The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is about a woman named Hester Prynne that is going through a tough time. At the beginning of the story, with her baby, Pearl in her arm, Hester is taken to jail, and punished with adultery. Pearl was born from a man other than Hester's husband while he was away, and throughout the book Hester never tells who Pearl's father is, or about the Scarlet Letter "A" on her chest. Nathanial Hawthorne uses literacy devices such as imagery, character description and symbolism through the book.

Inagery is a strong literacy devices because it enables the reader of the book to visualize events happening in the book. Nathanial Hawthorne uses imagery as a way to describe the atmosphere around an events happening. "But, one idle and rainy day, it was my fortune to make a discovery of some little interest. Poking and burrowing in the heaped-up rubbish in the corner, unfolding one and another document and reading the name of the vessels that had long ago foundered at sea , or rotted at the wharves. (page 22)" With detailed sentences that provide background information, Hawthorne provides an understanding of the text.

Characters within the Scarlet Letter play an important part of the story. The story is based around the life of a character, so a well developed character description is vital in order to deeply understand the story. " With his florid cheek, his compact figure, smartly arrayed in a bright-buttoned blue coat, his brisk and vigorous step, and his hale and hearty aspect altogether he seemed- not young,indeed - but a kind of new contrivance of mother nature in the shape of man, whom age and infirmity had no business to touch. " Character development throughout the story show array of differences throughout the novel.

Symbolism plays the biggest part of literacy devices throughout the novel. The scarlet letter, a printed "A" on Hester's chest, is through of to be the symbol of shame. Throughout the story the scarlet letter turns into a way to identify Hester. " It was the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life. The mother herself-as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form- had carefully wrought out the similitude, lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the truth." The scarlet letter becomes a character development and description that provides a way of analyzing Hester Prynne's character.

With the uses of Imagery, Character Development and Symbolism, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes a descriptive and interesting novel to read. The characters are easy to relate to, the storyline is easy to understand and the flow of the novel is smooth. Without the use of these literacy devices, the novel description wouldn't be as in depth and thoughtful as it is now.

Securing Our Votes

With the elections right around the corner, both candidates are doing what they can to secure their votes, and convince some last minute voters. Advertisements are running more than ever, and the campaign is more heated than it has been this far.

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN, works to stop Republican voter suppression tactics. Some may also think of them as far-left radical activist group. With over a dozens worth of states that have now have reported issues of significant irregularities in voting registration. The ACORN foundation considers themselves consistently present as a voice for working families since 1970.

The Vote-Suppression, also known as the GOP strategy has shifted from attempts to win the popular vote by demonizing Barack Obama to reversing American voting standards.

Most citizens are wondering if we are going to have have a fair election. This would not be a problem is suppressing the vote not become apart of the Republican electoral strategy. Neither side wants a victory to besmirched by fraud, and neither side wants to risk losses due to fraud. ACORN paid a $25,000 settlement and agreed to monitoring of its voter registration efforts. While the ACORN office is still signing up new voters, no one needs a photo I.D. to register or vote. The democratically-controlled state Legislature turned that idea down.

ACORN is an organization to register people to vote. Workers are out on the streets, making minimum wage, gathering information from citizens to submit to their company. Since its all done by paperwork, there is given a lot of room for fraud, and for false identities. A thing that could make it a Scandal, is that it is possible the ACORN employees are submitting false identities to make their daily quota. If it is true, ACORN is up for a lot of law suits. With ACORN Scandal, more votes are accumulated than people.

With the Vote Suppression, it is the opposite. The Vote suppression limits the amount of people that are able to vote. They make assumptions and characteristics that can be considered unconstitutional. For example, if there is a criminal with the name of Joseph, certain states can pass laws limiting the number of Joseph's allowed to vote. This makes it possibly an uneven and incorrect vote in the end.

