Not everything is "our" business

I know this blog is going to seem completely ridiculous, but I'm going to write it anyway.  Today, Kim Kardashian announced she was divorcing husband of 72 day, Kris Humphries.  Many of you may stop reading here, but just hear me out.  As I watched TV this morning, many stations had a breaking news alert that Kim was filing for divorce.  Many people would blog about how idiotic that may be, or how idiotic Kim may be in general, but the whole situation left me feeling kind of sorry for her.  Here's a woman who has had her fair share of struggles in life(many of which the public doesn’t know about), and yet people are so quick to criticize her.  Just for a moment, I'd like for you to imagine being in her position, to have most of the world rooting that you fail, hoping that you fall on your face, just so they can say "I told you so."  Kim suffered years of physical abuse from her first husband, the unexpected death of her father, and many publicized breakups, but yet "we" hate her, why, because she marketed herself well and became an overnight millionaire?  The whole situation got me to thinking that as a society, were way too involved in celebrities lives.  If we asked our grandparents, 50 years ago no one was saying much about the escapades of celebrities.  Why is it that people today think its their business to have an inside look into very private matters?  Are we that bored with our own lives?  Or, are we looking to point the finger at how bad someone else's situations are, so we dont have to look at our own?  So what, she got divorced after 72 days, how many people stay unhappily married for 30+ years and regret it!  The way i feel is that Kim wouldn’t have a judgment about my life, so why should i have the option to have one about hers?  We should focus on the things that our important in life, and stop focusing on kicking someone when they’re down. 

start of my short story

            The perfect first date.  We all know what I’m talking about; everything goes perfectly.  He calls, leaving the most incredible voicemail, the kind of voicemail that makes you think of him as being ever wittier than he was to begin with.  He invites you on the perfect date, nothing too stuffy or pressure bearing, just a casual movie and dinner date.  Scratch that, a dinner and movie date, that way just incase the dinner doesn’t go as “perfect” as you’d envision it, the movie is that great escape of sitting in silence for about an hour and half, trying to semi-enjoy what’s happening on the screen as opposed to the horrific way your meal ended.  However, that’s not how my date went.  It was perfect!  The meal was great, the conversation was beyond what I’d ever experienced; everything was perfect, right down to the way he signed his name on the check.  This date was the first of many perfect dates I’d go on with Jude. 

            The next few weeks gave me that feeling in my stomach, you know that feeling of being in middle school again and waiting for a response on the, “do you like me, circle yes or no,” note you passed to your crush during math period.  Date after date, Jude’s perfection only seemed to improve, contrary to the popular statistic of the first few dates only going downhill.  His kiss was perfect, his laugh was impeccable, the way he’d brush my hair behind my ear before he kissed me.  I knew that when it came time to take our intimacy to the next level the moment would be just as perfect.  The moment came, or shall I say rather, the moment came and past.  It was kind of like eating one of those big hot pretzels, but all the salt fell off before you could take the first bite.  There was no flavor, no taste.  Feeling completely baffled, I started to wonder how everything else could be so perfect, so connected, yet, the area we should have been the most “connected” felt more distant than anything. 

            Later the next day, I met with my two “besties”.  As we all know, a situation like mine beckoned to be “lunch talk.”  The advice I received was split.  Tina said, “if the sex was cold, the relationship is doomed to freeze over too.”  Not exactly what I wanted to hear, because everything other than that was all I could have ever imagined.  Jill gave me the advice, which I took, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again.”  I figured if I was into Jude enough, I could melt even the coldest of glaciers. 

            That Friday we went out to a swanky little lounge.  I had more than my fair share of drinks; I thought that maybe I was a bit inhibited the first time, so I drank as much as I could, trying not to cross that fine line of strongly buzzed and hot mess.  The date, once again was flawless.  I had on my best push up bra, my highest heels, and enough perfume on to make a hooker blush.  In my mind, I saw the sexiest, sassiest of nights happening.  We reached my apartment.  The kisses throughout the elevator ride lead me to believe that nothing could ruin this moment, it would be perfect.  Reaching the bed, I began to parade around in what I believed to be a sexy manner.  Jude sat on the edge of my bed, looking at me with semi-glazed eyes.  As I began to do a little “shakin,” those high heels began to work against me; falling over in the middle of a “get your man hot-and –bothered dance” kind of kills the mood.  But hey, I’m a trooper.  I picked myself up, flipped my hair back, pouted my lips and…well he laid there passed out.  I guess we both crossed the line into “hot mess” territory.  So here we were beauty and the sleep.  What was my next move going to be?  Could Jude and I ever figure out how to take the heat from our dates into the bedroom?               

