Evaluative Essay

In the book, "The Cat in the hat", the characters have structured personalities with three parts. The id or the part of our personality that contains our desire for instant gratification or release. The superego or the part of our personality the conscience , the moral part of us. The ego, which is the part of our personality that mantains a balance between the id and the superego. Each one of these parts of a character's personality is present in a character, but usually one of the parts dominates all the others.
The fish, a main character in "The Cat in the Hat", I believe assumes the role of the superego. The fish shows in many instances that he is the superego as he tried to do the moral thing through the whole story. An example of this is when the fish states, "No!No! make that cat go away! Tell the cat in the hat you do NOT want to play. He should not be here. He should not be about. He should not be here when your mother is out.". This statement clearly show that the fish is the moral or the superego in the story. The fish believes that the cat in the hat will only cause trouble, which means he is labeling him as the id in the story. The fish is tring to get the cat in the hat to leave by tring to sway the opinion of the narrator and sally, the ego. This example also shows how the author, Dr.Seuss, uses speech, a type of indirect characterization in his book to show that the fish is the superego.
The fish also shows that he is the superego through his effect on others, another type of indirect characterization. He states, " Now look what you did! said the fish to the cat. Look at this. Look at that!". This statement made the cat feel unwelcomed and that all he is doing is causing trouble for everyone. This statement is also making the narrator and sally, the ego in the story, think about they should stop the cat in the hat. They were forced to weigh their opitions yet agian by another statement by the superego, the fish. The superego is the opposite of the id, thus it will be tring to get rid of the id through the story.
One of the most important things that is evident in this book that points to the superego being the fish is the looks he gives in the book. The looks at characters is another type of indirect characterization used in "The Cat in the Hat" to show which part of the character's personality is dominate. For example the fish is a character who looks at others in the book with a scowl on his face when he is speaking. This is so he gets his point across that what is happening is not moral and the id is most likely the the instigator. This is consistant with what a superego does in a story, it is the moral, so it always is tring to point out what is moral and what is not. In this story, the fish used many of his looks to point out that things were not moral in order to sway the ego. In the end of the story this finally happened as the ego, the narrator and sally, decided that they had to stop all of what the cat was doing . They decided to go the way of the superego and get rid of the cat in the hat, the id.









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Persepolis blog 2

Persepolis is organized into small stories that talk about different things the main character experienced. The stories also go in order as none of them go back and forth in herchildhood, so this means that it is easy to follow. Although the whole book it self does not have all the components of a story, the small stories inside the book have the clear beginning, rising action, climax, etc. In this book Satrapi, the author, chose to emphesis somethings in her childhood, these things where obvious because they where mensioned many times. She focused mostly on the political revolution aspect of her childhood as her own country, Iran, was experiencing a political revolution. When talking about all the things in her childhood time was presented by telling us certian dates that where historically important in Iran's political past. These dates were days that she thought was important enough to mention specifically what year it was. Satrapi's drawings are very simple, they are 2D and not alot of detail was put into them at some points it looks like the drawing where from a 4th grader. Although the drawings are like this they do add to the narrative by emphesising the important parts of the book because the most important parts of the book have the most abstract and impresive drawings.
In this book the writers voice is very strong because the writer happens to be the main character in the book. This makes the voice of the writer appeal because the story of the main character was the story of the writer making the writing very authentic and truthful. The main character, maji, is a character that gets stronger as the story goes on but she never changes her attitude toward most things though. There is a certain part of her that I identify with and it is her pride for her country, I have the same amount of pride for my country, Ethiopia, as she has shown in this book. The part though that I identify with the least is her risk taking which I see as dangerous from my view, as some of the stuff she pulled was extremely dangerous and she was lucky she got away from it. This way my reaction to the girl caused me to read this book in a way where I found my self feeling that something bad was going to happen to her in everystory.
The revolution was a time where the rule of the country was changing from the leadership of a king to the leadership of religious people who wanted Islamic rules instated. So they force upon all the people the rules of Islam including no drinking, no parting, etc. They also made women where veil to stop men from looking at them and there was alot of security out to inforce these rules. There was no way to protest peacefully because all opposition was met by execution and that pretty much backed everybody up. Even though satrapi's parents where educated and known what was wrong, the force of the religious leader were too strong and they had to follow their way wether they liked it or not. This is part of the reason why so many people flew the country during the revolution, the other part was that there was a war between Iran and Iraq, which Iran was losing in. In this war the Iraq army was bombing many Iranian city and it became unsafe, so many people wanted to move from Iran. For these reasons and more marji's parents sent her of to live in Austria because they thought she would be happier there. They did not follow her after she left because they where probably happier staying in Iran instead of tring to make a living in another country.

