Food Memoir Glog

http://beccamartin2014.edu.glogster.com/food-memoir

Food Memoir Video

Food Memoir

At the dinner table, Mom is going through the events of her day, relating them to us with many hand motions and exasperated expressions. I am waiting for a moment when she looks towards her far right to make my move. There! Plop. And again waiting, waiting, there! Slop. Eventually all of the horrid miniature trees were part of the forest under the dinner table, and I was free of them.

Lunches were more difficult; I had to be crafty, slipping the lettuce up a sleeve, or sneezing while carrying my plate past the garbage can and simultaneously dropping my applesauce. To this day, I firmly believe my over-the-top pickiness pertaining to food, more specifically anything green or texture-less, was television. Every show I watched had an anti-vegetable agenda.

It is really a true miracle that I can even stand to look at any veggies let alone approach them, and sometimes even enjoy them. That marvel must be attributed to my grandmother. Not because she cooked in any special way, or she uses more butter to prepare the vegetables—she scared me into it with good, old-fashioned guilt.

This sudden polarization, going from revulsion to toleration and intermittent enjoyment, did not occur with a few words and sentences. It started out with her keen eye, watching my forks journey from the plate to my mouth, and noticing the passengers’ disappearances. She never outright talked out it. It would just be a look, a nudge, a cough, a scowl. When I decided not to heed these warnings, fed up (literally) with leafy greens, my grandma made her move: she began cooking the foods she ate as a child.

And as we all got to eat a variety of dishes, each containing different proportions of cabbage and potatoes, Grandma would explain how they came about, “In the home country, all we had was cabbage. So all we ate was boiled cabbage.” She would then go on to clarify that our cabbage had salt and pepper on it, what we of course considered the basics—but back in the Ukraine salt was used to preserve meat and pepper saved for special occasions. “When we came to America, during the Great Depression we had no money, no food; sometimes we got potatoes, because we grew them.” Without ever pointedly telling us to appreciate what we have access to, and what we consider normal, my siblings and I understood through the context in which she grew up.

Food literally meant living another day, and it was not seen as a leisure activity where my grandma grew up. Food truly is the base level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and I am now able to appreciate its necessity. My grandma showed me that through tradition. Without the cultural explanation through the history and story coming from an elder, the message would not have been so clearly conceived through just the food itself. In the same way, many “acquired tastes” (like boiled cabbage) would never catch on, because you have to be told, by someone you respect, to try it. This shows the different degrees of respect as it relates to age, according to the Iceberg of Culture. I tried to foil my mom’s attempts to get me to eat vegetables, but I did listen to my grandma, so even though both women are elder to me, I could sense that age carried weight, even as a small child. Thus, lacking that first introduction I would have continued in my anti-green ways, never being able to appreciate my culture through my grandmother’s wise words.

This guilt-trip was the instance I learned I was from the Ukraine. My grandmother still doesn’t like talking about “the motherland.” She had been taught to fear uncovering ancestry, since her family faced such backlash as immigrants when she was growing up. In America, many immigrant minorities faced criticism; those from Eastern Europe were, on balance, poorer. They came with lesser or no wealth, their possessions almost nonexistent, and undertook the arduous journey from the other side of the world. This flood basin of poverty collecting in this boundary of Europe and Asia, encompassing Russia and the Slavic, central, and Baltic countries, can be attributed to the crops most common there: potatoes. Many dishes featuring potatoes are innately “poor-man’s” dishes, due to the simple and cheap ingredients paired with straightforward preparation. Cabbage and potatoes was my grandmother’s first dish she learned to cook. Food in cultural dishes are “…intimately intertwined with ideological, political, and economic realities” (Twiss 2). Had my grandmother not grown up in that region, in those circumstances, I probably would have never been convinced to give green things another try. I wouldn’t have had as much perspective on other parts of the world or other times in history. And I definitely would not have had the deep relationship with my grandma through food as I do now.

The Rainbow Essay Analysis

In Lawrence’s The Rainbow a woman is unhappy with her situation in life, because, while she is conscious of a world outside the farm, she is not a part of it, nor is she thought to be able, even by herself, to understand it. Lawrence highlights this complexity through many comparisons ending in contradiction and irony, as well as anaphora and analogy.

Lawrence begins with “it was enough for the men….it was enough” (1-4) to establish that the woman is alone in her yearnings and inadequacies, separate from the men, with this anaphora. He says that “the woman wanted another form of life” (14) outside of the farm. In order to inform the reader of this “outside” place Lawrence utilizes phrases like “active scope of man” 919-20) and “enlarge their own…freedom” (12). This lends to the thought process of letting a bird fly free or the blossoming of a flower, but in a middle paragraph it states that the woman is “straining to hear…straining to see” once again using anaphora, to show that unless the woman moves her geographic location she will not be able to hear or participate. Ties must be severed.

However, this woman is unable to sever such ties that will allow her to reach the next level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, because by leaving the farm she forfeits her substance and sense of belonging for self-actualization. This is shown clearly through the woman’s analogies and comparisons, as she equates her husband to a bull’ her husband and her “man folk” as inferior to “the vicar” (even though she doesn't understand it); and her husband as “dull and local”. The catharsis of the issue is summed up with this: the woman wants to possess knowledge, creativity, respect, to achieve self-actualization, but in doing so she gives up her food, shelter, water, and sense of belonging. She cannot leave the farm to live without dying from being apart from the farm.

