Late October Cartoon Analysis

This is a political cartoon written around two years ago during the election at the US. From this cartoon we can see that it is in the perspective of the author is either a Democrat or possibly neutral because it portrays the Republicans in a negative way. First of all, we know that this cartoon is against the Republicans because of the elephant, which is their symbol. The elephant is portrayed as a fat man wearing a suit and the suit represents wealth and greed just like a typical businessman or politician. The message the cartoon is trying to send is that the Republican party platform for the coming election is made up of anger, accusations of Barack Obama being a socialist and hatred against Muslim. This can be seen from the facing cards (ANGER, JOKER, and QURAN). We could see that it is not a very strong, but rather a weak and robust platform from many aspects in the cartoon. This is seen by the platform the elephant standing on made of small pieces of wooden planks and connect by masking tape. The base of the platform is made up of cards which are know to fall apart when just in contact with little wind. We could also see this by the elephant shaking showing that it is unstable and he is balancing himself to prevent himself from falling. Lastly, the "tea" sign at the back of the card is a reference to the Boston Tea party which indicates that they are instigating most of it.

I chose this cartoon because after being confused and skimming through all the cartoons without understanding any of them; this one came out appealing and understandable, which is why I decided to analyze this one. I analyzed the cartoon based on my understanding and the news I watch on American politics in the past and my general knowledge about the elections and the competing parties in the US. My analysis was mainly based on how I saw and interpret the message of the cartoonist with the assistance of a little bit of research for more background information on the parties.

In my opinion, I loved this cartoon because it is filled with humor and symbolism, which portrays the Republican at an angle, at the point of view of the cartoonist. I think his cartoon have illustrated his points and is clear to the audience. For instance I could understand that the JOKER represents Obama and him being socialist by look at the picture and the text on his collar. I could also recognize QURAN as hatred against Muslims because the Quran is a Muslim term and the image of the Muslim in the card look evil. However, the snake I do not know what it means and how it represents ANGER. After a long tedious research I gave up, but my connotation of the snake is being dangerous and poisonous. The Republican party is clearly portrayed as the fat, dull, elephant and their stability is clearly shown by the structure of the platform the elephant is standing on. I think that the author has done an awesome job to send his message to the audience and this was one of the political cartoons that I strangely understood by nature (not being American).

Columbus Day

As a child, I've heard stories about Columbus and his famous conquest to India. He is known for discovering the new land, America and was respected among young children. Children were proud of his great discovery and worshiped him as the founder of America, but little did we know the truth of Columbus.
After reading the first chapter, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress" of Howard Zinn's book, "A People's History of the United States," my views on Columbus completely shifted to another direction. A new one. All my respects for Christopher Columbus completely fades away and I unveil the truth of Columbus. The story told to children and the reality of Columbus described by Zinn are two very different stories. It seems like the story told to children was just a deception to hide the violence that happened and see Columbus as just the founder of America. This was the mask worn by Columbus to be seen as a hero of America, but behind the mask of hero lies a true monster than is not less cruel than Hitler. The true identity of this hero lies a villain. This is just like the Joker being Batman after all. After reading this chapter i was very surprised of what i heard about Columbus as a child and what I found out from reading the chapter. Columbus thought like a dictator. He was racist and hated on the Jews and the moors and saw the Indians as an opportunity for slavery. These evil thoughts came out from the hero of the children. He wiped out islands just for his own people and used the fact that the Indians were less civilized to take advantage over them and kill them all for their land and resources. This is a very inhumane and disgusting act. In my opinion, I believe that the children of America and the world should have the rights to know who Christopher Columbus is. Celebrating Columbus day is just as horrible as celebrating Hitler for gassing all the Jews or like the Japanese thanking the Americans for bombing Hiroshima and creating a better Japan. You wouldn't want your children worshiping Satan, and Christopher Columbus day is just as evil as the devil and does not deserve to be looked up upon. In fact, Columbus day shouldn't even exist anymore. That sailing the blue sea to find a better world crap is no longer legit after discovering the inconvenient truth. From now on, Christopher Columbus will be known as the one who bought death to America or the one who stole America. After all, discovering America was kind of an accident. They misunderstood America to be India after and only went there for the gold. Columbus, you lucky qfuhasdkfjhuwf.

Metacognitive Journal #8

Paranoia

Paranoia is caused by anxiety and fear and this concept revolves around chapter 5 in the novel 1984 by Orwell. In Winston's society, there are many situations where paranoia is seen. Paranoia is created by the government, and gives the people of Oceania a feeling that they are being watched all the time. The people of Oceania are paranoid that they will be caught if they said something wrong or conduct a thought crime, they would be caught and punished. The government use the idea of fear and paranoia to control the people and make them not dare to express their feelings so that they would not spread their negative impacts of the government or spread their ideas of rebelling if they had any. 

In the novel, Parson mentions that his daughter caught a thought criminal. Even though it is not proven or confirmed whether he is a criminal or not, he is taken away by the Thought Police. This shows that a suspicious act could also get the people into trouble and this would make the people paranoid of every action they make and everything they say. People would also tend to keep their thoughts to themselves because of their fear of getting into trouble. Another example is how Syme is suspects Winston of being a thought criminal. Winston hated going to the hanging of prisoners and he could be accused for hating it, which explained why Winston was acting weird throughout the chapter. 

The message that Orwell is trying to send is probably the fact that a totalitarian dictatorship governs its people through fear and paranoia. The government would punish anyone who acts suspicious or disagrees with the government. In reality or a proper government, the government should only be able to punish a person if the person commits a crime, not punish a person with an opinion of his own. It is clearly shown the the people is oppressed in doing anything and thinking anything and the only thing they could do is listen to the orders given to them without questioning why they have to do it. The people are simply robots that work for the government as they are programmed to do.

