The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Reading The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was extremely interesting and thought provoking to me because I was able to discover a lot of dramatic irony and symbols.  One of my main objectives during this class was to be able to analyze literature more efficiently and more accurately.  I have always taken my time when reading assigned literature, but have never fully understood the hiding messages behind the word.  This story, however, was different.  The author did a great job in creating enough irony and symbolism in the story without hiding it too much.

I read this story a few times over in order to gain a better understanding of the plot, but noticed some dramatic irony the first time through.  Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something that the character in the story does not yet know.  The first, and most obvious, exemplification I noticed in the story was when the narrator initially describes the room.  When the narrator said, “It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there and rings and things in the walls” it is clear to me, the reader, that the room did not used to be a nursery.  The room was, indeed, used to house an insane person. 

This was also one of my favorite stories to read simply because I was able to track the narrator’s thought process.   In the beginning of the story, she is positive about the house, only expressing dislike of the yellow wall.  Towards the middle of the story, when she realized the figures on the yellow wall resemble her, she begins to turn insane about being trapped in the house.  Finally, toward the end, the narrator is obsessed with the yellow wall and begins to tear it down off the wall.  She turns completely insane. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman did a fantastic job in creating this short story and it truly marked a turning point in my literary analysis abilities. 

Hills Like White Elephants

The short story, Hills Like White Elephants, truly caught me off guard.  I understood from the beginning that The American, the male protagonist of the story, was confronting his girlfriend, The Girl, about her pregnancy.  However, throughout the story I did not read into the rudeness and selfishness of The American.  We discussed in class that he was being rude to The Girl and not showing sympathy for her feelings.  Looking back, I see how inconsiderate he was being toward the girl, but in the moment I was oblivious.  When I read the line of The American saying, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to.  I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to” I was under the impression that he was open to either decision, as long as she was happy. 

During our class discussion, I realized the symbolism behind the Hills and noticed the pressure between The American and The Girl.  He was not ready to give up his life to a wife and baby.  Supposedly he loved his wife, but could fathom being tied down.  The symbolism I discovered represents the split in the relationship between The American and The Girl.  The train station, where the story took place, represented the relationship between the man and the girl as being at a crossroads.  The man and the woman were in the middle of nowhere in Spain and had to decide where to go from there; similar to whether they should have an abortion or not. 

By the end of the class discussion, I was no longer in the dark about the class discussion and sympathized for the The Girl.  This was a major decision in her life and The American was not making anything any easier. 

The Lottery

One of the more moving stories we read was The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.  I had read this story during my AP Literature class during my senior year of high school, and it affected me greatly then.  However when I re-read it during this class, I felt even more moved.

Tessie, the main character who was the unlucky loser of the lottery, was not expecting this to happen to her.  In fact, she did not arrive at the drawing on time simply because she was forgot what day it was.  This showed how truly unexpected her death was.

When she finally arrived at the drawing and discovered she was the chosen one, I found it interesting that she tried to excuse herself from being killed.  Like in society today, people are not nervous about the wellbeing of others unless it directly affects them.  By being late to the lottery, Tessie was almost making a joke of the whole system.  However, once her name was called, it became reality.  She began fighting for her survival, insisting it was not her turn.

Another part of the story that moved me the most was what happened after Tessie was chosen.  It seemed as if the town has no sympathy for her, and was rather excited to throw rocks at her.  The ladies who Tessie considered her friends were almost “gathering the troops” to see the end of Tessie’s life.

This story truly exemplified how cruel people can be and how unsympathetic people can be as well.  Let’s hope our society does not accumulate to such madness!

Pikes Peak

It was the sixth day of our family vacation to Colorado, and honestly, everything was going quite well!  The Sharp family outings are usually directly proportional to the activities our mom has planned for us, and this trip seemed to exceed all expectations.  During the five previous days of the trip, we went water skiing, whitewater rafting, ATVing in Estes Park, rocking climbing, and of course hiking.

It wasn’t until the Cog Railcar was about 15 minutes into its journey up the mountain that I truly understood why my mom picked this as our next adventure.  We were riding on the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, a 14,115 foot mountain top in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  We cheated and took the railway, but there are some brave soles (I’m talking about you, Professor Williams) who climb to the top of this monstrous mountain.