The irony of the comparison of the vicar is that the woman claims “in the vicar’s nature was that which passed beyond her knowledge,” but in fact it was just that—knowledge and consciousness that set him apart. The vicar’s power was his paradox, how frail his physical self was and how evolved his psyche was—because he had achieved transcendence.

My initial essay score was a seven, this is because, as I did touch on much of the needed content, it was only briefly, and with minimal evidence. My analysis was on its way to being deeper, but it just wasn’t quite there. I think Sarah M. graded by essay a little too generously, because it was very superficial. I also based it off of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, which could have led to the correct analysis but because I did not know the author’s background well enough, it was not sufficient.

There are many ways I could improve my essay, mostly by addressing the correct complexity in the piece, being the contrast of blood of knowledge and the contrast of man and woman. I also should have more deeply probed the actual structure of the passage itself, and analyzed the contrasting structure of longing and recognition. I did not even comment on the rhetorical question, which almost always points to the complexity of the piece.

However a very interesting point within the scope of things is the fact that almost everyone missed the author’s true intent, because we live in the western world and knowledge (being in an AP class) is important to us, so many of us may have thought of the correct complexity but thought it was too improbable and dismissed it.  I only mentioned one true literary device, anaphora, and never stated the impact of that as it pertains to complacency. 

Blog Post #18: Final Portfolio Reflection

The most difficult aspects of this class were the poetic analyses and video projects.  But I surprised myself with my work in the Fairy Tale group project PowerPoint and the overall product of my group’s American Drama project. I had a leading hand in both pieces, but starkly different than the leadership role I usually fill. Most times I delegate the tasks, then go over it all and compile everything, but with the Hansel and Gretel poem I was absolutely stumped and talking it out with one of my group members helped to clarify, as well as guidance from you, Ms. Wilson. In the prior PowerPoint presentations we had not adhered to the assigned Foster chapters as diligently as we should have, but with the Hansel and Gretel poem, the chapter on acts of communion broke the whole analysis wide open and it was by far the most thorough a job we have done. This was also the first poem that I actually understood the meaning as a whole, because I was able to see the complexity in the allusions.

In regards to the American Drama video, I usually try to pull minimal acting parts and stay as far away from the editing as possible, but since I was voted the “best able to pull off a mustache” by my group, I had to by Flan in Six Degrees of Separation (a play I very much enjoyed by the way) and have a larger speaking part than I am used to. I also somehow got saddled with the editing. Johanna and I powered through it, and now I have a new skill. This project was predominantly about capturing the theme of the work in just three scenes, and I think we easily accomplished that with dialogue, but we also utilized varying lighting techniques to advance our message. By keeping Louisa well lit during the pivotal phone call and shutting Paul in the dark, we paralleled Louisa to light, because that is what she symbolizes for Paul. It was my idea to spotlight Louisa for her last monologue for dramatic effect, and to add anxiety to the interview scenes by making the light dim and yellow. Because I was able to actually implement these aspects of mise en scene, I now have a much deeper appreciation of their effects on the overall product.

After experiencing a less-than-exemplary encounter with AP Comp, I was absolutely motivated to give my all in this class. I feel that I completed every assignment to the best of my ability, even though I may have complained about it, I also learned a lot about my writing style, it still needs a bit of fine-tuning, and I know I participated in class discussions and groups. I tend to sort of dominate groups, usually in a good way. Regardless of grade, I can wholeheartedly stand by my effort during the trimester. That’s what I took away from Comp: no matter how hard you work, something or someone can always thwart you, and in the end you might not get the grade you deserve. Don’t worry; I am not as bitter about it anymore as I was, because what I carried away from it was that I need to do best at everything every time so I know there wasn't anything more I could have done.

I think that my strength is actually group presentations because I am a good speaker, and even if my group is not the most competent/helpful we still manage to churn out a well-executed and accurate presentation. I will admit there were some struggles with work load delegation, and the quality or some work, but I stepped up and corrected it all to the best of my ability, and the end product in no way reflected the frenzy that was our collaborations—for which I am happy about because otherwise that would have been embarrassing. For example, with the Hansel and Gretel presentation, I completed my parts of the work and then went to bed. But then the bell before we present I get a text from a group member saying that they didn't do this, this, or this, and that was the last straw for me, them not pulling their weight. This was the time I asked you for an extra night to finish it up, which was granted, and because of that, as you read above I was really proud of how it turned out, since I had the time to fix everything and complete it. Not to lead you off-course with our group dynamic (and if you forget also in my group were Harsha R., Alex R., and Reilly C.) but that was the worst of it, the rest of the issues were just quality problems, and some individuals incapability to use MLA citations correctly or write a proper thesis. Overall working in that particular group was a learning experience, but not one I would like to repeat. My other groups, for the creative assignment and the American Drama project were phenomenal. Perfect, smooth, flawless. I sound like a shaving cream commercial, but really it is true. I like working with people who take the class as seriously as I do.

The goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the trimester were too vague and ambitious. I set out to “identify poem structures more easily”, “pay more attention to tone words”, and “figure out how to decipher the meaning of the work as a whole”. Since I didn't every outline a specific avenue through which to accomplish these things, I can’t say I did. But I certainly improved on all fronts. Through the group presentations I was introduced to all the poem structures, what literary periods they are associated with, and the themes they usually portray.  I feel now that I have a fair handle on those things. With regard to the tone of a piece, I am back on my game on that front. After reading Hamlet and watching the movie at the same time I can definitely pick up the tone and context of the words with much more ease.

The meaning of the work as a whole is still a little tricky for me, certainly not mastered, but when we talked through those thesis statements in class I now know multiple ways that I can at least approach the question. I feel that most of these problems arose from inexperience, and now that I have all that I learned throughout the trimester I have gained confidence is my abilities. Even though I did not record this goal on my blog, to study for the exam I promised myself that I would read Hamlet thoroughly, and go over all the literary device definitions that I still don’t feel that I knew like the back of hand. And I did! Even though neither skill helped on the exam, I know all the notes I took will be of benefit to me for the AP exam.

Blog Post #17: Hamlet Blog Assignment 6

EXTRA CREDIT Blog Post #17A: Hamlet Blog Assignment 5

BASTILLE LYRICS

"Bad Blood"

We were young and drinking in the park
There was nowhere else to go
And you said you always had my back
Oh but how were we to know

That these are the days that bind you together, forever
And these little things define you forever, forever

All this bad blood here, won't you let it dry?
It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

If we're only ever looking back
We will drive ourselves insane
As the friendship goes resentment grows
We will walk our different ways

But those are the days that bind us together, forever
And those little things define us forever, forever

All this bad blood here, won't you let it dry?
It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

And I don't wanna hear about the bad blood anymore
I don't wanna hear you talk about it anymore
I don't wanna hear about the bad blood anymore
I don't wanna hear you talk about it anymore

All this bad blood here, won't you let it dry?
It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

“Bad Blood” by Bastille is a song Hamlet would relate to. It center around death, hence the title, and about how the moral choices we make, even “[the] little things” (Bad Blood, 2010) because they “define us forever”. The plays purpose is to show Hamlet’s struggle with revenge and coping with betrayal. When Hamlet’s father is slain, the new king, and technically his new father, says “You must know, your father lost a father . . . ‘tis unmanly grief” (1.1.94), emasculating him in a venerable time, beginning Hamlet’s mistrust of those closest to him. This is what the song is saying with the line “These are the days that bind you together” meaning that the most difficult times will make or break a relationship. Ill feelings towards Claudius only escalated when Hamlet speaks with his father as a ghost, who gives him an ultimatum: “If thou didst ever thy dear father love –Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder!” (1.4.23-25) and this begins Hamlet’s search for the true definition of a man. He must find the balance between doing right by father—loyalty—and true nobility, which means acting fair and just in the law of man and god. This burden of betrayal and indecision on whether or not to act cause Hamlet to go a bit mad on the outside. This makes the king and queen send spies “To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather so much as from occasion you may glean” (2.2.14) and Ophelia to question his sanity when he acts unusually saying “Lord Hamlet…Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other” (2.2.80) which makes Hamlet even more perturbed. This connects to the song through the verse “If we're only ever looking back, we will drive ourselves insane” showing that Hamlet is basing his present decisions only on past events, making him appear a bit insane. These lines precede “As the friendship goes resentment grows, We will walk our different ways” which directly supports the events in the play, because as Hamlet acted more eccentric, those closest to him drew farther and farther away, even his most trusted companion, Horatio, seems to think that “He waxes desperate with imagination” (1.4.155) and “deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness?” (1.4.120). The setting of winter in the play also connects to the song through the lyrics “It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?” and this season is also very specific to Hamlet, because it is his last. The major theme of the song is that even though it is the little things that define us, the artist repeatedly exclaims “I don't wanna hear about the bad blood anymore, I don't wanna hear you talk about it anymore” highlighting the indecision that Hamlet also shares. At one point he feels so strongly for revenge he states “My fate cries out, and makes each petty artery in this body, as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve” (1.4.65) but later he envies a player for his ability to fully commit, “…his whole function suiting with forms of his conceit [which forms to his thought]” (2.2.481-482) and the fact that he had “...the motive and the cue for passion” (2.2.486). Hamlet would also relate to this song through not just their shared sense of direction morally but only physically, because the opening line to the song is “There was nowhere else to go” and Hamlet also feels that Denmark has become a prison for him, with its taxing courtly rituals and gossip and his inability to leave. Hamlet feels so trapped he contemplates suicide, “…’tis nobler in the mind to suffer…Or to take arms against a sea of troubles…To die: to sleep” (3.1.61, 63-64). As to whether Hamlet will ask for this song to be played at his funeral, he probably did not have a will written up since his death was so sudden, and everyone he loved was dead anyway, but Hamlet certainly shared many of the same trials Bastille communicates through “Bad Blood”.