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Change is an inevitable part of life, it is not only a transition from one state to another, it is a fundamental force that defines human existence. Change is the constant that, ironically, never changes. Without it, there would be no progress, no evolution of societies, no innovations. While change can be the driving force forward, it can also bring about doom and destruction. In Heart of The Dog, a satirical novella by Mikhail Bulgakov set in 1925, change is explored through the physical transformation of a stray dog, Sharik, into a foul-mouthed human by Proffesor Philip Preobrazhensky, serving as a metaphor of the Russian Ideology and farce of the proletariat relationship with the superior intelligensia. Tim O’Brien also depicts change as a profound, often irreversible psychological transformation in his war novel, The Things They Carried, highlighting how the war environment in Vietnam in the 1970s striped soldiers’ previous identities and morals, relplacing them with trauma and fear. Together, these works depict the psychological and physical effects that arrise from and drive further change.

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Link:

https://www.hopeforpaws.org/donate

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1. Headline and structure

The headline is “Churn out every idea and then burn it down”. It attracts attention because of simplistic and short diction, straightforwardness and shock value.

Subheadings are present and add to the pathway that the reader is to follow to maintain a logical structure of the articles argument.

The colour and images capture attention because of their vibrancy and originality. The text is simple and official looking, the font is easy to read.

2. Leaf paragraph

It provides an introduction to the topic of the article and it also presents the authors opinion which is key to the readers understanding of the article. References real-life experience and provides a funny but compelling hook.

3. Visual elements

There is a vibrant image, uniform paragraph length, a quote and bullet points (manual like). The captions provide information about the paragraph and play into the argument of the author, logically structuring it and presenting it in a digestible way.

4. Authorial voice and Perspective

Since its an opinion article the voice of the author is very prevalent in the content. Thomas Maisey offers a perspective of a content creator while addressing ordinary people that too can engage with AI in their job.

5. Argumentation and Perspective

The main argument and message of this article is that while AI is a useful tool and can be helpful in your workspace or even personal life, it should never be placed instead of your own originality and should never be presented as your own work.

The quote used from George Orwell, who is a credible distopian author supports originality and how greatness is achieved when one is honest, along with the mention of Netflix and Disney+, which are well-known streaming platforms and revealing how AI subtly influences our everyday life.

6. Language and Style

The author uses listing, in many cases a tricolon or at least a list of 3 aspects together with short, snappy sentences to further reinforce the urgency of the article and appeal to pathos. As mentioned earlier, these techniques together with the statistics and quotes used (30% of your output etc.) help achieve a stronger, factual arguement. It also directly adresses a particular reader, which makes it even more personal, as if he was speaking to the singular person reading it. The choice of diction used shows a strong persuasive vocabulary like “opportunity, ideation, prediction engines are powerful” which further contributes to the strength of the article.

Critical Thinking and Interpretation

1. While this article is not neccessarily biased, it does not provide a balanced argument in my opinion. It reinforces the central message throughout the article sections, however, the final section does mention how people should use AI, not as a medium for originality they present as ideas of their own, but more as a tool to help guide the creative process. This section is quite small and doesn’t provide depth so I would say the article could have a bit more balance.

2. I would provide more balance and also not only include the small section of the “manual” as how to use it, but also focus on the idea of using AI for a person’s benefit or for the benefit of the world (e.g. Medicine).

3. I would analyse the language and tone (how does the author use language to persuade the reader, formal, informal, satirical, humorous, choice of diction etc.), bias (since this article was quite biased, I would analyse how teh argument could have been made more balanced, and structure (is it organized logically and easy to follow).

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Purpose: simplify complex information, eye-catching and engaging and easy to understand.

Audience: normally infographics are designed to reach as wide an audience as possible. As always look out for technical language that might indicate a niche audience.

Simplification: the main purpose of infographics is to simplify complex knowledge or data. Look out for all kinds of simplification techniques including summary, bullet points, images with captions and more.

Illustrations: they say a picture is worth a thousand words and nowhere is this more true than in infographics. Icons are simplified images that symbolise certain ideas from the text.

Structure: good infographics are little visual narratives that tell a simple story, so look out for structural elements that help you decode the sequence of events.

Design: infographics are supposed to be eye-catching. Colour, typography, font and other design features should combine to help you get information and also engage your interest.

Graphs and Charts: should present information in a fun way, illustrations are more detailed and artistic (more unique) icon is a symbolic representation of an idea(reproducible)

Copy: Multimodal, it will have a headline as well as subheadings, illustrations or icons will be labeled, short pieces of texts are snippets (technical or topic specific vocabulary)

Composition and Structure: a visual narrative that tells a story, timeline or chronological structures

Colour schemes: simple and designed usually only with 2 or 3 colours, symbolic to the setting or subjects

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Themes

Restoration + grief, loss and death

Joy companionship, acceptance

Family (chosen), gender

Symbols

Kitchen- comfort, routine, normality, stability, nourishment

Food

Dark/light

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frenzied activity, devoid of hope, unabashedly, phosphorescent river, abhorrent things,

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What was interesting? What have you learned? What moved you and why?

-The fact that Sotaro (Mikage’s old boyfriend) loved plants and they always met outside has a connection to Mikage’s deep description of how the plants looked like, and also why she probably liked Yuichi’s apartment (it reminded her of Sotaro and the relationship they had). Sotaro is not very fond of Yuichi and accepting of the fact that his mother is a “he”. Yuichi wanted Mikage to live with them, and I found interesting how she imagined him as her boyfriend, not in a romantic kind of way, but following the thought of slapping him “if he was my boyriend, I would slap him.” Also, when they were writing the postcards, there was some chemistry between them and again, Mikage might be falling in love with him because they share the common feeling of sadness and loneliness (something happy people cannot understand).

I learned how incredibly important it is to have people surrounding you that are able to help you cope with grief, like Mikage having Yuichi and Eriko around and feeling so welcome in their house makes her feel not only less alone, but the little things like small talks or drinking tea together give her a sense of belonging and serve as a “family substitution”.

The part that moved me was the encounter of Mikage on the bus with Yuki, her grandmother and the mother, how sentimental and nostalgic it was, it actually reminded me of my own grandmother’s passing and how Mikage broke down crying afterwards, thinking how Yuki should cherish these moments with her grandmother, made me feel her pain. Even the meltdown she had in the alleyway afterwards intensified the effect of this situation and again, all paths lead her back to a kitchen which provided a sense of solace even in her current state.

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How can readers approach texts from different times and cultures from their own?

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How can readers approach texts from different times and cultures from their own?

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Readers and writers both have their own interpretations of different works, this all depends on the specific text in question and their overall approach to the said text. They can either be openminded and ready to look at the text from the writers point of view, or they can be more subjective and find their own interpretations which might not correspond with what the writer had in mind. Texts from different times and cultures than the ones of the reader makes new language or situations that might no longer be relevant or that might have changed, for example historical text or world issues. We also have different biases and values as a society, that change as time goes by, which also influence how we interpret a text.

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In what way does the loss of her grandmother impact Mikage, especially her being her last living relative?

Her grandmother's death leaves Mikage feeling truly alone for the first time, triggering an intense sense of loneliness and despair that makes her want to give up on living.

Why does Mikage accept the offer to live/ move in with Yuichi?

Mikage and Yuichi share a deep connection through her grandmother, with Yuichi having been close to her and understanding Mikage's pain in a way others couldn't. Mikage is also drawn to Eriko, who takes a motherly role and expresses that she knows what it's like to be alone, which resonates deeply with Mikage.

What is so special/ mesmerizing abour Yuichi’s kitchen to Mikage?

She notices an enormous sofa in the living room and behind it in the large kitchen, she saw pots and pans, no table, no carpet, just “it”. She asks to explore it further, seeing the good quality mat, silverstone frying pan, a vegetable peeler and plates. Everything was organized and she “fell in love” with the kitchen immediately.

How was the first encounter of Mikage with Eriko?

The meeting was short but impactful, with Mikage instantly struck by Eriko's extraordinary beauty. Eriko, Yuichi's mother, welcomed Mikage warmly, explained she had to leave for work, and then rushed out the door. Despite it being bried, the encounter deeply affected Mikage, who was left speechless by Eriko's appearance.

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In the kitchen, I feel creative because I can experiment with recipes and see how they turn out, possibly make something nice for people to enjoy.

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Close reading and analysis

Excerpt 1:

Wilde starts the scene sweetly and as it progresses to the bread and butter part, and how Gwendolen replies with a “looks down on” manner, the scene gains more passive agression.

It reveals how the upper class, but especially females need to keep the decorum and cannot simply swear or act in a non-sophisticated manner even in situations that upset them, and hence keeping the decorum in all situations.

The comedic effect comes how Cecily talks sweetly yet her comedic actions of giving the opposite food of what Gwendolen asked for and thinking how horrible she is acting while nowdays, actions like these would be viewed as humorous.

Excerpt 2:

Wilde satirizes Victorian ideals by Cecily mentioning how a person leading a double life, pretending to be wicked but being very pleasant contradicts with eachother and shows the Victorian ideals of a man.

