Alexandra- "New Legends of Old"

1.Define important terms- (American Heritage Dictionary)Folklore- The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally.

Worldview- 1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. 2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.

Fairy Tale- A fanciful tale of legendary deeds and creatures, usually intended for children.

Epic-An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.

Myth- A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the world view of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society.

Legend-An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.

Ballad-A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain.

Urban Legend-An apocryphal story involving incidents of the recent past, often including elements of humor and horror, that spreads quickly and is popularly believed to be true.

Apocryphal-Of questionable authorship or authenticity

2. Summarize the reading.

In New Legends for Old the author discusses how legends, specifically urban legends, have developed in society. The author says, "Legend Study is a most revealing area of such research because the stories that people believe to be true hold an important place in their worldview." When properly interpreted they give information about the society from which they develop.

To show how a legend develops and how it affects and is affected by a given society the author traces one urban legend in particular titled "The Boyfriends Death". At the first recorded telling of this story it was relatively simple. As it went through more tellings and spread the story grew, different tellers added their personal flair to the telling. It also took on characteristics of the places it was told, or of other urban legends told in that area.

The author concludes by providing some explanations for why people tell these legends. There are several reasons, however, "[the] common role nowadays seems to be to show that the prosaic contemporary scene is capable of producing shocking of amazing occurrences which mat actually have happened to friends or to near-acquaintances but which are nevertheless explainable in some reasonably logical terms." Basically, they tell them to convince themselves that while their own lives are boring and seemingly unimportant, "shocking and amazing occurrences" do happen.present a question for discussion."Several of the informants explained that the story was told to them in spooky situations, late at night, near a cemetery, out camping or even " while on a hayride or out parked," occasionally near the site of the supposed murder. Some students refer to such macabre legends, therefore, as "scary stories," "screamers," or "horrors."Most urban legends are meant to scare the audience. What is it about horror which fascinates people? Is it the adrenalin rush? Does attributing these characteristics to others make one feel normal? Why do people like to be scared?

3. present a question for discussion.

"Several of the informants explained that the story was told to them in spooky situations, late at night, near a cemetery, out camping or even " while on a hayride or out parked," occasionally near the site of the supposed murder. Some students refer to such macabre legends, therefore, as "scary stories," "screamers," or "horrors."Most urban legends are meant to scare the audience. What is it about horror which fascinates people? Is it the adrenalin rush? Does attributing these characteristics to others make one feel normal? Why do people like to be scared?

Cindy - "Two Ways to Belong in America"

1. The author Bharati and Mira are two sisters from Calcutta, India.

saris - "a garment of southern Asian women that consists of several yards of lightweight cloth draped so that one end forms a skirt and the other a head or shoulder covering" m-w.com

mongrelization - "an individual resulting from the interbreeding of diverse breeds or strains" m-w.com

scapegoating - "to make a scapegoat of" to put the blame on m-w.com

Green Paper - in Canada: "a green paper is taken to be an official document sponsored by Ministers of the Crown which is issued by government to invite public comment and discussion on an issue prior to policy formulation" http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Pages/GreenPapers.aspx

2. The author Bharita explains the differences she has with her sister Mira on citizenship in the United States. Bharita thinks that "immigrants" in the United States should become citizens and not just be legal immigrants; she wants them to go all the way like her. On the other hand, Mira just wants to have the benefits of her "green card" but still maintain her Indian citizenship. Mira keeps her "Indianness," because that is her identity, "My sister is an expatriate, professionally generous...socially courteous...and that's as far as her Americanization can go."
Bharita's main point is that she is a person that "embraced" everything American and "renounc[ed] 3,000 years of caste-observant, "pure culture" marriage in the Mukherjee family." She describes of when she felt the same way Mira did "with the scapegoating of "aliens," but in her case in Canada: "I felt then the same sense of betrayal...will never forget the pain of that sudden turning, and the casual racist outbursts the Green Paper elicited." This situation made her leave Canada, especially because it "attacked" South Asian immigrants.
Bharita points out that the biggest difference between her and her sister is that she is an immigrant and her sister is just fine "living in America as expatriate Indian." Bharita needs to feel a part of the country she lives in, like civic duty. "The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the trauma of self-transformation."

