"Loss of Innocence"

Innocence is a child-like ignorance to the use or presence of something evil. Something intangible can be lost when it is impossible for one to return to the same mental state that one had when the object or concept was "present". Dark shades tend to hint to something bad and/or evil. One can assume that in the painting, these dark shades represent the revelation of something maleficent to the woman featured in the painting. The colors in this piece seem to get darker as one looks from the left to right of the painting. One can assume then, that towards the left of the painting, more innocence was present in that version of the woman (shown three times throughout) then later on in the right side of the painting. To those who are not innocent, being naked is known to be a bad thing. This loss of innocence, occurring to the woman, is the cause for her trying to cover her bare body with her hair and with the cloth. It is a common belief that innocence is lost when one loses their virginity, which is what seems to be happening in the left of the painting, when the woman is with the man. He is holding onto her, on the left, and trying to blow the cloth off of the middle figure (which is also her).

"Young Life"

        The artist is trying to say that with age, comes responsibility. This can be implied by looking at the deer above the head of the couple and the gun in the adult male's hand. It is typical thought that the "breadwinner" of a family is a responsible male who hunts and kills animals to provide for his family. This is the thought that Bo would have grown up around, being an American male born in the 50's. This shows in his painting, where this responsibility seems to weigh down on the older male and his wife or girlfriend, while the younger male seems to be apart from this weight, holding a stick  instead of a gun. The artist is also trying to say that young adults are dependent on each other. This can be implied from the way the couple are standing; the male is only touching the ground with one foot, causing him to have a sort of lean on his girlfriend/wife, and she is in turn grasping onto his torso and leaning on his shoulder. The artist is also trying to show that responsibility is just as inescapable as age. As one can observe, the older male looks somewhat bound to the earth through the colors of the ground, his shoes, his pants, jacket, and even through the deer which is lying above him. This binding is less present in the younger boy, but still holds a presence in his shoes and the stick he is carrying 

"Blacbird"

The "blackbird" may be symbolic for certain groups/individuals in the society of the time that had previously held back by social standards restrictions. When the song says, "blackbird fly" it could mean that the suppressed peoples should speak out and take to new opportunities, and that "flying" would heighten their quality of life ("fly" has a positive connotation and is associated with freedom). The phrase "light of the dark black night" is symbolizing the promise of changing times. Because "light" has a positive connotation, usually meaning an opportunity, it implies that the "dark black night" (meaning the unknown of the changing times) may hold something good for the "blackbird" or suppressed peoples. All of these symbols come together to create the single effect of hope to those individuals waiting for social change.

"2+2=5"

The subject of the song is conformity and reactions to conformity. The tone at first is defiant of the conformist society, using words like "forever" and "stay" to express a firm resistance from the subject, but as the song comes to an end, the tone becomes uncertain using words like "maybe" over and over to express the faltering of firmness as the speaker begins to conform. The theme of the piece is "conformity is persistent and eventually inevitable".

"Dont You Want Me"

The two perspectives are from one person who wants to leave and another person who does not want the other to leave (in terms of a relationship). When the two met, the woman was a waitress at a hotel. During their relationship, the man helped the woman to improve her career. Now that she wants to become independent, he feels as if it's unjust because she owes him for all of the things he has done for her, while she feels like she would've done it on her own if necessary, and that it is her right to leave. The reason they see the same situation differently is because of their opposing wants, needs, and opinions. For example, I once had a terrible boyfriend. While I needed someone less obnoxious, he needed someone who was willing to put up with his obnoxiousness. Therefore, I dumped him.

"Shame" The Avett Brothers

The subject of the song is the mistakes the speaker has made, and the tone is humble. The first word that brings out the tone is "please", which gives the listener the impression that the speaker is begging the person whom the song is for, and thus creating this image of the speaker viewing himself as lesser. The title of the song, "shame", also adds to the tone by showing that the speaker has self-awareness and repentance. Thirdly, when the speaker talks about himself subjectively, using the term "strutted", he shows that he knows he was once arrogant and can now reflect on that and be remorseful for his actions. All of these words reveal how diction help tie together the "humble" tone and feeling of the song.

