Final Thought

Welcome Back Everyone!

To follow up on my last post, A New Society and finally put a close to my commentary-trilogy posts on  Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents today I will be telling you guys my final thoughts about the author’s techniques, the captivating theme, and my final thoughts on the novel.

Heart and Mind 

The first thing that caught my attention while reading the novel is the change in narrator. The story is told by the perspectives on the Garcia sisters but mainly through the narration of Yolanda. In every chapter there is a change in the narrator of the story and it allows the reader to thoroughly understand the lives that all of the sisters lived with their family. Yolanda is the most frequent narrator out of of all of the characters, she tells the story in first person and lures the reader into her life by doing so. While Yolanda is narrating, the audience begins to sympathize with her, understand her problems, and agree with her points of view, all of which help develop an emotion bond with the character. A change in narration also establishes a strong change in tone. Each sister has a distinctively different personality which the audience can feel as the story switches the narration. With each chapter there is a new tone and mood of the novel which furthers the reader’s understanding of who the sisters are. As Alvarez chooses to change the narration, she also chooses to change the mood of the novel allowing the audience to form connection with each of the sisters and relating to some more than others. With the exception of one chapter, which was told by the maid, every chapter allows the reader learn about the family as if they were part of the family. Alvarez used this narration technique in order for the readers to not only understand the girls and their journeys but to feel part of it. The use of third person narration also allows the audience to look at the family with an outside perspective, allowing the audience to form their own thoughts on the family without having the constant biased opinions that they would typically form while hearing the story from the sisters directly.

By the story being told in a reversed chronological order it also lets the audience evaluate what events and situations where the ones that changed the sister’s lives and outlooks on the world. By starting at the end of their journey and working the way towards the start, Alvarez clearly establishes the character development for each sister. Starting at the end also adds curiosity in the reader’s mind to discover what their beginning was like. Telling the story from the end makes the audience more invested in the novel and intrigued to discover what their lives where like before. This technique makes it easier for the audience to critique the sisters, determine their major changing points, and reflect on their lives as the sisters do the same. These techniques allow the audience to not only feel intellectually invested in the story but also feel an emotional connection with the sisters.

Message 

Photo By: Pixabay 

This novel is a compelling story on the journey of self discovery. It follows the life of four sister who have been taken out of their home and brought into a new world in which they don’t understand the language, people, or culture. The author is able to compare the sister’s perspectives on the world and themselves from when they were young to when they became adults. Their journey of self discovery is focused especially on the cultural aspects that many modern Latino families currently struggle with. Finding the balance between staying true to your roots and adapting to a new place in one for which is very hard to find. The protagonist, Yolanda, goes through a rough journey of loving the Dominican Republic, then trying to remove it’s culture from her, but eventually realizing that it’s part of the woman that she became. Beyond a simple story of migration or coming of age, this novel encompasses the struggle and pressures that immigrant children face while trying to dominate two cultures. They feel the pressure to fit into their new society yet a responsibility (sometimes turned into guilt) of staying connected to their heritage. Finding this balance between two cultures, languages, and locations is a very difficult one to accomplish. The reader sees how living only in the Dominican Republic was easy for the girls because they only had to worry about adapting and fitting in into one culture. But once they have moved to the U.S the sisters feel the pressure of quickly conforming to their new country and culture. With a sense of rush to try to fit into the U.S, the sisters also rush to forget their Latino roots. As mentioned before, finding the balance between two cultures is hard but what becomes harder is the decision of which aspects on each culture to adapt to one’s life. For example, Yolanda soon realized that the way that her career in poetry advanced in the U.S was far more superior than how it would in the Dominican Republic, so aspects of jobs and educations she learned from the American lifestyle. But Yolanda also realized that with romance, she was Latina. She did not understand the American men nor did she feel as if they respected her, with her struggle between finding herself within those these two cultures she eventually understood that she was not ready for love.

