Max's IB Lang and Lit Blog

This cartoon from The Economist in 2016 depicts a caricature of Donald Trump reaching out, presumably to embrace the statue of liberty, which is shrinking away from him and brandishing its torch. The caricature of Trump has a small body and hugely exaggerated head, making him appear like a baby, implying immaturity on his part. The fact that the statue of liberty has left its pedestal, possibly symbolizing a lack of freedom and liberty under Trump, is also significant. The artist of this cartoon uses an exaggerated drawing style, which draws attention to Trump with his massive head, and contrasts him with the relatively proportionate statue of liberty. This adds to the effect of Trump's depiction as immature in this cartoon, as well as his words "Come on, babe! Give your new boss a kiss!" This text adds to the effect of immaturity and lack of professionalism expressed by Trump, and references his background as a businessman and previous scandals. These stylistic choic

I feel like this practice paper 1 went fairly well. I was able to describe the two texts in detail,  and effectively analyze the similarities and differences between them. These two texts were  somewhat easy to compare, due to them focusing on the same specific issue and both being  somewhat concise in their storytelling. In my paper, I focused on the texts’ focus on gender  stereotyping, particularly of young girls, during the 1980s, when these texts were written.  Overall, I feel like I was able to write a relatively effective paper, and feel generally confident  about writing similar papers in the future.      Text 1 was a cartoon depicting a conversation between a new mother and a nurse where the nurse assumes the mother's baby's gender through its stereotypical features. Due to the visual style of this text, it was somewhat easy to analyze. The style of the characters, as well as the exaggerated emotions expressed by the characters add to the comedic effect of

Thanksgiving time: Anti-Trump media stuffing plates with overdone hate -Fox News This article from Fox News showcases bias towards the conservative side with the purpose of invoking emotions such as anger among conservatives reading the article by describing "anti-Trump" aspects of the media. This purpose is made clear by the quotes " we could give thanks that the election of more than a week ago is mostly over . Or perhaps we could thank the media that things are back to their new normal – journalists attacking President Trump around the clock" and " The New York Times even asked if the press should 'Boycott Trump.' Ever fair, the paper interviewed Democrats who hate Trump and Republicans who mostly hate Trump", which use aggressive language and hyperbole which serves no purpose other than to get a reaction out of people. The main types of bias showcased in this article were bias by spin and bias by omission. Bias by spin is perhaps the most

Part I: These advertisements are slightly different—following the same formula, but with changes in the text and in the clothes shown. The ad with the little boy in it has text on the right-hand side reading "The Little Scholar", while the ad with the little girl reads "The Social Butterfly". My perception of Gap did not significantly change after reading these ads, as it (like several other clothing companies) have previously run potentially problematic advertisements. Because of this, ads like these coming from Gap are not entirely unexpected. Boys and girls were definitely shown as different in this ad, due to the style of clothes being different, as well as the implications of the text "The Little Scholar" and "The Social Butterfly". I feel that this portrayal of gender could be seen as problematic, but may have not been entirely intentional on Gap's part. While I can definitely see how these ads may offend people, I personally do

Part I. There are several things that make me happy, such as playing the guitar, running, and drawing, but I am normally the happiest when I am around people that I enjoy being with and talking to. At least for me, being able to communicate with people while doing these things amplifies the enjoyment that I get from them. I believe that a national happiness index is important because it gives people in power ideas as to how to change society for the better, and serves as a somewhat accurate representation of the views of people on society or any other aspect of a nation. I feel like the best way to measure a nation's happiness is to conduct some type of survey with specific areas which people can express their happiness-or lack thereof-with. I think that this would provide a more accurate measure of happiness in a country than trying to measure the general levels of happiness among a population. Part II. Kurt Vonnegut's short story " I've Been Called a Luddite&

 https://anerdsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/print-ikea.jpg When first looking at this advertisement, its simplicity is by far its most prominent feature, immediately drawing the viewer's attention to the chairs in the middle, which was definitely its main goal. The white and grey coloring add to the element of minimalism, creating the effect of an empty background which would not have been possible with nearly any other color scheme. This also initially creates an emotionally neutral effect, at first seeming as if its sole purpose is to prominently feature the chairs and the relatively affordable price, contrasted from the background by its bold, dark font, as well as the IKEA logo in the bottom right corner. Upon further examination of this advertisement, the words "Happy Valentine's Day" shown in a thin, grey font so as to partially blend in with the background, can be seen in the bottom right of this image. This gives the position of the chai