In this day and age, being smart is either admired or looked down upon depending on who or where a person is. In Harvard, being smart is most definitely an asset and prized possession, but if one chooses to be around those who are not so blessed with much intelligence, it is instead a burden to have the brains because some may make fun of the smart one and call him or her names such as "nerd," "geek," know-it-all" etc.
For men, they like to have all the smarts so that they feel that they can do almost anything, whereas for women or young girls, they will sometimes pretend to not be as smart as they really are, thinking that they are attracting more positive attention than they really are; this is a real problem. Women need to know that being smart is an asset and not just a burden to their appearance and social status.
Women, compared to men, are for the most part more concerned with how they are seen in society. They worry more about their appearances, who they are with, etc. As a part of their appearances, their brains are also included. Women do not want to seem like they are brainiacs that are always outsmarting their friends as well as any significant other that they may have. The media, such as magazines and television shows, lead women and young girls to believe that it is more important to be pretty than it is to be smart and accomplished. On television shows, the smart woman as one who does not know how to dress fashionably and the woman or girl is always wearing huge glasses that are unattractive in many ways. A smart woman is almost never portrayed as beautiful; instead the "dumb blondes" on the show are the ones that are found most attractive to the men. When a young girl watches these types of shows, her mindset is thus that "men are only attracted to gorgeous and dumb girls" and then she will not live to her full potential because she believes that it will make her look unattractive to men. A company in France, Jours Après Lunes, introduced a new line of children's lingerie for girls as young as 4 years old. This company is basically telling young girls that all they are good for is for looks, the company is not telling the young girls to stay in school and pursue a successful life instead of just looking good. Another example of praising the beauty of women instead of the intelligent women is the "Miss Universe" pageants. The women that compete in these competitions are trained to appeal to the audiences' emotions as well as the judges by sounding compassionate with the third world countries. The problem with this is that the girls that are competing come up with the most unintelligent answers possible, that it sounds as if they are purposefully sounding dumb, so as to get more points from the judges. When these women answer with dumb answers, the young girls that are watching think that these girls are their role models and will start to do the same thing so as to look good for other people.
In conclusion, being smart does have its high and lows in today's society. Women unfortunately sometimes believe that being smart is a low, therefore not living to their full potential in their lives. Women will tend to believe that men do not like and are not attracted to intellectually smart women, and are instead drawn to the "dumb blondes" in society. Instead of only praising the beautiful women in the world, it is necessary that the media also show the great accomplishments of the smart women in the world so that the intellectually smart women and girls out there believe that it is okay to be smart and that it is not nerdy, weird, or geeky.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-roth/teach-girls-to-be-smart-n_b_929689.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/miss-usa-utah-create-education-better-video_n_3451896.html
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Chapter 19: California's History
In chapter 19 of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck chooses to explain the history of the great and glorified state of California. In this chapter, Steinbeck makes the argument that the Mexicans that once tended to the land of California, were forced off the land by the vicious and greedy "squatters" who cared little to nothing of the land they now owned, and that farming was becoming more of an industry than a love for farming. Steinbeck reinforces his argument by using the rhetorical strategies of repetition and diction, so as to make his argument more clear to the reader.
Repetition is used quite a lot by Steinbeck in chapter 19 so as to reinforce the idea that the Mexicans were thrown off the California lands slowly but surely by the rich and greedy Americans, and how farming was becoming more of an industry. Steinbeck states that, "they could not resist, because they wanted nothing in the world as ferociously as the Americans wanted land" (231). When saying this, the author is saying that the Mexicans loved what they did on the land, but due to the "ferocious" squatters, they were not willing to fight the Americans for the land that they loved dearly. Steinbeck also repeats several times how they land that was loved and appreciated by the Mexicans, was then uncared for as beautiful, but instead the crops were "reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted" (231). In other words, Steinbeck is saying that Americans took a new outlook on the land on which they stood, and that they began to only look on what profit they would get from the land and how much money they could make off of the crops that it produced. All throughout the chapter Steinbeck mostly focuses on the fact that farming was now an industry and that due to this industry many were without jobs and were left creating "secret gardens" within the big industries' fields. Unfortunately these people generally got caught and their gardens would be destroyed, such as one farmers' "little green carrot tops were kicked off and the turnip greens trampled" (235).
