1. Don't eat someone else's leftovers

2. Don’t walk around naked

3. Don't use your phone at the dinner table

1.Taboos can hurt peoples feelings.

2. “The taboos hardest on the soul are those which fester in our intimacies..."(Ventura 113)

1.  In african countries while speaking to a tribal cheif, don't have ur head higher than his. 

2. In Thailand don't point ur hand or shoe at someone as it is considered rude.

3. Don’t ask a man his salary in the united states.

1.  Don’t make fun of someone if they got a failing grade

2. Don’t scream in the hallway

3. Don't play loud music or videos without headphones

2. Chewing gum in Singapore is illegal.

3. Extra seasoning/condiments on food in countries like Britain.

-Anna Rios

2.don’t use your siblings things 

3.keeping your elbows on the table

2. Stopping in the middle of a busy hallway.

3. Mentioning mental health/homelife.

-via flanagan-kut

-Anna

1. In the essay "Don't Even Think About It,” by Michael Ventura, the theme is to avoid acting disrespectfully and ignorantly towards others, to refrain from invading their personal taboos.

2. “Either that, or to submit to being lost, as most of us silently are, without admitting it to each other or to ourselves—lost in a maze of taboos.”(Ventura 119).

# from Combining Sentences

Now, any punk who murders will only suffer a few years in prison at most.

1. Don’t leave your purse on the floor

2. Don’t ask your parents how much they weigh

3. Don’t leave your shoes faced up

1. Don't talk about current Politics (voting, current sensitive events)

2. Don't stop in the middle of the hallway

3. Don't speak with your friend's exes

2. Eating with your elbows on the table

3. Telling your parents about crushes

“We needed cannibals to give us a word to describe our behav-ior, so how ‘civilized’ are we, really?” (Ventura 7).  Ventura uses some hyperbole as he says that we live very similarly to cannibals in the world of taboos. The claim that cannibals could teach us something about ourselves is outlandish. He uses it for shock and effect in his writing. 

 3. Wearing white to a wedding when you’re not the bride.

In this story the author uses words like “Constrict” and "Surrendered" to describe Taboos. This shows how taboos make u give up some way of life in order to follow the Taboos way. The Taboos help create a structured system of living.

Imagery (James L)

“The National Organization of Women can rail against the Promise Keepers all they want (and they have some good reasons), but when you get a million working-class guys crying and hugging in public, the stoic mask of the American male has definitely cracked. And I'm old enough to remember when it was shocking for women to speak about wanting a career. Now virtually all affluent young women are expected to want a career” (Ventura 17).  I feel as if this more than any other quote really exemplified what image Ventura is trying to implant into your brain. This is not the world of fifty years ago. Expectations and taboos have changed over time, like the social stigma of men showing emotion or women in the workplace. This happens because our societies which create these taboos evolve and grow over time, and that can cause a shift in taboos. 

“We needed cannibals to give us a word to describe our behav-ior, so how ‘civilized’ are we, really?” (Ventura 7).  Ventura uses some hyperbole as he says that we live very similarly to cannibals in the world of taboos. The claim that cannibals could teach us something about ourselves is outlandish. He uses it for shock and effect in his writing. 

Details(John B)

An opinion the author gave came up when he was talking about taboos like “Little taboos: until the sixties, it was an insult to use someone's first name without asking or being offered permission.” This is an opinion because not all people may have experienced this or they could have been harsher about it and make it a big taboo.

A fact the author stated would be when he said “Notice that nearly  all of our taboos, big and small, public and intimate, involve silence” We see how  the author thinks taboos work and if you chose to respect them, then that entails that you must become silent.

Language(Lucas M)

One word that is displayed throughout “Don’t even think about it” by Michael Ventura is cultured. This word is displayed throughout the book when the author is talking about taboos. This connects to the word culture because the author argues how taboos vary from country to country. Another word that is displayed throughout this essay is vulgar. This is expressed because some of the taboos that he shares might be vulgar. The author states, “Sexual taboos: there are few communities on the planet where two men can walk down a street holding hands without being harassed or even arrested; in Afghanistan the Taliban would stone them to death”(Ventura 113). This quote shows how these taboos could be vulgar from the actions and penalties.

