Noah Davis

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading and Writing :)

Night after night,

I went to bed in fright,

Fearing that graduation,

was no where in sight.

But alas there’s hope,

Unless Kreinbring says nope

And gives me a failing grade,

which would not be dope.

For the new flock of birds,

please heed my words,

do not procrastinate,

unless you want to get hit

right where it hurts:

the transcript.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading and Writing :(

Honestly, the actual writing of this project was easily the single most frustrating thing I have had to do in high school. Right when I found my groove with the writing I got my concussion, and so given that it was my fourth one, I needed to take extra precaution that I did not exacerbate my condition. So I took a couple days off from writing a couple weeks ago and have been trying to find my groove again since. I can not even begin to get into the frustration of staring at a computer screen for hours trying to think of what to write with a mind-numbing headache. To get around this, I basically had to just write what ideas I did have almost like a stream of consciousness and then just go back and heavily edit each section until I felt like I had ended up with something that wouldn't result in a failing grade

[noah-davis01-blog]

Research and Writing

One of the initial struggles I had with this project was finding criticism. I don’t mean that I was unable to find any literature on Native Son, because there certainly is. I mean it was difficult finding criticisms that looked at the novel through lenses that interested me. Sure, it would have been easier to pick the first several sources that I found, but I knew that this project was probably going to be frustrating, and so I might as well have some interest in the criticisms that I was going to have to analyze.

How I actually went about finding and choosing my criticisms went a little bit like this: While I’m sure that finding my criticisms by going to an actual library and flipping through actual pages of books would have made for a learning experience, I did not think it was the most efficient way to go about it given the tools I had at my disposal. That tool was the fact that I was able to access Oakland Community College’s online library, a library that had access to numerous research databases and subscriptions to numerous academic journals. I had a little bit of familiarity when it came to doing research using their online library, but that did not necessarily make things a walk in the park. I honestly had no idea what to type in the search bar of any of the databases, so I thought “Richard Wright Native Son” was a good place to start. I can say with certainty that I was probably able to locate a good 75% of all criticism about Native Son, the problem was that I had to sort through what I felt like was 75% of all criticism about Native Son. I only had to go to the 5th page of Google Scholar, check 3 other databases, and read through 8 articles, but I was able to find criticisms that I actually wanted to use.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading Native Son - 5

Bigger’s opinion about  religion and all the connections that are made in the book between him and religion caught my eye numerous times. I previously mentioned the moment in book three where all of Bigger’s friends showed up in his cell and he made a direct connection to Jesus Christ. Also from book three, Bigger makes an interesting statement regarding the church and religion and how he feels about it, “I wanted to be happy in this world, not out of it. I didn’t want that kind of happiness. The white folks like for us to be religious, then they can do what they want to us” (Wright). Bigger didn’t want to be in the church even though the common perception was that people were happy in the church. In that quote, Bigger draws a divide between the church and the rest of the world. All of the power behind the divide that he creates rests in the words “that kind of happiness.” What I took from this particular quote is that Bigger feels that church is just an escape from reality for people that are poor or lost enough, and for him, there is no way that he can be content knowing that his happiness is artificial and that it did not come from making peace with the adversity and frustration of life.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading Native Son - 4

In book three there exists a strong connection to the bible. As Bigger is in his cell, he is paid a visit by many people including some of his friends. When his friends enter the cell, and bring awkwardness with them, Bigger is overcome by this sense of conviction. The book specifically reads, “They ought to be glad! It was a strange but strong feeling, springing from the very depths of his life. Had he not taken fully upon himself the crime of being black? Had he not done the thing which they dreaded above all others? Then they ought not stand here and pity him, cry over him; but look at him and go home, contented, feeling that their shame was washed away” (Wright). For those that are vaguely familiar with Christianity, the connections becomes obvious. Bigger compares himself to Jesus. While in the bible it is expressed that Jesus Christ was convicted and nailed to a cross to bear the sins of the world, Bigger is going to be convicted and potentially killed in order to bear the sins of being black. Or at least that is the angle which Bigger chooses to look at it. I found this entire connection to be quite ironic since just earlier in book 3 it is explained to the audience that Bigger is in this numb stupor and had accepted that he would likely be sentenced to death for his actions. Then when he realizes that he would be used as a symbol of empowerment for white people and fear for blacks, he snaps out of it and develops this mindset that he is Jesus Christ in his situation. Bigger went from being so low that he didn’t care about his life to believing that his life was serving as the ultimate sacrifice for the black community.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading Native Son - 3

