After a five day weekend, with the weather beautiful outside, school is just about the last place I want to be right now. With the end of school so near we must trudge through to the finish line, although we may not be thrilled about it. I am so happy that we got our final paper out of the way and now we can deal with the more creative aspect of our final projects. My presentation is on friday which feels extremely soon but it will get done like everything else seems to. I am going to use the thesis and main points from my paper, and use video and picture examples to give a clear argument of why and how disney women are depicted so poorly in their animated films.

Having our final paper done and out of the way is definitely a huge relief. I am happy that I can now fully focus on the marking period project and end on an easier note rather then a more difficult one. This week I will be focusing on my presentation for the Final Project. It will consist of a combination of talking and showing clips of what I am talking about from various disney films. I will find the clips on youtube.

This week real progress will be made on my essay. I already have a full outline describing paragraph by paragraph the direction of my essay. Also I have a strong intro paragraph with a clear thesis statement. Recently I found an essay written online in 1996, right after the release of Pocahantas that goes into detail about the retail stradegies involving the disney princesses and possible explanations as to why they have become so popular in recent years. My first paragraph will describe the anti-feminism present in the films. The second paragraph will explain these and why they are harmful to their target audience. And the third paragraph will show how Disney has used this collection of princesses to market a business worth billions of dollars.

This past week I made a clear pre-writing plan for my research paper that details paragraph by paragraph all evidence I will be using to support my claim. The women in Walt Disney's films (more specifically the princesses) are shown to be weak and useless without their strong men to protect them. It was a hard decision between having each paragraph be about a different movie or a different anti-feminist example but I decided on the second one. Each paragraph will have a different example and multiple movies will be used to back up each. Last Friday I wrote an introduction paragraph and hope by Wednesday I will have two body paragraphs done. I hope to finish my research paper completely by next Monday so that I have some time to edit and revise it before its due date next Friday.

For my research paper, I will be arguing that Disney portrays it's female characters in a condescending, and demoralizing light. They set a bad example for the little girls that dream of being a princess like Cinderella. Disney portrays its women as little Daddy's girls chasing after their "prince charming". The chase is extreme and they show very little respect for themselves and have few redeeming qualities albeit high voices and big eyes and flowing hair. There is a multitude of evidence to back me up in this claim, and once observed it is fairly obvious in every film. By the end of this week I hope to have a detailed prewriting plan to follow paragraph by paragraph and hopefully an introduction paragraph. My research will be done and I will have a more specific picture to what my final project will look like.

I just finished Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and was so inspired by its strong, clear message. It is very clear that starting out, no matter what they have or aspire to accomplish, women are looked at as the lesser sex. They are deemed less capable then the men, when in fact this is far from the truth. Women are bogged down by their domestic responsibilities and the men’s attitudes of superiority making it difficult to work to their full potential. This near utopian society is filled with reason and understanding. Crime, hate, and poverty are unknown to this society and they function more as a family then as a country. All things are done for the greater good of the community, not for individuals. The women are raised this way, to have unselfish values so that everyone profits from ones hard work. This novel shows that women can function extremely well, if not better then a society with men. Feminists have been fighting this point for years. Women can function at a completely equal level as men when given equal opportunities. Feminism is an idea that is broad, as explained by Rachel Wiesel in her blog ”The Happy Feminist” . Rachel explains that the only thing you need to believe to call yourself a feminist is that “ensuring women’s freedom and equality of opportunity in all spheres of life is a crucial priority”. There are organizations all over the world such as the Women for Women International Foundation . Which helps women with no chance, rebuild their lives after ravished by war or poverty. Anti-Feminism is an ever present problem, as are all forms of prejiduce, but if enough people want change, it will come.

Something that has always interested me was the possibility that Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead was based off real life architect Frank Lloyd Wright. There are the obvious connections; Wright was a well known, arrogant architect who had an affair with a client’s wife. But then there are the more subtle ones, like the fact that he left college without a degree siting that that the “paper didn’t matter, it was the knowledge gained that will continue to be useful through my professional career” (New York Times, 1912). In the Fountainhead it is implied that Roark left college months before his graduation for the same reason. Wright started his school of architecture, as did Roark with his modern works. The Usonian home was possibly Wright’s most notable work, and it was a complex of low income housing that was very cheap to build, and also inexpensive to keep and maintain. In The Fountainhead Roark takes on an identical task, building low income housing. Others have had this same opinion, an entire article was even written about it in the magazine The New Individualist. I think this parallel is very interesting and could serve for an excellent senior paper

In snow falling on cedars, the cedar tree is a symbol of safety and security. Many uncontrollable storms rip through this small community, but the cedar tree stays safe. harboring Ishmael from the destruction. A storm very similar to the one shown during the trial was the reason for Carl’s death. If the storm hadn’t been there, he would have never gone on the wrong track, leaving him in a dangerous lagoon prone to boats wakes much bigger then his own. A rainstorm is what originally drove Ishmael and Hatsue to the cedar tree. This tree later becomes a refuge for Ishmael to express his love to Hatsue (a love that breaks all racial and ethical boundaries because she is married and Japanese). It is a dead, hollowed out place isolated from the rest of society. Because it is so isolated, it allows him to be his full self and express his true feelings. The fact that this isolation is the only place where their relationship can exist peacefully also shows that it is not strong enough to be in the real world. This tree exists in a world unaffected by the pressures that society places, the misfortune constantly befalling, and the racism all to common in the community. It becomes a mark of false hope for Ishmael who has no real life outside of this dream world he has created.This story is riveting in everyway, as shown in the motion picturet. which really takes to screen the themes and symbols that were so prevelant in the novel