3. Do you agree that residents of the United States should go all the way to become U.S. citizens?
If you were in their situation as immigrants in the U.S., would you be an immigrant made citizen like Bharita or a legal immigrant like Mira? In other words, would you "retain" your roots or "embrace" America?

Niamkha Berlanger -- Gloria Naylor, “The meaning of a word”

1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.

A) Words used:

Language: The system of spoken or written communication used by a particular country, people, community, etc., typically consisting of words used within a regular grammatical and syntactic structure. Naylor refers to language as the subject and she exclaims that language is inferior to the spoken word.

Meaning: The significance, purpose, underlying truth, etc., of something.

Nigger: a) Used as a disparaging term for a Black person or any dark-skinned people.

b) Used as a disparaging term for a member of any socially, economically, or politically deprived group of people.

Nymphomaniac: A woman (or, rarely: a man) exhibiting nymphomania.

Necrophiliac: A person affected by necrophilia; a necrophile. Necrophilia is the fascination with death and dead bodies; especially sexual attraction to, or intercourse with, dead bodies.

B) Concepts mentioned:

Reality and language: Naylor writes,

I'm not going to enter the debate here about whether it is language that shapes reality or vice versa. That battle is doomed to be waged whenever we seek intermittent reprieve from the chicken and egg dispute. I will simply take the position that the spoken word, like the written word, amounts to a nonsensical arrangement of sounds or letters without a consensus that assigns "meaning." And building from the meanings of what we hear, we order reality. Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power.

Meaning and context: Naylor discusses the many different meanings of the N-word and the different times and places where it can be noted without provoking anyone. She argues that different words have different meanings to very different people.

2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotations that best capture the overall feeling or mood of the reading.

Naylor wants the reader to know that words are, as I quote, “innocuous; it is there consensus that gives them true power.” To Naylor, a word is considered good or bad in its context when one is talking about meaning; different words have different meanings to various people.

In the reading, Naylor talks about her “extended family”. She describes their lifestyles in this manner;

I was part of a large extended family that had migrated from the rural South after World War II and formed a close-knit network that gravitated around my maternal grandparents. Their ground-floor apartment in one of the buildings they owned in Harlem was a weekend mecca for my immediate family, along with countless aunts, uncles, and cousins who brought along assorted friends. It was a bustling and open house with assorted neighbors and tenants popping in and out to exchange bits of gossip, pick up an old quarrel, or referee the ongoing checkers game in which my grandmother cheated shamelessly. They were all there to let down their hair and put up their feet after a week of labor in the factories, laundries, and shipyards of New York. Amid the clamor, which could reach deafening proportions--two or three conversations going on simultaneously, punctuated by the sound of a baby's crying somewhere in the back rooms or out on the street--there was still a rigid set of rules about what was said and how. Older children were sent out of the living room when it was time to get into the juicy details about "you-know-who" up on the third floor who had gone and gotten herself "p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t!" But my parents, knowing that I could spell well beyond my years, always demanded that I follow the others out to play. Beyond sexual misconduct and death, everything else was considered harmless for our young ears. And so among the anecdotes of the triumphs and disappointments in the various workings of their lives, the word nigger was used in my presence, but it was set within contexts and inflections that caused it to register in my mind as something else.

I mention her family to present the various types of people who might use the N-word in contrast to the little 3^rd grader who used it towards Naylor as a young girl. This goes to prove that the meaning of word can vary and can cause confusion, anger, or be innocuous depending on the context in which the word is used.

