One-Two-Three Little Indians.

Hugh Garner, in his short story “One-Two-Three Little Indians” is able to tell us how racism is still present between natives and Caucasian in Canada. Garner uses characterization to help us display that racism is present, and how natives are been treated like objects and are seen as native stereotype, not a person.   We are able to see throughout the story how he exposes racism with many examples where natives are been put down by white people. The racism is present through the story in two main examples:  The illuminated sign and the feathers of his hat.

At first, Garner point of a passage where stereotype and racism are been exposed.  The author is able to express how Caucasian believe in stereotype and how the main protagonist is able to sell more baskets using the band with feathers. In this passage “Placing the baskets in a pile on the shoulder of the road, he adjusted the corduroy band on his head, so that the feather stuck up at the rear.  He knew that by doing so he became part of the local colour, “a real Indian with a feather’n everything”, and also that it helped him sell his baskets.  In the time he had been living along the highway he had learned to give them what they expected.” We definitely acknowledge that Caucasian are very stereotypical and will buy more if they think it’s authentic or as they perceive as “real”. Racism and stereotypes are also present is this part of the short story, Indians are being use as a tool to attract more tourists and increase sales.

Then, toward the end of the short story garner present us a passage, where you could easily see how Caucasians are been racist against natives. He describes an illuminated sign across the road that reads “Cooper trailer camp- hot and cold running water, rest rooms. Fishing and boating – Indians guide.” Without any doubt, we are able to see by ourselves how this sign is been racist against natives. The fact that the author write Indians guide, make us think that natives are been presented just as object to help tourist feel at ease. Also, if you travel on road across America you wouldn’t be able to see a sign saying “Caucasian guides” or “White guides” considering Caucasians are the majority of the population. Caucasians are been racist and how this is one of the many examples, how we are able to observe this fact in our daily life.

Finally, we conclude that racism is present through the whole short story, the author try to convince us that racism is still present in Canada and stereotype as well. After reading the short story, we are able to really notice how racism still exist and some believe of Caucasian will never change. On the other hand, there is still a little hope that racism will be reduce or better yet eliminate from our life. Garner was able to point out racism without putting down his protagonist or worst qualifying him as an object. At last, we learn how racism is an important subject and shouldn’t be kept quiet.

Sin Eater

In the short story “The Sin Eater”, Magaret Atwood introduces the protagonist Joseph, who is presented as a doctor and through the short story she compares him to the Sin Eater. The Sin Eater is a personage who would be paid to take out all the sins, and those sins would be transfer through food. Using characterization, the author is able to illustrate how Joseph only look for a personal gain, from his patients instead of helping them .We should focus on how Joseph is been compared to the Sin Eater and how Joseph seem to have sexual relation with his patients.

The Sin Eater is been compare to Joseph many times in the short story. The author uses the protagonist Joseph to describe the Sin Eater. They are been compare to illustrate how Joseph is only looking for a personal gain his patients, he always talking about himself. In addition, Joseph seems to be looking for a Sin Eater himself to take all his sins away. In the passage of the short story on p.316: “If you won’t talk to him, he’ll bloody well talk to you... He’ll drove on and on until you figure out that you aren’t paying him so he can talk to you about his plants, youre paying him so he can listen to you talk about yours.” We are able to see how Joseph only talks about himself and look like he just wants to gain a personal g gain: to find a sin eater for him. In many passage of the short story, we are able to see how Joseph holds many sins about himself and is how he looking for a way to get rid of them. We are able to see this in this passage of The Sin Eater on p.320: “I myself cherish an abiding hatred for the boy who lived next door to me when I was eight... I’ve forgiven a lot later transgressions but if I ran into the little sod tomorrow I’d stick a knife into him.” He able to let out one of his sins explaining it to his patients, instead of listening to him.

The author seems to show that there are sexual relation between Joseph and his patients. In the beginning of the short story, Magaret Atwood describes how his patients are all women’s. In this passage of the Sin Eater on p.316: “He gazes at me, grinning away, and I remember certain stories I’ve heard about him, him and women. He’s had three wives, to begin with. Nothing with me though, ever, though he does try to help me on with my coat a bit too lingeringly. Why should I worry? It’s not as though I’m susceptible. Besides which he’s at least sixty, and the cardigan is truly gross, as my sons would say.” In this passage of the short story, we are able to acknowledge that he had at one point of his life three wives and how he only deals with womans most of the time. All of his wives seem to be almost the same considering they are all blonds according to this passage on p.320:” The three wives have a family resemblance-they’re all blondish and vague around the edges.” We acknowledge that they are very similar one to another.  

