What was my favorite ELA novel

3) What was your favorite text that we read this year in ELA. Why? Please fully explain your answers.

My favorite text of the year was Persepolis. I have rarely taken a graphic novel completly seriously. They have never been able to paint as beautiful a picture as a regular novel could, despite the plethora of amazing artworks on each and every page. Yet, Persepolis has been one of the few series of graphic novels that I could really enjoy on a serious level. It was depressing, educational, and mildly humorous. This blend of traits boosted this book to a higher level in my opinion with graphic novels, and has gotten me thinking about looking in to others like it.

Brothers Grimm conflict

1) Describe the primary conflict in your novel. Who (or what) is the conflict between (think man vs. self, man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. machine, etc.)?

A little bit of each example of conflict is used in the Brothers Grimm stories. First example, man vs self, the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a little girl is torn between the decision to stop, talk, and trust the stranger in the forest, or continue her walk over to her grandmother's house. Man vs man is shown in at least two stories. These main two are from Cinderella, in which she is being forced into a type of slavery by her stepfamily, which thwarts her opportunity to marry someone who could rescue her from her "kitchen maid" lifestyle. The other, being Rapunzel. Rapunzel is locked away by an evil enchantress and is forbidden from seeing the world, but, when a prince finds her, she has to either risk falling into a forbidden relationship with the prince, or continue living as a captive. Man vs nature was a main form of conflict in the Grimm tales. At the end of Cinderella, Cinderella's bird companions swoop down and attack the stepsisters when they come to the marriage of Cinderella and the prince. The birds then claw the sisters' eyes from their sockets, leaving them blind. Two stories, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, involve the main characters, which are both protagonists, involved in some battle with nature. In Snow White, the princess has to brave the dark forests until she finds shelter in the dwarve's house. Simmilar situations happen in Hansel and Gretel, when the siblings travel through the forest after being ditched by their stepmother, and find the witche's gingerbread house. In Sleeping Beauty, the princess pricks her finger on the spinning wheel spindle, and falls into a deep sleep. This somehow causes a multitude of briar branches to wrap around the palace which prevents her hero to come rescue her. The princes try to slash through the briars, but end up getting stuck, and dying an agonizing death. Lastly, there is man vs machine. The machines one may think people refer to in stories are not the ones in this book. This is only because this book was written in a time where electronic anythings did not exist. So, fathering the technology of the time, which mainly consisted of carts, dangled, and cottages, this is what I have come up with. In Rapunzel, the prince has to climb up a tower to get to the beautiful woman that lives inside. The tower old, and dangerously high off of the ground. The story of Sleeping Beauty involves a prince trying to get passed all of the shut parts of the castle to get to his bride as well. 

Pharmacy ad

What rhetorical appeal is the ad using (ethos, pathos, logos)? Explain your answer.

This advertisement is appealing to ethos because it is trying to sell itself to the general female population whom enjoys dying their hair.

What is the argument that this ad is making (premises and conclusion)?

This ad is saying that the dye not only colors, but softens the hair in a cleansing manner, and, it is also permanent! This would obviously attract more customers because of the duel purpose.

Can you spot any logical fallacies in this ad? If so, what are they?

The logical fallacy in this is a "false cause". A "false cause" is when something says what the outcome will be if you do something else, this prediction is usually false. What this image is implying is that if you use this hair dye/ moisturizer, you will look as beautiful as the woman in the picture.

What is the source of the ad (who is paying for it)?



1. What is the purpose of the ad?

The main purpose of the ad is to get women to buy this sort of hair dye.

2. Who is the target audience and how do you know this?

Women would pay for this because of the female image on the front of the box and the word use like "gorgeous" and "superior".

3. What is the subtext of this ad?

The part at the bottom in small print that reads: 100% grey coverage! permanent, 1application.

4. What part of the story is not being told?

It hasn't told the buyer about any after effects.

5Is there a group that is empowered and/or disempowered by this ad? How can you tell?

Women would probably be empowered here because there is no sign of putting down any type of person (weight -wise, ethnicity, class), but it is simply an ad that's purpose is to get any type of woman to buy their product.