For the past week and a half I have been reading Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. The whole book has a strong plot and defined themes, but one paticular aspect of the novel that sticks out at me is the protagonist Ishmael. Ishmael has had a rough past and now, although it is far over and done with, seems to be stuck in it. He is still not over the fact that his childhood love Hatsue left him (for reasons not at all personal) and is not over the killings he was forced to pursue in the war. Because he is living in his past, it is very hard for Ishmael to have a life in the present. Although he may not be diagnosed Ishmael is showing all symptoms of a disease called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress often relive memories of their time in war, and distance themselves from people and places that remind them of those times. In the case of Ishmael he is constantly thinking about and reliving his time in World War II and it continually effects his day to day life. Ishmael witnessed a lot in that war, including his best friend bleed to death. "Fifty yards away he lay in the surf pleading in a soft voice for help...He sat there and watched Eric roll over in the surf and face the sun. The boy bled to death and then his lef floated a few feet away." (p. 245) If this kind of stress does not cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder I'm not sure what could. As a defense mechanism Ishmael currently writes about other people's problems instead of havng a life himself. Unless he can get treatment and learn to move past his hardships, Ishmael will be stuck in this rut forever.

Racism is a huge theme through out the novel "Snow Falling on Cedars". It effects the entire story and seems to be the driving force behind every acusation in the book. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to get a fair trial unconcious prejudices will always play a role, especially in times of war. Prejudices are many times formed because of the goverment. During World War II 120,000 Japanese Americans (of which 62% were full US citizens) were placed in "Internment Camps ". These camps were very close to prison, giving people no freedoms and treating them as if they had commited horrible crimes. Because they were put in these situations, it lead Americans to beleive that these citizens had done something wrong. If the goverment was afraid enough to lock them up, then should they be also? This lead, for many, to a lifetime of hatred towards Japanese Americans. A more extreme case of this was the Jews being held in concentration camps. Although the motives were different (extermination vs. containment) it gave the public the same impression: that these people had done something wrong. The fact is, they did nothing wrong and these people were just caught in the middle of a war between countries. A war that they had no control over.

Break. It was fun, a week that went by suprisingly fast considering I did very little. The first weekend I went with Stephanie Poller to Windham New York where i skiied for the first time ever, boy was that an experience. Besides being embarassed out of my mind by the four and five year olds zooming past me on the bunny hill, I could not even make it 10 feet without falling. By the end of the day I seemed to get the hang of it, but still there was one problem. I, under no circumstances, could get off the chair lift without tripping, falling and creating a pile up. It was a task that even on my last run I could not master. The rest of the week was pretty relaxing watching the movies that rossyy lent me. He has some pretty weird suggestions but his latest "I am Sam" ended up being quite enjoyable. Friday's blizzard resulted in my canceled trip to Indiana, which was extremely dissapointing. But the weekend ended up being pretty solid anyway, and I will be flying to bloomington this coming weekend instead. Thats my update, Its always fun to chatt---kissesss.lsell

Many times in literature, a story’s title will only reflect a specific quote in the book and not tie in the entire message. The Sunflower by Simon Wisenthal, does the opposite by using a symbol that brings together the whole novel and makes a shining image stick in your mind. It reminds us all the meaning a human life has, and how in World War II those lives were so viciously ripped away. Sunflowers are a symbol of hope and happiness, something that we are blessed to have and unfortunately those in The Sunflower are not. As Simon is being lead through town with other prisoners like cattle, he recalls the graveyards he passes on his way. All the dead SS soldiers are remembered by a sunflower resting atop his or her grave; and “Suddenly I envied the dead soldiers. Each had a sunflower to connect him with the living world, and butterflies to visit his grave. I would be buried in a mass grave, where corpses would be piled on top of me. No sunflower would ever bring light into my darkness.” All hope was lost. It was no longer a matter of if he would die in this terrible war it was a question of when.

Sunflowers are a symbol

I have just begun reading The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal which is proving to be a much better read then I initially predicted. All stories of the Holocaust begin to feel very similar but this one touches on a paticular moral situation instead of multiple situations with similar themes. The main character, Simon has been tortured through the hells of Hitler's reign for what seems like an eternity when he is called to the bedside of a dying SS soldier. This soldier uses his time with Simon as a sort of confession to his sins, trying to get everything off his chest. In doing this he reveals a stories that so greusome and awful they are hard to hear. So it raises a question that could be and will be argued for centuries, does simply confessing their sins and admitting to themself and others that their actions were wrong erase them and make it all okay? Of course it is good that on their death bed, one can recognize that they have sinned- but how can it erase all the families destroyed, and lives stolen. This book reminds me of Ellie weisel's Night in which another older man reflects on his life in World War II. Stories like these have gained widespread popularity and Night even appeared in Oprah's Book Club . The stories although different, are so similar in the emotions they convey. These people were at best treated like animals (although i think even cattle get better food and water then these prisoners did). No living being should ever be treated like this. This is why it is so important for books like this to be written, so that others can connect with the victims and understand the horrifying situations that can arrouse, so that this will never happen again.