alaska776

Have you a Brook in your little heart

All over the world, children, teens, and adults of both genders are being influenced on how they should look by the media. They have been told how much they should weigh to be “good-looking,” what types of make-up will make them look 10 years younger, and what kind of clothes they should wear to be more appealing to others. Having a world centered around being the best, it is difficult to not be caught up in the “right” way to be. People of different sizes, shapes, and colors all deal with the same problem: trying to fit in with the “right” crowd.

The ideal body is what gets people the most. If a girl is 5’7″ and weigh 140 pounds, they better starve themselves to get into the 120s to fit in with everyone else. With what is being seen on television, it is easy to understand the struggle of trying to be just like everyone else. The commercials are filled with super skinny models and they see that and believe that is how it is suppossed to be. Having only seen the ultra thin stars on billboards, television, and magazines, there is only one who can be blamed for harming the lives of so many girls. The media.

Not only do girls get swarmed with the trying to be the perfect body type, but guys do, too. When guys don’t have the six pack or ripped-out-of-your-mind muscles, they try however they can to end up like that. The media links characteristics such as muscular, energentic, well groomed, youthful, successful, and attractive to how all men should be. Not only is it in the media such as television and billboards, but the muscular man is being portrayed in the action figures that children play with. Just like the girls, the little minds of the kids are being influenced on what is the “perfect” body type and how they should look and act like when they are older.

The perfect body takes a lot of work and some people don’t have the time or the mindset to take the challenge. How is it possible to be able to loose weight with no time or the work ethic to do it? The answer to that is diet pills. In diet pills alone, it is estimated that they have make 40 to 100 billion dollars. The only reason they have made so much is because they are hitting us where they know we are the most vulnerable. It doesn’t matter if someone has the “wonder pill” because 90-95% of the people that have bought the pills gain the weight back. Someone might have the pill that will make you loose 60 pounds in a month, but more than likely you are going to end up gaining the weight all back.

Having everything perfect is what most people aim for. Knowing what kind of world we live in, I know that that will never happen. A perfect spouse, house, and job are what make a perfect life. Every little girl is wishing for that Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet and carry her to his castle. (Knowing the people in this country, I’m sure that Prince Charming is in debt on that fairy tale castle of his.) All the little boys dream about having their wife be like those form the ’50s. Walks around the house in a dress with pearls around her neck, an apron on, and cooking for him whenever he demands it. Little do they know that women aren’t robots no matter what they think. The one item that both can agree on is the house. It has to be big with 6 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 3 stories, and on a 50 acre lot. Once they get married, they find the house that has everything on their list. They go to the bank, get pre-approved, and they are off living in their dream house and buying expensive furniture to go with their expensive house. Once the kids come along, they have to buy them everything they want and it has to be top-of-the-line. They have 3 kids and all of them spoiled. Because of what they have bought in the past 15 years, they find themselves in a heap of debt. To the world today, that is the norm. For a while, the perfect family was living the perfect life. Living the perfect life to today’s standards drives most people to debt. Is that perfect living to you?

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That was unbelievable. Only a few of the people looked like they belonged in the race that they did. It was extremely difficult and, at the end, it was crazy to see what the people actually were. When I first did the quiz, I was pretty confident that I could guess most of the people in the right group. In my head, I was telling myself, Wow. This is super easy. Once I got the results back, I found out it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was. I started looking through all the ones that I got wrong and clicked on the pictures to see what the people said others thought they were. From what I read, I was just like any normal person they see on the street. For example, one of the men who was a Hispanic said, “People think I’m East Asian or Native American, never Latino.” I have seen many Native Americans and by the way he looks, I could have sworn he was that race.  It helps us understand that we shouldn’t guess what people are or their background by the way they look. Looks can be deceiving and that is one thing that I found out today bcause my score on the Race test was 6/20. It made me realize not to be so quickly to jump to conclusions.

Frank Norris is a writer who focuses on the suffereings of humanity. After reading McTeague, I don’t think I would want to read another book by him because it makes me lose my faith in the good of human kind. Norris writes about murder, greed, hatred, and jealousy, the characteristics that I do not want to think of in human beings. McTeague was a good book, but it makes you believe that somewhere, inside of every person, a monster is fighting to get out. Depending on how strong that person is, sometimes you see it and sometimes you don’t.

McTeague by Frank Norris was filled with love, hatred, happiness, sadness, greed and poverty.  It has a mix of all of the good and bad of humanity that will always be.  The book gives a good look into the lives of people who have been hit with both ends of the extreme.  McTeague shows how cruel humans can be and how, when overcome by greed, a body to do some horrible things. 

McTeague, a hard working dentist, was content by himself and doing what he thought was best.  That was the truth until he met his best friend’s cousin, Trina.  She was a beautiful woman who walked around with a mysterious edge about her.  Just like any man would, he was intrigued.  McTeague got the pleasure of fixing her teeth after a fall and soon fell in love with her.  After making a fool of himself a couple of times, his friend, Marcus, who also loved Trina, decided that McTeague loved her more and gave up trying to win her over. 

Soon enough, McTeague and Trina were married.  Before they were married, Trina won a lottery and the prize was $5,000 in cash!  Like any greedy person would, Marcus became jealous of McTeague for marrying her.  Marcus and McTeague never were quite as friendly after Trina won that money, and no matter how hard people tried to have them be somewhat friendly, it never worked.  They had an ongoing hatred for one another until death.

After the McTeagues got married, they were living a pretty good life. They had plenty to eat, money to buy more expensive things, and love for one another.  After some time, McTeague was forced to retire and from then on, everything went downhill.  They had to keep downgrading their house size, sell all of their belongings, and be more stingy with their money.  During this time, they got to see a glimps of the real person they married.  McTeage became abusive and Trina became more and more miserly. 

Another house size reduction, and McTeague left Trina with no money. Not only did she have no money, but she also lost two very important things after he left. It made it difficult to find work, but she managed. Trina became on the extreme side of  being a miser, as hard as it is to believe. She would save every penny she had and would barely eat so she could always look at her wealth. McTeague came back to find her after he spent all of the money and did an awful thing to get all of her money. He ran from town and was trying to go to Mexico. He was on the run, went to a mine, and after a month or so, kept heading south once he heard people were after him. As McTeague was trying to cross Death Valley, he eventually ran out of water had little food. About halfway across the desert, he was found in the middle of it by Marcus. Will either Marcus or McTeague have the revenge they always wanted? Or will the lack of water kill them both in the desert?

How do I feel about using a blog?  To be honest, I’m not to ecstatic about using this, but I will if it is required of me.  I have used a blog in the past for a few previous classes, but it was never something that lasted for too long.  This, I predict, will be used for posting assignments that will or have been given out and discussing and answering questions  about books that are being read in class.  I am looking forward to keeping up with this blog because it will be easier to do then writing all of the work on paper.  It is good to learn how to keep up with a blog in the world that is now turning to technology for all that we do.  The blog will be a good start on learning how to deal with concepts on the computer that may be dealt with in the future.