english

This is how we live

2006-07-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

The article by DeGeneres reiterates the truth of this society and it does this in a humorous way. While technology has had its great advancements it has also found very convenient methods for people to go about their day-to-day lives. This has made many of us lazy. DeGeneres uses the example of the microwave in her article This is How we live (DeGeneres, 588-593). This is an accurate example of how people look for easy and convenient methods to do things, like cook their dinner, if they don’t want to go to a fast food restaurant that is. Different technologies have made people lazy, from turning the light off with the clap of a hand to dialing a number on your phone. Most phones give you the option to just say the number or the person’s name out loud and it connects you, this eliminates having to touch the phone all together because you are probably on your headset. Technology has made people lazy in the way that they don’t need to leave their house and can get grocery, dinner, clothes delivered to them. A lot of the food we eat is precooked so all we have to do is heat up and eat. Technologies such as the swivel chair have made it possible to move from one end of the office to the other without standing up. Sunscreen lotions are made in the form of sprays so we don’t even need to touch our own skin, just spray and go. Technologies such as these have made it possible for people to get that extra 5 minutes of time to themselves. They no longer need to spend time applying sunscreen to their child’s body and then washing their hands, now they can spray it on. There is no fighting for who has to get up to turn off the lights just clap and it’s off. We are constantly looking for ways to do things easily, which is making us more and more lazier.

Face of an Angel/ In Character

2006-07-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Face of an Angel by David Sterritt (425-427) was interesting to read. I have never thought of the idea he proposes, I realized that there would always be the token minority in movies and shows but not that many African Americans are type caste. When watching the premier of American Idol or America’s Next Top Model I find myself asking if there are any black people. Watching movies I will ask myself the same question and if it is a horror movie assume that their character will be the first to die. But this idea was quiet interesting because I never thought of it. Are African Americans really seen as being more spiritual so it is realistic to have them play these roles or is it that having them as the lead won’t sell out the box office? Would Ghost (1990) have been as popular if Whoopi Goldberg wasn’t the one with the supernatural powers? I don’t think Sister Act (1992) would have been popular if it was played with Barbara Streisand instead of Whoopi Goldberg. Hollywood makes movies according to what will bring about more money not on whether they are type casting or not. Shows will continue to have the token black person who is aggressive rude and loud and movies will continue to have Asian people depicted as martial arts experts or gangsters.

top 10

2006-07-18T00:52:00.000-07:00

Music is such a great form of expression I often wish I had the talent to sing or write music. It is such a big part of my life I wish I could have a hand in this form of art. I love listening to music, it doesn’t matter what mood I’m in I will find a song to relate to. I find myself not drawn to a particular genre of music. For me to like a song, depends on the story it tells not the beat it holds.

To pick my top 10 songs was quite difficult but I narrowed it down to the following, which are in no particular order, Michael Jackson’s song “Thriller” which came out before I was even born but has still managed to remain one of the greatest videos of all time. My favorite song of all time has to be Black Star featuring Mary J Blige “Beautiful” this has everything I love all in one. I absolutely adore Mary J Blige for giving us “Real Love” in 1996 (What’s the 411) and of course Talib Kweli and Mos Def who came together to form Black Star. Although I’m not a fan of Christina Aguilera I will never forget her song “I Turn to You” because we sang it to our parents at my grade 8 graduation. Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”, this song makes me want to go back in time and soak up all the songs of the time. Of course Lauryn Hill’s “Everything is Everything” because I thought the whole concept of the record player in the video was fascinating. The other songs on my list would have to be 2pac “Until the end of time”, Fugees “ready or not”, Alicia Keys “if I aint got you”, Kelly Clarkson “walk away" and Goapele featuring Nappy Roots, “Better Days.”

I think my music mix says a lot about me because it reflects the different forms I have been exposed to. By listening to my mix people would learn that I like to listen to music for the stories that they tell not because they are popular or because they are a particular genre. The type of songs I listen to are everlasting they don’t belong to a particular phase in which they were popular for example the snap music phase Franchise boys “lean with it”. My songs don’t belong to these types of phases in music they are liked for their content and the way they were put together. Also these songs aren’t just for mere entertainment but I can relate to them.

