The Mysterious Stranger Honors Blog

Mark Twain develops the theme of perceived religious misconceptions through imagery, allusion, and paradox.

There are many allusions throughout the book, and many of them pertain to the Christian Bible. For example, when the angel that comes to the 3 main characters introduces himself as Satan, the author very strongly references the bible by saying "It caught us suddenly, that name did... Satan laughed, and asked what was the matter. I said 'Nothing, only it seemed a strange name for an angel.' He asked why. 'Because it's - it's - well, it's his name, you know." Here, he was referencing the devil, who in the Bible, is named Satan. Mark Twain is introducing a character who's name implies that he is the Devil, and yet he plays the role of an angel. This helps to develop the theme of biblical misconceptions, this this is a major renovation to common belief.

Mark Twain also uses imagery to further develop the theme. In this scene, he implies that in the face of chaos and tragedy, an angel can still be happy. He uses a series of visual adjectives to represent this scene. "He was full of bubbling spirits, and as gay as if this were a wedding instead of a fiendish massacre... the looks that went out of our eyes came from our hearts, and their dumb speech was worship." In the second part of the quote, he describes how the boys were manipulated to be in awe of the Angel, and represents this with the image of a feeling of awe flowing from their hearts into their eyes.

At the end of the book, Mark Twain uses paradox to represent the theme, which is probably the most effective method of doing so. It is revealed that the world, the characters, and all existence is but a mere thought, and Satan explains the paradoxes of the biblical interpretation of the universe in order to prove this. He says "A God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it..."

The way I interpret The Mysterious Stranger is that it is meant to disprove religion. Throughout the book, Mark Twain pokes holes in the ideology, using many allusions to the bible, and imagery to describe it, then at the end, he uses paradox to disprove the entire Biblical interpretation to the best of his ability. I feel he did this successfully, and through his understanding of the Bible, the book is a wonderful social, political, and (especially) religious commentary.

Day-Before-Thanksgiving-Break Blog!

I am thankful for many things.  One of them being something that I happen to be thankful for.  

By the end of the Thanksgiving break, I should have...

-ALL footage for B-Roll of the beaches that I need shot. 

-All the interviews shot.  

-A finished script.  

And...I will not have a wonderful break.  I will have a terrific, splediferous, stupendous, outstanding, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious break, but I will not have a wonderful break. 

H20 Project Update

In my research for my project, I am out to prove the points that our water is dirty and that it needs to be cleaned and/or tested.  So far, I am discovering many facts that help to prove my point.  For example, I found out from Heal The Bay that a beach I am studying for my project - P.B. Point - was closed for 4 days in 2006 due to a sewage spill.  It has been closed many times since then for longer periods of time, for the same reason.  However, some other beaches listed have been closed for as many as 68 days.  

I am surprised at these facts and numbers, along with many of the other ones I am coming across, such as this one.  Apparently, the problem doesn't just lie with San Diego's water, it's with our neighboring states and countries.  Tijuana's water is incredibly polluted, and their beaches are often closed for much longer than our beaches.  However, it seems that this isn't just Tijuana's problem any more.  The water comes down to San Diego, and sweeps up on our beaches.  While this isn't something we can personally help, it is still the exact reason we need to continue consistently testing our water - so that we don't end up swimming in filthy polluted water.  

I believe my writing is already incredibly cool - I have a lot of humor in the video script I have drawn up, and it is simple and catches the ear.  My next step in the process is going to be to compile the data I gather from testing, compile my peer's data, bring my video camera into class tomorrow to film Brandon's class testing the water, and go shoot video of the different beaches this weekend.  Once that is all done, all I will have left to do is finish drawing up the script, record the voiceover, and edit it all together.  

And Now...An Extra Credit Post!!!