The view on the way to the top is breathtaking.   You can see for seemingly hundreds of miles out into the Colorado landscape.  As we went higher and higher up the mountain, the clouds started to appear.  Once reaching the top of the mountain, you definitely cannot see the Colorado Spring land.  You feel like you are on a different planet! 

We got off the railcar and went into the one building that is located at the top.  I was not feeling well, so I was in the bathroom or sitting at a table for most of the time while my family explored.  Once feeling a little better, I decided to eat a famous donut that is made at the top of Pikes Peak.  Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.  And man, was it delicious!

Due to the cloud that was lingering over us, we were not able to explore much outside.  My brother, Quinn, and I entertained us with some fun “insert face” posters! 

On the way back down the mountain, I was able to capture some awesome pictures.  The land was so green and luscious, it actually reminded me of my trip to Tuscany!

Enjoy these pics!

This blog post was actually inspired by the first day of my Literature and Civilizations II class.  Or teacher opened our class blog and told us that we had until the end of the semester to discover where this picture was taken.  After about 0.59023 seconds of thinking, I knew EXACTLY where the picture was taken!  Pikes Peak!  Does this picture look familiar, Professor Williams??

The Kissing Aunt

Every family has one of those relatives.  The one who is always overly excited to see you at holidays and goes above and beyond to show you their love?  Yea, my family definitely has one of those – and it’s my great-aunt Joanie.  Commonly known as the “kissing aunt”, I cannot walk into a Christmas, or Easter, or wedding gathering without receiving a giant kiss on the cheek.  What makes it ten times more awkward is that she is 4 feet tall, and almost two feet shorter than me. 

This past Thanksgiving, I was going out of my way to avoid receiving a kiss from her.  Over the past 20 years, they have gotten less and less exciting and quite annoying.  I really really hope she is not reading this right now.  Yikes.  Anyway!   Despite her crazy habit of kissing each of my family members of the cheek, she makes some extremely delicious apple pie.  We usually go over to her and my great-uncle’s house for Christmas (Because both of my grandparents have died…my great-aunt and uncle have carried on the tradition) and feast.  We end up all sitting around the dinner table together, sharing stories and talking about school.  This particular Christmas, though, the kissing aunt decided to give us gifts identical gifts – just another way to show her love for us.  All the cousins were sitting in a line together, she counted to three, and we each opened our package.  Inside were identical sweatshirts that said “____University” and inserted our respective last name.   It ended up being quite the family gift, and all of us cousins got a kick out of it.

Even though sometimes her kisses get a little over the top, I still lover her.  Without her, our family spirit would be a little dimmer.   

My Daily View

Living in the Greek community at TCU comes with its perks.  Not only are you semi-off campus, but also you are living in a “village” filled with constant activity and entertainment.

Looking out my window right now, I spy about most of the fraternity houses on campus.  Right across from my window, however, is the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house.  It being Christmas time, their house is creatively decorated with several lines of Christmas lights, a few wreaths that have made their way onto the ground, and one cheesy sign that reads shines “Merry Christmas!”  Whoever took time out of studying for finals also put clumps of cotton in the creases of window of their chapter room.  Interesting addition, Mr. Sig Ep!

To the right of the Sig Ep house is a large parking lot.  This brings me to tell you about a random event that occurred in the parking lot  a few weeks ago!  I was walking to my car in about the third lane over to the left, when I saw a raccoon on a person’s car.  This raccoon was not only on the car, but extremely dead and actually bleeding.  I doubt that someone actually ran their car into a raccoon oddly enough that it would be placed perfectly on their hood.  I later discovered that it was our chapter president's car and that someone had put it on her car as a prank!

Here’s what I discovered that Sunday morning…..view discretion is advised...

The rest of the scene from my window is pretty bland. It’s currently raining, which makes it even less exciting.

