Writing

When Richard is told to pray by his grandmother, he instead decides to write about an Indian girl. Writing gratifies Richard because it is his way of making sense of the world. He created something that is his own, that no can take away, no matter how it was made. He created something that is tangible in the world even if it is nothing, and that is what empowers him in all the meaningless. Even more so, when he goes to show it to the girl next door, she doesn't understand. That affirms his place above someone else and her inability to grasp what he has done makes him gratified. He now has a relationship between writing and expressing himself.

Nothing Can Be Done

When Wright’s mother goes through paralysis, he is very timid to see her in pain. The thought of her not being there for him, as she was the only real person to always be in his life, is very frightening. It is also very scary for him because she is usually very strong person and he is now seeing an entirely new side of her – one he doesn’t want to see. Even more so, Wright associates pain with hunger, and for that to translate into his mother is not a good combination.

However, Wright is forced to grow up after his mother’s illness hits. He writes his grandmother a letter for help and also asks for money from his aunts and uncles. Wright doesn’t like the loneliness he is experiencing and feels as though he has been thrown out into the real world, having to take on a new length of responsibility.

After his mother’s 2nd stroke, “Her illness gradually became an accepted thing in the house, something that could not be stopped or helped” (Wright, p.100). Everything begins to come together in Wright’s mind, realizing that like the racial roles, nothing can be done about them either.

Playing the Role and Picking the Fights

In chapter 2, Wright is exposed through church that Jews killed Jesus and that they are evil. This concept is furthered while he lives with his religious grandmother; she enforces her prejudices and teachings on him. Eventually it is socially engrained into Wright’s head that Jews are bad people through the people the hangs out and by repeating the rhymes the other black kids shout at Jewish people. We “began to play our traditional racial roles as though we had been born to them, as though it was in our blood, as though we were being guided by instinct” (Wright, p.84). He is learning the behaviors [about hating Jews] through the way people interact with each other. Wright says it is his “cultural heritage” to hate Jews and plays into the racial role. He is doing what is expected of a black boy and is picking the fights.

Hunger

Richard Wright is physically and emotionally hungry in this book. Physically hungry because his family is so poor they can’t afford to buy food. But when Wright talks about his hunger in the first chapter, he is associating hunger with his father leaving him. His father was the provider for his family, and now that he has left, his mother has to get a job of her own. Wright resents his dad and has constant hunger because of it.

I’m really interesting in find out what exactly Wright is hungry for. He seems to be hungry for attention and to be noticed, but I think there is something more to that.

The Need for Education

Gatto has some very good observations about school systems. He believes that education is not working because for one, the students and the teachers are bored! You can’t expect to learn from someone who isn’t interested in a subject. I definitely agree in his point that we should be taking an education, not receiving schooling. Gatto also makes the observation that we really don’t need school to perform our best. I’m not sure I entirely agree with that, even though he backs up his point with political figures. Sure they are good citizens and good people, but in today’s world, people need some help. (Although some people that have gone to school and are political figures need some help too cough cough George W. Bush)

I think school helps push people to the next level in getting them to think outside of the box. I know if I didn’t go to school, I would never have thought to push topics such as this or the rhetoric in advertising. I do think though that we go to school for too long. Five times a week, 7 periods of focusing for 45 minutes, break, focus, break… it gets a little intense, private schooling or not. I mean take a look at a college schedule. Students don’t have class after class after class everyday and they even enjoy what they’re doing.

So I think that we definitely need schooling of some sort and not just completely cut it out. I would say that school systems just need some redefining to them.

Nonacademic Education

Looking at my course load right now, I would say that I value what I learn in our English and government class the most because I’m actually applying what I’ve learned from class and using it in the real world. I definitely value nonacademic education for that reason.

I wish that more of my classes taught less academically because I think that sometimes teachers get caught up with what is going to be on a test or what they have to get through for that year, that they skip out on the lesson of how it applies to us. I, personally, don’t value many of the classes I’m taking because I don’t see how it will affect me in the long term. And while that seems a bit… selfish… how I am suppose to take anything away from learning about polynomials or the Farmer’s Alliance? What does that have to do with the real world?

Like okay, take for example the differences between my history class and my government class. Both have to do with how our country runs and how it came about, but my government class (in the whole week or so I’ve been taking it) is already is being used in my life. In my history class we learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights but now in my government class we actually have to memorize the first 10 amendments. I think that is a great idea because, hey, we’re living in America and we really should know what our rights are! I think that if we had had to learn about what impacts our daily lives or how things came out, instead of having to memorize who Sitting Bull was, that would have been a lot more effective.

Maybe I’m totally off in that last paragraph but what I am trying to get across is that nonacademic is valued because it translates over in the real world and stays with us.

You know, when I talk to my dad about our school, he says that he likes University because it teaches us to think- it challenges us to think critically and outside of the box. I’m questioning what is presented and not just letting it go in one ear and out the other. I value nonacademic education because it allows me to do just that. I’m experiencing new things and applying how to view things in different ways. I’m not simply memorizing a lesson from a book; I’m learning from who and what I’m around and what is presented to me.

Rhetoric on the Town Take 2

So this is the second post in response to the blogs! Get excited. Oh and by the way, it’s Valentine’s Day – just in case you didn’t know.

And in spirit of the Hallmark Day of love, I’m going to post about Mallory’s presentation! I loved that she talked about the differences between Victoria Secret and Gap Body. The two are selling the same kind of products but Victoria Secret’s products are a LOT more sexed up.

Victoria Secret tries, successfully, to represent the feeling of sexy with provocative advertisements. One thing I didn’t really notice before was why they only use red tones and black. It makes sense that they use those colors to represent sex and being “naughty”. GapBody on the other hand is all about being comfortable, while looking good. They use a lot of white in their campaigns, which represents innocence. I think what is the most interesting about the two stores was that they take opposite routes in selling similar products are both successful. I think if Gap started to do raunchy things with their mannequins in the windows of their stores, the company’s reputation would be ruined. They have to keep their innocence because they have other stores like GapKids and the GapBaby.