wirting

Wright feels gratified after sharing his writing with the girl next door because of how she reacted to his writing. She did not understand why he wrote for fun. It was something that “nobody” really did. It was unique and the fact that somebody could not understand about something that Wright was “proud” of, made Wright feel almost superior. It was something that he has never felt before. It becomes something that he enjoys doing and an outlet for his emotions. I mean, I would feel the same way about writing if I enjoyed writing and it was something not everyone could enjoy.

Mom

At first, Wright is very upset about his mother’s illness, however as time goes by, he gets used to the fact that his mom is ill. I think everything “new” in people’s life starts out with a shock, then people get used to them, whether or not it’s a bad thing. And I think that is what Wright did. He subconsciously trained himself to be okay with the fact that his mom is ill. But then, what was really sad to me about how he was handling this situation was that the fact he relates his mother’s illness to what’s going on around him. He sees the sufferings and he soon realizes that it’s helpless.

JEws

Wright does not handle his mother's illness very well. At first he was really scared, but then later in the chapter after his mother relapses he says that he grew numb to his mother's illness. And the family started to just accept the illness and used up all their money trying to help her. In the book on page 100, Wright says that his "mother's suffering grew into a symbol in my mind, gethering to itself all the poverty, the ignorance, the helplessness..." He also says that "a somberness of spirit that I was never to lose settled over me during the slow years of my mother's unrelieved suffering." His mother's illness had a profound effect on him.

Why?

Why is he really hungry? I mean, do we even know what he is hungry for? Is he searching for actual food or affections or material goods or else? In the book, he is obviously hungry for physical food because he is not well fed. However, it does not look like the physical hunger is the only thing that he desires for. It seems like his hunger is closely related to the absence of his dad. He feels hungry whenever he thinks about his dad being gone. Part of it is probably because of the financial situation at his house after his dad left. Also, he probably feels like his dad has abandoned him. So there is this sense of emptiness and loneliness that is helpless. Nothing can fulfill his desire for “food”.

the need to go to school.

I think it really depends on the individual. We all have different learning styles and some people work better without people around you, and some people need people to motivate them in order for them to do a better job. In class, I mentioned that I thought homeschoolers were deprived of 'nonacademic' education. I still think that they are missing out on some social education, however I really think it depends on the individuals on how much the lack of social education is affecting them. My thought or concern was that even if they claim that they get this 'nonacademic' education from going to a church, playing sports, and etc, they are still in the "same group". They are not going to have a chance to meet someone who is completely different from them. Like Lamags said, there are those homeschoolers who reach out to people who are different from them and they succeed. Therefore, I believe that it depends on the individual.

Nonacademic

I think nonacademic education is very important. I'm sure there are people who benefit a lot from it and there are people who don't benefit at all from this. I value nonacademic education that I am receiving because it means a lot to me. Other than just learning 2+2 is 4, sky is blue, and more, also learning about how to properly interact with others, how to become an acceptable member of a society is important. Not only from the school, but I get this nonacademic education from my parents, and other adults around me. I think it really depends on the person how much she or he appreciates this kind of education. Because the environment in which a person is growing up is a big part of this ‘nonacademic’ education, or at least I think it is very important. I think that ‘nonacademic’ education definitely helps people to become “good citizens”, and also helps how the society is shaped.

pres 2

I never thought of Mr. Webster and his rhetorical actions. It was definitely interesting for me to see Maggie talk about how Mr. Webster represents our school by his actions. I think he does help shape our school as a community with the core values. Also, the poster that is in Maggie’s room that was supposedly put up by her sister (haha) was interesting. I do not even know how to respond to that. Well, first of all, I thought it was advertising the boots, not the jeans. The jeans did not even catch my eyes after Maggie pointed out that it was supposed to be an ad for that pair of jeans. The ad definitely did not really make me want to buy the neither jeans nor boots. It was just an awkward poster. And when Ieysha showed that commercial at the end, I was shocked. Was that really on air? The fact that its broadcasting was allowed on TV does not make sense to me. Who makes this kind of decisions?!

pres 1

I thought everyone's presentation was interesting. I never thought about the stores or commercials in rhetorical way, however after this project and presentation, it seems like I notice myself thinking about how things around me appeal to me in rhetorical ways. I thought one of Tony's examples, which were of a man walking under a light bulb, was cleaver. It definitely caught my attention and gave me a very positive impression abut the magazine; Impression that it is full of new ideas and more. Also, I liked Kendal’s example of Victoria’s secret. Now that I really think about it, it blows my mind that I don’t find myself shocked to see provocative pictures of women, half naked. I am almost so used to seeing such things that it is normal to me, and that is scary. It definitely does bother me to see the pictures, but I feel like it’s normal for me to be bothered by them and it’s acceptable for those pictures to be displayed.