Diction also played a main part in how Steinbeck brought about his argument that the Mexicans were thrown out by the greedy Americans and that faming was becoming more of an industry than of a love for what farmers do. "Once California belonged to the Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in," here Steinbeck could have said that the Americans began to come to California and live there, but instead he wanted to use stronger, almost filthy terms to describe how the newcomers were like (231). Steinbeck has a tone of disdain for the Americans that had the gall to kick the Mexicans out of California so that they would be able to run a successful business. Soon the Americans were lost in the thought that land was only meant to bring in money so when there was a crop failure, drought, and flood they no longer were "little deaths within life, but simple losses of money," and for this Steinbeck mocked them (232). The diction used in this sentence shows clearly the apathy the land owners had for the land on which they harvested crops. Steinbeck uses simple diction so as to reinforce how shallow the new land owners were, and the simple words that the author chose to use to describe the owners truly mocks them indirectly, but nonetheless Steinbeck is still mocking them.
In conclusion, Steinbeck uses repetition and diction in chapter 19 so as to reinforce his argument that the greedy American "squatters" kicked out the poor Mexican farmers for the sole purpose of obtaining a lot of land so as to get a lot of money from the crops, and that these newcomers were turning farming into an industry instead of a love of what a farmer does.
Repetition is used quite a lot by Steinbeck in chapter 19 so as to reinforce the idea that the Mexicans were thrown off the California lands slowly but surely by the rich and greedy Americans, and how farming was becoming more of an industry. Steinbeck states that, "they could not resist, because they wanted nothing in the world as ferociously as the Americans wanted land" (231). When saying this, the author is saying that the Mexicans loved what they did on the land, but due to the "ferocious" squatters, they were not willing to fight the Americans for the land that they loved dearly. Steinbeck also repeats several times how they land that was loved and appreciated by the Mexicans, was then uncared for as beautiful, but instead the crops were "reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted" (231). In other words, Steinbeck is saying that Americans took a new outlook on the land on which they stood, and that they began to only look on what profit they would get from the land and how much money they could make off of the crops that it produced. All throughout the chapter Steinbeck mostly focuses on the fact that farming was now an industry and that due to this industry many were without jobs and were left creating "secret gardens" within the big industries' fields. Unfortunately these people generally got caught and their gardens would be destroyed, such as one farmers' "little green carrot tops were kicked off and the turnip greens trampled" (235).
Diction also played a main part in how Steinbeck brought about his argument that the Mexicans were thrown out by the greedy Americans and that faming was becoming more of an industry than of a love for what farmers do. "Once California belonged to the Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in," here Steinbeck could have said that the Americans began to come to California and live there, but instead he wanted to use stronger, almost filthy terms to describe how the newcomers were like (231). Steinbeck has a tone of disdain for the Americans that had the gall to kick the Mexicans out of California so that they would be able to run a successful business. Soon the Americans were lost in the thought that land was only meant to bring in money so when there was a crop failure, drought, and flood they no longer were "little deaths within life, but simple losses of money," and for this Steinbeck mocked them (232). The diction used in this sentence shows clearly the apathy the land owners had for the land on which they harvested crops. Steinbeck uses simple diction so as to reinforce how shallow the new land owners were, and the simple words that the author chose to use to describe the owners truly mocks them indirectly, but nonetheless Steinbeck is still mocking them.
In conclusion, Steinbeck uses repetition and diction in chapter 19 so as to reinforce his argument that the greedy American "squatters" kicked out the poor Mexican farmers for the sole purpose of obtaining a lot of land so as to get a lot of money from the crops, and that these newcomers were turning farming into an industry instead of a love of what a farmer does.
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