stranger theme card

The Stranger Theme Card

5 Quotes!
• "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: 'Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything Maybe it was yesterday."
• " I blurted out that it was because of the sun. People laughed"
• "He stated that I had no place in a society whose most fundamental rules I ignored and that I could not appeal to the same human heart whose elementary response I knew nothing of"
• A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so.
• "Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness"

5 Subjects !
• Death
• Alienation
• Judgement
• Absurdity
• Individuality
3 Conflicts
• Man vs Himself
• Man vs Society
• Conformity vs individualism
4 Vehicles !
• Foreshadowing
• Imagery
• Irony
• Tone

Major Characters!
• Meursault
• Raymond
• The Arab
• Prosecutor
• Chaplain
• -Magistrate
• -Marie

Smell

Everything we see and everything we say has a purpose. Even if that purpose is to not have a purpose, there is still a purpose. The media uses a variety forms of advertising to appeal to our different senses in order to get us, the consumers, intrigued in a certain product. Each ad they present to the public has a sender, message, emotion, language and logic behind it. It is important for us to be perceptive of these intentions in order not to be looped into their marketing trap.
E*trade is an online banking company that believes its resources are so easy to use a baby can do it. Clearly trying to get the consumer to use their online banking instead of any other boring and complex competitors. The ad is fairly simple, a baby talking directly to you, the audience and consumer, while doing so he gets on his brand new phone. This phone is a top of the line expensive blackberry most likely nicer and newer than the majority of the audiences phones , already subconsciously creating a complex in your mind that you need that phone and whatever service they are offering. This service they are offering you just happens to be something in which you could invest your money and then have enough to afford that phone. Coincidence, I think not! The first topic up for discussion happens to be none other than the principle this country was built upon, freedom. By using E*Trade mobile pro, you too could be a free man, you will be able to "go anywhere you want", now isn't that every mans dream?
While talking to you, explaining how you can achieve the dream every person vies for by using this mobile online banking and trading service on your brand new shiny phone the baby gets an e-mail from, yes you guessed it, a girl! Now not only does he have the ultimate ideological dream of freedom by using this service but he also gets every mans fantasy- GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS! Mix in a cool hip ringtone that interrupts him, because the girls want him so badly, and you have what society perceives as every mans desires- freedom, money, cool new electronics, girls, and popularity.
Obviously he can not answer the phone with the typical hello but must say "Hey girl!" and then proceeds to as her if he can "hit her back". This slang language is used to add an element of coolness, and you would get that too if you just used this mobile trading service.
The commercial ends with a rapid fire explanation of the company and this new service and how you could join a community of people who use it because after all there are a thousand new accounts a day! E*Trade pulls out every stop from humor in the use of a talking baby to the potential of receiving your every dream by using their service in order to get you hooked into their product, but the real kicker to all this is- they do it all in just thirty seconds.

Song explication

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard you boys and girls
London calling, now don't lecture us

Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust

London calling, see we ain't got no swing

'Cept for the reign of that truncheon thing

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin

Engines stop running, but I have no fear

'Cause London is drowning and I live by the river

London calling to the imitation zone

Forget it, brother you can go at it alone

London calling to the zombies of death

Quit holding out and draw another breath

London calling and I don't wanna shout

But while we were talking I saw you running out

London calling see we ain't got no high

Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin

A nuclear error, but I have no fear

'Cause london is drowning and I, I live by the river

The ice age is coming, the sun zooming in

Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin

A nuclear error, but I have no fear

'Cause London is drowning and I, I live by the river

Now get this, London calling, yes, I was there, too

And you know what they said well some of it was true

London calling at the top of the dial

And after all this, won't you give me a smile?

