The Simpppssssoooonnnnnss..... doo du du dudoo du du doo dudududu!

Hey everyone! Well, needless to say I am very relieved that class is cancelled tomorrow since Rachel's friend is having a BABY!! Yay! I'm pretty sure I day-dreamed about what I would name my children throughout the entire 50 minutes of my fine arts class today. Ever since Monday, all I have running through my mind is the Simpsons - every time I open my laptop (which happens way too often) I am editing something on my bibliography or essay, analyzing something further. And because I am still running on about 3 hours of sleep from scrambling to finish 5 pages last night, I think the constantly surrounding absurdity of The Simpson family is starting to make me go crazy myself. It would be kind of nice to have a break and NOT think about Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie for a little bit... But, oh well. Here I go. My primary source for my research paper is the TV series, The Simpsons - created by Matt Groening and first airing December of 1989. I am arguing about family, its characteristics and how society comes to define it. What I think the source says about my family is that well- love them or hate them, they are still family. One of the ideas the Simpsons celebrates, according to Groening, is this idea of "how do you live with people who you also want to kill!?" and I think the ways in which the Simpsons work together from day to day and survive as a unified family, despite their vast differences, is really quite remarkable and inspiring for society. Through my paper I am addressing a couple different characteristics which set the Simpsons family apart from other sitcoms at the time and using them to prove how they are a more realistic family for America. As college students separated from our parents, I know that it is sometimes tedious and time-consuming to listen to your mom drone on and on about my black lab pooped 3 different times in the house today. But because I have invested some much time and energy into discovering the deeper relations and forces behind the love of a family, I have come to (maybe not enjoy), but appreciate even those small little things. I learned to not criticize my family for their flaws, but rather to embrace them and have discovered that it truly is the imperfections in life that make it perfect. Each one of you students has a family back home, wherever it may be, and I think that by caring about this research paper, you have not only accepted the Simpson family, but will be able to gain insight into what it is that makes your family unique and why you appreciate those things. Now go call your mom and tell her you love her!!! ....Sorry I think I'm delirious at this point. On that note - I'm going to sleep. Goodnight! :)

The Simpsons' Impact on American Society

My Topic for the research paper is The Simpsons television series and how it has impacted American culture. It impacts our culture firstly because it was the series that the Fox network started (a high risk show because it was a cartoon and controversial) and ended up being the show that brought them to be one of the leading networks on television. It competed with the ever-famous Cosby Show and when set up at the same time to compete with viewer audiences, the Simpsons won with higher amounts of viewers. Something I find interesting about this show is how it relays messages using satire throughout their characters. It incorporates current issues of religion and politics in to their show and efficiently finds a way to shed light on more serious issues at the time using comedy. The Simpsons have impacted our culture also because it is the first show that has depicted the truly "dysfunctional family". Dysfunctional meaning that they have problems, that Homer is somewhat of an oaf, that Bart is a reckless juvenile and that Lisa is unhappy with the stupidity in her family that surrounds her. This is the issue I will be addressing in my paper as well as its importance. The Simpsons lead us away from the image of the "Leave it to beaver" and "Cosby show" families complete with wealth, happiness, and a white picket fence. These families that only have minor tiffs between them and are all resolved (usually by the head father figure) at the end of the show. This is NOT what life is like in reality. With the introduction of the Simpsons, people are able to laugh at and relate to the extreme version of the nuclear family. Today, parents are becoming more and more equal in terms of the roles they play in the family. By Homer's character as a lazy, almost stupid man, he may be the one with the job, yet Marge is seen as the parent who is more capable and intelligent. This brings rise to issues women and men are feeling about equality between sexes and in the workforce. The show also brings us a family we can relate to, be humored by, and in the end, grateful for all the imperfections that make our family unique. After all, it's the imperfections in life that make it exciting!

High/Mid/Low

Reflecting on my work throughout the semester, I have realized that I have not written to my potential. I feel I have the skills to efficiently write a good paper, but have failed to implement all of them. On my close reading paper, like the ones we looked over today in class, I could have done a lot better. I didn't really understand the purpose of the assignment outside of class and our close reading skills, so I pretty much just aimed the paper at Rachel as my audience by explaining simply what the epigraphs meant and analyzing them a little bit. I gave background information on the authors and related that to Krakauer and McCandless, but my paragraphs had hardly any relation and not even I would want to read it - I think that says something haha. If I had to put a grade on it, I would say low. This being due to the fact that I could've gone deeper into analysis and connected my ideas thoroughly to things outside of McCandless and Krakauer, making the essay appeal to an audience wider than my English 101 teacher and the students in that class. Any essay that is written simply to fulfill an assignment's requirements is not a worthy paper in my book and I think over break, and the next month or so, I will have my work cut out for me in terms of revision!

Post-Krakauer: More or Less Credible?

After Krakauer tells his story relating to that of McCandless, I really appreciated McCandless' story more than before. However, if I were to look at Krakauer's recount critically, I would say that because of this, it reduced the credibility of his recount of McCandless. Don't get me wrong, I liked the fact that he added it and I thought it greatly increased the effect of pathos on the reader. However, because McCandless is dead and there is no way to prove that Krakauer's story is exactly like his, it makes the story seem like it's simply Krakauer's skewed idea that somehow McCandless' life is exactly like his own; it is plausible, but unlikely. Although in theory it reduced his credibility and Krakauer's story is undoubtedly biased, I believe it is a valid explanation and all the material adds up, at least through my reading of Into the Wild.