It suggests that Cecily views boys that behave badly as something she should neglect due to the societal standards, however, they fascinate and drawn her in.

The whole conversation is parodic to an extent, because me usually tell the girls how good they are and that is what makes them attracted to them, whereas here, Cecily is specifically asking for the bad Algernon has done and that is what she finds attractive.

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In what ways does Kendall Roy use informal language and persuasive techniques in the tumblr post to educate the readers on the importance of literary analysis?

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Colour- 🫑

Symbol- 👓

Image

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Original: The colour palette and the facial expression of the subject, through which Tsakalidis aims to provoke a response from the audience

Updated: Through the use of a contrasting colour palette of warm and dark colours together with the painful facial expression of the subject, Tsakalidis aims to provoke empathy from the audience and help them to sympathise with the people affected by natural disasters.

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1. Women want him, men want to be like him. He serves as the hook onto which the reader catches

2. Posture is relaxed and leaned back, shows confidence. Clothing is vibrant and in contrast to the color of the background and the text. Facial expression is very positive and relaxed, encourages trust. Facial hair is groomed and shows that he is sophisticated, displays masculinity

3. Yellow is meant to highlight the most important parts of phrases. Red is used for key words. Black is used for the other parts of the phrases that are punctuated by the use of the other colors. Blue is used as a centerpiece to attract attention.

4. Alliteration is used along with asyndeton. Its a tricolon that is meant to showcase a process.

5. Large font emphasizes the important things, viewers eye travels there first and only the moves on to the smaller sentences. Bold font is more eye catching, thinner font is used to provide supplemental information.

6. Evokes exclamations, the diction is very intense. Alliteration is used to an extent, building a pattern that is then broken.

7. They are used to advocate the subjects accomplishments and justify his position as an idol for the potential reader of the magazine

8. Very short period of time, intense and encouraging diction, aimed at people that are not enthusiastic about exercise, promising quick results for little time and effort

9. There are two ways to read the text as "every body" and "everybody". The connotations of each are slightly different but the purpose of it is more or less the same, to emphasize the strength of not only the readers physical body but also their mental one. It further serves to include as many potential readers as possible into the group to encourage them to purchase the magazine

10. Juxtaposition, colloquial language that the reader is familiar with. The effect is that the reader is motivated to buy the magazine in order to find out how exactly they can succeed with ease. It shames them into buying it by calling them a slacker.

11. It can cause a heart attack but the substitution of the medical condition with "zap" lightens the situation and promises the reader a solution to their problem

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-Mast Head (how readers will recognise the magazine, the logo or name of magazine)

-Magazine deck (the expression of the magazine)

-Date line (when the magazine was published)

-Magazine issue (volume and issue numbers, monthly, weekly etc.)

-Main image (photo or an illustration on the cover, has to be high quality)

-Lead article line (uses a different font)

-Cover lines (smaller font size, concisely tells us what is inside, subtitles) (some block, some sleek font)

-Website link

-Bar code

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In 1980 French Magnum photographer Raymond Depardon was commissioned by The Sunday Times Magazine to photograph Scotland's largest city: Glasgow, on the River Clyde. The city has long been known for its architectural heritage - from its majestic Victorian squares to stern rows of tenements and brutal industrial giants - much of this building being the product of the city's great Victorian-era wealth. However, in spite of this prosperous past and the city's pivotal role in Britain's industrial and cultural development, numerous areas of Glasgow were - at the time of Depardon's visit - poverty stricken. The photographer focused his work on Glasgow's famed slums and dock areas, capturing the imposing architecture and broad vistas, as well as the resilient nature of the city's inhabitants. The work resulted in the book Glasgow, published by Editions du Seuil in 2016. The following essay, by best-selling author William Boyd, appeared as the book's foreword.
A new collection of fine prints by Raymond Depardon - including a number from his Glasgow project - are available now on the Magnum Photos Shop.
I lived in Glasgow from 1971-1975 - I was a student at Glasgow University - and so came to know the city very well indeed. I have been back to Glasgow several times every year since then - my wife has family there - and I have seen at first hand, over the last four decades, the city's striking evolution from 19 th century relic to the modern, vibrant conurbation it is today. It's an intriguing idea to contemplate that when Raymond Depardon was in Glasgow in 1980-82, when he was taking these remarkable photographs, so was I. Conceivably our paths may have crossed, tangentially. What he was seeing and photographing were scenes that were very familiar to me.

But not to anyone else, I imagine. This is a risky generalisation but, outside of Scotland, I would say that Glasgow is something of a secret city. Indeed, when I think of other provincial cities in Britain - Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham - I realise I hardly have any real cognisance of them, any real idea of them, even though I have visited them from time to time. If this is true of my own country, then perhaps we can say that all big provincial cities in other countries are also secret cities to foreigners. What do we, the British, know of Lyon or Lille, for example, or Leipzig or Stuttgart, or Turin or Genoa, and so on? Glasgow, however, is a very interesting example. It's an old city, a medieval city, but it reached its apotheosis at the height of the British Empire in the middle of the 19 thcentury. It was rich, mercantile, bourgeois, burgeoningly prosperous. It has been described as the greatest 19 th century city in Britain, with good reason.

But when I went there in the 1970s, and when Raymond Depardon was there in the early 1980s, its glory days were far behind it and its glittering future lay many years ahead. When you left the centre of town, or the area where the university was (in the city's west end) it was very easy to find yourself in a neighbourhood of abject urban poverty and squalor. You were very aware of how hard the lives of the denizens of these districts were. It wasn't just the manifest decrepitude of the housing or the diminished quality of the goods in the shops - you saw deprivation and desperation etched in the faces of the young and the old.

I have a vivid memory from the early 1970s of walking back at dawn (after a party) through Govan - a dockside parish of the city that Depardon photographs in this collection. It was probably raining - sometimes it seems to rain every day in Glasgow - but I remember I was struck by the contrast between the austere solidity of the 19 th century buildings, the long high rows of tenement flats, as they are called, and the abject meanness of the wide empty streets I was walking through. There were patches of weed-strewn waste ground with smouldering fires, metal-shuttered shop fronts as if ready to repel a siege, abundant litter, wheel-less abandoned vehicles, graffiti - often of a virulent sectarian religious kind - and, when I encountered the odd person out and about at this early hour, a feeling of alarm. I felt I was an alien in an alien land. Certain districts of Glasgow were dangerous. You passed by another person quickly, with no eye-contact, head down.

These are the cityscapes and the localities that Depardon has captured so brilliantly and evocatively. And yet it's important to say that it is only one side of the city of Glasgow. There are whole streets and blocks of spectacular Victorian architecture, leafy suburbs of large beautiful houses, vast parks that are the rival of London's open spaces, imposing vistas - Glasgow is hilly - and civic buildings and churches of international renown.

Ian Nairn (1930-1983) is one of the greatest British writers on architecture and the urban landscape. He visited Glasgow for the first time in 1960 and had this to say: "Glasgow was a shock to me... I found what is without doubt the most friendly of Britain's big cities and probably the most dignified and coherent as well. In looks it is much more like the best part of American cities - Boston or Philadelphia - than anywhere in England." Even when Nairn contemplated Glasgow's most famous slum - the Gorbals - he was impressed: "It is laid out on a grid, with immensely dignified four-storey, stone-built terraces... in other circumstances it would be applauded as a splendid piece of urban design."

Glasgow's slums are the focus for Raymond Depardon's photographs. I recognise areas of Govan (by the river Clyde with the huge cranes of the now defunct shipyards in the background) and Maryhill, also very deprived. What is initially so striking about the photographs is the architecture. Depardon captures the long perspectives - the tall tenements set in their wide streets - and these form the backdrop to the human drama in the foreground: a mother pushing a pram across the road, a drunk comatose in a shop doorway, a child on a bicycle, a little boy blowing an incandescent pink bubble of gum on the edge of the photograph's frame. I wonder if it was the very strangeness of these juxtapositions that drew Depardon to Glasgow: urban deprivation contrasted with what Nairn calls "one of the best examples in architecture of completely fulfilled promise." Impressive grandeur confronted with the bleak desperation at the centre of the human condition. If I'm right then I think that this gives us a clue to what makes these photographs so memorable. I don't think that Depardon was interested in being a "street photographer" in Glasgow - in the manner of Brassai or Weegee or Vivian Maier - even though there are certain images that show us how the underclass lives and how forlorn their existence must be. As I look at these photographs what seems to determine the image is more an idea of composition rather than social reportage - an idea of pictorial structure rather than demotic documentary detail. Of course, they reflect a place and a time but, even though they are in colour, the Glasgow light - its tarnished humidity, its grisaille - gives the photographs something of the timelessness that monochrome bestows.