Thoughts 

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This novel demonstrated how important it is to find pride fro your culture and to embrace it because it truly becomes such a grand part of ones life. It’s trough culture that we learn our different customs and develop ideals about the world. Learning two cultures can be difficult for the personal growth of a person. Each culture around is the world is distinctively unique from one another and when having two or more cultures in one’s life it can be a challenge to determine what parts of each culture should be embraced. The struggle between having two cultures influence your life was the reason as to why I choose this novel. I personally struggled with finding pride in my Colombia heritage during the first few years of me moving to the U.S. The most important thing for me was to blend into the American culture and the struggles that the sisters faced  by not knowing which cu,are should be more prominent in their lives, I faced as well. I really appreciated the authenticity of the text and how relatable these experiences were to my personal life. I think that there wasn’t something specific that I didn’t like about the novel (since I could so strongly relate to it) but I would like there to be more information of the specific differences between Latino culture and the American one. Finally, I would absolutely recommend this novel to all of you! This novel goes beyond a coming of age story, it shows the real difficulties that young kids have to faced when they are thrown into a new society and they struggle between not forgetting your past but embracing the future.

 

A New Society

Welcome Back Guys!

Today’s blog will be a continuation of  An Overview; my previous post where I wrote a quick overview of the novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez. In this second part of my novel analysis I will be focusing on specific characters (with emphasis on their gender and development), culture, and comparison between a society and an individual. Hope you all enjoy and get inspired to read this beautiful novel!

 

Personajes 

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Yolanda is the protagonist of the novel, when she is first introduced in the book, the audience sees her as the woman that she became not as the woman that she was. Due to Alvarez’s unique writing style, instead of seeing the plot line develop we see it unfold. Thus the novel doesn’t start at the start of the character’s journey but rather it starts at the end. By doing this, we aren’t able to see how Yolanda has developed throughout novel until the reader reaches the end of the book. At the beginning of the story we see a proud Latina whom takes pride in her roots and culture, as the story unfolds we are introduced to another side of Yolanda one for which she hides from her Hispanic roots and desires only to be American. Alvarez’s writing style allows the reader to understand the conflicts and life changing events that given her a newly found appreciation for her Latina culture and stop hiding behind the American culture she so desperately wanted to conform too. 

The Hispanic culture is one for which still remains underdeveloped in comparison to those such as the American culture. Feminism is a term rarely discussed or even heard about within Hispanic households or South American countries. On the contrary, in developed societies women’s rights have been clearly established and women play a larger role than the stereotypical “mom” or “maid”. In the novel, there is a clear display of the differentiation of lifestyle that the characters have based on their gender. Throughout the book there are clear references to the superiority that men have over women and the lack of power that women have in the family, society, and country. Men are shown to mistreat the women, while the women do nothing but satisfy and serve the men. For example, the relationship that the García sisters have with their father is based upon them giving they total respect and attention to their father regardless of the circumstances. Women are the ones that stay home waiting for the men, they are there to serve men and to have their children. Throughout the book there are several remarks on how each couple is expected to have children especially a boy. Regardless of the women’s devotion to men, society still seems them as objects and they give little respect to them as well; “Once a male cousin bragged that this pre-dinner hour should be called Whore Hour. He was not reluctant to explain to Yolanda that this is the hour during which a Dominican male of a certain class stops in on his mistress on his way home to his wife” (Álvarez 7). Since the novel is (in some chapters) written from the perspective of a women, it lets the reader understand how the role that the women play is to please the men, while the men treat their with inferiority and are only after pleasing themselves.

When Yolanda migrates to the U.S the treatment and ideals that women receive becomes one of the cultural aspects that she is most influenced by. She develops a new perspective on herself, women, and the dynamic between male and female as she experiences a new way in which women are treated. After experiencing these two ways in which women are treated Yolanda represents feminism in the novel, “But the third daughter who had become a feminist in the wake of her divorce, said she considered such locker-room entertainments offensive” (Álvarez 33). The reader sees the events that Yolanda lives through that make her take the decision of becoming a feminist, a person which believes that gender should be treated equally. Living in two different societies and going through relationships helped her understand that her gender does not determine the way that she is treated nor does it determine what she can do with her life.

