Mauricus Webb
Wendy Sumner Winter
September 25, 2007
Analysis Essay
“Prime Directive”
Prime Directive is the ideal story for analysis. There are a couple of themes that work together to make one overall theme. The author, David Griffith, does not support the war in Iraq. Although his actions make you think twice about his standpoints, they are essential to the overall theme.
The story begins the Saturday before Halloween, outside of his nearly empty apartment. His wife has accepted a new job in another state, and he cannot move until the end of the year because of school. This simple setting relates to the war in many aspects. The loneliness and the concept of being separated from family are just a couple of similarities. Griffith proceeds on to talk about the different parties that he attended and his costume of choice. He is dressed as Captain James Kirk of Starship Enterprise. This character plays an important role in the plot of the story. Dave begins to describe the conversations about Star Trek with the other party-goers.
He tells his readers how they relate it to the war in Iraq. “It’s like the United Nations! The Klingons are the Soviet Union! Someone else breaks in, ‘It’s like trying to introduce democracy to Iraq!’ Bush is a war criminal! Iraq is another Vietnam (Griffith, p. 128)!” He brings up the fact that no one seems to mention Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib was where soldiers held Iraq detainees and killed them. They threw their naked bodies on top of each other and left them in the open. The next party again verbally relates something to Abu Ghraib. He uses the rap music and how Outkast has given way to Chingy to help connect to the war. He describes the music video where there are half naked women. “I weigh the blurred faces and genitalia of Abu Ghraib detainees against the near-naked, big-breasted, big-assed women gyrating on the subway (Griffith, p. 130).”
The final party Griffith describes brings everything to a head. He encounters one of his former classmates who is dressed as Charles Grainer, the leader of the massacres in Abu Ghraib. He happily greets his classmate and quickly notices that he has many photos of himself posing with “dead people” with bags over
their heads. Dave then takes a part in it and poses for a similar photo.
The next morning he awakes and recollects on the previous night’s events. He quickly remembers the picture and goes to retrieve it. Soon after, he calls his wife and tells her about the Graner costume. She is horrified and thinks that the man is sick. The next passage explains a lot to the readers. “I decide not to tell her about the picture. I’m too ashamed. I put it in a shoebox in the empty closet and try to forget about it. But I can’t. I lie back down in the army cot and analyze what I’ve done from every conceivable angle (Griffith, p. 134).” He is very disgusted by his actions and is upset with himself. It seems as if this was a humbling experience for him. Soon after, he begins to stereotype soldiers as a whole. “Those soldiers were hicks from the sticks; something in their environment made them this way. Have we come to expect nothing more from people like Graner and England, who we imagine to be from tacky trailer parks in dead-end hollers? Don’t we rest assured that these are the kinds of people who join the army because they are easily manipulated by promises of cars, money for college, patriotism and simply getting the hell out of Nowheresville USA? Educated, metropolitan people could never do such things; we are too
aware, too aware of the ways in which we must respect another’s differences (Griffith, p. 135). Right after he has this confrontation with himself, he soon ties this experience to a previous one. This put everything into perspective. His final analysis sums up all of his observations. “When we deny that we have anything in common with Graner and the others who are pictured in the photos, we allow all that is most despicable and ugly in our nature to thrive. If we are too proud to see ourselves in those photos, to realize that, as Sontag wrote in the New York Times, the photos are us, then we have no hope of finding any meaning whatsoever to them. They will simply haunt us, without any understanding of why (Griffith, p. 136).”