Conceivably, my familiarity with the city is a potential disadvantage when I consider Depardon's photographs - I know it too well - so it requires something of a thought-experiment to try and imagine what these urban images look like to someone who has never been to Glasgow, who knows nothing of its "look" or its reputation. I would imagine that these Depardon street views would seem almost surreal: the long vistas, the exaggerated perspective, the big skies, the diminution of the human in the context of the larger frame. These images of Govan and Maryhill take on some of the aspects of the background city streets in the paintings of Giorgio Di Chirico or Paul Delvaux. And, indeed, mentioning Delvaux reminds me of the English novelist J.G.Ballard - another connoisseur of the dystopian city. Ballard was very inspired by Delvaux and I think any reader of Ballard would see in Depardon's images of Glasgow a rendition of the classic Ballardian tropes of alienation, of the modern city's heartlessness, its aloof unconcern for its inhabitants.

All this artistic and literary comparison and speculation and allusion is a way of paying tribute to the real potency of Raymond Depardon's photographs. These are great photographs of a city and its people - regardless of the time they were taken. Glasgow is the subject but in a way the city in these photographs is at a strange remove from the actual city on the banks of the River Clyde. However, all great photographs have the capacity to make you look at the world anew, as if the view through someone else's lens reinvigorates what your eyes can see - but may be missing.

As it happens I had been looking at Depardon's photographs before I returned to Glasgow two weeks ago. The city is largely transformed today from the one that Depardon photographed in the early 1980s, let alone the one that Ian Nairn wrote about in the 1960s. The abandoned wharves, shipyards and warehouses of the riverside - Glasgow's imperial industrial heartland and the source of its wealth - are now landscaped parks of condominiums and gated communities and vast silvered monoliths of modernist architecture: new bridges, exhibition and conference centres, arenas. And yet, you can turn a corner and this new 21 stcity disappears and in its place are the wide rainwashed streets of an older Glasgow, the sandstone tenement blocks standing tall against the cloud-littered sky. It seems like a vision - as if the 19 th century has somehow returned. Raymond Depardon's Glasgow still lives on.
William Boyd. London, September 2015.
Boyd's new novel, Love is Blind, is out now.

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Raymond Depardon * Glasgow * Magnum Photos Magnum Photos

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The French photographer's work in Scotland's famously gritty metropolis captured much of what the author saw as the true spirit of the city

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Today’s lesson has been very helpful with future workings with texts and analysis of a deeper meaning when it comes to implicit or even explicit pieces of work. We learned the denotation and connotation of various words or phrases in a text and how authors utilize them to play with biases, preconception and prejudice. Learning the difference between the above mentioned words has helped me to be clear what they are and how to find them in a text. We also did a practice working with a text and searching for the deeper meaning which I’m sure we will utilize in regards to Paper 1, 2 or 3.

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All Inclusive: How Are Make-Up Brands Tackling Diversity?

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As the world’s perception of beauty becomes more diverse, how are make-up brands evolving in tandem?

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f you had told my teen self I'd be a beauty journalist and that I would write a book on beauty, particularly one geared towards women of colour, I'd have called you a false prophet. "You can't be what you can't see" is a hackneyed phrase, but in my case rang true. I loved magazines, but I always skipped the beauty pages. The voices behind them didn't speak to me. The faces on the pages didn't look like me. The products weren't geared towards me. I had no place there. Growing up, I had always heard my Nigerian parents and their friends say: "This is not our country." And so, despite being British, I parked any expectation to be included in the beauty industry. It never occurred to me that I could be a part of this world, let alone driving change from within.

When I started writing about beauty, almost 15 years ago, it was nothing to do with race. My reasons were pragmatic. I was a freelance fashion writer, work had dried up, so I turned my hand to writing everything and anything because at that time, in the timeless words of Gwen Guthrie, Ain't Nothing Going on But the Rent. And I was irked by the way beauty was written - fluffy and asinine, as if for one-dimensional airheads. I made a conscious decision to go against that. Unconsciously, however, my foray into the beauty world was driven by my blackness and the industry's rejection of it. My route to realising that was surprising, even to me.

'Watching this British-born black woman navigate a very white world blows my mind': Pat McGrath, the world's most influential makeup artist. Photograph: Rabbani and Solimene Photography/WireImage

In February 2017, to coincide with Black History Month in the US, CNN launched a project inspired by WEB DuBois's The Souls of Black Folks, a literary classic that talks about race and ethnicity in America. Du Bois wrote about the first time his skin colour made him realise he was different. CNN chronicled a number of high profile people of colour revealing their own personal "moment". It was called "The First Time I Realised I Was Black." I pondered this, wondering what my answer would be.

I was born in St Thomas' Hospital, London, and grew up by the Albert Embankment. We weren't posh. We lived in a council house that happened to be in Zone 1. In the early 80s, when I was five, we moved to Lagos, Nigeria. I don't recall a single conversation there where anyone discussed being black. There were conversations about politics, which we studied in school. There were conversations about class, a residue of colonialism. And there were conversations about skin tone. (Centuries of being brainwashed to believe the fairer-skinned are superior and should, therefore, be more favoured - particularly if their facial features mimic Eurocentric ideals of beauty - has had a rippling effect. Ever wondered why the bestselling black female artists are Rhianna and Beyoncé?) But this was the closest we came to discussing "blackness". Which was why, when I returned to London five years later, I still did not consider myself "black". But goodness, I soon found out just how "other" I was.

At school, a mixed comprehensive, I was the "African". Children spat out the word in repulsion. Teachers would speak to me slowly as if English wasn't my first language. Someone once called me "Black Attack" because of my dark skin. I had short hair (I needed a hairstyle with minimal upkeep because I'd attended a boarding school in Nigeria.) My TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro) became a taking point. I remember someone sniggering that I looked like Kunta Kinte, the central character in Alex Haley's Roots, viciously taken from his African village and sold into slavery. At swimming classes, I was the girl who "didn't need arm bands because her rubber lips would help her float". I am strangely sadder about those words now than I was then. I now see the depth and layers of hate from which this ignorance stems. As a young girl, I couldn't articulate my feelings beyond thinking: "This white boy is really horrible to me and thinks he is really funny." Even so, these experiences made me feel "different", but they were not signifiers of my blackness. I discovered that in something much more pedestrian: a trip to the chemist.

Cultural icons, speaking for change and representation in the industry: Edward Enninful, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell at the 2014 British Fashion Awards. Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images

When I hit adolescence, I begun to get interested in beauty, not as a potential vocation, but to attract boys and to tackle my confidence-crippling acne. I'd surreptitiously take from my mother's stash of lipsticks - coloured bullets she'd pick up from random stalls and stores in Brixton. The quality stretched from OK to diabolical. But I didn't care. I would swipe it across my lips and head into school convinced I epitomised sophistication.

One day, I walked into the local pharmacy with my Caucasian friends to scope the beauty offering. While my friends giggled excitedly about their finds, everything I tried either left an ashy finish or just didn't show up - the pigments weren't strong enough. Still I persevered, because at that age, aren't we all desperate to be part of the collective? I moved towards the foundations and chose the darkest shade. It was called "Biscuit". I looked like I had white chalk on my skin. I laughed to hide my embarrassment but, at that moment, everything changed. Suddenly colour mattered, in more ways than one. This is when I realised I was black. It was like I had turned up to a party to which I was not invited. I felt irrelevant, excluded and ashamed. The message from the beauty industry was loud and clear: I was not valuable enough to be part of the conversation.

In the years that followed, there were a few lights in the tunnel. I remember the first time I saw Naomi Campbell in Vogue. I was mesmerised. She looked like me - as far as skin colour went at least. In truth, she fitted into what the industry see as the acceptable face of black. But she was black and that was enough for me. It gave me hope.

There were other key moments. After years of accepting and wearing foundations that were not made for my skin, I discovered MAC in the 90s. Their Studio Fix Foundation was a game changer. This mainstream brand was arguably the first to create foundations covering a wide spectrum of hues. I would go as far as saying it changed the lives of beauty-loving black women. It was the first foundation I wore that made me feel beautiful.

The rise of Pat McGrath, the world's most influential makeup artist, also had an impact on how I viewed beauty. Even now, watching this British-born black woman navigate a very white space and reach the top of the game blows my mind. Still, the culture of silence around the lack of products available to darker skin types remained.

Happy in my skin: Funmi Fetto wears dress by Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, mytheresa.com. Photograph: David Titlow/The Observer

There are those who may think: "It's just beauty, what's the big deal?" Makeup and skincare are powerful tools that have helped me cope with difficult moments in my life. In my youth, acne plagued my skin and carried on long after I grew out of my teens. It killed my confidence. The discovery of a decent facial (Eve Lom was my first love - one of the few brands that knew how to treat darker skin), an incredible mask from Dr Sebagh, and moisturisers from Institut Esthederm restored it.

Years later, when my premature son was seriously ill in intensive care, my daily hint of blush, slick of lip colour and touch of mascara provided a sense of normality when everything around me felt scarily precarious. So, no, it isn't just beauty. It holds a power that is not always tangible but, trust me, it's there.