When I was reading book 2, one thing that I noted to come back to was a section where Bigger was reflecting upon him killing Mary Dalton. There was a quote in which it says, “He looked out of the car window and then round at the white faces near him. He wanted suddenly to stand up and shout, telling them that he had killed a rich white girl, a girl whose family was known to all of them. Yes; if he did that a look of startled sorrow would come over their faces. But, no. He would not do that, even though the satisfaction would be keen. He was so greatly outnumbered that he would be arrested, tried, and executed. He wanted the keen thrill of startling them, but felt that the cost was too great” (Wright). 

Bigger quite obviously is taking pride in the fact that he has done something taboo in killing Mary Dalton. Although Mary Dalton may have had well-intentions, she came off as racist to Bigger Thomas and that ended up being part of her downfall. So after killing Mary Dalton, Bigger had felt as though he had robbed something of the white community and wanted to make them aware of it so that they could react. For Bigger that was him chipping away at the social justice differential between blacks and whites. But based off the book, the benefits for Bigger go deeper than that, for Bigger, killing Mary Dalton was an opportunity to feel liberated, he had a big dirty secret that he was keeping from society and it was one that he knew would cause a stir.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading Native Son - 2

As I read through book one of Native Son, there was an interesting dynamic that I really took notice of. Bigger Thomas was contemplating the risks of robbing a white man as opposed to robbing a black man like he had done before. Bigger takes note of the fact that it’s safer to rob black people because the white policeman wouldn’t care as much. Bigger analyzes the situation and is quite obviously okay with taking advantage of the discrimination against him and other blacks. Just further into the book, Bigger is with fellow gang members and after saying that he would fly a plane given the chance, he is told he wouldn’t get the chance to fly a plane because he is black. Bigger then goes on about how he does not like the way blacks are treated by whites. Bigger is evidently not oblivious to the discrimination and even feels negatively about it but yet he is willing to take advantage of it. Having read the introduction and knowing already that Bigger is a impoverished, mentally-confused, and violent individual. However, I wonder whether how much of that desire or need to get by contributed to Bigger’s twisted mentality.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Reading Native Son - 1

The beginning of the book starts out with a rather short, but wordy introduction from Ronald Rampersad of Princeton University. In my opinion, I the introduction as a whole was good set up for the book but it was nothing special. However, there were some part within the introduction that were quite informative and definitely evoked some thought in me. The specific section that I am referring to is the one in which Rampersad discusses the creation of Native Son’s main protagonist if you will, Bigger Thomas.

Rampersad elaborated on the concept of how the basic story of Native Son flowed well and that the reason for this was because Richard Wright had all the knowledge he needed to create Bigger Thomas. Wright had been observing and learning about all of the different facets of society and their effects. Richard had unintentionally been drawing inspiration from exploitation, racism, loss of morality, and more that was around him everyday and then culminated it into one character. All of this really had me questioning whether I thought who Bigger Thomas was and his actions were an amplified version of the effect of society on the psyche.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Native Son

Choosing a book for this project wasn’t easy. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less and less of a reader by choice and more of one by need, only reading books when they’re assigned. So with limited experience with books, it was hard to think of what it was that I wanted in a book. All I had to go off of was what I enjoyed about books I had to read in the past. What I enjoyed were books of a more serious tone that were dystopian-like. While I knew what I was looking for in a book, I didn’t know how to use that to find a book that had a fair amount of scholarly writing on it and was still interesting. With no clear direction to go in, I turned to the one person I knew that was familiar with the most books. My mom. After being made aware of my needs and interests, she was able to recommend several books to me. Those books were Invisible Man, Native Son, The Road, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse Five, Things Fall Apart, and The Kite Runner. I immediately eliminated any book I had previously read as I wanted a new experience, so I said adios to Brave New World, Things Fall Apart, and The Kite Runner. I also wasn’t very interested in choosing a book I believed others were considering, so I decided against Slaughterhouse Five and Invisible Man. So then I was left with Native Son, The Road, and Fahrenheit 451. The Road came off as boring to me and I feel like over the years I had read Fahrenheit 451 just by how much I had heard of it from others without ever even seeing a physical copy of it. Thus, Richard Wright and Native Son were the victors.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Secondary Teen Rebellion Movie

The movie that my group chose to watch was Nerve, which was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. 

