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The essay I chose is titled, Notes of a Native Son. This essay speaks a lot on injustice, but one thing that still seems to puzzle me is in the second section of the essay. The essay is broken up into three sections, the second section is when Baldwin (the author) is explaining the race riots in Harlem. His description on what he experiences in his surrounding is weird, for example he says “I had never before known it to be so violently still”. I’m still questioning what it is that he is trying to say in this second section. The most striking feature of Baldwin’s essay is in his final paragraph where he mentions “that one must never, in ones own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength”. This is a striking quote because it connects the whole piece together. This quote is what Baldwin’s father attempted to do to fight the social injustices he faced in his life, but what Baldwin learns from his fathers failure is to not fight hate with more hate, but to free his heart from hate and learn to fight social injustices another way.

The central idea of Toure’s, The Rescuer, is to bring to light how blacks are portrayed as an entire group rather then just individuals and to show the world how every black person is special and unique. The central idea of Titus Kaphar’s TED Talk is to get the world to focus on, as he describes, “amending” artistic history to focus equally on the lives of minorities as well as the lives of whites.

The central idea of both are very similar. The ideas are similar in that they both attempt to shine light on the issue of the portrayal of minorities (specifically blacks).

The central idea of both are different in that the passage, The Rescuer, Toure places more emphasis on how all blacks are grouped together and portrayed as “fearsome beast” and “criminalblackman”. Meanwhile Titus Kaphar in his TED Talk doesn’t focus specifically on stereotyping but on the issue that history seems to skim by the issues faced by minorities and only talks about entire groups rather then individuals.

I personally believe that Toure’s, The Rescuer, is more effective. I find it to be more effective because its more straightforward than the TED Talk. I feel that in Titus Kaphar’s TED Talk was one of those things where he tried to connect his example and his main idea but it wasn’t really the best example.

P.S I’m not sure if what I mentioned in my last sentence about Titus Kaphar’s TED Talk is understandable.

In the first essay, Dream House as Prologue, the author depicts silence and erasure through the concept called “archival silence”. The essayist defines archival silence in their introduction, as basically being stories purposely missing from our collective histories do to people in authority and power choosing to not record or preserve them. In the second essay, You Left Out the Part About…, the essayist depicts silence and erasure as a product of, in his words,”a convenient suspension of disbelief”. This convenient suspension of disbelief he mentions later in his essay as being organized by the “world’s masterminds”.

Both essays are alike because the essayist claim to be rendered silent by some authority or power. As mentioned before, the first essay uses the concept of archival silence to depict silence and erasure. In this essay the author mentions in their second paragraph, “but it is the power, the authority, that is the most telling element. What is placed in or left out of the archive is a political act, dictated by the activist and the political context in which she lives”. The essayist is clearly suggesting that the silenced group for which she argues for is silenced by authority. In the second page of the second essay the author describes his post experience after watching the  X-men film, “How then do I speak to him of this worlds masterminds who render you a supporting character in your own story?”. The essayist of the second essay similar to the first essay, is explaining how black people are being erased and silenced from their own history specifically by film makers in movies such as this.

Both essay are different because in the second essay, You Left Out the Part About…, the essayist appears to select his intended audience right from the start and also introduces who is being subjected into silence and erasure. In the first page the essayist introduces the fact that he and his son were “two generations of X-fans”, but despite that difference they both along with other age groups of fans tuned in to watch the film. From this we can tell that the intended audience is moviegoers across all ages . Later on in the first page when he is explaining who the X-Men are he suggests an allegory targeted towards the group being silenced, “The mutants, as they are dubbed, are generally handled roughly by the rest of humanity…have hailed from across the spectrum of human existence”. The essayist of the second essay introduces his claim from the very beginning, whereas the first essay doesn’t tie the concept of “archival silence” with silenced domestic abuse between queer communities until the ending of the essay.

The impact of the erasure described in the second essay on moviegoers is that films portraying important history are being viewed for entertainment purposes only. The impact of the erasure described in the first essay doesn’t necessarily have to be targeted towards just the queer community, because in the end of the essay, the essayist writes “I speak into the silence. I toss the stone of my story into a vast crevice; measure the emptiness by its small sound”.  From this final sentence we see how this erasure can affect academics/students because its restricting them from knowing more history than what they are expected to know. The last sentence in my opinion is suggesting that the essayist story is just one of many lost in that vast crevice.

In the essay, something that I’m still puzzled by is that when the writer is describing why Kate Winslet’s character has to be one of the most appreciated details in the movie, the author makes the comparison between the “hormonal conviction” of the movie being more related to “walruses”, rather than “Edwardians”. I don’t really understand the comparison the author is making here. I’ve done some research, but its still unclear. Another still puzzling feature of the essay is along the last few paragraphs the author claims “It is hypocrisy… that wealthy people make films saluting the poor but let them benignly pretend”. This sentence is puzzling, because the paragraph to which it belongs is speaking on budget films, which I’m having trouble tying to the earlier half of the essay.

The most striking feature of the essay is in the second to last paragraph, when the author writes “At the end, life has provided and preserved only one golden memory, one great emotional adventure, as random as a lottery ticket: it is both too meagre and too rich”. This correlates with the main idea of the essay, which I believe to be the one memorable experience that humans share in their life and thats love.

Dear Blog,

My name is Aristeo De Jesus, but my friends call me Ari. I am a freshman at Baruch, and my intended major is Real Estate. As of right now, I’m still deciding if I want to change my major. One of the few interesting things about me is that I like to take initiative and expose myself and others around me to new things. For example, I’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar, so about two years ago I decided to purchase a guitar out of the blue and teach myself. The learning process has been a roller coaster of emotions, and although I’m still not great I am glad I took initiative to try something new. Taking initiative, and not debating whether to do something or not makes for a very fun adventure.

I was trying to find an image online showing someone unbothered, but I couldn’t find one. The image below represents the present me. What I mean by this is that when I was younger I used to always stress over anything. Over the years, and after several headaches I decided to try and avoid all the negative things around me and just not stress over things as much, whether it was at home or outside. This image really just represents my life, and how I go about doing things. By always remaining optimistic I am able to constantly keep a cool and positive mindset. I’m able to be at peace with myself and unbothered by whatever is going on around me.