Fast forward. It's 2019.There are moments when I sense an exciting shift taking place in the beauty industry. Along with sustainability, diversity and inclusivity seem to be at the top of every agenda. Whether this will extend beyond a trend or box-ticking exercise remains to be seen, but for now it's welcome. Foundation ranges suitable for all shades are omnipresent. In fact, thanks to the incredibly successful product launch of Rihanna's Fenty Beauty, which addressed the whitewashing of the beauty industry, any brands now launching with fewer than 40 shades of foundation are seen to be slacking.

I believe the boldness in calling out a lack of inclusivity stems from cultural icons in powerful positions speaking out. From Naomi Campbell to Beyoncé to Oprah Winfrey to Rihanna to Edward Enninful... Hearing them addressing issues of race has given so many people a voice. There still exists, of course, the tone-deaf brands that don't believe darker-skinned women are their "audience" and have purposely limited their foundation colours. Thankfully, there are other foundations to cater for everyone. Preferences may vary based on texture, finish and skincare benefits, but the market is now so vast, "the one" is lurking out there somewhere.

The issue is not really about foundations. It is about representation and equality

That said, the issue is not really about foundations. It is about representation and equality. I have had countless women of colour approach me via social media, at dinner parties, on the streets, to ask me for product recommendations. Their ages span from 16 to 80. They cover the spectrum of class. They come from all walks of life - school-gate mothers, students, high-flying executives, fashion stylists. If all of these women are struggling to find products and beauty "professionals" still don't know what to do with darker skin and Afro hair, then the beauty industry, retailers, brands, marketers and, yes, even editors, are failing them. When I told a friend that I planned to write a book on widely available and easily accessible products and brands women of colour should have on their radar, she was flummoxed: "How are you going to fill that book? There's nothing out there." Ah, but there is. It's not perfect, but a mindshift in marketing and media could make a significant difference.

Most beauty journalism still assumes readers are white. Cosmetic brands are making an effort in their marketing, but most skincare brands are not - by only featuring white women in their campaigns, they also assume their audience and consumer is white. At the majority of the big beauty companies, all the key decision-makers are white, which invariably informs what ends up on advertising material. I have to ignore that homogeneity in order to discover gems. Black women not in my position don't have that advantage and assume "it's not for us".

This seems like a commercial misstep. A few years ago, a Nielsen report in the US found that black women spend nearly nine times more than their Caucasian counterparts on hair and beauty - mainly on niche brands targeting this demographic; brands that are generally sold in beauty supply stores in "ethnic" areas. If this survey were conducted on this side of the Atlantic, I'm convinced the results would be no different. A significant amount of this spend goes on black-hair products, yet the mainstream hair industry remains the least inclusive part of the beauty industry.

The mainstream hair industry remains the least inclusive part of the beauty industry

At a recent beauty industry dinner, I complimented a fellow editor on her hair. She told me she'd just had it done at a high profile salon loved, lauded and frequented by every beauty editor I know. I had never been, I admitted. Another editor overheard and was aghast. "What! You've never been?" she said. In my head, I responded: "I can barely find suitable hair products from mainstream hair brands, let alone finding 'white' salons or stylists to cater for my hair. Most approach my coily texture with trepidation, as if a pet alien has just sprouted from my scalp. Or they view it as an unruly beast that requires bashing into submission. Or, I'm simply turned away. And so for the sake of my self and hair preservation, I now stick to black-hair stylists, or those situated in so-called ethnic areas, who don't find my hair such a terrifying aberration."

But I didn't say that, because I didn't have the energy. I have had these conversations many times before. They are exhausting. So instead I simply shrugged and said: "I don't go because they don't do Afro hair." "Oh," she mused, "I never thought about that." Of course she hadn't. This is an advantage afforded by white privilege. It is a small privilege, but a privilege nonetheless. It is a privilege I don't have. So, despite the current talk of diversity and inclusivity, I am constantly reminded we are not there yet. While it's wonderful that I can now find a base that won't turn me deathly grey or cantaloupe orange, in order to really move forward, the beauty industry needs to start having conversations that go deeper than the shades of foundation.
Palette: The Beauty Bible for Women of Colour by Funmi Fetto (Hodder & Stoughton, £25), is out on 3 October. Buy it for £22 at guardianbookshop.com. Funmi Fetto is in conversation with Sali Hughes at a Guardian event on 30 September. To book tickets and for more information go to membership.theguardian.com
Editor's picks

Funmi Fetto selects her top beauty, hair and skincare products from her new book Palette: The Beauty Bible for Women of Colour

Crowning glory: hair hydrator

IGK Hot Girls Hydrating Shampoo, £22, spacenk.com I was first attracted to the word "hydrating", and this shampoo is now a core of my hair repertoire. It is an exquisite hydrator, one of the few hair products that claims to be "suitable for all hair textures" and actually delivers on Afro hair. It smells really coconutty, though I'm not even sure it has coconut in it. But it does contain vitamin E, UV protection, and lychee extract
to protect hair.

Glow to go: skin highlighter

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Liquid Highlighter, £30, johnlewis.co.uk A magnificent highlighter. It comes in different textures - the liquid version has been described as soft focus in a bottle. I use Topaz on a daily basis because it fools people into thinking you have the best skin in the world. It's glossy. And it has no glitter in it, which can look ridiculous.

Gently effective: capital cleanser

Sunday Riley Ceramic Slip, £28, spacenk.com Nearly everyone who gave a five-star review of this cleanser was white, so for a long time I didn't try it. Also, if I hear something is "gentle", what I really hear is: "Hey guys, I don't do very much." But this is phenomenal - a silky gel that gives a deep clean without drying the skin.

Lash out: miracle mascara

Stila Huge Extreme Lash Mascara, £19, stila.co.uk As you age, your lashes will go from being a fan of feathers to pitiful stumps of nothing. What's scary is that you'll have no idea when it'll happen. If you don't want to spend your life buried under false lashes, what's the alternative? Well, this. The clue is in the word - huge. With this mascara, you see an immediate lift with one coat. It won't clump your lashes. And, thanks to conditioners, it doesn't crisp. Always a good thing.

Lip service: liquid colour

Lime Crime Liquid Lipstick, £18, boots.com Not all liquids lipsticks are made equal. Some are so thick and unyielding they drag across your lips; others are so flimsy that you would struggle to get a consistent colour pay-off, and many leave you with a cracked dryness that feels like a sprinkling of pencil shavings. Lime Crime joins a coterie of brands I feel have perfected the liquid lipstick; the texture is a velvety matte that glides on effortlessly. It feels so light and conditioning, and the pigment packs a punch.

The cheek of it: blushes all round

NARS Blush, £25, narscosmetics.co.uk Nars calls itself "the ultimate authority in blush", and I get it. There is no colour, finish or texture that you can't find under its wing. "Orgasm" is probably its most famous product, a pinky-gold shimmery powder with a silky finish. On dark skins, you'd struggle to get a true representation of colour. Taj Mahal (a shimmering burnt-orange) might fare better, especially if you were going to wear foundation.

Brighten up: splash-out serum

Zelens Brightening Serum, £135, net-a-porter.com I had a conversation recently with a fellow journalist as to how much is too much for a beauty product. Some people are addicted to expensive products. I think most are placebos, that with advanced formulations it is possible to find cheaper alternatives. But there are exceptions. This is one. Yes, there's only 30ml in a bottle. But it is above and beyond the many brightening serums I've used.

Red-wine glow: abetter complexion

Neogen Peeling Pads, £27, net-a-porter.com Exfoliating pads soaked in wine. Not the drinking kind, but the kind that revolutionises your skin. The star ingredient is resveratrol, an antioxidant derivative of red wine that sloughs off dead skin cells, protects your skin from pigmentation and premature ageing, declogs pores and gives you a brighter complexion. If you asked for more, it would be greedy. Plus, the smell! Nostalgically sweet, fruity and juicy.

Sun smart: best of a brand

Glossier Invisible Shield, £20, glossier.com I love Glossier. But do I use all the range? Embarrassingly, no. I love the idea of Glossier. I love the ethos. I love the authentic sense of community the brand has created. And I love the clever, forward-thinking way they operate. There is one product in the Glossier line-up that I use more than anything else: the sunscreen. It's superb, and, as the name states, invisible. Not only does it protect skin from the sun, the ingredient list - vitamin E, broccoli and aloe leaf - reads like an ode to antioxidants.

Smooth talk: excellent exfoliant

Paula's Choice Liquid Exfoliant, £28, cultbeauty.co.uk This liquid exfoliator is possibly the product I've recommended the most. It removes dead skin, gets rid of debris in the pores and refines skin, making it smoother, more balanced and with a healthy glow.
Funmi Fetto is the Observer's beauty columnist and also the executive editor and beauty director at Glamour

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The beauty industry is still failing black women | Funmi Fetto

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For years, hair and makeup products tended to exclude women of colour. Here, beauty columnist Funmi Fetto reveals how she faced up to racism in an industry that's finally undergoing its own makeover

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From the lack of darker foundations in many a beauty product line; to marketing departments favouring lighter skinned or mixed heritage Black women with features skewing Caucasian for their advertising campaigns; to the burgeoning skin lightening industry (said to be worth over $30 billion by 2024)... So much points to the existence of this insidious form of racism. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that Beyoncé, upheld by many as the personification of Black beauty has, through no fault of her own, been a beneficiary of light-skinned privilege. "Brown Skin Girl", however sees her de-centre herself, instead giving over her platform to elevate dark-skinned women who have long been maligned, stigmatised and diminished simply because of the wealth of melanin in their skin.

