Alice Walker Essay Example for Free

Alice Walker Essay This story is distinctive, however, in that Walker stresses not only the importance of language but also the destructive effects of its misuse. Clearly, Dee privileges language over silence, as she demonstrates in her determination to be educated and in the importance she places on her name. Rather than providing a medium for newfound awareness and for community, however, verbal skill equips Dee to oppress and manipulate others and to isolate herself; when she lived at home, she read to her sister and mother without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. Mama recalls that Dee washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didnt necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand (50). Dee uses words to wash, burn, press, and shove. We are told that the nervous girls and furtive boys whom she regarded as her friends worshiped the well-turned phrase and her scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye (51). It is not surprising, then, that Mama, mistrustful of language, expresses herself in the climactic scene of the story not through words but through deeds: she hugs Maggie to her, drags her in the room where Dee sits holding the quilts, snatches the quilts from Dee, and dumps them into Maggies lap. Only as an afterthought does she speak at all, telling Dee to take one or two of the others. Mamas actions, not her words, silence the daughter who has, up to this point, used language to control others and separate herself from the community: Mama tells us that Dee turns and leaves the room without a word (59). In much of Walkers work, a characters dawning sense of self is represented not only by the acquisition of an individual voice but also through integration into a community. Mamas new appreciation of Maggie is significant because it represents the establishment of a sisterhood between mother and daughter. Just before taking the quilts out of Dees hands, Mama tells us, I did something I never had done before (58). The something to which she refers is essentially two actions: Mama embraces Maggie and says no to Dee for the first time. Since we are told that she held Maggie when she was burned in the fire, and since Mamas personality suggests that she would most likely hug her daughter often, she is of course referring not merely to the literal hug but to the first spiritual embrace, representing her decision no  longer to judge her younger daughter by the shallow standards Dee embodiescriteria that Mama has been using to measure both Maggie and herself up until the climax of the story. When Mama acts on Maggies behalf, she is responding to the largely nonverbal message that her younger daughter has been sending for some time, but which Mama herself has been unable fully to accept. Now Maggie and Mama are allied in their rejection of Dees attempts to devalue their lifestyle, and their new sense of community enables Maggie to smile a real smile, not scared. Significantly, the story ends with the two of them sitting in silence, just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed (59). Ultimately, however. Mama has the last word: it is she, after all, who tells the story. Yet her control over the text is won gradually. Walker employs an unusual narrative structure to parallel Mamas development as she strengthens her voice and moves toward community with Maggie. Rather than reporting the entire event in retrospect, Mama relates the first half of the story as it occurs, using present and future tenses up until the moment Dee announces her new name. The commentary that Mama makes about herself and Maggie in the first portion of the story is therefore made before the awakening that she undergoes during the quilt episodebefore she is able to reject completely Dees desire that she and Maggie be something that they are not. Prior to the encounter with Dee over the quilts, although Mama at times speaks sarcastically about Dees selfish attitude, she nonetheless dreams repeatedly of appearing on a television program the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake, wielding a quick and witty tongue (48). Mamas distaste for Dees egotism is tempered by her desire to be respected by her daughter. In part, then, Mama has come to define herself in terms of her failure to meet the standards of what Lindsey Tucker calls a basically white middle-class identity (88)the white-male-dominated system portrayed in the television show. When Mama holds up her own strengths next to those valued by Dee and the white Johnny Carson society, she sees herself as one poised always in a position of fear, with one foot raised in flight (49).

body image project :: essays research papers

I visited the art gallery this month they are featuring Larry Kirkwood's Body Image Project. The purpose of this exhibit to to help people understand that it's who we are on the inside that makes us beautiful. The first thing I saw when I walked into the gallery was a big piece of cardboard with pictures from magazines and people who visited made comments about them. Overall, everyone who commented stated that beauty that we see in magazines is not real. The people in the magazines send the message that you aren't beautiful if you don't look like them. But in reality beauty is whatever you see it as, not how you look. This exihibit shows that beauty is found in all shapes and sizes, not just one shape and size. As I continued to walk around I saw all different body shapes. Each of them were beautiful in their own way. There was one body of a woman who was 56 years old. Her chest was not that of a 'normal' woman because her breast implants leaked, and left indentations in her chest. There was another woman who had one breast removed and wanted to be a part of this art because she wanted to offer hope to those who are going through breast cancer. After I left the exhibit I went to the artists website, he has pictures of some of the bodies he's casted and why each of them is beautiful. Also on the website he has his mission of this project. He says his mission is to " give you a more honest and healthy view of who we really are physically." As an example of that there is a model who, in the past was bulemic. She still thinks shes fat, but now she has a more realistic view of what she looks like. One man stated that the media is trying to make people feel ugly and disgusting. One of his examples was a few years ago he saw a shampoo commercial on tv. A man was in an elevator and noticed he had a few dandruff flakes on his shoulder.

