A Culture of Violence

In Don Delillo's piece "Videotape," he describes a recording of a man's death done by a child. The man is depicted as average and "unremarkable" (p.16). Even as the man dies, the narrator states he is "thinking of the girl" recording the video instead the man (p.27). The man is treated lightly, and most of the piece's sympathy goes toward the girl. Part of the reason he is portrayed so blandly is because Delillo is arguing that anyone, at any time, can be killed like the man. But, additionally, Delillo is exposing how violent modern society has become. People are already so overexposed to death and destruction that even when they view violent videos, such as the video tape from the piece, they only feel fascination, rather than horror. The narrator displays this behavior when he comments that the man "gets it" (p.25). 'Gets it' is a crude colloquialism, much more heartless than saying 'passed away' or even 'died,' There is no grief over the man's death, just shock and obsession. The narrator watches the video over and over, never truly comprehending what he was watching. It is similar to the dog video discussed in class. People watch it repetitively without realizing what they are seeing. We are so used to violence that it no longer has an effect on us.

Numbers

Page 28 of V.2

In this section of Maus, Vladek recounts one of his first experiences in Auschwitz. A priest gives him his first glimpse of hope by interpreting the numbers on his arm in Hebrew. By portraying the numbers in an optimistic way, the priest gives Vladek a source of hope to look at anytime he needed one - it was printed right on his arm, after all. In addition, Spiegelman creates a pun with the word life. The priest explains that the numbers add up to eighteen, the "Hebrew number of life." Vladek then says the priest "put another life in [him]." By linking the numbers on Vladek's arm to his religion, the priest gives Vladek the conviction to persevere through Auschwitz. The number tattoo, something meant to dehumanize the Jewish, actually reassured Vladek that he would survive. Furthermore, throughout the Holocaust the Nazis tried to shame the Jewish for their religion, but Vladek's religion ended up giving him the strength to continue. Spiegelman presents these ironies to reveal that in times of crisis, one should look everywhere to find the hope to continue on, even in unexpected places. He also proves that the Nazi's were not successful in dehumanizing the Jewish or shaming their religion.

Today's Hieroglyphics

In his piece 'Show and Tell,' Scott McCloud discusses how words and pictures have separated over time. However, some languages still use pictures and words simultaneously, such as Chinese and Japanese. Although the pictures do not exactly resemble their real-life meanings, they come close. For example, the Japanese character for eye is 目. The top and bottom sections are the white of the eye, while the middle is the pupil, making the character look like an actual eye. More complex characters can be broken down to convey several different meanings, such as the character for fish, 魚. If you break it down into three parts, top, bottom, and middle, you get three separate meanings. The top section means to 'hook,' the middle 'rice field,' and the bottom 'fire.' While spilt apart, each section has no meaning, but together they form 'fish.' Another example is 好. This can be divided into left and right sides. The left means 'woman' while the right means 'child.' Together, they make 'like.' In this way, words and pictures do still cooperate, even though the symbol is not always identical to the real life counterpart. The hieroglyphics McCloud holds a "vague longing" for do succeed in terms of resemblance to their meaning - even so , the closest thing to hieroglyphics in today's society is Japanese, or Chinese. Perhaps through learning one of these languages, McCloud can ease his longing.

Satire

Whenever one looks back to his or her childhood, almost immediately toys come to mind. Men may imagine Hot Wheels and plastic tool sets, while women think of Barbies and Easy Bake ovens. The two types of toys, those for boys and girls, can very easily be differentiated. Boy toys usually involve building, sports, or the color blue. Girl toys are commonly covered in flowers, pink, and sparkly. The gap between each category of toys is widened by advertisements. Has there ever been a commercial featuring a boy playing with a Barbie? No, not ever. Most boys would be ashamed to even be watching a Barbie commercial. Toy companies never seem to want to stray from gendered toys, although they have tried. Nerf has a line of guns for girls titled 'Rebelle' (perhaps the normal spelling of 'rebel' was too much), which features many styles and sizes, all decorated in pink and purple. The names of the toys ranges from 'Pink Crush' to 'Heartbreaker.' Just to compare, many of the boy guns are blue or red and have names like 'Demolisher' and 'Retaliator.' If that isn't gender equality, I don't know what is.
People have a fixation with gendering objects, especially toys, that they refuse to let up on. No other animal does this - in nature, the sexes are the same. Do male tigers play with Spiderman action figures and Legos? Do females dress in pink and play with dolls? Are they shamed for branching away from these norms? Only humans have these ideals.

Gendered....Pasta?