the article

I think it's very interesting how a store could almost "control" the minds' of consumers. It is scary that people are actually falling for this. This shows how easily people can be manipulated with different ads and pompous words. I understand that it is a part of a marketing business of the store and it's great that this particular store is doing so great on advertising. I think this store has targeted its consumers very well because I think no matter how good the commercial is, if the person does not need the product then it is most unlikely for the person to purchase the product. Therefore, I think this store has targeted a good vulnerable group of people who would be easily convinced. And people who are happy tend to be more vulnerable to things than people who are unhappy. In this case, it's the newlyweds. They just got married, and they are very excited... Now, all they need is a new bed and their life will be perfect. I think that is what the point of this advertisement is, in a nutshell.

presentation

Today was fun. I thought everyone did a great job of presenting the commercial. Everyone seemed happy with his or her result. I thought it was cool that we got to actually apply what we learned in class and make it into a commercial. I had a lot of fun working with my group.
Even though I thought all the commercials were well polished and done, I wouldn’t purchase all the products. For example, I loved Kendal, Derek, Mallory, and Lauren’s commercial, however, I do not like the taste of sugary bubble gum, which leads me not to buy the gum…
Overall, I thought it was a fun project and really enjoyed it. I think we should do more projects like this.

sb ads

I would say most of the commercials were interesting. They were all very creative. However, there were a few that I thought were outstanding. Some of them were so convincing that I actually wanted to buy the product.
The Diet Pepsi Max commercial was very entertaining. The commercial started out with people looking fatigued, but then suddenly, a cart of bottles of Diet Pepsi Max shows up and everyone grabs a bottle. Then suddenly, people start dancing in sync. It made me want to dance like them, and try out the drink to see if it really gave me energy.
Another one was of Tide Stain Remover Pen, which obviously removes stain… There were two men in an office where one of them was interviewing the other. The person who was interviewing had a noticeable stain on his white shirt, which distracted the person who was being interviewed. The smart aspect of this commercial was that it emphasized the stain being distracting by whenever the man was speaking, the stain would wrinkle and unwrinkled to “talk” to interfere their conversation.
The Pepsi commercial made me want to buy the product because everyone looked so happy and energetic. Plus, I was thirsty at the time. The Tide commercial wanted to me to buy the product because I would hate to have a stain on my shirt, and have people be distracted by it.
I definitely think that different commercials appeal to different people because everyone wants different things!

stores

My favorite store is Forever 21. However, I don't really see any ads from them. I go to that store because it has cute, trendy clothes at a reasonable price. It's got a big selection to choose from, which allows me to find my own unique style. I go to their websites sometimes and they always have new stuff coming out. Also, they offer discount on different selected items daily.
Another store I often go is Sephora, even though I RARELY purchase anything... from there. I see all these ads about them in magazines (the girly ones). They show what kind of products they used to make themselves "prettier" and say that they are all available at Sephora. So, even though I know I probably won't buy anything, I often go to Sephora to check out the latest makeup, perfumes, and more. Another place I like to visit for this purpose is M.A.C. I love that place because they give free full facial makeovers all the time except for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. However, they will do your free eye makeup or lips anytime. And similar to Sephora, you see all these beautiful women in various magazines wearing their products, which lures me into visiting the store...
Obviously, because of what I like and of my interest, my favorite stores correlate to each other. These stores use different things to attract customers. For example, for both M.A.C and Sephora, we are free to try on makeup samples. Sephora even gives out little samples if you ask for them! Also, they have a membership card where if you constantly spend money on their products, they will reward you with some kind of... gift. Furthermore, because M.A.C gives out free makeovers, it is popular for many girls, and occasionally guys as well. And by constantly having new stuff in, and having sales, Forever 21 makes the customers to want to come back to the store. These kinds of environment influence the customers and I would say most of them are effective.

discussion

It was hard to have a discussion because we weren't discussing about how we were going to solve the problem, but we were talking about the problem itself. What really made me upset was that it seemed like people were just trying to say what they have to say but not listen to one another.

It will probably take a lot more people than just one English class to let people know that it is offensive to most of the women how many ads subjugate women. I know there were people who did not care about the content of the ads, and because they didn't really pay attention to the ads, it didn’t really bother them at all. However, there are people who watch them. Like how Eli was talking about what a boy who goes to a public school might do to a girl. Their environment and how they are raised affect people. And, subconsciously, people are affected by the ads. How much you are affected may differ from other individuals, but because we are exposed to these ads from early on, we are almost immune to it.