Friends to Family in 365

Around the holidays, the "Christmas Cheer", "Hanukkah Happiness" and the "Holiday Spirit" begin to emerge. Now that the holiday season is almost finished, I look back and reflect on this year. More importantly, I look back to around November when I began to shop for holiday presents.

After a few years of disappointing holiday seasons, I honestly was not expecting this one to be any different. However, the emergence of new friends and rediscovered family ties, have lead me to once again find the meaning of the Holiday Season.

I will admit, I haven't had the best relationship with some members of my family and after seeing one get extremely upset over the situation, I put myself out there to be a "better person". With help from the other person, we have begun to build a tentative relationship that I hope will become what it should have been to begin with. From before the exchanging of gifts, we both realized the fragile bond. After the gift exchanged and through the simple thoughtful gestures of the little things, we have found new ways in which to strengthen our bond. Crazy what apples and a crock pot can do to a family.

For another family friend, my parents and I played a sort of Santa Claus. The family suffered a tragic and hard loss before Thanksgiving, unemployment, and a extremely small budget. When we heard, we knew that with the economy the way it currently is, everyone deserves a little something. We made it our mission to make sure Santa heard about their plight. (sounds more dramatic then it was...after all, the little wonders that can happen with the help of a little letter to a jolly man in a red suit). To make the holidays better for one small family helped make the purpose of the holiday that much clearer.

Tonight was our first visit back to the Sushi restaurant my mom likes to frequent. Once again it was an enjoyable evening with good food. Before the holidays my mom brought gifts to them, simple scarves and mini maglights. Totally unexpected tonight, one of the girls comes out and give my mom a card from the restaurant with a simple explanation that we are more then customers to them, more like family. As my dad and I joke about meeting family over paying for food my mom goes to hunt down the check. She comes back in shock, the manager had paid for our dinner and the tip to our waitress. In a time where business is tough and every dollar means something, my family was truly touched by their generosity and friendliness that has created a new bond of friendship and another extension of our family this last year.

I must say though that my most fond memory of this Christmas was trying to bet my little cousin her horde of toys from Santa. I told her there were more presents under the tree for her. (I must interject that both her bag was full to the brim and there were quite a few presents still under the tree) She denied it and I asked her if she would be her bag of new toys. Boy!! that look on her face was priceless, the indecision of knowing she was probably right weighted against the hope of more presents. She eventually won her bag of toys and the presents under the tree. I love that little girl too much and it affects my pocket book but I would never trade her joy for any of the money back. (Though if she let me play with Elmo Live, I might be happier =D )

What has become so much more commercial over the years and less about the pleasure of giving, this Christmas has helped me rediscover the joys and the pleasures of a simple smile after a present picked with lots of love and emotion is opened. Whether it is a simple pair of gloves or even an apple, the meaning of the Holidays has become all the more clear.



Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone is safe and well.

Anesthesia Entertainment

Well I’m all cozy in bed and well…possibly less wise. Yesterday the dreaded wisdom teeth came out. (It’s a great excuse for being extra loopy and stupid…but what are some people’s excuse?) Anyways, yesterday…I provided many people with entertainment. Such as the dentist nurse trying to wake me up and me refusing to, or the lady at the pharmacy when I remarked on how festive the pills were, to my dad trying to keep me from falling all over the place, to calling people and saying god knows what. Oh yes, the lesson of yesterday was to not give Sam a phone after she has been under anesthesia.

Then my stupid professor decides to call me on my cell phone saying she has miss placed my portfolio. She doesn’t have a final grade for me and she’s upset because I’m an English Major (If I was a Bio major, would she still feel the same?). Oh yeah, and grades were due later that day….now, I wanted to ask her “How do you think you got my cell phone number? Oh yeah…it was written on the inside of the portfolio you lost”…like I said, what are some people’s excuse. Luckily she called back and said she misplaced it…not very fun.

I’m afraid … very afraid. I’m watching the morning news and they have segment on the new show, Dragon Riders…it appears to be a cheesy version of Power Rangers. No wonder kids only want to play video games anymore. With this junk on television, who wouldn’t? But what is television coming to, I must ask.