Syntax(Lucas M)

In “Don’t Even Think About It” by Michael Ventura, he uses dashes to create emphasis. “Taboos, big or small, are always about having to respect someone’s boundary-or else.(Ventura 112). This dash creates emphasis because it lets the readers know that there will be a negative consequence from bringing up taboos. The author also uses complex punctuation throughout the essay to create emotion and even more emphasis.

2. Eating food upstairs

3. Opening doors/windows while the AC is running

-Joaquina

Original: Taboos cause great pain in the world, but are necessary for society to function.

-Gab

1.  “In the process, though, we’ve lost the sanctity of silence. We’ve lost the sense of dark but sacred power inherent in sex, in nature, even in crime. Perhaps that is the price of our new freedoms.” (Ventura 118).

2. The theme in the essay “Don’t Even Think About It”  is that people tend to avoid conversations that they don't feel comfortable talking about, or think are “taboo,” and would rather stay silent.

2. In the essay "Don't Even Think About It" by Michael Ventura, the overall theme is to avoid making society and themselves uncomfortable by speaking about certain topics or "Taboos" which overstep personal boundaries and beliefs.

The author directly expresses his opinion through the explanation of examples and situations happening across the globe. His explanation teaches the readers that we have different cultural norms, yet globally society refuses to speak on many things in order to not disrupt anything out of the ordinary.

“If we speak of them, we may endanger the relationship; but if we do not speak, if we do not violate the taboo, the relationship may become static and tense, until the silence takes on a life of its own” (Ventura 113).

language (malak)

The author uses rhetorical devices by repeating the same phrases in the essay such as “you don’t think” “you react” “you watch” “you absorb” 

The author uses irony to criticize the moderns world. a good example of that would be when he said “you think you think but you don’t. atleast not often.”

syntax (malak)

The beginnings of the paragraphs in this essay start similarly, for example, they all make bold claims, get backed up with evidence, and then get reflected upon.

The beginnings of sentences in this essay however, they begin in a variety. there are son shot and direct quotes used like “you don’t think” and others that are longer and more complex.

rania

An example of diction is the word taboo. “It is probably inherent in the human condition that there are no ‘last’ taboos.”(Ventura, 119). This shows how taboo seems to be a very unique and funny word from the way it is spelled and how it sounds. But it's really a word that could be very controversial. And it could raise arguments.

IMAGERY

rylinn

Michael Ventura writes, “But we stockpile weapons that can cook the entire world.” (Ventura 114). This shows personification in a way that the world cannot literally be cooked in an oven, but it’s an exaggeration and gives character to an object or idea. The author does this to add emphasis on the aspect of not actually cooking people for a meal, but metaphorically cooking the world with weapons.

Ventura states, “They get to not have their taboo cake, yet eat it too.” (Ventura 116) This quote shows symbolism in that the cake is the joy of people balancing on the acceptability or crossing a line with taboos. The author uses an object that people are familiar with to describe and explain an unfamiliar idea. 

DETAILS

misha

Ventura writes, “Notice that nearly all of our taboos, big and small, public and intimate, involve silence-keeping ones silence, or paying a price for not keeping it.” (Ventura 113) This detail in the essay, “Don't Even Think About It,” shows the author's opinion on what a taboo means in his definition. Vetura’s way of describing a taboo includes the idea that we must honor other people's boundaries because it's how we would want to be treated. This is how the author conveys his definition of taboo as a detail to the audience.

LANGUAGE

hidaya

“Try sitting in a quiet room without the television on. It's hard, isn't it?”

The first half of this essay, based on this evidence, can be described and summarized as informal because the author uses a conversational tone to show the reader the influence of the media.

