Chapter 3 Discussion Questions

1. Bernie Goetz is man who resided in New York City. It started off as an ordinary day as he entered the the station. He sat by a group of African American youths who were said to be "rowdy" and "horsing around" according to other passengers on the train. The boys struck up a conversation with Goetz and shorty after one of the boys gestured to his pocket as if stating he had a gun. Then the boy told Goetz to give him five dollars. In turn Goetz pulled out the gun and shot at each of the four boys. One youth, Darrell Cabey, who had already been shot once by Goetz, layed there yelling so Goetz shot him again, this time paralyzing him. It is horrifying to even think that people view Goetz as a hero. He had a gun, for which a reason has not been given, with him. Why did he need it? I believe that if Goetz truly believed that the boys would try to hurt him, then he should have never took a seat so close to them. He put himself in a dangerous position, no one else. The only reason that people view Goetz as some type of hero is because the four boys each ended up have a record for various crimes. However, to shoot them is not bringing justice. What he did was a selfish, ignorant, and completely immoral. In the chapter, Gladwell discusses the fact that Goetz's father was a harsh man who often targeted his anger at Goetz. On page 149, Gladwell states a quoted from Lillian Rubin, Goetz's biographer, " Goetz's bullets were aimed at targets that existed as much in his past as in the present". So even though Goetz seemed like an ordinary man the other people on the train made a human error that day. Gladwell states on page 160, human beings make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimate the importance of the situation and the context". So in my eyes Goetz is a murderer he entered the train that day knowing he was going to put himself in a position that would cause something bad to happen.


5. In my personal opinion, I am not sure whether or not changing the conditions in a prison will lead to better inmate behavior. People always say that you can help a person get better, but you can never truly change who they are and who they have always been. Changing conditions in prisons may lead to better attitudes, however the prisoners are in prison for a reason and whatever the reason is, it is bad. The prisoners are already flawed in some way. They commited a crime that was obviously bad enough to land themselved a jail cell. I think a lot of research would have to be done to truly see what exact conditions would be changed. In Zimbardo's research good people with no criminal record changed dramtically. However, the people that are in prison have a criminal record and have commited crimes that affect the human population. That needs to be taken into account.

Slave Trade: Traces of the Trade ,Stories from the Deep North

Tonight I attended a film discussing the slave trade. The story was told by Katrina Brown who wanted to explore her ancestors role the slave trade. Her ancestors are part of the DeWolf family. She contacted 200 ancestors o the DeWolfs and received 60 replies. In total 9 ancestors that ranged from siblings to 7th cousins embarked on a journey beginning in Bristol, Rhode Island to Ghana and finally Havana, Cuba. The DeWolfs were said to be the 2nd richest family at one time. They were involved in the trade of 10,000 Africans. They traded rum, sugar, tobacco, bread and many other items for African Slaves. Beginning in Rhode Island they traveled the town seeking information about the DeWolf family who were considered to be hero abolitionists and founding patriots. Historians told the family that throughout New England all the stone walls were constructed by African Slaves and that there are so man stone walls that if connected "could reach farther then the moon". When they visited Cape Coast, Ghana they were informed by Kofi Anyidoho, a revered poet, that there were 70 slave ports and that there were 5 rooms 15 feet by 30 feet that held 1,000 African Slaves. The family was able to visit these places and stand where there ancestors stood. They were overcome by emotions such as sadness, disbelief and guilt. While in Ghana they attended a worship ceremony and felt like outsiders. When one of the family members tried to shake hands with a woman she refused which made the white man feel like he was trespassing on sacred ground. After this the family sent up a meeting in a local town hall with other Africans they had met at the ceremony to hear their views on white people and what can be done to bring the two races together. The most common response was that white people need to attend African American events and such in order to break down the barrier. Next they traveled to Havana, Cuba where they visited several DeWolf plantations. Upon there return to the United States the family had a dinner and discussed their feeling in regards to the trip and their ancestors. While some felt pure guilt others felt as if they weren't there at that time so they really didn't feel guilty. However, overall this trip changed each person in some way or another. One family member stated, "we need to gain the courage to face what divides us". This film was truly interesting. It was interesting to watch a family aware that their ancestors played a part in slave trade, go on journey intended to reveal the ugly truth of their ancestors.

