Response to "Not Every Kid Bond Matures" (Journal Entry 16)

I will once again be responding as I read the article:

First paragraph in and this guy already sounds pretentious.

What does the author mean when he says, "politics did did not line up with the generations"? I know he goes on to explain himself, but I just do not see his reasoning behind using that phrase. I don't get it.

He lists famous marches and protests and uprisings, saying they are/did take place because of "the young". I mean... yeah. But also each generation has different feelings on etiquette and protesting. Of course "the young" are the ones going out and protesting! The older generation of... well, each generation is majorally against what is being protested against. That's kind of the point of protesting. Older people are in charge, and the young want to change it in order for thier future to be how they want. And so on and so on.

Who is this guy to say "the destruction of childhood"? Uhm? He can back up? Does he not think that once girls were widely accepted into learning institutions, thier elders got upset because they would forget how to milk the grass and mow the cows? Never mind.

I'm glad he describes the photo taken in Charlottesville. I always love hearing the stories behind the photos taken at protests. Like the one from Ferguson of the man who picked up a firing can of tear gas to throw it back? I never knew what the photo was until someone informed me. I'd like to see the photo mentioned in this article.
Here is the one I am referencing:

Topics/Questions for New Essay (Exploratory) (Journal Entry 14)

3 things that are cool:

• Musicals? Yeah. 
• Babies

3 things I dislike:

• White boy fashion
• Weed
• Shaving my legs

3 things I don't understand:

• My love for Ronald Reagan
• White boy fashion
• My youngest yet older brother (Preston)

Commitment Ceremony (Journal Entry 15)

Topic: Teacher Pay

Central Question: Why does no one ever rally for teacher pay like they do with other jobs?

Mini Questions:

1. Why are teachers paid so little in our state?
2. Is it important to pay someone based on work ethic/outcome of the occupation?
3. How come teachers are not allowed to protest in the state of North Carolina

Examples:

Only protest I've ever seen is wearing red on Wednesdays

Still below poverty line even when dad had a job

Everyone always tells me to change my major or that I have so much to look forward to if I wasn't a teacher. 

In pop-culture such as coming of age movies and shows or Young-Adult novels recently published, there has been a recurring joke since nearly anyone of any decade can laugh at. The joke brings up that awkward feeling a person gets when seeing their teacher outside of school. Running into your math professor at the grocery store, or seeing your old PE teacher at an unlikely concert. We have just become accustomed to seeing a certain person in a certain place, and it can be a little unsettling to change up that scenery. I remember my 8^th grade math teacher standing in front of the class, joking that teachers were robots that lived at school; and once all the students left, the instructors would climb into their respective cabinets and “power down”. I remember all the kids laughing at the way our teacher pretended to mechanically move and lose his robotic battery percentage. The joke is funny because we can all agree: teachers aren’t actually people. Are they? I mean, when you think about it, it can be hard to define that question; for normal people are paid for the jobs they do in accordance to how their occupation affects the nation. Teachers aren’t normal, not like other professionals. Teachers are held at a higher standard, having to still be under occupational scrutiny even when clocking out, so to speak. They are constantly under magnifying glasses, pushing their limits as well as the envelope- the one that holds their paycheck, that is.  

Yes, Hello, I wrote an essay in an hour (no proof read)

An exploratory paper is a structure of paper designed to ask a question or series of questions for the reader to think about and mull over the possible answers. An exploratory paper is in contrast to that of the expository style of writing, in which the author has a central idea and is attempting to make the reader understand and follow. The two writing styles are similar in the way that in the end, the reader comes away with an answer as well as a question that didn’t know they were asking.

David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster” article is an example of the exploratory paper in that it asks one, if not multiple, central question. His central question is that whether or not it is humane to catch, boil, and eat a live and sentient being. His article is extensive, chronicling not just a famous lobster-themed festival, but his whole experience. His writing style is unique in itself, switching from first person to second, as well as telling of his experience through the perspective of a lobster and how they think about their rise in popularity through the ages. I, for one, enjoy how he detailed every aspect of the festival experience and atmosphere to add to the importance of what it truly means to be a lobster.

Alice Walker’s article on Southern black women at the turn of the 20^th century has not one central question posed like Wallace’s exploratory exposé, but a handful of them. She poses the question of who were the women, the Saints, of the South? Not just matriarchs of present day families, but how did they get to where they were, and why. Beginning her exploratory article from the perspective of an outsider simply walking around, casting glances at the subject of her writing, is an intriguing style choice, in my opinion. I enjoy how she does not concentrate on just a few aspects of black women in southern 20^th century America. She speaks on the history of black women writing and making art in not just America but in different countries and cultures, posing more central questions along the lines of: why are black women deprived of the arts they wish to pursue? Must they settle for such insipid lives when they were destined for much more?

