TOW #12: IRB "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" (part 1)

Maya Angelou, in her famous book "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", tells the story of her childhood full of hardships. Her and her brother, Bailey, are sent from their parents in California when Maya was just three years old. She grows up in Stamps, Arkansas with Bailey, her grandmother, whom she eventually calls “Mama”, and her physically disabled uncle. Maya spends much of her childhood working in her grandmother’s general store. Out of nowhere when Maya is around eight years old, her and Bailey are suddenly visited by their father who takes them to St. Louis to live with their mother. There, Maya is molested and raped by her mother’s boyfriends and returns to Stamps after she refuses to talk to anyone in St. Louis except Bailey. Published in 1970, Angelou’s story explains the hardships of African American’s earlier in the century. Adults who are uninformed about the kind of lives some African Americans had to lead during the times of segregation would benefit most from this book, which puts the everyday lives of these oppressed people into perspective. When talking about being sent to town by her grandmother for an errand, Maya remembers “There was joy going to town with money in our pockets and time on our hands. But the pleasure fled when we reached the white part of town… we had to cross the pond and adventure the railroad tracks. We were explorers walking without weapon into man-eating animals’ territory” (Angelou 25). Her inclusion of vivid imagery describing her journey and use of metaphor to compare white people to “man-eating animals” conveys to the reader how separated races were during segregation, and the fear that African Americans felt for whites. This kind of language ad description is continued throughout the book that outlines Angelou’s life. By telling her own story, Angelou tells the stories of countless other African Americans living in the segregated South. She is able to reach her audience and instill profound understanding within them, not only telling what happened but explaining indirectly what kind of effect it had on her. 

TOW #11: "Night"

                In his short essay “Night”, Tony Judt reveals great insights into his life as a person who suffers from ALS. The disease has slowly taken away feeling in his limbs until Judt became a quadriplegic, unable to move almost everything but his head. This has affected every part of Judt’s life, even parts that most of us would not even think of because we take so many of our daily activities for granted. In sharing how Judt spends his time and copes with his immobility, Judt speaks to those who have never had that kind of experience and cannot possibly understand what having such a disease is like. Many people have loved ones who suffer for illnesses like ALS. They see their family or friends suffering and slowly losing control over their body, and do not understand what to do or how to help. In order to explain to the general population what he and others experience, Judt mainly uses anecdotes. He talks about his night habits, saying “am then covered, my hands placed outside the blanket to afford me the illusion of mobility but wrapped nonetheless since—like the rest of me—they now suffer from a permanent sensation of cold. I am offered a final scratch on any of a dozen itchy spots from hairline to toe; the Bi-Pap breathing device in my nose is adjusted to a necessarily uncomfortable level of tightness to ensure that it does not slip in the night; my glasses are removed…and there I lie: trussed, myopic, and motionless like a modern-day mummy, alone in my corporeal prison, accompanied for the rest of the night only by my thoughts”. This short description reveals volumes about his like, also including vivid metaphors and imagery to display how truly uncomfortable and unnatural it is for those who suffer from ALS to withstand daily tasks. Even simple things, like shifting positions in the middle of the night, are impossible for people like Judt. He is forced to endure being uncomfortable for hours on end with being able to do anything about it, making his audience realize how much they take normal mobility for granted. 

TOW #10: "A rose place in a bullet hold through a window in Paris"

     Placed in bullet hole through the window of a Paris restaurant attacked during the November 13th terror attacks, the card tied to the rose asks "In the name of what?". The French people have been wounded beyond comprehension, losing over 100 of their citizens to suicide bombings and shootings in just one terrible day. The world has reacted by partaking in the “Pray for Paris” movement through social media, demonstrations, speeches from political leaders, along with shining red, white, and blue tribute lights, but no one is quite sure what to do about the horrific incident. Why did this happen? Why would people do this? In the name of what? Pascal Rossignol captured the essence of these questions in his photograph published in an ABC article. The note, written in average handwriting on a simple piece of paper, utilizes a rhetorical question while evoking pathos. People want answers for why the lives of their innocent fellow citizens where shattered like the cracked window. In addition, the strong metaphor of the rose amongst the tragic destruction spreads a strong message. Despite the ugly scar of terrorism now looming over France and other parts of the world, people will continue to have hope, fight against violence, and live beautiful lives despite the actions of crazed extremists. One does not have to speak French to understand this metaphor, which is why Rossignol addresses his message to the entire world. He intends to make people aware of the tragedy in France, the damage, the loss. But Rossignol also wishes to spread the unbreakable spirit of the French people and other peoples who have suffered similar attacks. The image calls for an end to the meaningless violence while also shouting that, despite the horrors people are facing because of terrorism, they will not let themselves be so consumed by fear that they cannot see the beauty in things anymore. With this simplistic yet powerfully striking photograph, Pascal Rossignol was able to perfectly capture the effects of the Paris attacks. 