Sign Language

The single effect of this video was understanding
The monologue with the man speaking the things that were on his mind gives the audience empathy for the characters
The camera shots of the characters from far away at first and close up later (particularly the girl) help the audience to feel less distant from particular characters (the girl) as the video progresses
The upbeat music helped the mood of the video to be positive, creating a positive outlook on interactions between people 

"Love Language"

The purpose of this shirt film was to spread awareness about deafness. It wants people that just because people are deaf doesn't mean that they are any difference, that we shouldn't treat them differently. After watching the video the reaction I got from it was "awwwww". This video was downright adorable! I'd have to say that this video was extremely effective at proving its point. It achieved it by showin how the guy isn't even fazed by he being def and goes on believing that she's till a wonderful person (which bring into account the "aw" factor).

Semeadores

      The painting "Semeadores" is a painting of two workers in a field. The artists of this painting was Mexican and most likely grew up around an agricultural area around farming.  His intended audience was most likely upperclass members of society who don't get to see what goes into giving them their luxurys.
      The purpose of this painting was to show those upperclass people that they shouldn't take for granted what they have because of the hat labor that was put into those things. Some artistic techniques that were used to show that the laborers were hard at work are the fact that the artist makes their frets meld into the ground and the shape of the worker's back go with the hills in the background. Also the worker is connected to the land is the strokes of the land and his body go in the same direction showing some unity. Showing the unity between the land and it's workers shows how they belong there and perhaps that they worked for so long and hard on the land that the become part of it in a way

Good Old Desk

        The subject of "Good Old Desk" appears at first to be simply about a desk that he's really fond of, but when you look at the lyrics Good Old Desk is always capitalized whe they shouldn't be. The first letter of each of these words spells out God. So once you discover that the hidden message is actually about God the whole song becomes much less creepy and makes much more sense.
        The narrator or singer isn't very religious and wanted to get a message across without making his listeners feeling uncomfortable or like he's gone all religious on them. The audience was his usual listeners but he wanted to get this message across without them freaking out or shutting it out and then once they discover that he's actually talking about God it would be easier to accept it.
        I believe the purpose of the song is simply to express the comfort of God or a God-like figure. How it can be comforting and helps you feel as if you not alone that they're always there.
       Once I discovered that the song was actually about God it made so much more sense. I was really  lost when I thought that he was just singing about a desk I was thinking who sings about a desk.
       Three thing I found in the song that pointed to the song being about God besides the capitalization of Good Old Desk are:
1) Its always there
2) never needs a rest
3) Its the friend I've got, a giant of all times

"The Pinch of Poverty"

The focus of this painting is of a poor family in London selling flowers. The point of view of the artist is sympathetic to the poor. Instead of making them happy or making them seem like they deserve poverty he makes the painting focus on a family that is sorrowful and innocent. I believe that the intended audience of the painting is members of the upper class. It was made to show them the faces of poverty and tries to get them to feel for them.
       Two techniques the artist used would be the accent yellow of the flowers that stands out from from the background of mostly neutral colors. The flowers that the little girl is trying to sell could represent hope. The flowers are what get them through their lives and helps pay for things such as food.  Another technique used is the baes that are behind the family. This bars could be representing then hold of poverty and compares it to prison.

Culture

To me culture is a societie's art, traditions, habits that are passed down and even the the way someone speaks.
     What makes up a person's culture is the environment that they grow up in. The influences they're subjected to plays a major role in shaping them. This summer I went to Jamaica on a mission trip where I got a good look at their culture. Their culture is much more open and friendly and one shows alot of hospitality, but at the same time teenage girls will get courted by older men and then get pregnant and have to raise the child alone. Then the cycle continues once a girl hits a certain age it's just expected for her to do those things and for the guys to join gangs and smoke weed.
     Culture is deffinetly extrinsic because if you take a child from china and have an American family adopt them as a baby then that child will reflect the culture in which I grew up, not the one that they were born in to.

The Runaway

Facts:
- The boy's shirt is yellow.
- Speghetti and meatballs is a special.
- There is a police officer.

Claims:
- The boy is a runaway.
- The police officer is talking to him about how he's a runaway.
- They are in a 50's diner.