1. "ACORN: The Real ACORN." ACORN: Home. 29 Oct. 2008 .
2. "Another Acorn Scandal." New York Post. 13 July 2008. 28 Oct. 2008 .
3. Carmichael, Michael. "Michael Carmichael: GOP Endgame: Vote Suppression." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 21 Oct. 2008. 29 Oct. 2008 .
4. "Commentary » Blog Archive » Cracking ACORN." Commentary. 29 Oct. 2008 .
5. "Commentary: ACORN issue not vote fraud, but vote suppression - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 28 Oct. 2008 .
6. "Michael Carmichael: GOP Endgame: Vote Suppression." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 28 Oct. 2008 .
7. Sears, Michael. "GOP Strategy: Voter Suppression | CommonDreams.org." Common Dreams | News & Views. 29 Oct. 2008 .
8. "Voter Fraud Watch: Could ACORN Scandal in Washington Have Been Avoided With Photo ID? - FOXNews.com Elections ." Home - FOXNews.com Elections . 28 Oct. 2008

Reviewing Old Debates

The present day debates are completely different from debates in previous times, but are also very similar. Election Debates have been around since at least 1870's when we first saw the Lincoln Douglas Debates. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were a 7 part serious that traveled all through Illinois.

They are similar in the sense that they both involved two candidates and rebutted their ideals against one another, but the format was different. Abraham Lincoln and Stephan Douglas had there debate where one talked for an hour, the other responded for half an hour, and then did his talk for an hour, and then the first one who talked gave his speech than gave his 30 minute response.

Personally, I don't think the candidates in the 2008 presidential elections could have their debate with these settings. First because they wouldn't be able to not talk while the other one talked for that period of time, and it was cause to many disturbances. Also, I don't think that they could cover in depth a lot of the same topics and as diverse as they do with the way they did there debates. They would spend to much time going over one specific topic and not as many different topics. Also I feel the current debate style references more as a debate because they can respond a lot faster.


Resources:

"Lincoln-Douglas Debates." National Park Service - Experience Your America. 18 Oct. 2008 .

" 2008 Presidential Debates." You Decide 2008. 18 Oct. 2008. .

Internt and Media

The way we look at our presidential election has changed with the influence of technology. With more technology out there, we have access to more information. We can find more information on our candidates that isn't shown through the media.

With references like Myspace Decision 08, and Myspace Election 08, students and young adults can be aware of what is going on throughout election, basically without going out of their way. They are given the same information as if they were to read the newspaper or watch the news. This makes it more accessible and helps the new generation be aware of whats going on. One problem I see happening with this, is that when they get older, they won't make the jump for teenage news to real life adult news.

Americans view news how it is given to them, that is how we have many biased and one sided, opinionated news sources. As Americans, we expect that the news companies have hired a team of experts to find the best way to reach us. They don't just promote the news, they promote it in the best way for it to be heard possible. They want to story to spread the fastest and most efficiently, which evidently includes them coming to us.

With internet now, some Americans don't take the time to read the print newspaper, they read the article summaries online, or wait for sections of it to be passed along in a chain email.

Newspaper Reflection

For this project, My group and I had a lot of complications. For starters, for about half of the project, we were missing at least one member every day. This was hard because we had to communicate through email, and rely on each other to work on our own.

The most obvious thing that I contributed to our newspaper is the article I wrote on my own. I feel like that is what I spent most of my time working on during this project and I worked very hard on it. I tried to make it as professional and news-style writing as much as possible and to have it be as clear as it could be. Another thing that I contributed, that isn't evident as my article, is I critiqued and corrected both of my group members articles before they were published. This helped our newspaper be professional and as correct as possible.

I would have liked to have a stronger title and picture caption for my article. I was pressed for time to complete my article and my extras for my article that I didn't have enough time to make it as good as it could have been. I spent more time working on my article, and not enough time working on the other aspects.

My process consisted of a lot of school working with not enough time outside of school devoted to working on this project. If I were to do this project again, I would spend more time outside of class, especially since I was absent a few of the days. Although I didn't work on my project outside of school, this shows that I worked efficiently in class because I was able to produce a high quality piece of work in the allotted time.

Exploring Photography

Rule of Thirds:
The rule of thirds is a good way to line up photographs for the maximum appeal. It gives it more in depth than if the picture was centered.

Deliberate Use of Depth of Field:


This photograph demonstrates a good use of depth of field. It lets the subject stand out more, and helps the color become brighter.