Cultura

The novel revolves around the impacts that culture plays on individuals and families. As previously mentioned, it follows the life of the Garcías migrating from the Dominican Republic to the U.S and some characters moving back to their home country. We first see the main character, Yo

PHOTO BY: PIXABA

landa make an abrupt transition from having pride in her country to completely neglecting it. When she first moves to the U.S the culture shock was one for which she was not ready to experience but after she gets accustomed to the lifestyle, social norms, and language Yolanda refuses to acknowledge her Latina roots. The first time that she is back in the Dominican Republic is when her negation of her country is truly seen. In this visit she is able to understand her family but speak very poor Spanish with them. In contrast from the beginning of the novel when she had a cultural and language barrier with Americans, now she has that wit
h her own country.

 

Culture, whether that be the American or the Dominican, always defined Yolanda. Her family dynamics changed as she moved to the U.S, she became more independent and realized that she does not have to be reliant on her parents to succeed. Her relationships also changed” I’d meet someone, conversations would flow, they’d come calling, but pretty soon afterward, just as my heart was beginning to throw out little tendrils of attachment, they’d leave. I couldn’t
keep them interested. Why I couldn’t keep them interested was pretty simple: I wouldn’t sleep with them.” (Álvarez 87). Yolanda was raised to think, act, and be a Latina women, regardless of how hard she tried to adapt to the American culture, her Dominican roots defined her. Towards the end of her life (beginning of the novel) it becomes clear that she chooses to adapt to both cultures by picking the best parts of each one. For example, she chooses to maintain the relationship style of a Dominican women, where they establish respect and sex only comes after serious commitment but she always chooses the feminist view that the American society holds.

I am Colombian. I was born in Miami but short after I moved to Colombia and had the opportunity to live there for eight years. The time for which a person absorbs culture and learns a language was the time that I lived in Colombia. As I was reading this novel, it was surprising how many connections I could make with the protagonist. American culture is idolized in Colombia and other hispanic countries. The U.S is seen as a country that grants freedom, safety, and opportunity to anyone that is willing to work for it. I constantly found myself wanting nothing more but to move back to the U.S but once my family took the decision of coming back, I was tortured with the nostalgia of my country. A new society and new culture was something incredibly hard to adapt too. Fortunately, I had already learned English and the language barrier was one for which I never had difficulties with but the cultural aspects where very difficult. It is something that came with time, learning new culture. I now can manage two languages and two cultures. It was hard not to forget my Colombian roots but I have always been proud of my roots and my parents have never let me forget them.

Individuales y Sociedad

How the Garcia Sisters Lost Their Accents is written from the perspectives of marginalized characters. All of the sisters represent characters that are dominated by a culture and thrive to fit in to America. By reading the story through their perspective I can understand how they want to conform to a new society not because they don’t like their original one but because the feeling of being an outsider is very difficult to live with. Especially with Carla, it is clear how being an outsider causes her to be bullied in school. Feeling that they do not belong limits them from pursuing goals and from thriving within the American society. Yolanda and her sister’s relationship with the American society begins very dysfunctional. The sisters nor Americans understand each other, due to their language barrier and differences in customs the initial relationship is misunderstood from both sides. Eventually, the Garcia sisters learn to adapt to American society and the relationship becomes stronger as their relations with the Dominican culture weakens.

Trying to conform as quickly as possible in order to end the feeling of being an outsider, Yolanda strives to learn the new culture as quickly as possible. In order to this, she begins hating her Dominican roots and praising the American customs. As Yolanda gets closer to the American culture, she develops a new identity one for which revolves around adapting ideals of feminism but also forgetting the family and relationship dynamics that she grew up with. The feeling that she never truly belongs in either society forces her to pick the best aspects of both the Latino and American cultures and apply them both to her life. She gains two new perspectives on how to view life events and how to judge herself and others. Her identity is shown to be a well balanced combination of American ideals and Dominican customs.

