English Blog

Less is More….Jan DeBlieu

web0003 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:58:14 +0000

Jan DeBlieu starts her article off telling of when she was a child. A neighbor of hers had a cross-stitch sampler in her kitchen. On the sampler was the poem, ” Use it up/ Wear it out/ Make it do or /Do without.” She said that everyone in her world shared an aversion to waste. Her parents and those of her friends had grown up during the Great Depression. She believes that the best way to live Green is “to make do with less–less packaging, less electricity, less stuff.” I agree with her on on that notion because we as Americans sometimes tend to over indulge ourselves. We have big fancy gas guzzling cars and huge houses that are not energy efficient so of course they require alot of energy.

In one statement DeBlieu made, “It would be better to bequeath a clean, healthy world to our children. It would be better to live carefully and avoid wasting natural resources, even if it means doing without a few creature comforts”, stood out to to me. I agree with her statement because one day I will be bringing children into this world and I dont want to bring my children into an unclean world. She also began to realize that she should ask her son to start applying the ideal of not wasting to his life.

Black Men and Public Space…..Brent Staples

web0003 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:52:23 +0000

I loved this essay because I feel like I can identify with Brent Staples. I have had people that I know that have been stereotyped for the same reason that Brent Staples had, because he was black. He identified his first victim as “a woman–white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties.” He had “came upon her” late one evening on an empty street in an “affluent neighborhood.” The woman seemed to began to worry, picked up her pace and began running. Brent wasnt at fault for anything, he wasnt about to rape, murder, or even come in contact with the woman at all yet she took it upon herself to believe any of these things were about to happen. This scenario unfortunately happens more than any of us know and even though it happened many years ago situations like this happen all the time and not with just black men.

Many African Americans and other races tend to get stereotyped and people do it like nothings wrong. Brent Staples seemed to be stereotyped everywhere he went. He began to realize that “the ability to alter public space” was something that he unfortunately inherited. He felt embarrassed and surprised that the woman and others would react to him like that since he was far from the person they thought he was. He grew up as one of the good boys and although he had seen countless “tough guys” locked away and some even buried, he didnt grow up like those guys. He is actually a very educated black man.

He used the stereotyping and the fear that others had of him to take precautions to make himself “less threatening.” He tends to also whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and other popular classical composers. It tends to make the people around him not feel as uptight about him and even relax a little. Although I dont think that he should have to change himself just to make others accept him at least he is now more accepted and less feared, which is what he wanted in the first place.

Americans Entitled to Cheap Gas–Right?……Joan Ryan

web0003 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:00:15 +0000

I believe this is a very effective article. Joan Ryan addresses the issues that Americans have with the rising gas prices and what other countries seem to think about our reaction. When she implied that Americans tend to be greedy, selfish, and irresponsible i believe that she was a bit right. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that ALL Americans are this way, but the American Population as a whole seems to believe that they are entitled to certain things. Joan says, ” I bring this up because, once again, we are the targets of international ridicule, this time for our anger over rising gas prices.” Her statement then is more relevant to today’s prices than 2004′s gas prices. Today we would be happy to see prices at $3.00 whereas a year ago we were griping and moaning because the gas began to get closer to the $3.00 mark. Its like that old saying “you dont realize what you have until its gone.”

We as Americans tend to take our “little luxuries” for granted. Joan goes on to talk about how Americans “like big things and lots of them.” She believes that for the rest of the world to understand Americans that they should check out the movie, Supersize Me! It reiterates the fact that Americans do certain things like buying McDonald’s when they know it isnt good for them, and buying big cars when they claim to care about the environment and wanting to wean themselves off Middle East oil, “because it makes us feel good, and because everybody else is doing it.”

I believe she got her point across to the readers by being very blount and outspoken. She also comes to the conclusion that its not our fault. She ends her article by saying, “Therefore, since this situation is not of our own making, we should not have to pay higher gas prices and give up the big-car life to which we have become accustomed. That would not be right. And if there is one thing Americans beleive in, it is doing what’s right.”

The Last Stop……Brian Cable

web0003 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:45:13 +0000

I enjoyed reading this essay. I believe that the title expresses the essay well because inevitably, everyone’s last stop will be death. Brian Cable wrote about his assumptions of death and how people in general, don’t speak of it. Death is the unmentionable subject in most of our lives. No one likes to think about the death of a loved one because it can be painful, but it can also remind you that everyone has to experience it. He said that he didnt expect the building to look the way it did “like a church–tall, with gothic arches and stained glass–and somewhat like an apartment complex–low, with many windows stamped out of read brick.” The Goodbody Mortuary was in the center of a business district. He, as I imagine anyone would, felt a bit uneasy climbing the stairs to the entrance; not knowing what to expect as he walked in he “feared rejection, or, worse, an invitation to come and stay.”