Have you heard from Johannesburg?

Last night I attended the African American Cultural Center's presentation of "Have you heard from Johannesburg?" This film is about the the apartheid in South Africa and the role the United States government played in it. It took many years for the government to realize that sanctions have to be put in place in order to end the apartheid. At the time Ronald Regan was in office and he was adamantly against sanctions. He believed that by placing sanctions the people we were trying to help would just get hurt by them. Therefore several groups were formed primarily by the African American population in the U.S. One group specifically,TransAfrica America worked endlessly trying to gain the governments support to place sanctions. They did this by picketing in front of the South Africa Embassy. After a few days of this the police started making arrests which grabbed the attention of the media, which inevitably spread the word. This also grabbed the attention of some celebrities such as Stevie Wonder and Rosa Parks. Both were arrested when they participated in the picketing. The picketing lasted for 2 years, the longest in American history. After several years the members of TransAfrica America finally got into the White House. On several occasions they proposed bills that were directed to companies and colleges that called for divestment. Stanford and Columbia University's both had investments in South Africa. The students of these colleges set up protests and risked their grades and assignments to stand up for South Africa. Eventually Stanford and then Columbia divested resulting in millions of dollars staying in the U.S. Motorola Inc. also divested under pressure from consumers. In October of 1986 the Congress by a 2/3 vote signed the bill into action. This the blocked the billions of dollars in taxes that the U.S. government paid to the South African apartheid regime.
I thought that the presentation was great and really expanded my knowledge base.

English Conference

Session 1: "A Research Identity: Four Fictional Females"
The first presenter Megan Marshall discussed the character, Seely in The Color Purple. Megan discussed the effects that trauma has on the character. She also discussed the sexual abuse that Seely had to experience and how it changed her. During her reading she also stated things that she could have done better in her paper. She listed several things. One which was making her paper more cohesive. She wanted to figure out how to combine the information that she received while researching and her own ideas and opinions without overwhelming the paper with her own views. The second presenter Julia McEvoy researched the symbolism of the Rose in Beauty and the Beast. She also researched the meaning it had to the main character. Julia stated that she had difficulty find good research tools gain knowledge and the rose. She stated that she thought it was harder to find reliable information about the stories because the fairy tale is so old. Everything she read stated that the rose symbolized sex. However, Julia believes something different. She believes that there are layers to a rose. The layers being beauty, love, sex, death. She also researched the effect that the rose has on family and marriage. Julia also discussed the ways that she could better her paper. Her main problem with her paper, from her perspective, were her transitions from paragraph to paragraph. The third reader, Sarah Daxton, discussed Kate Chopen and her novel The Awakening". Sarah reflected on the various ways that Edna defied the common myth that women were to not be independent during that time period. At the end of the story Edna commits suicide and Sarah decided to explore the reasons behind it. One reason is depression which may have been caused by her environment and the pressures of society. Sarah said that one of the main things that helped her write a successful paper was peer editing. She said even though a lot of students are afraid to let their peers read their paper it opens the door to so many more ideas. The last reader, Aaron Marshall, wrote a paper on Hal's Moving Castle. He wrote about how outer beauty was not important in this story, but rather her personality. He then talked about how time management was so vital in writing this paper. He also talked about the excessive amount of research he had and had to cut out to main ideas in order to meet the papers length requirement. He recommended that when writing the paper try to narrow it down to one main idea and focus on that.

