Thursday, December 1, 2011

Satire

Satire is a way of correcting someone with bad characteristics in a sarcastic or humorous manner to prove a point for them to change the way they are. For example, my mom asks me about my friend who dropped out of high school how's everything going for your friend and I reply in a sarcastic way "Oh didn't you know? he graduated already and now he's in college and has a great job". Another example to better understand satire is my friend is supposed to call me to meet up after school to go home together and never does. The next day at school my friend tells me "Thanks for taking the train with me" and looks all upset because she went home alone and I say in sarcastic way," What are you talking about? Remember when you called me and we met up and then we ate in the train while we went home? Yea that was so much fun we should do that again". The idea of satire is to try make someone learn something with out having to actually telling them what it is because they'll understand without making them feel dumb. The hope is for some change in the other person to stop their old ways.

"The the impotence of proofreading" by Taylor Mali is funny because Mali isn't a good speller and since he has spell check he figures the spell checker would correct the misspelled words right away. The problem is he doesn't know how to spell. The spell checker is giving him the word it thinks he's trying to spell. He is thinking that the spell checker would give him the correct word, but either way he wouldn't know the difference. "Has this ever happened to you?You work very horde on a paper for English clash And then get a very glow raid (like a D or even a D=) and all because you are the word¹s liverwurst spoiler. Proofreading your peppers is a matter of the the utmost impotence." What he is trying to write is "Has this ever happened to you? You work very hard on a paper for English class and then you get a very low grade (like a D or even a D-) and all because you are the world's worst speller. Proofreading your paper is a matter of the utmost importance."

In The Onion article, the "6-Year-Old Boy Thinks He Might Be Too Old To Be In Women's Locker Room" story shows a different type of satire. The satire that's being shown isProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ing sarcastic with ourselves. Like when we say something as if we were to feel really strong about and then at the end we do or say the opposite of it as if to know what we're doing wrong but we still don't plan on changing our ways. In the article the 6 year old talks about feeling uncomfortable in the women's locker room because he is being surrounded by numerous ladies changing. He feels really strong about being too old to be there in an awkward situation so he think its best he's not there. Yet at the end he states that instead "he could probably endure another visit if it meant catching one last glimpse of that yoga instructor's fantastic tits."

Another way of viewing satire as sarcasm to ourselves and others is in "Advice to Youth". In the Advice to Youth is a speech by Mark Twain is making fun of the advice adults give to children. In his speech Twain is giving advice to young adults on how their life guide line should be like. Twain gives good ideas on how to be respectful to people and how to be a better person. But at the end of everything he says he gives the worst reason why it should be done and why good thing will come out of it. For example in the third paragraph "Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined". Twain Tells these kids they need to be respectful to others but in a funny way he feels why and how it should be done.

"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a story about how everyone in the year 2081 finally being equal, equal in every way. But the reason why everyone was considered equal was because of the fact that they all had to have some type of handicap object to equalize each other. No one could be smarter, stronger, prettier than anyone else so there would be no competition. This is a form of viewing satire because there is no such thing as being equal and the only way these people became "equal" was by making everyone less than themselves to level up with the people with disabilities,  those who were ugly, dumb. Basically people that once had a good life before had to let everything go because other people didn't have it the way they did. There's no such thing as everyone being equal and in this story satire is a perfect subject to use to understand the meaning of the story.

In the article "Reading Satirical Articles Can Get You Tortured, Sent To Gitmo" what was being satired was the fact that the CIA took a regular person serious and thought he was a terrorist just because he read a silly article and other people who the CIA should be concerned about they don't really worry. Binyam Mohamed had read a article called "How To Build An H-Bomb" after he had gotten beaten. 30 year old Mohamed was imprisoned for 8 years with no contact with anyone because the CIA was afraid of Mohamed would terrorise the state. Turns out after they weasted their time with Mohamed they found out he was just a janitor. The satire of this article is the CIA freaks out for the littliest thing and not for the important things.

Over all people all over the world use satire whether they realize it or not. Some for example its use it to teach a lesson, get to the point, or to make fun of others. Satire helps us realize we aren't as smart as we think and makes us open our eyes. Shown in all the articles, you would think they where being serious if you didn't understand the meaning of satire and its purpose.




Thursday, November 10, 2011

Irony

Irony is the opposite of what we expect. There are three categories of irony, which are verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is also know as sarcasm in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. For example when we're shivering because it's freezing and our friend asks us if we're cold and we reply "noo I'm extremely hot, can't you see it's summer?" Situational irony for example is a woman killing her husband with a lamb's leg and ends up cooking it for the police to eat it for dinner. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows what the characters do not in a movie.

Situational irony can actually happen in a everyday life. In the poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson, he tells us a story about a man named Richard Cory and how he was what admired by many people "We people on the pavement looked at him: he was a gentleman from sole to crown". Richard Cory was a man who looked like he was happy and had it all because of his personality and his looks. He seemed like a gentle man from head to toe, clean favored, imperially slim, very rich, always quietly arrayed, and human when he spoke."In fine, we thought he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place", Richard was looked up at by many people and they wished they were in his place because to them he was happy with his life. But very shockingly one calm summer night Richard killed himself just like that, "And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head". I think this is a great way to show irony because not everything that shines is gold. Just because someone has money and class doesn't necessarily mean that their happy. Money can't buy love and that's what Richard Cory was probably missing.

