Author: Alexis S

The Importance of Capital Letters in God of Small Things

On By Alexis SIn God of Small Things2 Comments

When reading novels, getting invested in the story is the thing the author wants the reader to do. However, while taking AP Literature and Creative Writing in the same year, I have really started to realize the beauty of writing, the different ways authors write, and the “rules” that can be broken throughout a book and the “rules” that are followed.

Rules consist of every basic period after a sentence, a capital letter at the beginning every sentence, commas when you need them and so on. Many authors including Arundhati Roy who wrote God of Small Things practices these. However, one technique that Roy uses that I absolutely adore, is that she uses capital letters on not just pronouns but nouns as well. For example, at the very beginning of the novel there is a sentence where words that shouldn’t be capital, are capital that would take a reader by surprise; “In those early amorphous years when memory had only just begun, when life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, and Everything was Forever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us” (4).

The first time reading that sentence, the words, “Beginnings, Ends, Everything, Forever, Me, We, and Us” were read with emphasis. Roy wanted me to look at those words and know that the narrator thinks these words are important and/or have a higher meaning. Also, the twins in the story, Rahel and Estha use capital letters for words that they find important like “Unsafe,” or “Let Her Be” (44) while they are narrators. As this book is centered around life of these two twin children, the capital letters put attention to those words because the kids find them meaningful. It allows the reader to try and empathize with the naiveness and vulnerability of children.

The Rise of Asian Culture in American Movies and My Experience

On By Alexis SIn Film, OrientalismLeave a comment

In the last twenty years, movies with more Asian actors or movies about Asian culture have been watched by millions. The movie industry has come a long way by making movies about cultures allowing it to be more diverse. This is a great milestone to American movie production and to award shows. Quite a few Asian actors and filmmakers have been nominated or have won academy awards.

From my point of view, from being born in 2002 and I’m now 17 in the year 2020, the biggest movie seemed to be Crazy Rich Asians: A romantic comedy including Asian culture in America and in Singapore.

For me, and lots of American teenagers, this was our first glimpse at Asian-American culture in film. The colorful, family driven, extravagant culture left me in awe. Sure the film was maybe more Hollywood than I know, or maybe it wasn’t, but either way, I got a great idea of what some Asian cultures are like by watching it.

I hope more Asian culture appears in my life and maybe one day I’ll get to travel to see it for myself. Immersing audiences into new cultures is a great way for people to accept and learn.

Why The Interview Got Cancelled because of Too Much Satire

On By Alexis SIn Comedy/SatireLeave a comment

The movie, The Interview with actors James Franco and Seth Rogan is a comedic action movie about how secluded North Korea is, and what happens when two outsiders enter the country. Two American men go to North Korea to meet the leader, Kim Jong Un. As you all know, North Korea is a very secure country, no one is allowed in or out. However, in this movie, Kim Jong Un in a big fan of Franco’s and Rogan’s character’s television show. He loves it so much, they are invited to North Korea, which is very strange, but exciting for the United States to get some insight on the country and the dictatorship of North Korea.

Currently, it is kind of unknown how North Korea runs as a country, but in this movie the satire really shows how we stereotypically think. Hyperbole is often used by over stepping boundaries that are a risk to be said throughout the film. There is a lot of exaggeration throughout the movie, but the world doesn’t know much about North Korea, some of it could be true. Regardless, the movie is not afraid to use humor and exaggeration to make the film as real and raw as possible.

The humor used in this movie is not carefully placed at all. The actors have no filter, hence why this movie got cancelled. It was too dirty and mean that people were threatening attacks on movie theaters that played the movie and it was also nicknamed “the movie of terrorism.”

How Carrie Bradshaw and Her Friends Make Sex and the City the Rom-Com of the Century

On By Alexis SIn Comedy/SatireLeave a comment

Sex and the City is a television series with six seasons and two movies that add on to the series. The whole show is about four girls, Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Miranda Hobbes, and Samantha Jones, living in New York City on a quest for love. The girls are in their early thirties working, having sex, and eating brunch talking about is boys and marriage and babies, oh my!

Throughout the show, the girls complain about how they can’t find someone to marry in a city as big as New York City. They search clubs, restaurants, an the streets of New York to find the man of their dreams while time is of the essence. They seem to struggle to find “Prince Charming” while all of their friends are far ahead of the game with weddings and baby showers. As stressful as it seems, there is comedic relief and usage of figurative language to ease the pain of the four girls.

Hyperbole is a big concept used throughout the show when talking about how late the girls are in the game. The girls are in their mid thirties and still cant find the perfect man, and if they do, there is always one thing that seems to make him imperfect. However at the end of the series, the men who are not so perfect, seem to be the Mr. Right.

Irony is also used a lot between the girls. For example, the girls are all different in how they find men, which makes the girls very ironic from each other. This makes the show very interesting and also funny in how they interact with men and each other.

The work of the writers for this show use satire as a way of showing that it is okay if people do not find love at a certain young age. Even though the clock is ticking, there is no start time or end time for love.

What is a Trapeze Swinger?

On By Alexis SIn Music Poetry, PoetryLeave a comment

Poetry and music usually come hand and hand, however, sometimes we just sing the lyrics of a song and never really appreciate or understand them. The song “Trapeze Swinger” by Iron & Wine has been one of my family’s favorites for a while; it’s a beautiful nine minute song, that is so easy to get to get lost in, but I have never really thought of the lyrics as poetic.

https://genius.com/16097927

The song is someone speaking to a friend throughout the stages of life. The audience is never told the gender, race, or age of the speaker or the person the speaker is talking to, which is very lovely.