 

An Overview

Welcome,

I have recently embarked on a search for novels that represent the Latino culture. With a new fascination of culture, migration, and the sense of belonging I picked a novel which I felt I could relate to, as after all I am Latina, and want to connect myself back to my roots. I choose Julia Alvarez, a New Yorker born, Dominican raised author and her novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents as the book that will widen my perspective and views on these topics.

About the Author 

Julia Alvarez is a U.S born, Dominican raised woman, author, and wife. She was born in New York City in 1950 but three months after her birth her parents (both native to the Dominican Republic) decided to once again return home. During this time (early fifties) President Trujillo was the dictator of Dominican Republic, one for which used fear, violence, and corruption to take full control of this country and its people. Brave men and women that wanted to end the dictatorship worked in the “underground” a term used to describe the secret society that fought for the freedom of Dominican Republic. Amongst those revolutionaries was Alvarez’s father. As Alvarez describes in her About Me page: “We left hurriedly in 1960, four months before the founders of the underground, the Mirabal sisters, were brutally murdered by the dictatorship”. Her experience living under Trujillo’s dictatorship inspired to write In the Time of the Butterflies. A novel which entails the journey of three sister that started the revolution which ended the brutal dictatorship that Trujillo had placed the Dominican Republic under. In 1991, Alvarez earned her tenure at Middlebury College and published her first novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accent. In a An Interview with Julia Alvarez by Latina Lista, Alvarez states that the published had asked her to write a novel that represented the “Latino cultural phenomenon”. During the 1990’s Alvarez spoke about many critical statistical latino issues in the U.S regarding teen pregnancy rate, suicide rate, and the low education levels that these Hispanic households represented. The novel was written as a way to represent those families that leave their motherland in search for greater opportunities in the U.S but somehow, in the process of it all, completely loose their roots and rather than finding better opportunities they find a new culture. In Q&A With Julia Alvarez  with Harrison Ransom Center’s writer Gabrille Inhofe, Alvarez was asked what her role in the Latino culture is which she responded with ” For so many years, I felt denied entry into that world of serious American literature, so that when I finally was published I claimed my LATINA voice, my traditions, my culture with a vengeance”.

Photo By: Gabrielle Inhofe

Characters 

The main character of the novel is Yolanda (also known as Yoyo by her family) is the third daughter out of a family of four. On the chapters that tell her story, she is the only character that speaks in first person and the one that guides the reader through her past life. Because she is the only one that speaks in first person, it shows that she is the one that is telling the story from her perspective and possible the one that was most impacted by the events that occurred in their lives. Yolanda is very in touch with an artistic side of poetry and novels rather than a the stereotypical “girly” side that some of her sisters portray or that her culture expects from her. Her failure in love has made her mentally ill at times but her true desire is to find someone whom she can be happy with.

Carla is the eldest daughter and the one who stays in touch with her Dominican roots the most. In the move to America it was clear that Carla was the one that had the most trouble adapting to the new society, culture, and language. Carla follows the Hispanic stereotype that the eldest always follows the father’s footsteps in life. She is the one that is most concerned with Papi and the one that becomes a doctor like he was.

Sofia represents the rebel of the family. Her father’s overprotectiveness was her major frustration in life and it caused her to distance herself from the family. In her desperate attempt to earn some freedom and independence from her father, she marries a man that her father disapproved off. Sofia becomes the major rebel in the family constantly going against what Papi says and finding her own path in life causing many conflicts between her and her family.

The beautiful daughter is Sandra, she is most known for her looks especially when compared to her sisters’. Her desired to be an artist and her appreciation for art came to an end when she moved to America. Just like Carla, Sandra also struggled with mental health issues that began with depression from moving to America and worsened with her lack of confidence in herself.

