Class Personal Reflection

            My personal experiences with money and class in our society closely matches what was discussed in the article Shadowy Lines That Still Divide. The article states “class is still a powerful force in American life.” With this I completely agree, and I believe that class in America will be a force that never declines in importance, or even gains importance with the future generations.

            A passage from the given text that stood out to me since I have witnessed the exact scene playing out many times was “The scramble to scoop up a house in the best school district, channel a child into the right preschool program or land the best medical specialist are all part of a quiet contest among social groups that the affluent and educated are winning in a rout.” My family and I are members of Nakoma Country Club in Madison, and every summer without fail I overhear mothers at the pool, down by the tennis courts, and in the clubhouse dressing rooms discussing the best preschools and grammar schools that they may place their children in during the coming school year. Most learning institutions discussed by these parents at the club are private schools with hefty price tags—which would be out of reach for anyone under that upper-middle class to which most families that are members of my club associate with.

            Another observation that goes hand in hand with the prior, was the connection I noted with my life to the passage in the article that reads: “But merit, it turns out, is at least partly class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children succeed, their success is seen as earned.” A specific way that excerpt connects to my life is through soccer. I play for the top team in the Madison area, the Madison 56ers, and have for some time now. Our club has coaches that have experience coaching at the NCAA Division 1 level, and employs some of the best trainers as well. As a club, and specifically my team, we are very successful. This article started to make me question how much of that success was due to the class our families belong to. My team’s roster has 21 girls on it, and I’d safely say that only one of my team mates family would be considered out of the high middle class, and even her family is still middle class. Sure, as players we are all dedicated and put in a lot of time and hard work to our soccer, but we are also provided with some of the best coaches, and resources that a club can provide—and at a high cost which may very well be out of reach of many families. I’d have to say that a large portion of the reason I personally have had so much success in my sport is due to the fact that my family had the resources that others did not, and I was able to play for a club like the 56ers. 

Am I a Transcendentalist?

After discussing transcendentalism in class, and reading writings by authors who hold different viewpoints on the subject, I don’t feel that I am completely on board with the whole movement of transcendentalism, but I am also not completely against it either.

The one aspect of transcendentalism that I would tend to agree with is the thought that conformity isn’t always good, and you should be your own person and think for yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his Self-Reliance: “I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency.” Many of the transcendentalist authors held similar views on conformity, which I think to a point is a good thing to think—that every one person should be an individual, and that he or she should not simply conform to fit with the rest of society.

I do believe that transcendentalism does have some drawbacks, and does fall short in some cases as well. I think that the “we” should trump the “I “in everyday life, and that self-centeredness is a dangerous thing. If all people were self-centered and set their focus solely on themselves, I think that a lot of good would be lost in the world. I tend to agree with what Benjamin Anastas said when writing about the flaws of Emerson’s Self-Reliance: “The larger problem with the essay, and its more lasting legacy as a cornerstone of the American identity, has been Emerson’s tacit endorsement of a radically self-centered worldview.” I feel Anastas has a completely valid point. Henry David Thoreau, another transcendentalist author wrote about the fact that he “paid no poll-tax for six years”. Actions such as this I feel are self-centered, and paying taxes is part of being a citizen of the country. If everyone had these thoughts, I feel our country would be dysfunctional.

Map Analysis

http://dlgcsm.galib.uga.edu/StyleServer/calcrgn?browser=ns&cat=hmap&wid=1000&hei=800&style=hmap/hmap.xsl&item=hmap1752b4.sid

The very first thing that caught my eye when I first looked at this map of North America was the amount of detail and city names present along the coast. Not that this surprised me since that was the first portion of America settled by the Europeans, but it was very noticeable in this map. The amount of city names present on the map vastly decreases as you look west of where Appalachia would be.  The second thing that I noticed when reading some of the names of the towns, cities, and states written on the map, was that the names really show that the English felt entitled to ownership of these lands. Places in the new world were named after prominent people in English culture (Delaware for Lord De La Warr, Pennsylvania for William Penn, and Virginia for the Virgin Queen for example). A quote from the Babb chapter we read in class that does a good job of somewhat demonstrating this is as follows: “America suggested a certain inevitability to English control of the North American Continent”.  The last thing that I thought was incredibly interesting about the map was the title shown in the bottom right corner. It reads “A new and accurate map of the English empire in North America representing their rightful claim as confirm'd by charters, & the formal surrender of their Indian friends; likewise the encroachments of the French, with the several forts they have unjustly erected therein by R. Bennett, engraver”. I found it slightly humorous that they called the Indians their “friends” and confidently phrased it to sound as if the Indians also had no problem surrendering and giving up their land to the English population. This title helps to promote English entitlement to the land as well as English superiority. 

Presidential Words

After reviewing all of the word clouds produced from the past presidential inaugural speeches given throughout American history, the most interesting thing I came upon was the differences I noted when I compared the word clouds created from President George Bush’s 2nd address in 2005 and President Barack Obama’s first inaugural address given in 2009.

The biggest difference I noted between the two was the nature of the words presented in the cloud. Words used by President Bush such as tyranny, fire, and enemy were aggressive and rough in nature. This was contrasted when I looked at the word cloud created from President Obama’s 1^st inaugural address to the country which included words such as care, promise, journey, and life. These words are very different in nature than those of President Bush in that they are more reserved and positive.

I believe the reason for this juxtaposition of diction used in these two speeches most likely has to do with the timing of the speeches given and the fact that one speech was a first inaugural address while the other was a second and last. President Bush was giving his second inaugural address and his speech which used the more aggressive wording was at a time where 9/11 was more recent, and the war on terror was a large issue at hand. President Obama’s speech with the softer language used was a first-time address and he was probably playing off of his campaign theme of hope and change for America as a country. Just by analyzing the words used in their speeches to the nation, it’s clear that Obama was a change from President Bush.

Scene Analysis

Two things that I noticed that the film maker of Apocalypse Now, Francis ford Coppola, used in the opening scene of the film were the use of music, and also the mix of war imagery with images of what was actually occurring at the time.

Francis Ford Coppola, the film maker of Apocalypse Now, successfully employed the use of music in the opening scene of the movie. I thought that the juxtaposition of the scenes of bombing and destruction paired with somewhat calm, slower music was very interesting and worked to make the slower-motion scenes of destruction of more impactful to the viewer. I believe that was most likely the main goal of the film maker—to make the scenes of destruction more impactful by placing them in slow motion and adding the slower music, and also to evoke some emotion from the viewing audience.

Another interesting strategy that Coppola used in the opening scene of Apocalypse Now was having a mixture of war scenes, but also showing the view of what was actually occurring with the character at the time (lying alone in a hotel room). He successfully combined the two very dissimilar sceneries in creative ways such as having the propeller of a helicopter fade into the imagery of a ceiling fan in his room. I feel that this mixture of images was incorporated to demonstrate the truth that even when a soldier is not in battle, the scenes and images of the battles he has endured never fully depart from his head.