On certain Friday and Saturday nights, it is entertaining to look out my window around one or two in the morning.  People, living up the college dream, are coming back to go to bed.  My Chi O sisters and I decided a few months ago to purchase a laser pointer and to use it on those people walking by.  Those people who have been drinking (of age…of course) fall into the trap of the laser pointer and will commonly follow it for several minutes.  Few people have actually discovered where the laser pointer is coming from, for when they search for the light, we quickly turn it off and shut the blinds.  They will never know!! Mwahahaha!

   

Tuscany

This past summer, I traveled to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland with 13 other honors students through a program called Cultural Routes.  The trip is a study abroad option within the John V. Roach Honors College at TCU.  Though I could go on for hundreds of pages about the experiences I had while traveling, I will enlighten you with one special day of the trip. 

We were in our third country, Italy, and had the “travel thing” down pretty well.  As a way to reward us, Dr. Pitcock, one of our instructors, let us have an entire day free to explore whatever city or town we desired in Italy – being reasonable distance away.  My friends Brandon Somerhalder (holllla!), Blaire Butler, Sarah Rose, and myself knew we were not looking for another typical day in Italy.  We wanted adventure, thrill, and, of course, amazing scenery.

We hopped on a train early that morning without knowing exactly where we were going.  The night before we had looked up review online of “best kept secret - small towns of Italy”, decided to head toward Tuscany.  I fell asleep on the train and have no recollection of how long the ride was before we stopped, but next thing I knew, we were getting off in a small town called Cortona.  We hopped off the train, and our adventure began.

About an hour later, after a long bus ride, we found ourselves at the top of a large mountain overlooking the Tuscan land -- It looked right out of a movie.  The land was a luscious green filled with old Italian buildings.  Here’s actually the first picture I took right off the bus!

Throughout the day we simply explored.  We walked through the winding streets of the village, taking endless self-timer photos and eating gelato.  After an energizing lunch, however, we decided to amp up our experience.  Granted we had already discovered an old theater house and climbed on the wall surrounding the village, we wanted something that we would remember forever.

We were walking down a windy side road in the village when we came across two locals.  Actually, they approached us, and asked if we were studying abroad.  Little did we know, this was the start of a great friendship.  After seemingly five minutes of small talk, the couples took us under their wing and showed us around the city – the whole time talking with them about America, food, and the wonders of Cortona.  We started off by meeting their entire family in this small house built into the side of the mountain.  Everyone was so welcoming!  After all, it is italy!  We then went to a local art shop and admired the hand-sculpted bowls and beautiful paintings.  Walking into the city square, we noticed there was some sort of festival going on.  The couple explained to us that it was a ritual of the city and that most of the locals attended. 

A few hours had passed by and it was beginning to turn dark.  Since we had to be back by dinnertime, we, unfortunately, had to say goodbye.  We took a picture with the couple in the main square and headed toward the train station.  Our crazy adventure in Cortona was coming to a close.  At dinnertime with the rest of the group, we definitely had the best stories from the day.

No description of our day can truly justify the wonderful experience I had explore Cortona.  The food, the locals, and the overall atmosphere of the village were truly breathtaking. 

Here are a few photos from the day including the picture with or locals. :)

The day that changed everything

It was a typical Tuesday morning.  I had just gotten off safety patrol and was walking toward my fourth-grade classroom.  I passed the teachers lounge on my right and noticed a lot of people huddled around the TV.  Figuring it was a cooking special on the Today Show or something, I proceeded to walk to class.  I hung my backpack up in the cubbies outside the room and placed my coat on the hook next to it.  My best friend Brenna met me at my backpack and asked me if I had heard.  Heard about what?  Did it have something to do with all the teachers in the lounge around the TV?  I was pretty confused.  The second I walked into class, my teachers, Mrs. Dinslage, hushed us and told us to sit.

There were two TVs on in the classroom, and each consumed by a camera shot of a burning building.  At the time, there was only one burning building and the other seemed to be fine.  Our teacher explained to us that there was a terrible plane crash in New York that hit an important building called the World Trade Centers.  We were all listening attentively to the TV when all of a sudden; a second plane ran into the other tower.  You could hear gasps occurring all down the hallway of the school.  What the heck was happening?  All I knew is that two buildings were on fire and that my teacher was crying.  I didn’t understand how life changing and world-changing that event would be.