Session 2
The first reader Kara Arndt presented a paper on the women of Desperate Housewives. She gave various depictions of American women from 1950s compared to the women of the TV show. She argued that the show still labeled the women as the typical stay at home mom, everything is perfect type of woman. One woman from the show however stood out from the crowd. Lynette is strong willed, she has misbehaved children, and eventually goes back to work. Her husband once told her in the episode "Come in Stranger", that you are the perfect mother because you aren't perfect. The second reader, Erica Ritenour, talked about Fan-Fiction. For about the past 8 years she has been writing and blogging based on Pirate Jack Sparrow. It helped her to develop her writing skills and she was able to express her views and gain valuable feedback. Other fan fiction writers served as "baitors". You would send your blog to another person (a.k.a baitor) and he/she would revise the paper and give feedback. This not only helped in submitting a good blog, but also allowed to Erica to gain experience in peer editing. It was then when she realized the importance of it. She also talked about how she want to major in music-education, but did not get accepted and that's when she knew and English-education major was the right choice for her. The third reader, Cindy Brown, discussed the poem "Blackberry Picking". The poem is about the secret desires of women and as the develop they become harder to resist. Cindy stated the quote, "whether it is a fruit or a woman it is hard to desire". She also said that the author talks about living in the moment before you rot. This is in regards to the fruit and before a woman ages. At the end of paper she said it felt disheartening to read that the woman's desires have been met. This meaning that a woman is needy
Throughout these three stories there was a clear idea that somewhere in each of these stories the idea of desire was being represented.

Stickiness Factor

1. Non-beneficial messages such as alcohol and cigarette advertisements are not beneficial to society, yet they have a "stickiness factor". For example, I have received coupons in the mail for various cigarette companies that try to influence the person.

4. For younger children, who have not yet entered school, television programs such as Sesame Street and Blues Clues offer a better educational opportunity then books. At such a young age children are unable to read books, so they are able to actively participate with television shows. This allows the children to gain prior knowledge before entering the education system. Since parents work there are more TV shows on during the day, therefore allowing more opportunities for learning because parents don't always have time to offer a wide variety of books.

Kaitlyn Keller, Cathy Maust

Reflective Writing

In chapter 2, Gladwell discusses the idea of the "Law of the Few". The main points discussed are the idea that people can be "connectors", "mavens", or "salesman". In my point of view I thought the most interesting point of the chapter was when Gladwell discussed the concept of people being "connectors". This made me think of several of my friends, who when they turn the corner, they instantly see someone they know. This is even more shocking to me because I come from a small town therefore everyone knows everyone else. However, the people that my friends know are not from our town. So it just amazes me how many people, one person can know. Word of mouth is an example of connectors and they acquire so many acquaintances and how ideas are spread around.So when people say it is a small world, it truly is. Gladwll used acquainttance tests to gain a better understanding of connectors.

working with your reading

I read a variety of of genres. I usually always read fiction type novels including some mystery novels. Also I read a newspaper like USA Today and the Indiana Gazette. Since I usually read fiction, if differs greatly from the genre of Malcom Gladwell's writing. With Gladwell's writing I do more annotating then with fiction novels. It allows me to organize my thoughts and write down any questions I may have. Fiction novels rarely include statistical data or research of topics. Fictional writing is more of a narrative piece. Malcom Gladwell puts his point if view into the book The Tipping Point, but it is also obvious that he has done research, observational studies, and interviews to complete the book. Gladwell has included real life events such as the various social epidemics, where as in fiction, a reader rarely sees this type of writing. Gladwell incorporates his ideas in the book, but does not overwhelm the reader with his thoughts. In fiction novels the authors ideas are not so clear cut. The authors views do not run the plot. So in both Gladwell's book and novels that I have written, their thoughts do not run the text.

Summary of Introduction and Chapter One

The author Malcom Gladwell raises the issue of social epidemics, with the purpose of understanding why some ideas start an epidemic and why other ideas do not. Gladwell argues that epidemics can be started in various ways, by observing several popular trends, diseases, and fashion. In the introduction Gladwell discusses a trend that took place in the 1990s. Hush Puppies were a shoe that was manufactured, but did not become a trend until two people who wanted to be different started to wear them. Once others saw these people wearing the shoes, Hush Puppie sales quickly sky rocketed and became a social epidemic. In chapter one Gladwell discusses a negative social epidemic, that being the outbreak of Syphilis. The syphilis outbreak occured in Baltimore, MD and began 3 different ways. The first being that there were drug users who shared needles and transmitted the disease. The second way was the economic situation at the time and the budget cut back. Therefore clinics were not receiving the money to operate and educate. The third reason for the trend is that low income housing were being torn down and people had to move out of that area and into a new area, spreading the disease.