London calling, I never felt so much alive alive alive alive






London Calling by The Clash

The Clash's hit song "London Calling" was released in 1979 on their album London Calling. Many of their songs have roots in English history and events as evident in this song. The song uses striking images, allusions and juxtaposition throughout to illustrate an apocalyptic world which all citizens were facing during the Cold War.
The title of not only the album and song is also the opening words off the track, "London calling." This is an allusion to when BBC would identify themselves when broadcasting into other countries during World War II, always beginning with the phrase " This is London calling..." The song begins with London first "calling to faraway towns" then it immediately follows by "calling to the underworld" which conjures images of cities ravaged by war like they were during WWII and might be if the Cold War they were in the midst of escalated anymore.
Not only was the world in the middle of its own crisis but the band was also. One can tell that the band was struggling when London calls upon them, "London calling, now don't lecture us Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust." The punk rock band was left in the dust of the English punk rock phenomena that was The Beatles.
The song references the growing social violence England was experiencing, "London calling, see we ain't got no swing 'cept for the reign of that truncheon thing." The repetition of the t's in "truncheon thing" creates a harsh sound similar to the yelling often heard during riots common during the time. In the line truncheon is the only word with two syllables mimic the beatings many felt under the baton. Another growing social issue during the time was the casual drug use by the English as illustrated in the line "London calling see we ain't got no high except for that one with the yellowy eyes."
The chorus of the song is a series highly descriptive apocalyptic images. An "ice age", the "sun zooming in", a "meltdown", "engines stop running", and "wheat growing thin." However graphic these images are what truly brings terror is "London drowning" referring to the people's fear of the flooding of the River Thames and a "nuclear error" referring to the Three Mile Island incident these two instances struck people to their core and had them paralyzed with fear, all but the speaker whose response juxtaposes the images. He is happy that he " lives by the river" and has "no fear" of nuclear problems.
It is this apathetic slightly removed attitude toward these serious issues that is reflected in the tone and cadence of the song. The entire structure of the song is based around life threating circumstances and its steady beat only intensifies with the growing threats. The songs constant pounding beat adds to the tension felt throughout the situations in the song. It is almost as if the song takes on a pulse of its own making the listener nervous and paranoid but this speaker feeds of this energy never feeling "so much alive alive alive alive"

zephyrhills

another day passes and it sits upon my desk
just another thing to be thrown in the trash
many have held you in their hands
but it doesn't matter in the end
because you will forever be my half empty glass

no one respects what is in my glass
many just tell me to clear my desk
i see it floating in bubbles in space
but others just toss it is the trash
because they don't care what happens in the end
as long as they have it in their greedy little hands

sometimes you slip from my hands
and can be quite a pain in my glass
but i would rather have you in the end
sitting upon my desk then being someone's discarded thrash
you will always be my wasted space

it is funny how in our worlds space
you can be made a product in the right hands
consume, consume, consume and pitch in the trash
because no one wants a glass made of glass
that would be too cumbersome on a luxurious desk
so let this not be the bitter end

for you can redeem yourself in the end
and not be another particle clogging our space
if you go from a corner of a desk
into the right hands
that can carry the sacred glass
to the recycling and bypass the trash

they say "why keep a half empty piece of trash?
just hurry up and bring its end
later just buy another glass
and save yourself some space"
they just want you out of my hands
to focus me to what's upon my desk

but don't you worry my little water glass, I won't put you in the trash.
You breathe life into this desk and i will finish you in the end.
But for now don't you worry about the space because you are precious in my hands.

V-day Found Poem

Time

I was your everyday wild thing
Never to be caged by some silly ring
Up until that fateful day-
When I walked into the café
I could have cared less about the china glaze
That was before you put me in a haze.

You set everything in motion
That cup of haute chocolate your potion
I was lost in the cool water of your eyes
I didn’t even notice the other guys.
You smelled so good, like Calvin Klein and red velvet cupcake
From this dream I never wanted to wake.

Our friends called us a modern day Romeo and Juliet
We outlasted every bet.
Deep inside the chapel of love
Our heartbeat was one – beating like the wings of a dove
Our racing ruby pulses pushed
Sweet tangerine joy through out veins gushed.
Everything was a long walk under a luminous moon
Pink diamonds, something barrowed, something blue was sure to come soon.

It was the live jazz on the green that tipped me off
When all night all you did was scoff
The smell of sugar replaced with diesel fuel
Made me feel like such a fool
Then I noticed the silver ice behind your once blue eyes
And realized you were full of lies

So I came home early one night
And found that flash of fuchsia in my sight
You brought her into our bed
Obviously you wanted to lose your head

I had become the contradiction of myself
It was time to recover and reload so I pulled the voodoo book off its shelf
No one turns my sterling silver rose black
And not expect a retaliating attack

Finally I saw you as a looser
And once they found that kilo in your cruiser
It was all dark lights for you Joe Shmo
A dim solo light on your one-man show
That will teach you not to mess with me
Because now don’t you see
You are doing time
For what you did to that heart of mine.

