Why is it useful?

Much like studying history, media studies gives awareness of what is or has happened over the world and studying it mitigates us from repeating itself. Media is essential regardless of time period, and it is what facilitates society to evolve and progress. The media technology industry proves to be crucial in the current era of social networking and online marketing. Due to the rapid frequency with which communication occurs in the modern day, the media technology industry consistently updates itself. An understanding of how media works is also crucial to add understanding and historical context in regards to the various media forms. These studies, are laid for people to understand the fundamentals of communication.

Why Bother Looking At Nursery Rhymes? Why is it important to understand what we consume

Although nursery rhymes are typically catered towards younger children seeking an introduction to languages, an analysis of these rhyme schemes come with a very deep meaning. This is the sole reason as to why numerous nursery rhymes come with memorable tunes, in order for children who recite it, to employ them as coping mechanisms its historical context. If fail to recognize the context behind what we consume, it comes to show how feeble minded humans can be and blindly follow whatever is consumed by others.

This advertisement uses the outlet persuasion of ethos. Ethos is the use of credible sources in order to up value the level of persuasion towards a given product, or end goal. For example, a recent Infiniti commercial featured Steph Curry. Even though he’s not known for his taste in vehicles, his stature validates the product; this is ethos in commercials at work.

There is also an application of the marketing schemes such as suggestiveness, value, and memorability. Those who share a common interest in Basketball or are aware of the profession Steph Curry has, it will be instilled within their mindset when they come across this commercial to a higher degree than someone who does not see Steph Curry as a celebrity. This is also why the commercial introduces Steph Curry dribble two basketballs with immense skill, to indicate him as a renowned basketball player. The marketing scheme of time consciousness is also applicable, albeit it being applied in a slightly uncommon manner. As commercials are solely around 30 seconds long, they become more digestible, especially for the attention spans of humans nowadays. However, this commercial has numerous intriguing elements being experienced at once which tends towards a diverse amount of target audience. The presence of this negates the need for holding the commercial to 30 seconds as shown through statistics of sales exponentially increasing since the release of the commercial.

The philosophy of existentialism is by most standards a very loose conglomeration of perspectives, aesthetics, and approaches to dealing with the world and its inherent difficulties. In the most general sense, existentialism deals with the recurring problem of finding meaning within existence. The protagonist of this short story undergoes the habitual existential crisis suffered by numerous regretful individuals. While feeling subdued, due to his unknown actions, the narrator depicts vehemence towards finding a source of outlet he can utilize in order to become free from problems of such. The author does not explicitly mention what this regretful action committed by the narrator was, however, making the assumption it was quite traumatic, this “event” is renowned within his family circle and it acts as an instigator of the narrators existential crisis.

Coupland delineates the protagonist of the story to possess an utmost observant nature, while contemplating on how to further proceed from his uneventful day, he ponders on the appreciation of a birds capability of flying while envision himself of joining them in the future. This are side effects that people who suffer a mental downfall of such go through, finding immense rhetoric behind minute details within life. A source of reconciliation towards weak mental health is averting back to the most high, which has emphasis build atop of in Islam as well. The narrator continuously pleads to God to make him a bird as “that’s all i ever really wanted.”(Coupland) While birds flying connote to liberty, flying away from the problems of one does not necessarily end them which is why, in the grand scheme of things, shows the lack of realization within the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind.

Applications & Connections

Within The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck examines the complexities of the capabilities that women lack to express due to societal norms. Elisa, the protagonist of the short story, expresses her passionate nature towards traditionally masculine exploits that intrigue her. Both the Tinker, as well as Henry, the husband to Elisa, both depict societal archetypes that confine Elisa reaching self recognition, one of the sole themes within the short story. The historical context of the short story is solely rationalized through the time period of the story, as the readers can infer the story takes place around the late thirties, when the book was published. This can be backed up through the setting, stereotypes, and financial and working status of both Henry and the Tinker possess. This explicitly interconnects with the theory of structural functionalism and how social changes have come about. The theory emphasizes a societal equilibrium through predesigned roles, such as gender roles in the workplace which exponentially started to diminish through the change in future outlook of organizations, specifically through a company’s needs and desires. According to sociologist, Emile Durkheim, society is a system of interrelated systems where every function behaves as a foundation for one another, and as shown through the economical downfall of employment rates, functionalism is gradually being altered with. During the time of the Great Depression, when structural functionalism was yet to be tampered with, the Canadian employment rates were not in favour of the economy. Due to the stock market crash within the “dirty thirties”, all the money in Canada’s economy was sent to help the war and build military weapons. Since men within families were typically the sole provision to their families while women were restricted from making a living away from home during this time, this catastrophe instigated millions of people in Canada to be dependent on food stamps, leading to an immense financial struggle within the economy. Women took advantage of this economic void, and took the initiative to start working, voting and taking part of society. This strongly illustrated the strong social paradigm shift as gender roles began to change in society and feminism views were spoken of, and action was taken in order to help women take on more higher paying jobs. Structural functionalism acts as a system which may restrict individuals from acting as outliers of their own “functions” which contradicts the theory coined by John Calvin, of work ethic determining your social value.

