Typically, we look past the idea of Orientalism when it relates to the movies that we all know and love, and those are the classic Marvel superhero movies, yet there are quite a few examples of Orientalism shown in these movies that a lot of people don’t notice. Marvel Studios recently announced that they are developing a film with Shang-Chi, or Master of Kung Fu, as the protagonist. While many are excited for Marvel Studio’s first Asian-led movie, others are concerned that the studio’s choice of character was a stereotypical martial artist who happens to be the son of Fu Manchu, the offensive and racist fictional villain popular during the twentieth century. When adding a Asian character to a Marvel film, the producers usually add a stereotypical Asian fighter who has a strength of Martial arts. Some examples of this in past films include the characters like Wolverine and Katana. Both of these characters were introduced in the early stages of marvel and are pictured in many comic books where they are seen as Asian fighters who have mastered street fighting rather than other white superheroes who have more of a power and doesn’t necessary stereotype them as street fighters. It often goes unnoticed due to the popularity of Marvel, as well as the kid like persona that Marvel brings. When westerners are played in these type of action movies, there are often characterized as the villain and as a mean viscous fighter. Whereas the Eastern characters are usually the hero’s and are the people who have the superpowers. As we move forward in the future, I hope that Marvel can shy away from these stereotypes and switch things up and go in a different direction.
Author: Clark T.
King Lear is Really the Hero
I think that throughout the book, the way it is written it seems as if Lear is the bad guy. To me I think that he is just really misunderstood, and I think that’s why he is my favorite character. Just because he was the King everyone views him as some snob who just cares about power and land but what he really cares about is his family and doing the right thing. He got his land robbed from him and was betrayed by his own daughters and yet still kept a positive mindset on things. At certain points there are times where he seems bad, but he has so much anger built up because of the betrayal he has gone through and sometimes that anger comes out. He is also a character that shows a great amount of change/development. In the begging he is very uptight and banishes certain people for very silly reasons yet overtime he learns things about himself and realizes that without power you have to gain peoples respect on your own without just demanding it. Characters that grow over time appeal to me a lot because it shows how dynamic they are and how unique their personality is. Lear completes the plot of the play and shows many themes throughout just through himself. Without him the book as a whole wouldn’t make sense and would lose so much of the dynamic effect.
“2009” by Mac Miller is Poetry
Mac Miller is a 21st century rap artist who sadly passed away in the year 2018 by a tragic drug overdose. The song “2009” starts off with a wonderful piano solo that really sets the mood for the song as a whole. The song then transitions into Miller himself who comes in with a very soft tone of voice. Mac has always been known for his well thought out rhyme schemes and he shows that here in this song as well.
The song starts with the chorus that is repeated many times throughout.
“I don’t need to lie no more
Nowadays all I do is shine, take a breath and ease my mind, and
She don’t cry no more
She tell me that I get her high ’cause an angel’s s’posed to fly, and
I ain’t askin’ “Why?” no more
Oh, no, I take it if it’s mine, I don’t stay inside the lines
It ain’t 2009 no more
Yeah, I know what’s behind that door“
These lines here specifically hit hard to the listener and to Mac himself. They represent his past times and what he had to go through in that specific year which was 2009. Mac battled many things including depression that was fueled by a deadly drug addiction, as well as relationship issues that were also prominent in the ideas for his songs.
This song specifically I think can really fit into that category of poetry. The song throughout has a rheme scheme representing that as of a poem and flows like a poem as well.
” Nowadays all I do is shine, take a breath and ease my mind, and
She don’t cry no more”
These specific lines really show Mac Miller’s ability to use a certain flow and his descriptive langue to show his troubles with his relationships and how he is coping with them and as well as how he is doing in the moment of the song.
Verse 1 also features some extremely powerful lines that if read out loud you would assume is poetry.
“Now every day I wake up and breathe
I don’t have it all but that’s all right with me
Take it nice and easy, took a flight to see me
Send you back home with a light that’s beamin’
The whole team ’bout to figure it out
We ice cold, that’s what winter about
And sometimes, sometimes I wish I took a simpler route
Instead of havin’ demons that’s as big as my house, mhmm
Have a ball with a dribble and bounce”
Here, Mac Miller uses an aaaabbbbb rhyme scheme that also features a metaphor. Using this scheme and combing it with a metaphor helps the reader better understand how Mac is feeling mentally at this state in this song (at this state in his life). Mac’s lines here also show his thankfulness for just the fact that he was here and living at this point in time, even though he may not have everything in life.