Some time later, we also witnessed the buildings fall to the ground.  At that point, some of my classmates even started crying.  I had never seen anything like this before in my life, besides perhaps in a movie.  After the buildings fell, Principal Druu came on the intercom and asked the teachers to please excuse any student whose parents arrives to take them home.   Nothing allowed us to continue on with the day.  We sat in complete silence for about ten whole minutes before Mrs. Dinslage asked us to take out a piece of paper.  We were told to write for five minutes about what we just witnessed.  She ensured us that we will want this when we were older.  I remember writing about how one minute I was on safety patrol and the next minute the whole world was watching as two buildings were attacked.  Little did I know, the whole world would change.

As the day went on, our teacher updated us with news about the attack.  Many of my classmates were pulled from school, and we weren’t allowed to go outside for recess.  I knew we were restricted from going outside due to the attack, but I later learned it was also because the President of the United States was hiding out in Omaha, Nebraska.  You may be wondering why, but Omaha, in fact, has a large air force base located in the suburbs that is complete with a building located nine-stories underground.

That day will always be engraved in my head, and I’m sure I will live to tell my grandchildren this one day.  At that moment in time, I had no idea how serious the matter was and that it would change the world forever.  

Secret Room

My room at home in Omaha is positioned at the end of an extremely long hallway.  The hallway consists of five bedrooms, two of which are my brothers’.  I’m located on my own end of the house, away from my brothers’ bedrooms or bathrooms.  When walking into my room, you have no doubt it is a girls room.  The walls are light blue with clean, white trim that lines the entirety of my room.  Being a corner room, there are two long lines of windows that bring in a good amount of sunlight each day.  Bordering one line of windows are two tall built-in bookshelves with a build-in bench.  The bench connects the two bookshelves and has three large pullout drawers under it that houses many crafts and miscellaneous items.  The other wall of windows is set back in a nook.  In that part of my room is another, shorter, bookshelf, a large light-yellow chair, and a tall floor lamp.  The chair used to be an unpleasant tan color, but was reupholstered a few years ago.  Good thing! Moving on, my queen-sized bed is on the wall right across from the two tall bookshelves.  I have a white wicker nightstand on one side of my bed, and pretty much dead space on the other side.

One little unknown fact about my home is that there are secret doors hidden in each bedroom.  Mine happens to be located in my walk in closet.  When you walk into my closet, you notice four built-in sections for my clothes, and two dresser-type storage compartments.  If you shut the door behind you, you will see a tiny door on the wall.  It looks like a normal door, but just miniature.  You have to crouch way down in order to enter it, but once you get past that, there is a large, high-walled room.  This used to be my hideout when I was little.  My friends and I would sit in there and talk, or play games, or even do homework!  It is complete with air-conditioning and beanbags!

The rest of my room does not compare to the secret room – for it has an antique dresser and desk set.  My mom actually used it when she was a young girl!

The overall feel of my room is pretty homey.  Especially on rainy days, I love curling up in my bed and listening to the rain trickle down the windows.  In the morning, there is plenty of sunshine to wake me up!

Blue Eyed Beauty

In my family, my brothers and I had to wait until we were 17 to receive our own car – a good philosophy that should have taught us patience and responsibility.  In my case, it totally ruined the excitement of having my own car.  For some reason, I just didn’t care whether I had my own car or not.  When my 17^th birthday was less than two weeks away, I wasn’t the girl car shopping during her free time or asking for the most expensive car on the market.  In fact, I could have borrowed my mother’s car for the rest of high school and been perfectly content.

Needless to say, I was shocked by the emotions I was experiencing when my 2005 Ford Escape was waiting in the garage the morning of my 17^th birthday.   I was jumping up and down squealing uncontrollably.  I didn’t have any input on my car selection, but man was I in love.