How accurate is its portrayal of teenagers and their problems?

I think the movie Nerve, follows the very typical formula of a teenage movie. Not necessarily the high school stereotypes, but the whole exaggerated for entertainment but accurate for relatability. The movie features a somewhat nerdy and unpopular girl named Vee who is blonde. In the movie, there is quite a bit of exaggeration of the whole concept that teenagers are always on their phones. However, it is more reasonable for this exaggeration to exist because a large part of this movie is based around the fact that teenagers are always on their phones.

Do you find the characters believable?

I would say that I find the characters believable. Aside from the part about teens being on their phones, the characters themselves and the emotions that they go through during the movie aren’t too crazy. However, there was one point in the movie where the main character’s friend was dared to cross the gap between two apartment buildings via a ladder. After she failed to do so, the main character showed up to the scene a little later, the two got into an emotional fight, and the main character crosses the ladder as if it is nothing. I would find it pretty unbelievable to do that despite any amount of adrenaline that was coursing through my body.

Who is the audience of these films?

Well teen movies in general are aimed at reaching teenagers, and I think this movie does that, but I would not say that is the primary audience. Instead, I would say that the primary audience of the movie was intended to be society as a whole, and I think that the reason behind this is directly connected to the purpose of the film.

What is the purpose of these films?

Nerve, is a movie that features teens playing a twisted version of truth or dare via their phones, and the audience of the movie is society as a whole. That being said, the purpose of this film is to open the eyes of society, more specifically teens, that there is more to life than cell phones and social media. An alternative purpose to the film is that people should be aware that their actions over the internet carry consequences, and sometimes you're not the one who has to face those consequences, but somebody does.

Who is the speaker?

The movie nerve doesn’t have one specific speaker that is delivering the message or purpose of the movie, but instead, who the speaker may be is up for interpretation. If you look in the context of the movie, then the speaker could be Vee, the main character. If you look at the movie and its production, than the speaker could be the directors of the film, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Rebel Without a Cause

How accurate is its portrayal of teenagers and their problems?

In Rebel Without a Cause, I thought that they way that they portrayed teenagers and their problems was somewhat accurate and somewhat not accurate. The way the personalities of the characters tend to be similar to the way that David Denby describes teen movies in his article High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies. Even looking past the article, and the stereotypes that are outlined, the movie exaggerates characteristics of the typical teenager and their high school experience. In the movie, Judy’s boyfriend, Buzz, represents an example of a stereotype. Buzz is a part of the “popular” kids group in his high school and he and his friends go around bullying and fighting other people for no logical reason. The connotation of the name Buzz represents somebody who is tough, gritty, and sometimes a bully. On top of the name, you have the fact that Buzz is a part of the “popular kids” group and as outlines in Denby’s article, this popular group is known for “running” the school with their mean tendencies. However despite these two examples being totally real possibilities, they are exaggerations of the teen and high school experience to make people relate to the movie but also make it more interesting.

Do you find the characters believable?

Personally, I do not really find the characters that believable, but then again that is the mindset that I have towards most teen movies. As I stated before, they all contain some sort of distortion of the truth in order to make the movie more appealing, but they also contain some sense of realism to make the movie relatable for the audience. Rebel Without a Cause certainly does not break that mold.

Who is the audience of these films?

I believe that the audience of these films are teenagers of the era when it came out. More specifically it is for the teens that are connected to the pop culture of their time. I say this because it is a gross, but entertaining, misinterpretation of what the teenage experience is.

What is the purpose of these films?

In correspondence with the audience, the purpose of the film, as well as other films of this genre, is to entertain and highlight. The exaggeration of teenagers' actions is meant to come off as entertaining, though sometimes it can offend. Also it can have the unintended effect of highlighting certain issues in high school and or amongst teenagers. Such being the case of Rebel Without a Cause, which tends to put a lot of stress on the concept of proper communication. Just in the beginning of the movie, there is a strong underlying concept that Jim, Judy, and Plato could have avoided their situations that they are in if they had better communication with their parents about their feelings.