Conflict 

Photo By: Algonquin Books

The story begins with the lives of the García family and their lives under the harsh dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (the Dominican Republic president in the 1950’s). Papi, the Garcia’s father is a revolutionary during Trujillo’s rule, meaning that he became part of the underground movement where with other brave men and women they tried to destroy Trujillo’s power. With Trujillo’s power getting stronger and no sign of the rebellion to succeed, Papi took his family to the United States in search of safety and a better life.

It is here where the reader is introduced to the central conflict of the novel; the adaptation to a new culture. Once in the U.S, the sister must learn a new language, new social skills, and live within a completely new society. The new lifestyle and adaptation to the American culture not only causes personally conflicts (characters have conflicts within themselves) but also between the family. Conflicts include small fights between Sofia and her father but also larger conflicts such as Yoyo’s depression. Facing a new culture by being forced out of their own became the hardest thing that the García family had to deal with. Being inside a society where they knew that they did not belong and having to experience the differences in social classes from one country to the other didn’t facilitate the adaptation process at all. 

Because the novel begins in the present it allows the reader to understand that the sister do overcome their cultural differences and major conflicts. I believe through spending more time in the U.S and realizing the opportunities that they will now be open too because of a more developed society, the sister will eventually adapt so perfectly to their new culture that they might forget their old one. The novel entail the story of how four young girls were forced to leave their culture behind and adapt to a new one, eventually finding themselves trying to connect back to their original culture.

 

Looking Back

3 Quarters In

This quarter my greatest challenge was finding the motivation to continue preforming to the greatest of my ability. At the beginning of the quarter I felt very overwhelmed with the college application process and began pouring my attention to universities. Eventually, I found myself finally ending the college process but never going back to my usual school routine. My procrastination eventually made me begin to start loosing my sleeping time because I decided to finish my assignments at the last minute. Once I started to see this routine affecting my grades I decided to go back to my old routine, where I would come home from school and immediately begin on my school work and then end the day by going to the gym. The plan work sometimes there were days that I would skip the school work and go straight to the gym but overall I decreased how much I was procrastinating. For the next quarter I really have to push myself to continue with my motivation and finish the year/high school career strong. To prevent any procrastination I will begin to set strict schedules and time frames that I must accomplish certain tasks within. I will also use my class time more wisely to decrease the amount of work that I have to do at home.

PHOTO BY: PAUL ROSS. This is a picture of my city in Colombia. I would love to learn more about my culture, my roots and where I come from. 

English During Quarter 3:

This quarter I learned a lot about culture and looking at pieces of literature through a critical culture lens. I learned how to properly read and interpret a graphic novel and how the author speaks through more than just the pictures, he speaks through the lighting, angles, and sequence of the images. I would like to learn another lens in which I can critically evaluate a text with. I would also like to expand on my presentation skills and learn other important rules to a successful presentation (besides not using PowerPoint). What makes a presentation great and captivate the audience?

Learning During Quarter 3:

The activity that was the most engaging and helpful for me were the class discussions after we had read a certain part of a novel. I think that by doing these discussions it forced everyone to read but it also allowed everyone to bring their own ideas and interpretations about the novel. I think any learning activity where the class is working together to share ideas and come up with new thoughts is the most effective. By doing this we can all put our thoughts together, learn other people’s, and form new ones. Based on the quiz, I am an Auditory learner. This means that I learn better by listening to other people, this leads me to think that the best way that I can learn is by paying close attention during class and participating a lot during class discussions.

On the Outside

This past June my friends and I decided to embark on a road trip throughout Texas. Every city that we stayed at seem to have the stereotypical ‘western feel’ to it; that is until we arrived to Austin, a city for which was nothing like we have ever experienced before. This city’s slogan is literally“Keep Austin Weird”. I recall driving past downtown Austin and not knowing what to think, I wanted to judge and question everything I saw but I couldn’t help do anything but embrace it. This city was like nothing we had ever experienced, it had such a contradictory sensation to it; on one side it was so technologically advanced but on the other it was entirely an old-soul. It was through Austin that I had my first encounter with the Hipster subculture one for which I was clearly not welcomed too.