Analytical Claim:
 To me this picture shows simplicity. I got this from several things in a picture first of all is the fact that it's a 50's diner, and the 50's always reminded me of a simpler time. Another reason is that the possessions that the boy decided to prong with him could easily fit in a tiny rucksack which explains how much less people consider necessities. Another reason is that the police officer actually took the time to sit and chat with the boy and the cook which probably wouldn't happen now a days because of the feeling of always having to finish quickly, but since he is it makes the picture have a calmer more mellow feeling.

The Pearl Part 2

The Pearl Part 2

                I’m going to be blunt and say the end of this book is just plain depressing, and completely broke my heart. While going through Kino and Juana’s adventure with the pearl I just assumed that the book would have a happy ending. I was wrong. In the second half of The Pearl everything took a turn for the worse: Kino gets attacked outside of his house, causing Juana try to throw it into the ocean while Kino was sleeping, which provoke Kino to hit Juana for defying him. But as he tries to go back home after that event he gets mugged and ends up killing a man and his house gets burned down.

                As Kino’s house burns, his neighbors believe they’re in it, His family escapes to his brother’s house secretly where they get supplies to leave town to cash in the pearl. He is driven to such things again by the darkness of greed and the power of others wanting/jealousy of the pearl. These feeling have escalated throughout the town to the point where human lives are taken and they even send trackers after Kino and his family to kill them and recover the pearl. While attempting to escape the evil of the town and the trackers they face confrontation with the trackers when Steinbeck completely broke my heart.

                There was irony to the heart break that took place. During the fight Kino has with the trackers one of them slips through his fingers and gets up to his Juana and Coyotito, their son, and shoots his son in the head. I think that it’s ironic in a way that Coyotito gets killed over the pearl because the reason that Juana and Kino were looking for pearls when they found it, was so that they could pay the doctor to save Coyotito’s life after a scorpion bite.  So the very thing that was supposed to save his life ended up being the death of him.

After the death of their son, Kino and Juana simply return to their town and throw the pearl into the ocean. I have contradicting feelings about that moment for a couple reasons. I agree with it because after that point it crosses a line that was never meant to be crossed and still attempting to go on with the pearl is life threatening and there isn’t anything else to risk their lives for now that their son won’t be able to benefit from it. But on the other hand now it seems as if their son’s life was taken from them for nothing because they have nothing to show for it. They’ve got nothing else to lose at this point. But I think that it was probably the wise choice to simply return home and grieve with their family.

I thought this book had interesting insight on the human condition, but I despise the ending of this book. It left me with my mouth hanging open wondering if that really just happened.  The thing is the life of something as innocent as a baby being taken just disgusts me. That child had no choice or control of what happened around it yet it’s the one who had to pay the consequences. I think this book was worth reading once for its views, but I won’t be reading it again anytime soon.

The Pearl Part 1

If I had to use one word to explain the theme of the first half of The Pearl it would be greed. When Kino and Juana lucked upon the pearl of the world the news spreads through the town as well as darkness, as everyone wishes that they had been who had found it. Everyone begins to see how their lives will better from this discovery; the sales men thought about the clothes they’ve had had a hard time selling lately; The Doctor, he had denied to treat Kino’s baby earlier that day, now planned to treat him and get a trip to France; The Priest wondered if the church had done anything for Kino’s family so that it could get some renovations; and it seemed that everyone was related to the pearl somehow and everyone wanted a part of it.

                The pearl even got to Kino he began to want everything, he started by just thinking of things he could get for his family but it opened flood gates where nothing was enough. He did check himself after he realized what he was saying. Steinbeck even came right out and said it when he said that “For it is said humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more.”  I think this puts it into words perfectly the human condition, we can’t be happy with what we have when given a taste of the riches and possibilities.

                The greed gets to someone so strongly that they risk getting stabbed to steal it, and they end up getting stabbed and not getting the pearl. But then it terrified Kino’s wife Juana, and she tries to get him to destroy it because of the evil it was causing. And what she says about it being evil definitely makes sense. I think an instance of this evil is when the doctor comes to “treat” their baby, after being stung by a scorpion the baby had improved immensely, but then the doctor gives him a white substance and tells them that they think the baby will have an outburst from the scorpion sting. And can you believe it exactly an hour later the baby has a serious reaction and the doctor saves him, and then of course he gets to be paid a bill that will come from the profit of the pearl.

