I was extremely disappointed with The Grapes of Wrath's ending. Not only was it creepy and disturbing, but there were so many unanswered questions. Is Connie ever going to return? What happened to Tom? Did the old man survive? What happened to the Joad family? Did they find work? All these questions ran through my head after reading the last page. I believe that Steinbeck left all these questions unanswered so that the reader could predict what happened. I believe Tom went on strike and protested. From the beginning of the book, Tom is portrayed as a fair hardworking man.... Continue reading

The Grapes Of Wrath does a great job portraying the role women played while traveling west. In the first few chapters of the book it is obvious that Ma fits in with the cult of true womanhood. She does the dishes, cooks, and cleans the house. As the Joad family gets closer to moving west we begin to see the blurring of these gender roles. This starts with Casey offering to salt the pork, which surprises Ma because it is traditionally a women's job. It is obvious that Ma's position in the family has dramatically changed in the scene where... Continue reading

Chapter 3 of The Grapes of Wrath, gives us a glimpse of how life was like during the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s. When Joad was walking to his family's house, the scenery was compared to a desert. Furthermore, there were very few people and animals. The only animals Joad noticed were a land turtle and a dog. Additionally, the only person Joad saw along the way was Jim Casey, who used to be a preacher. Not only was the land barren and lonely in the 1930s, but the people themselves had lost hope. Casey states that "the sperit... Continue reading

Every month there are dozens of beauty and fashion magazines created. This number has been increasing steadily for the past few years. Some of these magazine include Seventeen, Teen Vogue, Vogue, Glamour and In Style. Most magazines are beginning to target a younger audience, such as teens and pre-teens. These magazines stress the importance for women to have perfect clothes and makeup. Additionally, on every other page there are ads that objectify women and stress the importance of appearance. Seventeen magazine has a huge impact on young women, but it continues to stress the importance of appearance and not intelligence... Continue reading

This post on the Feministing website stood out to me. In class yesterday when you asked who was a feminist only a few people raised their hands. After, you asked who believed women should have equal rights and almost everyone agreed. The reason that people are so afraid to admit they are feminist is because they do not have an accurate definition of what it truly means to be a feminist. The definition of a feminist in the dictionary is "the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men". When people hear the... Continue reading

After writing my essay about women in our society and whether they have reason for discontent I realized that they do. The media plays a great role in why women still have not achieved equality. It produces countless stereotypes and additionally photo shop is used to create a fake and perfect image that women are expected to look like. Because this is impossible, women have to go to great measures to achieve this perfect beauty. That is why there are so many eating disorders in our society. The media also continues to limit women's role to the household and women... Continue reading

In Chapter VII there is a lot of action and emotion, but one of the moments that stood out to me was when Gatsby ordered Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. It shows that Gatsby had been thinking about the idea of Daisy and not actually her. The past five years he had been living in a fantasy thinking that Daisy only loved and thought about him. This is not true and when Daisy admitted that she did love Tom Gatsby became very upset because it was hard for him to realize that she had a life... Continue reading

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Some of the ideas we have read this year are the struggles of growing up in America in The Catcher in the Rye, the oppression of women and wrongful punishment in The Scarlet Letter and racism in The Life of Frederick Douglass and MacNolia. These texts rebel against popular American ideologies because they critique how America can be oppressive and unfair. Many people try to forget about the past, but these texts remind us that America was oppressive and still can be. The text that meant the most to me was The Scarlet Letter because I am a strong supporter... Continue reading

Obviously, slavery is very oppressive, but I was suprised that there were so many opportunities of agency for slaves in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Towards the end of the book Douglass explains how he was able to earn a little bit of money for himself after learning how to caulk. Because slaves could earn extra money for themselves, they could run away, buy things for their families, and buy their freedom. Additionally, the slaves created close friendships between themselves and Douglass taught many of the other slaves how to read. Another example of agency is when Douglass... Continue reading

In the movie The Last of the Mohicans, the Native Americans were constantly fighting. The only scene where the Native Americans were not shown fighting is when they were talking with the chief trying to convince him to kill their prisoners. The movie portrays Native Americans as violent savages. In the movie the Native Americans preyed on innocent women and children and were brutal killers. Only two Native Americans in the movie were good. These characters were Natty's father and his brother. Unlike the other Native Americans, they were kind and helpful. I believe that in the movie The Last... Continue reading