Why is it important to learn this?

Elisa in a sense can resemble an influential figure to those who feel constrained from expressing themselves due to normalistic tendencies. It is quite imperative that we learn stories of such to give recognition to those who can benefit from. Islam encourages both the men and women to seek the most of knowledge through education and do what is best for the family albeit there being an ayah in the quran that claims: “And stay in your houses, and do not display yourselves like that of the times of ignorance” [al-Ahzaab 33:33]. Although this was addressed to the wives of the prophet, it is something that women follow. This ayah is often  taken out of context solely due to the opinion women should always be taking care of the house and not working. Khadijah, the wife of the prophet (pbuh), was a businesswoman herself, it is just that the ayah is stating that one should not follow their worldly gaining desires to a point where one belittles the significance of raising children, taking care of household necessities.

Applications

Within Harrison Bergeron, a dystopian society disguised as a utopia is established in order to negate Marxism within society. Numerous flaws to this approach came to an arise such as having handicaps being imposed within those who are perceived as “above average”. These instilled regulations interconnect with the claim that inequality will always fail to be reached. This is evidently shown through the Handicapper General, the governmental ruler, advising her army to enforce the societal strictures given that this authoritative class do not possess handicaps themselves (Vonnegut, 2). It is explicitly stated within the Quran that “We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another (49:13).” This comes to show that regardless of how immensely inequality, racism, discrimination is negligible, it is human nature to discover an outlet of distinguishing humans from one another. Humans live in a disunified society through class division as seen throughout the world, where the sole root for success in various societies is money. Numerous individuals undergo trials and tribulations due to their deprivation as they aren’t granted a “head start” and have society at large playing as an antagonist against them. This is why nowadays, through statistics, the rich are attaining more power while vulnerable remain as is leading to the middle class diminishing, which correlates to \Karl Marx’s theory of conflict. He believed that there was a class conflict that consists of people possessing high status and exploit the poor, lower class.

Connections

Within Harrison Bergeron, society relies on total equality amongst all in which the rationale behind imposing handicaps supports. This perception of society restricts individuals to feel superior or inferior, which takes away any distinctive trait of individuals. This mentality is repeatedly shown through competitions of a sort where each participating individual receives a spot on the team or is awarded a trophy in order to leave any one out. As shown through the aforementioned claim, total inequality will never be reached simply due to the fact that every individual are given different opportunity which can be a source of differentiating from one another.  

Why should this be learned?

Marxism has been present over the course of time and still stands to this day. Rather than being unified and accepting differences of others, it has become a normalistic tendency to utilize these values in order to empower oneselves over another as shown through racism and slavery. Albeit the fact that the arise of influential figures such as Abraham Lincoln as well as Martin Luther King led to social change, they did not necessarily end these societal issues, rather the most they did was mitigate these problems. Islam encourages to bring more recognition to problems of such and insists on giving, through word of mouth, and actions, whether or not you could mitigate this problem as much as another would. Islam would never discourage allocating towards the deprived: “And give the relative his right, and [also] the poor and the traveler, and do not spend wastefully.”(Quran 17:26) Without reading pieces of literature of such, the society will fail to recognize the importance of these treacherous societal issues. Taking an action may have a bigger impact that one would think, as one small action can lead to an immense benefit for society at large.

Who are the Characters

Flat: Mrs Wills, Narrators’s father and mother, Willadean Wills Static: J.D and Freddy Gray Dynamic: Narrator, Mr Wills

What is/are the Conflicts

Man vs Man: This is shown through the conflict between the narrator and Mr WIlls over the beloved seed melon of Mr Wills’ field Man vs Nature (self): The main character intended to steal the seed melon in order to establish himself a spot in the community, his fearful nature played as a factor of self regret

What is/are the climaxes?