David Griffith takes you through many events over a short period time. His unique way of relating his message to the readers allows him to use metaphors as an essential to making his overall point.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Prime Directive
I will start by saying that some of the photos are very disturbing. The author uses these photos so that we can have a first-hand view of what went on. These photos help us to comprehend and interpret the aim of this story. From reading the article it seems as if he does not support the various horrible actions that took place in Abu Ghraib. It seems as if it took the whole night to realize that the actions as well as his actions and costume were wrong. Dave Griffith says, "Those soldiers were hicks from th sticks; something in their environment made them this way."(134) This passage is not all about what is written though, it goes much deeper. I love the way he uses random subjects to compare Captain Kirk's harshness. If you did not pick that up, that would be a great example of this passage taking deep thought! I think that he really got his point across, and I think the delivery was absolutely great.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Theme: MUSIC - Group Essay
Group Members: Jonathan, Mauricus, Jannica
For centuries, music has played a role in society. As a group, we have discovered that music has affected each of our lives through our relationships with family and friends, school, and controversial lyrical themes. To further explain music’s effect on our lives, we give you our personal encounters:
Jonathan-
Ever since I was a child, there has always been music in the background of my surroundings. There was always something either playing on the radio or a track spinning in the background. My brothers and I were always practicing our instruments. I played the drums, two of my brothers played the saxophone, and the other played the bass guitar and cello. I had many cousins who played instruments as well. Also, one of my uncles is a professional drummer. If you ever listen to the Shaft soundtrack, you might hear him playing the drums, or you could possibly see him at a concert on stage with Patti Labelle, Ronald Isley, R. Kelly, Isaac Hayes, and many more artists. Music followed me throughout middle school and high school and allowed me to meet many friends along the way. In middle school, I was a member of the seventh and eighth grade band-- the marching band and symphonic band. I also participated in All-West Band which allowed me to meet many of the friends who I still communicate with to this day. We still get together and reminisce on our old performances, talk about music in general, life, and our pursuits in music.
In high school, I was a member of the concert band and marching band. I met so many people from across the country in marching band. We would travel every weekend to different states for competitions. Everyone I met, we all shared a common interest, and I still talk to some of the people I met while in marching band as well.
After my freshmen year, I grew out of the whole marching band concept and wanted to pursue my own musical interest. A friend I met while I was in marching had a makeshift type studio at his house. A group of my friends and I made up a name for a sort of record producing project. We would just go there after school and come up with songs and go in the studio (my friend’s closet) and just record the songs. We even sold our recordings at school for five dollars. That was one of the best periods of my life so far.As of today, music is somewhat the root of my relationship with my family and friends. If there is nothing to talk about we always seem to find a subject in music. I even wrote this blog while listening to music.
Jannica-
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” A Jamaican reggae singer and musician, better known as Bob Marley, once spoke these very words.Music is something to which everyone can relate. I have yet to meet a person who has a burning hatred for such a universal theme. It has the power to do anything from inducing an insane amount of adrenaline for a football game to easing a person's frustration after a hard day's work. And unless an electric guitar gets smashed on your head or your fingers get caught between some symbols, music definitely isn't painful. There's such a wide variety of music on this earth that it's impossible not to enjoy something. A person might also change their mind about their musical preferences. For example, I used to dislike Bob Marley, or reggae for that matter. Then one day I sat down with my Jamaican friend and really listened to what this influential, Rastafarian man had to say. His lyrics made me rethink my perception of life at the time. I had constantly being given home suspensions for ridiculous reasons. Particularly this was due to the recently recruited and not to mention crooked school administration in charge."Don't worry about a thing cause every little thing is gonna be all right," he proclaimed. Hearing this made my presently hectic, unrighteous world far more manageable. I felt as though I had always longed to hear these words from somebody throughout the course of my life. I was overcome with a sense of calmness though still engulfed in the upbeat reggae rhythms.I continued on for the remainder of my high school career inspired (only enduring a few more unjust issues) and received my diploma on that momentous day. Now here I stand-- a college freshman ready to take on life.
