Your Weekly Dose of Sawyer

In the novel, "Song of Soloman", us readers are exposed to the topic of ownership numerous times. An argument between Milkman and Guitar that is reoccurring throughout the novel displays what an unhealthy, aggressive need for ownership and power can do to a person. As part of the Seven Days, Guitar must engage in violent acts against innocent whites in order to avenge the murders of blacks. While Milkman views this group as cruel and barbaric, as would most people, Guitar tells him that the group's actions are necessary and are done out of pure love for their people. At first, I fully believed that Guitar's motive was out of love alone. However, after we analyzed Guitar as a class, I discovered what his true motives for killing were. As a member of the black community, you would think that Guitar would be fighting solely for the freedom and power of any black. However, this is not the case. Guitar is killing innocent whites in order to gain ownership and control over ...

In the novel "Song of Soloman", the author, Toni Morrison, includes numerous hidden figures and meanings in every sentence of her writing. A significant symbol that is evident throughout the novel, is flowers. In class we talked about what flowers stand for to Morrison and analyzed the multiple scenes in which flowers were present in the novel. The first scene where flowers were present was the hospital when Ruth was giving birth and the fake rose petals fell and scattered all over the snow. While the petals can signify blood, due to the birth of Milkman, they also represent fake love. The rose petals are sewn together and are fake which can help display that from the very beginning to the very end of Milkman's life, he will always be surrounded by fake love. There is fake love between Ruth and Macon (II), Milkman and his dad, and Milkman and Hagar, which shows how reoccurring the presence of fake love is within the characters lives. Another scene where flowers wer...

A topic of debate that we talked about in class this week, is the display of violent images to public viewers. Some believe that we do not need to see violent images unless we are gaining knowledge or planning to act on them. However I think this is wrong. I believe that violent images are needed, not only to gain knowledge, but to spread awareness that will help to prevent future wars and atrocities from reoccurring. With violent images, we are able to gain perspective on what is going on outside of our own lives. Also these images invoke our humanity and emotions which can unify communities to come together to support or challenge something. While some may find it insensitive to display these horrific images, the truth is that our society is so disrupt that media sources can no longer worry so much about viewers' taste, but more about the importance of the truth. "We live in a graphic society, whether we choose to or not." (Mendoza). Therefore, we can never truly escape...

Throughout the volumes of "Maus", Spiegelman includes many frames that display the true characteristics of Vladek. Through the narration of Art, us readers view Vladek as a burden to Art and consider him to be clingy and even a little annoying. With the experiences that Vladek has gone through, he should be viewed as an astonishment to everyone, but that is simply not the case. Vladek is not a perfect survivor because after everything he went through, he is still racist as he treats African Americans the same way that the Germans treated him. While Spiegelman depicts Vladek's flaws, he also reveals how his experiences have changed him. Vladek's constant attentiveness branches from the Holocaust and makes him the person he is because he doesn't know any other way to live. For example, in the frames shown, Vladek is counting his crackers and later on even tries to return food to the supermarket because after experiencing starvation he is now extremely resourceful. ...