“Pain” by Geoffrey Canada

Answer

English 101 Midterm Questions

1. In Tim O’Brien’s How to Tell a True War Story, some qualities of a true war story are highlighted. First, a true war story is not moral and as such does not instruct, neither does it encourage virtue. It does not attempt to show human beings on how to behave properly. Additionally, it does not seek to persuade people to stop doing what they have always done (O’Brien, 1998). Rather, a true war story speaks to evil and obscenity uncompromisingly, in such a manner that it actually embarrasses.
2. In Shooting an Elephant, the author paints imperialism in dark light and implies it is an evil thing that ought to be opposed. By calling it evil and showing his opposition to it, he shares in the plight of the natives who are suffering oppression in the hands of the British. It is this vein that the elephant and the incident of its shooting emerge as figurative representations of imperialism and the need to eliminate it. The author portrays imperialism as a concept that lacks ideology and as such does not deserve to be supported because all it does is exploit the masses (locals).
3. In Just walk on by, many incidents in the life of the author evidence racism and stereotyping in the society. For instance, being black and tall frightened a white woman one night as he took a walk as was the norm during his days as a graduate. In another incident, he is mistaken for a burglar just because of his race, the same way a fellow journalist is mistaken for a killer. Last yet important, his experiences prompt him to whistle classical music because he is too aware that he might be mistaken again, so that would be a way of communicating his innocence and harmlessness to the public or people around him.
4. The narrative “38 who saw murder and didn’t call the police” may be an account of old news but it is still significant today. This is because it calls attention to the manner in which society has become desensitized with evils like murder. The victim in the narrative would have been saved if people had acted as to call the police but unfortunately they did not. The underlying message is that the public ought to care enough and be sensitive to what is happening around them, so that by so doing they can help in identification and prevention of evils like murder.
5. In the essay Beauty and the Beast in Advertising, some of the effects of electricity are best captured in the context of aesthetic abstraction where ‘the selection of universals and omission of non-universal of things in reality” takes center stage in the production of beauty as a concept (Vacker par. 34). Specific effects in this regard include lighting, photography, and airbrushing among others, which in the end produce a concept of beauty as it should be, and not as “is” (in reality). Overall, electricity helps achieve universal representations of beauty as well as measure, quantify, and contextualize such universal as may be desired.
6. According to the author of Hello Darkness, electric lights makes the retrieval of experiences of a non-electrified society quite difficult. With electricity, activities that were traditionally strictly carried out during the day can now be carried out at night. An indirect impact of this aspect of work is that people can not engage in sensual matters that they had to turn to once it was nightfall; in other words, electricity has altered the pattern of life for many. With the length of darkness being shortened, people can now engage in many other activities, a development that perhaps explain the sleep deficit being experienced today.
7. In the essay The True about Beauty the author points out that Doves recent beauty campaign of beauty is a media creation is untruthful and deceiving. Overall, she says the campaign is misleading because it is a typical marketing ploy that manipulates the insecurities of consumers with an aim to make them purchase company products. While it may appear to be countering the idea of there being a standard measure of beauty, it nevertheless seems to uphold the notion that as regards women evaluating themselves and others, beauty is still the denominator; it is paramount. It also makes women at large experience greater self-awareness of what they look like, hence heightening awareness of beauty ideals as it were.
8. According to Geoffrey Canada (in his article), the painful experiences that boys suffer in their childhood has far-reaching consequences that affect their lives even in adulthood. The author points out that boys are taught to suffer silently and as such pretend that whatever they are experiencing does not hurt. This way, they carry their pain into adulthood and it brings doubt into their lives. The pain not only makes them be afraid to love but it also causes them to doubt the safety of the ground they are walking (that is they do not trust the world around them).