I MADE THIS.
...Ok not really

Products For H20 Project

Product #1 - Video (I am 99% sure this will be my product)
-Narrative: This will help to get the message of the video across, and possibly point out facts that wouldn't be apparent from simple visuals
-Video: I will probably take footage of the beaches, and of us collecting samples, as well as footage of the sewage water running out into the ocean. This will help to increase the impact of whatever the narrative is saying (and give the viewer something to look at).
-Pictures: I will probably incorporate a photography/factual element into the video, which will involve pictures. The photography would mainly be to please the eye, and the factual pictures (such as forms relating to closure of beaches) would be for educational purposes

I intend to make a video incorporating all of these things, and I will probably make a checklist for all elements of the video, which will be similar to the above list

Product #2 - Article (I am 1% sure this will be my product)
-Writing: This will be mostly what the article consists of, so I need to spend the bulk of my time making sure I have a good written piece
-Research: I will need to make sure I have a good amount amount of statistics and data, and sources I can cite, all of which comes from research
-Pictures: I would probably want my article to have a nice visual element, so that the reader doesn't get intimidated by a clump of text, so I might throw a well photographed relevant picture or 2 into the mix.

Assuming I end up doing the article, I will probably do what I planned to do for the video, which is turn the above list into a checklist, and make sure that by the time my product is finished, I have all of the above.

Mexican-American Voter Discrimination

To include one specific group into an entire voting population is a very difficult, long process, and requires people who are victim to discrimination to continue fighting their cause for decades, and it requires many flukes from many people who all need to do or say just the right thing at just the right moment in time. This is how the process was for the blacks, the women, and the youth of America, and the Mexican-Americans were no different.
Mexican-American voters faced many struggles in society, and the barriers that kept them from voting were one of these things. Some of the key people who led to the near equality that we know today are Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, who, in 1966, founded the "Crusade For Justice," and Cesar Chavez, who founded the "United Farm Workers Union."
There is still undeniable voter discrimination, but it has improved greatly, and I believe if a direct threat to the voting rights of Mexican-Americans (or any minority) is detected by either the government or the people, I have confidence it would be corrected immediately. Much of this is owed to the people I mentioned earlier, along with many others, who helped in the fight for voter equality. As the article states, "The work of these pioneering activists provided a base to mobilize Mexican Americans and increase their political power in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries."

Election Results/Water Project Product

I feel incredibly happy about the results of the election. I feel, and always have felt, that Barack Obama is the best candidate to be our president, and is the best person to pull us out of this economic crisis, and help resolve our global conflicts. My main hope is that Barack Obama follows through with his promise for change, and implements the policies and plans that he laid out to the American public, since skeptics of his campaign (who fairly critiqued what he had to say) have called his claims and aspirations "wishful." My main concern is for Barack Obama's life, because although our nation has come a long way from slavery and segregation, there is still racism left in America, and organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan pose a major threat to the man who has now become our 44th president.

I believe is is safe to say I have a decent amount of civic knowledge. I know much about our constitution, the declaration of independence, how the judicial and executive branches work, and how the electoral college works. I have learned the majority of these things this year, and I believe the main part of what helped me to learn these subjects was blogging. Researching, analyzing, and writing about these different national and global issues has really made me commit many new important things to memory, as well as think about why they are to important, and how they affect me. I can improve on this by continuing to blog, and refining my writing and research skills, as well as learning many new subjects I still have yet to.

I feel quite pleased and displeased about conversations I have had outside of class. I am pleased with the people who actually bother to use more than one of their brain cells when making political decisions, no matter what side of the ballot they are on. The people I dislike are the people who are easily influenced and hasty in their decisions. An example of this is when I went to Florida, and was talking to a family friend at dinner, who told me that Barack Obama could not be trusted because "No one knows the first thing about him..." and because "he's a Muslim..." and apparently, all Muslims "want to behead you!"