"Perfection is a disease of a nation" (Pretty Hurts)

"Brown Skin Girl" was not the first time Beyoncé has addressed the narrowness of society's beauty standards and just how detrimental it can be to a woman's self-image and self-worth. In 2013, "Pretty Hurts" tackled the pressure women are under to conform to a certain size: i.e. as thin and as small as possible. While this was not linked explicitly to any particular ethnicity - navigating unrealistic standards of beauty is a universal affliction - this felt even more pertinent to most Black bodies which by their very genetics do not fall in line with the body shape dictated by western beauty ideals. The song also resonated for another reason: along with "Flawless", "Who Run The World" and "If I Were A Boy", "Pretty Hurts" sealed Beyoncé's place as a feminist pop icon.

Mainstream feminism and the female empowerment movement have long been criticised for having a whiteness problem. And there is reason for that: many see it as a predominantly white space that has traditionally been apathetic and exclusionary to the plight of Black women. The academic, activist and author Rachel Cargle famously called this kind of feminism - one which does not go out of its way to include women of colour - "white supremacy in heels". While the balance is yet to be redressed, seeing and hearing Beyoncé as an influential Black woman embrace, package and own feminism in a way that speaks to Black women, has in turn enabled many Black women to see modern feminism in a different light. Put simply: after this song, it suddenly took on a completely new meaning.

"I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros .... I love everything about you / from your nappy curls to every single curve" (Brown Skin Girl)

For Black women, hair - just like feminism - is very much about context. The texture (curls and coils) and the way it grows (up and out) is so far removed from what the world traditionally deems beautiful, or even normal, that Black hair has been and continues to be judged by white standards as well as used as a tool to dehumanise and discriminate.

But it didn't start out that way. Historically, the way you wore your hair signified your marital status, your tribe, your class and your position in society. Nevertheless, wherever you were in society, your hair had a spiritual significance - it was seen as glorious, a thing of beauty. The entirety of Black Is King, the visual album Beyoncé released in 2020, is a reminder of this principle.

Beyoncé speaks to the beauty of our natural hair texture and the importance of accepting and revelling in it. By singing "I love everything about you and your nappy curls", Beyoncé reclaims a term that has long been used as a curse word to describe Black hair. More than that - she celebrates it, and takes us all along for the ride.

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What Beyoncé Taught Us About Black Beauty

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What have we learned from Beyoncé when it comes to beauty? That we should not be defined by our skin, our hair, our body shape - but instead, we should revel in its power, writes Funmi Fetto.

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Part 2: Academic Writing Practice

1.In the 446 words the response has, how many techniques are analysed?

If I counted correctly, he analysed 7 techniques in his PEEL responses.

2.How many textual references are there and can you summarise what form they take?

There are about 3 textual references and each textual reference is written in bold lettering. There are more textual evidences highlighted in blue however, those do not come directly from the cartoon, the author makes some up by his observation.

3.What do the three cartoons discussed have in common?

They all have in common the global issue stated at the very top of the page “Poverty, inequality, and the apathy of the upper class to assist lower classes” which is altered slightly with each specific cartoon to fit their themes and contents.

4.Find and write down all transitional words or phrases you can.

Is apparent, Not only, as, Like other cartoons, another cartoon, this time, again, finally, all while, by using his signature move, moreover, perhaps, as opposed to

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Part 1: Activity Gallery

-In this cartoon, we see 2 men, one being clearly living on the streets and the other being of a higher working class, wearing a nice suit. The suited man is avoiding contact with the homeless due to “social distancing” using the COVID-19 as a means to not help him.

-This cartoon links to the inquiry field of politics power and justice due to the positions of both men, one representing the wealthy top class of society and the other being at the bottom of the status pyramid, linking the hierarchy of power and wealth and its uneven distribution throughout society with the people in power unwilling to share or contribute to aid with their resources.

-Overall, through the cartoon, Chappatte communicates the main claim that oftentimes, people of a better financial and social status overlook the people needing their help and are gladly going to use any excuse they can.

-Chappatte uses juxtaposition to illustrate the difference of status or social class between the sitting homeless man and the tall standing individual of a higher working class.

-This impacts the audience in that clothing does not make a better man and that power or societal status does not automatically equal knowledge or better globalized citizen willing to help out.

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How does the author use language to criticize the beauty industry?

Funmi Fetto utilizes appeal to logic and authority as a mean to criticize the beauty industry in the analyzed opinion article. Fetto mentioned multiple doctor expertises and used their points of view on the matter to provide a broader perspective and communicate the issue through the lense of professionals. In one of the body paragraphs, the author expreses the opinion of Victoria Sanusi, a mental health advocate and founder of the “Black Gal’s Livin’” podcast and juxtaposes how a mental health activist ended up in “therapy” through a personal anecdote from her youth, regarding the skincolor-shaming of a hairdresser. The hairdresser calls her “pretty but too dark”, promoting the unrealistic beauty standards and the unfair racial dehonestation of people of colour had to face in the past, but the issues are still presistent to this day. In the conclusion paragraph, Fetto also included the expert opinion of a global brand consultant and skincare specialist, Dr. Ewoma Ukeleghe, appealing to logic and authority with the explanation and hope for the younger generations to take charge and change the current course of the beauty industry. Funmi Fetto criticized the beauty industry by using authoritative figures with a status in regards to the said issue while incorporating the appeal to logic in order to persuade the reader and strengthen her opinion article.

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How old is the medium and where is it from?

Vogue: Began in 1892 in lower Manhattan,NY in the US.

The Guardian: Began in 1821 in Manchester, UK.

What are its key themes or areas of focus?

Vogue: A journal focusing on fashion and the famoous communities, style news including lifestyle , beauty and society.

The Guardian: coverage of politics, sports, the environment, science, social justice and culture.

Who is the medium's key audience?

Vogue: predominantly female readership and targetted for fashion and beauty enthusiasts

The Guardian: progressive and educated middle class of Brtain

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Purpose:

-Present an opinion

-Persuade/convince about that view

-Change public opinion or change the course of the political stakeholders

Features:

-Humour

-Anecdotes

-Formal/colloquial language

-Evidence (studies, expert opinions, facts, figures)

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How does the author use dramatic features to signal a transformation?

In this passage of R.U.R, Čapek uses Characterization by anagorisis and forshadowing on multiple instances in order to make the reader experience empathy and use this feature to signal a transformation in the characters and the plot as a whole. Helena and Primus, the two robots are starting to make a discovery when examining Alquist’s calculations and experiments. This feature showcases both their character and mental development by the end of the book because suddenly, the robots that were nothing more than weapons or devices are starting to exemplify emotions and show complex thought processes. The robots are characterized further using the anagorisis by Primus making a critical discovery of the “secret of life” while examining the book Alquist writes in. This anagorisis, although very promptous and in the long run for the robots, is quickly abandoned due to Helena beconing Primus to avert his gaze from the paper to a sunrise. The robots being able to appreciate something as trivial as a sunrise, exemplifies the ongoing development in their humanity and therefore is another big signal of a transformation. The sunrise also stands for a new day, and a new beginning, as we later discover, and the start of a new and greater race of robots. Together, all the above mentioned features are a part of Čapek’s characterization and forshadowing of a transformation for the Rossums Universal Robots and signify that a new dawn is upon them.

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1. Money

2. Physical strength

3. Time management

4. Respect

5. Experience

6. Knowledge

7. Skills

8. Stimulation

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How can documentary photography, as exemplified by Raymond Depardon's work, ethically represent marginalized communities without exploiting subjects.

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1. How does Lieutenant Cross’ internal struggle over responsibility for Kiowas’ death reflect the overall themes of guilt in the novel?

2. In what ways does the physical setting of the sewage field serve as a metaphor for the soldiers' experiences and emotions?

3. How do the soldiers’ reactions to Kiowa’s death differ, and what does this reveal about the ways individuals cope with tragedy and guilt in war?

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In The Field

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How does this advertisement send a message about returning soldiers that is different from Norman Bowker’s experience?

This advertisement brings up the soldiers returning home, it perceives them as heroes, that everyone is waiting for their arrival and they are throwing them a big party and support the with love and reassurance. Norman Bowker didn’t get this sort of attention, he didn’t believe of himself as a hero like the soldiers in the video, he was haunted by Kiowa’s death, and felt like a coward.

What associations does Jeep make?

Jeep associates the return of the soldiers with heroism, with patriotism, people with open arms and flags excited for their loved ones to return home safely. It talks about courage and pride in their nation as well as the fact that every life is a soldier matters. Home, family, patriotism, glory and pride.

How do they incorporate American symbols in their advertisement to sell their product?

