Summative – ENG4UE Blog

Most of my previous blogs have either been me analyzing a specific topic or speaking my mind on something; however, this time, it’ll be a little different. For this post, I’ll be writing a more informative piece explaining my plans for my English summative.

My task for this summative is to make a portfolio that includes four different media outlets we’ve used throughout the course. Each of these media texts should work together to bring light to something interesting or significant I noticed throughout the novel.

My portfolios thesis will be: The infamous view that all men in our society are dominant while women are inferior is explored vigorously and unfairly throughout Lullabies for Little Criminals. The novel depicts women in a negative, stereotypical manner, ultimately degrading them as a whole. Through the perspective of a feminist lens, it becomes evident how men have cultivated the power to restrict and make decisions for a woman in both this novel and in today’s society.

Below, is a brief description of what media texts I plan to use and why I think that specific outlet is best to explain my thesis.

Persuasive Essay

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For the first part of my portfolio, I have decided to write a persuasive essay on the different ways women are negatively portrayed through society. I will be exploring how men devalue women in ways that make them look absurd. I think that writing a persuasive essay will be a good idea for me because I believe it’s one of my most potent forms of writing. I also think this types of essay is suitable for my topic because it allows me to use logic as well as emotion to draw from. This topic is very controversial and heavily talked about in today’s society, so I believe using passion, rhetorical questions and imagery will enhance my writing in a way that will display my points in an effective manor.

Blog Post

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I will be exploring how men have cultivated power to make decision for women in the novels society and today’s society through a blog post. The reason I choose to do a blog post, is because it’s a great way to get a few but important points across without being very formal. I can talk informally and use specific words styles that other mediums will not let me. Through a blog post, I will be using a conversational tone to make my readers really understand what I’m trying to say while allowing for feedback and comments. This medium will also allow me to use parenthetical citations and detailed images to prove my ideas further. Since i’ll be including a portion about our society today, hyperlinks will enhance my points and backup my observations.

Concept map

I will use the features of a concept map to dive in deeper into how the idea of how patriarchy is used within the novel. (Patriarchy is simply the exploration of how women are inferior to men). I will be using examples and different scenarios to showcase how men and women are not seen to be on the same level. I will also be showing examples of how women are seen to be inferior, as well as showing examples of how men are seen to be dominant. The reason I choose a concept map is that it can get an essential idea across without using long sentences. It’s also very visual so it can be easier to understand and will allow the readers to see a physical connection between two things rather than just thinking about it.

Remix

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For my last media text, I’ve decided to create a remix in terms of creating something new from 5-6 original posts. I will rearrange certain elements and use pictures to explain some major points seen in the novel and will display them as a whole. Since I’m doing a digital portfolio, I will post both the original cover and my cover and discuss the differences and what each picture means. I think that a remix will fit into my portfolio well, as I will be able to show and prove my thesis in a different way other than just using words. It will add another dimension to my portfolio and keep readers more interested as it won’t be a block of text, but rather something visual that they can interpret in their own way. I’m also very excited about this media outlets as I’ve never created my own remix before so I’m looking forward to facing a new challenge. I do believe, that this portion will be the trickiest part of my portfolio as I will be attempting to use many different software like illustrator and Photoshop to create my new image. On top of that, I will also be making that imagine into a mosaic so it will be a lot harder to cite those images and make it in a way that will be effective to my portfolio thesis.

Skills Learned

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Throughout this course, I’ve learned so much and developed many skills that I didn’t have coming into this class. Starting from the beginning of unit 1 all the way to this post I’m writing right now, I’ve learned how to properly analyzing a text through literary theories as well as learn how important it is to infer something and make connections etc. Over the course of this semester, I’ve learned more about remix’s, blogs and literary theories more than I ever have, including how to properly give credit. I feel like looking from an overview, a major skill that I’ve acquired is time management as well as looking through different lens to see what a text could mean in different ways.

-ZK

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Now that I’ve finished all three sections of my book and analyzed them through 3 different literary lenses, I believe that the most insightful lens was the feminist lens as it revealed a lot about the cruel and unfair society Baby resides in. Throughout the book, we are constantly seeing the differences between men and woman and are being reminded of how women are treated very differently as if they’re on a whole different level of less and insecure. In this novel, the author sets up particular distinctions between male and female in a way that I believe looking through a feminist lens could only reveal.

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While examining the book through this theory, I feel like I finally understood what everyone means my feminism. By definition, according to Google, Feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” Although this is straight and to the point, through the novel, the idea of feminism was made clear through descriptions, emotions and scenarios. All that gave me a better overall understanding.

What I found very interesting was how easily the idea of Patriarchy was used. What is that you may ask? Well, basically it’s when Men are way up there, and woman are way down there, in other words,

Women were portrayed to be inferior, weak, naive and easy to take advantage off. All the while,

men were seen to be dominant, strong-minded, independent and people who never seemed to need a woman.

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Male dominance is mostly shown through both, Baby’s father and Alphonse. Both these men create specific rules for Baby restricting her in many different ways. If Baby decided not to follow these rules, they would resort to physical or verbal abuse in terms of using sexist terms to teach her a lesson. By doing this, they created an environment where violence is portrayed as the only solution to defiance, which in reality is definitely not true.

Alphonse shows his dominance over Baby when he tells her who she can and can’t have sex with. He makes all these decisions for her without her opinion, yet she is expected to confine to them since defying a strong man was known to be wrong. As Baby mentions, Alphonse tells her, “Get into that Brown car” (218) without any explanation. Only when she gets into the car and the driver starts talking to her, does she realize that she’s in there to have sex with a random man. Alphonse controlled everything Baby did, including her earning and her decisions.

The feminist lens also reveals how men only needed women for their body and their appearance rather than for what they truly are. Alphonse is a clear example of this. Without any regards to Baby’s age, personality, or what she might want, Alphonse took advantage of her by making her have sex with him so fulfill his pleasure. Baby mentions, “There was just a weight. I was making love to the Invisible Man. It felt like something terrible had happened to me… I felt as if my insides were cold” (209-210). Not only did he not ask her if she was comfortable with having sex, but he also paid little attention to the fact that she was a 13 year old virgin who had never had sex before.

These are only a few examples of how the use of Patriarchy occurred throughout the novel. In almost every chapter, I noticed something new and horribly inaccurate about the way women were represented and how they were treated at the hands of men. They were continually seen as losers and people who were only there to satisfy a man’s “needs”.

The use of patriarchy is not only limited to this novel, as we also experience this idea throughout our society as well. Since the beginning of time, the idea of men being dominant had been circulating around and was accepted for centuries. However, up until very recently, the world decided to make a change. Why should someone be seen as dominant, when equality is an option? Isn’t equality the fairest aspect out of everything?

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Now that I’m entirely done this novel, I can finally see how hard Baby’s life has been. Especially at such a young age, she was exposed to the dark world of drugs and sex making her life 10x harder then anyone I personally know. For me, this book was an eye opener. At the back of my head I knew that there were kids who were exposed to bad living conditions, however by reading this novel, it felt as if I was Baby’s shadow, experiencing and seeing everything she had.

-Z.K

Tag: Summative

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