For my water project, I will personally need the following resources - all of which I already have.
-Computer (for research)
-Editing program (for creating my video)
-Camera (for shooting my video)

To my knowledge, I will only need the people in my group, but if they so decide that they need interviewees, I could find a way to incorporate them into my video
-Vanessa (for primary research)
-Stephanie (to compile the data from the water tests into beach report cards - this will be needed for the video)
-Nyachare (to assist with compilation of data into a coherent article - my video will be complimentary to her article, so we need to be on the same page)

Schedule
Friday - Do preliminary research in class along with the rest of the group (maybe process water results if we are able to)
Saturday - Saturday morning cartoons, then some research, and if I am able, start the outline of a video script
Sunday - Start in with writing my video script. Stay in contact with group members for updates on information
Monday - Continue scripting - MAKE SURE I KNOW WHAT TO SHOOT
Tuesday - Go with group to beach locations and shoot the footage I need - we will then collect the data we need
Wednesday - Continue scripting what's left of the video - leave room for facts and numbers we probably won't have yet
Thursday - Edit video together - make changes according to what data and group research suggests
Friday - Continue editing
Saturday - Record audio for narrative I will have in the video
Sunday - Edit narrative in
Monday - Continue editing - try to be done or close to done by today
Tuesday - I should be putting the finishing touches on the video now
Wednesday - Put together a group website. Nothing huge - just an online compilation of our data. Assist group if they need help with something.
Thursday - Continue creating site and helping group
Friday - Have video, and website completed by today.

H2O Project Research Questions: Revised

Question 1: What role does water play in the plant and animal ecosystem in Pacific Beach?
The only way an ecosystem works is if everything moves around in one giant cycle. Outside environment can affect the water, which can in turn affect the outside environment. If the water is inhabited by a certain animal, then a land based creature that eats that animal may migrate near to the water so they can feed on that particular creature. Animals aren't the only ones affected by this cycle, either. Plants are a huge part of the process. They need water to survive, so it's far more likely that more plant life will grow near a body of water. There are likely to be more trees, grass, and plants. The beaches would be covered in plant-life, except that humans continue to trample the areas in which seeds are trying to grow. As a result, Pacific beach, much like most beaches, looks relatively barren down near the water - it's all just sand.

Question 2: What outside forces affect the water at Pacific Beach and how?
The main way environment affects the water nearby it is through pollution. When the water gets polluted, either through the air around it or from litter, it affects the quality of the water, and can kill life inside it. Once this happens, it can ruin the whole food chain inside the water. In Pacific Beach, many of the plankton in the water die off due to pollution. As a result of this, the creature that eats the plankton will die, and then the creature that eats that creature will die. This completely throws off the ecosystem. Also, the presence of people in the water is enough to drive many living creatures away, who might otherwise be inhabiting that area.

H2O Project Research Questions

Question 1: What role does water play in the plant and animal ecosystem at mission beach?
The main way environment affects the water nearby it is through pollution. When the water gets polluted, either through the air around it or from litter, it affects the quality of the water, and can kill life inside it. Once this happens, it can ruin the whole food chain inside the water. For example, if the plankton in the water die off, the creature that eats the plankton will die, and then the creature that eats that creature will die. This completely throws off the ecosystem. Pollution is not the only way outside forces affect the water - the ecosystem itself has a large effect on what happens all around, and therefore to the mass of water. Land based creatures may feed on creatures inside the water, and therefore, they may live in that area, so they can fish for food more easily. This will most certainly affect the life inside of the water even more.

Question 2: What outside forces affect the water at pacific beach and how?
Going back to the ecosystem - it all moves around in one giant circle. Like I said before, the outside environment can affect the water, which can in turn affect the outside environment. Animals aren't the only ones affected by this cycle, either. Plants are a huge part of the process. They need water to survive, so it's far more likely that more plant life will grow near a body of water. There are likely to be more trees, grass, and plants. Depending on the location of the water, it could affect it's environment in an entirely different way. If the area around the body of water is populated by people, they may have built homes and buildings nearby to or bordering it. This can be a problem is erosion happens. Erosion is a problem that commonly occurs with homes on hills near bodies of water. Water runoff causes the soil to soften, leading to a mudslide, and therefore, for homes (and sometimes lives) to be ruined. Water has potential to affect it's environment in both great and terrible ways, but when it comes to nature, we must always take the good with the bad.