In class # 4

2006-07-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

For this open topic class writing assignment I chose to write about the ridiculous amount of reality television shows. I remember watching the first Survivor and thinking it was so interesting, I haven’t watched another season of it. There are just to many reality television shows, from finding the next big music star in American Idol to finding the next Tyra Banks in America’s Next Top Model. I liked both of these shows when they first came out but the continuous amount has just become annoying, how many top models can America have a year? If I just focus on one channel I can point out an outrageous amount of reality based television shows on it. On MTV there is Laguna Beach, The Hills, Real World, Runs House, MADE, etc. All of these shows seem very scripted but are named reality television but we must keep in mind nothing is truly reality television because that wouldn’t be interesting. Situations are exaggerated to keep the viewers interest.

With all of these reality television shows are we loosing the traditional television shows that were scripted? It seems that the trend of reality television arose when big shows like Friends and Sex and the City ended. Will we still find interest in shows like this in the future or will finding out what someone looks like after a full body plastic surgery (Swan) be more interesting? I personally think that the traditional shows will still be around, look at the success of Desperate Housewives but the popularity of reality television won’t stop anytime soon.

2006-07-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

Common was in concert on 30^th of June 2006 at the Tastefest in Detroit. It was my first Tastefest as it was my first Common concert so I didn’t know what to expect. I consider Common a great artist and was quiet excited to see him perform. Although I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to work my camera, it seemed impossible and most of my pictures turned out dark or blurry. But the memories were good enough for me. I expected him to perform songs from his most recent album “Be” (05.2005) but he played songs like “love of my life” that he did in collaboration with Erykah Badu and my favorite song by him, “the light” from his 2001 album Like Water for Chocolate. His band was incredible and energetic; the whole show was filled with energy. He did a great job at interacting with the crowd he had a guy come on stage and break dance with him and had a young lady on stage that he sang to and danced with. Overall it was a great show and had a great turnout, my only complaint would be with the fact that he was late but what concert doesn’t start later then anticipated.

comedy

2006-07-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Humor has become a big part of the entertainment industry. Whether on television or magazines funny advertisements or actors are catching our attention. People will respond to funny things. It is for this reason that most people get their news about the world in the form of jokes, like The Daily Show. Most companies advertise their product with something humorous happening because that is what gets the viewers attention. There is no doubt that people like to see funny things; we want to see what celebrities are doing so we can laugh at them. After every night of glamour in the Oscars or Grammy’s follows a segment in most magazines that headlines “worst dressed.” Consumer’s want to laugh and companies and the entertainment industry do it and make money from it.

We find humor in what Brittany Spears is doing now and what Paris Hilton is saying but if we ever found ourselves in that predicament we would feel embarrassed. This is stated in de Botton’s article; Comedy (De Botton, 390). This is true because we see celebrities and politicians as having everything and they shouldn’t have anything to complain about, so when they are caught doing something embarrassing; it’s humorous to the viewers because, this brings up the thinking that maybe they aren’t so perfect after all. This is also why comedians the good ones always get a good laugh when they tell joke about personal experiences. The things we find embarrassing they talk about and you realize by the response they get, that its not just you who has gone through that experience.

opposites attract

2006-07-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Opposites attract, this cliché is self explanatory and the article by Hooks illustrates this clearly. Her grandparents Baba and Daddy Gus were significantly opposite from one another. This seemed to form some balance in their life. Whatever Baba lacked her husband would fill for and vise versa. Although they weren’t the typical couple who would say they had so much in common, they understood each other and held each other together. Baba was the aggressive wife while Daddy Gus was the soft spoken husband and they didn’t question each other or try to change the other to be more like them. As husband and wife they were literally a package deal, they complimented each other. It was for that reason that although it seemed like they didn’t interact with each other, when Daddy Gus died after 70 years of marriage Baba felt incomplete without him.

As a child Hooks may have seen her grandparents’ marriage as being odd but as she got older she realized that was what she had as her example of a complete and ideal family. Her grandparents were complete opposites who completed one another. She states in the opening paragraph, “they may be dead-long gone- but their presence lingers and you have to share who they were and who they still are with the world” (Hooks, Bell.) As children we see what we are raised with as the personification of what we want. An outsider looking in could look at her grandparents and say they weren’t happy because they didn’t have anything in common but Hooks understood that after 70 years of marriage their many differences kept them together.