 

Metacognitive Journal #7

"The Scarlatti Tilt" by Richard Brautigan

Analyze the following variations of lines from “The Scarlatti Tilt.” What simple variances of word choice made the largest impact? Why did you react the way you did? Please post your responses on your blog as Journal Entry #7.

ORIGINAL:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin.” That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver. (from Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970)

Bank: The women and the man are couples. It is very difficult for the women and the man to live together in a small studio apartment in San Jose. The women is bored of the noisy sound of the violin and the man face, she decide to kill the man and got arrested.

Perth: The women and the man are either couples or neighbors living together. The women is fed up with the noisiness of the man or is in a bad mood or is troubled making her run out of temper and decides to kill the man.

VARIATION I:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a white man who's learning to play the violin.” That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: The white man got angry when he couldn’t find job so he start playing the violin for fun while staying at the apartment. The woman is tired and rage of the man not getting anything job, she ended up killing the man to release her anger.

Perth: The women might tell the man to reduce the noise level, but the man being arrogant and ignorant, making the woman mad and unable to withstand the man making her decide to kill him. Another possibility is that the man might say bad things about the women making her anger and lose control. The man provoke her anger.

VARIATION II
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a black man who's learning to play the violin.” That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: The black man stole the violin and practice playing. The women is unsatisfied of the black man behavior and performance, she got mad and kill the black man.

Perth: The woman might be a racist or a latino hating on black people and so when she realizes that the noise pollution is coming from the black man, she got mad and acted without thinking because of the hatred she has towards black people.

VARIATION III:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a woman who's learning to play the violin.” That's what he told the police when he handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: The man is mental and violent. He threatened the women badly, and because of he thinks that the women play the violin to distract him, he decided to kill the women.

Perth: I think that the man is short tempered because women are a weaker sex and with the man shooting the woman, it shows that the man is cruel and has no sympathy towards woman. He is violent and is a very bad man.

VARIATION IV:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a child who's learning to play the violin.” That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: I think that the child is very naughty while he playing the violin, and this is annoying to the women. She got tired of the noisiness of the child and his behavior, the solution to this is to kill the child.

Perth: This is disturbing, the child is just trying to learn an instrument. I think that the woman has a mental problem or is either crazy or psychotic because it is extremely wrong to have the will to kill or even hurt a child.

VARIATION V:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a baby who cries all the time.” That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: The women has a baby, however the father leave. She is depressed and doesn’t take care of the baby. The women is very mad and go insane, because of the hatred she has towards the father she killed the baby in revenge.

Perth: Again, this is even more disturbing because women should always take care of babies and find them cute. Women care for babies because they will have one in the future and especially killing her own baby is a sign of craziness  and other mental problems. No one would dare hurt an innocent baby except the cold blooded people.

VARIATION VI:
“It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a baby who cries all the time.” That's what he told the police when he handed them the empty revolver.

Bank: The man is insane and violent, that’s why his wife leaves. She scared of the man going to rage on her so she leave without taking the baby. The man don’t know how to take care of the baby, and got tired of the baby that cries all the time, so he used the baby as a butt to tried out his new revolver.

Perth: This means that the man is violent and crazy just like the woman. It might not be his child because dads also love their kids, but maybe he has a problem with his wife so he put his anger on the baby. It could also be another person’s baby, maybe he did it because the crying pushed him to his  limit or because he has a problem. There is no reason to hurt a baby.

Metacognitive Journal #6

Asimov Review of 1984

Asimov's review on the novel "1984" is one that is pretty negative and does not agree with Orwell. The purpose of Asimov writing this review is to set the minds of the people straight and not let them over think about the novel happening to the United States or Europe in real life. Asimov believes that the novel is a very dreadful and dull book that does not portray the future, but instead, portrays the communist country of USSR during the time it was written which was the year of 1949. The book was written to show Orwell's view on communism in Moscow. This review shows Asimov's harsh critiques on Orwell's novel, but does not actually explain the reasons behind why Orwell wrote this novel.

I will analyse Asimov's review by using the critical literary approach. Starting of by the view represented in this text. It is clearly seen that this text is written in the view of Isaac Asimov and his opinions on the novel 1984. This review has nothing to do with the ideas and reasons why Orwell wrote this novel. The intention of Asimov on writing this review is for him to express his thoughts on the novel and to comment on how he felt about it. Asimov felt that this book does not portray the future, but describes how a communist or a totalitarian dictatorship is in an exaggerated way. This text would probably interest critiques or people who read and analyse texts because this novel of Orwell could be deciphered and understood in many, many different ways depending on the person. The cultural assumptions made is that the readers of the book would understand the concepts given in the novel because they have been through the World War and see live examples of what it is like to be ruled by a dictatorship. Asimov connects this idea to the reader through a first person perspective making the reader feel like they are listening to Asimov's opinion and review in person. In his review, Asimov also included harsh comments including how he said that this is a bad science fiction with no creativity involved and mentioning that the novel is "not science fiction, but a distorted nostalgia of a past that never was."This is just an opinion of Asimov and other critiques and people might agree differently when reading the novel 1984, but to me, I see that Orwell's purpose of writing this novel is to create an imaginary scenario where totalitarian dictatorship takes over and and shows how hard life is in this system of government. This is like a warning to the readers and makes them aware of this system and want to try and prevent this system from taking over a democracy or a republic.