Cause and Effect: Comedy Genre Films and its Audience Essay

Genuine laughter is known by many to be the best universal medicine there is. It is the automatic cure for sorrow and sadness, the antidote to alleviate any emotional stress, the most inexpensive and may be argued as being the purest and most enlivening form of audible expression known to man. This has been the motivation of most forms of entertainment, along the lines of comedy and humor. In terms of film and genre, the power of comedic punch lines and witty comic antics matched with superb timing has the will to command boisterous laughs and thought-provoking ideas through humor. Though film representation of what is funny may vary, the interpretations that follow pertaining to what is laughable can be stretched from taking a particular scene within approval or dismay, and even in praise or disdain. The variant of comedy known as slapstick is probably the most identifiable form of humor in film. One of the earliest brands of comedy to be shown unto the silver-screen, slapstick’s effect on its viewers is indeed much more immediate and instantly and humorously stimulating. Filmsite.Org explains slapstick to be: This is primitive and universal comedy with broad, aggressive, physical, and visual action, including harmless or painless cruelty and violence, horseplay, and often vulgar sight gags (e.g., a custard pie in the face, collapsing houses, a fall in the ocean, a loss of trousers or skirts, runaway crashing cars, people chases, etc). (1) A solid film case of such a comedy would be Chuck Russell’s The Mask (1994) which starred Jim Carrey. He played Stanley Ipkiss, a local clerk of the Edge City bank, but upon his discovery of a rather supernatural item, in the form of a mask, it turns his life around, to say the least. As soon as he tries it on, he alters into a green faced, excessively fun loving, and extremely obnoxious individual. With Carrey’s expressive comedic demeanor and delivery with the Mask’s rowdy character features, the slapstick comedy is very well executed, and the film’s effect on its audience is more instantaneous—highlighting its purpose to amuse. His untamed manner even portrays a cartoon-like conduct which tickles the mind into more of reacting than analyzing the scenes by the audiences.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, there are films which rather choose to arouse audiences with a brand of high-browed comedy and almost insulting humor, still with the objective to entertain, but only in a different approach. Within the lines of cringe comedy, a comedy that is presented more on the lines of rather offensive depictions, the audience’s taste of comedy is tested. The interpretation of comedy indeed varies from the more traditional depiction of what is funny to how offensive a particular situation could be. Take for instance Larry Charles’ Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan which starred Sacha Baron Cohen. He played a Kazakh journalist who travels to the United States of America in attempt to experience the culture. But in the process, a series of cultural distortions are portrayed in the film, highlighting rather extreme and even distasteful situations wherein Cohen character, due to fictitious cultural gaps, would deliver outrageous comments and basically dare the social norms within his new environment. The film’s reception was one of debatable issue, and its content was deemed insulting by many, especially with the gender and racial issues.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   As the meaning of what is funny could and would differ, a simple understanding must be made known to all viewers: comedy is a form of entertainment. Whether it offends, stimulates thought-provoking themes, irritates, or makes its audiences feel good, it is all up to the viewer. It is all in the matter of perception—from beliefs, orientation, and sensibility. Works Cited Charles, Larry. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Los Angeles, California, 2006 Filmsite.Org. Comedy Films. 2008: 1-7. 10 November 2008 . Russel, Chuck. The Mask. New York City, New York: New Line Cinema, 1994.      

Teaching Strategies For Children s Elementary School...

This book will show tried and tested strategies used during my children’s elementary school years at a public school and our homeschool years during middle school. These strategies will smooth out tempestuous parenting waters, whether a child is in a traditional school or home schooled. Children are a measure of our success, worthiness, and achievements. We are judged by their success and triumphs and we compare ourselves to other parents and the way they educate their children. Additionally, we compare our children to other children and how they behave and interact with others. Every parent’s desire is that their children be successful, well adjusted, loving, respectful, independent, self-motivated, religious, giving, nice,†¦show more content†¦Homeschooling was the way to implement my ideas and ensure that my children received the best education. I spent years taking education classes to prepare myself for this new endeavor. Behavior Observation and Screening in Child Care, Child Growth and Development, EDE 0755, EEC 1200 (Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education), Behavior and Screening in Child Care, Child Growth and Development, Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect, Health and Nutrition, Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, School Rules and Regulations were some of the classes that I took at a local university. These classes along with my experience with the school system assisted me in developing new ideas. I home schooled my older son for middle school, yet took my younger son out of the school system in elementary school. Those were our best years, our children had time to be children and play outside every day and not be stuck at home doing homework after a long day at school. We traveled all over the United States, Canada, and Brazil, we learned as we travelled without the constraint of the school calendar. They flourished since they loved homeschool. Not to mention that it was no longer boring or repetitive. They advanced so much that they both were accepted into an extremely advanced program for high school and were full time college students by