This idea challenges the notion that there is a lot in common with you and the one you love. This is true in some cases but the exact opposite seems to work also. In my case I like the idea of being in love with someone that is my opposite because I would want my partner to complement me. To have someone with similar characteristics is not a good thing as I am very stubborn and opinionated and if my partner has similar characteristics then we would be butting heads and there would be a lack of understanding and communication.

"Don't talk to a man first"

2006-06-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

The man tends to be seen as the initiator from the school yard teasing to high school prom. The boy sees a girl he likes and gets her attention in any way he can. These are rules embedded in people without them being consciously aware of it. If a girl likes a guy she is supposed to get his attention (not in an obvious way) with the ultimate goal to make him approach her. In the rare cases where females approach males they are seen as too aggressive.

The article “Don’t talk to a Man first” by Fein and Schneider brings up interesting topics like how will a female know if he is really interested in her if she makes the first move? This is an interesting argument because they bring up examples of women who made the first move and ended in divorce because “he was never really interested enough to pursue her so his heart wasn’t in it”. This paints the picture that if a woman approaches a man first then he is only going along with dating her and then marrying her to be nice “his heart isn’t really in it”. The reason these couples end in divorce isn’t because the women didn’t wait to be approached. The men aren’t pets that they just go along with what is happening. If they aren’t really interested in the beginning they can say so. Fein and Schneider don’t give men much credit.

These types of rules are popular because they bring up the idea that if followed they will lead to a man of your dreams. They also make women feel as though if you are quiet, collected and you go to events to stand there and look good that will attract a man to you. Don’t engage in conversations because that will make a man feel you are too outspoken.

The dating rules and tips outlined in the article by Fein and Schneider seem to be outdated. I don’t think today’s generation is as submissive as previous generations. It is important to have dating rules but they should be your own, your own personal boundaries and rules for dating. So in the case that a woman follows these rules and lands her dream husband by waiting for him then what happens? Is she supposed to play this role throughout their relationship? This article suggests that all women should let the men approach them even if he catches your eye first, that is certainly setting the man up for a rude awakening because now that she has the man she could be her real aggressive self.

Tarnation

2006-06-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

My initial reaction to the movie Tarnation was actually of confusion. The movie started off with random images, which caught me off guard. As the story progressed and the main "character" Jonathan narrated his life from the beginning, it started to get disturbing. I was disturbed because I was still confused. It wasn't clear to me why he was acting in that way in his late night testimonials; as he called them. I then started to feel sorry for him because of the life he had to live. His whole surrounding seemed disfunctional even though he painted a picture of his grandparents who raised him as being pleasant people but when his grandmother was on video she seemed odd, she could have of course been acting that way because of her old age. It seemed to me the only "normal" people in his family were his grandfather and his brother who didn't get much air time. At the same time the whole family seemed to be in denial, nobody would address Renee's problem or Jonathan's actions, it seemed like a hush hush issue. As the Renee's father said at the end "we lived a great life, we were God loving people" it seemed to me that they were living an oblivious life. The parents applied the shock therapy when she was a child so they did their part.

I understood the movie much more clearly by the end. I didn't have the same mixed feelings that I did throughout the film. I felt sad for Jonathan because whenever he would do something good for himself and it seemed like he was turning his life around something would pull him back. I was glad he moved out of Texas because that place seemed like it was intoxicating. Everything he knew in Texas was negative and didn't benefit him in any way. Upon finally moving to New York he seemed to "find himself" he started doing things he enjoyed and interacting with different people and exposing himself to new things. I think that was a stepping stone for him to better himself. The unfortunate thing was his mother kept coming back in his life and that seemed to pull him down more and more, as much as she was the toxic in his life he still loved her.

Jonathan encountered so many things in his life and this film seemed like his way of finding out the answers to questions nobody wanted to hear. He would do numerous interviews with his mother, Renee to find out if what she was telling him was the truth. However it never did give him any closure because nobody wanted to talk about it. Finally when his mother was brain damaged he attempted to ask his grandfather about their life and even he couldn't give him answers. I felt bad for Jonathan because he wanted to know so much about the past which would have helped him reflect on his own past, but he was surrounded by a group of people who didn't want to face it.

The only thing I would have wanted more from this film would be his reaction to his life, I'm curious to know more about what he felt. The ending was him stating that he hopes he doesn't turn out like his mother. It was a good ending because he comes to terms with his life and realizes what he doesn't want to be but at the same time it ended to abruptly.

