Imperial 5 Girard Imperial Eunai Joh English 101 3/11/11 Midterm Responses 1.

In the beginning of the essay, Brent Staples discusses how the first person he came

across was a woman that fled after he turned into an avenue behind her and the nervous tension the woman had when she looked back in a frightened way. How he was mistakenly taken for a mugger, rapist, or criminal because he was black, tall, and intimidating. The purpose of this part of the essay is that Staples can easily change the situation by just being perceived as a dangerous person by just looking like one of them even though hes a gentle man who cant hold a knife to a raw chicken.
The second part of the essay, Staples describes how when he moved to Chicago that when he crosses streets in front of cars that he could hear them locking all the doors, and people walking to the other side of the street then pass him directly. He refers to Norman Podhoretzs and Edward Hoaglands essays where they explain how Negroes looked stronger and ruthless. Whereas in Hoaglands essay he talks about using the quick hunch posture to dodge a mugger or someone who looks like one in order for them to back away. Brent describes how he frequently sees the hunch posture from women at night time where they brace themselves as if theyre going to be tackled down and that its normal for women to act that way because they are vulnerable to violence, that blacks are overly exaggerated

Imperial 6 among criminals. The intention in this section of the essay would be Brent being portrayed as one who commits violence and being avoided by people, especially women because of how he looks. The third part of the essay, Staples mentions the characteristics of a young thug by the power to intimidate and uses an example of a child thrashing about and repeating it because the child is amused. Then he talks about how his friends were induced by the image of being pictured as tough guys and when some person surrendered all the money to them because he/she cowered in fear. Staples says that it is natural to use the power to intimidate and frighten that theyre not suppose to give up without a fight is what hes saying. Then in one of the paragraphs, Staples converses how acting as a tough guy has its consequences, witnessing several locked away and buried. Brent also depicts incidents of where he was mistaken for a burglar by rushing into the office of a magazine with a deadline in his hand and having the owner of a jewelry store bring a Doberman because of how he was perceived. The function of this part of the essay is the image of being feared by others because whether they know not youre a killer, burglar, or any type of criminal. The final part of Staples essay, he refers back to Podhoretzs essay and conveys how there is a special brand of paranoid touchiness which blacks have and how it makes Staples contain all the rage for being taken as a criminal, but not to release that rage as it would go back to the paranoid touchiness that bothered Podhoretz. Brent explains taking caution to make himself less threatening by humming songs from Beethoven, Vivaldi, and other classical composers that people wouldnt expect a mugger to hum: therefore reducing the tension. Then the basis of the ending of the essay would be being prepared and trying to reduce the discomfort around people. 2. Staples in the first paragraph of the essay describe the mood of the situation how the woman

seems frightened by looking back at a black man who is six feet tall and wearing military jacket following her which shows the tension of the situation and after looking back a couple times, the women started

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to run across the street. Staples shows the way she is frightened by incorporating how the women thought he was a mugger or rapist and the description of the women increasing her pace to the point where she started to run. Near the end of the first page of the essay, Staples mentions when he walks in front of cars that he could the thunk of people hammering down the door locks inside the car and how people would cross to the other side of the street instead walk pass him. Putting those images in the essay makes it look like Staples would be a carjacker or mugger by the way white people discriminate against blacks. 3. What Orwell states that when the incident gave him insight on imperialism means taking over a

foreign land with by another empire with authority by force. Because when the elephant broke loose from the chains it was rampaging about destroying a bamboo hut, killing a cow, and raided the fruitstalls, consuming all the food, it shows what imperialism is. Taking over a colony without a care and having unrestrained power by doing basically whatever he wants in which case the elephant would be like the ruler since it has all the power by ravaging about and the Burmese population could hardly do anything about it. Orwell also had a moment of having imperialism because of the decision to shoot the elephant because of the people expecting of him to do it and the freedom to destroy as a tyrant. The motive that drives imperialism would be determination, to be able to impress the natives and what they expect. 4. The dying coolie made Orwell to make the choice that he had to either let it live which will most

likely cause greater destruction and harm to the native people or shoot it to defend himself. Orwell describes how he doesnt want to shoot the elephant because it had an owner and did not look savage when he met up with it from the look of the elephant eating peacefully, but at the same time the crowd that followed him there wanted to see Orwell shoot the elephant because of their expressions of excitement and also a sense pride because Orwell stated that if he walked away from the elephant with