Through their Urbanization, the hipster subculture completely dominates over specific cities and neighborhood around the U.S. In his America’s Urban Future New York Times article, Vishaan Chakrabarti described the movement of hipsters as “all of the attention showered on hipster enclaves like Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Portland, Ore., America is only in the beginning stages of a historic urban reordering”. The hipster subculture has begun to take a noticeable impact on major cities around the world. The Hipster culture has a major focus in going against what is mainstream (which is why no one feels like they can belong). Members of this culture make it a priority to find originality outside of what the common world is used to. The cities that have been taken over by this culture always seem to push away those that clearly don’t follow their norms. In any bohemian-inspired city or area of a city, you can find: a small coffee shop with smooth jazz and odd art, various antique shops, a music store, locally own boutiques, fortune tellings, and an Urban Outfitters.

With the obsession ‘to be different’ they push anyone who is ‘the same’. Hipsters seem to have a type of phobia with anything that is popular, widely known or liked, and especially anything mainstream. A conversation with an individual from this culture usually revolves around heavy topics such as their fight for women’s rights or their passionate views on indie music bands. This subculture contradicts itself constantly. I have found that their ideals revolve around equal rights, freedom, and the acceptance of anyone. Yet, there seems to be an endless stream of hatred towards anyone that isn’t part of this culture. Small decisions like drinking Starbucks or liking Justin Bieber over Lana Del Rey suddenly make a person seem stupid or unoriginal in the hipster society. The fascination with going against what is popular has driving the culture into hating to be known. This is why the subculture isn’t totally understood by an outsider because they don’t want to be. Part of their uniqueness means that their culture doesn’t grow, because if it does then it will be popular and its originality will be lost.

Without any research, it becomes possible impossible to understand the Hipster subculture. Their separation from the rest of society and their constant opposing views cause confusion to those who aren’t in this culture. Stylist features of antique and bohemian decor are constantly found within a Hipster community. Hundreds of dollars can be spent on both a 1950’s polaroid camera even tho they already have an iPhone. The beauty of this culture is the balance between living in a modern world while adapting their old-soul costumes to it. From an outside perspective, this culture is misunderstood thus considered to be weird but this is exactly what Hipsters want that society thinks of them.

 

About This Culture

• I decided to write about this culture because last summer I had the opportunity to visit Austin, Texas. In Austin there is a very heavy Hipster influence that dominates over the city and since my visit there I have been waiting to learn more about the culture.
• I thought that the elements of “hating mainstream” was very interesting. I am someone that lives in a society that is always wanting to conform to everything mainstream and this culture wants to do the exact opposite.
• For my article I began giving some perspective on how an outsider will see the culture from my personal experience. Then I provided some details on the facts of the Hipster culture so that the readers would understand a bit about it. Afterwards, I began specifically talking about the domination of the hipster culture and the major ideals of being unique.
• I think that this culture has developed due to a combination of other past invisible cultures, such as the gothic subculture and bohemian/hippie culture. It is also heavily influenced by past generations.

Malaysia hits Réunion

It’s been close to a year since the Malaysia Airline plane disappeared last March. But this December the RFI reported that France confirms Réunion debris from missing Malaysia Airlines plane. This small island located French Indian Ocean, with a population of just a little above 800,000 people, is now being searched to find more missing parts of flight 370. Réunion officials say that they are more than willing to help the French officials conduct searches on their beaches and around their country. Now that these plane pieces have been found, Réunion now becomes one of the primary countries that will be looked in hopes of finding more information of where the plane could’ve possibly gone too.

PHOTO BY: themalaymailonline.co

With a total of 227 passengers, many countries are still searching for any major clues that they might find to hopefully understand how this plane disappeared but most importantly where it disappeared too. This December, France was one step closer on hopefully finding where more remains of the plane might have gone too when Réunion authorities reported some plane parts that were on the island’s coast line. This new information serves as another lead on resolving this mystery. The families of the passengers still remain hopeful that by tracking the missing plane pieces, authorities will eventually track the plan which could lead to finding the people. Other countries such as the U.S are impacted by this event but small islands around Réunion are heavily impacted since they will now also be searched in order to find more plane pieces. French officials will send out more search parties to accelerate this process.

