Sylvia Plath IOC

Lady Lazarus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1byeIiWb9qg

Essay Outline, Thesis and Topic Sentences

How does the personal history of an author have a significant influence on the way meaning is constructed in his writing in Things Fall Apart?

1. The personal history of an author can have a significant influence on his piece, therefore altering his perspective or in-depth analyzation of the situation. Giving every novel it's originality, bringing life to each and every book. Due to every author having a different story to tell differently.
1. Introduction to main arguments.
2. Brief background on the context of the book and author.
2. The emotions of an author can have an affect on his/her writing. In the book Things Fall Apart, Achebe's emotional connection is deeper due to the fact that he wrote this as an atonement to his past and as an African that has been "Europeanized" as an act in the movement.
1. Quotes from scholar-writers
2. His personal interviews
3. The background history of where, when and why this book was written and as a reaction to what? 
3. Another significant influence that can affect a writer's work is his/her experiences. The book Things Fall Apart would've been completely different if Achebe were to be living in a different country not knowing what it means to be submerged in a large movement and being "Europeanized" in the heart of Africa. The book would've been different due to the fact the author not being able to relate to the situation and writing a bias "story" from the outside and from what they've heard.
1. Read Achebe's biography.
2. Read about the background history of Africa.
3. Connect all with the book and how this has affected Achebe's work and how it would've been different if the circumstances were to be different.
4. The background context gives more meaning to a book. But when an author has a background to why they would create such a work it gives the book more life and emotion because it becomes clear that the author had an intention while writing this book instead of writing a nice story. This gives more depth to the book and allows the reader to really think about the other hidden meaning the author may have placed within the layers of his work.
5. Achebe's personal history has affected his work, Things Fall Apart. But if his personal history weren't to interfere with his work the book may not have been as successful, due to this, brings a new perspective and in-depth analyzation to his novel. Through his background, emotions and experiences Achebe has successfully brought life to his novel, Things Fall Apart.
1. Restate main points.
2. Quote specific examples.
3. Have a closing sentence to the essay.

Caius Martius

Until the end of act 1 he gives himself the nickname Coriolanus while leading the army to defeat the city of Corioles, which then the nickname sticks. Also throughout the act it is visible that he is always trying to prove himself to his mother. According to many sources he is perceived as brave, fearsome, and very highly spoken of, but throughout the whole play he shows many attributes that fit the profile of a flawed hero. Where he portrays many characteristics such as proud, inflexible, stubborn, aristocratic, immature and insensitive. Such characteristics contradict the personality and morals of a hero where he starts fitting in the category of being a tragic hero also, due to the way story unfolds even from Act I Scene I. The overall purpose for this characterization would be to overlay two, both the political aspect and the tragic hero to portray within the play.

Stereotypes

Do you think that advertisers have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people?

    In the modern society that we live in with the expectations in our communities, the advertisers do not have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people. But with the way people are starting to behave it is considered that advertisers should actually gain a moral duty to avoid these common often negative or incorrect stereotypes. But as stated by John D.Rockefeller Jr moral obligation is considered to be the "social force that binds one to the courses of action demanded by that force out of the considerations of right and wrong". And in this case of the perspective is from making up incorrect assumptions of people, in my personal opinion it is the advertisers moral obligation to avoid the stereotype they use to get us to buy their product by using the 7 deadly sins “which bring the worst in us in advertising” as Sut Jhally stated. I think this should become an obligation because due to the way people are starting to take stereotypes seriously even if they consciously don't realise it. Which is causing so many miscommunications, making people scared of Muslims and Arabs, American's being fat and lazy, Russians only drinking Vodka every meal of the day (Even though they do drink more Vodka than other countries), and French people who eat baguettes while they mime. Which all of these stereotypes define most counties in peoples mind when they are asked to think about the most known things, but also causing major problems when people have to make connections or make friends them being judgmental just because of their age, culture, religion, country, colour and race. Which is why people need to stop considering people being a certain way just because of subconsciously planted incorrect stereotypes and start appreciating people the way they are and how different they are.

Blog Post Ad ACTS

Military Advertisement 

What does the ad reveal about the cultural/ social/ or historical context of its production.

The ad where it is promoting military service for any young man who wants to build his own business. But if this ad is considered from a cultural aspect, it was made in America where they tried to make going to army seem more of a choice or an option that helps you in the future with many benefits, rather than a mandatory service. In a social aspect it is becoming less important to go to military but more important to have education or a business to support yourself and your family in the future. But another aspect is that socially it is thought that the only thing that is present as a service is undergoing intense training for the field like in the ad, but that is inaccurate, there a many more jobs in the military, some of the unknown ones being setting up and organizing workouts and events, cleaning or distributing uniforms, or resource manager or coordinator. Historically going to military earned people respect but was also mandatory and every young man had to attend, but could delay due to his education.