First of all, Joseph seems to not really listen to any of his patients and end up talking about himself most of the time. We are aware that Joseph tries to flirt with all of them and he seems to be wondering if they like him. He repeats up to three times to the second wife if she likes him. In this passage of the short story, on p.322: “Do you like me? Joseph says from his armchair. ‘What do you mean do I like you? I say. It’s early on; I haven’t given any thought to whether or not I like Joseph... ‘But if you met me under other circumstances, ‘Joseph persists, ‘would you like me?’ ‘I have no idea, ‘I said. ‘I can’t imagine any other circumstances.’ “We are able to see how he persists many times searching for her to say that she likes him, he seems like he looking for her validation for her. In addition ,  in this other passage of the text we see how woman’s seem to be all over him on p.318 : “ When I lived with Joseph there were always these were always these incidents, phones call at two in the morning always killing themselves, throwing themselves all over him, you couldn’t believe what went on.” Yet again, you can assume him having some sort of sexual relation with his patients.

In conclusion, Joseph only looks for a personal gain from his patients and this is shown through the short story when the author compares the Sin Eater to the protagonist. We conclude that Joseph pretend to listen to his patients and end up only talking about himself. Also, through all the short story we notice that he just looking for a Sin Eater Himself to clear out all his sins and other sins that people have transfer to him. In addition, there are some insinuations that Joseph has sexual relations with his patients, which includes his three wives’s. Finally, after looking of all the aspects of the short story we understand how the still is an exiting tension between him and his patients.

The White Mercedes

The White Mercedes, by Philip Pullman is all about a seventeen-year-old named Chris, who works, for Barry Miller in a lighting company in Oxford, England. One night at a graduate party, he sees a girl running towards him and Chris finds out that she’s in danger so he tells her to go hide. He later can’t find her and Chris starts searching for her for many weeks. He soon realizes that he fell in love with her. At the end, he finds out that his boss was a criminal. In addition, he finds out that one of the Carson brothers is after him. Finally, when Jenny tries to go tell Chris the story, Carson kills her thinking it’s was Barry. The White Mercedes is considered appropriate because the title emphasizes on the main character, Barry, it represents innocence, pureness, peace and inspiration. The Butterfly Tattoo is considered appropriate because it accentuates on Jenny through the whole book. The title, The Butterfly Tattoo is preferable because it is more understandable.

            

The White Mercedes is republished under the title The Butterfly Tattoo in Britain. Philip Pullman at first decides to call his book The White Mercedes because he wanted to emphasize on one of his main characters Carson (Fletcher). At a first glance, we see the word white which is generally associated with innocence, peace, pureness and inspiration. Pullman wanted to give the novel this title so that we don’t associate things right away and be more careful. He also wanted to put some irony like he did through his book. In The White Mercedes, the word white is totally different from what we think. It would be useful to consider that, he uses the word white in the total opposite meaning of it. In the book, Carson, the bad guy drives a white Mercedes; the word white is just a sign of irony. For example, “So the white Mercedes that was parked across the road from the entrance to Barry’s yard stood out as being unusual”.  On the other hand, Pullman uses the word Mercedes to highlight the fact that Carson is a rich man, “ a lawyer” , and has a lot of power and men around him.

            The title, The Butterfly Tattoo is used to accentuate Jenny through the whole book. Like a caterpillar, (first state of a butterfly) Jenny seems innocent and always seems to be scared of everything. For example, “her face was full of the innocent vulnerability”. Then, she changes and realized many things such as how much she loves Chris and she should do something of her life and become actually stronger that before (caterpillar turn into a cocoon) At the end when the story advances, Jenny seem to have no more fear and is actually at the climax of her life when she dies (like the last state of a butterfly).A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera, that is considered as beautiful but dies really fast. A bit like Jenny, who is really a beautiful girl according to Chris but in the book is going to die fast (at a young age). The word tattoo is used to make her seem insecure, bad and a wild girl.

 The Butterfly Tattoo is definitely one of the better titles. The metaphor of the butterfly tattoo is understandable. If we first look at the word butterfly right away we think of something nice, beautiful, who needs a lot of attention but is fragile. Exactly, like Jenny the comparison between both of them was just perfect. Through the book, we realized that the word Butterfly and Jenny are connected together. The word Tattoo is there to give an idea of Jenny’s personality which is wild, bad and adventurous. The book The White Mercedes/The Butterfly Tattoo is an amazing book that has a beautiful story of a boy who falls in love with this girl who unfortunately dies because of him. The irony in the book was really a major factor especially for the word White and Mercedes. Jenny’s character was one of the best described in the book .Also the ending was very sad. Finally, the book contains a lot of emotions, changes and up and downs through the entire book.