My midnight blue Ford Escape is considered a mini-SUV.  Basically, it has five seats and a giant trunk, but is the width of a smaller car.  This makes it extremely easy to fit in tight parking spots.  The interior is coated in smooth leather that is in mint condition.  The man who owned my car before me used only 20,000 miles and rarely had any passengers – it looks brand spankin’ new!  The stereo system has a surprisingly loud base with the capacity to hold 6 CD’s.  The driver and passenger seat are separated by a center console, which I use to hold my wallet, sunglasses, phone charger, and loose change. The seats in the back are quite squishy, but get the job done!  With the ability to quickly change from heat to air conditioning, my car is perfect for when I go home to Nebraska and there is a snow storm one day and tornado the next!  The exterior of my car is practically door-ding free, except for a perfectly circular one I obtained by taking it to college and being forced to park it in a lot with hundreds of other fraternity and sorority members. 

Despite the rare times it has run out of gas or the power steering went out, my car has treated me pretty well – and I’ve returned the favor.  I treat my car like my baby and make sure it’s constantly cleaned and looking brand new.  After all, since my parents paid for it, I should keep it looking presentable.

The Guest by Albert Camus

When I read The Guest, my initial response was to feel guilt for Daru.  Balducci’s only task was to transport the Arab to Daru and to receive a signature proof of the handoff.  After their interaction, Balducci was returning to El Ameur where he would carry on with his normal life.  Daru was left with the decision to turn the Arab into the police, and feel much guilt, or to let him run free, knowing that he disobeyed his orders.

As the story elapsed, I also felt guilt for the Arab.  When Daru gave the Arab the choice of which direction to travel – freedom or prison –, it represents Daru’s indecisiveness. I understand that Daru was torn on his decision to turn the Arab into the police or not, but I think he was being unfair to the Arab.  It was evident throughout the story that the prisoner did not comprehend much of what Daru was telling him – and what makes Daru’s description of the two directions any clearer?  For as much as we, the readers, know, the Arab could have picked going to prison equally as likely as he could have picked freedom, simply because he did not know the difference.  I believe that when the Arab stood motionless for a short time after Daru left him, the Arab was both trying to understand what Daru had just said and trying to make a decision.  Daru was handing too much responsibility off to the Arab and should have decided the Arab’s fate himself.

My response to this story was to have guilt for both Daru and the Arab simply because the situations they were both put in were unfortunate.  Even though the Arab brought his consequence onto himself by murdering his cousin, he was placed in a tough spot at the split in the road.  Daru’s situation was all around unfortunate because he was not expecting the arrival of neither Balducci nor the Arab.  As the book described, the two men approaching Daru’s schoolhouse were strangers.  Daru’s life was forever changed by this surprise visit.

Peek-A-Boo

When she was just a kitten, Peek-A-Boo was as rambunctious as ever.  Peeks, as I called her, would bat at the toilet paper in my bathroom until it was scattered all over the floor and separated into hundreds of pieces.  The baby frogs in the back yard never stood a chance next to her aggressive instincts and relentless determination.  Being our first real family pet, other than countless hamsters and a few rabbits, we wanted her to feel apart of the family.

When we adopted her from the pound, I was only three years old.  My brothers surely loved Peek-A-Boo, but I was usually the one giving her the most attention.  I never went anywhere without her.  I would even dress her up in doll clothes and put her in my stroller just so she could go on my daily walks with me.  Peeks eventually began following me all around the house from the crack of dawn until bedtime.  She would be sprawled out at the foot of my bed waiting for me to wake up.  During the day, she would watch TV with me, bat at the heads of my Barbies as I played house, and even play hide-and-go-seek with my brothers and I – that’s actually how she got her name, Peek-A-Boo.

As I grew older, and as Peeks grew older, things never changed.  Even when we moved to a larger house when I was in fourth grade and her “playground” grew exponentially, she still followed me around everywhere.  When I was in high school, she would always nuzzle her way under my blanket during cheerleading sleepovers in my basement, and sit with me as I did my homework.  I loved her so much.

I was on a school trip in Florida during March of my senior year in high school when I received a phone call that changed everything.  My mom calmly told me that Peek-A-Boo was no longer eating and was barely leaving the couch.  My heart sank to my toes and I was afraid I was going to lose my best friend.  I wanted to go home right then and there, but decided to stick out the rest of the trip.  The day I got home, my mom and I went to the vet with Peeks where we discovered she was in the beginning stages of kidney failure. 