"I am not my hair"

2006-06-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hair is a big part of any girls life; more so a black girls. It was the source of my problems from a young age. As I was reading the article “the Rituals of Black Hair Culture” I couldn’t help but laugh at the similarities. Looking back the problems seem so trivial but I remember days I would cry because it was so problematic. I grew up in a family with three older sisters and two brothers, all who had “good hair” (the curly hair that was manageable). I was the last child and the one with the “nappy” hair so my mom had a lot of trouble dealing with my hair and she made me aware of it. So for a big part of my childhood I remember my mom just braiding my hair, and that was something I would do once a week. I didn’t seem to mind because that meant she wouldn’t touch my hair for the rest of the week. The article talks about the differences young black girls notice between them and their peers. I experienced this at an early age I remember kids touching my hair because it was so unusual and the never-ending questions about why my hair was the way it was. My most dramatic experiences came in high school when kids would ask me why my hair had been the same length from when they met me in the ninth grade until we graduated. I just despised having to educate everyone that I got to a point where I would just ignore them or make a smart comment. I’m glad that I have come to terms with my hair and have grown to love it and accept it for what it is. Like the song by India Arie states “I am not my hair.” Reading this article and discussing it with my classmates made me realize that styling our hair everyday or for special events is in fact a ritual. It’s something that we do everyday and many others like me faced the problems I faced with it. My experience with my hair teaches me that I will not make it such an issue with my daughter in the future. It won’t matter what type hair she will have it will not be an evident issue she will have to face; at least at home.

Modern Dining

2006-06-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

In the early years of my childhood I don't remember supper being the meal enjoyed together with my family, it was more breakfast time. This was the time of day that was consistent with everybody's schedule; my family and I would eat breakfast together then be off to school or work. Lunchtime would be spent with friends at school or colleagues at work, and then suppertime would be whenever we got home usually while watching television. This is the case in most families today. The portrayal by television families, of the 6pm supper with the whole family around the dinner table is simply not the case anymore. More and more families are finding that their schedules are not consistent with one another. The parents might have to work longer hours and the kids might be in extra curricular activities. This causes the need for convenient meals, also known as McDonalds, "instant meals" , and fast food in general. Parents are able to work later then usual and drive through a fast food joint and pick up dinner for the night this eliminates slaving over the stove after a long days work.

Pillsbury states that by eating from a restaurant five times a week we are loosing the love and effort that went into preparing the meal. It used to be that people would go to a restaurant once a week for a family outing or to celebrate an event. Nowadays the role of restaurants in people's lives has changed because it has become the means of eating conveniently instead of a celebration. Another aspect of the restaurant that has changed over time is that it is no longer just fast food restaurants that are take-out. Many if not all restaurants have take-out services for those who still want to have dinner with their family at home.

I don't think we have lost the whole meaning of a family dinner; it has just been modernized. It can no longer be at a consistent time everyday around the dinner table with the whole family due to conflicting schedules. So to meet with our fast paced lives it has become that more times then not our meals are ordered or warmed up for the quick and easy meal. This simple just eliminates the quality of the food. Now families can spend more time interacting about their day then cooking dinner after a long day of work. Also like my family, many families have replaced the typical family dinner to a more convenient time for them like breakfast or Sunday brunch.

Are virtual communities real communities?

2006-06-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

A community can be defined as a group of people that interact with eachother based on common interests or goals. Under this definition groups that interact online would be considered a community. For example one common online community would be msn messenger. Everybody I know seems to have an account and it has become a way of interacting with friends and family all over the world. It is tight nit in a way because you pick and choose who you add to your "list" which can also be known as your community. I have people on my msn list that I have known since the first grade, high school, jobs I've had, family in different parts of the world. This online community is not only convenient but it is also affordable. It is the cost conscious way to go if you have moved out of your city and are living on your own. This community allows you to talk to your old friends, family members just about anybody you feel like talking to.

A more broader example of a virtual community that I am apart of would be hi. Hi5 is an online community where your friends list starts off being the one other person that invited you to join then grows as you view their friends list. You discover people on there you have lost touch with. You make new friends that you might correspond with, but it is not so tight nit. I say this because like most virtual communities just anybody can't view your page, not necessarily at least, in order for somebody to access your page they must be friends with you or with someone on your list.