Stop The Pop

In “Stop the pop”, Eric Schlosser shows us that fast foods are terribly notorious for us and should be banned from our schools. Fast food is a major cause of a lot of problems to students, such as obesity, eating disorders so on and so forth. Mr. Schlosser argues that fast foods should be banned from schools, just to avoid many problems and for the good of our student’s health. We should be worried about the health of our students before anything else. Without any doubt, we must eliminated fast foods in schools in order to live in a better environment with healthy and no obesity problems. First, we should look at how students are getting more and more obese in schools. Then, we should look at how children have problems when they drink too much soda such as Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Dr Pepper etc. Finally, look at the techniques and devices that Mr. Schlosser uses in his text.

First of all, eliminating such food in schools would be mandatory because the health of students is in great danger. If they continue to only eat fast food they might encounter some health problems and develop heart diseases. In addition, a lot of sugar in the blood can cause diabetes and having too much cholesterol is very unhealthy for the heart. Drinking to much Coca-Cola would, without any doubt cause diabetes, considering the amount of sugar there is in one can. According to Mr.Schlosser,” Each can contains the equivalent of about ten teaspoons of sugar.” This tells us that there is a lot of sugar in one of these soda cans. We must tell our kids how bad a soda can be for them if they drink too much. All sodas contain a lot of caffeine, the same caffeine that adults drink every day when they have a coffee. This drug can disturb your sleeping habits can cause headaches, reduce motor coordination and even cause dizziness.

At this time, we know how fast foods are bad for students and for everyone surrounding them. Many people don’t see the many effects that fast foods cause on our bodies. Most of the fast foods contain a lot of fat and sugar which can get us addicted. According to Mr.Schlosser, Kellogg’s mention that:”Their cereals are low in fat. It failed to mention that many of Kellogg’s cereals are also high on sugar”. If the students don’t have access to fast food in schools they wouldn’t eat it as often. Certainly, we must do something to help our students to get into a better shape and be more attentive in class. There is only one solution which is to eliminate fast food from our schools or integrate healthier eating habits. There is no doubt, that the fast food causes all those problems but why is it still so present? Children need a environment where they can eat healthy and fell better about themselves. The four main groups should be taught in schools more often and more precisely. Kids theses days are not getting enough of fibers, vegetables, fruits, milk products and finally meat. In addition, we should also tell them how many portions are recommended to eat daily.

Eric Schlosser uses techniques to develop his ideas in ‘’ Stop the Pop’’, such as examples to go across his point of view “Eliminate fast food in schools”. We learn from Stop the Pop that Inuit’s Eskimos are losing their teeth because they drink to much Coca-Cola. Also, he tell us that the Yupik culture have been disturbed since fast food appeared in their hometown. Their whole way of living changed and some of there traditions were totally banished.  “Today most of the families in Kasigluk have cable television. They have a lot of spare time to watch TV. About half of the village’s adults are unemployed. The opening of large fisheries nearby has made it harder for the Yupik to catch fish in the Johnson river”.  

In conclusion, fast foods in schools are generally very bad and cause a lot of problems; we should, by all costs, get ride of them. We should think smarter and try to improve our health and ways of living and help our students, do the same. In other words, by eliminating fast foods we create a safe environment where the children are getting better marks, getting in a better shape and they pay more attention in class. What kind of future do we want for our children? The choice is left to you.

Night Walker.

In this article, “Night Walker “, by Brent Staples argues that it is difficult to live as a black man in the United States. He tells us that he feel shocked, surprise, embarrassed and alienated when people fear him. He also adds that  he never comfortable especially when people cross to the outside of the street of the street instead of walking by him. Finally, he learned how to present himself as a non-aggressive person by whistling Beethoven and Vivaldi melodies. I agree that is more difficult to live as a black man in United States because of the racisms, stereotypes and favoritism.

Racism is one big problem in the United States which affects a lot of black people. A lot of people think black people are the cause of trouble for example:  murders, street fights, gangs etc. Many people in the United States denied that there is racism in their country but they are wrong. It is not impossible that black people would try to rebel against the one who are racist but not every black man is the same.We should try to eliminate the racism that live in our world. Without racism this world could be considered perfect with less violence, less rebellions and people would be finally tread as equal not discriminate in any way. We should also considered stereotypes as a other big problem.

Stereotypes generalized attributes and descriptions about others. In America, people often have many stereotypes about black people. We tend to always put black people in the lowest class. Some people think that black people always have something to do with fight or anything including violence but this way of thinking is wrong. I’m sure we should modify our way of thinking and realized that most of the stereotypes aren’t true. We should take that in consideration and try to not believe in those stereotypes.