"Remember me as a Unicorn" - Jamie Hubley

My post tonight comes after reading yet another horrific story of a teen suicide.  Jamie Hubley killed himself this past Friday; he was a 15-year old gay male who ended his life after a long battle with depression.  When the article came up in my AOL news feed, I couldn’t help but think, how many young people have to die as a result of bullying/non-acceptance before someone really intervenes, and realizes what a catastrophic "epidemic" this issue has become.  Not only did I happen to read this article today, but over the weekend I got to watch the second part of Anderson Cooper's bullying special.  I cried through most of the episode.  There were children of varied ages on the show sharing their stories of how they've been bullied in school.  One little boys story particularly stuck with me.  Kyle, a boy of no more than maybe 10 or 11 years old, shared his story of being bullied in a bathroom at his school.  What he described next shocked me to the core.  Kyle walked into the bathroom, where there was already a group of boys convening, he entered one of the stalls and within a matter of seconds he felt something dripping on his head.  When Kyle looked up, he saw one of the boys urinating on him.  I had to pause my DVR at this point because i felt sick to my stomach.  How could another human being conduct this sort of behavior on another human being?  Where did that boy learn that what he did to Kyle was acceptable?  The strength that Kyle showed sharing his story on national television far surpasses the strength of any grown man I've ever met.  Watching the bullying special and than reading the article on Jamie really made an impact on me, and stirred the activism pot within me so to speak.  People are always saying, "I don’t know why he/she did it?  Why didn’t they just get help?  Could it have really been that bad?"  My answer to those people is yes, it IS that bad.  Imagine another child  urinating on your child, for no other reason than the fact they felt like it; imagine your child being called insulting words day after day; imagine if your child had no where to turn for help.  Bullying IS that deadly; my question is, when is someone going to step in and help these unheard cries to be saved?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7urQmIzv_3E

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/jamie-hubley-commits-suicide_n_1015646.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C104998

Danielle Miller

Teaching Secondary Writing

Prof. Sieben

Critical Lens

3 October 2011

"All literature is protest.   You can't name a single literary work that isn't protest."

Richard Wright (adapted)

According to Richard Wright, “All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  In other words, authors write with a sense of purpose that usually pertains to a certain situation of which they agree or disagree with.  This is shown to be true in To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller.  Each of these authors uses literary techniques such as theme, characterization and point of view to support many works of literature protesting against social injustice.

In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee writes about human dignity that joins everyone. Her story takes us to a sleepy, Southern town called Maycomb, where a mixture of people was living. Theme and characterization are demonstrated throughout this novel, which makes the reader feel a strong sense of emotion. Many themes occur in this novel including compassion, drama, and care for the characters. The underlining themes encompass issues around maturity, human dignity and prejudgment, but most of all courage. The definition of Courage is mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and to withstand danger, fear or difficulty. Moral courage is most apparent in Atticus, Mrs. Dubose, Boo Radley and Miss Maudie. Throughout the novel, the actions and feelings these characters exhibit show the true meaning of moral courage The novel is filled with experiences that readers can identify with; kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and grief are some of the themes that produce and show a great deal of injustice. In one scene, Atticus tells Scout, "You never know the person until jump into their skin and walk around in it." The characterization in this novel has a greater truth to it. For instance, the names of the characters come to represent certain things.  For example, "Atticus Finch" represents strong leadership and a hard worker; Atticus always teaches his children that they must learn to be compassionate and understanding of the problems and conditions of life faced by other people.  "Bob Ewell" stands for evil, which in this case is true considering what happens to the protagonist's brother at the end of the story; "Tom Robinson" is a victim of which the Ewell family dislikes African Americans, because of his race.  Through both of these literary devices, the reader can see how Lee feels about the social situation of which she is writing about. 

