Accordion to 12AP

After discussing the eminent domain and the racial issues such as housing discrimination in A Raisin In the Sun, I think that they are actually connected to each other. When there is segregated housing in a society, everyone is split off by racial, ethnic or class. Because of this separation, one community is visibly poorer or richer than the others. Today we can see this type of wealth inequality in many states such as the one between Clawson and Troy school district. Once upon a time , both districts had somewhat equal educational rankings and similar grades, however with the influx of new racial groups and different people from different social classes -- which began after the global expansion of the auto industries in Michigan -- the two districts started to become more and more different. As newcomers move into an area, others with similar races, classes or ethnicities tend to also move there with them. This caused more and more people to move into Troy and greatly increased the...

During the discussion of A Raisin In the Sun, the issue of housing discrimination was brought up numerous times as a major cause of a segregated society. We also connect this issue in the book to the real-life where the same issue is taking place, such as in the articles where the author called Michigan one of the most segregated states. I was actually pretty surprised to find out that racial discrimination of this scale still exists today. One question that I had was why aren't there any regulations that restrict these types of discrimination; however, now I realize that the issue will not be easily resolved. First, the biggest factor of this issue is the presence of self-discrimination which I blogged about last week. Self-discrimination leads to the prevention of integration of different ethnicities or races. In the case of Housing discrimination, the buyers of the house are not restricted from buying housing in areas with different races or ethnic groups, they simply chose no...

In many of the articles that called Michigan the most segregated state in the US, they used housing discrimination to explain why this segregation is happening. But I think that people in the world today kind of self segregate themselves from other ethnic groups. This self-segregation gives people a sense of comfort as the people they live with are similar to them and therefore cares more about each other. The housing discrimination example used in one of the articles is also caused by self-segregation. The article talks about how whites and African Americans are moving further and further into the suburban areas like a giant ring that is always expanding. Each ethnic group moved out of the cities in a group which caused the ring-like expansion of the people leaving for the suburban areas. We can see here that there were no restrictions for where each ethnic group has to be, they all moved in a group by their own choice. They are choosing to become more segregated instead of all blendi...

After learning about the different lenses that Great Gatsby had, I thought that they were very interesting and present refreshing analysis on a very symbolic book. Each different lens has a different view and sometimes they can contradict each other because each lens is focused entirely on that single viewpoint. Coming up with different lenses can be quite hard because the author cannot shift focus from one lens to another. Everything needs to be interpreted in a certain way. I tried to come up with some different lenses to read the Song of Soloman or MAUS that can give new interpretations of the symbols in those books. For the Song of Soloman, I came up with 2 lenses that can be used to analyze the story. There could be a feminist way to view the story and also a civil rights way to view the story. The feminist way is pretty obvious. Every woman in the book is portrayed as having defects in either their appearance or personality. Ruth finds pleasure in breastfeeding her 4 years ol...

Modernism was an important art and philosophical movement that marked the end of the Romanticism era. It focused on the impacts of industries, wars, etc on society instead of focusing on nature and subjective thoughts like the romanticists. After experiencing the horrors of World War One, Modernism became even more widespread in the world. Many new creators became head figures of the movement. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most well-known writers that emerged during this period. He was a modernist, so he incorporated many characteristics of it into his books. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of many special features that modernist writers add into their books. One of those features is the shift from nature and external stimuli for emotions to an individual's internal emotions and experiences. This can be seen throughout the Great Gatsby because the narrator is literally experiencing things and reacting to them like a normal person. The whole story is told from the point...

In Song of Soloman, Macon Dead and Ruth Foster Dead are both somewhat irrelevant in the whole story even though they are the parents of the main character Milkman. They were not really mentioned in the second part of the story because most of their actions or dialogues were used to create a setting and make the actual storyline more reasonable. The main educator for Milkman is actually his aunt Pilate because she is one of the main characters that is mentioned throughout the book and she served a major role in setting Milkman on the right path. She is portrayed as a christ figure by Morrison's use of allusions and also metaphors. Pilate always did the right thing and sacrificed herself to benefit others. An example would be when she gives up her masculine figure to please the police and free Milkman and Guitar. When Milkman said he loved her because she could fly without leaving the ground and her family he meant that she is already free from the social restrictions. When slavery w...

There are many different themes in the Song of Soloman by Toni Morrison. One theme that is shown throughout the book is the theme of sexual discrimination in society. Almost every woman in Song of Soloman is treated as an object that men can just throw away when they finish using them and love when they need them. The most obvious example is when Milkman dumps Hagar and just sends her some money. This is extremely disrespectful and led to Hagar's hunt for Milkman later. For the most part, this is the history of women. Since the beginning of the human race, women are treated as being weaker than men, therefore, sort of owned by men. However, as history progresses, women have gained many rights that they didn't have before by starting reforms and protesting. These reforms gave women suffrage, property rights, and an equal opportunity in all fields of society. On the bad side though, Women's rights reforms evolved from a mild but powerful group into a radical group that gets o...