Alice Munro- Boys and Girls IOC Commentary

IOC Commentary

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw3nhRM-4pXxUW5OdkxRMl9Bc28/view

LITERATURE

Literature serves a lot of benefits and purposes that can teach a variety of things to people. Through literature we are able to place our mindset into that of someone else’s and sympathizes with other peoples situations. It helps people develop skills that are applicable outside the class such as logical thinking and skills of arguing. It is an education within itself that provides perspectives and emotional insights to topics or themes one wouldn’t usually relate or think they would relate to. It serves to educate and widen our knowledge on real life experiences and enhance ideas to the readers.

Women’s literature is a very interesting genre to focus on. It is based on the experiences of women and their historical role or accomplishments and their struggles shaped by their gender. It’s a form of literature that truly uncovers many realties and exemplifies situations that many people wouldn’t imagine. Not only is it beneficial in enhancing history and showing a womanly perspective but it also engages with the readers, not only feminine readers, and can sometimes relate to certain people because it outlines struggles and accomplishments
Munro’s work in relation to the themes and values of social realism during the 1950s-1980s due to the empowerment and struggle of women and how hard they fought for equal rights for everything.
Although Alice Munro doesn’t consider herself a feminist yet does agree that she is one as far as thinking that the experience of women is important hence she bases most of her short stories around the lives and experiences of women.  In her short stories she identifies the barriers to women’s independence and individuality therefore she centers her stories on women’s liberation. Munro is able to build a connection with girls and women when she narrates her real life situational stories, many of her stories involve a woman reflecting on her point of view relating to a certain aspect and questioning the basic assumptions they live under. She gives girls and women a voice in literature.

Munro’s work is a delight to read and is mind hooking. She is able to place different female characters in so many different scenarios that each gives a person a new perspective and a new pair of shoes to look at different situations through. She knows the ways in which to engage with her readers and set an example for many people. Even though her work is considered women’s literature it goes and relates with both women and men. She focuses on social and personal divisions and how to overcome certain situations. She gives a voice to women with wonderful stories and I really enjoyed and continue to enjoy reading her stories. 

SONG ANALYSIS

All Falls Down

Oh when it all, it all falls down
I'm telling you ohh, it all falls down

Man I promise, she's so self conscious
She has no idea what she's doing in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain't insecurrre
The concept of school seems so securrre
Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a careerrr
She like fuck it, I'll just stay down herre and do hair
Cause that's enough money to buy her a few pairs of new Airs
Cause her baby daddy don't really care
She's so precious with the peer pressure
Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus (a Lexus)
She had hair so long that it looked like weave
Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve
And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe
Single black female addicted to retail and well

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious
That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches
Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy
I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that versace!
Then I spent 400 bucks on this
Just to be like nigga you ain't up on this!
And I can't even go to the grocery store
Without some ones thats clean and a shirt with a team
It seems we living the american dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings
We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us
We trying to buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coop/coupe

I say fuck the police, thats how I treat em
We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom

We'll buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need em
Things we buy to cover up what's inside
Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth
That's why shortys hollering "where the ballas' at?"
Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack
And a white man get paid off of all of that
But I ain't even gon act holier than thou
Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou
Before I had a house and I'd do it again
Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific
I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific
I got a problem with spending before I get it
We all self conscious I'm just the first to admit it

Commentary

‘All Falls Down’ is a song by Kanye West. The song exemplifies the self-consciousness and insecurities within society, specifically the black community, the one he grew up in. He focuses on the insecurities that we carry as human beings, whether it be due to racial or personal issues that people would usually try to cover about themselves. In his song he says: “We all self-conscious, I’m just the first to admit” he is trying to say that people don’t like admitting their insecurities.

“We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us
We trying to buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coop/coupe”
Kanye discuss the theme of materialism in order to display the status, which allows people that suffer from discrimination to somehow rise to the level that people who are wealthy are on.

 Looking at ethos, Kanye’s lyrics root from his own personal experience. Unlike him a white person wouldn’t be able to identify with not having any freedom therefore the line, “We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom..."

As for an appeal to pathos, "It seems we living the American dream, But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem, The prettiest people do the ugliest things, For the road to riches and diamond rings", meaning that despite the outer appearances we base status off looks, not having an idea what people went through to afford and reach these things.

In the first stanza, kanye orally illustrates the struggle of a woman who is self-conscious with her life and career paths and wants to drop out of college. This similarly resembles his own life as he is a college dropout hence the name of his album is College Dropout. Towards the end of the stanza he raps: “She had hair so long that it looked like weave. Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve. And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe. Single black female addicted to retail and well” he describes the woman using a simile as having long hair which is associated with beauty but it grew so long it was viewed as fake (weave) so she cut it all off, making her look Eve who was a female rapper knowing for representing short her on black women to grow their confidence even though at that time that hairstyle would be against the norm perception of beauty in society.

