Blog 5- Commencement Address

Jon Stewarts commencement speech that was given at the college of William and Mary was a modern classical speech, that combined new generation comedy with an elegant grace of the T.V show personality. Jon Stewart was a perfect candidate for the speech since he is in tuned with the newer generation and combines old traditional values that should be passed on to every new generation.

The traditional themes of the commencement address was that the universal element of hope and gratitude was used in place in this speech. Jon Stewarts manipulates the audience to think and expect nothing of the world, in doing so Stewarts techniques displays in expecting nothing you will be more rewarded in life. His commencement speech offers hope to the new graduates that they will influence that way that the new world is shape and molded to a better place. He offers his gratitude to the class and appreciation of the graduates on their degrees. He appreciates the value and time spent on working so hard to obtaining their degrees, and he is ultimately grateful to them because they offer the world hope where there isn't much.

Jon Stewart is not the typical traditional speaker at commencements, but offers a certain spcie and twist from usual commencements speakers such as writers, CEOS, and etc.

Blog 4- Last Meals and the People Who Eat Them

People often are left pondering the question what do I necessary need on a deserted island? Some people might need companionship others need a substance so the time goes by faster, whatever it is that people need they often spend a lot of time contemplating this question.

People don't get the same sensation from the question "what do you want for your last meal", for one the word "last" triggers tension and panic because this word signifies extermination, and for themost part people dread thinking about the end of the road. The last meal originates from the bible when Jesus and his apostles feasted before Jesus was crucifed, and in present times this question is asked to prisoners that are on death row. For some prisoners on death row the last meal can be the last time that he or she can indulge for others this meal can simply be a formally between the staging point for life and the afterlife.

I personally don't believe in enforcing capitalpunishment, I Think that criminals should served there time in prison and have an opportunity to rehabilitate and be release back into society when they are ready contribute then we as a society won't have to asked the question "what do you want for your meal?"

Blog 3- "Blaxicans" and Other Reinvented Americans

America is a land of unlimited opportunities, citizens have the opportunity worship,learn, and most importantly the opportunity to do things freely and willingly. But yet in this amazing country there is a motif of being a "melting pot" where all cultures blend to be one, which is a flaw that hides the beautiful colors of this country.

"Assimilation happens" is a phrased that a lot of immigrants can relate to over a long period of time spent in the United States. Immigrants aren't looking or asking to loss their culture but can't help to be assimilated because they live in the land of the "mass media", where mainstream media favors and promotes "Americanism". What is "Americanism" you ask? Americanism can simply be explain as a plain abstract of black and white. America is a country of many faces and many colours but yet the media always builds there ads, movies, posters, etc with the colors of black and white. This effect can be explain by the fact that since all immigrants see most of the time is the American culture, so little by little they begin to lose their identity as a person of color and begin to integrate into the abstract of black and white.

"Unless you understand that I am Chinese, then you have not understood anything I have said" simply address that if you want to be any culture you can simply assimlilate into that culture, but you can only be an another culture by choice not by force.

Blog 3- "Blaxicans" and Other Reinvented Americans

America is a land of unlimited opportunities, citizens have the opportunity worship,learn, and most importantly the opportunity to do things freely and willingly. But yet in this amazing country there is a motif of being a "melting pot" where all cultures blend to be one, which is a flaw that hides the beautiful colors of this country.

"Assimilation happens" is a phrased that a lot of immigrants can relate to over a long period of time spent in the United States. Immigrants aren't looking or asking to loss their culture but can't help to be assimilated because they live in the land of the "mass media", where mainstream media favors and promotes "Americanism". What is "Americanism" you ask? Americanism can simply be explain as a plain abstract of black and white. America is a country of many faces and many colours but yet the media always builds there ads, movies, posters, etc with the colors of black and white. This effect can be explain by the fact that since all immigrants see most of the time is the American culture, so little by little they begin to lose their identity as a person of color and begin to integrate into the abstract of black and white.