Similarly, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, which focuses on the social injustices of that time period.   Miller writes about how the society accuses one another of witchcraft, based mostly on hearsay by the other characters.  The historical setting of The Crucible may seem distant, but in many cases it allows readers to become one with the story, and create their own ties to the characters. Scattered throughout this play are reoccurring signs of theme and of different points of view or perspectives. The uprising of Salem witch trials influences the theme of this play. Almost everyone in the town of Salem is affected in some way; by the end of the play, most of the female characters have been accused of being a witch.  The differing points of view are mostly based in religion, meaning some characters hold “the word of the Lord” to a much higher standard than others.  By illustrating a society from both a moral and religious point of view, Miller is able to show why the characters stayed true to themselves. By allowing the reader to view the community in this light, we are able to see why the characters made their decisions to go against the social norm and speak out, staying true to themselves but having to face grave consequences.  In some instances the play suggests you have to lie and Miller, via Hale, makes this clear "God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride."  Miller poignantly illustrates the fate of Salem from both a religious and moral viewpoint, allowing the reader to see the struggles for most of the people living during that time period.

“All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  This is shown to be true in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller.  Both works exemplify this common theme of how many works of literature protest against social injustice. With the literary elements of characterization, theme, and point of view, the story comes to life.  For many readers, the situations that were written about aren’t situations they’ve directly dealt with, but through the genius of fiction, the reader can feel as though they are part of the protest.

Critical Lens

Danielle Miller

Teaching Secondary Writing

Prof. Sieben

Critical Lens

3 October 2011

"All literature is protest.   You can't name a single literary work that isn't protest."

Richard Wright (adapted)

According to Richard Wright, “All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  In other words, authors write with a sense of purpose that usually pertains to a certain situation of which they agree or disagree with.  This is shown to be true in “To Kill A Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.  Each of these authors uses literary techniques such as theme, characterization and point of view to support many works of literature protesting against social injustice.

In Harper Lee's novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee writes about human dignity that joins everyone. Her story takes us to a sleepy, Southern town called Maycomb, where a mixture of people was living. Theme and characterization are demonstrated throughout this novel, which makes the reader feel a strong sense of emotion. Many themes occur in this novel including compassion, drama, and care for the characters. The novel is filled with experiences that readers can identify with. Kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and grief are some of the themes that produce and show a great deal of injustice. In one scene, Atticus tells Scout, "You never know the person until jump into their skin and walk around in it." The characterization in this novel has a greater truth to it. For instance, the names of the characters come to represent certain things.  For example, "Atticus Finch" represents strong leadership and a hard worker; Atticus always teaches his children that they must learn to be compassionate and understanding of the problems and conditions of life faced by other people.  "Bob Ewell" stands for evil, which in this case is true considering what happens to the protagonist's brother at the end of the story; "Tom Robinson" is a victim of which the Ewell family dislikes African Americans, because of his race.  Through both of these literary devices, the reader can see how Lee feels about the social situation of which she is writing about. 

Similarly, Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible," which focuses on the social injustices of that time period.   Arthur writes about how the society accuses one another of witchcraft, based mostly on hearsay by the other characters. Scattered throughout this play are reoccurring signs of theme and of different points of view or perspectives. The uprising of Salem witch trials influences the theme of this play. Almost everyone in the town of Salem is affected in some way; by the end of the play most of the female characters have been accused of being a witch.  The differing points of view are mostly based in religion, meaning some characters hold “the word of the Lord” to a much higher standard than others.  By illustrating a society from both a moral and religious point of view, Miller is able to show why the characters stayed true to themselves. By allowing the reader to view the community in this light, we are able to see why the characters made their decisions to go against the social norm and speak out, staying true to themselves but having to face grave consequences.  In some instances the play suggests you have to lie and Miller, via Hale, makes this clear "God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride."  Miller poignantly illustrates the fate of Salem from both a religious and moral viewpoint, allowing the reader to see the struggles for most of the people living during that time period.

“All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  This is shown to be true in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.  Both works exemplify this common theme of how many works of literature protest against social injustice. With the literary elements of characterization, theme, and point of view, the story comes to life.  For many readers, the situations that were written about aren’t situations they’ve directly dealt with, but through the genius of fiction, the reader can feel as though they are part of the protest.