Through the lyrics of Kayne one sees how he argues and tries to prove that people in the African American society (lower class) have to compensate for the necessities they don’t have in life. They want to experience the “American Dream” life due to the fact that they’ve lost acceptance, love, money or other goods. Kayne’s technique of presenting his song is creative and appealing to the audience. He demonstrates different situations in life through dialog and characters to engage with the audience and shows different perspectives.   

SUMMER BLOGPOST 2

AUGUST 12TH


I have now reached by 5^th destination which to be honest has shocked me a lot. I’m now in North Carolina, a state in southeastern America. It was a very beautiful state there was no doubt; I had gone to the Blue Ridge Mountains and seen waterfalls and beautiful sights. It has about 17 major rivers which I was grateful to see many of. About two years ago, a tragic event had happen there. A 24 year old black man, whose car had broken down, went to seek help and knocked on a woman’s house who was surprised that he would knock in the middle of the night and therefore feared a home invasion forcing her to dial 911. Three officers had come immediately and as the young man approached the officers for help one officer fired 12 shots, 10 of them actually hit the man and killing him. The officer was charged for murder but the trial had reopened this summer when I was there and had caused massive campaigning which I got to see. 

As I continued travelling around North Carolina I had noticed many southerners hanging a certain flag on their properties like houses and cars. It was a red flag with two blue crosses that have white stars on them (Confederate flag). In short they basically represented people who were against the act of freeing slaves. The people who had them would have written: “Be white be proud!” on their cars. They were proud of their racist mentality but called it “Pride in our Southern heritage.” One day as we drove around, we got lost and decided to stop and ask for directions and had driven up a pathway that looked like a normal small public road way until we heard shouting coming and saw a guy holding a shotgun shouting: “ Get off my f***ing property you f***ing niggers” as he got closer to the car he saw my mum, aunt and little nephew who were the only light skin people and calmed down for a second before he give us another warning to leave immediately. As lost as we were he needed to stop for gas and thought that might be the only safe place to stop for gas as we were now heading towards south Virginia. When we stopped at the gas station some of us went to the toilet, some to get food or drink but all eyes were on us, their gaze followed our every move. We were then approached by three white men who asked us what we were doing and we replied “Getting gas”  to which they replied “ We are hunting” then flashed their guns that were placed in their pockets, looked us up and down and continued: “Hunting for dogs.” This had been by far my WORST EXPERIENCE ever. 

SUMMER BLOG 1

August 2nd

This holiday we had decided to travel to the United States of America. Although I’ve been there before the last time I visited was 8 years ago. This time I went road tripping around the states. When I used to think of the states I thought mainly of food, American football, politics, food, drinking, and food. Yet when I went around different states I realized how they were both culturally and socially so different from each other. They all had their different arts and culture, different ways of communicating with people and never had I imagined America had been so green.it was by far the greenest place I had visited. The nature there was amazing and hadn’t been altered. So my second destination in this trip was Omaha, Nebraska, a state located in the Midwestern States. It consisted mainly of suburbs and mainly Caucasian people who would always do a double look at me whenever I went anywhere as if they hadn’t seen a colored person before which I slowly realized they probably didn’t seeing as their city consisted 99.5% of Caucasian people but they were still nice. Nevertheless Omaha was very beautiful nature wise, it had greens everywhere, hills you wouldn’t imagine, it was beautiful, the land there was hill like so it went up and down a lot so you would have houses in all shapes and sizes standing either really high or low. It was really interesting, unlike Germany and England where they would alter the land and make it flat to keep everything at one level, America actually cared about its nature and didn’t alter anything making it more beautiful. My third destination was the one and only New York, the city that never sleeps. I stayed in a penthouse right in the middle of Times Square where I could se everything. New York was hyper 24/7, lights on all the time and very energetic. The people were so mixed; you could probably find someone from each race, it was very multicultural and busy. It didn’t have to much green land but the skyscrapers and downtown were amazing, so different from where I had been before. This is where I am now and will continue around America and see how different they are,

How to Write about Black People

Woah! Hold up..! You want to talk about the black race? Let me give you a little insight of how that’s going to work.
First off don’t forget to include words such as “thugs” “ghetto” and “shady” because of course which black person isn't one of those.  Throw in words like “kool- aid, watermelon and chicken” somewhere in your text to further enhance the black culture.

To start with, you have to generalize the whole population of black people and assume that they’re all the same primitive creatures who need the help of the upper class white people to succeed in life plus they all look the same anyway right? They’re far back in society and need a push forward because you know, they’re lazy.

