Wright's Writing

In Chapter four Wright is pressured by his family to become more religious and accept Christ as his savior. However, Richard has a different idea about religion and how much it should affect his life. His grandmother and Aunt Addie are very harsh with him about his choices with religion. He is also resisting the punishments that they choose to inflict upon him. However, the main issue of this blog is about Richard and his writing. While killing time during a prayed, Wright decided to write a story on an Indian girl. The girl died in the story. The writing had no real plot or anything, but yet Wright was still amazed and proud. It was his own and he had created it. His gratification came from the fact he had expressed himself, and there was nothing the woman could really do to him. It was his right to be creative and create whatever story he wanted. That sense of owning something made him feel happy beyond a reasonable cause.

Mother's Stroke

The trauma that Wright suffers from the sudden stroke his mother suffers was quite painful. However, Richard responds to the tragedy in way that I believe most children would. This becomes the point in his life where he is forced to mature and grow up almost immediately. After his mother’s first stroke, Richard tends to his mother and acts like an adult until his grandmother and family arrive. His courage here shows that he is a strong man and he now has a sense of what life really is. The second stroke that his mother has brings things more clearly into reality. The events of his mother show him what his life is really all about. At the age of twelve his future life is shaped and molded by the issues he faces with his mom’s life. From that moment on he has decided to ask questions constantly, and then take those questions and find the core of them that explains all the answers.

Wright and the Jews

Richard Wright’s has been very complicated and troublesome up to this point. He is learning many things about his culture and the reasons why he has the life that he does. Wright is very curious, and he asks a lot of questions. His hatred towards Jews is not learned. It is taught. Jews killed Jesus and that makes all Jews today evil. His religious upbringing forces this upon him. Wright mocks the Jews in his neighborhood by yelling racial chants. Experiences that Richard is accustomed to are the different places that are designated for whites and blacks. For example at the train station there are different lines for blacks and whites. He also feels the same hatred as the Jews. Whites look down on him and treat him differently. He is pushed down in society as well because of the past (slavery). Life treats him unfair, but he is not doing any good by degrading others.

Wright's hunger

Wright is a child that is dealing with the struggles that life in poverty will give you. Moving to Memphis after burning down his own house made life even worse for Wright. His dad had a night job and could barely make enough money to support his family. Then, Wright’s father walked out on his family. His mother was left to take care of his brother and him with no job. She does find work, but it doesn’t pay much and the children begin to starve. The main reason for Richard’s hunger is the poverty inflicted on him by racism he lives in. Richard’s mother cooks for a white family. He goes with her sometimes and he becomes angry because the food she is preparing can not be eaten by him. Wright doesn’t quite understand the differences in whites and blacks yet, but he is on his way to comprehending them. Until this point he has not seen why people cared about skin color, and how it changes things when different races are involved with eachother.

Against School

Mr. Gatto has some great points on the school system that we have today. His position is quite clear. He feels that the education is good and necessary, but the school in general has a bad affect on the children. School does mature us. It allows for us to grow up, but we turn out to be old “children”. I agree that we don’t need school to tell us how we should think or how we should live our lives. I think that schools need to teach us the necessities we need to achieve the profession we choose. I know that my work ethic, attitude, and way of life were taught to me by my parents. Schools did not teach me any of those. The “un-educational” aspects of school don’t have any real baring on my life, because I know who I am and the school can’t really change that.

nonacademic education

Yes, I do value my nonacademic education that I am receiving. The two types that I felt were very intriguing were moral and political education. The moral education aspect is not necessarily academic, but it is very useful. People need to be socially well off. Moral education is the core of all social existence. Our parents raised us to know what is wrong and what is right. From there we have developed the acceptances of society and how to act around different groups of people. Your upbringing decides how you will fit into the community around you and the rest of the World. The other main part of nonacademic education is the political side. We must know how the government is ran and why it is ran that way. The candidates who run also have a background that needs to be revealed. This education allows for you to recognize who you are politically and from that you can choose who is the best person to be in control of the government.
Not all education needs to be book bound. To me the best education is the education you get just from living.

Rhetoric Presentations II

Today was again filled with some great presentations of rhetoric on the town. Everyone I think did a great job in finding their pictures and explaining them. The picture I liked the most came from Alex today. I liked the one of Anne Coulter. Now it has nothing to do with her Republican background nor is it directly related to the meaning of the title. However, it was that title that caught my eye as well as the way she dressed. If the cover had said, “Republicans are stupid” I still would have noticed it. The cover has that “shock” appeal, and it should make everyone double take. I really like the shock factor with rhetoric. I think it does the most to appeal to the audience, and it has great influence in rhetoric.

