Michael's Blog

To start this blog I would just like to say that reading and writing cursive was never my strong point, so this is pretty close to translation work for me. At that, I think these types of journals are beyond interesting. To be able to read the inner scribbles of a man like Whitman can reveal a lot about him. Especially as we see him writing about Lincoln, a man he idolized. The first thing I noticed was the "notes for a presidential elect" note. I liked to think that Whitman was thinking to himself the advice he would ever give Lincoln if he was to meet him. You can also see what looks like "dialogue between Mr. W and "president elect"". I also like the way he either stops short of finishing his sentences or marking some out, it shows us a poet elevated to an almost deity-like position made to be more human and fallible. In reading the notes on these pages, I learned that Whitman wasn't himself an artist and it was more likely that a drinking buddy o...

The American dream is hard to pin down to a T because it is such a constantly changing thing. I would describe the American dream as the white picket fence, and the "atomic family". In the view of the general public, maybe not so much. But I truly think the American dream is what Fitzgerald described in TGG, the ability to never worry about how much you have or what you're spending. A life of squalor for the gain of looking good. I think it could be argued that it ties closely with American values of freedom and self-determination because of how much freedom a seemingly unlimited amount of money provides a person. Over time, the American dream has changed greatly as we can see both from our own experience, our parent's experiences, and literature and history. I would also say from my maternal grandfather being "fresh off the boat" so to say, I got a very different view of what he thought the American dream was and how that was shown to me. I know that has i...

Big fat freebie. Sorry Mrs. G.

When I first started to read the excerpts, I thought to myself that I’d probably be more alarmed at the fact that I woke up as a bug than Kafka described it. Maybe just me. The excerpts really didn't differ much at first glance, but once I got into them, I could see the differences. Diction #1- This sentence feels soft, almost like the alarm Samsa experienced wasn't really that jarring. It seems more like he found out, and it was just another Tuesday. The use of "uneasy" makes me think he was sick, and just having some weird dreams. #2- This sentence's use of "troubled dreams" makes me think that the dreams were of a negative or evil nature, that they were scary rather than odd. I also see the use of  "in his bed", which the previous sentence didn't use. #3- This translation uses "uneasy" just like the first, but uses "transformed" rather than"changed" giving the change a more dramatic connotation rather t...

My first analysis has revealed some simple similarities and differences between the 4 covers. I'm going to use 1, 2, 3, and 4 to label the book titles, going across the top left to right and then across the bottom left to right. 1 is a girl sitting alone in what looks to be a garden. 2 is a boat floating on a shallow and desolate beach with some really odd coloring. 3 is a drawing of a human torso with organs visible. 4 is the faded image of a girl in bright blue clothes. 2 and 3 have very similar connotations, as in negative. I would also call them very gloomy. Their purpose is to give off an eerie feeling just by looking at the cover of the book. 1 and 3 go for something different, they definitely don't have the same feeling as 2 and 4. They don't exactly feel positive, because there is still a mystery to it. In their presentation of brighter colors and clearer images, they create a happier expectation for the book. After looking over all the covers, I decided to compar...

TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/alan_crickmore_how_storytelling_helps_parents_in_prison_stay_connected_to_their_kids My TED talk was about the importance of connection of children with parents who are incarcerated. The speaker goes through a particular example of a child whose parent is in prison and how that affected her. He also talks about his own experience with a fraud charge he got and how he stayed connected with his kids during his time in prison, and how that affected his children with the environment in prison. He speaks of a program called Storybook Dads in the prison where he was incarcerated. It so seriously affected these hard, closed off prisoners that more often than not they were emotional. He includes sound clips of recordings from prisoners that they sent home to their families. The purpose of the talk is to examine the ability of storytelling to connect a parent and child and how prison can break that very basic and simple connection. The Ethos of the speak...