What culture is.

How do you define culture?
Culture is what a population of people believes, thinks, and practices; combined with individual experiences and ideas.

What makes up a persons culture?
A person's experiences, beliefs, achievements, failures, and genes make up his/her particular culture.

Is culture intrinsic or extrinsic?Explain
A person's culture is a mixture of both outside factors and innate behaviors. Although the intrinsic part plays a bigger part of someone's life when they are younger, it still plays a vital part when they get older. Finally A person's intrinsic instincts help to shape a persons extrinsic experience. In the end both play a vital role in developing ones culture.

The Runaway

Jack Humphries

8/17/12

Fact
1. The boy's shirt is yellow
2. The man and the boy are sitting
3. The sign reads "specials today"


Claim
1. The little boy has ran away from home.
2. The man next to him is scolding him for running away
3. The painting is set in a restaurant a long time ago

Dreams Gone and The Ending

In the back half of Stienbeck’s intriguing novel the Pearl we see Kino’s desperation for a better life destroy most of what he had. His wife tries to throw the pearl back into the ocean in order to save Kino from his paranoia. He follows her and throws her to the ground. He then tries to return home but is attacked by a man. He kills him and runs to flee with his family in his canoe. As he nears the ocean he finds his canoe broken and so he travels back to the village. Here he finds his house burned. He and his wife flee to Kino’s brother’s house for safety. Stienbeck’s dark turn only reinforces his anti-capitalistic views, showing readers how much better Kino’s life would have been without his dreams of the pearl.

In the end Kino’s acceptance of wealth’s evil is brought on by the loss of his son. The bitter sweet ending Stienbeck gives his audience only strengthens the tune he had played throughout the novel. That tune being that misfortune follows those dreaming of wealth. I also recognized Stienbeck’s condemnation towards Kino’s ancestors who had “dreamt of having more” by sending someone to the capitol to sell pearls for them. Stienbeck punishes Kino’s ancestors by writing that after two times of sending merchants to the capitol neither returned, after which the pearlers gave up their dreams. Stienbeck’s repeated situations that support his tune give structure to his somewhat communistic beliefs but in the end he blends morals with plot to create a wonderful book.

Human Dreams and Mysterious Songs

Stienbeck’s novel the Pearl begins with the main character Kino awakening. Kino is a Mexican peasant who looks for pearls in oysters. As his wife wakes up and starts making breakfast, he enjoys his “family song”. He soon hears the “song of evil” as he puts it; a scorpion is crawling toward their son Coyotito. Kino tries to reach his son in time but is to late. I wonder why Stienbeck uses the ideas of songs so much. He makes his novel about poverty sound like a musical. Maybe he is trying to show how routine and pleasant Kino’s life is at the beginning of the story.  It is also possible that by using songs that Steinbeck is showing how simple life for Kino is.

Next, Kino takes his son to a wealthy doctor.  The doctor is discontent with every aspect of his life, and when Kino asks for the doctor’s help and receives none (because he is poor). Kino then goes pearling in hopes to find a pearl. As he dives into the sea he hears the song of hope and the song of the pearl. Through Stienbeck’s use of song we see how important this part of the book is so that when Kino finds “ The pearl of the world” we as an audience can better understand why he’s happy. As Kino sees his pearl he starts dreaming of a better world for his son. With his discovery Kino becomes discontent with his life of poverty though.

Upon Kino’s discovery news spreads through the town and the doctor goes to see Kino’s son. The doctor gives Coyotito a strange white power and claims “ the evil went within”. He also declares it will soon return. He also tricks Kino into looking towards the corner where he hid his pearl. Later Kino awakes to find a stranger rummaging through his house. Kino stabs the intruder and waits until the morning. At this point it’s apparent that Stienbeck is using his novel to preach his views on wealth. He paints Kino’s pre-pear life as pleasant and the rich doctor’s life as miserable. Finally Kino dreams of how money will make him happy.

The Pygmalion Ends

In the last half of the Pygmalion I was befuddled by the conversation between Eliza and Higgins. In this volley of dialogue the reader gets the sense that Eliza and Higgins are both infatuated and disgusted by one another. Shaw explains their confusing situation perfectly in the sequel, and then shortly wraps up the book by stating “Galatea never does quite like the Pygmalion; His relationship with her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable”. This short and sweet ending gives an allusion to the original story of the Pygmalion and also leaves the reader thinking.

At first my thoughts were to disagree with this statement all together because unlike Galatea, Higgins did like his “Pygmalion”. Then I realized that though he may like her, he would feel awkward around his creation because he would feel like he had power over her. We even know Eliza resents him because he holds power over her and in the end that’s why she marries Freddy. The type of relationship she has with Higgins even now leads to Eliza and Higgins wrestling for control.

 Finally I was amused at Clara’s and Mr. Doolittle’s troubles of adapting to her/her new class, this showed the confusion of change and in a way exemplified a conversation Higgins had with the Colonel. The conversation where Higgins states that the upper class “Don’t even know their own game”, in this case both Clara and Mr. Doolittle struggle to learn a new “game”. For both of them it is difficult to adjust but by the end of his play Shaw has placed everybody perfectly, making his masterpiece the Pygmalion complete.

The Creation of Pygmalion

Pygmalion

In the beginning one could hardly think that the lowly flower girl we see bumbling and Ah-owing would become as classy as duchess. Her proposed transformation brought on by a snide comment made by Henry Higgins, is achieved through phonetics. In a key chaotic point in the story Eliza Doolittle enters Pickering’s house demanding to be taught to speak like royalty. I found this part extremely interesting due to the anarchy that breaks out as Higgins and Pickering debate how they should go about training Eliza. All the while Eliza is arguing with herself whether she should leave or stay.

Through much conflict Eliza is made a permanent resident to the Perkins house. I thought this part of the book was particularly funny because of Eliza’s confusion, in the end she’s persuaded to stay in return for chocolates. This childish action amuses me because in order to make Eliza more mature and refined Higgins and Pickering had to childishly bribe her with sweets.

As Eliza progresses in her training Higgins shows her off to his mom, and some others. Among them is Freddy a young man who becomes infatuated in Eliza while at the gathering. He is asks by Higgins if he would like to see her again and he response most certainly.

Finally the biggest event in this first half of the Pygmalion is at the dinner party where Nepommuck, a world-renowned translator and Phonetics analyst, diagnoses Eliza as Hungarian Royalty. Higgins scoffs at this theory and exposes her true origins. No one believes him though and he is laughed at by some of the dignitaries at the dinner party. After this exchange they leave the dinner party and head home to discuss how Higgins had “won his bet”. At this point I’m happy for Higgins’s accomplishment but I’m sad that Eliza’s story seems to be done.