From that day on, Peek-A-Boo’s condition deteriorated.  After countless doctors visits and within a few months, one entire kidney failed.  It was hard for me to come to terms with that fact that she was dying because she still did everything with me.  It took her longer to get up the stairs, but eventually she reached the top.  She didn’t run and chase rabbits, but she still sat outside as I played basketball.  I guess I just avoided the thought of her not being in my life anymore.

For the entire month leading up to my move to college, we were forced to give her fluids through an IV two times per day.  By this point, I had to carry her everywhere and place food right in front of her face in order for her to eat.  The vet, who was our close friend by this time, didn’t want to pressure me into making a decision, but politely told me that she might not make it to TCU’s October break.  Once again, I avoided the thought of her dying and moved to TCU.  Leaving her was hard, but I knew that I was only a short flight away from being home.

Two weeks into college, I received a call from my mom that I will never forget.  I was studying in my dorm room when my mom said, “Honey, it’s time to make a decision about Peek-A-Boo.  It just isn’t fair for her anymore.  Ever since you left she completely stopped eating and won’t leave your room.  It’s time.” 

I flew home the next weekend and said my goodbyes.  It was the most emotional few days of my life.  We put her to sleep on a Tuesday morning and buried her on our family farm that evening. 

Even to this day, I become emotional thinking about Peeks.  Life is not the same without her, but I know she is in a better place.

Oh...I failed to mention that she was probably that fattest cat you would have ever seen. 27 pounds at her heaviest! :) 

Library Research #2

When first sitting down to write this reflection, I could think of nothing other than the fact that I was extremely hungry.  Looking through rows and rows of periodicals did not help me get my mind off my growling stomach, either.   After being somewhat indecisive, I just decided to explore the 1955 Issue of Life Magazine.  I flipped to the first article published on January 3^rd and quickly discovered it was a Special Issue on Food.  Wow, how more convenient could this issue get?  Relentlessly, I began reading the issue and was quickly fascinated by one of the opening articles titled “A Triumph and an Obligation”.

This article grabbed my attention simply because it had photographs of farmland and livestock – both prevalent in my home state of Nebraska.  One of the first lines of the article stated that each generation is taller, bigger, and healthier than the preceding one.  I found this particularly interesting considering America today is having major health issues.  The article vaguely mentioned that overeating is a problem in the current day, but never commented on the fear of America becoming overweight, let alone the fear of obesity.  The article goes on to describe how America is a powerhouse in the World food market.  We, being the United States, had an abundance of $6.6 billion of surplus food in 1955.  This made it easy for us in that time to forget that most of the rest of the world lacked in adequate food and that more than half of its people were extremely underfed.  This, still being a problem today, has made me realize how little change has occurred with regard to our domination of the food market in the last fifty years. 

Finding a way to more equally distribute food across the world was a problem in the middle 1950s and will most likely persist many years from now as well.  Since we found the key to dominate the food market, why can’t we share our technological discoveries with the rest of the world?  In 1950 America was using combines while some other countries were still using plows and irrigating by the “drawer of water”. Unbelievable.

Once continuing on with the rest of the Life Issue, I came across an article about how New York brings in one-twelfth of all food consumed in the United States.  Within the article, different food industries in the New York area are highlighted.  It was not the content of the article that surprised me, but rather the photographs of the “behind the scenes” of the different industries.   I was completely shocked to see not one single person wearing gloves when personally handling sausages, hams, bacon, salmon, and other types of food.  This would definitely not be approved in FDA Laws today.  After examining these photographs, I proceeded to research the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, and learned it was established in 1906.  However, it was not until 2009 that the FDA amended their laws and required the use of gloves in the workplace by all employees.  What a complete shock!  No wonder the people in these pictures from the 1995 Life Magazine were not wearing gloves, they had no idea the possible health risks.  One sick person who came to work that day in 1955, instead of sleeping in, could contaminate hundreds of pieces of items of food. 

If I had not looked at the publication date of this Life Magazine, I would have never guessed it was published around the New Year.  There were not any articles, photographs, or advertisements discussing the recent happenings.  My initial thought that maybe in 1955 New Years was not an extremely popular holiday was somewhat irrational.  New Years is New Years, no matter the era.  Perhaps the previous issue of Life Magazine included the year re-cap I was anticipating.

