Cassi’s Blog

So its all starting to click with me now. I’m finding the humor in the characters tones and the deeper meanings in the story line. Shakespeare was using stereotyping to form a comic plot but underneath the text, through Shylock, the true meaning of prejudice comes out.

Shylock brings up that he, as a human, has the same senses, feelings, and appearance as a Christian. He is warmed and cooled by the summer and winter seasons as well as a christian. So tell me why that when a christian spits upon a Jew its considered comical, but if a Jew were to do the same thing in revenge then he would be punished?

Poor Shylock, i truly pity him because of all the things he has to put up with in his life because he is labeled as a Jew. Not only that, his only daughter ran off with a boy, not any boy, a christian boy, and with them all of Shylock’s money. Now god be damned if Shylock wouldn’t want a pound of flesh from Antonio. Maybe his sweet revenge on a christian will help him cope with his difficulties in life that have been brought upon him by his daughter.  

If only people today could communicated in this Shakespearian jargon. Everyday conversations would be so much more amusing and poetic. It would make it a lot easier to understand the meaning behind what Shakespeare is trying to say if i new this lingo. I enjoy the comical aspect that is put into this play. I would love to see a production of this play on stage. I think that would give me a much better hands on feel with the story and the characters. That experience might make it easier to connect to the plot and punch lines of the play.

My favorite character is Portia. She has a lot of spunk and is very sassy and witty. I think the way that she will choose her husband is priceless and very well thought out. So far in the reading she has outsmarted every suitor. But now Bassonio is knocking at her door and i have the feeling that he is going to get the right casket. One prince, so far, has chosen the gold casket and hasn’t been chosen, and one prince has chosen the silver casket and not received Portia’s hand in marriage. On the flip side, I dislike Jessica very much for stealing from her father and running off to her elopement with Lancelot.

After reading the passage and then listening to the radio broadcast it really educated me on the views of the soldiers and their families. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be on the line with life and death with the liberty of my country on my side. After reading about the things that these soldiers had to endure made my stomach turn. For example, making the mistake of killing innocent civilians because they were armed with a weapon and in the wrong place at the wrong time could change your life forever. The psychological damage done by each violent scene, each death of a fellow solider, and each death of a small child, can change someone for life.

From the parents stand point, knowing your son as a kind, light hearted kid and then turn into a person that you have never met before has to be heart breaking. Its no wonder Gray’s mother was so anal about getting the information on her son to find out how, where, and what had changed him. Between his first training, being sent to Iraq, and being sent back to Alaskafor more training something had changed in him. Depression, psychological problems, or PTSD are normal affects of soldiers who have witnessed violent scenes, therefore they are certain that Gray was under going some of these dragonesses. Maybe this was the reason to his death, maybe he just OD on, “Huffing,” we may never know.

Specifically in the McGuffey Reader that we read in class there was a lot of bias within the author’s writing. It amazes me that these passages were actually read in the time period and considered correct and the only way to go. The cultural eye comes into play of this bias mainly because the author was from a much later time then now. Also he is writing from a christian Protestant decent on each subject giving it a spiritual and/or religious tone. For example, in the Eclectic Second Reader, the story, “The Honest Boy and the Thief,” there is two boys; Charles is honest and loyal boy and Jack is a bad boy who lies all the time and shouldn’t be trusted. So one day Charlesis asked to watch a mans Oranges while he goes and gets a bite to eat, while this is occurring, Jack comes and tries to take the oranges that Charles is watching. While he is taking them the man’s horse kicks Jack and injures him. “Jack was rightly served; and the orange man, taking Charles’s hat, filled it with oranges, as he said he had been so faithful in guarding them, he should have all these for his honesty.” (104) The Protestant belief shows a bias to violent punishment for wrong doing.

Another example that i could not pass up was in the 2003 Public History book addition when speaking about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parkss’ influence in our history with their spiritual beliefs against racism. The author was clearly uneducated or just putting down what would sound good for the situation when he said, “On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a tired black seamstress returning from work, crowded a white bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She took a seat in the front row of the section reserved for black passengers.” (740) The author makes her sound very old and worn out. In our history it was not clearly stated that she was sitting in the first row of the, “black passenger section,” this misleads the story everyone has come to know of Rosa Parks being at the front of the bus and not moving. But little did she know that she was going to get involved with the Civil Rights movement in a big way.