A plus side of virtual communities is that in the case that you get sick of the community you can always just leave and there will not be any other contact made. This makes it different from a face-to face communities because you can't just get up and leave without any input. Also you don't have to worry about a stranger talking to you because you or one of your friends knows the people you are talking to or else they wouldn't be on your list. This rules out the fear of the online predator.

Sun City...Living the life

2006-06-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

We spend half of our life at school, then we go into the work force and spend the other half working toward a better life; all the while our life is passing us by. We spend our days in school dying to get out and once out and working we are dying to stop that too. Notice the trend? We live our life dying to reach that happy place where it doesn't consist of work or school. Sun City is what we all are dying to reach, a life where time is spent doing nothing.

The images in this text show that life in Sun City is very quiet, clean and routine. It seems like most people spend their days cleaning and trying to maintain the cleanliness of their home inside and out. The people all look alike, dress alike and act alike. It looks like they are living in a world of their own; everything is done as a community like in the case of the Tip Top dancers. You can tell by looking at the images of the men in their lawn bowling uniform that they the people that live in this city are very much alike. The residents of this city wake up early to beat the heat and will stay indoors until the sun goes down.

The people who live in Sun City seem to be content with what they have and how they live. They don't seem to want any outsiders in their city. They live a life ignorant to what is going on outside of their city. They value the meaningless things in life like a clean home and maintaining a good reputation. They are content with shutting themselves out of the real world. The Pride members who maintain the cities cleanliness are an example of this. They spend their days cleaning the city and killing bugs so they can maintain their reputation of a clean city. Then of course there are the Tip Top dancers consisting of a group of ladies who probably shop and go to the hairdressers together.

Sun City consists of a tight nit community with no room for change. It is made of people who have spent their whole life working and now at their old age are trying to enjoy their life. They are very active and try to pass time by participating in different activities like the lawn bowlers and the synchronized swimming club. But is this really what we all work to achieve? The people of this community seem to think they have it all but they are living with people just like them. There is no diversity in age, race and culture. It seems like they worked their whole life to reach Sun City; where they will die in peace.

Anti-Ana

2006-05-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

Pro-Ana's (pro anorexia) do not describe themselves as anorexics. They see it as normal within their community to not eat. They don't like to be told to eat and misunderstood so therefore go on these pro-ana sites for comfort. The people who describe themselves as pro-ana know that it is a mental decease; they have no intentions of getting "help." They know that they consciously don't eat food and that they avoid anything that will cause them to gain weight, but when asked why they don't eat by the non-anorexic person they don't have an answer. Like Clairgirl in the essay states, she cannot tell people that she doesn't eat because she is trying to maintain a certain weight because of fear of judgment. So she goes on these websites to get her reassurance and understanding pro-ana's input.

These pro anorexics avoid association with non- anorexics if they can help it because of fear of being judged and they don't want to explain themselves. They try their best to reiterate that they are not on a diet or trying to loose a couple of pounds. Once they reach their goal weight they will most likely try to loose more weight; it's a never ending cycle. They state very clearly on their websites that only anorexics are to view the contents of the page, not dieters or people trying to inform anorexics of the harm they are doing to themselves. Because they are fully aware of the harm they are doing to themselves even state it boldly on their websites. One pro-ana website read,

"If you are anorexic, then you do not need tips on how to not eat. You do not need to be told how to stop eating. You do not need to be motivated. You look in the mirror. Problem solved. If not... Surprise! Go to Weight Watchers. This ain't no diet. This is pure mental sickness."

They purposely try to keep outsiders out of their community. They make distinctions between themselves and the outsiders in their community. They do this by stating that they are understanding and helpful. If you ever just need somebody to talk to you can always find them on the pro-ana website. You can help your fellow pro-ana by giving tips on how to fool people around you and how to pretend like you want to get help.

