The Million dollar caption:file:///Users/MM/Downloads/GARRELTS_HONY_05-15-2015%20(1).pdf

Summary: This essay had a lot of resources that i can use for humans of New York. The essay talked about the social impact of photos and videos being taken of strangers. The article makes references to August Sanders which is also a part of my research and what I aim for. And analyzed a good point, “showing people things they don’t want to think about.” Was a quote that inspired me to keep on reading this article and help observe more the true meaning the photos or humans of Human of New York.

Humans of New York and the Cavalier Consumption of Others, by Vinson Cunningham

Summary: I choose to write about this piece in my essay because it describes specifics roles of characters in todays society. One being the boy in the Brooklyn streets. The young boy was named vidal. We learned he in lived in housing towers. I will not get into much detail here. I want to bring out Humans of New York brings forth race in a way so people dont feel pity but rather inspired to help out. When i read this i was not feeling sorry but a sense of wanting to be involved to better my community. Humans of New York portrays race, gender in different ways then Rankine did. I will not get into how here but this was just an example of many to come.

Adams, Bella. “Black Lives/White Backgrounds: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric and Critical Race Theory.” Comparative American Studies An International Journal 15.1-2 (2017): 54-71. Web.

Summary: this ties back to Rankine. This is another source i will have but it ties back to my source above. We are talking about “Black lives matter” and it goes far into the Trayvon Martin case. They talk about “American positioning”. The article is so well written, one of my favorite phrases is what you do not see. That struck me as an important thing in Rankine book. Because there is a veil between races more specifically the whites and blacks. Rankines takes on a different take than Humans of New York that it refers back to Hurstons.

“CONCLUSION: Testimonial Publics—#BlackLivesMatter and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.” Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives, by LEIGH GILMORE, Columbia University Press, New York, 2017, pp. 157–170. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/gilm17714.10.

Carmin, James H. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 17, no. 2, 1998, pp. 61–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27948980.

Steichen, Edward, and Museum of Modern Art. The Family of Man. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art : Distributed by Simon & Schuster, 1983. Print.

Wang, Kim, Xiao, and Jung. “Networked Narratives on Humans of New York: A Content Analysis of Social Media Engagement on Facebook.” Computers in Human Behavior66 (2017): 149-53. Web.

Erdener, Jasmine. “Humans of New York and Ethical Reflections in the Digital Age.” Communication and the Public 1.3 (2016): 372-76. Web.

Adams, Bella. “Black Lives/White Backgrounds: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric and Critical Race Theory.” Comparative American Studies An International Journal 15.1-2 (2017): 54-71. Web.

“CONCLUSION: Testimonial Publics—#BlackLivesMatter and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.” Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives, by LEIGH GILMORE, Columbia University Press, New York, 2017, pp. 157–170. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/gilm17714.10.

Question:

How does Citizen by Rankine and Humans of New York uncover the truth that no one tells? How do these two bring out the bigger picture of the struggles of society?

Bluest Eye:

The ending to the Bluest Eye has such an impact on society. Because it goes to show what we think of a “perfect” society is not. In the novel as much as they tried to bring up their kids in a safe home, in a safe community at the end of the day, race created disfunction’s in the families. Morrison handles this novel in different ways from Dick and Jane short stories to Shirley Temple. All images and stories society to control the minds of individuals. They want girls to feel they need to look and act a certain way to be accepted into society. Morrison does a good representation of this, she brings forth a problem that is still in todays world. While the doll head was ripped apart, Morrison tried to convey a different meaning. She wanted the reader to know her taking off the dolls head was a cry for help. She wants to know why is she not the skin tone of the doll? why does she not like the doll? and at the same time it shows a relief, a freedom of some sort. She is trying to break free of societies definition of “perfection.” Morrison delivers this in a beautiful manner. We see this today but expect roles are changing. There is no longer oh you need to be skinny to be viewed was perfection. No, now it is you need to have curves, you need to be curvy for men to like you and for society to think you are perfect. Everywhere you turn there are mannequins with impossible body figures, dolls such as barbie with impossible bodies. These are things that kids are growing up with now, the idea that they need to have curves to fit the 21st century norms.

Then we have Morrison representation about Pecola. We see such an innocence in this character? How can a character be this naive?The imaginary friend Pecola has is a reminder of who she is. She loves her new blue eyes. And thinks people are jealous of them. Pecola friend is a reminder that she cannot escape her past. Pecola like Ellison invisible man has become invisible herself. Pecola is disowned by the whole family, she is left to fight her own battles. Pecola is no longer human, they treat her like an object. She will grow up feeling different, she will realize that society is not what she expected. that is Morrisons view, Morrison wants the reader to feel Pecola pain. To know what this child has been put through and the extent society will go. Pecola later will find out her beauty her “blue eyes” is not why people are not around her or why people are jealous.

The ending of the “Invisible Man” is truly powerful, a complete change from where we saw the invisible man in the start of the novel to the end. The invisible man is shutting out the world but choosing to be invisible but at the same time is coming out of hibernation. The narrator talks about seeing Norton in the train station, he was lost and needed direction. He asked the narrator and the narrator asked “Dont you know me.” while norton responds, “should I.” This scene filled me with a smile because I remember when he would be Nortons yes man while driving him around campus.And this time he answered him with I am your destiny. The narrator choose this event because he cannot forget his past, and believes its time for his rebirth. Which is why he says he must get out of hibernation. He says his grandfather was not far off. It is not good to be a “yes man” and not only that but he is not much different from everyone else in the world. The narrator realizes his destiny is not norton, Bledsoe but instead he writes his own destiny. The narrator has always ignored his obligations of society and remained invisible because he was scared to deal with reality. But at the end he realizes he can no longer live like that. He has to face society and most importantly face who he is.

The narrator has always been a yes man to everyone, including the brotherhood. He has ignored his needs to do what others of “high power’ tell him to do. If they suggest doing it a certain way the narrator never fought he always agreed. He is surprised at the end, and we see the words of his grandfather struck him differently now. He now knows that not everything in the world is explained and not everything has an answer.The narrator has always had a battle with himself rather than a battle of what he thought he was having with society. He always felt like his future was planned out for him and forced himself to act a certain way that was not his. The ending made him realize everything can be possible. Which is good, we see the narrator change, we do not see him being that yes man to everyone we no longer see him afraid of the past but aware. The narrator has come out of hibernation, the past can no longer hurt him.