Mauricus-
Has music lost its content? This issue has been bought up many times in the last decade. Most of the answers are very opinionated. I personally believe that in some cases it has, but in some ways its still the same or maybe even better. I have had many personal encounters and influences with music. Music has always been used to send out various messages such as love, hate, and problems. The same issues are still talked about today. There have been many controversial issues with today’s music. Themes such as sex and violence have really stirred up America. People fail to realize that this has always been talked about in music, the styles of discussion were just different. For example, Marques Houston’s hit song “Naked” was on the verge of being banned because of its title. On the other hand, some of the same people who had problems with this song loved the 1980’s hit “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. These two songs have the exact same topic, but the one from today’s society was considered controversial. This is just one example of why I think music has some of the same content. On the other hand, topics such as robbing and killing do take away some content from music. Even with this, no matter what, you will always have a couple of bad apples in the bunch. Will we let this be the overall deciding factor of today’s music?
Although the three of our personal encounters don’t overlap perfectly, they share one major aspect: music tremendously influences all of us.
For centuries, music has played a role in society. As a group, we have discovered that music has affected each of our lives through our relationships with family and friends, school, and controversial lyrical themes. To further explain music’s effect on our lives, we give you our personal encounters:
Jonathan-
Ever since I was a child, there has always been music in the background of my surroundings. There was always something either playing on the radio or a track spinning in the background. My brothers and I were always practicing our instruments. I played the drums, two of my brothers played the saxophone, and the other played the bass guitar and cello. I had many cousins who played instruments as well. Also, one of my uncles is a professional drummer. If you ever listen to the Shaft soundtrack, you might hear him playing the drums, or you could possibly see him at a concert on stage with Patti Labelle, Ronald Isley, R. Kelly, Isaac Hayes, and many more artists. Music followed me throughout middle school and high school and allowed me to meet many friends along the way. In middle school, I was a member of the seventh and eighth grade band-- the marching band and symphonic band. I also participated in All-West Band which allowed me to meet many of the friends who I still communicate with to this day. We still get together and reminisce on our old performances, talk about music in general, life, and our pursuits in music.
In high school, I was a member of the concert band and marching band. I met so many people from across the country in marching band. We would travel every weekend to different states for competitions. Everyone I met, we all shared a common interest, and I still talk to some of the people I met while in marching band as well.
After my freshmen year, I grew out of the whole marching band concept and wanted to pursue my own musical interest. A friend I met while I was in marching had a makeshift type studio at his house. A group of my friends and I made up a name for a sort of record producing project. We would just go there after school and come up with songs and go in the studio (my friend’s closet) and just record the songs. We even sold our recordings at school for five dollars. That was one of the best periods of my life so far.As of today, music is somewhat the root of my relationship with my family and friends. If there is nothing to talk about we always seem to find a subject in music. I even wrote this blog while listening to music.
Jannica-
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” A Jamaican reggae singer and musician, better known as Bob Marley, once spoke these very words.Music is something to which everyone can relate. I have yet to meet a person who has a burning hatred for such a universal theme. It has the power to do anything from inducing an insane amount of adrenaline for a football game to easing a person's frustration after a hard day's work. And unless an electric guitar gets smashed on your head or your fingers get caught between some symbols, music definitely isn't painful. There's such a wide variety of music on this earth that it's impossible not to enjoy something. A person might also change their mind about their musical preferences. For example, I used to dislike Bob Marley, or reggae for that matter. Then one day I sat down with my Jamaican friend and really listened to what this influential, Rastafarian man had to say. His lyrics made me rethink my perception of life at the time. I had constantly being given home suspensions for ridiculous reasons. Particularly this was due to the recently recruited and not to mention crooked school administration in charge."Don't worry about a thing cause every little thing is gonna be all right," he proclaimed. Hearing this made my presently hectic, unrighteous world far more manageable. I felt as though I had always longed to hear these words from somebody throughout the course of my life. I was overcome with a sense of calmness though still engulfed in the upbeat reggae rhythms.I continued on for the remainder of my high school career inspired (only enduring a few more unjust issues) and received my diploma on that momentous day. Now here I stand-- a college freshman ready to take on life.
