Political Cartoon

Taken from "Bee Movie", this political cartoon is making fun of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Ever since Huckabee won the Iowa caucus vote earlier in the year, he has been plowing his way ahead of the other candidates. So this cartoon is suggesting that Huckabee has become irritating to the other Republican presidential candidates illustrated in the cartoon.

English Lab: Most Memorable Image: The Leaning Tower of Pisa

I was in the third grade when I opened my social studies book and saw this tower leaning as if it was about to fall. Out of curiosity, I had to know why and how this tower was still managing to hold up despite the fact that it was leaning. So my teacher told me that it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. She said it was a cathedral's bell tower in the Italian city of Pisa. It was so amazed at how a building could be leaning and not fall over. The picture at the right (taken from Wikepedia) is what amazed me that Tuesday afternoon in class. The picture in my book was actually a closer view with tourists outside taking photographs of it.

Eventually, I would like to take a trip to Italy and go see this historic piece of art. I want to stand from the level ground and actually look up at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and say to myself " It really is leaning.".

Across the Universe--- "Strawberry Fields"

Strawberries are used throughout this movie clip symbolizing bombs, bullets, grenades, death, and bloodshed. As the guy pins the strawberries to the wall, he sort of creates a piece of art. The arrangement of the strawberries reminded me of the phrase " the war frontlines" since they were arranged in long rows. As the strawberries are pinned, red juice begins to run down the wall. The red juice could be symbolic of bloodshed from soldiers and others during the Vietnam War. Then I went on to notice the color red that was shown in the last scene of the clip. The girl had fiery eyes and red was splattered everywhere. It seemed as if she was angry about what was going on.

Then you have the guy who becomes upset that the television is being put into the area where he tries to construct his artwork. It's almost like he is trying to escape the war but now it's everywhere. Now the tv is broadcasting the war and stating the many casualites that have occurred. Eventually, all the violence causes the tv screen to break. Is the breaking of the tv screen symbolic?

Recollection of 9/11

The photo on page on 313 shows the hundreds of caskets of the men and women that lost their lives trying to save other lives in the 9/11 terroist attacks in the background. Then fives soldiers from the Air Force are carrying a casket to join the others in the background. Each casket has the United States flag wrapped around it, symbolizing the patriotic services that the men and women rendered. It brings back memories of people that lost their loved ones. Soldiers from the United States armed forces are standing at attention holding candles in honor and remembrance of the firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers that lost their lives. Also pictured are three priests standing behind the soldiers. It seems as if a vigil is being held.

English Lab: Movie Review for "Disturbia"

Disturbia starts off showing a father and son relationship. These two are fishing and laughing together. Without catching a single fish, they decide to call it quits and head home. In route home, a SUV in front of them dodges a car broken down in the road. But sadly, they didn't. The father died in the crash while the son lived. High school junior, Kale has to deal with his father's death and manage his grades. While in Spanish class, Kale was apparently sleeping when the teacher called on him to speak. Pissed off by the teacher's remark about his father, Kale jumps up and socks his teacher in the jaw. Following the court hearing, Kale is placed on house arrest for three long months. With the house arrest came an electronic anklet that denied him access beyond his front lawn. If he overstepped his boundaries, the cops would show up within seconds.

While on house arrest, Kale finds himself completely bored out of his mind because his mom took away all of his leisure items. So he finds a new interest of watching his neighbors from all the windows in his room. (A little Peeping Tom.) Ashley, the new girl next door, is one of his main interests and some younger boys that have grown fond to watching some adult channels. But he suspects a neighbor across the street of some peculiar activity. After screwing up once, Kale decides to mark off his boundaries in the yard. Still suspicious of his neighbor, Kale sits down one night and notices a news story on a killer out to get women. The news gave a vivid description of the killer's car. From that point on, Kale knew his neighbor was the serial killer. This is what motivated Kale to start gathering footage on his neighbor. Kale then filled his friend and Ashley in on his observations. In the end, the guy gets arrested for the murders after Kyle takes action to save his mother, who doesn't return after going over to the neighbor's house to explain Kyle's obsurd behavior. I loved this movie because it kept me on the edge of my seat. GREAT MOVIE!

English 103 Lab: College Life

I could not wait to walk across Branchville High School's stage on June 2, 2007. Then I realized that I was going to leave a lot of friends and fellow classmates behind. Now here I am, a freshman at Clemson University, majoring in biological sciences. All I can say is that it was a BIG TRANSITION from high school to college. One reason is because out of my senior class, I was the only student to come to Clemson. So I knew I was going to have to make new friends.

College life is full of suprising things. But then you have the not so suprising things like exams and practicals. It seems like all of them are are scheduled around the same time. Does anybody else feel this way? It's CRAZY! But then after all those exams are out of the way, you can get back to the partying with your friends and enjoy the good college life.

"Martin's Big Words"

Wow! That was the first thing that came to mind after having this book read to me. Martin's Big Words didn't didn't exactly use big words like his speech from jail did. But instead, Rappaport used small words like love, peace, and freedom to get the meaning across to a younger audience. These were words that Dr. King heard growing up as a child from his mother and his father's church sermans that he used to stand up for what was right. He used big words to show the equality between all races.

In addition to these big words, the illustrations by Bryan Collier were amazing. Each picture had so much detail and so many different meanings behind them. These illustrations exhibited at lease one, if not all three means of appeal. Our group noticed that in the pictures with windows, that there were little phrases, but they weren't complete thoughts. I thought that these could be some text from Dr. King's speeches or just some encouraging words. This was a great book, and I bought it for my nephew after having it read to me.