Eyes, Color, Fill the Frame


By filling the frame, you can see detail and depth within a picture. The subject is clear and stands out a lot.

Interesting Use of Light


Light can provide a different contrast. I really like this photograph because its a very dark setting with a bright point where the sun comes through the window.

Shooting at Eye-Level

When shooting at eye level with a subject that isn't eye-level, you provide a perspective that isn't normally looked at or viewed.

Macro Photography

Macro photography is a zoomed in photograph. You can see closely the subject and the details that go along with the subject.

Favorite Form of Photography:
I enjoy black and white photography the most because the subjects are more clear and the lighting plays a larger effect. With shading in black and white, the photograph seems smoother to me.

Uncovering Unknown Information

With the elections coming up a lot of things are changing throughout the Untied States. People are starting to look more into what the believe in, and which presidential candidate represents them the best. Also, with the economy dropping as low as it has people are starting to look at where there money is spent. Although it is different in different cities, In one city in America, Data has shown that the average family will spend $10,600 per year on Transportation, which is roughly 33% of their income.

Also with the elections coming up, we are starting to see more commercials and advertisements trying to persuade us to vote for different props. One proposition that I see a lot of, is to vote yes on prop 10. Proposition 10 is a five billion dollar bond that will reduce California's dependence on foreign oil, and also clean our atmosphere, and also to create thousands of " green" technology jobs for Californians.


The demographics can change in whichever city you go to, based on the different lifestyles. The questions I have about demographics is how to they know they are getting a clear representation of the American culture within the data, and what do they do to make sure of it? I think people don't realize how absurd some facts about the American lifestyle, and by looking at just the statistics it is hard to realize. I also would like to know what percentage of Americans look at the statistics.

Increasing Segregation?

Segregation Through the Amendments

According to Harry Truman, one of the greatest responsibilities of the supreme court is to protect the civil rights of the American people. One amendment that relates to this and has been constantly under review throughout history by the supreme court is amendment fourteen. Amendment fourteen guarantees privileges and immunities of citizenship, due process, and equal protection. One of the biggest tests of the fourteenth amendment is "Separate but equal" and many supreme court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. This case involved challenges to segregate schools that were equalized. Linda Brown, a black student, had to be bused across town to attend a black school, even though near her house was a white school. Civil Rights lawyers argued that school segregation led to black schools being badly unfunded, and also denied black students the freedom of amendment fourteen.

Another case that is a test of the fourteenth amendment was the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896. In this case, Plessy concerned not only schools but the state laws requiring equal but separate facilities for white and colored students.

" The Object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature if things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either." - Plessy v. Ferguson Case

Realizing Our Actions
All of these cases regarding separation of colored and white relate back to today because there are still many different opinions on it today, and although we may not realize it, segregation is still a problem today. In 2002, an article was written about segregation today within schools. This article states that 1/3 of white teachers who teach at schools predominately black in Georgia will leave the school to teach at a school that is predominantly white. In my classmate Luke's blog, he posted a video showing segregation through schools in the present day. In this video, it shows how segregation was in the past, and how it improved, and then as time progresses, segregation is " back sliding in a disturbing pace, segregating by class, language and race." The most interesting thing I found from this video was the statistics they showed supporting how segregation is appearing more in schools. It said that in 1968, black students attending white high schools was 23%, and then it increased in 1988 to 37%, and in 2005 it decreased to 27%. It astonishes me how we can let segregation like this happen.



Resources:

1. "Background Summary." Brown vs. Board of Education. 30 Sep. 2008 .
2. "FindLaw: U.S. Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment." FindLaw: Cases and Codes. 3 Oct. 2008 .
3. Heffner, Richard D.. A Documentary History of the United States: (Seventh Revised Edition). New York: Signet, 2002.
4. Scafidi, Ben . "White Teachers Are Leaving Predominately Black Schools In Georgia." Georgia State University . 27 Sep. 2008 .
5. "Segregation Returns to America." YouTube. 2 Oct. 2007. 30 Sep. 2008 .
6. Treanor, Nick. The Civil Rights Movement. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2003.
7. "Truman Library - To Secure These Rights, Chapter III." Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. 2 Oct. 2008 .