Video Reflection

While watching the videos assigned over the weekend, I found it sad to see how far racists go just to discriminate an entire group of people just because they have a different skin color. It's even worse to see how these issues are still relevant in today's society, shown by the video on the supermarket. The term "white privilege" came up in "A Trip to the Grocery Store", and it is still shocking to me that there is still more and more components to racism after all the analysis we've done in class. White privilege is straightforward enough, it is advantages that white people have that non-whites don't have, there's even an entire Wikipedia page on it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege It's hard to believe that this term is still being used today, many media sources, such as Huffington Post and CNN, have used the term in headlines in the past year. This really makes the evils of racism stand out as it influences something as trifle as buying items at the supermarket. Joy also mentioned during the video that her sister in-law has blue eyes and was very white. This reminded me of the Mary Jane candies in The Bluest Eye, where Mary Jane is essentially the beauty standard, being white and having blue eyes, and how Joy subconsciously describes her sister as such, emphasizing the word "white". As more time passes after analyzing the Bluest Eye, the evils that Morrison was describing are becoming more and more apparent.

DBAR Reflection Kinda

Looking back at The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, I found it quite interesting how when Fitzgerald initially tried to publish the short story, it was rejected by several magazines because the story contained very unsubtle criticisms about American capitalism.  I thought it was kinda funny to think of these big magazine companies acting like those angry people on social media responding to hate comments and just rejecting any form of criticism that comes their way. Even though Fitzgerald's criticisms are not necessarily constructive, they still highlight some of the problems that come with American capitalism - greed and exploitation, namely - regardless of how blunt Fitzgerald presented them. For example, Broddick is so encapsulated by greed that he holds aviators hostage, just so he ensures that no one will ever know about the diamond mountain. From Broddick's straightforward and rather dismissing tone - for example, "We've covered that. Cruelty doesn't exist where self-preservation is involved. You've been soldiers: you know that." (DBAR p.95) - we know that Broddick is so caught up in greed that he thinks this decision is justified and totally not inhumane at all! Litote! (I think) Also, Broddick is shown to be exploiting slaves and the diamonds throughout his lifetime. Similarly to the magazine companies, Broddick coolly dismisses all the haters - "How absurd.", "I don't want you here.", "You see... The man... was shot by some of my agents in fourteen different places" (DBAR p.98-100) - as do the magazine companies - "lol u ain't gettin published boy" (My 5-year old imagination).

Gatsby - Favorite Passage

"About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey car crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and
comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight." (Fitzgerald p.26)

I found that the first paragraph of the second chapter (shown above) of The Great Gatsby was the most beautiful passage in the book. Fitzgerald, throughout the book, is reinforcing the idea that the American Dream is simply a hoax and that nothing good comes out of it. This passage essentially explains the premise of the entire book in a short, but meaningful, passage. The first two sentences contains strong metaphorical weight, even more so now having read the entire book and analyzed the recurring themes. As we discussed in class, West Egg represents new money. New York is the iconic place in America where dreams are made, therefore representing the impossible American Dream. People specifically from West Egg are trying to reach the unattainable American Dream, which lies in New York. To go to New York, they must take a railroad, which is joined by the motor road for a quarter mile. The motor road  represents the new drug of speed - as it "hastily" meets with the railroad - and how its influence leads to the corruption of those trying to achieve the American Dream. Following the introduction of cars, represented by the motor road running alongside the railroad, the tracks lead to the despair and helplessness found in the valley of ashes. After a "quarter mile", the tracks begin to "shrink away from a certain desolate area of land", symbolizing that driving on this track, even for a short distance, will only lead one to the valley of ashes. Then, the rest of the passage describes the despair and poverty that the lower class people face (discussed in class).