Supersize Me Analysis

1) What is Spurlock's message about fast food?

I think Spurlock's message about fast food is that America is going to to keep consuming fast food such as McDonald's because of the number of restaurants. Another key factor is the price of the food, it is very cheap so almost anyone can go and buy a burger. As he said in the documental, from his house to his workplace there are 3 McDonald's restaurants. The message of fast food is very bad due to the fact that he ended up with a very severe live problem because of the McDiet.

2) How does he try to prove his message validity?

In order to prove his message validity, he talks to a number of experts in the field of food metabolism and health care. They tell that the obesity rate in the USA is getting bigger and bigger every time with the surplus of fast food restaurants. We believe that this food is bad because we listen it from people that have studied that and that know what they are talking about (they give facts not opinions)

3) How does he do as a director to make you believe the message?

One of the things that most shocked me throughout the documentary was that every time he talked about how bad is fast food for our health he showed videos that had obese people doing everyday stuff and fat people that move around in a small vehicle inside a mall so you think ''I don't want to end up like that''

4) What flaws do you see in his strategy?

We can see that he made interviews with people that were just one side (fast food is bad) and not so much interviews with people that love fast food and that said that it was very good for them. In some parts of the documentary it was biased to the negative side.

TED-Ed Additional Task

Research what a 'dead metaphor' is and post some examples and explanations on your blog. 

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'A former metaphor which has in effect lost its metaphorical status and become literal, e.g. "electric current" (electricity was at first thought to be analogous to water). Not to be confused with stale metaphor (a type of cliché), although it often is.''


''A figure of speech that has lost its force and imaginative effectiveness through frequent use. Contrast with creative metaphor.''

EXAMPLES:

* ''The mouth of a river''

* ''The face of a clock''

* ''Fall into the belt''

* ''To rise above difficulties''

* '' To move ahead'

* ''To look backward''

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_examples_of_dead_metaphor

http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/deadmetterm.htm

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dead_metaphor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_metaphor

Development of Rap and Hip Hop

Rap music is linked to rhymes and a contemporary type of music. Rap music started around the 1970s with a very important influence in the Bronx, NY city. Rap music comes from the hip hop culture, that was created in the 1970s as well. The main part of the hip hop culture are rhyming, break dance, graffiti art and beat-boxing. This type of music started to gain popularity because of the important and powerful Afroamerican groups in NYC. The first sounds were very 'Jamaican' and it came from songs that rhymed and were fast such as 'Whitie on the Moon' and 'On the subway'. One of the most important composers of the first hip hop songs was a Jamaican man called DJ Kool Herc also known as 'The Father of Hip Hop'.

The main thing that rappers want to transmit when they are composing their music are their feelings. A great example of a rapper that transmits his ideas, feelings and thoughts through his music is Eminem. In his songs, we can see and listen to what he sings, he transmits very strong ideas and very important, he doesn't care about what people think about him. For example, in the song 'Stan', he sings about a fan that used to send letters to him but Eminem didn't answer back so he committed suicide. In this song, when he says 'Dear Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Call-Or-Write-My-Fans, This'll be the last package I ever send your a**' we can see that even though the 'fan' is writing, this might be what he feels about himself. 

As I said before, the roots of Rap music began from the hip hop culture originated in the Bronx, NYC. This was a breakthrough for rap and hip hop music because it was a time where there was going to be a change. At the beginnings of hip hop culture, there were a bunch of house parties and rhyme battles. The reason why DJ Kool Herc wanted to create this new culture was because he wanted to create something with Jamaican roots and share it with everyone. With this house parties he kind of introduce this new movement called 'HIP HOP'

For me, the best rapper ever is Tupac Shakur. His main messages in his songs were about racism as we can see in his most famous song 'Changes' Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in June 16, 1971 and died in Las Vegas in September 13, 1996. He was a very important influence for the development of contemporary rap music in the 80s and 90s. He is so important and famous, that in Coachella 2011 they created a hologram of him performing 'Hail Mary' with Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre. 

In my opinion, Rap music is very interesting and awesome to listen to. I do like listening to rap but only if it is from a good artist. There are lots of rappers that are famous and rap in spanish like 'Porta'. Even here in Ecuador we have rappers that are known in other countries from South America like '77 Seven' and 'Fu-Marmota. In conclusion, rap music is amazing and awesome to listen to.

