Tadpoles Are Really Ugly

There is an old asian proverb, that goes, 'The frog forgets his time as a tadpole'. The related folktale is that tadpoles, as a tadpole, yearn to grow in to a frog. They wriggle around hard, trying hard to grow their legs. However, once they morph in to their dreams, they forget their past and act like they've gotten their dreams by working hard, believing themselves a 'self-made man,' when they are actually the product of a biological predisposition that have been to applied equally, self made or not, to their ancestors.

The irony isn't only applied to animals in the folktale. Real life examples exist everywhere: The white community from "The Raisin In the Sun" is a perfect example. They too were tadpoles, working hard in order to achieve their dreams. Yet, they decide to ignore other people's dreams, because they aren't tadpoles anymore.

Does success negatively impact people on who they are as people? While the question is not a rhetorical, it cannot be denied that they change, good or bad. Windows founder Bill Gates uses his pile of money to help the poor, and rapper Game set up a music studio in a public high school. However, we can never tell if they are still in contact with those they have known before success. In fact, countless numbers of celebrities refuse to date those that are not celebrities.

What is true to multiple extents, however, is the outrageous attitude of Karl and the community. The ugly racism aside, they decided that their dreams are superior than other people's dreams. The way they outright ignore there slightly different (mind you, different does not equal wrong) shows how self centered and selfish humans can be. It is undeniable that humanity must work towards resolving these problems; not only racism, but the selfishness that potentially lies under all of us.

Pop Goes the Dream

So Gatsby is a self made man. Be it. But what came out of it?

Jay Gatsby, in the Roaring Twenties novel, "Great Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is illustrated as a self made man who has built his wealth and reputation in a common goal to get his dream girl, Daisy Faye Buchanan. Sadly a few problems already rest for Gatsby. She's already married, Jay; if you want a girl, you gotta go get her quick if you really want her.

But once he has finished building his ability to run parties on a weekly basis, Daisy was already married. While the that fact allowed Gatsby to be held 'esteemed' among his 'peers' (oh, the irony), he had only one goal to achieve such success: Daisy. Once he loses this sense of goal, he lacks a reason to continue on. In this sense, he loses nothing when Wilson kills him. 

This seems to be a running theme between pieces from Fitzgerald; another example is his short story, "Winter Dreams", in which Dexter goes after a deja vu - causing rich girl named Judy Jones. Dexter also happens to be a "self-made man". But similar to Jay, he finds Judy, many years later, not only married, but left without her beauty. 

Society considers 'self-made' an extraordinary attribute. But even such can lack a meaning if dreams are popped. 

"We made ourselves, one by one like Lego blocks

Got the fire in me goin, blocks melt down

What's this for if I can even tell who I am

Let me break back apart and organize my dreams"

-Fana, "Still a Team"

Dolla Dolla Bill Y'All

Welcome to the Jazz Age. The government has prohibited alchohol usage. However, people party on a weekly basis like there's no tomorrow, with more and more people becoming a part of the wealthy elites. Economy itself is sky high, people are having a marvelous time. Are these people happy?

Fast forward one hundred years. Artists have started to spread the message that "Cash rules everything around [them]" (C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan), criticizing how much money is important in our lives. Jessie J goes further to say that "It seems like everybody's got a price" (Price Tag - Jessie J). This change in culture vastly reflects how much people are aware of materialistic views.

The "Great Gatsby", the famed novel by Robert Fitzgerald, set in the Jazz Age, shows the influence of materialistic values on the American society. While people may look happy, they can often be seen unhappy; couples argue at parties, affairs are common, and many die at parties. Then the party resumes the next week, or even that very night. Behind the jazz music and the group of fancy dancers, only sadness awaits. 

America already experienced what happens. The 1930s were a mess. However, the 'money money money' state of mind continued on. This is still illustrated today, such as the Black Friday sales. The day before is Thanksgiving, when people supposedly are thankful of what they have. They hurry to finish dinner and run to the mall to get in line to get in their favorite shops and buy a bagful of clothes or electronics. The irony ensues every year.

People are becoming more and more aware of such ugly fact about America. The materialistic views, however, are not changing. Furthermore, America is one of the biggest examples that developing countries follow in order to gain economical success. To serve a good example, and also for their own good, America needs to not only be aware, but improve the way it thinks about the dollar bills.