Both Walker and Wallace write in the aforementioned exploratory writing style, though they express it differently. The two authors both ask not one, but multiple principal questions about their respective subjects. While similar in writing format, the two tackle the exploratory style very differently. They both write from multiple perspectives, but the way in which they do so sets them apart greatly. Wallace speaks on his personal experience at a festival, bringing in details of the history of the festival, the main concentrate of it (lobster), and even of how new and old patrons feel about the festival. Walker speaks on new patrons of southern black women from a personal and present perspective, but more commonly uses the context from historical black figures to get her point across. She focuses on the “what-if” quality of her topic and how history shaped a people and their artistic repression, while Wallace focuses more on the central subject at hand, which is undeniably lobster.

While the two journalists are equally alike and different, I am just small and sleepy. When typically writing for myself, I must confess I stick to a somewhat likened style of how Walker composes, but will definitely follow Wallace’s footsteps to make word count. Because that seems to be exactly what he is doing. The writing process is always challenging to me, and I imagine that the most difficult prospects of writing an exploratory paper will be making sure I fit all the criteria and do not slip into an expository format as well as making sure I do not just ramble about my topic, never making a truly coherent sentence. I am hoping that in the end, I will have a large vocabulary, as well as a better eye for picking out the difference in writing styles and formats.

Alice Walker Precis & Reverse Outline (Journal Entry... I dunno, 13?)

Alice Walker speaks on how the South sees the everyday black woman. She uses allusions and writes from the perspective of others in her article "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South".

1st paragraph: Touches the subject of Jean Toomer. Begins discussing the spirituality and objectiveness of southern black women in the early 1900's.
2nd/3rd "paragraphs": describes women as saints, introduces (grand)mother concept
4th paragraph: Black women were looked at, not interacted with, what they leisurely did
5th paragraph: spiritual description of the women?
6th "paragraph": Women ahead of thier time
7th paragraph: Describing through Toomer's perspective of how the women were going "nowhere"
8th paragraph: Toomer perspective, the women lead sad lives

Time for a change of pace

9th-11th paragraphs: Mothers/grandmothers were artists depraved of thier craft due to social and class structure
12th-14th paragraphs: Where would we be if we didn't have black female artists? Poem by Okot p'Biek. Response to poem about how who and what exactly black women are.
15th-17th paragraphs: Introduce Virginia Woolf and Phillis Wheatly
18th-21st paragraphs: Description of what Virginia wrote and how it applies to slave Phillis taken away from African home. Little bit about how Phillis lived and died
22nd-25th paragraphs: more about Phillis, her poem. Meaning behind the poem and why Phillis chose to write it
26th-28th paragraphs: What women are called and how they are seen in society as "castraters" and the like. How previous black writers helped her to write this article as well as push her career along
29th-32nd paragraphs: About her own mother's life and marriage and daily life in the early to mid 1900's and how it affected her and her children.
33rd-35th paragraphs: about quilt in Smithsonian made by anonymous Alabama woman
36th-41st paragraphs: Literary allusions by Virginia Woolf and The Third Life of George Copeland, and how it ties into Walker's mother's life.
42nd-45th paragraphs: memories of her mother's garden and people and how it was her art
46th-end: poem, meaning of poem, and how hopefully long ago in Africa, women could be the artists they wanted to be

Alice Walker (Journal Entry 12)

My mind is a little out of it as I read this, so I may need to re-read over it after the first two attempts.

I believe I will respond to this article much like I previously did for another blog entry, a sort of stream of conciousness writing style as I read the article.

Why does she put "mule of the world" into quotations when talking about black women in the South? Did the poet, Jean, liken them as such? Was it just maybe a common phrase in the 1920's to refer to women, especially black women, as mules? Asses? Rude?

People set candy on fire? What? *Elizabeth, please re-read this section.

The way of Walker's writing is terrific, but I do wish my head could think like hers. The manner of how she is describing "mothers and grandmothers" reminds me slightly of the scenarios in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neal Hurston.

Since when is spirituality the basis of art? As she continues to use the term "spirituality" in this article, I feel as though she is talking more about faith in religion. What other kind of spirituality is there, if not believing in a higher power or other forces at work around our natural world?

The poem that Walker "paraphrases" has a word that I cannot seem to find a definition for. "Lacari" I attempted to find a definition for this, but the closest thing I could find was that it is a name. Yet when spelled as "lachari", it is translated as a Hindi word meaning "helplessness". So the line in the poem would read "Close the gates/with helpless thorns". Hmmmmm.......

"...'savagery' of the Africa they 'rescued' her from..." lmao, sounds like it could be right out of "The White Man's Burden" written lovingly by Rudyard Kipling. What a guy.

Sapphire's Mama: Definition of a "Sapphire" is the trope of an overbearing and sassy black woman who has her man "whipped".

Graham Precis (Journal Entry 11)

Graham speaks on the traditional way high school students write essays, how the format came to pass, and what he wishes he could change about it.