It’s okay though, have you ever had a feeling of evil…or maybe better put,…no I think evil was about the right word. I woke my roommate up this morning at 6:30 to drag him to the donut shop under the explanation that you have to get there before all the good donuts are gone. (may I also put in, said roommate only had 3 hours of sleep?) like I said…evil…But at least you don’t have to live with me. =]

The Magic of Wisdom

My office had the pleasure of watching the Great Magic Johnson give a talk at the Hospital. Our doctors were in surgery so we got to go!!! yay for patients. =] (Next time we are dragging Maria along with us tho!!!)

He opened with a great speech that should be filmed and placed in one of those motivational movies. He spoke of his father and how he worked with GM for 30 years!!! could you imagine that? IN MICHIGAN, his father was never late, never called in sick, nor did he even miss a day of work. In that freezing cold weather, it seems unfathomable that even under the nicest circumstances that someone would be able to keep a record such as that when most of us on the West Coast bundle up when its 50 degrees out and have to drag ourselves out of bed. From his father, Magic cited that he learned to do a job the right way, giving everything he had to a single job. It was inspiring to reflect on then and inspiring to reflect on now.

Through a speech woven with laughter, advice, and inspiration, the most touching and real moment came when he spoke of HIV.





There no words for the audience...It was almost shocking that this public figure would open up this much about something that was once considered taboo. There is little doubt that anyone in the audience would walk away after hearing that story not being touched and not realizing the pain that his decision cost him. He will now become the face that pops up in not only my mind, but others I'm sure when the topic of HIV/AIDS is spoken about.

On lighter notes he reflected on memories of the Dream Team and on Kobe saying his generation could take on the famous Dream Team. But this is my favorite part.



I must say that it was a speech everyone said was very inspiring. As do my father and roommate because they had to hear about that and the picture catastrophe all night. Needless to say they know how inspiring and what a great speaker Magic Johnson is and the lesson of passing cameras to people you know and trust.

one last thing before I part. LC + Whitney

The ever evolving female- an extension of the Cat and Mouse

Ganeku, Samantha
English 313 Th 4:20
Professor Wexler
16 December 2008


Through time, the role of the woman within society and family tends to fall into the popular stereotypical view. However, despite the popular beliefs of what a woman should be in these roles, a few women have broken barriers to become the more liberal females. Instead of being the ones who meekly follow their husbands in subservient roles, these women are daring and often racy in their own rights.

To start looking at these different women portraying the same role, one could examine Tennessee Williams’ Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Henrik Ibsen’s Maggie from A Doll’s House. Both women are able to keep their houses stable while trying to support their family in the present as well as the future. While the portrayal of these two women is often times a role reversal of traditional notions of what the woman’s role should be, they are different in the way they break away from tradition.




Maggie often plays the cat in heat; whereas, Nora plays the timid mouse with a strong backbone. Maggie tries to seduce her own husband and offers him a shoulder to lean on physically and metaphorically. Brick gets hurt jumping the hurdles because “people like to do what they used to do, even after they’ve stopped being able to do it” (Williams 44). Maggie tries to care for Brick by offering to help him move around when he drops his crutch. Similarly, Nora tries to take care of her husband Torvald when he becomes sick by taking him away from the stress of their current lives. In both of these situations Simone De Beauvoir would argue that the women are getting their role from the male, such as in a master slave relationship. They are acting on the values that have been ingrained in their psyche as the role of the women in a marriage, that they need to take care of their man when he is down to ensure they recover quickly and then will be able to take over the role once again as the provider.

Ferdinand Saussure’s “Course on Linguistics” can be applied to say in conjunction with De Beauvoir that the values of a traditional wife/mother are a sign and signifier relationship. We hear “wife” and “mother” and automatically get an image of the homemaker. Saussure says the “sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image” (78). When the audience is taking in both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Doll’s House, they come to the plays with ideas of a “good” wife as “domestic, attractive, home-centered” (Barker 307) and a “good” mother who provides for the children and watches over them. When they see Nora and Maggie on the stage they are satisfied and shocked because these characters do not always conform to the audience’s ideas. Maggie and Nora are the signified aspects of the sign; whereas the concept of the mother/wife is the signifier. It is the crashes between traditional values and what is being performed that make the audience reject the characters because of their behavior. Maggie is then called a bitch because of the way tries to better her family’s future and she presents herself as a “sneak, cheat, manipulative” (Barker 307). Nora on the other hand is a Barker’s decoy an “apparently helpless, actually strong” (307) for part of the play while she plays a victim for the later half because of her guilt.