Imperial 6 two thousand people watching that he would be laughed at and that the white mans life would be ridiculed. So in the end Orwell would shoot the elephant because of the people behind him and the feeling of not wanting to look bad in front of them and get laughed at by an elephant pursuing him. 5. Sedaris in his essay critiques food based on the simplicity of the dish because in the essay he

complains how the food he eats has a small meal and way too many extra ingredients in it. He states Even when they promise something simple, theyve go to tart it up, the meatloaf has been poached in seawater, or there are figs in the tuna salad. In another line Sedaris discusses how there are no differences between food that they are placed structured in the same shape and that most food now are structured to being a vertical tower. As stated In yesterdays restaurants it was possible both to visualize and to recognize your meal. There were always subtle differences, but for the most part, a lamb chop tended to maintain its basic shape. 6. The thesis of Lazaruss essay is The Lion King is the movie has inappropriate and disturbing

messages to children. She uses the plot of the story that implants ideas in children of how society is perceived. 7. Lazarus discusses how the kingdom, Pride Lands, have a monarchy with a king presenting the

first born male to the rest of the animals in the kingdom which will sacrifice themselves to the first born that will become their king in the future. She describes the elephant graveyard as the ghetto in society because of its dark, gloomy, and impoverished setting. Lazarus describes the hyenas as black people because of their nasty, menacing, personality and having Whoopi Goldberg as one of the voices. Also she depicts the character Scar as gay because of the British style, limp-pawed voice acting done by Jeremy Irons. Then how the wealthy will takes overthrows the gay usurper and reclaims power and sends back the hyenas to the ghetto.

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8. I believe that Lazarus didnt have enough strong evident to prove all of these stereotypical

characters and society in itself. First of all, Lion Kings intended audience is children and children cannot fully comprehend and interpret the meaning features of the film and cannot fully understand what homosexuality or racism means. Lazarus also over exaggerates the characters and setting of the film by their color, voice style, and characteristics by saying hyenas represent black people because in the movie the hyenas are dark, menacing, and nasty when that is far off from what blacks and hyenas are suppose to be. By stating this Lazarus already shows a negative angle towards the characters even though the hyenas are supposed to be that way because they are antagonists in the film. She also depicts Scar as a homosexual just because he has no lioness or cubs and speaks effeminate, limp-pawed, British style way when there are many other explanations for this. She also mentions how when the hyenas take over the pride land which sounds to me like shes saying black people coming in and infesting the community by overpopulating and killing most of the animals which is definitely a poor analysis of how its related to the black stereotype. 9. In the second paragraph of the second page, Ebert mentions how special effects first take place

when Hogwarts is shown. He mentions that too much realism would not be a proper fitting for Harry Potter as it must have some made up objects and places since its a movie with much emphasis on magic. Ebert depicts the images of the inside of Hogwarts like the great hall, corridors, and cellars that look like drawings out of a book. 10. Tim Townsends essay The First Hours really stood out to me and an essay that I was fond of

because of the images presented by the writer and how easily I can picture it in my mind. Townsend makes it feel like I can actually be there at the scene of 9/11 because of how descriptive the situation is and the mood you receive awhile reading the passage. Even though Ive only seen images on the television of 9/11 it greatly affects me because the writer witnessed the great tragedy right before his

Imperial 6 eyes, seeing the bodies fall of the twin towers and describing the graphic images of people running, clouds of smoke covering everything in its path, and the screams and cries of people running away. So Townsends essay was one I admired most because of the detailed, descriptive images and how I can just picture it in my mind like an actual person there.