Simply Existing

  The Economy in the 2000’s   Deindustrialization: decline in industrial activity in a region or economy.   But how and why did it happen in the rust belt, and what were its consequences? In the 1990s, the internet was quickly becoming very profitable, and many people invested in it. However, in March of 2000, the dot-com bubble burst, so to speak, leaving many internet based companies bankrupt. This, in the end, caused deindustrialization across the rust belt, to save costs. The rust belt is actually called that because of all the rusting factories left in the wake of this event. But what does this have to do with Sweat?   Sweat and the consequences of deindustrialization.   In Sweat, Lynn Nottage shows the effect on the working class directly, through the closing of a textile mill in Pennsylvania. I feel that the effects of deindustrialization are most clear in the character of Tracey, a middle aged lady, who got laid off at the mill in 2000. When we see her n...

Doing this again… So, as you know, we recently had another in-class essay, and it was probably better than the last one (hopefully). I felt like mine was better than last time, but I feel like I can’t say that until we get the grades back. Anyway, here’s some more tips for you on how to write an essay that doesn’t flow like expired milk.   Figure out your rhythm One way to get your essay to flow better is to determine your argumentative/analytical beats (see what I did there). I myself am not very good at this, as my first essay read like three ping pong balls in a blender. However, I can conceptually understand how. As many of you do (and I don’t out of sheer laziness) write outlines, I feel that it greatly helps with the flow of an essay. Read it back, and if it sounds like an old man’s joints, you might want to check those transitions.    Watching out for off topics I have written many an essay where I completely miss the prompt, like an archer that fires into the stan...

(Please, I swear it’s not as edgy as it sounds.) (Starting off from near the end of chapter 8) There was an issue with formatting, so here's a link to the word document >>>Link<<<   Loosely inspired by this post, which I find absolutely hilarious:

  Why am I talking about this? So the other day I was reading the Great Gatsby. Why? Because I need a good hook for this blog. In the book, this guy, Jay Gatsby, is very rich, and he flaunts his richness everywhere. That got me thinking, how likely is it for someone to be rich, like a millionaire or billionaire or whatever. This whole thing isn’t to say that you should give up if you want to be rich, but just to maybe have a different perspective on it. What are the chances? Well, in America, you have about a 3% chance of becoming a millionaire at some point in your life (based on the percentage of the US population which are millionaires) and out of those 3%, 80% inherited some amount of money. After your post-graduate degree, you have a 32% chance. Again, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t aim for this if you want to at all, but rather to say that, well, you have to get lucky (or have really rich parents) to get there. John, What are you trying to say? Well, enough dillydallyin...

 Dear general news outlets, as a teenager who looks at the news occasionally, I feel that should speak on the issue of the use of violent images in the media. I personally think that violent images should be used when the topic discussed requires it. I would say it’s required to show the true nature of certain situations, such as war or human rights violations or disease outbreaks. I would say that these images are very necessary, in depicting events that should be taken seriously. I myself have seen how easy it is to downplay these things in our own minds. Although we all understand that violence exists, not all of us understand the real-life repercussions and horrors of things like this. For a more modern example, COVID was a pretty serious thing, and it was downplayed a lot in some places, and that was at least a hindrance to stopping the pandemic. It’s just so easy to sit back and say “Wow, that sucks…anyway-” and not truly considering what it means to see violence. “How can ...

Is Race like, a thing? Kind of. In essence, race has cemented itself as a social construct, but ultimately does not have any basis in biology. No one can find someone’s race with a DNA test. Whether it should be done away with or has a function in society is for you to decide, and I won’t be talking about today. What I will be talking about differences between “races” and such. So, how do we explain differences, like how smart we are, or even our differing skin tones?   Differences in Culture                First off, many of these differences can be attributed to the culture we grew up in. For example, stereotypically, Chinese people get better grades. However, this can be attributed to the way education is in China, which focuses more on grades and exam results, while western education places its focus on critical thinking. Many differences in intellect or athleticism fall in the same vein.   Genetics and Clines   ...

 (I use ‘Spiegelman’ when referring to the author, and ‘Art’ when referring to his depiction in the book) What is Maus?               In Maus by Art Spiegelman, he shows his father, Vladek’s experience in the Concentration camps in World War Two. It’s in the form of a visual novel, which allows for more visual metaphors and other things like that. But if you’re reading this, you probably already know this, so let’s get into it.   Context               In the beginning of chapter 2 of volume 2, there’s this small intermission where Art talks about how his father died before he wrote this part and what happened in his life since the release of Volume 1. He then has an exchange with his therapist where he talks about his kind of survivor’s guilt, wondering if he should finish the book at all. Throughout this whole section, Spiegelman portrays...