Naylor provided many examples in which the word ‘nigger’ can be used and its meaning at each different notion. In one intend or in the singular, the word may refer to a successful man. In the possessive, the word refers to woman’s love to a boyfriend or a husband. When spoken by a man, the word shows “the essence of manhood”. On a negative and plural note, the N-word can be used to look down upon a group of people “who overstepped the bounds of decency”. The word ‘nigger’ itself does not apply to women. Naylor provides its equivalent as girl. “A token of respect”, Naylor called it. In reference to Naylor’s personal experience, the word may also be used with a purpose of hurt and as a form of hate.

Addressing a popular misjudgment, Naylor says,

I don't agree with the argument that use of the word nigger at this social stratum of the black community was an internalization of racism. The dynamics were the exact opposite: the people in my grandmother's living room took a word that whites used to signify worthlessness or degradation and rendered it impotent. Gathering there together, they transformed ‘nigger’ to signify the varied and complex human beings they knew themselves to be. If the word was to disappear totally from the mouths of even the most liberal of white society, no one in that room was naive enough to believe it would disappear from white minds. Meeting the word head-on, they proved it had absolutely nothing to do with the way they were determined to live their lives.

She voices her opinion that blacks’ use of the word challenges the racist negative meaning assigned to it by whites by redefining the word on their own terms. They transform the word by giving it a meaning of pride rather than an insult. Naylor conveyed with her essay, that the meaning of the word ‘nigger’ changes depending on how it is used, and who uses it.

3. Formulate a question for discussion.

Does the word ‘nigger’ really vary in meaning or is bringing context in the equation a way to undermine the hurtful meaning of the word itself?

Joanna - The Green-Eyed Monster: Envy is nothing to be Jealous of

1. Important words/terms: (as defined in Merriam Webster dictionary and Encarta dictionary)

• Insidious- slowly and subtly harmful or destructive
• Endemic- belonging or native to a particular people or country
• Rancorous- having, showing, or arising from intense often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred
• Pedantic- too concerned with formal rules and details
• Pejorative- having negative connotations

Concepts:

• Envy is a feeling that no person in their right mind, would own up to. In doing so, a person is admitting to being mean, uncaring, and heartless, characteristics which they will most likely be rejected for. This causes a person to bottle up the emotion, in order to be considered a moral and decent person.
• In The Rhetoric by Aristotle, he believes that envy is the start of admiration. When one is envious of another, he/she will try to imitate that trait or quality. As the saying goes, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. But Epstein believes the only good thing about envy is to get rid of it.
• “Jealousy is properly restricted to contexts involving affairs of the heart; envy is used more broadly of resentful contemplation of a more fortunate person.” Epstein refers to Bryan A. Garner in his 1998 Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His idea was that although people may switch up the usage of jealous and envy, they have separate deeper meanings. Jealousy is over love, while envy is wanting something another lucky person has. To me, the quote meant that jealousy is being selfish and overbearing over a loved one, while envy is the comparison of fortunes, in money, family, friendship, careers, personality, and appearance. In other words, it is the belief that the grass is greener on the other side.

2. The main idea of this essay was to insist that jealousy and envy are not the same, and have completely different meanings. Epstein uses many examples to show the contrast. The quotation that best explained his idea is: “If jealousy is, in cliché parlance, spoken as of the ‘green-eyed monster,’ envy is cross-, squinty-, and blearily red-eyed.” He makes the contrast that to be envious is much worse than being jealous, and envy brings out the ugliness in a person.

3. Epstein included a quote from William Hazlitt: “Envy, among other ingredients, has a love of justice in it.” We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good fortune.” He felt that people are not envious of those who need or deserve something, for example, a homeless man winning the lottery, but are envious of those who do not, like a student getting a high grade based on poor work. In that case, if the reward was undeserved, there is justice in wanting a correction. However, I wonder, what if the person in question not only wants the injustice undone, but fixed upon themselves? Isn’t that being envious? And furthermore, would they even notice the injustice if not comparing their own fortune to that of another?

Plato's Myth of the Cave

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