REFERENCES:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hip+hop+culture&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=es&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=G7F0UduIM8iq2QXG0IHABA&biw=1366&bih=574&sei=H7F0UYueLOmk2gXGyIBw

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tupac+shakur&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music#Introduction_of_rapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAP

http://globalawarenessthroughhiphopculture.com/Defining_Hip_Hop_Culture.html

Analysing ''Island Man'' by Grace Nichols

The poem ‘’Island Man’’ was written by Grace Nichols in the 1970s. The poem is about a Caribbean man that loves his country and would like to go back, but he lives in London and he doesn’t like it at all. Grace Nichols explores different themes that are evident inside this poem. The main theme in this poem is home. I think this is because everything this man talks about is going back to his beloved land in the Caribbean, but he can’t maybe because of his job in London. The way Nichols describes how he feels when he dreams about the Caribbean has a lot of power and also imagery. And the Island Man wakes up / To the sound of blue surf / In his head / The steady breaking and wombing. In this quote we can see how she uses blue and surf in one context. Blue is because of the color of the sea and surf because of the sport. Also, surf may refer to how the people are in the Caribbean, warm and familiar and that is why she compares something beautiful as surf to the people.

Something unique and inspirational about this poem is the imagery. Grace Nichols uses a lot of imagery for us to picture the island and London. There is also contrast between the description of the island and the description of London. Wild seabirds / And fishermen pulling out to sea / The sun surfacing defiantly. We can see that she uses nature to describe her land. I think this is powerful because nature is very beautiful and she wants to transmit that she sees her country the same way she sees a landscape. Again she uses surfing as part of her description, and now we can infer that she loves surfing and the sea and how the sun is so bright and big. On the other hand, she describes London as a grey of metallic soar / to surge of wheel / To dull North Circular roar. We can actually see that here is a contrast because now she talks of London as a negative place to live. This is evident because she refers to the wheels of the cars and the noise of the traffic everyday. For a person that comes from an ambient that is very soft and smooth to live and then have to live in a place where there is traffic and noise can be seen much more horrible than a city person.

The language in this poem is very easy to understand but it also has some parts that might be referring to sounds that are linked to sounds in the island. Groggily groggily might be an example of a sound that can come from the island. She uses sensory language because she can transmit that the man from the poem uses the five senses when he remembers the Caribbean islands. The imagery for vision is almost anywhere in the poem maybe with the seabirds or the brightness of the sun. When Nichols refers to his small emerald island can be vision because of the nice green of the stone of also touch of certain things such as sand that are present in a beach. With all the description on cars in London can be smog a smell that comes form the city and is very unpleasant to her.

As we see, in this poem the main ‘’conflict’’ is this juxtaposition between the Caribbean Island, that to her are beautiful, and London, that is very ugly. This can be an example of juxtaposition because of the way she thinks about these two places. Alliteration is present in this poem in the lines To surge of wheels / To dull North Circular roar. This is the only example present of alliteration in this poem because these are the only two lines that start with the same letter. The rhythm of the poem is regular; this means that there are about 6 words by line and around 4 lines by stanza. The rhythm is also constant and remains almost the same throughout the whole poem. There is no rhyme in this poem but because of the rhythm we can actually see that it is not needed.

Enjambment in this poem can be evident when you read a line and you immediately pass to the next one without stop. This might be created because the two lines have to be together in order to make sense and have a much bigger impact on the reader.

In my opinion, the contrast created between these two very different places might be supported be the fact that although the are different, he has to cope with is and continue living in London even though he doesn’t like it. We can see this at the last line that says Another London day without a full stop. This might be telling us that a common day with noise and bad weather will be going on forever.

Analysing 'Half-Caste' by John Agard

'Half-Caste' by John Agard

            Half Caste is one of the most famous poems about racism lately. As we know, John Agard wrote it. In this poem, we can feel the emotion of him talking about racism and the difference of color between people. He describes natural and beautiful things that are 'half-half' and he shows us that they are beautiful anyway. This poem reflects his anger against all of the people who have called them half-caste throughout his life in Britain. He was called a half-caste because he had a Caribbean father and a Portuguese mother, so they said he wasn’t ''pure''. The tone of this poem is very unusual but powerful at the same time because he talks as if he wasn't very intelligent and this makes the poem more interesting. We can evidence this when he always uses the rhetorical question 'Explain yuself / wha yu mean / when yu say half-caste'. The purpose of this is to make the reader be more interested about the poem and also to make the audience feel connected to the fact that there are some people who talk like that and it seems like a 'mixture, but they are humans anyway.