Who is the “speaker”?

I think that the speaker of the movie is the director, Nicholas Ray. It was his job to have every individual piece of the movie culminate together to deliver the message in the best way, that includes the music, scripts, scenes and more.

Discussion with a parent

I spoke with my mother about the movie Rebel Without a Cause and she didn’t really have a lot to say about the movie because she vaguely remembered it, but I didn’t really have a choice between her and my dad because my dad had never watched the movie. Despite this, the conversation about the movie consisted of me telling her about how I thought the movie was so ridiculous and her telling me how that was just how the movie was intended to be. She said it was because the movie was intended to represent teen rebel behavior that was apparently common at the time. She also claimed that the reason it seemed so absurd to me is that we don’t do the same things they did back then, and if we did, we did not do them in the same manner.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Superchargers

Everything around us today is what you might call a “remix” of something else that came before it. However, I am here to discuss something that is used today that is the first of its kind. The item is, the supercharger. The supercharger is the earliest example of a forced induction device for something powered by a combustion engine.

The supercharger is a piece of machinery that has the intended purpose of forcing air into a combustion engine for better performance. Put simply, a supercharger works by having some sort of connection to the engines crankshaft, which in turn (no pun intended), will provide necessary kinetic energy to spin the supercharger’s turbine. The spin of the turbine results in the induction and compression of air in the supercharger, after being compressed, the air is forced into the intake manifold of the engine. The result is more air forced into the engine cylinders than would be possible if the engine was just naturally aspirated. This then leads to the engine producing more power.

Forced induction initially started to show up during the 19th century. Generally speaking, there is two methods by which people go about forcing air into the engine: superchargers and turbochargers. The former was the first of the two, as well as the first example of forced induction. The first patent for forced induction for engines by means of the crankshaft (supercharger) was in 1878, whereas with turbocharging, the first patent for forced induction for engines by means of exhaust gases (turbocharger) was in 1905. While comparing patents does not necessarily tell the full story of when and where the idea originated from, it is known that the turbocharger came at a later time in the 19th century than the supercharger. Despite this gray area of information, in terms of legality, the supercharger is the original device of forced induction for engines.

For those that like to be nit-picky and look at the finer details, it is true that forced induction for engines is nothing more than the just the use of air compression. By that logic, the air compressor came first, and therefore, forced induction for engines is just a remix of air compressors. While I do acknowledge this to be true, I believe that the air compressors, that were made prior to the invention of forced induction devices, were used for an entirely different purpose. So when you look at the purpose of something, I believe that the supercharger is the original of its kind. But if you look at how it functions, then the supercharger is not that original.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Hopefulness

Over the past couple of months, I have been tasked with doing research on hopefulness and formulating a stance on the argument that Americans undergo an moral reconciliation or spiritual reassessment due to an inherent need for hope. I started by looking at what exactly was hope and how do you, if even possible, measure hope? From there I looked at various examples of individuals who were at some point in time at a low but through reconciliation or reassessment, rose up from that low. Through this research I learned a few things about moral reconciliation and spiritual reassessment and I felt were important takeaways:

1.      Hope, whether you believe in the future outcome or not, is good to have:

By maintaining hope in a low point in your life, and just telling yourself that you’re capable of seizing or reaching that desirable outcome, actually seeing that through becomes a lot easier. I was able to learn this lesson through an article I found while doing research regarding hopefulness. The article was about a NCAA Men’s Basketball player on Duke University’s team. The player’s name is Grayson Allen, and over the last couple of years he has developed a track record for poor conduct on the court. Game after game, Allen would trip other players and take cheap shots, and people took notice. The wrong people. Sports Analysts began to question whether Allen could handle playing at the next level in the NBA. Grayson Allen realized this, and in the summer going into his senior campaign, he underwent some moral reconciliation. In an interview from, The Fayetteville Observer, Grayson stated, “I’ve been here (at Duke) every summer going back to my sophomore year. It was relaxing to get off campus, spend time with my family, explore Chicago with Brennan and get completely away from basketball. It re-energized me.” Allen also mentioned how he was not expecting to have a comeback during his senior season but he just wanted to be a winner. Allen’s moral reconciliation that he went through during the off-season and the hope that he retained going into his senior season allowed him to have a pretty solid season and help his team, of mostly freshman, make it to the Elite 8 in this year’s March Madness tournament.