These communities are doing more harm then good because although they state an age limit of 18 to enter the sites they are having people view the sites as young as 10 and 11 years old. These kids are getting tips and reading the "thin commandments" and their "thinspirational" quotes. This disorder has the highest fatality rate of any mental illness but it is not getting the reaction it needs. If there were websites informing young children on how to drink and do drugs and ways they can hide it from their parents then i'm sure society would react. This problem is much bigger then it is perceived and it needs to be taken seriously, we can start by taking these sites off the internet or making them not so easily accessible.

command and serve

2006-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Command and serve, these are notions that go hand in hand. What our world is today has been built on the backbones of many people who gathered in groups, communites, tribes, nations, etcetera to construct what they need and how they will go about getting what they need. Amongst all groups there is always a leader, one that has taken the role to organize and maintain order amongst the group. What Nietzche says about identity is that in order for people to be who they are there have been outside influences. These have come in the form of people or institiutions that command and they obey. An example of this would be the article by Anzaldua, How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Someone has convinced her that she must not speak her native language, much less hold an accent. She must assimilate to the way of life she is surrounded by and this is the American life. If she wants to be treated like everyone else she must sound like them. Nietzsche would use her as an example and say that society (and now the President) has given the command that she must learn the American language, english and also say goodbye to her accent. He is saying that although she feels a sense of tension, anger and discrimination she will in the end do what the commander says.

His claim would be similar to those of the authors we’ve read about so far, because Nietzche says that we want to please the superior by obeying their commands. Whether we loose our identity and a part of ourselves along the way is something we must do. We have a need to obey and we must satisy that need. The authors in the stories say the same things but not so blatantly. Dumas says that she attempts to stay true to her culture but sometimes she must give in to the command that she needs to assimilate. This is evident because she is known as Julie with people she meets for the first time and people at work. On the other hand she tries to stay true to her culture by having a selected few still call her by her real name.

In our digital age the notion of leaders and followers isn’t very complicated because we all know what is expected of us, and who expects it. The story on the Fashion Victim for example, there is not a specific person telling us what is in fashion. But when looked at closely it’s the media that tells us “what is in” and it's our choice to follow it or not. These choices aren’t very clear cut though because, unless you want to shop at a place exclusive to you, like a thrift shop or make your own clothes then you end up buying what is popular. At the end of the day you may not personally go and look for the items you saw on Paris Hilton but that is what the stores will be carrying because that is “what is in.”

The "F Word"

2006-05-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

As I was reading this article by Dumas I couldn't help but reminisce about my childhood. Like Dumas I dreaded the first day of class every year because that meant attendance was going to be taken for the first time and upon reaching my name the teacher would get a sudden speech impairment and start stuttering. Finally they would just say what they thought it was and I of course would correct them.

I remember numerous times having people say may name incorrectly and when I corrected them they would simply reply "same thing." Now God forbid I accidentally pronounced Betty's name incorrectly. North Americans have lost all meaning of their culture; they have assimilated to the whole American life. When asked where they are from they say the state they were born in. I was born Ethiopian and raised Canadian, when asked where I am from I automatically say Ethiopia. And so does every Canadian I know.

I have been told that my name was exotic numerous times; I guess anything with a meaning is exotic to North Americans. Dumas conveys the message that most Americans, when exposed to a Âhard to pronounceÂ name react by mocking and annoyance because they have to learn your difficult name. The thing Dumas wants to change about the American culture is AmericaÂs reaction to names that they would not see as being common.

Lucy Grealy, Masks

2006-05-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Children can be very cruel. This is a known fact, when kids make comments they do it for the sole purpose of a joke; but end up scarring a person. Grealy was a child with a disability that she saw as "no big deal" it wasn't until people started to react to her disability that her insecurities started to arise. It's like the saying goes "when you are called stupid enough times, you start to believe it." She was oblivious to her looks until the boys at her school started implying she was ugly by saying, "take off your monster mask." Various encounters of this kind caused her to be insecure of her disability, she even states that, she was only comfortable interacting with people and being a "normal" kid when she was an Eskimo for Halloween and her face was covered. Her deformity became a marker of her identity for the adults and children she encountered. Nobody in her story took the second to talk to her or get to know her they just immediately made fun of her and called her ugly. She just became known as the "ugly bald girl" nobody wanted to know why, they just went straight to ridicule, this is evident in her first days of middle school where the older boys took it upon themselves to remind her of her looks everyday. This is also evident in the reaction of the guidance counselor. We expect him, as an adult in this situation, to be more sympathetic and offer her guidance and maybe take the boys aside to enlighten them of some little known facts about the girl they loved to make fun of so much. Instead he offers her isolation, as if she doesn’t already feel isolated.

English 1020

2006-05-16T16:33:00.000-07:00