The Richard Cory poem would be very different if it were to be in a news letter because in the news they just inform us when something drastic or informative is going on. If they were to show us in a poem what happened then it would be different. Specially if it's from someones point of view that was always there with Cory like the author of the poem like "we thought he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place" "so on we worked, and waited for the light, and went without the meat, and cursed the bread; and Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head". We will be more shocked then someone on the news saying the plain'ol "a man committed suicide".

This next story showing irony is called "The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassan. This short story is about a girl who thinks money can buy happiness and therefore is always thinking about luxurious stuff and living in high society but unfortunately

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Metaphor

Using metaphors in poetry has many different purposes. Metaphors can be used to discover the unknown by using the known. It can be used as a figure of speech where we refer to something resembling it to something else. For example, a really slow person can be compared to a turtle. Another way we can also use metaphor is "the man next door is a pig." The man next door isn't really a pig, the metaphor is showing how the guy is dirty and disgusting like a pig and there for he is being compared to a pig.
Simile is an easier way to understand metaphor except for in simile we use "like or as" and in metaphor we don't. Simile compares two things more clearly and obviously than metaphor. For example "her eyes are as bright as the sun" or "her eyes look like the stars." The girls eyes aren't really brighter than the sun, because we wouldn't be able to look into her eyes. The simile is showing us how beautiful her eyes are and so does the other metaphor. 
Metaphor has a lot of different ways to present itself in poetry. One of the best ways to show how metaphor works is by using sustained metaphor. Sustained metaphor constantly runs through out the whole poem with metaphors, which is easier to identify. 
To study metaphor we we will be using the poem "Play."

Play

Random raindrops

on the window pane.

 

Touch them with your finger tip -

but there's the barrier of glass.

 

You know that if you wanted

to become involved

you should be on

the other side.
 
What the author is trying to indicate with this poem is that the only reason we're missing out on the fun or what's going on outside is because we choose to. The author is basically putting out there, he isn't really making us guess what he's trying to say by comparing the glass to someone or something else that has nothing to do with it. A metaphor doesn't necessarily always make us read between the lines.
 
Another poem is "Creativity"
 
 
Creativity
 On the wall,

there is a shadow

of a branch outside.

 

It moves and it is dancing.

 

It writes its story

and the ink

is living light. 
 
 
In this poem metaphor is being used in a different way than the other poem "Play." In "Creativity" the author uses 2 metaphors in the poem, one of them is "there is a shadow of a branch outside.  It moves and it is dancing." It's impossible for a tree to dance unless it was human. What the author is trying to say is that it's really windy and its moving the branch in all directions. The 2nd metaphor is "It writes its story and the ink is living light." the story the author is referring to is the shadow that the tree is creating and the movements are making the shadow show us the tree is moving.

Other ways to show metaphor is by using Personification, Anthropomorphism, Hyperbole, Parable, Fable, and Analogy. Personification Is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. For example she did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door. This means that the girl had a chance to take right in front of her eyes and did not notice.Another example for personification is this poem "Nature's Chorus" 

Nature's Chorus
Willows bend to their partners
while the spruces curtsy in response.
Cherry trees form a circle
and the oaks dance just like debutantes
of woodpeckers tapping on their trunks
and squirrels chattering in the boughs.
Listen to the sounds of nature's chorus
What fun it does arouse!
 
This poem shows how nature is full of life by describing the surroundings of the animals and the non-living things with human like qualities, which may give the reader an idea or a better image of how graceful is nature.

Anthropomorphism Is the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. For example the plants do listen to me when I talk to them. What this is letting us know is just because the no body is talking back to us, someone or something is listening. Hyperbole Is exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. For example "It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing jackets". It is impossible for a polar bear to wear a jacket because it's cold, polar bears are animals that are meant for the cold and there for lives in the north pole. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral. For example the story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" it tells us a story where it teaches us a lesson about how lying is bad. Analogy Is a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification. For example up is to down as in hot is to cold, It explains the how two things can be opposite to each other.

Metaphor's can be used in may different other ways, like in this poem



l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
e e cummings


In this poem, everything is all confusing but what it is showing is how leafs fall and wind up alone until they all fall to the ground. Poems don't always have to look like poems to make sense, its until we learn how to interpret any type metaphor is when we'll know what the author is saying. In other words metaphor doesn't always have to be shown in poetry, it can be used in everyday life, symbols, pictures, etc. In this picture called "" simile is being interpret in many ways. One of the ways is where the elephant's trunk is being compared to a empty pipeline used in a everyday life.

I believe metaphors are used everyday when we talk. We can say the most nonsense thing and it'll make sense because we are used to metaphors and how they can be used. Many songs, pictures, signs, conversations have metaphor and its so easy and simple I wont even notice until someone points it out. Or maybe when we're watching a movie where the author doesn't want to be too direct with his story. Metaphors is just another way to be indirect and secretive at the same time if we don't someone knowing how we're really feeling.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Linear


Linear shows us how technology has changed over the years; writing letters, writing a books, essays, professional jobs, researching, shopping, and getting in touch with friends and families from all over the world. This video  also lets us see how now all I have to do is go online to use look something up or go to the store to buy something with out having to go out. Many years ago people had to use type writers to do homework, print news letters or write letters. It was very frustrating for them because they had to keep rewriting on new papers since there was no way they can delete their mistakes.  
This video is a way of noticing that technology has advanced in numerous ways and has helped a lot of people through out the world. A lot of professional jobs would be ten times harder if technology didn’t exist today, such as hospitals, police work like tracing the victims, school work, getting in touch with your family who may be in the army. 

If we didn't have technology then there would be no such thing as copyright which is to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same legally.