De Beauvoir points out that the woman plays a different role in the master-slave relationship than the “normal” slave, “she is the Other in a totality of which the two components are necessary to one another” (Beauvoir). Both Nora and Maggie are important to the future of their family because without them, the men would not be able to procreate. For Maggie however, it is more important for her to have children because it would help ensure her family’s inheritance when Big Daddy passes away. Maggie tries to keep herself looking attractive for Brick in hopes that one day “[he’ll] see [her] again like other men see [her]” (Williams 32). She becomes the cat in heat because of her need to provide another generation that will ensure the future of her family in a physical way, as well as in an economic way.

Instead of being strong like Maggie, Nora in A Doll’s House looks after her family and strives to save her husband no matter the cost. She takes it upon herself to get a much needed loan, without permission from her husband and knowing how he dislikes loan and how he will eventually feel about her. Nora goes outside of her home and defies her husband, as well as going as far as flirting openly with a family friend. She opposes the will of her husband, even if she is trying to help keep him alive. When she is confronted by her husband she becomes weak. Nora does not stand by her husband after her realizations about her marriage, she leaves. She becomes a timid mouse that runs and hides instead of standing strong. The way Nora is portrayed allows the audience to be able to relate more because of the “circuit of culture” as outlined in Chris Barker’s Cultural Studies. Everyone and everything plays a part in culture and this outlines the interconnected roles going from identity to representation to regulation to consumption to production (60). In Nora, it is easier to relate to the identity created in the representation of a devoted and stressed wife who wants the best for her family. This representation is then regulated and modified in the eyes of the consumer, thus producing a response or critique to the work so more identities can be created or enhanced.
Similar to Maggie, one can discover the character of Trish in the movie 40 Year Old Virgin. Trish is the self employed independent woman who owns a store across from the electronic store that Andy, aka Steve Carell, works. Trish pushes barriers by being self employed. She does fill her role in society in that she does produce something and is a productive member of society; however, it is because she does not define herself by a relationship with the traditional male boss. Her ability to not depend on anyone else, let alone a man, Trish breaks out of the boundary of a traditional female worker.



In addition, Trish is the experienced partner in her relationship with Andy. While he is still a virgin at the age of 40, Trish has had numerous sexual relationships. She is the more experienced member in this movie, whereas in traditional views this would not be expected or accepted. It is more traditional and acceptable for the male to be the more sexually experienced partner in a relationship. This role reversal between Andy and Trish puts Andy in the more traditional female role while Trish takes on the role of the male. Furthermore, it is Trish that makes the first move and asks Andy out.


More like Nora, Mrs. Robinson in the movie The Graduate is more submissive. Rather, she presents the image of being a submissive wife. When around her family, she plays the role that society dictates; however, when she gets alone with Ben, Mrs. Robinson becomes a different woman. She becomes a seductress in his presence, seducing him as a sort of graduation gift. They begin an affair in which Mrs. Robinson takes the early lead. Also similar to Trish, Mrs. Robinson is the more sexually experienced character.

Trish and Mrs. Robinson both take the lead in their relationships. They are the ones that proceed to make the first moves and go after the men they want. Entering in the relationships with clearly more experience in both sexual and romantic relationships, both women bring certain advantages that the “traditional woman” may not have. Unlike Nora, Trish and Mrs. Robinson have the luxury of choosing their lovers. It is mentioned that Nora has a loving relationship with her husband; however she is not as free as some of the other characters to pick a lover for her own pleasure. In this sense, Nora is more traditional in that she receives her role from the traditions that society dictates in this regard.

Maggie, Nora, Trish and Mrs. Robinson all challenge the traditional views of the woman, wife and mother. Together they help reshape the public’s view by presenting over sexualized, experience women who look for ways in which they can serve their family. Although not successful in some regards, they help broaden the view of the woman as something more than a homemaker.

Works Cited

Barker, Chris. "Cultural Studies." London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2008.

de Beauvoir, Simone de. “Introduction: Woman as Other,” The Second Sex. 28 Jan 2006. Marxists.org. 13 Oct. 2008. (Williams)

The 40 Year Old Virgin. Dir. Judd Apatow. Perf. Steve Carell and Catherine Keener. DVD. 2005.

The Graduate. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. DVD. 2005.

Saussure, Ferdinand. “Course in General Linguistics,” Structuralism and Linguistics.

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. London: Signet Drama, 1958.