Persepolis blog 1

I think this ganre is very popular because of the unique way it incoporates a memoir into a graphic novel. I also think the popularity of the genre came from its ability to show a country's past in a new way. Satrapi chose this format in which to tell her story in order for her words to come alive. She wants to show what was happening not just tell you about it. The visual aspect in a graphic novel add to a memoir the ability to see the words in action. You are not left to your imagination to figure out that when you are reading a graphic novel compared to a conventional memoir.I have not read other graphic memoirs like "Persepolis" but I have read other comic book. When i compare persepolis to the other comic books, the depth in the stories are not the same as persepolis. I would not call this a comic book because it transcends this and other categories. It is seperate from all other like it because it combines both a comic and novel style together. I would place this book along side all the famous novels because I think it deserves that much credit. Since it is as or even more interesting as the other memoirs and novels.
persepolis is more powerful as it is now because it is an exciting story that provides historical facts. Comparing this to other memoirs, this is much more different than other memoirs. As it does not get boring like others due to the visual aspects of the memoir.
In order to challenge this myth Satrapi shows aspect of Iranian society we had not seen. she showed that peoples opinions differed and that not all Iranians want fundamentalism, fanatism, and/or terrorism. By reading Persepolis I have relized that my former view of Iranians being fundimetalists to the core was wrong. They were actually a country who where fighting amongest themselfs to find the correct path in political order. This book persepolis deepens my knowledge on Iran as I now know a little about their history and why they are the way they are. It also deepens my understanding on the war in iraq today as it is an importan area they ar fighting for. Now I know even more why this war is so important to the future of the middle east and its oil.

Feed Final Project Reflection Essay

My feed contains many things that have to do with pull a customer in with catchy frases and good logos. These things are mostly advertisements for materialistic things like ipods, cloth, phones and other goods. You can order almost anything you want off this feed, it is very easy to use and you would almost never have to leave your house. All these things are included because they are things that bring me and others alot of pleasure and I thought that this should be put into my feed for this reason. This shows that american culture is about consumerism and without it, it would not be the same america we know now. This feed basically defines the american culture because it shows what america is based on consumerism. This causes many social issues including making everyone reliant on technology and unable to think for themselfs. In a way it makes a person dumb to the extent that they can form their own opinion about many things. This is what makes it okay to resist because getting away for the it makes a person self reliant and able to be thoughtful.
Media and consumerism are two things that affect me in many way, but mostly through peer pressure. They influence me alot especally if I am in a place where there is alot of this consumerism around me, someplace like a mall. It makes me feel like I am missing out if I don't get anything. This also happen with popular culture because it involves peer presure which can affect anyone. All these things could contribute to reliance on technology which show that all these things do mold me as a person.
These things impact me alot as many of them mold me as a person. They define also in many ways because the things that I like can be influenced by the media. It shows that many of my habits are very much affected by the media and popular culture. Some of my personal habits such as singing my favorite tunes from commercials is part of this.
I believe there is a moral to the story "feed". It is the fact that with all the consumerism and reliance on technology going on, the ones resisting it are the ones going away or disappearing. Anderson conveys that the whole society has been taken over by the consumerism and reliance on technology which changed the people.
Without the feed the people in the story are not going to be the same at all. They are going to be the regular people from who happen to have advanced technology. Without the feed their consumerism slows down and their reliance on technology is not as high, but this didn't happen. The feed caused the decline in health of violet which made Titus by all those pants in the second to last chapter. This all leads to the ending which ends with a feed interlude with an ad suggesting "Everything must go", multiple times. This last statement I think means that violet has died from her malfunction and is gone.

