The Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals of Colorado

Analysis Of The Article Reality Tv Goes Where Football...

Advertisement or Stereotype The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that s power. The article â€Å"Reality TV Goes Where Football Meets the Hijab†, published in the New York Times in November 2011, introduces how the media controls the minds of the masses. Media has become a major issue in our daily lives. We live in a world that we cannot have access to what is going around us, unless we refer to the media. For instance, in our daily routine we usually listen to the news in the morning or at night before we sleep. The news has already been reported and its being delivered to us that fast, but how do we know if what is being said is what is actually happening or if it has been manipulated for political/social reasons? In the beginning of the article, Porochista Khakpour the author of the article, Iranian born American reared, mentions: â€Å"If anything made me, an American, it was televisions.† TV, especially the reality TV, resembles the characters and movie stars the way they want to not the way they are. Khakpour said, Darkness-dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin-always equaled trouble, as if it actually implied a dark side. When we watch TV, most of the movie characters are labeled, either by their gender, religion, or color. Khakpour reaches out to the outcasts, to prove her point on reality TV shows shaping our beliefs towards each other, especially the freaks†.

Alan Bennet’s “Talking Heads” †A monologue commentary Free Essays

After reading a selection of monologues from Alan Bennett’s â€Å"Talking Heads†, I was inspired to right one of my own. In my monologue the focus is on a young girl who lives alone with her father, who abuses her. The title, ‘A father’s love’, is ironic because if her father loved her, then why would he abuse her? This links to the monologues written by Alan Bennett as he also uses the technique of irony to engage the audience. We will write a custom essay sample on Alan Bennet’s â€Å"Talking Heads† – A monologue commentary or any similar topic only for you Order Now The opening stage directions show some aspects of the character’s lifestyle, â€Å"Emma sits on a battered leather armchair in a plain living room† From reading this, the audience will be able to identify the poor lifestyle that the girl experiences; this is also shown in a further set of stage directions â€Å"Emma is washing dishes in a basic, untidy looking kitchen.† In both instances there are hints of poverty, yet her father finds enough money to go to the pub at night. This helps to reveal her father’s character and his priorities. In the first section of the monologue there is no clue as to what the problem could be, but as the monologue progresses the clues become clearer and the audience may have more of an idea of what the girl is experiencing. For example, â€Å"I said I was sorry about the medication but it really wasn’t my fault, there wasn’t a need for the way he reacted.† There it becomes obvious to the audience that the girl’s father has a bad temper. This idea is developed in the next section of the monologue as the girl debates whether or not to go to school. It now becomes apparent that he has hit her. To create a more obvious clue I had to re draft my monologue in order for the audience to pick up on the problem, â€Å"How can I go to school with a face like this†¦ I could just tell everyone I fell down the stairs.† The clues are really subtle at first but do become more obvious as the monologue progresses. I tried to create tragedy in the monologue by portraying the young girl as feeling alone in the world; she lives alone with her bad tempered father who drinks a lot. The tragedy is that she doesn’t want to walk out on her father but she knows that it’s not safe for her to stay. I think that the audience could identify this in the monologue. In my monologue, it shows the father suprising the young girl with a shopping trip; this was only through guilt. It’s tragic that he has to show his love for his daughter by buying presents and not through affection. By the end of the monologue we can see that there has been no change in the attitude of the father, although he promises his daughter that things will change, they don’t. Emma says, â€Å"He promised me that he wasn’t going to do this anymore†¦ I just hope he isn’t drunk again.† This demonstrates her fear of her father. The last set of stage directions shows that the girl is frightened and that her father hasn’t changed. The young girl knows what is going to happen when her father comes home. â€Å"A door slams and a man is heard shouting from off stage†¦ He’s home! (Frightened)† I have tried to end my monologue on a tragic note, but leave the audience in suspense. It shows that the father has broke his promise and come in drunk again, but there is no indication as to whether he will beat his daughter. How to cite Alan Bennet’s â€Å"Talking Heads† – A monologue commentary, Papers

Once Upon Time By Nadine Gordimer Essay Example For Students

Once Upon Time By Nadine Gordimer Essay Once Upon a Social Issue Fairy tales have always been told to us as children;whether to comfort or entertain us, they always seem to be a part of mosteveryones childhood. When Nadine Gordimer was asked to write a childrensstory, she replied with a short story titled Once Upon A Time. Althoughthe title is characteristic of a fairy tale, she leads the tale to an endingthat is anything other than happily ever after. Gordimer distorts thefairy tale by dealing with certain issues rather than giving the reader theusual fairy tale characteristics. Three of the more significant issues Gordimerlikes to deal with in her story are racial discrimination and prejudice,societys insecurities, and the persuasive way fairy tales have with children. Gordimers Once Upon A Time has the feeling of insecurity right away. Inthe first part of her story, Gordimer reminds us of our own insecurities. Shebrings up a familiar situation in which one is awakened by a bump in the nightand cannot go back to sleep because of fear or their own insecurities. Gordimerwrites, I have no burglar bars, no gun under the pillow, but I have the samefears as people who do take these precautions So, to better convey thisissue of societys insecurities, she tells herself a bedtime story. In thestory, there is a family who is living happily ever after, yet is seemsit is all that they can do to keep it that way. Rather than putting theirinsecurities aside and getting on with their lives, they feel that they must puttheir trust in security devices to protect their selves. For a short while, thefamily has a sense of security by posting a plaque stating YOU HAVE BEENWARNED over the silhouette of a prospective intruder. After a short time thefamilys psychological need for more security calls for a number of newsecurity devices in order to sustain the top level of security. It is in thefamilys pursuit of this security that they virtually imprisonthemselves. After the installation of burglar bars, Gordimer describes the viewfrom every window and door in the house where they were living happily everafter they now saw the trees and sky through bars. One of the less obviousissues lining Once Upon A Time is racial discrimination. Gordimer firstsuggestion that this suburb may be slightly racist is by stating that the plaqueon their gate warning possible intruders didnt designate black or white,therefore protesting too much the owner of the home not to be a racist. Byadding this statement, Gordimer lets there be evidence for a possible racismproblem in this suburb. Gordimers statement of riots outside of the city wasalso supporting evidence toward racism in this place. The only black people thatwere allowed in the suburbs were those considered to be trustworthy gardeners orhousemaids, and soon the trustworthy were not the only black people to beloitering around the suburb. Gordimer writes of the community stating it wasa beautiful suburb, spoilt only by the black peoples presence. With thecoming of these undesired guests, the familys sense of security begins toweaken yet again. In order to further suppress their insecure feelings, theydecide to raise the walls surrounding the property to a height of seven feet. Later, after finding footprints that were not their own on the street side ofthe wall, the familys sense of security was further diminished. As a finalattempt at gaining complete security, the family pondered the addition of evenmore protection for their outside wall. The familys pursuit of a mentalsecurity booster was finished when they lined the outside walls with razor wirethat formed an unconquerable barrier. Feeling quite safe with their new wiredefense, the mother finally feels secure enough to let her guard down and readher little boy a fairy tale. The fairy tale, a story about a prince who dashesthrough a terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the SleepingBeauty and bring her back to life. Children, having the imaginations that theydo, sometimes like to pretend to be a hero as in the fairy tale. So, the nextday, the little boy decides to also save the sleeping beauty by crawling throughthe shinny new obstacle atop the outside wall. Once inside the young princ ebegan to charge through the insurmountable odds, and found them to be