From analyzing the song and going deeper into the lyrics, I found a lot of devices I would find in a poem. For example, there is repetition of the line “please, remember me” at the beginning of each stanza. Whoever the speaker is talking to, he really wants them to not forget about him, and he makes that clear by repeating it.

There are also a lot of metaphors used throughout the song, but the most important metaphor is “trapeze act” and “trapeze swinger” which appears in verses 5,7, 8, and the title:

“A fleeting chance to see a trapeze
Swinger high as any savior”

“The trapeze act was wonderful
But never meant to last”

“A monkey and a man, a marching band
All around a frightened trapeze swinger”

There are a couple analyses, like in all poems about the meaning of the metaphors. One analysis is about how a trapeze act needs two people, and in verse 7, the artist states “but never meant to last,” meaning he could of gone through a break up and wants his significant other to remember him. Another idea in verse 8 suggests that the world is as crazy as a circus and he is just a scared trapeze swinger. There are many other ways to interpret this poem, which makes it such a interesting piece to read over and over again.

A Ghost’s Purpose

On By Alexis SIn Beloved, Memory/Past/HistoryLeave a comment

Throughout the story Beloved by Toni Morrison, a few questions were constantly in the back of my head… Why do ghosts haunt certain people? And, why ins’t there millions of ghosts haunting millions of people? Do only some dead people get to come back as ghosts?

After doing some research and finding some strange websites, I found a lot of ghost stories and a lot of different opinions. One opinion believed by J.K Rowling worshipers is that ghosts are only wizards or witches that choose to come back after death, but “muggles (humans)” can not come back as ghosts. So maybe all ghosts are wizards and witches and kept it a very good secret. (https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/ghosts)

Another article had the idea that if people die in a place, they will come back in haunt that place. So what about hospitals? Why aren’t there a ton of ghosts in hospitals? (https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/historical-ghost-stories)

After asking Google a bunch of ghosts questions, I got a lot of different ghost stories, and found that ghosts aren’t very consistent. Some ghosts appear in certain places or haunt different people, or maybe they are late wizards.

To connect this back to Beloved, Beloved, who haunts 124, seems as if she is just at the house because she likes the company of Sethe and Denver. However, towards the end of the story people start going crazy and Sethe ends up killing Beloved in order to save herself and her daughter.

In conclusion, from reading a couple of ghost stories and Beloved, none of them seemed like Casper the friendly ghost. Ghosts seem to be scary, spooky creatures at the end of the day, even if they seemed nice at first.

Do Magic and Migration Mix?

On By Alexis SIn Exit West, Migration2 Comments

In high school, I have never read a book that involves magic and fantasy. Usually students are asked to read the great novels or non-fiction stories. There has been no book that I have read that is anything like Exit West.

I really enjoyed reading the story because it combined a little bit of magic with the real world. Honestly, at first it shocked me that such an intense topic like emigration and immigration was being mixed with magic. Combining such a serious topic and adding magical doors felt controversial to me. However as I kept reading I thought that the author is not like any other writer. Adding the doors just adds more to the story and makes it not like any other migration story. The doors make for more sub-stories and a new world which makes Exit West a powerful read.

If you think mixing magic and migration, please comment why, I would love to hear other opinions!

How Existentialism Appears in the Song, “Boredom” by Tyler the Creator.

On By Alexis SIn Existentialism, Music Poetry2 Comments

The fun, hip hop song: “Boredom” by Tyler the Creator, may have lyrics that aren’t as happy-sounding as the beat in the background. Obviously, the word “boredom” comes up a lot in the song, as well as the phrase “find some time to do something.” So how bored really is Tyler?

Yes, Tyler is bored, but really he could be questioning if he is an existentialist…. Due to the amount of times the phrase “find some time to do something” is said, it seems that Tyler the Creator is not satisfied with his life. He feels as though he has nothing to look forward to in the future with all the time he has in the world. This can be interpreted as a form of Extensitailsim. Existentialism’s main idea is that people exist for their own free will. Humans define themselves throughout their lives and make their own meaning of life. In this song, Tyler is emphasizing that people need to use all their time on Earth to the best of their ability and especially “find some time to do something.” The understanding of the song is really up to the listener, but if you listen closely you might hear a snippet of Existentialism.

The 5 W’s About The Girl in the Background in “A Conversation About Bread”

On By Alexis SIn Short StoriesLeave a comment

WHERE At the library, looking from another table.

WHO A white, blond, possible anthropologist lurking in the background.

WHEN On a school night while Eldwin and Brian are figuring out what to write about for a class.

WHAT The first thought that came to my mind as the author firsts mentioned the lady in the back was “what?” While reading the story, I thought this lady was kind of a random character. However, when I got to the last paragraph, the author suggests that she could possibly be an anthropologist, like Eldwin and Brian. The idea of her being an anthropologist did not even cross my mind until the author mentioned it. Why did the author end with a paragraph about the lady? Why did the author suggest an idea about her being an anthropologist?

WHY I believe the author had a purpose of writing in the white anthropologist. Though it is not clearly stated, it gives the reader perspective on how awkward Brian and Eldwin feel when someone is watching them; specifically a white person. The lady in the back is not harmful in anyway, she is just reading a book and eventually starts taking notes. The note taking leads me to believe she in an anthropologist listening to their conversation about bread. I think that she is intrigued by a different race and wants to listen to their stories. But, the deeper meaning of the lady in the background is to reveal that listening and telling stories is important. Story telling is a great way for people to learn about each other. The lady is getting to know a lot about the lives of these African American men by just listening to one story about them. An influential story can say a lot about people, and the lady in the back represents a good listener to those small, yet powerful stories.