This blog does a great job of fulfilling the elements of story telling. It has a lot of onomotopoeia, which should be noted. The blog discusses the events of a Tamil family on Christmas Day. The author discusses the fun he had that day. He received a Christmas gift from his parents, a game called "RATCHET: DEADLOCKED." He liked the game, and he continued to got through the rest of his gifts. The family settled down to a game of "CRANIUM", which they played until 10:00pm. The kids were to clean the house as a consequence of playing it, but instead of cleaning the house they stuffed the items that were to be cleaned under their beds. After a fun night of game playing, the author's mother discovered his sinister method of putting his things away.
I did a problem with this memoir; it constantly used big words in an unnecessary, unfitting, banal way that one could tell was very foreign to the author's vocabulary. Nonetheless, it had constant onomotopoeia that caused the memoir to resemble a story that is spoken, as opposed to written.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Vietnam War
Communism is indeed one of the most dangerous and horrible political ideologies, not as bad as Anarchy but certainly worse than Fascism. And so it should be no surprise that when outbreaks of Communism arose in North Vietnam, ant-Communist forces came to the defense of righteousness.
In 1954, the Geneva Accords partitioned Indochina in twain. The north was ruled by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, and the South was ruled by a democratic government under Ngo Dinh Diem. In 1959, Communist guerrilla forces began to harm the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. deployed military advisors and began training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). A Vietnamese torpedo boat attacked the USS Maddox. Congress gave permission to President Lyndon B. Johnson to conduct military operations against North Vietnam on August 10, 1964, and by March 2, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were deployed, marking the beginning of the U.S. ground war. That same day, the U.S. began airstrikes against North Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder. By November 1st of 1968, the air campaign had failed, and after the Tet Offensive, where Communist forces pushed deep into South Vietnam with little military success, American public opinion turned against the war. U.S. involvement ended in 1973.
In 1954, the Geneva Accords partitioned Indochina in twain. The north was ruled by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, and the South was ruled by a democratic government under Ngo Dinh Diem. In 1959, Communist guerrilla forces began to harm the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. deployed military advisors and began training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). A Vietnamese torpedo boat attacked the USS Maddox. Congress gave permission to President Lyndon B. Johnson to conduct military operations against North Vietnam on August 10, 1964, and by March 2, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were deployed, marking the beginning of the U.S. ground war. That same day, the U.S. began airstrikes against North Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder. By November 1st of 1968, the air campaign had failed, and after the Tet Offensive, where Communist forces pushed deep into South Vietnam with little military success, American public opinion turned against the war. U.S. involvement ended in 1973.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Langston Hughes blog
Langston Hughes criticizes in this poem the inequality of the American Dream. He criticizes the alleged racism, imperialism, and nativism that has kept blacks, aboriginals and immigrants from reaching success when they immigrating to this country. The poem shows “the other side of the story” as far as American success goes. It mentions white immigrants, form Ireland and Poland and other lands, and how they are discriminated against, even thought their ultimate goal is to be a successful American. This is contrasted with the success of English American Protestants, especially wealthy ones, and the greater amount of acceptance they are given in this country. The poem is read from the eyes of poverty-stricken minorities, and it criticizes not necessarily the American Dream, but it’s failure to be equally applied to all.
I do not necessarily agree with Hughes’ criticism of the inequality of the American Dream. A productive society has a sense of structure and order. Hughes seems to yearn for a nation that lacks order, and is full of complete equality, i.e. a socialist state. He also criticizes things that are simple facts of nature; the dog-eat-dog nature of this country is a great example of such a thing. In nature, animals devour to survive. A realistic worldview would reveal the horror of the world we live in, and would show to Langston the impossibility of complete economic equality. I do agree with his criticism of poor working conditions, but he must realize that nature has it’s own hierarchy; Hughes cannot simply supplant this hierarchy. While Lagnston demands a pluralistic society, he never looks at the viewpoints of such men as Booker T. Washington, who believe that different groups can work perfectly amongst themselves. If Mexican, Oriental, Middle-Eastern, and European immigrants, as well as African-Americans and aboriginals are discriminated against, they ought to unify amongst themselves. As for the poor, they deserve to be treated right, but it would be foolish to expect a prosperous society with complete social equality. Socialist states were, and today are, surely not as prosperous as nations with free, competitive markets. In conclusion, I say that Hughes is correct in his demand for respect of groups in society, and different ethnic groups do deserve opportunity. However, he must bear in mind the dangers of Marxist economic principles.
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