"Goddamnit I like it

Bright lights [are] enticing

But look what it did to Tyson

All the money in one night

Thirty mil for one fight, 

but soon as all that money blows,

all the pigeons take flight"

-Jay Z - Holy Grail

New World

It was late at night. I was sleepy and almost done with my English homework. Wondering why I was procrastinating, I started to read the essay,"Sanctuary: For Harry Potter The Movie" by Nikki Giovani, while thinking why both the colon and "For" is in the title and how the authors name resembled a certain female rapper. Questions started to hit my tired state of mind, asking what relationship drums have with the fictional childhood hero of mine, while words crashed onto my thoughtless brain...until I saw the words, "New World Symphony." (77)

You may need to go to Youtube to view the video. But then again Karajan is amazing.

Memories started to flow back in. I was 5th grade, half way through the year, possibly early fall*. I recieved about 8 or 9, possibly 10 pages of music as a second chair second violinist. And yet there I was, flipping through the pages while furiously wondering how I'd be able to lead the section when I had no idea how to play half the notes. First rehearsal was a mess. I remember the conductor telling everyone that it's ok, and that if we all practice, we'd be able to play it well. Months flew by and I remember sitting on stage, staring at the conductor, ready to play the Finale to the Dvorak's 9th Symphony, also known as the New World Symphony. 

Or people often know the Romantic masterpiece as the theme song to the 1975 thriller movie, Jaws. While composer John Williams sampled the Finale to resemble the sharks, Dvorak was thinking of trains when he wrote the piece back in 1892. In fact, he was known to be a big fan of steam locomotives. This showed up in his pieces: the New World Symphony is a perfect example. The phrase where the introductory Adagio accelerates into a faster Allegro sequence in the first movement and the beginning of the the 4th movement, the Finale, the part William sampled for his work on Jaws, are both known to resemble locomotives slowly speeding up.

The No. 9 was named "New World Symphony" for various reasons. Trains, was fairly new, and for Dvorak, who had just moved to America from Czech to conduct at one of the most prestigious conservatories in New York for three years. To him, America itself was a 'new world.' However, there is a seperate reason to why Giovanni alludes to the piece in her essay.

When Dvorak was writing the symphony, he was influenced strongly by Native American and African American music. He, instead of borrowing Native American or African American tunes, invented his own in that of a similar fashion to them. He even insisted that the third movement "was suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance...imparting local color of an Indian character..." Hiwatha refers to Longfellow's hit epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha," the story of and Native American hero. Dvorak, in his own way, was already accepting the marginalized parts of society. 

This, coincidentally, falls right on to Nikki Giovanni's purpose in her writing. She, in her essay, calls attention to marginalized parts of society and illustrates the theme of acceptance. The New World Symphony is a perfect match. Giovanni uses this allusion not only to refer to a 'new world' of acceptance, but also to show the efforts of accepting diverse parts of the American society.

The concert was a success. Parents, friends, teachers, and everyone else loved it. It was so popular that the next year, before I graduated, we played the piece one more time.** It were these memories that woke up my half asleep brain on that recent night.

*When I was in 5th grade, I was in Korea, where the semester starts in March and resumes for the second half in September.

**In Korea, there are 6 years in elementary school, followed by 3 in middle and high school.

Direct quotes of Dvorak from Kennedy Center webpage.

WWW:Punctuation

In this ever-changing world, punctuation is set of unchanging rules that reflect upon the style and tone of the writer, and is therefore the necessity to effectively present speech in a clear and organized manner. The primary role of punctuation in the English language (and many other languages) is to give speech clarity, making it comprehendible for the readers. The error in punctuation, however, creates confusion and chaos within the text. Twitter, for example, has created  "dystopian images of...weird alpha-numerical hybrid codes (Gr8 C u l8r...)." (Source A). Not only do these stray from traditional formats in writing, but they fail to clearly give readers a message. In fact, they may give off two separate interpretations, depending on the reader's viewpoint. The image rhetoric, respectively, shows readers the importance of Oxford commas by presenting two phrases to the readers: "strippers, jfk, and stalin" and "strippers, jfk and stalin." (Image Source). While the phrases that originate from the erroneous punctuation may be enjoyable, it certainly cannot fulfill it's role in correctly communicating to the readers. The rules of punctuation must continue to serve their purposes in order to sustain the order in newly developing technologies. If, on the other hand, punctuation were to change with the world, it would require change often, and will not be able to be integrated fast enough and ultimately become a jumble of confusion. Additionally, many have claimed that erroneous punctuation enhance writer's style and expression by giving them a "trail of possibilities."(Source B) This can be true to some extent, but expression and style both cannot hold any value when it is not understandable. Instead, punctuation should be considered even further important for it's ability to convey style and tone. Each punctuation have their own connotations. Dashes give an "informal and essentially playful" tone, and semicolons are able to tell readers that "there is still some more...to be added" like "[grocery] bags" (Source D, E). Yet, these two punctuation marks are both used to mark pauses in sentences. It is evident that with emergence of new technologies, punctuation is becoming more and more crucial to maintain order in speech than before, and also to express the writer's tone and style. *WWW stands for Writing With Warren and indicates that the blog post is much more formal compared to a regular blog post.

