...The Blunt Truth Many people including myself have been told that drugs are bad and to never use them, and as a child we listen to our authority figures even though we may not understand the reason behind it. To this day, I still remember the D.A.R.E program in the fifth grade, but now that I am older, I realize that people are going to do drugs despite what laws are in place. The drug in question is marijuana. Marijuana is all around us; it is in the music we listen to, the television shows and movies we watch, and is constantly on the news. The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States has been argued since the existence of the drug and is even more prevalent today. Marijuana today has more uses than just to get “high,” it has medical and financial benefits that are commonly overlooked. Most Americans today believe that someone who smokes marijuana is a lazy, 20-year-old stoner who does not contribute to society other than buying large amounts of Doritos and Taco Bell. This statement is completely false. Marijuana can be used by anyone and has many more uses than just to get high. Marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient is tetrahydro-cannabinol or THC (Griffiths). Marijuana has been used as a medicine in European colonies in North America since the 18th century (Griffiths). According to Heather M. Griffiths, “people seek out marijuana with medical problems including nausea, vomiting, weight loss, multiple sclerosis, asthma, inflammation, glaucoma, poor appetite...
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...Evangelista 1 Evangelista 1 Micah Evangelista 10/1/13 My Mistress’ Eyes In the sonnet, My Mistress’ Eyes, the speaker partakes a blunt, mocking tone, to describe his mistress. He uses truths in order to convey that his feeling of true love is real. The speaker recognizes the average beauty of his mistress, and uses love metaphors against themselves. For instance, the speaker is blunt when addressing the eyes of his mistress, claiming they are nothing like the sun. (Line 1) He goes on in a straight-forward manner, saying her lips are not red, breasts are a grayish shade, hair is wires, cheeks are pale, smells horrible, breath reeks, sounds annoying, stops on the ground, etc. (Lines 2-12) The speaker seems to have a mocking tone towards other poets who use unrealistic things to describe their true love. He is trying to prove that a woman doesn’t need to look like a goddess, in order to be loved and be beautiful. The speaker provides evidence that shows a person does not have to define the one he loves in unearthly measures to prove his “extravagant love”; going back to lines 2-12 with the truthful portrayal of his mistress. He did not describe her in regular love poetry words, but rather in insulting and factual words. Basically, the speaker is calling things out as he sees it. Just like the speaker’s blunt and honest description for his mistress, his love is pure. Evangelista 2 Evangelista 2 The speaker reveals that he loves his mistress as herself in the last couplet...
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...in real life and their imagination. However, it is reasonable to say those writers have used too much of their imagination, to communicate through a piece of writing or film, of what a true hero is and does. The excessive usage of imagination gets to a point where many of us are deceived by those well developed stories into only thinking that people who deserve status as heroes are only brave and save lives, and that is certainly not true. But the real truth is, true heroes are aware of how they impact others,...
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...Smoking weed every day is not cool. It’s not healthy, it’s not wise- it’s illegal. All good reasons why you shouldn’t spark up, right? Wrong. As a young adult, it’s hard to not give into some of the pressures that you’re faced with everyday, especially throughout high school. I was originally introduced to weed as marijuana, and how evil it was. Not only would my mother preach about how bad it was, but the school system shoved it into our heads as well. Marijuana is a “gateway drug”. Might as well say, “if you smoke it, you will die”. Wrong- false advertisement- stop there. There’s no way something that “god created” should be illegal, or cause you harm. It’s just a plant! Boyfriend one: 18, stoner, fluent drug user, and drinker (what a great pick). The first guy to ever ask me to smoke with him. I barely knew anything about weed or what it does, how it feels, or even how to smoke it. I felt like the most ignorant, and immature person in my boyfriend’s life, but that never changed my opinion on how I felt about the matter. Weed was still evil and I was still immature, oh well. I tried to get him to stop, which really did nothing. And on top of that, I was trying to talk him out of doing and experimenting with all the drugs he was trying, which was much more difficult. Every weekend him and his friends would call me telling me what drug they were taking that day. Whether it be ecstasy, acid, MDMA, or xanax, they were always on something. My ex was never sober and no matter...