Frederick's Dystopia

Ganeku, Samantha
English 312
Professor Wexler
13 December 2008

In the movie Minority Report, the main character played by Tom Cruise, the control implemented by the government helps keep citizens within the law. The futuristic pre-crime detection unit monitors everyone and “pin points” who will commit a crime and where it will occur, before it actually happens. Without the crime occurring, one is unable to prove their innocence or guilt, this presents a loss of freedom and rights in an extreme sense. In a dystopian society, it is the lack of freedom and rights that are the core of these cultures.

As seen through Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the stripping of rights affects the slave community. While as a whole, the slave community remains in the dark about the real wrongs being perpetrated on their group, Douglass has had his eyes opened up. It is because he learns to read that he is able to understand the real implications of enslavement. Similar to the human race in Planet of the Apes, African American’s are seen as inferior and ignorant. They are nothing more than tools to be used by those in power to control. By withholding knowledge from groups of people, it becomes easier to control whole groups.

History is very similar, in the sense without a history or a background; there is a missing piece of identity. For Douglass, once he realizes what is really behind the enslavement of African Americans, he gains a brighter outlook that he often wishes he did not have. While clearly knowledge is power, it can also be an unwanted burden as seen in the case of Frederick Douglass. For Douglass, he has to constantly walk around with knowledge that creates a prison that constantly follows him. He could speak out and tell others the secrets he has uncovered, he would be unable to find others who would believe him or go along with a revolution. It is because of his inability to share his new found knowledge that he becomes trapped within a society that has no real written freedom.

Like Orwell’s 1984, when the crowd of people screams at the projection during Hate Week, propaganda is used to entice such a response. Similar to Douglass in the sense that the government withholds or manipulates information released to the public, the governing body in 1984 present’s information in ways that enables them to gain more control over the common person. Today is no different, within the United States; information is withheld or manipulated by those presenting it to the masses. Whether it is the writers of history books or the local newscasters, there is an agenda behind the information being released.

Propaganda is a powerful tool within any society. In particular it is seen in the United States during times of war. It is the rationalization that the government is using its power to protect us from harmful information. Furthermore, it was seen more recently when China was preparing for the Olympics. The Chinese government censored news of mobs protesting during the torch relay and presented the image of a jovial relay procession. To keep the mass populations at ease/peace, governments are willing to go the extremes of censoring information released to the public because it enables them to control the general sentiment in their favor regarding certain matters.

As Jameson points out in his article, for a revolution to be successful, it must be done on a mass scale. In larger numbers crowds have more influence over those who seek to hush their protests or seek to oppress them. For Douglass, 1984’s Winston, and the Planet of the Ape’s Taylor, they would need to get a group of people first listen to them and then follow their lead. However, the only person really successful enough in this regard is Taylor, who gets others to believe him and even defend him.

Jameson further tries to say that for equality, we must be willing to think beyond the individual. Douglass tried to be conscious of this fact. For other slaves to survive their lifestyle, they needed to believe the propaganda presented to them. Once other slaves started to believe in them, their white masters would try to find other ways in which to punish and further oppress them; worse, the masters would even seek to make examples out of them to further discourage any other uprisings. This would strike the hope from those that may seek for something more, as well as the possibility for groups to band together to rebel.

Within his slave community and his own life, Douglass was constantly under the watchful eye of Big Brother in its many forms, whether as a foreman, a master, or fellow slaves, someone was always watching him. In this panopticon, Michelle Foucault would have argued that the knowledge that Douglass was being observed, should have prevented him from doing anything that was forbidden; however knowledge of the Underground Railroad and the ability Douglass gained to read proves that there were some flaws. As a whole, however, the slave community would not rebel for this reason. The idea that one is being observed prevented many slaves from running away, as did the knowledge of what would happen should they be captured.

Like the workers presented in the movie Metropolis, slaves became drones in the sense they had daily chores that they preformed like clockwork. They had no real time for leisure or pleasure, instead they constantly needed to work and be a part of the machine. In this system, there was no “middle class”. There is only the owner/master and the slave. While one surely depends on the other, the hierarchy could not be any clearer. Though Douglass himself was able to read and function as more than a worker, he could clearly not be an owner/master. For Douglass and the society he lives in, there was no in between.