                The pearl buyers seem to be in on the greed and evil when it comes to The Pearl of the World. They attempt to conn Kino for it by tell him it’s too big to be worth anything, when we know that it’s worth a large sum of money that Kino’s family could seriously use.  But this backfires on them because Kino calls their bluff, even though he doubt himself, and tells them that he’ll go to the capital to sell it instead of doing business with them.

                So far I’ve found The Pearl to be suspenseful and enjoyable. I also find it easy to connect with Kino because of how he connects emotions and events to song that makes it easier for me to grasp because I am musically inclined and everything seems to make more sense in song.

The Pygmalion Part 2

I just finished reading The Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw and even though Eliza didn’t end up with Higgins I did actually enjoy the ending of the book. I thought it was strange that Eliza ended up with character that we didn’t really get to know throughout the book, because we only ever met him twice. Which to me made it that more evident that Eliza settled for Freddy. And that becomes even more evident when at the end of thing the book when it says that sometimes she wishes she could take him to a deserted island where there are no social obligations where they could just be together. But in reality she had to choose “Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins slippers or a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers”?

Another thing that I thought was interesting was that Shaw chose to end the book by saying that the relationship wouldn’t work because he’s too godlike to her to be agreeable. In saying that the book goes into a reason that they wouldn’t end up together and that’s that they both try to be the strongest, and best the other.  The beginning of hem not ever going to bet together start after Eliza passes as a duchess and Higgins and Pickering are on a high congratulating each other on their success.  Meanwhile Eliza sat on the couch and was being ignored by the men.  After Pickering heads off for bed Eliza and Higgins get into a heated argument. She yells at him for never treating her for anything more than a flower girl, but he tells her he treats duchesses like flower girls as well. And then they go into words about how she wouldn’t be with Higgins even if he asked her. Higgins said they could live together as two old bachelors and a maid.

Something that I found interesting in this argument is when they talk about how Eliza could find a husband now, any man brought up wasn’t good enough in Higgins eyes because he didn’t want his best work to go to a second rate guy. But I think that Eliza with any other guy than himself was just something he didn’t want. I believe that he thought that since they weren’t going to be together that she shouldn’t be with anyone. Mostly I think that Eliza didn’t end up together because they’re both to stubborn to admit they want to be together. I might be reading into The Pygmalion differently than Shaw intended, but that’s the way I see the relationship, and that’s how I see their relationship and the end of the Pygmalion.

The Pygmalion part 1

     I've recently finished reading the first half of Pygmalion, and even though normally with books I have to read for school I have to force myself to read them, but with the Pygmalion I've sincerely enjoyed reading it. After I began the book and got a sense of what it's about, I wanted to figure out how the title Pygmalion related to the story, so I decided to look it up.
     The Merriam-Webster dictionary said that Pygmalion was a king who makes a statue out of ivory that Aphrodite brought the statue to life for him. This to me was a very clever title, because of how Eliza Doolittle is Higgins ivory statue that he is creating. As he teaches he tries to mold Eliza into what he believes to be a lady who could pass as a duchess, he is also in my head, creating his ideal woman.  This makes me wonder if in this story it ends with something happening between Eliza and Higgins. Which I like to hope there is, whenever there’s romance involved I pull a classic teenage girl and find it ten times more enjoyable.
            Another reason I like this book is some of the subtle humor. One of my favorite instances of this is when Higgins takes Eliza to his mother’s house and to see if Eliza could pass as a lady. As Higgins and Pickering are explaining what they’ve done to teach her how to be a lady, they mention have to dress her, when of course his mom jumped to the conclusion that he dresses her  where she has an objection but they don’t even notice that she’s speaking because of how caught up they are in their story. I found this so amusing because it seemed like a typical thing a mom would do to skip over the obvious answer and go straight the one that’s controversial, but it doesn’t even seem to faze him because he’s probably so used to it and he’s so caught up in his story.
            So, so far I’m enjoying The Pygmalion and I’m looking forward to finishing this book.