Vocab Poem

Vrrr thump. Vrrr thump thump. Little scraps of paper, an old staple, a crusty old cheerio all vacuumed away. Man that car was bedraggled. Call it what you please asinine, naïve, or stupid but inside the left cup holder next to the drivers seat were three little microcosms of my world. They were small balls of clay, perfectly shaped and as colorful as a rainbow. I had given them to my mom after she had picked me up from pre-school. Bright Beginnings. They sat in the cup holder for a long time. Simple symbols of love. I would take them and roll them in my hands and even though the sun had baked them into hard flaky balls they still retained that smell- that smell of youth. Got everything you need Mam? It will take about twenty minutes; you are welcomed to wait in the lobby area. A strange mixture of fake pine scent, citrus, and cigarettes hung heavy in the air. Soft somber muzac played. The receptionist looked like a wax figurine a small permanent counterfeit smile tattooed on her face. Where’s Waldo was growing old and it was time for our car to go through the obstacle course of foam, fans, scrubbers, and rubbers and I was going to have a front row seat. There she was- the old Plymouth Voyager undergoing another gallant journey. And as she emerged through the flaps of an all to familiar expedition my heart sank. I had abandoned them there, forlorn and nonpareil to the sucking, washing, and drying of the car wash. No sir I didn’t get everything I needed- my childhood dreams were still sitting in the cup holder. MOM! I left them in there! Do you think they swept them up!? What are you talking about honey? The clay pearls I made! Oh, I’m sure they are still there, now calm down we are almost out of here. A cool pseudo reassuring smile and a fraudulent pat on the hand. Cha- Ching! That will be Thirteen Ninety Five Mam. Would you like them to wax it for an additional four ninety-nine? Please say no! Please say no! Please say no! I just want to get out and see if they are still in there please please please let them be there. No, another time maybe. Thank God! I looked up and caught one of the counterfeit smiles. A mad dash to the car unlock the door unlock the door! There not there. Oh, honey you can make more. My childhood dreams that smell of a carefree youth with no worries but only hope- replaced with a complementary artificial pine scent air freshener. Come See Us Again. Have A Great Day.

Music essay

You know a song is great when then first time you listen to it the world stops and for those couple minutes the beat overtakes your body and from deep inside your bones you feel alive. You know an artist is great when he changes the face of music forever and in the process creates a counterculture movement that alters history. Bob Dylan epitomizes this greatness.
Although influenced by blues artist Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie and Jesse Fuller, responsible for inspiring Dylan’s famous harmonica rack and guitar, Bob Dylan is most known for the many artists he himself has inspired. From John Lennon, Patti Smith, and Bruce Springsteen all the way to Bono and David Bowie Dylan’s influence can be seen across the music spectrum. Which leads to the question: what is Bob Dylan’s music genre? I do not believe this question can be answered, I believe if someone does categorize him in one specific genre it would go against everything Dylan stands for. On Dylan’s never ending recreation artist Bono says it best, “Dylan has tried out so many personas in his singing because it is the way he inhabits his subject matter. His closet won't close for all the shoes of the characters that walk through his stories.”
I, along with the rest of the nation and world, have been deeply effected by Dylan’s song Blowin’ in the Wind. The song has a very spiritual rhythm to it, Dylan even sung it at a Catholic Church Congress in 1997.The rhythm comes from an African American spiritual song called “ No More Auction Block”, because of this, the song became one with the pulse of the civil rights movement of the sixties. Throughout the song Dylan ask many questions such as, “how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? And how many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?.” These deep meaningful questions all receive the same response, “ The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind; the answer is blowing in the wind.” The entire pace of the song mimics the wind blowing, causing us to feel the wind and words of the song and know the answer without knowing. In these lyrics, Dylan is letting us know, that much like how we cannot see the wind we also cannot see the answer to our problems. However, if we reach out and feel the wind we will feel the answer within our hearts, but this will not be easy, just like the impossibility of grasping the wind.
No one can deny Dylan’s greatness when he wrote the worlds best protest song in just ten minutes. Blowin’ in the Wind conjures questions of humanity, freedom, love, peace and war. The song became a very powerful instrument at many anti-war protests during the Vietnam War, and even today has been sung at protest against the war in Iraq. Countless artist including Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, and Dolly Parton have covered the song. The song has also been covered in many different languages and referenced numerous times in pop culture. This song left such a mark on society that the Rolling Stones is not only naming this song the greatest of all time and Dylan himself the greatest singer of all time. Bob Dylan has changed music, as we know it, and all for the better.