They made the Jeep the car which brings the soldiers home, having flags imprinted in the outside doors or surface of the Jeep. They connected the pride of soldiers returning home and that the nation could count on them with the same level of trust they should put into the car they’re driving.

What is the impact of the voice over narration (by Oprah Winfrey)?

Using Oprah was a strong point to advertise in the video because she is an icon of America and another symbol of American culture and national pride. Her voice was also very emotional and deep, giving off a sense of pride and authority.

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How does one cope with a traumatic experience?

Every individual deals with trauma differently and the impact a trauma leaves doesn’t necessarily depend on the severity of trauma, but rather on the sensitivity of the person experiencing it. For some individuals, they become unresponsive and very isolated from the outside world, close into themselves, however, for others, trauma can help them become a stronger, more capable individual who is better prepared on all life has in store for them.

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I would rate the first English lesson very positively, I really enjoy the teaching style and I am also looking forward to the syllabus, I love reading books from different genres and I personally don’t really mind graphic content, I am also love history so I am particularly looking forward to reading The Things They Carried as we were learning about the Vietnam War in history last year so it will be beneficial to continue with this subject as it sparked interest in me.

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1. How and when did the war start?

The war was a conflict between north and south Vietnam. After North Vietnamese torpedo boats alledgedly attacked the South Vietnamese boats, President Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-making powers.The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in the war began in 1954 however the conflict has been an ongoing one for several decades.

2. How was Vietnam divided after the Indochina War?

From 1954 to 1975 Vietnam was divided into two countries, North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (the Republic of Vietnam)

3. Who was Ho Chi Minh and what did he want to do?

He was president of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969, and he was one of the most influential communist leaders of the 20th a Vietnamese revolutionary, communist, nationalist, and politician who wanted to make Vietnam independent.

4. How and why did the USA get involved?

the U.S. war with Japan in the Pacific, domestic pressure to act against communism after the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong's pledge in 1950 to support the Viet Minh guerrilla forces in the First Indochina.

5. Who were the VietCong?

The Vietnamese communists.

6. What is Guerilla War?

Type of warfare that included small groups, such as children or rebels to fight against military officials.

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I chose this photograph because it resonated the most with me, and I imagine the authorial choice the photographer made was for this exact thing to happen. I believe that having a small child, especially a wounded one, being carried by a soldier in the middle of war or any conflict would be touching, and as the description even gives us more details to the story behind the photograph, this image gains more life and we can actually imagine an actual situation underneath this. This fact, however, needs to be taken with caution since there isn’t any way we can find out if the description is true or to what extent it relates to the image. The visual elements I would discuss are the angle and the fact that the soldier is surrounded by civilians (again, especially children) which makes him a sort of god-like figure, a saviour. With respect to the context, the viewer understands that the Vietnam War was brutal and included the backstory of how the child probably lost their parents due to the war, making an even greater impact on the extent of this conflict.

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1. His adolescence was marked by loneliness and isolation, two very prominent emotions that most likely occupied any soldiers body during the hard battles and time spent away from loved ones (connection between his life and the topic he so deeply correlated with and chose to write about)

2. Found a place in antiwar movement and attended war protests and peace vigils (again, a strong reason why he chose to write the book and many more articles on the topic of war- the starting point)

3. With the help of his work, he confessed to quite a dark period of his life battling suicidal thoughts and really found an anchor in his fictional characters/ the story of the book itself.

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What did they carry?

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Memoir, author reflects upon his past experiences and goes deeper in his emotional understanding, first person narrative

Diary, more recent experiences, written more frequently with a set of interesting events happening your life, shorter than a memoir and is chronological, stream of conciousness

Autobiography, covers more time (years- lifetime) of the authors life and usually has a chronological order, first person narrative

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Prior to reading “Born a Crime”, my expectations were a little different from the reality of the course of the book. The first chapter was a strong opening, most probably paving the way for an even stronger story, both emotionally and physically. Noah chose to start the book with an emotional experience from his childhood, growing up as an opressed South-African boy, and eventhough I can’t relate to this way of living from my personal experiences, the thing that stood out to me was the strength of his mother. From the first chapter, the mother seems like a strong, driven woman, who is not easily fazed by the opression, her faith aiding and guiding her not only through tough moments, but through her whole life.

I also found interesting, and shocking, that even the already segregated black South Africans were divided into two rival groups, Zulu and Xhosa. From the first two chapters, I sense that the Zulu are more violent, dominant and ready to fight not only the opressors (white), but their cold-war-like conflict with the Xhosa, an example of which is demonstrated at the end of chapter 1, when Noah, his mother, and baby brother have to escape the minibus due to the escalation between the mother (Xhosa) and the Zulu drivers.

The apartheid mentality is shown from the very beginning when Noah talks about the different churches they attend, with a strong quote “If you’re native American and pray to the wolves, you’re a savage, If you’re African and you pray to your ancestors, you’re a primitive.” This quote supports the idea of the Black having an even lesser value than the Natives. Noah’s family was strongly religious, especially his mother, and not very up-to-date with modern culture since Noah states that the Bible was his “action movie”. Faith is demonstrated to be the Alpha and omega in their lives.

The second chapter focuses more on the history of the South African conflict which Noah adds inbetween his personal stories. He contrasts his pragmatic relationship with god and her mother’s complete devotion using Juctaposition, which I found very interesting and overall, the way he balanced all the wrong that had happened to them as a family on God since he comes from such a strong spritual upbringing.

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-specific details

-emotions, thoughts, details

-snappy sentences (syntax)

-descriptive setting

-vivid imagery

-catchy beginning and creative structure

-reflection and honesty

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1. How is the incident of being thrown out of the car a defining incident for this chapter?

It is a defining incident because it showcases the severity of the interracial differences the two tribes have with each other and to what brutality lengths they are willing to go just to spark and live in conflict.

2. How does Trevor describe the conflicts between the Zulu and Xhosa tribes and how he and his mother were in the middle of it?

The Zulu people were more warrior-like and ready to fight and the Xhosa were more influenced by the European culture. Noah and his family were very religious and had to take minibuses to the churches everyday because they were so far apart. They were forced to go with the Zulu people once and since they were Xhosa, it sparked conflict.

3. Describe Trevor’s experiences in and feelings about the three churches.

They attended one white church, one black, and one mixed church. Jubilant church was mixed church with a christian karaoke. Analytical church was white church where he loved not having to go to the service but only to Sunday school. And passionate, cathartic church, that was black church.

4. How does Trevor define Apartheid for the American and Western reader?

Noah describes apartheid as “institutionalised or perfect racism.” As well as slavery, segregation, and displacement.

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1. How does Trevor describe his mother’s resilience in dealing with Apartheid?

She was as stubborn as she was religious,a rebel, and that she refused to work in a factory (where every black person “should have” worked). She used her faith as a crutch when dealing both, with the apartheid laws, and also dealing with Noah, her son.

2. How does Trevor describe his early childhood?

Trevor spent most of his early childhood living in Soweto with his mother and grandmother, who had to hide him away and wouldn’t let him play outside with his cousins because of his colour in order to keep him hidden from the police who would not only take him away, but his mother would face some serious jail time.

3. How was life in Soweto Township for Trevor?

The only way they could walk the streets of Soweto was by his mother would pretend to be a stranger to protect the both of them. Their neighbours would also pose a threat, anytime willing to call the police if they saw Noah outside.

4. How does Trevor describe his father?

He describes his father as a “tall and handsome man with a strong presence and a charismatic personality”.  A man of many talents, but he had a temper and could end up being strict. He loved his children though and had a good sense of humour.

5. Describe how Trevor uses the analogy of a parachute to show his feelings about growing up as a mixed race child.

"Imagine being thrown out of an airplane. You hit the ground and break all your bones, you go to the hospital and you heal and you move on and finally put the whole thing behind you-and then one day somebody tells you about parachutes. That's how I felt. I couldn't understand why we'd stayed."

He basically says that why suffer when you have a much better and brighter future awaiting you at some other place, but get to know this fact only as you already lived all through the unnecessary pain.

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Chapter 3

1. How does Trevor describe life in the township?

“For the million people who lived in Soweto, there were no stores, no bars, no restaurants. There were no paved roads, minimal electricity, inadequate sewerage. But when you put one million people together in one place, they find a way to make a life for themselves.” He also lived in a house full of women since his father couldn’t be involved with them because of being white. He enjoyed it never-the-less, because the people stuck together.

2. What role did the prayer circles play?

Noah said that Faith filled the void left by the absence of men. Women got together and cicrulated between their houses to give Thank to Jesus and talk about what was going on in their lives while also singing worship songs.

3. How does Trevor show his attitude towards the English language?

Noah speaks english as a first language and soon enough learns that English is connected to a status, if a black person in south africa speaks english, he is automatically looked at from a better perspective. His grandmother always made him say the prayers in English in the belief that Jesus would hear his prayer out sooner if it was in English, the language Jesus spoke.

4. How was the anecdote of Trevor secretly going to the bathroom in the kitchen humorous and what message does it tell through this humor?