The Climax was when the boys ventured off into the watermelon field and stole, and fulfilled their starvation desires by consuming it. This is essential the most eminent event throughout the short story as the final outcome of the story would be significantly different if this event did not have an occurrence.

How does the archetypal lens enhance our understanding of the story? Of the theme?

The recurring themes, events, characters may enhance the perception of the short story simply due to the fact recurring themes, or example, may be present for the establishment of emphasis. Knowing a recurring sequence within other pieces of literature helps predict the outcome of events to come.

What happens during the resolution? State Themes

The narrator comes to the conclusion that confessing his committed actions is the most ethical option at this point of the story. He decides to collect the seeds of the melon and gives it to Mr Wills. The readers are given a switch in the point of view as Mr Wills explains his rationale behind the growing of the seed melon. It is quite evident that a recurring theme is present, the theme that “you never really know a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them.” This paraphrased quote by Atticus Finch plays a thematic role as we understand the characters more due to the change in perception, which debunks the initial depictions of characters like Mr Wills.

WWho are the main characters of the story? Describe them.

The sole protagonists within this short story would be none other than Mary herself, as well as Mrs Fullerton. Mary depicts a keen eyed -observant nature, and this is evidently backed up with her habit of “exploring her neighbour’s life as she had once explored the lives of her grandmothers and aunts — by pretending to know less than she did”. Mary exploits herself to be charismatic and holds a soft spot when it came to the decision of action to Mrs Fullerton’s house by supporting the situation of her neighbour. Mrs Fullterton is perceived to be an honest and courteous old lady who inhabited herself in her house within the Garden House community while not seeing her husband for the past 12 years who inevitably undergoes the most conflict within the short story.

What is/are the major conflict(s) of the story?

Man vs Man (Protagonist vs Antagonist)  The most prominent conflict being displayed within this short story is the conflict between Mr Fullerton and the white houses community newcomers. The community collectively reaches a consensus that appearance of Ms Fullerton’s outlying house is the sole cause of the mitigation in value of the other houses and plan to demolish the house. Man vs Self (Mary vs self)                                                                               The sympathetic character of Mary is what made Mary hesitant with her consent towards the replacement of Mrs Fullerton’s house with newer houses for the betterment of the community. Man vs Society (Mary vs community) The conflict between Mary and her peers is that the community tries to convince her approval simply due to the fact that they believe Mrs Fullerton will not find it as a burdensome task to vacate her home due to her lack of wealth and health not being as immense as an issue as it seems.       

What is the main message of the story? Who’s side are you on? Justify.

There are a few highly essential messages that can be carried on after reading the short story, one being the distinguishing between legals and morals, in specific, performing actions through a legal outlet might not be the most ethical option. The “white houses community” intend to condemn Ms Fullerton from her home, and albeit them executing this in a legal manner, they overlook the morals behind enforcing someone to move out of a place so loved to them. In addition, the ideology of sustaining a functional society must mean to learn how to accept the differences of others at large. This is shown through the mistreatment of the older generations by the newer ones as shown through the “white houses community” commuting to fulfill their desires without taking into account the harm that others may undergo in the process as the different generations within this short story all hold numerous views as shown through Mrs Fullerton, Mary, and the community. I would side with the Mrs Fullerton for the time being simply due to the fact that she has such a strong connection to her home, and is currently going through to a tough time with her husband away for the past 12 years. It is explicitly mentioned within the story that Mrs Fullerton suffered an immense mental trauma as well as withholding conditions for her well being as her end days were near. If the community waited until the passing of Mrs Fullerton, both parties could have been satisfied as the community of the white houses could execute their plans with Mrs Fullerton out of their future outlook.

This blog is just a brief introduction on the life of the protagonist, myself, also known as, Emad Ahmad. I am currently enrolled at ISNA High School as a grade 12 student. I enjoy the playing and watching the sport of basketball as well as supporting the home team of Toronto Raptors of the NBA.

Goals for the Blog

English has never been a strong subject of mine throughout my life. With this blog, my future outlook is to improve as a writer creatively through my expression of daily thoughts and my documentations of future homework and assignments for my grade 12 English class.

Goals for ENG4U

My goal as a student is to display my relevant experience and simultaneously obtain new skills. I plan to do this by learning to critically analyze credible readings such as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho through theoretical lenses, Post Colonialism, Marxism, and Formalism. With this knowledge, I plan to further my capabilities with the communication and application of the English language.