Verse 2 also illuminates some very powerful lines
“You don’t ever gotta worry
Even when it’s 7:30 and the time is runnin’ low
When your heart get cold
See what’s behind all them unturned stones
And I’m a pro when it come to my job
But really I’m just tryna start believin’ in God
Now when it gets hard
I don’t panic, I don’t sound the alarm”
Once again, Mac uses rhyming to emphasize the significance of woman in his life. Mac also shows his newfound relation and hopefulness that he can now make God significant in his life. Comparing praying to God and sounding the alarm creates a powerful metaphor and really shows how much god means to him and how he feels safe to have him.
This song truly represents poetry. It lines not only represent things much bigger than the words on the page like poetry, but also has a form and rhyme scheme like an actual poem. Mac Miller is an artist and with his use of words, he could easily have written an award-winning poem if he were still here today.
How do you know if you are compatible as lovers
Throughout the book Exit West, we see Nadia and Saeed grow together throughout their very long and tiring journey. They start at square one and from there slowly build their relationship as they continue forward. They face many hardships and many challenges along the way yet they always make sure that they stay together. Even though they stayed lovers throughout the whole journey in the end they still only ended up being friends. Their relationship was never built around love but rather the idea that they felt they had to stay together to survive. In the story, it was said, “But while fear was part of what kept them together for those first few months in Marin, more powerful than fear was the desire that each see the other find firmer footing before they let go, and thus in the end their relationship did in some senses come to resemble that of siblings, in that friendship was its strongest element, and unlike many passions, theirs managed to cool slowly, without curdling into its reverse, anger, except intermittently¨(204). The elements of the relationship were more of a best friend or sibling type of correlation and really never resembled lovers. What interests me is why they didn´t realize this earlier. From the start of the book, you could tell that some of their morals and beliefs were different and I think that is what really separates people, is the things that they believe in and have passion for. I think that this can have a big correlation to society now. So many people get divorced now because they realized that they are much better off as friends rather than lovers. But how do you realize this so early? It’s a tough thing to do definitely because it takes time to really get to know someone and realize if they are really the one for you. In my opinion, people now should start getting married at a later age and just date their lover for a longer amount of time until they know if they are a real true love or if they are just a really good friend in the end. This will help lower the insanely high divorce rate that we have currently. Nadia and Saeed are an example of this idea that you can be so close with someone that you love them, but not a lover way, rather more as a friendship way.
Is Prison Meursault´s Real Home?
Throughout that book its clear that Meursault is a very down in the dumps type of person. He is completely emotionless, soulless, heartless, etc. It almost seems as if he really does´t want to be on this planet. Now when he winds up in prison he finds himself bored and confused on what to do with his time. To me I feel as if prison is maybe a good place for Meursault. In the outside world he always finds him self complaining or not wanting to do something, or simply just wanting to be by himself. The consistent emotionless and soulless persona of Meursault really makes it seem to me that maybe prison is right for him. Throughout the book he makes it known that not much is needed to make him happy. For instance when he said ¨I told him I was quite prepared to go; but really I didn’t care much one way or the other. He then asked if a “change of life,” as he called it, didn’t appeal to me, and I answered that one never changed his way of life; one life was as good as another, and my present one suited me quite well¨. It is clearly shown here that he really does not care what happens to him. Although prison is a very scary place and a place where nobody ever wants to end up its almost as if Meursault just does not care. Prison will be right for him and will teach him how boring life can get when you have endless amounts of time to do almost nothing. Yet it will also fill his way of life and leave him in a dark emotionless place just like himself.
Mr. Blank Face
It clear to see that through out the first part of The Stranger, Meursalt is shown to be a man lacking emotion and a man who is lacking social ques, but I don´t think it is because he is an introverted person and or is shy. Throughout Meursalt´s language and his tone when talking to others never shows shyness. Overall I think that is just the type of person he is. Maybe past experiences or something of that nature caused the emotional withdraw but it is clear that Meursalt despises showing actual emotion and would rather answer in one/two word responses. One of these examples of this has to be his emotion surrounding his mothers death. He is so lackadaisical when in reality his mother is dead and the way he acts is really not typical at all. You can see this when he is talking to the director of the home when Meursalt says things like ¨ The director spoke to me again, but I wasn´t really listening anymore¨. Another example of this emotional detachment is when it comes time to see his mother. The director says ¨ I am supposed to unscrew her casket so you can see her¨, Mersalt quickly follows that up with a hard ¨no¨. This is quite weird that he does not want to see his mom at all after she had just passed. It clearly shows Meursalt´s emotional detachment and shows how disconnected he really is from society.
Story Power 