“We are losing the ability to think independently, and we don’t even realize it.”

The second half of this essay, based on the evidence, can be described as shocking. Ventura uses an alarming tone so the readers can think about the impact of the media and how it is affecting our minds. Ventura’s use of shocking images left a feeling of concern and fear of how their own minds are being affected by the media.

SYNTAX

rania

“In Afghanistan, as I write this, it is a sin—punishable by beatings and imprisonment—to fly a kite.”(Ventura,113). This is an example of syntax because it separates the sentence in a way where the part that's in the dashes doesn't technically need to be added. With the words in the dashes, it is still a sentence. But it helps give me depth and details to the sentence.

Opinion: The author believes our society is not civilized because we learned the word taboo from a place where cannibalism is a normal practice. Cannibalism is not right and many people don’t support this. So, for us to use and acknowledge a word that was created by cannibalism is wrong. 

punishable by beatings and imprisonment—to fly a kite” (Ventura 113). In this the author uses a colon to show his list of taboos and emphasize that they cannot be classified.

Another example of syntax is, “I'm not denying the necessity of every society to set limits and 8 invent taboos (some rational, some not) simply in order to get on with the day—and to try to contain the constant, crazy, never-to-be-escaped longings that blossom in our sleep and distract or compel us while awake” (Ventura 114). In this the author uses the dashes in between “never-to-be-escaped” to connect the words better and show emphasis. He also uses a long senate format to get his ideas across.

“National taboos:until the seventies, a divorced person could not run for major public office in America (it wasn’t until 1981 that our first and only divorced president, Ronald Reagan, took office); today, no professed atheist would dare try for presidency” (Ventura 113).  This demonstrates how important it was in the seventies if someone who used to be married took office.  This imagery helps us understand what it would have looked like by comparing it to an atheist taking office.

1. sexual activity

2. bringing up controversial family history

3. Not allowed to burp

Another example is the word honest , denotative and abstract. “…why so many people who call themselves honest and law abiding spend so much  time with movies…” (Ventura 115). This is a abstract word because it talks about a general meaning in the word honest, its not used differently then the original meaning

2. ‘Notice that nearly all of our taboos, big and small, public and intimate, involve silence, keeping one ones or paying ones silence, or paying a price for not.

“She answered. I

obeyed. But a few minutes later, I raised the point again, with

mounting impatience. "It will be all right in a minute," she said apprehensively.” The author's way of saying or writing is very clear. He's a very straightforward person, but the word apprehensively is an adjective which derived from the Latin word.tasha 

IMAGERY

’Instantly, the doleful eyes of my seatmate turned

tiredly from his newspaper to fix me with a resentful stare’

The author uses the words doleful when describing his eyes and the resentful stare to make the readers understand the significance it had when the author was going to complain because the man with the doleful eyes who gave the resentful stare was tired too, but still had the decency to complain.-Tasha  

DETAILS

“Inside the railroad car

The temperature must have been about 85 degrees. I took off my

overcoat, and few minutes later my jacket” The author gives us an understanding of how hot it was using details like “I took off my over coat” someone is usually wearing a coat when it cold outside but then the author goes on to explain that he took off his jacket now, it’s safe to assume that it must be freezing outside that the author had to coats on but this also goes to explain how hot the temperature was in the train.-Tasha 

In paragraph 21 the author uses words like “breached” to describe people crossing boundaries of taboos. This shows the author's disdain for people crossing boundaries and how he really feels about it. “Without sexual taboos, for instance, what are the social boundaries between men and women? When are they breached? What is offensive?”

Imagery

In paragraph 1 it gives us examples of taboos, the taboos were described in ways that showed imagery. In paragraph one it states “Big taboos: when i was  a kid in the italian neighborhoods of Brooklyn, to insult someone’s mother meant a brutal fight–the kind of fight that no one interferes with until one of the combatants goes down and stays down.” This quote paints a picture with descriptive imagery that you imagine.