4th Quarter Reflection

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALMOST OVER!

As I look back over my blogs, I have to say I'm shocked at how much of a critical thinker I have become. Towards the beginning of the year, I would find myself sitting in front of my computer, racking my brain for something to write about. As time went on, I found myself jotting down something I thought would be interesting to write about in my notebook, a napkin, or even the back of my hand. I think this reflects itself in my most recent quarter of blogging. For example, in my blog post "A Controversial Decision", I wrote that my mom claimed killing Osama Bin Laden was 'putting him out of his misery'. I distinctly remember jotting this down on a napkin so I remembered to dissect this quote in my blog. In this way, I have become an inspired critical thinker, and I have become better at finding the inspirations for my blog posts from things that truly made me think at the time.
In addition, as I read through my blog posts, I see that I am increasingly trying to analyze symbols this quarter. For example, in my blog post titled "Let There be LIGHT" I analyzed what the use of light in The Great Gatsby symbolized to me. In an earlier post, I might've simply mentioned that I noticed light as a reoccurring theme, and talked about the different places I saw light in.
While my blog posts were not as lengthy, they were more frequent, and I have discovered that I like that style of writing more. I have many ideas, and writing about a lot of them suits me better! :)

Please see Stigma in an Unexpected Place !!

Living the American Dream

As we have been discussing the American dream during class, something didn't sit right with me. Someone mentioned that the American dream must involve the transition from rags to riches, and therefore someone that already starts out rich in the United States simply cannot achieve the American dream.
However, I do not believe that becoming rich is the most defining aspect of the American dream. According to the CBS article titled Who Lives the American Dream, most Americans say 'freedom and opportunity' is the most important aspect of the American dream to them.
I believe that even a poorer person could define themselves as 'living the American dream' as long as they can do what they want and they are free from oppressive rule. To me 'freedom and opportunity' don't necessarily involve money.

Looks are Everything

Today in class, we looked at ads from the 1920s and compared them to ads from today. One particular ad we looked at for Paris Garters (above), made me think of a certain difference between old ads and more recent ad. I noticed that this ad is meant to attract its audience by making people realize what they don't want to be as opposed to what they do. For example, when I look through magazines, the ads I see show beautiful faces and flawless models. These ads cause me to stop by making me think I want to look like that. The ad for Garters is supposed to catch my attention by making me think of what I don't want to look like. I don't see many of those types of ads today. What might this suggest about changing American culture?

Let there be LIGHT

Throughout my reading of The Great Gatsby, I have noticed the reoccuring theme of light. One of the most interesting parts, in my opinion, was when Nick described Gatsby's house on his way home on page 81. He described in detail how Gatsby's house was "lit from tower to cellar," (pg 81). A little later, Gatsby and Nick discussed how Nick would do Gatsby a favor and invite Daisy over for tea the next day. I thought it was interesting that Gatsby lit his house up that way on the day he made an effort to reach out to Daisy. It was as if he was reaching out to her and beckoning to her. Similarly, on page 113, Nick talks about how there was a period of time that the lights "failed to go on" at Gatsby's house, which was a pretty significant and unusual thing. Gatsby said that during that period of time, Daisy was over a lot, which explains why he wouldn't feel the need to light up his house. It is as if Gatsby uses his lights almost as a form of communication to Daisy, and I am curious as to what his use of lights will mean later in the book.

Price or Culture?

I would have never expected something as seemingly basic as train stations to be an indicator of social class. When we talked about this during class, I began to wonder what other typical things could possibly be markers of social class. As I began to brainstorm, the indicators seemed endless. For example, the other day I picked up a magazine at the dentist's office in my area. The magazine had ads for clothes that cost thousands of dollars. In lower income areas, it would seem pointless to have ads, and therefore magazines, like this because no one would be able to afford these things. Similarly, just the type of shampoo and toothpaste someone uses, for example, can be an indicator of social class. However, in the case of magazines and movies, it is not exactly the price that is the deciding factor. It is, in fact, the culture that the product represents.

A Controversial Decision

The killing of Osama Bin Laden gave my fellow classmates with very different reactions, which left me interested to find out what my parents thought of event.
At dinner last night, my mom shocked me with an angry reaction. She went off, saying how we should've captured him and made him pay for the thousands of lives he took. According to my mom, "killing him was the nicest thing we could have done." I think by this, she meant that Bin Laden had recently been living a less than ideal life, what with him having to hide and him being in poor health. I suppose that my mom thought that by killing him, the US was 'putting him out of his misery'.
While I see where my mom is coming from, I also had to remind her that we would gain absolutely nothing by capturing him. By trying to squeeze information out of Bin Laden, this would clearly lead to torture which is an extremely controversial idea. So what should have been done? Was killing Bin Laden really the only reasonable option?

Stigma in an Unexpected Place

While speculating about the idea of social class in AIS, I was not surprised to hear many of my classmates admit that they believe they belong to the upper class. Not that necessarily all of them fall under the North Shore stereotype, but many of them need to have a pretty high income to afford to go to New Trier.
What interests me is how uncomfortable this subject oftentimes makes me feel; I can tell it makes some of my classmates feel the same way. Our teachers are aware of this discomfort as well, and are frequently reminding us that we don't have to share any information that might make us feel uncomfortable. However, from the class survey results in Mr.Bolos's blog post, I see that nobody from our class thought of themselves as lower class. Yet, there is still discomfort as we talk about our personal social status. This leads me to the conclusion that, while there is undoubtedly stigma in being considered lower class, there also seems to be stigma in being upper class.
Someone mentioned in class that people from the upper class are stereotyped as being snobby, which is probably why some of my classmates are wary to share. However, I don't believe that a fear of being called snobby is all that is causing a great deal of stigma associated with upper class. However, I'm not sure what else could contribute to this. Could it be simply that some of my classmates don't want to make others feel bad? But would it really make others feel bad if no one considered themselves a member of the lower class? Why else could this be such a touchy subject in our class?