            The fact that John Agard uses contrast between the racist term and something beautiful such as the weather of a piano symphony makes us think about how every human being should be treated the same way. When Agard writes 'yu mean tchaikovsky / sit down at dah piano / and mix a black key / wid a white key / is a half-caste symphony?' The evidence of this is to see how the human mind is always trying to be better than others and also the fixed paradigm about superiority. The mean reason he uses dialect 'Explain yuself' is to show that he has a Caribbean side of his life. With dialect we are able to see that he is angry of being called half-caste but also that he is not embarrassed of admitting that he has two different cultures in his past. The use of metaphors in Half-Caste is the main element of writing. He uses metaphors to compare half-caste to music, weather and art. For example, we compares half-caste to weather when he says 'yu mean when Picasso / mix red and green / is a half caste canvas?'. This means that Agard wants to ask us if having two different parts makes people or thing be incomplete or without importance. The line breaks in this poem are interesting because it give each line importance and a pause that blends perfectly with the next line, as we can see when John says 'Explain yuself / wha yu mean / when you say half-caste'.  The use of the retorical question 'explain yuself' makes us think that Agard is writing to us personally and that he is clamming for an answer.

            The rhythm of this poem gives it an element that makes the reading interesting. The line breaks are the most important part of the rhythm because we can see clearly each idea that John Agard wants us to thing about. There is almost no rhyme in the poem but for example when he says 'in fact some o dem cloud / half-caste till dem overcast / so spiteful dem don't want de / sun pass / ah rass?' we can see that there is evidence of rhyme and that he talks about the weather in London.

            In conclusion, my impression of the poem is that Agard was very brave in order to talk like that to all of the people that have been mean to him in the present and in his past years. Also the fact that he compared racism to beautiful things makes us think that we should be tolerant and that all human beings are exactly the same. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, or if you have two different cultures, what really matter is for the whole world to be united and to be able to share and respect our similars. After reading this, my paradigm about racism is bigger, so now I know that people feel terrible when they are called mean names or worse things.

Quotes

I hide in the mop closet and listen, my heart beating in the dark, and I try to keep from getting scared, try to get my thoughts off someplace else-try to think back and remember things about the village and the big Columbia River, think about one time Papa and me were hunting birds in a stand of cedar trees near The Dalles. ... But like always when I try to place my thoughts in the past and hide there, the fear close at hand seeps in through the memory. I can feel that least black boy out there coming up the hall, smelling out for my fear. He opens out his nostrils like black funnels, his outsized head bobbing this way and that as he sniffs, and he sucks in fear from all over the ward. He's smelling me now, I can hear him snort. He don't know where I'm hid, but he's smelling and he's hunting around. I try to keep still. ...

(Papa tells me to keep still, tells me that the dog senses a bird somewheres right close. We borrowed a pointer dog from a man in The Dalles. All the village dogs are no-'count mongrels, Papa says, fish-gut eaters and no class a-tall; this here dog, he got insteek! I don't say anything, but I already see the bird up in a scrub cedar, hunched in a gray knot of feathers. Dog running in circles underneath, too much smell around for him to point for sure. The bird safe as long as he keeps still. He's holding out pretty good, but the dog keeps sniffing and circling, louder and loser. Then the bird breaks, feathers springing, jumps out of the cedar into the birdshot from Papa's gun.)

The least black boy and one of the bigger ones catch me before I get ten steps out of the mop closet, and drag me back to the shaving room. I don't fight or make any noise. If you yell it's just tougher on you. I hold back the yelling. I hold back till they get to my temples. I'm not sure it's one of those substitute machines and not a shaver till it gets to my temples; then I can't hold back. It's not a will-power thing any more when they get to my temples. It's a ... button, pushed, says Air Raid Air Raid, turns me on so loud it's like no sound, everybody yelling at me, hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sound from the mouths. My sound soaks up all other sound. (1.121-23)



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Film Scene Analysis

Analyse how the director has created particular feelings in the audience through the use of camera shots, sounds and acting.

        In this extract from One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, we see a very powerful scene from  the movie. In thsi scene we can see two main parts, when Billy talks to Miss. Ratched and dies, and also when McMurphy hangs nurse Ratched. Milos Forman (director) creates an intense talk between Billy and Nurse Ratched by always pointing at Billy's face after she says something about telling her mother what he did. We can see how Billy's face seems to be more woried everytime and also that he starts to stutter more and more. At the beginning Billy seems to be very confident because he knows that his friends are with him, but then he starts to feel more insecure and the leads him to commit suicide. 

        In the other scene, we see Nurse Ratched telling to the patients to remain calmed. but that is when McMurphy jumps on top of her and hangs her almost to death nut then Warren comes in and punches Randle on the back. We see the facial expression that McMurphy has when he is hanging her and also her face. That tells us that her power is corrupted and that patients are going to be different now, they will be more free-spirit and much more brave. 

   In conclusion, we as audience feel that this scene is a breakthrough in the story because before everythinh was happiness and now chaos is ruling in the ward. I think that after this scene only negative things happen that might change our point of view for this movie and book.