#5

This picture could be my thesis.   I could stop my blog right here.   .   .   But, I won’t, don’t worry.   

Toni Morrison has embedded metaphors in her writing that are used to compare against plot situation in her book.   The comparison between the metaphor and the plot makes the story even more dramatic and the events devastating.   In the Bluest Eye, a big metaphor was the Dick and Jane story.   Dick and Jane are siblings, they are white, they have a family; they had the perfect life.  Morrison included this text from a Dick and Jane Story: “Here is the house.   .   .   It’s very pretty. Here is the family.   Mother, Father, Dick and Jane live in the green and white house.   They are very happy.   .   .   .   See mother .Mother is very nice.   .  .See father.   He is big and strong.   Father is smiling”    They live the perfect white picket fence American dream.  They have an unrealistic stable and happy family.  They have a daughter with a cute little dress and happy parents.  

This is the same type of “dream”  that the community of Lorain, Ohio upheld in the Bluest Eye; a stable family, good children and a non-problematic household . Lorain, Ohio had their own rendition of a ‘dream’ family that was - a good Christian woman, who and the hardworking man that provided for his family, and well rounded, presentable children.

Now, Pecola comes into this.   She is the opposite in everything that make a well-rounded family.  Her mother physically abused, her father is a drunk and her brother is always ready to run away.   On top of that, Pecola is the victim of insult, ugly, poor and the negative adjectives can go on and on.  

The community looks down on her for who she is, because they truly don't know her at all.   Why do only a two people in the whole book seem sympathetic for her? Her own father raped her for goodness sake and the baby died as well! It’s not as if she wanted to have his child, be raped and have the worst fortune. Not to forget, she had to leave school and no one even looks her in the eye.   Repeating the Dick and Jane story in the beginning and using versus as chapter title, continual remind the reader this story is significant to make Pocola’s misery stand out.   Readers can true see Pecola’s life is nothing close to the life of Dicks and Jane.  

Another thought is that Morrison is using the Dick and Jane metaphor, not to encourage us to remember our history, but to help remind society to understand and remember someone’s history.  People should try to understand, to know to, and to take the time to know someone’s past before we turn our eyes from them.  Forgetting to truly grasp and understand someone’s history, from their point of view, before judging them is dangerous for society.   Who wants to live in an inconsiderate world?  

Morrison encourages us to not be the kind of society that judges by appearance and surface facts but to consider that person past and personal know their history because it could change our outlook.

Take Cholly for example, he raped his daughter but he didn't know how to show love to his daughter because he had no parent to show him.   Soaphead church was lonely with no wife, a depressing childhood as well and found no pleasure in woman or man, so he resulted in children, he never hurt them though.   Does knowing the past of someone change how you look at them and their actions?   I think so.   

Don’t judge what you don’t understand.   Then, when you understand, judging won’t even be pertinent.

Redone -The Wrong way to Attack Obesity

My first response to this ad was “what? You are a little girl. You don’t seem as you’re 13 or older?” Then, your eyes stare into the girl’s weary eyes, your eyes move downward her bloated body, edited for a gloomy yet serious effect. Your eyes are automatically drawn to the bold red font that is hard to miss against the black and white edit; “WARNING…” I stare harder into the little girls eyes once more and BOOM! It hit me. This ad was a play on words, she really isn’t a “little” as in petite girl, she is obese and a” bigger than her age” girl. But, what really shocked me was this WAS a Stop Obesity campaign.

The little girl crosses her arms in frustration because she truly is not a “little” girl. This ad, a part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta’s campaign, aims to shock parents into action. Unhappy, ill-fated, bullied faced and overweight children are being used to have an emotional impact on parents.

 The little girl crosses her arms in frustration because she truly is not a “little” girl. Her depressed expression resembles one of a bullied child that can’t stand up to their bully. So if this girl can’t stand up to bullying comments of her not being a “little girl”, who will stand up for her? This is the question that CHA wanted to arise in the viewer’s minds. Parents are to blame. This ill-faced girl can’t stand up for herself; she can’t buy the healthiest foods, she can’t proportion her food, and include exercise in her life systematically, because she is a child. Therefore CHA pressures parents to take responsibility to control their child’s health and make them the “little girl” they should be.

