A Diary Entry by Ruth

Dear Diary,
I'm so glad we moved into our new house!  There were so many problems with that old "rat trap" (44) of a house.  For one, we've put in "enough rent ... to pay for four houses by now" (44).  Also, I couldn't stand those "cracking walls" (93) and the armies of cockroaches "marching ... like Napoleon" (55).  But besides the house's problems, there were many disputes among the family there, mainly revolving around Mama's check of ten thousand dollars.  Bennie, Travis, and I knew "that ain't none of our money" (34), but Walter wouldn't understand.  Walter strongly believed that, with his partners Bobo and Willy Harris, he could invest into a "little liquor store" (33) and obtain money for the family.  I realize and appreciate that he just wanted to provide a better life for his family, especially for Travis - Walter felt ashamed that his own son "sleeps in the living room" (34) and all Walter "got to give him is stories about how rich white people live" (34) - but there is bound to be trouble when working with Willy Harris, who is a dishonest, "good-for-nothing loudmouth" (32), and I think Walter learned his lesson about working with people like him.  Despite losing all of the money that Mama entrusted him, I am so glad that, when faced with the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, he decided for us to still "move into our house" (148), affirming that his father "earned it for us brick by brick" (148).  Mama and the rest of our family is proud of Walter, and Mama and I decided that he had "finally come into his manhood ... like a rainbow after the rain" (151). 

Walter had "finally come into his manhood ... like a rainbow after the rain" (151). 

I'll write to you later, Diary.  Mama is calling me.  I think she is going to start planting her garden today. 
                                                             Love,
                                                                 Ruth

Fitzgerald and Princesses

Throughout "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", F. S. Fitzgerald conveys that immorality is caused by self-interest.  Although it is possible to manifest this theme by writing with in-depth rhetoric, it would not be as meaningful as by portraying it through stories, such as fairy tales that, today, everyone is familiar with. 
Fitzgerald's theme is found most prevalent in Disney princess movies.  Once upon a time, Snow White is given a poisoned apple because the Queen wanted to be "the fairest one of all".  The Evil Stepmother locked Cinderella in her room so Cinderella could not marry Prince Charming; the Evil Stepmother wanted to continue to own her, like the stepfather of Moses wanted to continue to own his Hebrew slaves.  Maleficent casts a curse on Aurora as revenge on King Stefan for not inviting her to a celebration for Aurora.  Ursula transforms Ariel into a human for three days, a request as absurd as wanting to witness pink elephants, as part of her evil scheme to become the ruler of the sea.  Mother Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel and channels the magic in Rapunzel's hair to herself continuously in order to look young for eternity.  Mother Gothel's selfishness is evident in the special song that activates Rapunzel's magic hair:  

Flower Gleam and Glow
Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring Back what once was mine
Heal what has been hurt
Change the Fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine 

 

What is It to Be Successful in America?

Success is steadfastly defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, but in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald compares the beliefs of characters Jay Gatsby and Nick in order to explicate how the definition of success is distinct to different people in America.  
In the 1920s, the American Dream was characterized as the achievement of success through wealth, and Jay Gatsby is a prime example of an American Dream, rags-to-riches success story.  Gatsby grew up poor, as his "parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (98), and, as a young adult, Gatsby found work as "a clam-digger and a salmon-fisher" (98) "along the south shore of Lake Superior" (98).  Later, Gatsby, with Meyer Wolfsheim's help, "bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago" (133), and he became a bootlegger, making Gatsby immensely wealthy.  This was important to Gatsby, since he strongly believes that a person can "repeat the past" (110) and change it to the way he or she wants it to be. 
Unlike Gatsby, Nick believes that success is achieved through "at least one of the cardinal virtues" (59).  Nick personally believes that his is honesty, stating that he is "one of the few honest people" (59) that he knows.  Not everyone can obtain wealth comparable to Gatsby's, except by being dishonest.  Therefore, it is better and more acquirable to be morally successful than having success through wealth. 

How Did Women Fashion and Attitudes Change During the 1920s?

After researching on the 1920s as well as cultural details for homework, I learned that, according to our McDougal Littell Literature textbook, women, specifically flappers, "embraced new fashions and the urban attitudes" (825).  Thus, I wanted to research more on the different women fashions and "urban attitudes" of the 1920s.  
Women fashion changed dramatically with "the passing of bustles and corsets" (1920-30.com).  As a result, fashion designers were able to create more aesthetically pleasing and meaningful clothes for the young generation.  For example, dresses became more colorful, fabrics became lighter, and dresses became shorter.  By making clothes more colorful, designers "echoed the joy felt by a war weary population following the end of hostilities" (1920-30.com).  Designers used "less material and new synthetic fabrics" (1920-30.com) to make fabrics lighter.  Dresses became shorter because American women wanted to dress like the flappers, "the trendy young women" (1920-30.com).   