Somewhere In America, Miley Cyrus is Still Twerkin'

People sell things that's not normal.It's nothing new; China tea cups were a hit, and so was Marilyn Monroe. And so is Miley Cyrus.

It only took one year for the internet to replace image search results of the pop star from Hannah Montana to a half naked lady shaking her butt off. It's really amazing yet awful. After all, someone to having their image replaced within such a short amount of time is not a common thing. This is also the reason her change was such an issue.

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, portrayed a similar situation. Hester was labeled the A, a physical label that declared her an adulterer. This caused mass hysteria against Hester in the village; mobs formed around her and she was sent the bottom of the social hierarchy.

What should be noted is the reaction. People go crazy on Hester, demanding that the A is not enough, or that she should be executed (Chapter 2). Mob mentality does play a role here (except maybe that lady who speaks against those yell at Hester), but the fact is that she was sensational enough to have sermons preached about her. This is the same thing Miley Cyrus went for.

Miley Cyrus claimed (after she got the haircut) that she "never felt more her." Whether this is true or not, this generated a huge media reaction that is still ongoing, one year later. What is true, however, is that her single, "Wrecking Ball" became phenomenal. The fact that she got a bunch of hate comments doesn't matter too much; she got the views and the media spotlight. She gave herself the label, and used it to her own advantage.

People have said that the fact that women get labeled based on their behavior is an example of gender inequality. This is completely true, as it can be harmful not only to the women who cannot go unmarked, but also to the men, who cannot get marked as much as women. Deborah Tennen, in her essay, "There is No Unmarked Women", points out that most men dress in a similar fashion. But what if the regular businessman wants to look different from the guy next to him?

The correct solution to solving the gender difference does not lie in reducing all labels of women. Changing the perspective on the opposite gender too is a step closer to gender equality.

Chillings

I like to call Chillingsworth, from the romantic historical fiction, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillings. This actually has a few reasons. Besides from the fact that his name is too long, the character is often portrayed as an angry man who seeks revenge on whoever gave the A on hit chest of his love. With all his anger, he needs to go 'Chillin'. While we discussed him in class, I noticed many students viewed him as the flat antagonist. Hawthorne, furthermore, portrays Chillings as an ugly hunchback who gets even worse as his intentions turn darker. Portrayals like these obviously do not appeal well to the readers; it simply isn't meant to. Hawthorne, through his portrayal of Chillings, tell us that revenge is not worth it.

One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.
-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Let's put on Chillingsworth's shoes for a minute. He loves his beautiful bride, Hester. He had to send her first to America while he took care of buisness in Europe. He got in a shipwreck. And he got captured by Indians. After the long journey to his wife, he finds out that the love he had been yearning for is accused of sleeping with another man, with a baby in her arms as a bonus. Well that's lovely.

Chillings is truly loved his wife, and this becomes his motivation for his revenge. The course of actions he has been through, in order to reach Hester, is enough mental pressure. Furthermore, he loves Hester very dearly, quite unlike most men at this time period. For example, he promises not to hurt not only Hester, but also her baby. This, even compared to men today, takes not only understanding and mercy, but love. Chillings, from his point of view, only gets uglier and uglier because beautiful with love in the inside. He is the true oyster and the true, "Pearl."

"During the Goreyo Dynasty, Hanyeos(female sea diving hunters)

didnt even pick up the oysters, because obviously it is ugly on the outside.

It was not until almost 200 years later when theiy changed their point of views

and found out that these were so beautiful on the inside."