American+Character

Home Reflection on Control : Control seems to be the "new" thing in America. Media is basically controlling our lives. Buy this, or buy that, seems to be our new American Motto. It is hard to break free from the norm when everyone else conforms to it. The Media is faceless like we see with the problem with the banks in Grapes of Wrath. We can't fight it because it isn't a tangible thing; there is no one man behind it. Instead this faceless monster, controls and changes our life. Without the mindless citizens it is controlling, it couldn't survive. The media is hurting our society. It is telling people to buy the cheeper food, that is worse for us. It is making us buy products we don't need, wasting our money and time on less important things. It fills our heads with puffery, and sometimes incorrect views. It basically distorts our nation, and there is little we can do about it. America is proving De Tocqueville wrong, and people have been trying to step out against what the public is being controlled to believe. People are trying to inform the public, but where De Tocqueville will be right, is that it is hard to change the mind of the general public, when everyone is equal.

Everything in this room compliments everything nicely. We see the large image that say media control, and under it has multiple quotes about how we cannot fight it. So therefore that picture will stand true for some time to come. There is also a video to embellish the argument that the media controls the public. This video uses video and photographic evidence of the media controlling our society. Also there are two cartoons kind of mocking media control, but nonetheless they are kind of true.

Reflection on Survival : Again we see ourselves faced with another Grapes of Wrath issue, but just with a different name. People need to make money for themselves, and are going to continue to want to provide for their families. I think I am going to deem the American majority as "greedy". We may seem altruistic, but when it comes down to it, me pretty much always comes first. We want to provide for the Americans that we know, and who we love. We don't care about who it affects, like we see in Grapes of Wrath with the tractor driver. We need money to live, so we are going to get it no matter what. We gotta live somehow.

What those two pictures and video is saying is, "I'm the only important one". They are saying it is more important for me to be happier, or I'm just more important than you. The quotes are also saying that I need to do what I need to do to live. Everyone can hate something, but if it is making money, making someone happy, they are going to continue to live to make their live better.

Reflection on Dreams : We seem to have our dreams in our sights. We know what we want, but there is a huge difference between fantasy and reality. When, and if, we get our deams, they aren't as they seem. The American dream used to be something that everyone wanted, that people would come from all over the world to get. But now, is there even anythign such as the american dream. As we see in Gatsby, the green light always seems like it is in reach, but we may never get it. And even if we do get it, like Daisy, it might not end the way we expect it to, or it might not be as we imagined in our fantasy. The New American Dream comes with false promises, and seems to be worse off than what everyone hyped it up to be. Unfortunately.

All of the Media's I chose represent that the American Dream is close to being officially dead. The song is more so explaining what hardships a normal man has to go through for the American Dream, but nonetheless depicting that isn't a pretty ride. All of the pictures go together because they are explaining that we will never reach the American Dream, and the American Dream is basically Puffery. The quotes only complement the medias very nicely, and embellish the message they are trying to get across.

Reflection on Beauty : What is beauty? We have no idea. We know that Gatsby got the gist of it, I didn't want you to think I was a nobody, but where does that leave us? It leaves us at the point where we are willing, as Americans, to change how we look, so people think highly of us. We want everybody to stop in the street, look at us in the street, and smile. We want to be noticed; we want to be seen as great. This was the dilemma Gatsby went though. He through parties to impress Daisy about his wealth and success. But we also see the fear that is evident in The Bluest Eye. We fear that we are ugly. We fear that our American Dream (if any) is jeopardized if we are ugly. We will never get married if we are ugly, or get a good job. Also, if we think we are ugly or think that others think we are ugly-then they don't view us as great. If we change the way we look, then our lives will change, because we are no longer the same person. Once we change how we look, we change our lives. That statement of course is not true, but everyone seems to believe it in America, including Pecola with her journey to change the color of her eyes. Thus the only way to avoid Gatsby and Pecola's insecurities, is to make ourselves artificially beautiful, or obsess with being beautiful.

We are changing how we look to impress others. We see this in both videos. If we aren't pretty, no one will like us, so we just need to be pretty. Period. The image of the girl is to show that most beauty today is fake, and is a result of us having a need to be viewed as beautiful, or their life will be horrible. Finally the diary post on the top gives some emotion to a page. That is a real life girl speaking about her troubles and how she wants to escape the game of beauty, but just can't. It shows people it is a real issue, and striving to be beautiful is actually affecting lives, and the media isn't just making it up to make money (That would have been ironic).

[|Luke Chueh's Paintings] The reason why I chose Chueh is because he takes sayings that we are all familiar, and shows the bad side of them. Shows perhaps a side of truth. As Americans we like the pretty picture of everything, but the truth is, not everything is perfect. Chueh, show a semi distorted picture, but nonetheless the potential truth, which is what Americans sometimes lack. His paintings capture some aspects of American character.