Well, he was really dreading to use the communal toilet because of all the flies and smell, so he decided to do it in the house on a newspaper sheet, thinking nobody was home, but the blind Koko smelled it and when grandmother and mother came home, they thought it was an evil demon who left the píle (because Trevor was too ashamed to own up to it).

5. How does language reinforce racism?

Noah explains that language was used as a tool to separate people, with different racial groups being forced to speak different languages. This language division made it difficult for different racial groups to communicate and understand each other, reinforcing racist beliefs and behaviors.

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I found this picture on the internet and I believe it does in a way relate to the chapter because it showcases a young boy being injured by the South African Police in the Soweto Township. This was a result of the student uprising in the 1970s, about the time when Noah was also living in the Township and this picture made me think about the chapter’s main idea of the people sticking together when the opressors left them nothing but broke down houses. They have each other and they help one another no matter what. In the picture, a student (not a relative to the young boy) is carrying him, showing unity and strength of sticking up for each other no matter what.

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A-Groups: “Love”

1. Transition from “The Things They Carried”: Consider the transition from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 (are theychapters?)

a) What do you notice about the narration, time etc?

The main difference between the first two chapters and “Love” is the time when the events are happening. The narrator stayed the same, but in this chapter, the narrator focused more on giving the reader information about Jimmys relationship with Martha, which is a 180 degree turn from the bombing and killing in Vietnam during the war times.

b) How do these chapters differ? c. How do they connect?

They vary in length greatly, Chapter “Love” was very much shorter than the first two, and also the tone in which they are written in differs. “Love” is written in a more caring and romantic way in contrast with the real and raw details we were given in the first two chapters. The narrator does mention Martha in the first 2 chapters as well as Crosses undying love for her, but now he switches to the present and how hurt he was when she rejected him.

2. Metafiction: Fiction about writing fiction. Write some thoughts on these prompts ready for a discussion.

a) What are the effects of this Metafiction technique?

Metafiction makes the story often more engaging, can make up important details to add to the overall mood, can add powerful words’- diction

b) How does O’Brien clue the reader in to what is going on?

O’Brien

The starts with the switching to gin, forshadowing that something important is going to be said and that they will reminisce on the old times.

c) Is this fact or fiction? How do we know? Does it matter if we know? What rings true in the chapter“Love”?

We don’t know for sure, but probably true since at the end of the chapter, O’Brien asks Jimmy if he can write this into his book, (Assuming it is personal information).

3. Martha: Jimmy Cross and his preoccupation with Martha is central to this story.

a) What does Jimmy reveal to Tim about Martha? Why does O’Brien include these details?

He reveals how she doesn’t trust men anymore and how she basically rejected him after he confessed his feelings for her. He includes these details to show that the men have human struggles after all, not just connected to war.

b) What does Martha say about “the things men do” and what is important here?

This was her response to Jimmy’s request on spending the night with her, and suggests that she doesn’t trust men (Something bad might have happened to her in the past)

c) What is the “truth” of this story?

Idk

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B-Groups: Chapter 3 “Spin”

1. The Title: What is the significance of the title of this chapter? Consider the definition of ‘spin’ in connection with storytelling, language and truth.

Point of view, informal language, gentle diction, trying to uplift it by writing short stories

2. Structure: How is this chapter structured and how is this different from the previous chapters?

Thoughts and personal details are included in between the stories, also mentions how life is after the war, the impact and trauma it had on him and his plato.

3. Memories: There are many different memories in this chapter.

a) Which one is particularly striking to you and why?

b) How do these memories show us the complexity of war?

He hopes it will help him to move on

c) Many of these ‘memories’ are actually foreshadowing later stories. Why does O’Brien insert thischapter here?

4. The Ending: Re-read the final sentence in this chapter. What point is O’Brien making? How do you thinkthis idea connects to the rest of the novel?

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“She who gives back” is a very powerful name in my opinion, and really showcases and reflects Trevor’s Mother. I chose this pssage because it elevates the mother in many aspects, and shows us that she was on her own, taking care of people from when she was still a child herself. We are given the evidence of how resilient she was, a quality she is trying to teach Trevor. “She gives and gives and gives” also supports the fact that she put everyone else’s wellbeing above her own and made sure to first care for others than to think of herself. “She was a child taking care of children” stood out to me because this is a powerful sentence to end the passage, juxtaposing her childhood with the fact that it was spent taking care of her peers, like a parent or a teacher.

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1. What does it mean to be a chameleon and how does this relate to this chapter?

A chameleon is an animal that changes colours based on its surroundings, he uses this feature as a camouflage to hide from predators. At the beginning of the chapter, Trevor’s grandmother hits his cousin but doesn’t punish Trevor after him being the naughty one and causing harm to the other. She then reveals to Trevor’s mother how she is scared to hit a white child because of how many colours he turns into (Blue, purple and green) resembling a chameleon.

2. What are some of Trevor’s experiences with identity and how he feels about himself?  (The chocolate metaphor)

From a very young age, Trevor experiences a different treatment based solely on his skin colour, even from his on family members. He is given much less attention when he does a wrongdoing than his black peers from all adults exept his mother. From his perception, different coloured people were like chocolate (white-white choco, black-dark choco, trevor -milk choco). He saw this from an innocent child point of view, not knowing about race and how different skin colour meant different treatment (never imagined a thing like racism exists).

3. What are his early experiences with language and how does this prove to be an essential tool for him to survive?

In Soweto were many different tribes speaking many different languages and Trevor’s first language was English and he stated that it was the language of money, it is the language that would get you employed or even keep you out of prison, your whole life depends on English when you were a Black living in South Africa. Also his mother knew many languages which helped them, for example, at the shops when the white spoke in Afrikaans, thinking the y wouldn’t understand, and his mother formulating a response and getting an applogy from the white man or his experience with the Zulu gang.

4. What do we learn about the inequities in the educational system during Apartheid?

The main thing is that eventhough the Apartheid was coming to an end, even in private schools the white kids still got privilledged and all the other colours or races were treated unfairly, however, Trevor also mentioned that Maryvalle school was like an Oasis with a fake world quite different from the reality outside of the school grounds. When Trevor went to a public school, things took a turn and the racial separations showed even between the children, white with white, Black with black. Again, Trevor wondered why there aren’t any Black kids in A classes (there were mostly white kids) and all of them were in B classes and the councelor told him that A classes are for the smart and privilledged (meaning the black are classified as dumb and not ready for a higher education solely based on their race and colour of skin).

5. What are the differences between British and Afrikaner racism?

The main form of racism of the British was more regarding the intelectual level of people judging people by their knowledge or wits) while the Afrikan people saw only the colour of people’s skin, you were black? Didn’t matter how smart you were or if you had potential, the Afrikan people would simply tell you their version and because you’re black, you canť attend the smarter class (automatically degrading a person based on the stupid idea of race/skin colour).

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1. How does Trevor describe his mother’s journey?

He describes the journey as tough and difficult, she had to go to extreme measures to survive this period in her life, but Noah states in multiple occasions how it made her stronger and how she became the main source of income for the family.

2. What were the Homelands and how did they also prove to be unjust during Apartheid?

Ten homelands were created to rid South Africa of its black citizens but also, the government would sort asians as black people, however, this was unjust because some minorities, like China, were treated poorly and got sent to the homelands, and countries like Japan who provided some sort of benefit to the South Africans were treated with the respect of a white person.

3. What was Trevor’s mother’s experience when she left her house to live with other unwanted children of her father?

It was one of her greatest wishes to be able to live with her father, however, he completely disregarded her and treated her with no love or affection. Instead, she had to care for many young children while still being a child herself.

4. How did Trevor’s mother overcome these obstacles to overcome poverty?

After her aunt died, Trevor’s mother took a typing course and started working as a secretary for white people. She started having a decent salary but had to provide money for the entire family “the curse of being black and poor”, having to pay all the bills and get accessories such as the refrigerator or a TV.

5. What lessons did Trevor’s mother teach him that showed him a path to success and possibility?

During this chapter, she told Trevor to not “take for granted how we got to where we were.” She thinks it wrong to dwell on past suffering, so she never does, even though she also wants to ensure her son never suffers like she did. She told him her story when he was just 10 years old, and inspired him to try harder and fight for his wellbeing.

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1. What are some examples to show Trevor’s mischievous behavior and what does this say about him as a child?

He was given a more leneant treatment from the adults in his life and he was more mischevious from a very early age. He mentions that he was very hyperactive and would often run torwards the traffic as a child, he loved to be chased. He also gave a hard time to his teachers in school, for example, he took the magnifying glass out of the projectors, or emptied a fire extunguisher into the school piano. In my opinion, he lacked a male figure that would set him boundaries.

2. How did Trevor and his mom act like lawyers writing letters to each other?

During the early years, Trevor and his mother played games of who can trick who the best and Trevor usually won the contests, but later on when he grew older, these jokes turned into a courtroom and Trevor wih his mother turned into lawyers, writing letters to eachother because the mother was tired of being outsmarted all the time. Sometimes the letters would be of high quality and would improve Trevors volcabulary and writing abilities, other times they would be more accusatory and they’re have a formal arguement.