The ideas presented in Gattaca the movie, that the strongest and most superior get the advantages and the privileges. For Douglass, a similar concept ruled his time. The survival of the fittest was the ideal words to live by. One either had to be strong or have an extremely smart mind. While Douglass still had to experience the labor of slavery, he was also able to experience the freedom of working for a wage for a time. He used a combination of his mind and his body to gain and experience advantages many in his position only dreamed of. However, within his freedom, he was still stuck within the production relationship. Douglass was still working in what Althusser would consider the Reproduction of Labour-Power. Douglass still had to produce a product to obtain these advantages and experiences. He was not within the society where he followed the rules of a slave in the strictest sense, he moved into a different society where he needed to work and produce a product to gain a wage in exchange for his freedom. The value of the work he produced was then assessed by his employer/new owner.

Daily Lessons on Class details this relationship in that while Douglass may seek to get away from being the worker or slave, he is stuck within a cycle that will only continue and follow wherever he goes. Douglass would be what the authors Ebert and Zavarzadeuh would consider Wednesday. He represents the “playful in-between-ness” with his ability to be both a slave and a working functioning member of a different society. He is able to understand both worlds and he is stuck in this land where he does not fully fit within either one; furthermore, he is at a state in which neither side would claim him as one of their own.

In addition, Daily Lessons on Class further states that “freedom is realized only through revolution making a new society not bound by wage labor. For Douglass, this would be questionable if within the society he would be able to ever be equal when monetary value was no longer a factor. Rather, it would be more likely that Jameson’s ideas that a mass revolution would be able to create such a state for him. Revolution on a mass scale, where all slaves were involved in the outcry of the wrongs done to them, could create a new society if only they were able to adopt a sense of communism.

With Jameson’s ideas in mind, it would be possible for Douglass to break out if he could encourage others in their masses to join him in an uprising. Like those that fight today overseas for freedom, they sacrifice theirs so citizens of the United States can continue to enjoy theirs. These soldiers do not think of themselves, rather they think of the cause they represent. For the slaves to join Douglass, they had to believe that what they fought for would benefit maybe not themselves, but those that would come after them. They needed to be willing to sacrifice their lives in most cases to be able to fully commit to the cause. However, Douglass never asked this of his fellow slaves. He understood the burden he carried was too much for him, and it often weighted heavy on his own mind. He did not seek to pass this burden onto others or jeopardize the relative peace in which they lived.


Douglass’ dysptopia was one in which it was a struggle to survive. He ran the risk of getting beaten, starved, and worse if he did not please his master. Within the life of a slave, he was able to gain the ability to do things unheard of for others. While Douglass was the rare exception, he still was often stripped of rights and freedoms based on his “station” within the society he lived in.

Works Cited

Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." WebTeach-English 312. CSUN. 12 Oct. 2008 .

Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. Trans. Xan Fielding. Westminster: Del Rey, 2001.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of Frederick Douglass : Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition. New York: Prestwick House, Incorporated, 2004.

Foucault, Michel. "Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism." Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975). 1 Sept. 2008 .

Jameson, Frederic. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review. 2 Dec. 2008 .

Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Cruise. DVD. 2003.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Plume, 2003.

"Turn Back" to "Learn Your Lessons Well"

In my Romantic Comedy class, we watched Madonna's Like a Prayer video. It inspired me to go further research Mary Magdalene which lead to the research of Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock-opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber; which then inspired going back to the musical Godspell.

Going through the plot and seeing the names of the songs transport me back to my younger years when I was into acting. Along with people that became my friends and confidants, we performed for 3 years musicals inspired by the Bible. Seeing the names of these songs reminds me of how young and how naive I once was. In that time, I lived for those moments and shared the joy of rehearsal with my fellow actors.

The names of the songs and what they implied, as well as what they expressed, once lost on me, make complete sense now. I am now able to find a deeper meaning in what we sang about for all those hours. As lighthearted as some of those songs seemed so long ago, now become serious critiques of a world similar to the one we now live in. The childhood joy and lightheartedness I brought in my daily journeys of rehearsal, suddenly transforms into a realization of the filter childhood innocence can place on situations.

This realization has encouraged me to research and dig into things further. Over time, the realization that childhood movies, including many Disney movies, hide sexual content by disguising it under other content. Even childhood stories such as Rumpelstiltskin hides the moral reality of evil through an enjoyable story. How many other things have hidden ideology? Everything around us has a hidden agenda and to go back to reflect on these things leads to further reflections and realizations. Will you go back and discover things once hidden?