The Bluest Eye

Shannon,
I haven't started the book but I am going to tonight...it will be all read by wednesday..sorry I couldn't share anything in class today.

Thesis statment

How are multimodal elements used in the book American Born Chinese?

When The characters sigh or make other noises you can hear them.
With the descriptions your imagination comes up with a picture.

Wednesday assignment

The two text I chose to blog about were The dove commercial and American Born Chinese. The dove commercial showed how much someones face can be changed to make it more beautiful. Even though that woman wasn't ugly by any means they still changed her eyes her neck and her hair. I think this relates to the monkey. He wanted to change everything about himself. He wanted to become a god, and whenever his creator said that he was just a monkey he wanted to prove that much more that he wasn't. I think it's sad that people can't be okay with who they are. The girl in the commercial may think she is pretty, but I think they pretty much shut her down when they start "fixing" all of her flaws. The monkey could have bettered himself but still remembered that he was a monkey, and that was never going to change. You can try and change all you want but you will either end up being fake, or you will find yourself and maybe it will be for the better.

American Born Chinese

To be completely honest I liked this book so much more than the McCloud text. This book was actually a story and not just a bunch of information about comics. It is still weird to me that you hear things when you read. I actually think about it every time I read something now. Even when I am reading something a friend wrote, I hear their voice saying it.
The panel I looked at was when Danny's mom tells him Chin-kee is coming to visit. He's sighs and also drops his book which makes a thud sound, and I heard it all. I can even hear the conversation, when he says hold that thought and then responds to his mom. I am enjoying reading this text I love how it is in comic format.

Bell Hooks

I think she makes many good points, but they are all things that have never crossed my mind. I think she may just look to deep into things. Maybe she is just looking for an argument. I agree with her now that she brings my attention to the African American man being the robber. Why is he, but before it was never something I thought about. I think that is exactly what she is saying. We are so used to seeing these types of things in the media that we don't think anything of it. We don't give a second thought to why someone is playing a certain character.

It's weird how I began this post saying that i think she looks to deep into things, but maybe you should. I mean the second she made those statements they made me wonder why. Why are certain people cast for certain roles? What would happen if they weren't? Would the movie or show flop?

I also think it's interesting that her Yale students know they are smart therefor they use it to their advantage, and her students in Harlem are smart but don't really care. They could go places, but since they don't know any different or don't care they don't apply themselves.

American Gothic

When I first look at this painting I immediately think that it isn't relevant to this time period. I think they look like a husband and wife. I also believe that they live on a farm, because he is hold a pitchfork and there is what looks like a red barn in the background. The two people have very harsh features and very stern looks on their faces. It seems like the man would be mean, and that he thinks he is better than his wife because she stands behind him. They both have very bland outfits which makes me believe that either they are Amish or from a different time period. I wonder what the woman is looking at. I don't think she is looking at her husband, it almost looks like she's looking past him, maybe staring into space. The window at the top of the house reminds me of a church. Not many houses these days have windows like that. I think this picture could represent life in a earlier time period. A lot of people were farmers and many thought that men came before women or were more important.

I don't really like this picture. Like Molly Bang says, people don't like sharp objects or edges. The pitch fork and their faces really make me uncomfortable.

What are real books?

I think any form of writing that is in the book format can be considered a "real book." Plus whether or not it is considered a book is based on who you are asking. So you can't really define a "real book." With me I believe anything can be a book. You can have a book full of comics and that is a "real book." You can also get a notebook and write all of your thoughts in it and then I would consider it a "real book" of your thoughts. I wouldn't even know where to begin if you wanted me to tell you what wasn't a book, there are so many different types, and besides like I said, no one would give you the same answer.

I don't really know a lot about comic books, or graphic novels. What I know about comics (which isn't much) I have learned from the Sunday morning paper.

Multimodal Literacies

This new form of literacy shows that everyone takes something different out of a certain article. We all learn differently and the way we learn something depends largely on how the information is presented to us. The main place we encounter these literacy situations is school. Information is presented to us in many different forms. Some teachers use lectures, texts, movies, and writing. Multimodal learning is really interesting because it's not something you think about on a daily basis. It also isn't a new idea, people have been learning in different ways and from different sources forever. For me this article was rather hard to read. there was so much information and so much going on that I had a hard time understanding it. I needed someone to explain to me what was going on, but for someone else they may have understood the second they finished. Everyone has their own way of learning, and certain forms of communication benifit certain ways of learning.

What is an American?

When I think of the word American I immediately think of someone wearing and outfit that resembles an American flag. I know that there are many Americans that don't own a piece of clothing like that, but are just as American. An American is someone that stands up for our country, and is very patriotic. I also believe you don't have to be born here to be American. Americans can come in all shapes and sizes. Americans are a very diverse group. A true American loves our country and would do whatever it took to defend it. I think many people say they are an American just because they were born here, but I think that you should give back to our country before you can truly say you are an American.

Aiden Joseph

This summer I had a baby, and this is our first photo together! He's the perfect little baby and I love spending all of my time with him. He's growing up way faster than I expected and every minute with him is amazing!





Summer