Town Rhetoric 1

I thought that all of the presentations today were really good, and they expressed a lot of rhetoric. The one example I liked was the one Jordan had of the storefront. The name of the store was Indigonation. In her picture there were three manikins displaying three different brands of jeans. The brands were Citizen of humanity, True Religion, and Rock Republic. All three names have great Rhetoric to them, but the True Religion brand is the one that caught my eye. Why wouldn’t you want a pair of jeans that are “true religion”? Compared to Levi’s or Wranglers, True Religion gives off more of an appeal to consumers. Anybody would see this name and think they need a pair. Citizen of humanity was also a good use of rhetoric. I also need to give props to Christina for her photo of pick-up line book. The way in which the author used the Bible as a reference for his cover was outstanding. You automatically recognize this book, because of its amazing resemblance to the Bible.

Ad Presentations

The presentations today were all direct to the point they were trying to accomplish. Every group used a different style of getting that point across and they were effective. At first when I saw everyone else’s Ads I thought our commercial wasn’t going to be that great. However, after reviewing the responses it turns out we did pretty well. I think Jordan’s, Tony’s, Eli’s, and Christina’s group was very funny and their commercial definitely got everyone’s attention. Their use of the “crazy, over-energized salesman” worked well for their selling of hats. I wasn’t quite sure how hats really targeted our class, since most people don’t wear them to school. However, after watching their Ad I would say that many people would probably buy a hat from them. Its all about the “Wow” factor. If people are shocked or think something is stupid that person is doing, then they will pay attention. Their group proved this. Overall I compliment everyone on his or her commercials. They truly were great.

Pottery Barn Style

The article was pretty good in my mind. Pottery Barn seems to be doing very well, and it is booming with great strides. I personally have never been in a Pottery Barn store. I’m not sure if we even have one. We could and I just don’t know it. Celia Tejada, Pottery Barn’s Senior VP, seems to have the company figured out to a “T”. She talked about how with all of their products the board sits down to discuss them, and if they wouldn’t buy the product or give it to their best friend, the product is dismissed right away. Tejada is dedicated her job and the people who work there. She believes her co-workers should not become “workaholics”. They need to have a life.
Pottery Barn’s main competitor is Target. Tejada admitted they can not compete with Target’s prices, but they can compete with style and showing customers the total look of a product. Pottery Barn takes great pride in their customer service. They attribute a majority of their success to that.

Target layout.

Stores do use many tactics to keep people in the store as long as possible and to coerce them to not leave without buying something. I have noticed this in many places. The store I go to a lot would be Target. Like most stores the temperature is just right and usually no matter the weather, you want to stay in the store because its better than outside. The main persuasion in the environment is the customer service and all of the deals. Saving the all mighty dollar is the bottom line, and if you need assistance you don’t want to wait. Another big deal is the layout. Target for example keeps everything that is related together in sections. This makes things easy to find and builds on the customer service part. They also know that electronics are the hot items of today. That is why they are in the front of the store right as you walk in. Stores aren’t stupid. They will do what it takes to make sure you buy something while you are there.

Super Bowl ads

Godaddy.com produced the first commercial I watched. It showed people watching the Super Bowl and talking to a guy about why he doesn’t watch the game anymore. He says he used to watch it for the commercials, but since they wouldn’t let Go daddy air theirs he doesn’t care anymore. The commercial then proceeds to tell you to go to their website to see Danica Patrick exposed. Of course people are going to flock to their website, because sex sells. Guys are like, “Yes I wanna see that”. I in fact went to the website, and I can see why they wouldn’t allow it. It was kind of crude with the references to “beaver”, but it got attention. Go daddy appealed to the audience through sexual appeal and they got people to go to their website because of it. They accomplished their goal greatly. The other commercial I liked was the one produced by SoBe Life water. A girl is walking out provocatively, and a lizard is following her. The girl drinks Life water and the lizard catches a drop of it. “Thriller” a popular song by Michael Jackson starts to play, and a bunch of lizards start to do the dance of song with the girl. It appeals to the audience not only by using a well-known song, but also like the first commercial it uses sexual appeal. The way the girl is dressed catches your eye.