According to the ad, what values or characteristics are the most important?

As present in the ad it portrays that the values for military is courage, need for adventure and physical capability. Another characteristics this ad is trying to attract is young men who want to start their own business which the ad is pitching the fact that not all businesses have to do with business. Implying that going to military will fulfill their need for future business ventures.

Who is empowered in this commercial?

Mainly men are empowered in this ad due to the lack of females present. Another reason it is clear that men are empowered is due to historical content women being not allowed to go to war instead were forced to work for making uniforms, guns, etc. But as of recently as women being allowed to go to the military out of choice they have become equals to men in training but men have more advantages and benefits compared to women also being allowed to become a higher status is easier or more likely as a male than a female.

Who is ignored or marginalized? For what reason?

Other than women it is any other position that is present in the army as mentioned before mainly die to the audience this ad is trying to attract by showing the known and easy aspects of going to the army if you're fit.

Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5

Multilingual vs. Monolingual

   As a multilingual myself I do understand most terms such as code-switching or being able to refer to the same object or word in different ways with metaphors, allusions and the synonyms. I found it very interesting how it had to be around 50,000 words in order to be able to speak fluently in a language, which I did not know. As a multilingual I believe that the way this is written makes learning language seem more difficult or near impossible, which in all honesty not difficult at all.

   What I found very interesting is that just by working your brain at a higher level it can prevent or delay mental diseases such as age-related dementia by 4.1 years and "full-blown" Alzheimer's by 5.1 years which is something no one ever thought of when learning a language. Even though learning another language doesn't prevent the mental health issues completely it does, as stated in the article, help cope with it better. Also learned that being a multilingual young-adult I am more privileged due to my exposure of words in many different languages I'm learning which is also relating to my wealth status. As a language lover I do not believe in the phrase "I know this language." No you do not know it completely, you may not know how to write or understand the division of words or you simply do not know all the existing words in the language which would be impossible due to the fact that 500+ words are officially added to the dictionary yearly.

   One of the more interesting facts I found in the article were the speed the multilinguals and the monolinguals thought and reacted especially at the example of entering the color of the specific ink in a computer. It was also really interesting to learn Bialystok's argument over how she expected that the greatest differences would be in the frontal lobes, where higher functions such as decision making and executive control take place unlike the use of thickening of the cortex in two brain regions, most importantly the left inferior parietal helping code for languages and gestures. 

   In my opinion monolingual people are not less smart than multilinguals but unlike monolinguals the multilingual people have opened their brains to a higher function of the language control being able to multifunction all the languages simultaneously together to create a faster, better working network of knowledge for the person, creating the illusion of the multilinguals being "smarter".

Sincerely,

Aurora Sera Unal

   

Blog Post #3

Blog Post #3

A Good Name

    As you might already know my name is Aurora. But my full name is Aurora Sera Unal. I love my name. Even though I am Turkish, my name does not sound Turkish at all. Because it's not. Starting with my first name, Aurora means; lights in both the southern and northern poles caused by the breaking of light and creating a beautiful "Aura" like lights to dance in the sky. How I got this name was, when my mother was pregnant she would look at daily astronomical photos from a specific newsfeed. Decided to name me after Aurora Corealis. Even though my name does not consist the Corealis part it is the origin of my name. But due to cultural difference in my name when I was first born the Turkish council didn't allow me to have this name forcing my parents to give me a Turkish name. My father went through a lot of effort to get my name to be officially in papers as Aurora.

    My second name being Sera, the meaning that can be found online is earth, or the hot tent used to grow plant in colder regions. But the meaning I was given this name is simplicity and beauty like a mansion due to the closeness in words "Sera" and "saray". I have used the name Sera most of the years of my life because most people have difficulties pronouncing Aurora. But I have decided that I don't care how people pronounce it because I prefer my first name due to just preference.

   My last name has a complicated story. It wasn't the original name of my father of his father, it was originally "Karabayram" which translates as dark celebration. My older fathers believed that this brought bad luck to our family for many years in every important celebration that we had so my grandfather decided to change our last name to "Ünal" which is pronounced as "uhr-nal" but since no one except Germans or Turkish people understand it or can pronounce it as a family we do not use the dots and just pronounce it as "you-nal". Since my last name is also changed into something that isn't Turkish it is easy to be mistaken as an American, German or Russian since I can speak all of those language to confuse people.

Sincerely,
Aurora Sera Unal