Sophia Vergara

 “Barbie Doll” tells the pathetic story of a young girl who goes through life with self-hatred due to her physical appearance. Since birth, this "girlchild" is exposed to the expectations of society and encounters the harsh realities of not meeting those expectations. The need to live up to the world’s idea of beauty incites years of severe self scrutiny that suppresses her self confidence. Therefore, the desperate girl chooses to live a restricted life that she assumes will lead to others' happiness. The pressure placed on the protagonist of “Barbie Doll” to look and act according to society’s expectations ultimately leads to her suicide.

Unfortunately, this pressure to conform to society’s ideal image still distorts the feminine self-image. In the PEOPLE magazine edition that was published right after the Academy Awards, stars were interviewed about their diet plans, workout options, and overall ways to stay healthy- clearly women are still socialized. As Sophia Vergara from Modern Family said "Because I'm Latin Im EXPECTED to be a little more plump and more voluptuous, so I don't have to be really skinny. I think THEY want me with a little bit of meat." When does this stereotypical, societal, and psychopathic torture end?

Streets of India

Curiosity was Marlow's opponent and mine too when The Streets of India Cafe caught my eye. Im adventurous when taste testing and one would undeniably say that I  love food so it seemed natural to want to meander into this street corner cafe. I guess Marlow and I share that in common because we relish in exploration and discovery. And sure enough the cafe was no longer a heart of darkness but rather a mine of flavor. Just as the jungle encouraged Marlow to transgress his moral boundaries to satisfy his curiosity, Streets of India encouraged me to transgress my comforting savory expectations to satisfy by oral fixations. From samosas to dosas, Encino's Streets of India knows how to do it up. It's the valley's newest hotspot. Modern, simple, new, clean, family owned, Nice pictures on the walls, and a couple of LCD TVs playing Bollywood videos. The owners are amazingly friendly, taking the time to tell me about all the food, its origin, and their own family history. It's a mix of Northern and Southern Indian flavors…. so I usually just order a bunch of things so I can sample and have leftovers. 

Their Samosas are perfectly crispy and have a tasty potato/pea/spice filling, but their dosas are even more impressive and HUUGGGEEEE!! They arrive with dipping sauce and coconut chutney and they are everything your dosa loving self could dream of. Lots of flavorful potato and spice filling, that perfect flakey crispness….and again, like the other food, very light on the oil. Dosas at other places sometimes get soggy really quickly due to the oil content but NOT here. The owners explained their food as being "Healthy Indian food"-  vegan and flavorful without being overly spiced or heavy on sauces. With that said, will you travel into the Heart of India?

Intro to Metamorphosis

The fear of alienation, desire to get along, and other unspoken pressures provide sufficient reasons for conformity. In Kafka’s novella, he describes the emotional, social, and psychological repercussions of Gregor Sampsa’s physical transformation. Because he is no longer able to financially support his family and resembles a vermin, Gregor feels increasingly isolated. Through Metamorphosis, Kafka conveys his anxiety towards society’s eagerness to conform, the ultimate driving force behind the alienation of individuals. As an orthodox Jewish boy living in Echo Park, growing up with the familial expectation that he would earn a living by practicing medicine, my grandfather, Stanley Zusman D.P.M., could surely relate to the extreme conformity he faced as a teenager. When questioned about his need to socially fit in, he recalled boot camp when he entered the army. This to me, offered the clearest example of conformity as necessary and non-conformity as fatal. Therefore, conformity provides refuge for those who seek to masque their insecurities and desire to equalize, but also is a mechanism which controls the herds effectively.

Conformity in the Classroom

The classroom is the breeding ground for conformity, expecting all students to arrive at the same conclusions, analyze the same information, and suppress opinion until the bell rings. I relate this scenario to bee societies, in which the queen bee feeds her workers (all genetically related) food which suppresses individuality and selfishness, coercing them to cooperate for the advancement of their group rather than selfish interests. Clearly, conformity provides the best outcome for this lifestyle.
Therefore, maybe Buckley's system doesn't seem too horrible.... After all, we all end up on a more level playing field and end up with hundreds of community service hours, the intellectual techniques having taken 10 AP's, an acceptance letter from Harvard, and great money-making careers,  but at whose expense? In this way I agree that elementary children should engage in more fostered and structured learning whereas, upper school students should be expected to have developed their critical thinking abilities and thus form opinions and perspectives on their own.

