Uncle LeBron Wants YOU For U.S. Army

This is my masterpiece called Uncle LeBron, inspired by The Chancellor Séguier on Horseback by Kehinde Wiley. In our textbook, it is mentioned that Wiley "seeks out average African American men", tells them to "strike a pose", and then he uses these men to create his own take on historical paintings (pg 563). I chose to replicate Wiley's style because it is simple yet meaningful at the same time.

The original painting was a famous WWI poster created by James Montgomery Flagg. The man depicted in the original painting is Uncle Sam, a personification of the US government. Uncle Sam had a huge influence on the US at the time, as he was used, especially in this poster, as war propaganda to recruit soldiers for the war.

In a similar way, LeBron James has a huge influence on the US today. Granted, he is not trying to recruit people for war, but he can still convince people to do things through social media or advertisements. Additionally, I also chose a famous African American to replace Uncle Sam because  the stereotypical image of white superiority from the early 1900s is not nearly as prevalent as it used to be.

Please let me know what else this image could symbolize in comments section below. I would love to hear what everyone has to say!

The Food of Solomon

Reading "Song of Solomon" has made hungry, and you might be a bit confused because of the wide assortment of confusing characters. So, as a helpful classmate, I have decided to assign some of the main characters a type of food so it is easier for everyone to comprehend this wild story.

Milkman is an egg (even though his name has "milk" in it). Everyone handles eggs carefully, and Milkman is no different. He has been babied his whole life like how people normally care for an egg. Plus an egg has a hard shell that protects it from its surroundings, just like Milkman, who was protected by people like his father, Ruth, Pilate, and Guitar. He has also been shielded, like an eggshell, from racism because of his father's money. This is why he never had to deal with the struggles of a "normal" African American at that time.  His racism shell partially cracks, however, when he is pulled over by the police for no apparent reason. It later cracks fully when Magdalene called Lena opens his eyes as to how he has been "peeing" on everyone by taking advantage of them.


Macon Dead Jr is a date. What do dates look like? They look dead. Macon Dead is a date not only because of his last name but because he is emotionally dead from the inside. His unhealthy obsession with money and material possessions has ruined his family relationships. Macon may be emotionally dead, but he still has a lot of money, which is why Macon is a date and not a raisin since he still has a presence in society. Before going into the outside world, dates are murdered by the sun and forced the shrivel up, loosing their juicy, scrumptious appearance. A similar experience happened to Macon when his father was killed: he was forced to forget emotions and think only about money.


Ruth is a grape. But not just any grape, a naked grape. Grapes normally have a very thin outer layer that protects the soft insides, but a naked grape (one without the skin) is soft and unprotected. Similarly, Ruth loses the thin protection that she had with her father when she marries Macon Dead, making her vulnerable to abuse from Macon and Milkman. Ruth herself mentions that she is figuratively small because of her limited freedom and presence in the outside world. In the same way, a grape is also a very small fruit. I wonder if dates bully grapes...



Pilate is nuts. Yes, she's crazy and odd, but she also embodies many of the properties of nuts. Milkman said it best: "Pilate had been shorter... but Pilate was as tall as he was" (Morrison 206). Pilate has the ability to change her appearance based on different situations. She is normally tall and authoritative but at the police station she acts short and meek. Similarly, nuts come in a variety of sizes: from tiny pine nuts to whole walnuts. Also, Macon is basically allergic to Pilate just like many people are allergic to nuts.




I hope these comparisons help you understand a few of the relationships between characters in the Song of Solomon. I better go eat lunch now...

Colors Are More Than You Think

What color do you think of when you picture a Ferrari?

Is it Red?

The most popular color seen on a Ferrari is their traditional Rosso Corsa (a bright red), and it has been like this throughout history. If someone told me to close my eyes and think of a red supercar, I would immediately think of a bright red Ferrari. Here, the color red is simply describing a car, but is that all that colors do?

I used to think that colors were shallow adjectives with only purpose: to describe nouns. While it is true that colors can be used to describe objects, it is definitely not their only role. Colors can create moods such as blue representing a sad mood. They can also create vivid imagery through words or images. Most importantly, however, colors can be meaningful symbols. For example, Toni Morrison in Song of Solomon uses the colors of the American flag to symbolize the United States within the first five pages. Morrison shows the colors red and blue by using the phrases "bits of red flashing" and "circled in blue" (Morrison 5). She then shows white by describing snow multiple times in the paragraph. The colors here are ironic because a man attempting to kill himself is not something that is normally related to patriotism. Through the colors, Morrison is also able to criticize the United States for the injustice of segregation at that time.

The hidden meaning behind colors can also be seen with red Ferraris. Ferrari's Rosso Corsa red color symbolizes the rich racing history of Italy. In the early 1900s, the International Automobile Federation assigned the color red to Italian racers in the Grand Prix and Ferrari has kept it its main color since then. 

CAR RELATED QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

What are the most popular car colors in America?


Leave your answer along with your thoughts in the comments section below!

Life Lessons From Maus

Our unit of Maus has come to an end now, and I feel sad. One reason is because I simply enjoy reading comics. More importantly, however, is that reading Maus has taught more skills than most word-heavy books. One of these skills is being able to notice details and be more observant.

I believe that the amount of subtle details that Spiegelman was able to put into Maus was only because of its picture-word format. If an author is trying to hide something a comic book, it can be drawn on the page but not explicitly mentioned to the reader. This effect is impossible with words as the author must explicitly mention through words that the detail exists. For example, look at these panels:

The only way to show a road shaped like a swastika in an implicit way would be by drawing it or showing a picture of it. Using words to describe something like this would be nonsense: "We walked in the direction of Sosnowiec (by the way the road was shaped like a swastika)." It simply does not work.

Maus has taught me, from passages like the one above, that there is more to my surroundings than what meets the eye. Ever since I finished reading Maus, I have tried to make out the details, whether it be places, people, or just other books. I even tried to do this type of close interpreting with music and I heard parts of songs that I had never noticed before.





RANDOM CAR-RELATED TRIVIA QUESTION:

What car brand from the USA was used the most in WWII?


Leave your answer in the comments along with your thoughts!