TOW #9: "Local Teen Quits Club That Would’ve Been Tiebreaker In Admission To Dream School"

     An article published by The Onion September 22 of this year, "Local Teen Quits Club That Would’ve Been Tiebreaker In Admission To Dream School", the satirical news source mocks the college admission process high school students applying to college much go through. Nationally renowned for their wit and biting parodies of more serious issues, the article reveals how students are expected to have overwhelmingly busy schedules or else they will not be able to get into the school of their choice. The pressures modern day high school students feel are displayed in a bitterly humorous way, appealing to young adults who have or are going through the process, as well as informing older readers of the impossible standards todays student have to work for. The article employs mock seriousness saying, “local student Matt Reynolds, 17, reportedly decided this week to quit a club that would have set his application apart from others and secured his admission to his dream college”, while including an outrageous hyperbole worded as an understatement. The irony only grows throughout the piece, asserting later that the student’s “note to the club’s faculty advisor saying that he would no longer be attending meetings had, in essence, made the admissions officers’ rejection decision for them”. Such sarcasm emphasizes how ridiculous admissions expectations are, and how kids have to kill themselves with insane schedules to even have a chance at their dream schools. A direct quote for the student, Matt Reynolds, is included saying, “I guess I’d rather spend some time hanging out with my friends before I head off to [an undesirable second-choice] college” once again employing satire to show how high school youths have no time to have a healthy social life. It is sad how students lose the last few years of their childhood between school, homework, and a plethora of extracurricular needed to get in to good colleges. This article points out the negative impact it has on the lives of young people, as well as how ridiculous the standards are. The Onion was truly able to capture the flaws in the college application system. 

IRB Intro Post #2 - "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

Written in 1969, a time of great advances in the African American civil right movement, Maya Angelou's renowned autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" rocked the nation. It tells her childhood, and all the struggles Angelou had to overcome at a young age to become the successful individual she is today. Themes of racial persecution, self esteem, coming of age, and feminism play huge roles in this profound journey. A book that sheds light on the issues individuals held back by racism and stereotypes have to overcome, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" exemplifies the fighting spirit of American underdogs.

TOW #8: IRB "Blink" (part 2)

The second half of Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, was just as interesting and elaborately detailed as the first. Gladwell is able to fuse his fact attaining skills learned from being a journalist with his clear and exciting writing style to produce a piece that serves as a real eye opener to his audience. Curious minds can gain so much from this book, which uses incredible studies along with other facts, examples, and situations to explain the human mind. Now that technology has opened up so many avenues to knowledge, scientists are able to uncover many things that mankind could never imagine being able to understand. Gladwell, through the medium of Blink, takes all of this groundbreaking information and connects the dots so that anyone with a desire to learn about something so amazing can attain a firm grasp on the intricate subject. The aspect of Gladwell’s book is his employment of layman’s terms rather than using advanced scientific jargon that would go over the heads of the vast majority of his audience. When explaining different terms, Gladwell thoroughly breaks things down so true understanding can flow easily along with his book. When explaining how snap judgements can lead people to the wrong conclusions, Gladwell employed a famous event, “the Diallo shooting”, and explains how it relates to the point. He says, “The Diallo shooting, in other words, falls into a kind of gray area, the middle ground between deliberate and accidental. Mind-reading failures are sometimes like that. They aren’t always as obvious and spectacular as other breakdowns in rapid cognition. They are subtle and complex and surprisingly common, and what happened on Wheeler Avenue is a powerful example of how mind reading works – and how it sometimes goes terribly awry” (Gladwell 197). Bedsides his use of simple, colloquial language that clearly communicates his conclusions, Gladwell also includes oxymorons such as “deliberate and accidental” to represent how complex the idea is. In his attempt to share his theories and the great thought of others in a way that a common person could comprehend, Gladwell’s well known book Blink flawlessly achieved its purpose. 

TOW #7: The Bedrooms of Children Around the World

Featured in an article in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, photographer James Mollison found a unique way to capture the lives of children around the world by taking pictures of their bedrooms. A director of many Australian art galleries, Mollison utilized his artistic expertise to take astonishing photos that send a very deep message about how child rights and equality differ greatly in different countries. His message is addressed to those living in first world nations, like England and America, who are used to living a very high quality of life and rarely think of those who are not as fortunate as them. Mollison mixes photos from such privileged nations with photos of extreme poverty in Asian, South American, African, and Middle Eastern countries to show to viewers in an unforgettable way how fellow humans on the same planet live such different lives. By employing such powerful juxtaposition, the inequalities between the haves and the have nots of the world become abundantly. The images are simple, yet reveal so much about the lives of the children. Girls and Japan and America are spoiled by their parents, given whatever comforts they want, while girls in third world nations live away from their families as domestic servants to survive. Their rooms symbolize the kind of lives they have from the moment they are born; lives full of comfort and riches or lives of struggle and poverty. Image after image provokes a question in the views; why do some children have so much yet others have so little? Is the disparity between quality of life fair? The answers to these questions are very clear – it is not fair. Mollison’s use of symbolism and juxtaposition is simple yet very moving. Lack of words does not make the message any less strong, as the pictures represent one of the best arguments for human rights I have ever seen. Mollison’s goal to educate those from privileged backgrounds of what other people have to live through was very well achieved through this collection of photographs that went viral. In just a few snapshots of rooms, Mollison showcases the world’s struggle. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595808/Sleeping-rubbish-surrounded-guns-poster-Chairman-Mao-Photographs-world-children-slumber.html