#1 P. 1014 and #4 P. 1018

Kuper dramatizes the illustrations, background, and facial expressions in order provide fertile ground for humor.Through hyperbolic images, he encourages his viewers to feel remorse and sympathy for Gregor, a brilliant and genuinely good- hearted man, jailed in the body of a impotent vermin. Page 995 is just one image that directly reflects my preconceived notions about Metamorphosis. Through Kafka's diction, I have always imagined Gregor as a human-sized bug (not a tiny insect) awkwardly lying face up in bed, not knowing what to do with all of his new limbs. I love Kuper's addition of the alarm clock right on the bedside table reminding the reader of Gregor's old routine lifestyle and the early mornings he had to rise in order to catch the train as a traveling salesman. Often times, alarm clocks are also reminders of our limitations. For Gregor, it might serve as a physical reminder that he is running out of time (death approaching or he ran out of time in his human life), that he is late for work and now having to deal with the employer's consequences and the new consequences he'll have to face as a bug, or that he has failed in his life's task (financial provider).Kuper's choice to use black and white was expected for me. Color always influences the part of the human brain that signals hormonal (and thus emotional) responses, impacting how we initially react and respond. Hence when people "see red" or are "green with envy" or are "stuck in the blues" or "in the pink". It's amazing, but color really does manipulate human emotion. Black and white images also evoke emotional responses such as nostalgia, bleakness, and sentiment. Many times, we feel that black and white photography is devoid of emotional indicators, but instead Kuper captures eternity and endurance of the story, the morals, and the simplicity. Kuper encourages his viewers to think abstractly, provoked by thought and subtlety. 

Kafka Post (After being sick)

Metamorphosis magnifies and satisfies the necessity for eavesdropping. Though modern society views this means of interaction as regressive, rude, unprofessional, and oftentimes evil, Gregor uses eavesdropping as a means of human connection. Because his family starts neglecting him, increased especially when the lodgers arrive, he resorts to listening to what his family has to say about him. Overhearing his mother repulsed by his form and his father in disbelief of his son’s metamorphosis, Gregor fully recognizes his traumatic rejection by his family and his housekeeper too! Though detrimental and often times painful, our society has become one of casual eavesdropping. Social networking has become the hub of personal, pathetic, entertaining, and instant updates on what people are saying or doing and what they have seen someone else do. This constant sharing of news clearly devalues privacy. Undeniably through generations and culture, our private behavior has now become public. Even though eavesdropping damages his self-esteem at times, Gregor hardens his self-protection by learning what his family thinks of him. As society has proved, hearing the truth maintains order and safety. Therefore, Gregor takes advantage of this evolved communication, even at the expense of his ultimate demise.His story proves that the victim of eavesdropping is no longer the eavesdropper, but rather it’s the bystanders who can’t escape the words overheard. What might have seemed private is now thrown into his face, and like Gregor, the unspeakable are harmed, shamed, and destroyed. 

HOD

Joseph Conrad was consumed with writing about the human condition and the underlying circumstances that drive humans to do the things they do. He recognized early on that the psyche can be an enhancer, a redeemer, and a destroyer. Heart of Darkness is not only a tale of Marlow’s self-discovery in the Congo, but one which exposes and redefines morality, amorality, and immorality. This moral ambiguity is a common thread throughout Marlow’s story deriving from his inconsistent moral standards relying on the activity of societal checks and cultural norms. On the other hand, Kurtz neither survives nor returns from the heart of darkness because he takes advantage of his surrounding and thus suffers from moral regression. Kurtz therefore represents the effect of Freud’s “uncontrollable personal needs” acting as the physical representation of Marlow’s unfulfilled desires.