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...Charles Sykes writes at a level that people can understand in high school or maybe even junior high. Sykes makes his writings funny yet more about reality at the same time. Charles Sykes writes at a high school level to say what high school students should be told but nobody wants to say. Charles Sykes’ reading called "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" is very straight and to the point which is now how many teenagers learn. One of Charles Sykes rules says "If you mess up, it's not your parents’ fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them" if that quote is not speaking 100% truth, then what is? In this reading Sykes also says “Life is not fair. Get used to it.” With that being said, people can tell that he is very straight...
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...Both ABC and The Project, include screen graphics to straightforwardly communicate with the audience. The typical ABC graphic displays a refined overview of the up and coming news story, this unveils the intended audience. Despite the blunt word choice of the following on-screen graphic used by ABC’s 7.00pm news, it captures the story and the intended audience, ‘More Stabbing: Tensions rise’. The refined choice of words effectively intrigues the audience with no amplification; alternatively puns and alliteration are used throughout The Project. Along with the entertaining techniques the titles intentionally lack depth, “Pan gets Panned” is an appropriate example, the humorous pun and the mention of new film, Pan, intrigues the audience. Additionally both text employ bold fonts for visual pleasure. ABC identifies as a formal and easy source for credible news. By applying white, bold font for headlining articles, the audience can effortlessly decide to watch or ignore. Likewise...
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...What is Truth? Without thinking deeply about it, truth seems like a concrete concept. As children, we learn that everything we do, or say, fits in a box of either true or false. A statement or story is correct, real or genuine and anything else is a lie, deceitful or incorrect. The reality is that some stories do not necessarily fit in those boxes, and truth is more fluid than we learn. The definition given by Merriam Webster is “agreeing with the facts : not false : real or genuine.” Understandably, there are some truths that are irrefutable. It is a fact that the sky is blue, and that we breathe oxygen. Storytelling, however, does not have to be so concrete. I believe that truth can be concrete, fluid or ambiguous in certain situations depending on what the speaker is trying to express. There will always be concrete truth. These are details that are told with such certainty that nothing contradicts it. Those details are the ones we can identify as children. We all learned things about ourselves and the earth that are correct one hundred percent of the time and the authenticity is...
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...Evelyn Mulwray who we are introduced to by name in one of the first scenes but only meet in person later on is depicted as a cold, beautiful and woman full of hidden agenda’s. Her title as femme fatale only grows with the details of her appearance such as the red lipstick and sophisticated manner of being. She seems calm, cool and collected when we first meet her showing a clear dominance over the situation when she first encounters J.J Gittes. Her manipulative nature is only beginning to be visible when the police start to investigate further into her husbands murder. She quickly makes use of Gittes and his obsessive nature lying to the police and scheming in order to get them off the case. She casually states, “Shall I send you a chacek,...
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...Danny was just as confused as Marley when he found out he had turn into a pig. Fortunately Danny can speak English, which makes it easy for him to communicate with others. However, there was a little secret that came with this metamorphosis, that neither Danny nor Marley know about. Danny can only tell the truth, whenever someone asks him a question or ask for his opinion. This effect came to surface when the couple went to the doctor’s for a check up on Danny. When the doctor asked Danny what might’ve caused this metamorphosis to occur. He came clean and admitted, “I’ve been lying to everyone and also been cheating on my wife for quite a while now.” Both the doctor and Marley were surprised on how straightforward and blunt Danny was with his...
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...an option. Two major areas worth exploring are direct versus indirect communication, as well as the emotional aspect of communication. Since American military culture is different from the greater American culture, it’s also worth exploring how these two concepts apply to military life. The combination should give us a better picture of how we relate to the world around us. 2. To start off, Americans are often seen as blunt, i.e., direct, and indirect communication is generally criticized1. We are not ones to “beat around the bush,” evade difficult topics, or simply not speak up. While there are exceptions to this generalization (politicians, mediators, diplomats, etc.), as a society, we lean towards direct communication. There is one key area of speech where we do revert to indirect communication though, and it is somewhat unique to Americans. We use euphemisms extensively. According to the built-in dictionary used by Apple Computers, a euphemism is “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” We use euphemisms for everything from...
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...I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented.” (Pg. 180) O'Brien wants to make up parts of his stories because of the way that he needs the reader to experience feelings rather than simple mental visuals. He describes these feeling loaded scenes as "story-truth" “Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier...Here is the story-truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty.”(Pg. 181) because of the way that they are part story and part truth. The parts that are just for emotion shape and make the general story that he envisions it to be. In this way, readers can completely comprehend why O'Brien composes his considerations out as the book advances. As O'Brien adapts more about his reasons of being a writer, the reader adapts more regarding his war stories and how they aren’t the same without the feeling included as opposed to the visual...