I liked how the author described the place with great detail. Reading this essay, I was able to envision myself walking beside him, experiencing every thing with him. I could see the funeral director, who was described as being “tall and thin, he even had beady eyes and a bony face.” ……”his skin, scrubbed of all color, contrasted sharply with his jet black hair. He was wearing a starched white shirt, gray pants, and black shoes. Indeed he looked like death on two legs.” The funeral director was easy to talk to and informed him everything he could about the process. One quote from the funeral director stuck out at me: ” Some people have the idea that we can handle the emotional problems which follow a death: Only a trained therapist can do that. We provide services for the dead, not counseling for the living.”

One thing the author said the funeral home did provide was physical comfort. He went on to describe the “modestly but comfortably furnished”, lobby. He was also able to view a variety of caskets that they offered for every price range.

The author really made sure that the readers understood not only his external view of the funeral home, but the internal view of those who worked inside of the Goodbody funeral home.

At Ole Miss, the Tailgaters Never Lose……..William L. Hamilton

web0003 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:23:57 +0000

Game weekends at “the Grove” are not necessarily about football. Instead, the reporter found out that weekends spent in “the Grove” were more like a big family gathering. Someone even said, “We may not win every game but we’ve never lost a party.” Even if the team is losing the tailgaters still keep up with their partying. Current students and alumni all come out to the Grove for a traditional tailgating event. People who are somewhat dedicated to the Grove argue that it accommodates more people than the Ole Miss football stadium which holds 60,580 people. Any kind of party you can think to go to, is going on all at once inside the Grove. There is actually a schedule for setting up inside the Grove. The Grove Society is an alumni organization who have stern schedules for this event. Police vs. about 200 people or more can cause some serious problems, but they somehow find a way to keep it all under control. Many students and alumni were interviewed during the reporters observation, and most of them had a story to tell about their experiences inside of the Grove. Even as Ole Miss lost the Game that day to Wake Forest, the partying in the Grove lasted well past the ending of the game.

The reporter’s observations made me think about and compare Auburn’s tailgating scene vs. what i read about the Ole Miss Tradition. Both traditions are similar yet both are different. From reading this observation it seemed like the grove was only about drinking and seeing old friends and it was the only place people seemed to flock to during football games. Here you can find people getting together and tailgating all over the place cheering on the football player’s while listening to the game on a radio or watching it on a portable TV. I kind of felt like the reporter would have focused more on observation but he did use vivid description and I was able to picture what I was reading and relate to it. He had a really good description of what he saw and he also wrote about the history of the grove and people who were there and what they did.

Longing to Belong….Saira Shah

web0003 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:27:21 +0000

Saira Shah is the daughter of an Afghan father and Indian mother. She wasn’t raised around her father’s family in Afghanistan. She was born in England and didnt know much about her father’s heritage. When she was seventeen she went to Pakistan to her cousin’s wedding on her father’s side. Her uncle thought she and her sister had been sent to be married. While eating, her uncle would “lovingly” take food from her mouth and shove it into hers, which I thought was disgusting (even if he did it out of love). This habit was one of the Afghan decent which was her uncle’s interesting way of showing his niece that he valued her and accepted her as part of his family. Shah wasn’t used to this new kind of “love and affection”.

Before she went to Pakistan she never felt deprived of anything, but after her encounters with her relatives she started to have a feeling of longing to be apart of “their world”. She now realized that she had been deprived of one thing, her origins. So, Saira had this crazy idea that, if she went along with her uncle’s plan to arrange a marriage for her, she would then fit in. She was arranged to marry a distant cousin, which I feel is wrong on so many levels. This guy was short with a well seen flourishing mustache (meant to make up for his height), he was a fighter pilot in the Pakistani Air Force. Since he was part of the family he was allowed to meet Saira, unlike tradition which would cause him to be unable to meet an unmarried girl. When she witnessed the wedding of her cousin she noticed that the groom could conversate and mingle with others while the bride was to sit still, eyes lowered. She now realized that if she was to obtain freedom, she had to make her own path.

After many days, her fiance had returned to his home. He sent her an unwelcomed flow of great expensive gifts. When he called one day speaking of love which in this culture has nothing to do with marriage, she wanted out. Her Aunt who had accompanied her their was very pleased at that. She told Saira’s other Aunt (her uncle’s wife), the one who’d matched the two together that the engagement was off. She felt that love had nothing to do with marriage and that he had been making rude comments to Saira over the phone. Young people of that culture arent even allowed to speak to each other on the phone. I was happy to find out that Saira didnt marry her cousin, not only because he was her cousin but because she was doing it just to fit in.

I am very happy that she didnt go through with marrying her cousin, just to fit in with her family. I believe that they accepted her anyway and if they didnt then they arent a real family.