the society. They only need the clones’ vital organs, and any other part of their bodies have no use in their society. The viewpoint of this cover is from the people who decided to create clones for use by regular people. As stated earlier, the only purpose for these beings is to take their organs. The creators of the clones will not see the intellectual capital or emotional capacity of the clones. The people who would read this probably are interested in the science fiction genre, because the figure on the cover resembles a human but there is obviously something out of order. I think the cover is very fitting for the plot of the book, however the book portrays a much darker mood than what I have read so far. So far, it’s evident that this is a dystopia, but the day to day lives of the clones are not bad at all, not anything like what you would expect from looking at the cover. The cover makes them seem like slaves who are suffering, which may surface later on in the novel.

Cover 2:

(http://www.patricktreardon.com/book-review-never-let-me-go-by-kazuo-ishiguro/)

The first words that come to mind when I look at this cover are dancing, child, playful, and light. The cover is most likely displaying the scene in the book where Kathy is dancing with her pillow to the cassette tape she has. If I hadn’t read any of the book, I would think that the book might be about a young girl and her life. The bright colors on the book make it look like it would have a light tone. Now that I’ve read part of the book, I understand the context of this cover. Kathy is being portrayed here, and it is most likely from the viewpoint of Madame. When Kathy is dancing to the cassette tape, Madame sees her and starts crying. I think that this was because she was sad that Kathy will never have the life of a normal human. So while the cover makes her look like a happy, healthy young girl, we know that Kathy is actually a clone who has a very dark and devastating life ahead of her. The cover does remind me of the ignorance of the clones in the book. It seems to be that they don’t even know that their life is a sad one. They are aware of their job in the society, but don’t know what makes them so different than everyone else. The cover signifies the ignorance within the book. I do think the cover is misleading if you don’t know anything about the plot. It definitely doesn’t look like a science fiction book.

The Grey Area

https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_strange_answers_to_the_psychopath_test#t-1046118

This talk was about psychopathy and whether it’s appropriate to diagnose someone based on a checklist. Jon Ronson, the speaker, told about his encounter with a man named Tony. Tony committed assault then faked madness to get out of serving his sentence. Instead, he was sent to Broadmoor, a mental hospital that houses those with mental disabilities that cause them to kill and rape and commit other serious crimes. When speaking to Tony’s clinician, he discovered that they have accepted that Tony faked his mental disorder but as a result they have diagnosed him with psychopathy. This then interested Jon in what qualifies someone to be a psychopath. He discovered the checklist, and learned that about 1 in 100 people are psychopaths. Tony spend 14 years total in Broadmoor, the whole time trying to convince them that he was sane. He said the doctors there just looked for ways to prove his madness. For example, the said he was aloof and grandiose because he tended to stay in his room and not mingle with the other patients. They basically took every chance they could to check off another item on the psychopathy checklist. Ronson then decided to become more educated in psychopathy and eventually dubbed himself a ‘psychopath spotter’. He learned that the number of psychopaths rises among CEOs and business leaders. The reason behind this is that capitalism encourages psychopathy by rewarding things such as lack of empathy, glibness, and a cunning and manipulative behavior. Ronson decided to interview an asset stripper from the 90s named Al Dunlap, known for reducing some businesses’ workforces by more than 30% in some cases. He observed that Dunlap fit only some characteristics of psychopathy. He concluded with saying that we live in a world that loves to put people in boxes, loves to check the boxes on the checklist. Ronson saw that everything isn’t black and white, the grey area is where you find the complexity, like Tony and Al.

This TED talk was interesting because the speaker utilized visual and auditory aid to tell his story. There were drawings on the screen behind him that went along with his narrative. Also, there were sounds that highlighted important points in the story. He explained his authority on the subject by stating that he took a psychopath spotting course created by Robert Hare, the maker of the checklist. He researched this topic for two years and has written multiple books on mental disorders.

Ronson used two big examples to support his argument. He walked through the story of Tony, a patient in the Broadmoor institution, and Al, a former capitalist king. What he uncovered is that it is not easy to name someone a complete psychopath. He called Tony a “semi-psychopath”. It was interesting that he led with a personal experience. He said that he flipped through a copy of the DSM in a friend’s house and found that he had 12 mental disorders. He uses comedy like this throughout multiple points in the narrative. His argument was easy to follow. He may have a bias on the subject because he is also a journalist. He stated that because of this, he was able to notice that he was sometimes only using the information that he wanted for the book he was writing. This is what led him to the epiphany that eventually became his argument.

Ronson used visual and auditory aspects to evoke emotions from the audience. Also, his story was personal, and he let the audience hear what his thoughts were throughout the entire process. Using personal experience to evoke emotion was effective in his case. For example, the mental disorders that he diagnosed himself with from the DSM were all very relatable: generalized anxiety disorder, nightmare disorder, malingering, and parent-child relational problems. Another example he used pulled at the heart-strings of the audience. He said that we’re so eager to diagnose mental disorders these days that there are cases of children as young as 4 being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Appealing to emotion was very effective in this talk.

Ultimately, the purpose of his talk was to convince the audience that mental disorders are not black and white. Each case is special and different. I chose to write about this TED talk because I have watched it before and I thought it was very interesting how he conveyed his information. I originally chose to watch this because, just as Ronson stated, we love to discover what’s wrong with us. I recently watched a Brain Games episode in which they gave you a mini test to discover if you were a psychopath or not. This then increased my interest on the subject of mental disorders which led me to watch this talk. Also, we’ve been studying human nature in class with Jekyll and Hyde. Ronson and Stevenson actually support the same idea, it’s impossible to be exclusively one thing or another (good vs. evil, normal vs. psychopath). I find it to be very true that we, as a society, tend to categorize people in multiple ways. Ronson really challenged the validity behind that. Overall I thought this talk was very interesting and challenged my thinking on the subject.

Identity Crisis

In chapter 2, Mr.Hyde is characterized through his conversation with Mr.Utterson. He responds to Mr.Utterson’s call with “a hissing intake of the breath”(Stevenson 9). This action makes Mr.Hyde seem animalistic. His appearance is not described by the narrator, adding to the mystery of who Mr.Hyde is. Mr.Hyde’s tone was guarded and skeptical of Mr.Utterson. He says, “He never told you...I did not think you would have lied” (Stevenson 10). Mr.Hyde is unfriendly and unwelcoming. Mr.Utterson reacts to this by saying “this is not fitting language” (10). While Mr.Utterson is appearing to be friendly and harmless, he is also guarded and skeptical like Mr.Hyde. He does not trust him and believes he has the wrong intentions.

Conversely, Dr.Jekyll does have a description in chapter 3: “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson 12). This description gives the reader a fond image of Dr.Jekyll. He seems to be the opposite of Mr.Hyde, who is scary and untrustworthy. Mr.Utterson’s interaction with Mr.Hyde is similar to that with Dr.Jekyll. Mr.Utterson said to Dr.Jekyll, “You know that will of yours?” (Stevenson 12). Mr.Utterson is not afraid to ask the uncomfortable question. Just like he asked Mr.Hyde to uncover his face, he asked Mr.Jekyll to discuss the will. He recognizes that both of these men are suspicious.

Poem:
The purpose of this poem is to show the characterization of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. It is intended to show the conflict in power between the two identities.

Sources:
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/d6/d6cb40ad18b51c48017f8eadf511c48a6a4a25334e0905a4e8b028fdeb0e05a3.jpg
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, 1991. Print.