The article focuses on factual information and has very limited biased. It’s central theme is reporting how the French authorities are now searching the small country and the ocean around it. It also briefly discusses the impact that information like this has on the countries actively seeking answers and the families back home that haven’t given up their hope on their missing loved ones.

Saving the Little Man

Commonly mistaken by the Dominican Republic,  Dominica is one of the smallest countries in the Caribbean with a population of just 70,000. When reading the Boston Helping Dominica Rebuild after Hurricane Erika WCVB news article I was surprised to see how much aid and attention is given to such a small country. On August 27 2015, the tiny island was hit by Hurricane Erika. The hurricane brought 15 inches of rain, immense floating, the destruction of entire villages and approximately 370 houses. The island was left with no power and little potable water which is why Dominicans from Boston and other American cities came together and formed ‘Boston for Dominica’ a group that collected emergency supplies to send to the small island 2,000 miles away. The article states how it will cost approximately “$600 million to rebuild bridges, building, and other infrastructure.” The damages are so extensive that the prime minister has pleaded for international help for this young country.

The article only focuses on the factual side of the damages that the island suffered and the efforts that are being made to help them. The vocabulary used in the article is very clear and descriptive especially when talking about the damages of the island. It uses a strict and firm tone emphasizing the severity of the affects of the hurricane and the help that the rescue groups are providing. The article lacked some information on the state of the island after the aid has been giving the Dominica thus it left me wanting to know more information on the current state of the island. The article uses very limited biased, it’s primary focus is to report American efforts to help Dominica but it did a very limited job at pleading for help to the readers.

Natural disasters occur all over the world and unfortunately these disasters leave immense physical damages, deaths, and severe living conditions to the people and country affected. Although the natural disasters can’t be prevented, the aftermath that they leave behind can be fixed by other supporting nations and organized rescue groups. I think that this is a great article to spread awareness of how others help those nations that are need. I found it interesting how such a small country like Dominica has citizens of it’s nation living in large countries like the U.S and how even tho they now live away, they still support their home country.

Society’s Limitations

“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals”

-Oscar Wilde

The expectations that society enforces on an individual varies depending on one’s gender and social class. Society has a way of enforcing strict regulations on what is the “acceptable” way a certain person should be. Gender roles in each social class is the primary reasoning for these expectations to be placed. In society, men usually have eminence over the women. This sense of superiority over women isn’t entirely a man’s fault; society (including both men and women) have accepted this “gender superiority” for centuries. It is not until recent generations that women began to feel the sense of empowerment over men and began to fight for the equality of both genders.

Female

The most common impact that society has on women, is the objectification place towards them. In our patriarchal society, there is a certain ideology that is held against women that their primary duties (regardless of their social class) are to: bare children and preform common household duties. The women that live in the upper class are expected to be poised and proper, an ideal that is portrayed in the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. As the main character (Eliza) is introduced as poor common girl, living under Britain’s hegemony she fails to be genteel and mannered. Through the help of Professor Higgins (a man from the bourgeoisie) he teaches her the rhetoric dialect and ways of acting like the upper class. A middle class woman is expected to be more of the “working class.” This woman is usually expected to find a mediocre job where she is able to bring a paycheck home, as long as it’s less than the one her husband brings. Compared to the upper class, a middle class woman has the responsibility of  raising her children on-top of financially helping support her family. In juxtaposition to the other two classes, the lower class woman is usually one that society doesn’t expect much out-off. The lower class woman is one who usually doesn’t have the social nor economical means to truly prosper. Unlike the upper and middle class, marriage is something that is quickly overlooked and having children without a husband is nothing out of the ordinary.