Visual Essay

The images represent my theme of consumerism because they show consumerism in many different ways from it's silly side to the serous side. The images also represent how comsumerism is on the rise and is sometimes so much a part of life that people don't notice it.My message with these pictures is to show how much consumerism is in the public even though some things are not as obvious as others. some of these pictures point out things that are not obvious to people who a are comsumers. In order for some one to get what the pictures are saying they have to think deeply about the subject. I chose this image because it is a symbol of consumerism, but more importantly they show a side of comsumerism that people rarely get to see, the side that the companies don't want you to see. These pictures shows how much things that are advertized are valued, but for me they are not as much because I can not just get anything I want. In my life I have been held from consuming all the things that media sale me by my parents, so I only comsumed part of my life. Since I did not consume like all the others I was aware of the consuming that was going on around me. Looking at this, it discouraged me from being like others and shoping for everything I want. Although this discouraged me it did not stop me from buying things like others and I was not aware when I was doing it.Most of my ideas about comsumerism came from my parents and my siblings. These pictures show what consumerism is really doing to people and how comedic it is. But these issues brought up by the pictures are also serous because if this is really happening then there is almost no way of stoping it. Our world could end up sort of looking like the world in M.T Anderson's Book "feed".

Feed Blog 2

Having the "feed" effects Titus's personality and intelligence in many way, which are shown in the book. First, his personality is very much effected by the feed because whatever he is thinking about the feed knows and markets him for that. Once he is marketed for that thing he is going to want it meaning that he going to be persueded on many things. This makes his personality very unsteady because he is so easily persueded by many things that might change his personality. His intelligence is also effected because he relys on his feed too much to do the thinking for him, thus his mind is unable to think for itself. If the feed was not there then he would be even dummer than he looks know because he did not learn things that people are suppose to know and he would suffer for that.
When Titus's father uses the word "dude" it stands out because it is not consistant to the other slang language used in the story. I think the author had one of his character to use this word so that he can show the difference in generation the son and the parents have. In times when the parents where young "dude" was like the word "unit", which used by Titus and his friends. The dad says this because he is most comfortable in this language. This reminds me of how parents in the 21st century might use words that where cool in the 70's and 80's, but are not cool now. Teens would be embarresed by this but in this book Titus does not seem to mind.
Violets father wants to study the dead languages in order to stay connected to being a real human who does not rely on a machine. He wants to keep himself from becoming dumb and totally relient on a feed, so he studies language that only the top minds can know. He also sees the dead languages as a endangered skill that should be kept and not forgotten.

Feed Blog 1

The sentance, "we went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck", sets up the novel in many ways. The novel continues on to show how the group of teens become bored with the place because it is not what they expected. They show agian and agian that they don't want to be there because it bored them and they ran out of things to do. The narrator is the first one to complain because he sees the space as an empty and old place. He points out that the others might of also felt the same way because they show signs of avoiding the emptiness of space. In some ways he is acually right because space does look old and empty and it does make you want to avoid thinking about it.
What I notice about the language that anderson uses is that it is something that relates to teens because it includes slang. The slang is metioned in a way, so that you see it in the way the people are talking. For example most of the people in the story use the word "like" alot when describing something which is something that is very common among teens. An example would be when the narrator explained his coversation, he said, "she was like, Da da,da? Da,da!". The purpose for doing this is to connect with the reader so they can understand what the feed is doing to the teenagers. This tactic is very effective because it work in connecting the reader to the context, which is very important.
The moon is very waste land on the outside but built for teens on the inside. when they first arrive on the moon the narrator states," the craters all being full of old broken shit,..."At first glance the moon seems boring and not filled with life becuase from the outside it does look like that. When they get into the inside they like the moon a little more, but it is still not the spring break hot spot that they have hoped for. Although it was built for teens becuase it contains many things that teens like in the mall and their rooms.