With high rates of crime who else is there to blame? That’s right; it has got to be the blacks from the ghetto robbing a bank but only managing to steal $1000 because as I probably forgot to mention, they are neither the brightest nor well educated. They’re also the reason there is drug issues is getting so bad because what else do they spend their money on?

Don’t forget to include the seriousness of gangs and stabbing and crimes happening because we all know when a white person commits a crime they’re obviously suffering from a severe psychological illness because how else would you explain a gunman who shoots 70 people at a batman premiere or when a man shoots 20 children in an elementary…BUT of course this isn't ever the same for black people, they don’t suffer from anything, they’re just vicious in nature and always to blame for their animal like behavior. 

Don’t forget that you’ll need a whole good chapter or so just talking about black women. They’re loud, ignorant and their love for weaves isn't comprehensible. All they do is go on a hunt for a baby daddy because you know; black people abuse welfare systems and need to find someone who can afford for their many kids.

Make sure you establish the fact that they won’t make it far and that half of the black population will rappers because they obviously look up to Jay z and Kanye.  Also add how all they eat is fried chicken which is why they’re lacking so many nutrients and need helping.

Be sure to emphasize on these true struggling issues the black community suffers from and you want to inform the world of these because you care. Also make sure that you constantly repeat how little they know and how they aren't able to help themselves.

DO NOT under any circumstances mention the N-word, you wouldn't want to be offensive after going on so well and cross the line. End it with your deep passion and desire to truly make a change and help these broken homes and communities and how better to end a text like that then with a famous Martin Luther King Jr quote or speech because let’s face it you probably had a dream about that change you’re going to make.

Paper #2 Question

1.       Show how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories and tales.

Achebe uses several of different stories whether be myth, legend or tales to make sense of different situations and be able to engage the readers into developing more knowledge on the traditional ways of the Igbo people. The Igbo communities rely on such ways which are presented orally to continue being passed down generations and because things were not written in those times it was made sure they were continuously practiced and passed on. Proverbs were a main way of expressing different situations such as:” "Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” Palm-oil is a very important item in Umuofian society, and is used to cook and is also used as a fuel source. Eating the words simply is a poetic way of saying to take them in, or to gain knowledge. It means that proverbs are an essentially words of wisdom. Unoka, Okonkwos dad was quite known for using words and playing with them to get what he wanted and use of proverbs. Once when Okoye approached Unoka to ask him to repay him, Unoka said: “Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under the.”  Implying that he will pay his biggest debts first and then moving on to the smaller ones. He was known for using words to his advantage and therefore convinces people to pay him more money even after him not repaying them.

Achebe also manages to use these devices to interest and inform the audience of the ways the Igbo people makes decisions such as when Ikemefuna was walking with the men on the day of his killing, he sang a song and if he ended the song on his right foot it would mean that his mom is alive and well and if he ended the song on his left foot it would mean that his mum is either dead or suffering from an illness. This shows us how the Igbo people demonstrate these rituals to determine things in different situations. Achebe uses this as a way to engage with the readers and inform them about the traditions that happen which further enhances the realism of the culture and makes it more believable and further contributes to the theme of the plot of the novel.

In the 11^th Chapter, Ezinma is talking to her mom when a story is told about a greedy, cunning tortoise. All of the birds have been invited to a feast in the sky and Tortoise persuades the birds to lend him feathers to make wings so that he can attend the feast as well. As they travel to the feast, Tortoise also persuades them to take new names for the feast according to custom. He tells the birds that his name will be “All of you.” When they arrive, Tortoise asks his hosts for whom the feast is prepared. They reply, “For all of you.” Tortoise proceeds to eat and drink the best parts of the food and wine. The birds, angry and disgruntled at receiving only scraps, take back the feathers that they had given to Tortoise so that he is unable to fly home. Tortoise persuades Parrot to deliver a message to his wife: he wants her to cover their compound with their soft things so that he may jump from the sky without danger. Maliciously, Parrot tells Tortoise’s wife to bring out all of the hard things. When Tortoise jumps, his shell breaks into pieces on impact. A medicine man puts it together again, which is why Tortoise’s shell is not smooth.

From this story we see that the oral tradition of storytelling in Igbo culture is a means for teaching history and customs, for passing on legends and beliefs, and for explaining the natural as well as the supernatural worlds. The tradition is particularly well-illustrated in the long story about Tortoise and his shell. The story explains why a tortoise shell is not smooth, but it also reveals the proverb, "a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself" — another indication that Okonkwo is bringing misfortune upon himself.

Another way of looking at this story would be seen as linguistic imperialism as the tortoise forced them to call them a specific name and then as a form of oppression the birds had used their communication to talk to the tortoise’s wife