Photo By: Kategorie Costumes

Male

The typical gender roles for men are to be the head of the family and the primary financial provider. In the upper class, men focus of money. Men are raised with aspirations to continue in the family business and become wealthy like the family generations before him. In the middle class, a man is expected to also provide his family with their financial needs. A man that does not bring in the primary income to his household is viewed inscrutably  by society. On the contrary, a man in the lower class, living a proletariat lifestyle usually doesn’t look for something such as marriage or a family. A man in the lower class, according the Marxist social theory, primarily looks for basic necessities (shelter, food, and money) and pursue women for sex. 

Life as a Senior

what’s the life of a high school senior?

PHOTO BY: ICU.EDU

It’s our last year of High School and supposedly the best time of our lives, but recently I have spent this year pulling all-nighters, having insane levels of stress, and trying to keep my head above water. Not to mention, the fact that the majority of teachers assign homework like there is no tomorrow and expect us to make life-determining decisions yet we still have to ask permission to go to the restroom. The stress and anxiety of having to balance everything in our lives is preventing us from enjoying this time. To give you an idea of the reality of what Senior year is truly like, I made an outline below:

Summer before Senior year: 

-College visits

-Excitment for what’s to come

-Hangouts & Parties

-Friends & Family

-Actual time to sleep

August-September:

-Good grades

-Healthy sleep schedule

-Time to be with friends & family

-Started college applications

-Mild stress level

October:

-Chaos

-Applying to colleges has begun

-Stress level is out of control

-We skip everything from hangouts, to parties, and even class, to do college apps

-Constantly debating between: A. Having a life or B. Sleeping

November-December:

“Last mile of the race”

-Everything and anything we didn’t do before, we must do now

-The stress of college has reached its maximum level at this point

-Quarter 2 is at its peak and so is the college application process

-We begin to worry about financial aid, because now even if you get accepted into a college, it doe$n’t matter if it’$ too expen$ive

-The balance between school and college apps is practically impossible

-Midterms are here

-Sleep is no longer a concept we are familiar with

-Family only sees you at the dinner table

-Friends only see you at school or study sessions

-A Senior’s worst two months

January-February: 

-Anxiety

-Everything has been turned in (or so we hope it has)

-Now we wait.

-We begin to get our social life back

-And go back to a semi-healthy sleeping schedule

March-April:

-Senioritis is in full swing

-Colleges let us know if they have accepted us which results in: A. Extreme happiness or B. Extreme disappointment

May:

-What is done is done

-The stress is over

-Sleep is our new best friend

-And we are exited to truly start the new part of our lives

The Influences of Marketing

Description:

A thin model serves as the central image and theme to the advertisement and in big bold letters “ARE YOU BEACH BODY READY?” is printed on alongside her body. The advertisement is about Protein World, a company that sells weight loss supplements. The text on the advertisement and the model next to it implies that the only acceptable body to have to go to the beach is the one that the model has. The company does a better job telling women what an acceptable body is than selling their own products.

Analysis:

The goal for this ad is for Protein World to advertise their products and boost their clientele. I understand why there would be someone on their advertisement with what is undoubtedly a fit body, this marketing strategy lets the public think that by consuming their products the will obtain the model’s body. The problem with the advertisement isn’t so much the model itself but rather the text next to the model. “Are you beach body ready” refers to the fact that the model in the skimpy yellow bikini IS bikini ready thus any girl that doesn’t look like her ISN’T. This advertisement set unrealistic standards for what a woman’s body should look like, it deteriorates women, and gives tells society that a woman without this body is acceptable or beautiful. The company is promoting a specific body figure for women to have, not their products.

Conclusion:

The significance of the advertisement is the fact that it sets society with a specific perspective on what a woman should look like. A girl that has a different body type won’t be accepted by herself, men, and women. It is important to critically analyze advertisements like these because sometimes the message is much deeper than the public thinks. With this ad in particular, the message is “consume our products and get the body of the featured model” but after further analyzation it is clear than the bigger message is “the only acceptable body type is the one the model has”.