Despite my interest in a few particular articles and pictures in the magazine, I found it to be a rather boring issue.  When I first saw that I would be reading a Special Issue about food, I was expecting to be reading less about the farming and production aspects of the food, and more about the nutritional aspect of the food.  None of the articles discussed the advantages of eating vegetables over ice cream, or why bacon is a poor food choice among Americans.  One other article, in fact, talked about how Americans are choosing to eat fast-food meals more commonly, but the article never talked about how poor that decision was.  Their obliviousness to the future health problems in American is striking to me.  Perhaps there were many overweight people in America during that time, they just did not know how to address the issue.  Regardless, this realization shows the gap between America in 1955 and America today.

Library Research

     After examining the April 21, 1930 issue of Time Magazine, I noticed some interesting things.  When first opening the issue, I realized there was a substantial amount of advertisement throughout the entire publication.  Second, the overall content of the articles published within was quite different to current-day articles.
     Plainand simply put, some of the advertisements in this issue were bizarre and unnecessary in a nationally recognized magazine.  Specifically, there is one article persuading people to use Zenitherm Walls and Floors from New York, New York.  The company specialized in laying floors that, “looks and wears like marble, yet is worked like wood.”  Even though some people do lay fake marble floors in their homes or establishments, it does not pertain to the general population of readers. I was simply surprised that such a specific advertisement would be in a national magazine that reaches out to the general population of the United States.  For those people who do not live in New York, this company is not available to them for flooring purposes.
     Another advertisement I found interesting was one about the state of Colorado.  The article claimed that one can “…do more, see more, get more rest and have more fun in Colorful Colorado.”  Even though I do not doubt that Colorado is a wonderful state, seeing Time Magazine advertise it in this way is shocking.  The advertisement did not provide specific attractions in Colorado besides briefly mentioning that there is the Continental Divide.  I found it comical that at the end of the advertisement there is a dotted line, and below the dotted line is an ordering form for a “Colorado book”.  Realizing that magazines today include ordering forms for specific products, I found it bizarre that Time in 1930 would dedicate an entire page for such a vague advertisement.  I am interested in finding out how many readers actually purchased this book about Colorado!
     One of the more unusual articles was in the ‘Animals’ section of the issue.  The article, titled ‘Tiger Man’ covered a story about Latvian tiger hunter Alexander Siemel.  Siemel left his home in Latvia when he was 16 and began tiger hunting in Brazil shortly after.  This article nonchalantly details the killing of tigers in foreign countries.  Describing that if the tigers are shot through the heart, the beasts sometimes live long enough to claw a hunting dog to death was just a part of the bizarreness of this article.  The article goes on to say that Siemel, over the past 2 years, has killed a total of 107 tigers.  This is a sickly statistic; mainly because the article puts Siemel into a category of ‘tiger-hunter’ meaning he is not the only tiger-hunter in the world.  Thinking that all these tigers were killed just a few decades ago makes me appreciate today’s laws against hunting tigers.
     The ‘Cimema’ section of the Time issue also caught my attention.  There is a small portion of one page that highlights awards.  It was not until I began to read the tidbit that I realized it was recapping the Academy Awards!  I found it humorous that they described the prizes as, “little good statues, given out at a dinner in the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood.”  The way in which they described the statues was amusing considering today, many people from around the world recognize the Academy Award statuettes.  I then proceeded to research when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began holding an Academy Awards ceremony.  I discovered it started in 1929, just one year before this issue was published.  Today, entire magazines are published recapping one single Academy Awards ceremony, and it was interesting that this Time issue covered the entire event in a 4-sentence column.  Also, back in 1930, the cost of guest tickets for the night’s ceremony was only $5.  Being nominated for an award, let alone being invited to attend the Academy Awards, is very uncommon today and reserved for simply the elite.
     Examining a 1930 issue of Time Magazine has made me realize how much the magazine industry has evolved in the past 80 years.  The advertisements and articles in today’s publications have switched focus from those in the past.  I am thoroughly interested in looking back in 50 years to see what changes have been made since 2011 and what I find bizarre and shocking from today’s periodicals.