3. What are Trevor‘s experiences at the Catholic school and what happened with the communion materials?

He would also get punished by his wrongdoings at the school, the nuns would hit his hand with a metal ruler or wash his mouth out with soap as well as get an official hiding from the principal. He couldn’t participate at the catholic mass and he found a clever way to outsmart the system so he ate all of Jesuses body and drank all of Jesuses blood, this earned him another trip to the psychologist.

4. How did Trevor continuously break the rules?

Aside from being the ultimate bad boy in Maryvalle school, he was a very mischievous kid in his neighborhood. There was a lot of ass-whooping from his mother, the only authority figure in his life. He also got expelled from the school as a result of his continuous pranks and mischiefs throughout his school years. His mother took his side most of the time however, and eventhough he did break many of the school’s rules, she believed in God’s authority over the school’s and Trevor never broke any promise to God. Later in the chapter, he burned down a white persons house which caused hus mother’s boyfriend Abel to get kicked out since he was living in their garage.

5. What happened with the black cat at the soccer match and why does Trevor use this example at the end of the chapter?

The black people believe that cast are evil and that they are owned by witches. A black cat once ran onto the field during a soccer match and since Black people believed it was a sign of evil, a black guard beat it to death. The person had a trial because the white found this act unacceptable but Trevor points out that when white people beat black people to death, that’s ok from their point of view, but when a black kills a cat, it is considered animal abuse. This just supports the whole idea of Apartheid and connects another real life example to the mentality of the white South Africans.

6. What is the significance of the title of this chapter called loopholes?

I believe that the chapter name is symbolic to the fact that Noah always found loopholes in the system, wether that was at home with his family, the school, or in public places such as the shop and caramel apple incident. He always somehow got away with lots of mischiefs that he himself said no other child he knew could get away with.

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1. What does the story of Trevor‘s dog being kidnapped teach him about relationships?

Trevor and his mother ended up with 2 dogs after their cast were killed. Fufi was Trevor’s dog and he loved her very much, she was however jumping over a fence everytime they were out in school or work and was visiting another family. The family didn’t want to give her back to Trevor and he was heartbroken at the sight of his dog belonging to another boy/family. These secret visits leave Trevor heartbroken and challenge his understanding of loyalty and affection, he hates to see Fufi love another boy in the same way she loves him.

2. What is funny about this chapter but what is also serious?

Trevor has learned a valuable lesson in this chapter, when his mother was buying off Fufi from the other family who claimed it was their dog, the boy also cried when he was loosing “Spotty”. Trevor was upset that Fufi loved another boy, he felt betrayed, until his mother reminded him that just because Fufi loves that family doesn’t mean she doesn’t love Trevor the same way and that we are capable of having multiple relationships filled with love and affection. It was humourous how he felt like Fufi has broken up with him, but it was also a serious life lesson for Trevor that he cannot possess the object of his love.

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2. What is Trevor’s dad’s attitude about racism?

His dad hates racism and homogeneity, he says he cannot understand how white people can be racist torwards the black in South Africa since it is a “black country”. He also didn’t agree with the rules of Apartheid, he even opened the first restaurant that could serve both white and black people, but unfortunatelly due to the neighbours complaining, the restaurant gets shut down.

3. What do people try to do to Trevor’s dad to stop him?

When the neighbours and people generally complain, the government sends various inspections to evaluate the situation in the restaurant. At first, they state that if the restaurant should remain opened, he will need to establish 4 different kinds of toilets for all the different races. The other option the propose is to make the restaurant a white-only restaurant, otherwise they will shut it down (which Robert doesn’t agree with so they end up winning and the restaurant shuts down).

4. What are Trevor’s experiences with his father on his birthday and on  Sundays?

On Sundays, Trevor made a deal with his mother that he could skip black church if he went to the other two, and instead could spend  the Sunday afternoon at his dads, doing more ‘normal’ Things like watch TV or play formula 1, which Trevor appreciated. His dad also cooked for him (he always asked for potato ‘rosti’ and a bottle of Sprite). His father knew what Trevor liked, and made sure to give him the best birthdays, cards or presents he could, but he didn’t talk much.

5. How did his relationship with his father slowly become more distant?

When Trevor was 13, his father moved to Cape Town and they lost touch completely although there were many factors in their relationship already pointing in that direction. Trevor was in his adolescent years, and like every teenager, he didn’t care much about the relationships with his parents. Abel (mother’s new boyfriend) also responses the idea of them being in contact with Trevor’s father and they didn’t want to make him angry. Trevor grew up, stayed busy with school, work, life in general, and didn’t have a lot of time left to worry about his father although sometimes, he still wondered what he was up to.

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This screenshot shows the older, experienced soldier who has been fighting in the war for a long time. The lighting and the camera angle are both helping his face to seem even more worn down and tired. Not just physically, but we can see the emotional baggage he is carrying home with him. We can also see the armed vehicle in the background and the uniform of another soldier to give a war-like setting and make the viewer see the proper image of war and the power it has to change a person, inside and out.

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Read the quotation: “That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”

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Read the quotation: “That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”

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“On the Rainy River” explores the reoccuring theme of embarassment of not going to the war, yet having feelings of guilt for not fighting for his country. Despite this story being very detailed and full of “memories”, it is known to us that the story is most easily identifiable as fiction since he never ran away and never stayed with Elroy at the Canadian border. He only ever felt like doing this and going there, he wished this could be true because he did in fact have doubts about going to the war and his 2 sides of his persona fought against each other, feeling embarassed and going to the war, probably dying and for sure killing innocent men, but also the guilt of not going and leaving all of the men he knew behind, risking their lives and him looking like the coward by staying or running away. At the end of the chapter, Tim writes: “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war.” which suggests that in the end, he changed his mind and actually believed that a true hero wouldn’t have enlisted against his moral values.

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occurs in fictional stories when the story examines the elements of fiction itself. For example, a story that explores how stories are made by commenting on character types, how plots are formed, or other aspects of storytelling is engaged in an example of metafiction.

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 What does the narrator mean by saying,"A true war story is never moral"?

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 What does the narrator mean by saying,"A true war story is never moral"?

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Here the distinction between the “raw story” itself and the “making of the story” is blurred and there is a very thin line between reality and fiction becoming in a way neither 100% real or a work of fiction, but rather a “total effect”. Whilst the story that follows from these words admits to not being true in the literal sense, O’Brien makes sure that it points to truth. “A story’s truth shouldn’t be measured by happening,” he says, “but by an entirely different standard, a standard of emotion, feeling- ‘Does it ring true?’ as opposed to ‘Is it true?’” This use of the imagination becomes “the main way of finding truth.”

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Question and answer:

Q: What was the pencil test and what was its significance?

A: The pencil test was a very primitive invention by the white government of South Africa when the coloured people were applying to be able to be clsssified as “white”. If the pencil fell out, you were white, if it stayed in, you remained coloured (basically it all depended on the thickness of your hair). This test worked as a measure of how you could live, where you could work and whom you coulf marry, it sorted out the prtson’s entite future.

Quotation:

“People are willing to accept you if they see you as an outsider trying to assimilate into their world. But when they see you as a fellow tribe member attempting to disavow the tribe, that is something they will never forgive. That is what happened to me in Eden Park. “(174)

This quotation stood out to me because it opens the chapter after the short monologue of Trevor at the very beginning of chapter 9, how the coloured people were ‘made’ and follows an aspect from his childhood of growing up as a mixed child in a coloured neighbourhood and the way the white peoplr wanted to ‘whiten’ the coloured people. It summarizes the whole situation of not only white being racist, but the black being even more racist amongst themselves than the white from the outside.

Comment about chapters:

Chapter 9 was mostly about explaining more of the background of how coloured people came to be, that they were of mixed race when the white came and conquered not only their land but also their women, ending up with descendants and either abandoning them completely, or living separately from their family. Trevor felt hated by everyone becaude of being light skinned and speaking english, not quite mixing with the whites, but the blacks giving him an even harder time. It escalatef when he got bullied during the muleberry incident, a gang of black kids started hitting him with the berries and when Trevor came home and told his mother and her boyfriend Abel, Abel got really angry (giving his issues with temper) and beat the main boy up infront of Trevor, forcing him to appologize. Abel then continued to fight off the father of the boy and both, Trevor and Particis saw what a dangerous man with a temper Abel is.

Chater 10 is all about love (well forced affection), and Trevor’s first heartbreak. His mother tought him how to behave like a man towards women but she failed to teach him how to tell if he loved a girl. Before Valentine’s day at his school, Trevor’s friends encouraged him to ask Maylene to be his valentine (the only black girl in the school) and she said yes, she was Trevor’s first kiss and he was really happy. He saved up money for gifts and even write her a poem. When Valentine’s day came, she broke his heart, telling him she could no longwr be his girlfriend or his valentine because Lorenzo asked her out. Trevor understood why she picked Lorenzo, because he was white and good-looking, however, it still broke his heart.

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Creative Response