Culture Blog

The Chinese beauty Stanard is different from the American beauty standard. In Chinese culture, it is pretty for women to have pointed eyebrows and have their hair in a tight bun on top of their head (Cultural China). American beauty stems from have a symmetrical face that is also average but also attractive. This could be with any kind of hair or eyes just as long as the face is symmetrical. Even though Western cultures are different from non-western cultures, some of the beauty standards are still seen as the same. Even Chinese and Japanese men and women see beauty as a symmetrical face with averageness yet still attractive to look at (Rhodes). Both cultures are still different in their beauty standards, enough so that each can be called a separate beauty standard. Chinese culture is elegant and sharp where as American could be viewed as average yet beautiful. Chinese beauty standards have also stuck around for hundreds of years where as, American standards of beauty seem to change depending on the latest fashion or decade. 

Citations: 

Rhodes G, Yoshikawa S, Clark A, Lee K, McKay R, Akamatsu S, 2001, "Attractiveness of facial     

      averageness and symmetry in non-Western cultures: In search of biologically based standards          

      Beauty"                                                 

"Chinese Philosophy of Beauty." Cultural China. Cultural China. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

Theme Song Blog

The song I chose was Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Ray. This song seemed to speak to me when I was thinking of the tone and subject matter of the book so far. The tone of the book has been pretty dark so far and this song has an almost eerie and sad vibe to it. Some of the lyrics also spoke to me when I began to think of some of the characters. A lyric that is constantly repeated is "will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful" this just spoke to me because it seems that beauty and popularity in a sort pop up as themes of this book a lot. How Pecola feels ugly and how Clauida and Frieda feel ugly and angry that some people like Maureen look better then they do. The song is sort of talking about their lives in the since of beauty. As well as sort of the idea of love through out the novel. How it is hard to tell that some parents in the novel love their kids. It is hard to tell if Pecola's mom loves her after she loved on the little white girl like she was suppose to love on Pecola for accidently dropping the pie. However, she beat her. Almost as if Pecola was just an ignorant burden to her. The song is dark like this novel and it just speaks and has those qualities that what Lana Del Ray is conveying in her song is similar to what is happening in the novel, even if the lyrics don't directly apply to it. 

Here is a link to the song on YouTube, I hope it works and if it doesn't, then just look up- "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Ray

Link: www.vevo.com/.../Young-and-Beautiful/USUV713008

Characterization Blog

I am going to write about the scene where Maureen Peel is introduced into the story and I am going to write from Maureen's perspective.

It was my first day at the new school. My mom woke me up extra early and I yawned with joy. I was so excited to go to school that morning. I got up and brushed my teeth and ran downstairs while my mom packed my lunch. I peeked in my school lunch bag and saw what I loved most, my sandwich was cut into four squares and I had a nice big red, juicy apple. 

" Your eyes look beautiful with your outfit today sweetheart. Here is your lunch. Don't be late." Said my mom as I grabbed my lunch and rushed out the door. 

I walked in school and immediately I felt like I had been there my entire life. Kids stared at me and I heard some of them say I was beautiful or "look at her eyes." I didn't see the big deal in it. My mom had emerald green eyes like I did. Although, these children weren't like me. They wore clothes that were dirty and tattered and they had deep brown eyes, all of them. I loved them all already. 

They treated me nicely and when I got to my first class I thought I would be alone at my table but four other kids walked up to me with smiles and bright eyes that were inviting to me. As they all sat down around me and the teacher, Mrs. Lagrange, started class, I could feel someone's eyes glaring into the back of my head. I turned around and noticed this little girl sitting with one other little girl, both of them staring at me.

"Claudia it isn't nice to stare." Said the taller of the two girls.

The smaller one, Claudia, gave me one last ugly look, almost as if she was mentally killi me with her eyes and she turned away. I turned around, concerned that I had done something wrong. So I had to fix it somehow. I decided that after school I would go and talk to this Claudia and see if I had done something to upset her. That was the last thing I wanted to do. Time past quickly and it was time for lunch. I rose from my seat and began to walk toward the door. Out of nowhere, Clauida walked up and shoved me hard against the door frame and walked out the door with the tall girl behind her. 

What I had done? I thought. I dusted myself off and walked out the door and down the hall, four or five kids all talking beside me, asking where I had come from and if they could sit with me at lunch. I heard none of this because I was so deep in thought about why this little girl could be so mean to me. No one had ever been mean to me, everyone was always nice. It had been decided. As I walked into the lunch room I knew what I had to do. I had to talk to Clauida and the tall girl and see what the problem was before anything else bad happened to her. She sat down at lunch, kids sitting all around the table she had chosen, and she began eating.

Ad Analysis

I chose this ad because it is very easy to understand . It's intended audience is basically everyone in the world or who lives by an ocean. With all the pollution around the world and trash in the ocean, ads should be spread to everyone about this reoccurring problem. It uses the persuasive technique of showing a beautiful ocean with a nice sand beach. This shows the people that read the ad that all of the oceans in the world would look like this if we all fixed our pollution problems and just throw away trash. This ad relates to what we learned in class because this ad is easy to understand and is effective with its use of images and short and sweet sloggens like the one on this trash can. 

Response to first part of The bluest eye

Well initially my first response to this was kinda scary. It seems like Claudia our main character has a good life. Although, it seems that her mom blames everything on her and makes her feel bad and she thinks her life is hard until when she realizes her parents care. It is seen when she says she knows someone loves her because you see her say that her mother came and kissed her on the forehead after what happened with her and the puke. I was a little confused about the things with the out and outdoors because until it was explained I had no idea what it meant. The italic part at the beginning was what through me off because it was just in your face. I am curious to see what happens with Pecola, although the italic part was kinda like a foreshadow of events to come. I am just a little timid sob this book now. The writing is great but the plot seems so, different. And I am looking forward to seeing how the author connects everything and how it goes. I am very curious to see how the title comes into the story and wraps it all together. 

Collage

I used this picture because it shows a basic pretty girl that is most likely the design and model esque for most fashion women's magazines. So all around the picture I used different tom boy saying because all pretty girls come in different backgrounds. Even tomboys can be pretty girls. The one saying I repeated over and over was "we are all perfect in our own way" this seemed like a good saying because it describes everything girls should think about.