Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Chunk 1)

In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Unoka, Okonkwo's father, is introduced as a trifling debtor who dies with a horrible reputation of an effeminate musician and a coward who frowned upon the sight of bloodshed from war. He also loved and respected the art of language. In attempt to rid himself of the embarassment his father's life invoked, Okonkwo marks his personality by engaging in wrestling matches and being the most respected warrior in the village. In the second chapter, Ogbuefi Ezeugo hosts a ceremony in which he informs the clan that the wife of a tribesman was murdered by a Mbaino villager and something needed to be done about it. Due to the fact that Okonkwo was the clan's strongest fighter, he is sent over to force the opposing tribe to trade a virgin woman and a young boy for peace between the two villages. When he returns, the virgin he brings is deliberated upon and the elders decide to give her to Ogbuefi Zeugo for a wife; and the boy is given to Okonkwo as a child to be protected and corrected. In this chapter the audience finds that Okonkwo is surely nothing like his father. He is so wealthy that he is financially stable enough to support eight children and three wives in three different huts. The audience also learns that Okonkwo's main fear is weakness. He believes his father was a weak man, and strongly wants to disassociate himself from anything that resembles his fathers ways. The irony of this picture is Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, seems to take many characterisitcs after Unoka. In doing so Okonkwo beats him in attempt to correct his effeminate and lazy ways.Luckily for both Okonkwo and Nwoye, Ikemefuna is taken in and begins to serve as a male role model for Nwoye. He begins to show him the less forceful side of masculinity and Nwoye starts to emulate most of Ikemefuna's actions. Even Okonkwo begins to fully accept Ikemefuna as a son, though he never risks his reputation to say, for the simple fact that he believes language and emotions symbolize weakness. During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, leaves the hut to get her hair braided without cooking dinner. Okonkwo, enraged at this point, finds her and merely beats her merciless. In this village, Week of Peace is valued to be a time of sacredness, and Okonkwo's behavior had destroyed that. The priest requested that Okonkwo sacrifice a goat, a hen and to pay a fine of 100 cowries in response to his actions. Okonkwo willingly followed through and then repented relentlessly. Throughout the next chapters of this chunk an oracle is revealed to Okonkwo about the murder of Ikemefuna. The messenger advises him not to take part in Ikemefuna's death because he calls him "father". Towards the end of this chunk Ikemefuna is set up to be killed, and Okonkwo's fear of being perceived as weak causes him to take part in his death, triggering the start of when things for Okonkwo fall apart.

*Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space by Brett Staples

Brett Staple's essay, "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space"  examines the precariousness that each individual takes around him, because of the urban, impoverished setting they are placed in. Staple provides an anecdote about him walking behind a girl at a night, with more than enough space between them, but because this took place in the high-crime part of New York, he began to blend in with the other muggers and rapists waiting to prey on her; causing her speed off to into the distance for what she thought would be her "safety". Staple also uses a generalization to point out that "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence. The author then comments on the amount of changes in his behavior he has made to escape, or the lessen the fear that people depict when they are around him. Staple, a black man himself, is relating to his African American audience as well as his other audiences that make certain prejudges about African Americans without knowing their full intent. His purpose is to bring notice to actions that African Americans and other races do, subconsciously that comes across suspicious to others who easily prejudge. 

Our Babies, Ourselves by Emily Prager

Emily Prager's, "Our Babies, Ourselves", is an article that is exclusively criticizes the mixture between gender and toys, in particularly Barbie. Prager starts off with a small anecdote about reading over the obituary of Jack Ryan, in which she learned that he was the creator of Barbie. Her argument  focused mainly on the physical features of Barbie. Prager suggested that Barbie was poorly proportion because of her "bustiness" and tiny waistline. Flashing back to her past, Prager tells of her anxiousness to know exactly who was Barbie's creator. After learning that Barbie's sculptor was a man, Prager comments that knowing that "a woman didn't design Barbie makes me [her] a whole lot saner'. As Prager starts to discover the motive for her physical appearance, she uses numerous amounts of rhetorical questions to analytically come up with a reason about why Jack Ryan felt the need to expose Barbie, but make "Ken with that truncated, unidentifiable lump at his groin". 

Application: Considering on how female dolls looked before the existence of Barbie, why do you think there was a change in the female doll's figure? 

Style: Hows does Prager's style promote a sense of disapprove? 

Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain by Jessica Mitford

Jessica Mitford's "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain" is an exerpt from her novel The American Way of Death. In this piece, Mitford provides information about the procedures that are made when embalming an corpse. She assumes that her audience doesn't know the real "truth" about how unpleasant embalming really is. To her prove her arguement, Mitford uses grotesque language to develope graphic imagery that discourages her readers from considering the process of embalming a corpse as a form of decompostition. From her angle, she believes that if the general public really knew the procedures that are done within the state of embalming a cadaver, they would certainly want nothing to do with it. Mitford uses quotes from experts, and commonly held beliefs to further promote why embalming is actually more unpleasant than it seems. As a part of a future anecdote, even Mitford requested to be cremated after death. 

Application:

How would you like to decompose, and why? (Would you like to be cremated, embalmed,mummified, etc..)

Style:

Does Mitford's style have a greater sense of negativity than Mary Roach's style in Stiff? Explain. 

Los Angeles Times Precise

"Schools' risks rise as vaccine rate declines"

By: Rong-gong Lin II and Sandra Poindexter 

The research between Rong-gong Lin II and Sandra Poindexter  is blended together in their article: "Schools' risks rise as vaccine rate declines". This article focuses on parents choosing not to immunize their children by getting "routine vaccinations" in fear of autism. According to the Autism Society of America (ASA), autism is a complex developmental disability that serves as a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Even though this disability is "widely discredited in medical research" parents still believe it to be true. In result of parents not immunizing their children, it will be very likely for their children to become infected with childhood diseases. The authors provided an anecdote that told ofa  situation that happened last year with a seven year old boy who acquired Measles in Switzerland on a family trip, and brought it back with him leading to an outbreak in
San Diego, California. The two author's purpose of this article is to inform readers and fellow
Americans of the harm they could be doing their children by not  immunizing them properly. The U.S. has state-mandated-shots that every young citizen must have for their safety, as well as others and people should follow those requests.  

style: Does Rong-gong Lin II nd Sandra Poindexter's use of informal diction convey an informative tone or a tone that scolds the parents for not immunizing their children?

application: Try to switch shoes with parents that are scared to immunize their children, how would you feel?

Stiff chunk 3

The last section of Mary Roach's Stiff sheds light on a new idea about cadavers. Roach uses rhetorical questions, logical as well as emotional appeal, quotes, facts and expert opinions to address her audience with a new way of viewing cadavers. Roach explains the process of mummification, cremation as well as "water reduction". Throughout this chunk she uses lots of sources to elucidate the credibility of her knowledge. She goes further, and talks of cannibalism that may be considered rituals for other cultures, and may be viewed as inhumane in other customs. Roach also informs her audience about the other secretions used from cadavers, such as: saliva, urine, and the placenta to treat diseases and other physical hardships. She continues to explore human cadavers and its uses until she begins to wonder what will happen to her body, and after decomposition, what would be considered "environmental-friendly".



Clarification:
What did Roach mean when she said "water reduction" was like boiling dead bodies in acid?


Application:
How do you feel about cannibalism? After reading this book, if you were to go to a Chinese ritual that consists of the consumption of a sacrificed body, would you participate?

Stiff (Chunk 3)

In Chapters six through nine of "Stiff", Roach continues to explain the multiple uses of cadavers with vigorous quantities of credible research, imagery, similes and humorous irony. Roach elucidates the fact that the amount of urgency changes between the hastiness of a patient going into surgery, and a cadaver lying on a gurney, on its way to a research lab. She also identifies the usage of cadavers with known facts in history including anatomical and impact research, as well as religious experiments. In example, "[Zugibe] became interested in the science of crucifixion fifty years ago, as a biology student, when someone gave him a paper to read about the medical aspects of Crucifixion (Page 161)". Roach also gives further information about the concerns of live burials and the humiliating methods doctors and "patients" underwent to determine the lively from the dead. For instance, "One French Clergyman recommended thrusting a red-hot poker up what Bondeson genteelly refers to as 'the rear passage'(Page 171)". Though managing to be very respectful, Roach continues to display her non-stop humorous connections between cadavers and living beings.




Clarification:

( You can answer either, or, or both =] )

Was the "beating-heart cadaver" H used in chapter eight breathing on its own, or was it on life support and just brain dead? If so if someone applies to be an organ donor, is it legal to remove their organs if they're still breathing on their own, but brain dead?


(I went to Wikipedia.com, and I still don' know) What exactly is the "Shroud of Turin"?




Application: If you chose not to be a donated cadaver, would you ever consider being an organ donor?