Multiplicity

A great deal of multiplicity exists within The Hours and between The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway. In The Hours, multiplicity is created through the use of similar props, actions, and dialogue. For example, during the beginning of the movie, each of the protagonists is shown waking up and rising out of bed. Even though they live in different time periods and different home situations, they all have similar ways of getting ready for the day. Additionally, there is multiplicity in how each protagonist experiences Mrs. Dalloway. During the movie, Virginia is writing the novel, Laura is reading it, and Clarissa is living it. Virginia mumbles lines from the novel and Laura is often holding the it and carries it to several places.  Clarissa repeats many lines from the novel and also shares many of similarities with Mrs. Dalloway herself. Both characters are older, upper class, and throw a party. There are other instances of multiplicity between the movie and the book. Richard, from The Hours, and Septimus, from Mrs. Dalloway, share many emotions and experiences. The most prominent one is their suicides - both jumped out of a window. The death of each had almost identical effects on both Clarissas. Before Richard's death, Clarissa Vaughan states that "life is trivial," but after Richard dies she gains an appreciation for life, just as Clarissa Dalloway did after Septimus's death. The multiplicity gives both pieces similarities but also differences.

Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa waking up.

The Garden of Life

"The weight of the day, which beginning with that visit to Clarissa had exhausted him with its heat, its intensity, and the drip, drip, of one impression after another down into that cellar where they stood, deep, dark, and no one would ever know. Partly for that reason, its secrecy, complete and inviolable, he had found life like an unknown garden, full of turns and corners, surprising, yes; really it took one's breath away, these moments; there coming to him by the pillar-box opposite the British Museum one of them, a moment in which things came together; this ambulance; and life and death." (152)

In the beginning of this passage, Peter reflects on the day and thinks that his visit to Clarissa's had worn him out "with its heat." The sun and its heat are a motif throughout the novel, representing the weight of death; similarity Peter mentions "the weight of the day." At this point, Peter is contemplating life, dealth, and the "intensity" of each. This can been seen in his later description of the cellar that he and Clarissa were in, which is "deep, dark"and private. Their impressions of each other are compared to droplets of water through the onomatopoeia of "drip, drip." Water is slippery and fluid, making it able to flow almost anywhere; Woolf uses droplets to reveal just how isolated the visit was from the other events of life - only water could slip through and reach them. The privacy of the visit illustrates how it was just a corner in the "unknown garden" of life. However, even though there are many separate corners, everything in the garden is connected by one path, the "moment in which things came together." The one thing that connects each moment is time, another motif in the novel. In the present, Peter stands and watches the ambulance without a second thought, while Rezia mourns her husband and Clarissa prepares for her party. Each moment is isolated in its own way, but they are all connected by the fact that they are occurring simultaneously.

A Spider's Web

“And they went further and further from her, being attached to her by a thin thread (since they lunched with her) which would stretch and stretch, get thinner and thinner as they walked across London; as if one's friends were attached to one's body, after lunching with them, by a thin thread, which (as she dozed there) became hazy with the sound of bells, striking the hour or ringing to service, as a single spider's thread is blotted with rain-drops, and, burdened, sags down. So she slept. And Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread hesitated at the corner of Conduit Street at the very moment that Millicent Bruton, lying on the sofa, let the thread snap; snored” (Woolf 112)

In this section, Woolf describes the bonds between people as as threads which connect us all. She writes that the threads become "hazy" with bells "striking the hour," meaning that as time goes on, friendships fade. This implies that Hugh and Richard's friendship with Lady Bruton will fade also. Additionally, this parallels how Clarissa's feelings for Peter Walsh have faded as time passed and how Rezia's feelings for Septimus have faded as well. Woolf compares the slow process of bonds diminishing to a "spider's thread...blotted with rain-drops" that ultimately sags under the burden of them. Time is represented through the raindrops, which alone do not seem heavy but accumulated have more force than expected. Through this simile Woolf illustrates that time can easily drag down the thin threads of friendship. 
Woolf uses language related to spiders frequently in this passage, making Lady Bruton herself seem like a spider. She attaches a "thin thread" to each of her friends to form a web of connections, that she can control at will. For example, she "let the thread snap" between her, Hugh, and Richard, breaking off their bond. Her position of control reflects her ancestors, many being generals. Lady Bruton did not follow their legacy, but she still has her own soldiers to command.

Fish Cheeks & Shen Yun

Amy Tan's short essay "Fish Cheeks" conveys an important message about accepting one's culture in a place where it is not the standard. Tan sends this message through dialogue and descriptions. The narrator's mother tells her daughter that "inside [she] must always be Chinese" (Tan 7) while giving her an American-style skirt. These actions reveal that the mother is saying even though the the narrator may look American on the outside, on the inside she is Chinese. This idea is central to the piece, and can be appreciated by many other minorities in America. For example, the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun performs all across the United States. Their show is not completely Americanized though. Despite their predominately white audience, they maintain many Chinese aspects in their performance. The most obvious example of this is that their costumes and dances are all based off of traditional Chinese ones. Beyond that, the booklet listing each dance is divided in half, with one part in English and the other Chinese. Additionally, before every dance number background information is read in both languages. Through the use of traditional dances and costumes as well as language, Shen Yun is able to be Chinese on the outside as well as on the inside. Their devotion to Chinese culture reinforces Tan's message and provides an example of how to keep in touch with one's heritage.