Mauricus-
Has music lost its content? This issue has been bought up many times in the last decade. Most of the answers are very opinionated. I personally believe that in some cases it has, but in some ways its still the same or maybe even better. I have had many personal encounters and influences with music. Music has always been used to send out various messages such as love, hate, and problems. The same issues are still talked about today. There have been many controversial issues with today’s music. Themes such as sex and violence have really stirred up America. People fail to realize that this has always been talked about in music, the styles of discussion were just different. For example, Marques Houston’s hit song “Naked” was on the verge of being banned because of its title. On the other hand, some of the same people who had problems with this song loved the 1980’s hit “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. These two songs have the exact same topic, but the one from today’s society was considered controversial. This is just one example of why I think music has some of the same content. On the other hand, topics such as robbing and killing do take away some content from music. Even with this, no matter what, you will always have a couple of bad apples in the bunch. Will we let this be the overall deciding factor of today’s music?
Although the three of our personal encounters don’t overlap perfectly, they share one major aspect: music tremendously influences all of us.
Has Music Lost Its Content?
Has music lost its content? This issue has been bought up many times in the last decade. Most of the answers are very opinionated. I personally believe that in some cases it has, but in some ways its still the same or maybe even better. I have had many personal encounters and influences with music. Music has always been used to send out various messages such as love, hate, problems, and many other issues. The same issues are still talked about today.
There has been many controversial issues with today’s music. Themes such as sex and violence has really stirred up America. People fail to realize that this has always been talked about in music, the styles of discussion were just different. For example, Marques Houston’s hit song “Naked” was on the verge of being banned because of its title. On the other hand, some of the same people who had problems with this song loved the 1980’s hit “Lets Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. These two songs have the exact same topic, but the one from today’s society was controversial. This is just one example of why I think music has some of the same content. On the other hand, topics such as robbing and killing does take away some content from music. Even with this, no matter what, you will always have a couple of bad apples in the bunch. Will we let this be the overall deciding factor of today’s music?
There has been many controversial issues with today’s music. Themes such as sex and violence has really stirred up America. People fail to realize that this has always been talked about in music, the styles of discussion were just different. For example, Marques Houston’s hit song “Naked” was on the verge of being banned because of its title. On the other hand, some of the same people who had problems with this song loved the 1980’s hit “Lets Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. These two songs have the exact same topic, but the one from today’s society was controversial. This is just one example of why I think music has some of the same content. On the other hand, topics such as robbing and killing does take away some content from music. Even with this, no matter what, you will always have a couple of bad apples in the bunch. Will we let this be the overall deciding factor of today’s music?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Music Free Write
Group Members: Mauricus, Jannica, Brandon
Topic: Music
Beef
Rap
hip hop
R & B
rhythm
dance
record labels
concerts
music videos
messages
instruments
history
do we need music?
Has music lost its content?
Pop
rock n roll
country
christian
gospel
contemporary
personal influences
Topic: Music
Beef
Rap
hip hop
R & B
rhythm
dance
record labels
concerts
music videos
messages
instruments
history
do we need music?
Has music lost its content?
Pop
rock n roll
country
christian
gospel
contemporary
personal influences
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Cardinals Rule but how about those Mets
The article that I chose to read is Cardinals Rule but how about those Mets. The title is just a little misleading. The writer opens up the article by talking about neither the Cardinals or the Mets. Instead, he opens it by talking about the Detroit Tigers. The cartoon of the Tiger's manager and Cardinal's manager Tony LaRussa is the only thing that makes the beginning relevant. The overall tone of the article was pretty straight-foward and down right BORING. The diction also needed great improvement. The choice of words through me for a loop in certain parts. I feel that sports articles do not need as many enormous words to get the point across. Although Roger Angell seemed a little A.D.D, the voice was right on target for the most part. He added many facts into this article. Some were not as relevant as others, but never the less, he did get the point across. The structure is one of the only high points for me. The transition from one element to the next was absolutely spectacular. Overall, it was a mediocre effort that could have used a little bit of improving.
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