Sexist BMW poster

Usually, sexism is found in older commercials, but, this is proof that sexism in media is far from gone. In this recent BMW commercial, the company uses this attractive woman who is laying down (presumably naked) and flirtatiously staring at the camera as the main picture for the commercial. Not once did this poster mention anything that it is advertising.  This poster has a small, white box in the lower, right-hand corner with microscopic writing that reads: "BMW Premium Selection, Used Cars." If it wasn't for the BMW logo in the corner, one would never know what this poster is an advertisement for used cars. If the un recognizable product wasn't enough, there is the small subtext that is near the woman's chin. It says "You know your not the first." This statement is implying, both, that  the woman has had more than one husband, boyfriend, or tryst in her lifetime, because, when you look at her, "you know that you are not the first". This also translate to: these cars have been used, therefore, they have been driven already. And this woman has also been used, therefore she too has been (insert dirty joke here _______). This advertisement is encouraging men to buy these used cars by pasting an attractive woman's face on their poster. This disempowers the woman by making her look like more of a sexual object than just a regular person ,which here, is portrayed by the pose she is in. It is also comparing her to a car which symbolizes her to be even more of an object. Probably the worst thing though, is the fact that they are implying that since she is so attractive, she must have had more than one lover.

Satirical AllState commercial

In this AllState commercial, they used 5 out of the 6 possible elements of satire. First, starting with Parody. When the woman is talking (sarcastically) to the man about how men are better drivers an women, she pulls out the check she received from AllState which, soon after, made her voice imitate that of the deep-voiced actor (Dennis Haysbert) who plays in the Classic AllState commercials. This obviously causes this man's eyes to widen. The parody in this commercial also leads to the reversal and incongruity. There is something clearly out of place in this video because, the once semi- high-pitched voice of the woman sitting at the table has now changed to that of a man. Again, since her voice has changed into a mock of a deep, male's, burlesque has now become a part of he commercial because burlesque is the ridiculous exaggeration of language. And once again (don't worry, this is the last time I am saying this), since the lady's voice has turned into that of a guy's, the element: caricature has been introduced as well. Caricature is when a feature or trait (in this case, the voice) has been greatly exaggerated. This commercial was clearly aimed at people who want to save money on car insurance because that is what AllState does. They needed to add some sort of comedic twist or satirical element into it or else it would just be boring.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qQR8rj2BO-8

Does the ending of Merchant of Venice have a reason to end that way? And does the ending match up with the normal comedy endings?

2) Why do you think that Shakespeare ends this comedy with lover's spats between Jessica and Lorenzo, Portia and Bassanio, and Nerissa and Gratiano? Does this fit in with what we expect from a comedic ending?

This ending didn't even come close to ending how a normal comedic play should end. Comedic plays end with parties, weddings, and birth. This play ended with a big fight. If someone was to think deeper into it, you could come to the conclusion that this might be a comedic play with a tragic ending involving the death of a leading role in the story. Love could be considered the leading role in this play since the entire story is circling in and out of romantic relationships. Love is starting to crack like glass in the end of this story. Lorenzo was fighting with Jessica, and all of the others were talking about sleeping with people other than the person they are married to right infront of their wife or husband. Even with this theory though, the ending of this play definitly did not match that of a normal comedy. But, I think Shakespear ended the play this way because it is still a comedy and it is supposed to be funny. It is funny when married couples start quarreling like this (sometimes).

Who is the merchant of Venice?

2) Who is the merchant of Venice, and how does our understanding of this color how we think about the play? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

There is a good amoun of characters who might be the merchant of Venice. For starters, I always thought of a Merchant as being a seller of goods, food, etc. I also always thought that the merchants would be of the lower class in this day and age making them poorer. This theory knocks out characters like Portia (who is definitely not poor), Nerissa (who we hear talking and hangs around Portia but is not an important character), and Bassanio ( who is more of a borrower and buyer because of all of the money he took from Antonio leaving him broke). 

First person up would be Antonio. Antonio was refered to in the court scene as "the merchant" by Portia when she asks: "which is the merchant here and which the Jew?". By "Jew" she meant Shylock because he is the only Jewish character in that scene and it narrows it down even more, when the Duke says: "Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.". Shylock is therefore labeled as "the Jew" and Antonio is labeled as "the merchant". This was just a thought that came to mind listening to the reenactment of this scene as portrayed by Mr. Gonzales and the class. He pointed to Isabella who was playing Antonio every time he said "merchant".

Second and last person would be Shylock. Shylock is a merchant to his own personal gain, by gain, I mean that he is so bent on revenge and on getting this poun of flesh from Antonio that he would spend almost every waking moment to kill him. He also cared more about his money and jewels than his daughter when she ran away with a good amount of his life's savings. These would be the two characters that would be winning either 1st or 2nd place as he merchant of Venice.