The definition of red in the dictionary means various colors resembling the color of blood. Red blood represents sin and in Hester's case the judgement she has against her because of her sin. Many times in The Scarlet Letter Hester is said to have a "crimson blush". This red blush represents the embarrassment she has because she has to wear the A. I believe that even though Hester was embarrassed of her sin, as time progressed she used the A as a way to rebel in her thoughts. Because Hester was separated from the rest of the world, she was... Continue reading

I believe the "A" Hester had to wear in The Scarlet Letter was not a very harsh punishment. In our society it would be a different story, but back in Puritan times when the normal punishment for committing adultery was death, wearing an "A" does not seem like a very strict punishment. When Hester first had to wear the "A" it was humiliating. She immediately stood out and everyone in town knew that she was an adulterer and was reminded of this every time they saw her. However, as time passed Hester learned to accept wearing the "A" and respectively... Continue reading

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is punished because she committed adultery. The leaders and people of the Puritan colony that Hester lives in constantly preach against sin and tell people to be simple and not extravagant. Although Puritan's believe that people should be punished for their sins they also believe that people should be forgiven. These leaders are hypocrites because they preach to obey God, but God says in the Bible to forgive. Instead, the leaders of this Puritan colony make Hester fulfill a lifetime of embarrassment wearing the scarlet letter. The leaders of the colony also preach that people... Continue reading

Ralph Waldo Emerson published his essay "Self-Reliance" in 1841. The main theme of "Self-Reliance" is that a person should be true to themselves and not worry about what everyone else is doing. One striking line in the essay that portrays this is "Envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide." This essay made me reflect on what is really important in life. Many times we become distracted trying to fit in and worry about what everyone else is doing. I will admit that many times when I look back on things that I have done it was only to fit in.... Continue reading

In the past, I was never very fond of poetry. I believed that poems had to follow certain rules and had to be deep and insightful. Now that I have been introduced to more poetry throughout high school, I have actually come to enjoy writing and reading poetry. I believe that some of the best poetry is when a person is writing down their feelings or standing up for something they believe in. That is why I enjoyed the poem "AmeRican." The first thing that caught my eye when looking at the poem was its title, "AmeRican." I knew instantly... Continue reading

Arthur Miller uses The Crucible as a symbol for the Red Scare. In The Crucible, teenage girls accusedmany people in the town of Salem of being witches. Similarly, during the Red Scare hundreds of people were accused of being communist. Almost everyone instantly believed these strong accusations because people were so frightened of witches and communists that they did not stop to consider the accusations they were making. The reason they were making these accusations was partly because of fear and additionally because by making these accusations they were put in a position of power and control. Abigail and other... Continue reading

The logical fallicy called false cause or faulty cause/effect is present everywhere around us. It can occur when people make an assumption that two things are caused by each other when they are not or when a person jumps to a biased conclusion. An example of false cause is in this article. The article starts talking about how horrible the shooting at Columbine High School was and then jumps to talking about abortion. Even though they do try to find similarties between the shooting and abortion, there is not enough evidence to back up that the two are related or... Continue reading

In the movie Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson, the main character Max Fischer gives the viewers an unusual glimpse of coming to age in America. Max is not a normal teenage boy. Instead of being interested in girls and parties, like the rest of his classmates, he is interested in joining as many school clubs as he can and is in love with a teacher at his school named Rosemary Cross. Max acting mature represents how teenagers go through a lot of pressure from society when growing up. After Max is kicked out of Rushmore he suddenly changes. He starts... Continue reading

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden is constantly an outsider. He believes that everyone else, besides his sister Phoebe, are phonies and he never has any real friends throughout the entire book. Part of the reason he is such an outsider is because he views the world in a different way. Holden see's through people and their intentions and because of this he seperates himself from the rest of the world. At the same time he is rejecting society, society is rejecting him because people view Holden as a weird guy with mental problems. No one realizes that he is... Continue reading

Okay, I will be the first to admit it. I am fat. But that is good, being fat has so many advantages. First of all a little extra weight only compliments the long blonde Hannah Montana wig. Second, fat people can feel really lonely at times. We need more fat people so we can come together and rebel. Who can resist a little fat swinging side to side as you sing The Best of Both Worlds. So come join the Party in the USA and eat as much as you want because fat is beautiful. Continue reading