"Unless you understand that I am Chinese, then you have not understood anything I have said" simply address that if you want to be any culture you can simply assimlilate into that culture, but you can only be an another culture by choice not by force.

In Class Writing Assignement # 1

In this paragraph quoted by Nietzsche He decribes are identity as being universially similiar in certain aspects of different socities. Were the miniority who have power oppress, us the mayority to think and act the same way. Every since human civilization started there has always been a hierocracy, this hierocracy can be seen in many different forms in our modern society such as the poplular kids at school, or a dictatorship government. In essence our true identity is always going to conflict with the identities that the hierocracy wants us to be.

Nietzsche claim is very much similiar to such authors as Grealy and Dumas, where people have lost their true identity in favour of adjusting to the mayority identity which is what the minority powers want us to do. A specific example of this type of identity assimilation happens when Firoozeh "Americanizes" her name to Julie. This is done because the she felted that this was necassary because all she understood was that a name such as "Julie" was accepted but she later realize that she lost her true identity in the process. Hierocracy always set a standard for the mayority of people to live by, and if people who do not live by the standards that the hierocracy set are considered to be outcasts in society. Such an example is displayed in the writing by Lucy Grealy who didn't meet the standard of what most people see as "pretty" because she had a derformity that was causeby a certain illness. So every so often Grealy would conceal her true identity as a person by wearing a mask so that people can accept her.

In our digital age and in mostly all of history where we have leaders and followers the their ideas and perceptions will always be complicated due to the fact that people don't want others telling what they should and shouldn't do. In this day and aged miscommuncation is more easily suspectible then before due to information fraud.

Blog 2- The "F Word" by Firoozeh Dumas

I enjoyed this piece of writing by Dumas very much because I can really relate to Dumas's experience with names. Since my name is "Lam" which in English can be closely related to a farm animal. Often in my early childhood I would dread telling people my name because it would be followed by kids calling me names such as Lamb-chops or kids singing the theme song to the popular kid's show "Lamb-chops play along". But as I grew older I didn't care about what others thought about my name, because in reality my name represents my historical family background and doesn't represent me as a person.

In the piece of writing by Firoozeh her early childhood experiences and experiences as an adult are quite similar. As a child coming to America kids who could not comprehend her Iranian name would just simply call her "Ferocious" because did they did not have the ability to adapt to her name. So since the American culture wasn't ready to accommodate to such a name as Firoozeh, she decided to unjust to American culture by changing her name to Julie, but in this process she lost her Iranian cultural identity and assimilated to an American. As an adult that just graduated from UC-Berkeley with honors I think that employers would be rushing to her door-step, but I was wrong. Since that her name was Firoozeh again, that didn't help attract any employers but when she added Julie the employers came.

As Firoozeh got married and grew more mature she simply said that people must adjust to her identity as an Iranian and adjust to the melting pot of America which she refers as a "spice cabinet". People must simply understand that America has many cultures that are unique as they are beautiful.

Blog 1 - Masks by Lucy Grealy

I thought the memoir that Lucy Grealy was a wonderful piece of English writing where she truly describes how early adolescents can be a hard experience due to her deformity from Ewing's sarcoma . Since she had this unfortunate disease that scarred her, I think she was able to appreciate beauty and life more then others.

I think that the symbolic meaning of a masks is to hide your own identity so that you can experience what it is like to be another person for a short period of time. Masks only conceal our physical appearances to adapt to the environment around us, the experience of wearing a mask helps us understand other people's joy and misery. By wearing a mask it helps us gain experiences which is essential to becoming a more developed human being so that we can understand that beauty is beyond appearances.

every time that Grealy wore a mask she felt bold and empowered because to her she felt accepted because she felt that she fitted in with others. Since it was Halloween and all the other kids were in their costumes and masks she felt that she looked like the normal for once, sinced she wasn't getting any bad attention for her deformity from cancer. Since this occasion where she felted like a normal kid only came once a year, she was determined to take advantage of this case to the fullest extend and exercise her personality and inner beauty behind the masks that conceals her scars.

First Day of Class

- This post is for experimental use only.