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...A. What are the three things you regret most in your life? How do the events you named relate to counterfactual thinking? Counterfactual thinking – The tendency to imagine other outcomes in a situation than the ones that actually occurred (“What might have been.”) This particular question reminds me of the scenario of what if you marrying your high school sweetheart after you just seen them at a 15 year reunion. This is extremely hard for me to answer because, in relation to the way I live my life, I do not believe in regrets and do not want to take back anything I have done or else I may not be where I am today. I have a very simple philosophy about life and I try not to let my actions whether they are positive or negative, influence the next step I take because every footprint we create is an experience and who is to say that the path we chose is really the right or wrong path and in the end and maybe we were meant to be there. Some may call this fate and of course one can argue the fact that there are defiantly better choices in life than others but I whole heartedly believe that is what shapes our character and personifies the image we leave on this earth. I use the saying “It is what it is” very frequently because that’s how I think. I do not let life push or influence anything I do but I just try to act in best interest of the circumstance that arises and whatever the outcome I will except the results, learn from it, and mold the experience into a stepping stone...
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...These lines form the symbol of time, and a cycle in which these events in the “pretty how town” occur. This transforms a blunt statement of time passing, into a line implying the cycle of time in the town. Alliteration: A great number of alliterations placed in this poem are as short as two words. “Little by little and was by was,’for example (28). These mini alliterations give the poem a slight singsong vibe, even under the dark circumstances the story is in. Synecdoche: A synecdoche is defined as a part of something that represents its whole or vice versa. The first word of the poem, “anyone,” fits this mold. A boy named “Anyone” is the personified version of all people; anyone. This small detail sets all humans in the shoes of a boy, who falls into the cycle of monotony, thus pushing the reader to believe they are as ordinary as the next person. Attitude: The attitude of the speaker towards the poem’s plot is slightly passive aggressive. They point out the negative aspects, some of which are, “one day anyone died i guess” and “cared for anyone not at all,” in a blunt fashion, as if hiding emotion from the story (25, 6). This conveys an uninvolved approach from the speaker that translates to the...
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...line reads, “Don’t sugarcoat it // Cause you’ll eat that too”. The positioning of the wording is purposeful because the first thing you read is “You’re Fat”. The heading grabs your attention and gets you to read further. In the background Dr. Phil has a serious, judgmental look on his face as if he was in the middle of speaking (See figure 1). Dr. Phil McGraw is fairly famous for his hit television show, Dr. Phil, in which he has guests on and he helps them work out their personal life issues on national television. He is a straight forward, blunt person when it comes to expressing his thoughts or opinions. Part of what makes this meme funny is because this meme can be taken in such an offensive way, but Dr. Phil is in the background, he almost softens the blow of how offensive the meme truly is. He “softens the blow” because on his television show, he is very much known for his blunt personality and telling people the straight forward truth; no matter how offensive it is or if it may hurt someone’s feelings. Fig. 1. Dr. Phil, 2016 This meme uses pathos in the aspect of the offensive humor and the bolded text. Among younger crowds of people, making “fat jokes” or other jokes is a common trend to do in order to be found funny by other peers. Pathos is involved because the meme is stating an opinion then trying to soften the blow with the pun at the end. Regardless if the pun is found funny, it still evokes emotions from the reader reinforcing the usage of pathos because being called...
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...your brain has a job to do. When drugs enter your brain, they can interrupt the work and actually change the way your brain performs its jobs. These changes in the brain are what lead to compulsive drug use, the hallmark of addiction. Alby, an eighteen year old teen who was residing in a maximum-security jail, ended up in jail because he began dealing drugs. HEADS UP: REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY, recorded that it all started one summer day on a street corner in Yonkers, New York, when Alby was thirteen. One of his friends told him “You need to get your mind right. Hit this blunt”. Alby didn’t hesitate to try it, at the time he didn’t have the strength to say “no”. He wanted to fit in and if smoking a blunt lead to him being “cool” he would do it. With his parents never being there for him, with them being drug addicts themselves, he didn’t believe it would be an issue if he tried the blunt. After that day he would get high every chance he could and eventually he...
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