Women Fashion of the 1920s

 Although women fashions were very vibrant, their brilliance can only be observed in illustrations, as photographs were black-and-white then.  

Black-and-White Photograph of Women Fashion

In addition to the emerging distinct fashion trends, women started having new "urban attitudes".  Women wanted to be like the trendy flappers, and as a result of the major cultural change of the Roaring Twenties, it was more acceptable for women to be smoking and to be drinking outside of the house. 

A Synthesis on the Value of Punctuation and Its Impact on Technology

Communication, including punctuation, evolves as a result of societal and technological progression, and although society is examining its value in everyday usage, social media needs punctuation in order for messages to not lose their clarity and coherence.  
Punctuation is vital when using technology to express thoughts and to create conciseness.  According to Henry Hitchings, "Digital communication and social media have produced new opportunities" (Source A) to do these.  This ranges from memes to Twitter.  In memes, it is important to convey a funny and/or purposeful message in a few words, and a helpful way to assert a message is to apply punctuation.  

Meme

As the above meme demonstrates, different uses of punctuation create different meanings to a sentence.  The commas in the first sentence define a woman without a man, while the semicolon in the second sentence - the semicolon is portrayed as "a particularly intelligent ... friend" (Source E) that can be depended on "for easing ... through a complex thought" (Source E) - defines a man without a woman.  This illustrates the importance of establishing clarity while writing because, without it, the message can be confusing or not necessarily convey the meaning wanted.  In addition, without punctuation, language itself becomes chaotic.  In Twitter, "Tight character limits force users to ... 'Omit needless words'" (Source A).  "tweets must be 140 characters or less" (Source F), so there is "very little room for adjectives" (Source F).  As a result, people change their writing style to become "obscure" (Source F) while tweeting:  they do not use punctuation and diction becomes unspecific.  Eventually, this negatively impacts a person's writing by also making it unclear and not concise.  

How do Modern African American Artists Convey Their Thoughts on Racism?

After analyzing the painting Officer of the Hussars, by Kehinde Wiley, I was interested in finding out his artistic purpose.  I learned that he "engages the ... visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world" (Kehinde Wiley).  Kehinde's enthralling paintings made me wonder how other modern African American artists convey their thoughts on racism.  After some research, I found out that Glenn Ligon, a conceptual artist, explores the impact of language and gender on racism.  
Glenn Ligon has created many famous works, such as We're Black and We're Strong.  

We're Black and We're Strong by Glenn Ligon

Ligon has had many art exhibitions.  One of his more momentous exhibitions was "America", at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.  "America" explores "American history, literature, and society across a body of work that builds critically on the legacies of modern painting and more recent conceptual art" (Whitney).  An interesting piece there is Sun (Version 2) #1.  

Sun (Version 2) #1 by Glenn Ligon

In this, Ligon uses multiple colors, predominantly black, in order to scorn the racism that was taught to children.  The school that is colored black signifies the segregation of schools, where white children were taught in white schools and colored children were taught in colored schools.  The people in the lower left corner are scribbled over with black, indicating that children were taught that colored people were not accepted by society.  The word "shades" in the upper left corner is blackened to suggest that all colored races were treated like how blacks were.  Also, by adding (Version 2) to the title, Ligon conveys that there were "two suns", one for whites and one for colored people. 

How Can Eye Color Be Changed Both Temporarily and Permanently?

In The Bluest Eye, Pecola dreamed and "prayed for blue eyes" (Morrison 46), believing that "if her eyes ... were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different" (Morrison 46) and "maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too ... say ... 'We mustn't do bad things'" (Morrison 46).  Although it is impossible to genetically change eye color, people are able to modify their eye color both temporarily and (soon) permanently through advances in technology. 
A common method of temporarily adjusting eye color is with colored contacts.  Colored contacts have a diverse set of hues to choose from, ranging from blue and green to purple and gold.  They are convenient to use, since they are becoming cheaper and can come in prescription.  Also, they last for a long time, as long as they are taken care of properly.  

Colored contacts

A technique that is being developed to permanently change eye color is called the Strōma procedure.  The Strōma procedure is a process that, with a gentle, low-energy laser, alters eye color from brown to blue.  Researchers assert that everyone has blue eyes, but brown eyes are a result of a thin brown pigment layer on the surface of the iris.  The Strōma procedure removes this brown pigment, exposing a person's natural blue eyes.  Eyes that have gone through this procedure are indistinguishable from genetically natural blue eyes, and it is so effective that, afterwards, the brown pigment cells do not regenerate.  There is no set date of release for the procedure since it is still being tested, but it is expected that the general public will be allowed to use it in fall 2015.