I have a few questions to ask though. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, why aren’t you advocating a healthy lifestyle for these children and parents? Offering solutions and changes to incorporate in the children’s lives to actually start seeing results in the state? Why attack the insecurity of obese children, the one insecurity that that society bashes everyday whether someone is obese or not. Why?

This ad presses obese kids to think their appearance is their parents fault. They will turn to parents and ask why am I fat? All the blame is now on parents for not making their child look like a socially accepted “little girl”. Well Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, I also guess it’s the parents fault this child will get bullied everyday by another careless child for her big body. It’s the parent’s fault an obese child will lose less and less self-confidence because of the comments, other “little girls” make about her. It’s the parents fault an obese child will take their life to no longer deal with society’s pressure to be that “little girl”. Reversing obesity should start with approaching the patients’ health, daily activity, and consumption, not their appearance and who’s to blame.

This ad is just doing more harm than good. The ad doesn’t focus on ways to reverse obesity but rather adds to the social stigma of what everyone should look like. Yes the girl isn’t little in size; people may call her fat and big. But if she is obese, her main issue is having too much fat on her body. Overweight doesn’t necessarily equal obese. Obesity means having too much body fat. Targeting how to get rid of this fat should be the main objective of this ad. Not size, shape or outward appearance of the child. Why degrade the size of a child because it’s not what all little girls look like? Look inward, fix the fat.

The Wrong way to Attack Obesity

My first response to this ad was “what? You are a little girl. You don’t seem as you’re 13 or older?” Then your eyes stare into the girl’s weary eyes, your eyes move downward her bloated body, edited for a gloomy yet serious effect. Your eyes are automatically drawn to the bold red font that is hard to miss against the black and white edit; “WARNING…” I stared harder into the little girls eyes once more and BOOM! It hit me. This ad was a play on words, she really isn’t a “little” as in petite girl, she is obese and a” bigger than her age” girl. But, what really shocked me was this WAS a Stop Obesity campaign. This wasn’t the ever so frequent skinny is the best advertising ad; this was a Stop Obesity ad.

This ad is a part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta campaign aimed to shock parents into action. Unhappy, ill-fated, bullied faced children are being used to have an impact on parents. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s goal is to first get parents aware their children are in fact obese.  Shame, shocking statistics, and scare tactics are all a part of this campaign to get some attention to this issue.

I have a few questions to ask though. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, why aren’t you advocating a healthy lifestyle for these children and parents? Offering solutions and changes to incorporate in the children’s lives to actually start seeing results in the state? Why attack the insecurity of obese children, the one insecurity that that society bashes everyday whether someone is obese or not. Why?

This ad presses obese kids to think their appearance is their parents fault. They will turn to to parents and ask why am I fat? All the blame is now on parents for not making their child look like a socially accepted “little girl”. Well Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, I also guess it’s the parents fault this child will get bullied everyday by another careless child for her big body. It’s the parent’s fault an obese child will loss less and less self-confidence because of the comments other “little girls” make about her. It’s the parents fault an obese child will take their life to no longer deal with society’s pressure to be that “little girl”. Reversing obesity should start with approaching the patients’ health, daily activity, and consumption, not their appearance and who is to blame for it.  

This ad is just doing more harm than good. The ad doesn’t focusing on ways to reverse obesity but rather adds to the social stigma of what everyone should look like. Yes the girl isn’t little in size; people may call her fat and big. But if she is obese, her main issue is having too much fat on her body. Overweight doesn’t necessarily equal obese. Obesity means having too much body fat. Targeting how to get rid of this fat should be the main objective of this company. Not size, shape or outward appearance of the child. Why degrade the size of a child because it’s not what all little girls look like? Look inward, fix the fat.