• annotated bibliography
• “little miss Ms. sunshine.” sources
• “miss congeniality ” sources
• areas directed towards bulimia and anorexia

As Obierika states, “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (pg. 152)

The white settlers came and were very sneaky about their plans. They came to prove that they were a valuable force not to be reckoned with when they survived for over 4 days in the Evil Forest. But they are starting to take away from the clan; their brotherhood, their leaders, their people, and their beliefs and ways that they have had through the entirety of the tribe. They are forcing upon them their own form of government as well. For example when they took Aneto to Umuru and hung him. This was not by the consent of the Umuofia tribe but by the newly white colonizations. The Brits enforced the tribes by bringing in their own little militia, or what they called Kotma to regulate their government and make the tribe do what they wanted. This some-what like the government we have today even. When we want something done we just turn to our military and military spending to do the job.

Also the European settlers are pressuring the schooling of their language onto the clan as well. Mr. Brown states that all the future leaders of clans must be able to read and write. Mr. Brown put false pretenses into the villages heads to make them think that without schooling their children and themselves will be in a great travesty.

When Okonkwo returned from his seven year punishment, he did not like the feel of being back home. “The clan was like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another.” (pg. 147) Someone had already taken his place and the clan had been pointed into the christian direction. The amount of people from the clan that had joined had increased drastically.

People feel more wanted in the white settlers colony because they are more excepting. for example they take in all the twins that the tribe puts in pots into the forest. They let people in like the women who keeps bearing twins, along with other women who are cursed with an obligue.

Moving on, my favorite character would have to Enzinma. She is sassy just like her mother. They say that she sometimes can have an attitude, but what level-headed girl doesn’t? I think the bond that she holds with Okonkwo, despite is desire for her to be a boy, is so strong and defiant that it makes the story better to read. She stands out among all the other characters because she isn’t mediocre and doesn’t always go with what is said.

After the leaders were captured by the District Commissioner the clan had changed.” Umuofia was like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffling the silent, ominous air and not knowing which way to run.” (pg. 169) This is another amazing metaphor that a person reading the novel can relate to and now they can picture and get the vibe of how the clan is reacting. Great CSD!

Pg. 137 (in the red book) quote: “Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden caste.”

I know this is going to sound so cheesy and nerdy but this definitely reminds me of Harry Potter and how he had the dark mark on his forehead. It cast a dark shadow on him wherever he went.

Pg. 138 (in the red book) quote: this is said by Mr. Kiaga, “They said i would die if i took care of twins. i am still alive. The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. Only the word of our God is true.”

This is very condescending a white person to say that about what all the Igbo tribe has ever known. It is a bias statement that needs to be taken into consideration. The white people came here to spread there religion to the Igbo people. But they can go about it without discriminating the religion that has been in the tribe since its creation. especially since when the white settlers came to this tribe they sounded so sweetly and convincing that they were doing harmless work. And now later on, as you can see in this quote, they are starting to do what they really came to this culture to do; take over.

Work Cited:

Acemoglu, Daron. Johnson, Simon. Robison, James A. “The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation.” December 2001. Nashville. Vol. 91, Iss. 5;pg. 1369, 33 pgs. Proquest.com. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=2&sid=2&srchmode=1&vinst=PROD&fmt=2&startpage=-1&clientid=23079&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=99103546&scaling=FULL&ts=1224463303&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1224463443&clientId=23079

Abstract:

Differences in European mortality rates are exploited to estimate the effect of institutions on economic performance. Europeans adopted very different colonization policies in different colonies, with different associated institutions. In places where Europeans faced high mortality rates, they could not settle and were more likely to set up extractive institutions. These institutions persisted to the present. Exploiting differences in European mortality rates as an instrument for current institutions, we estimate large effects of institutions on income per capita. Once the effect of institutions is controlled for, countries in Africa or those closer to the equator do not have lower incomes.

Thoughts:

Europeans were unable to migrate too far into Africa because of their mortality rate increase. for example on the journey from Gambia to Niger none of the European settlers returned, they all died. But they settled enough in Africa to create the African American Slave Trade. This is mostly the overview of mortality on European colonies that were settling in Africa. But by learning about what they did it gives me the counter-argument on the effect Europeans had on Africa.

cassi cain has offically gotten her blog to work again!