2.      Hope is not something that you have to wear on your sleeve:

In life, there is going to be people who will prey on others’ weaknesses and shortcomings. They may even try to prey on the hope of others to make it out of a situation that they are currently in. In other words, there are haters out there. Regardless of these “haters” that doesn’t mean that somebody shouldn’t have hope because they fear these people that may prey on them. The solution to this when you just can not find the resilience to ignore the “haters” is to keep hope in your heart, not on your sleeve. In a collection of essays that I read from activist, W.E.B. Du Bois, titled The Souls of Black Folk, I witnessed a prime example of what it really means to have to keep your hope in you heart and not keep it on your sleeve. Du Bois describes the event where when he was invited to dinner by the commissioner, who was white, after he had proposed the idea o of starting a school. When it came time to eat, Du Bois had to eat alone and not in the presence of the commissioner and the other white man who was present. The two were unable to see Du Bois as an equal even though he was just trying to start a school like the white man. It can be reasonably inferred that in this instance and in many more, Du Bois went through various moral reconciliations and spiritual reassessments, thinking that if he changed who he was, then maybe he would one day be seen as an equal of white people. Regardless, one thing is for certain, and it is that Du Bois definitely had an inherent need for hope that things would get better even though there would be no overnight change. Obviously, Du Bois didn’t just walk around with his hope for change on his sleeve, so that the opposition of the civil rights movement could take it from him. He kept it in his heart. Also, it is clear that Du Bois’s place for his hope ended up working out as he would go on to continue to fight for the equal rights of blacks and eventually founding the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization.

3.      You can’t really put a numerical value on hope:

Hope is something that is personal for every person and so it becomes very hard to be able to had numerical values to hope and measure it that way. Many people have tried multiple times in order to measure hope. The result of this are systems such has the Snyder Hope Scale, which are attempts to measure hope via various tests of traits in people. However, this hasn’t been the most successful method of measuring hope as since the Snyder Hope Scale’s initial creation in 1991, there has been multiple iterations and variations of the system, looking to improve upon the original in some way. The primary takeaway from all of this is that if and when somebody tells you that you need to have hope, you shouldn’t feel pressured to create the same kind of hope that somebody is telling you to have. You don’t even have to display it in any particular way. Hope is specific to each person and so how much hope and how they want to display it is specific to them. With that being said, there is a myriad of ways to “measure” hope but the only way to really tell whether you have hope or not is by taking the time to have spiritual reassessment and reflection.

[katesilverman-blog]

My goal for this project was to bring more awareness to the stages of accepting grief so that teenagers and young adults are more understanding of those grieving the death of a loved one. It is important to understand that everyone grieves in their own way. Not everyone goes through all of these stages and not necessarily in this order. However, all grief takes time and being aware of these stages will help people be more understanding of those who have lost a loved one and their healing process. I will know if this project was successful if at least 10 people like and/ or repost my video.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Secondary Works 6

While looking for sources to further my knowledge of hope, I stumbled upon this cartoon. What I found interesting about this is the idea that there could be a lot of people with this mindset. There could be people who may not necessarily have a need for hopefulness because of some moral reconciliation they’re having, but it could just be because they prefer to have hope. Having hope could be giving them something to hold onto and use to stay mentally centered.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Secondary Works 5

Those who follow NCAA Men’s Basketball are likely aware of the name, Grayson Allen. Grayson Allen is a basketball player for Duke University. While fighting injuries, last year, Grayson Allen became infamous for tripping other players and participating in bad player conduct. Consequently, his draft stock was hurt and be became disliked by fans, sports broadcasters, and GM’s of NBA Team. In the following summer, Grayson Allen underwent a moral reassessment so he could change how he needed to in order to be a better teammate as well as to fall back in love with the game of basketball. I personally believe that Allen underwent this moral reassessment so he could instill hope in himself that he could raise his draft stock and be a leader for his team next season. I also believe that he did it to instill hope in possible doubters that he could be a better player in terms of moral and ethics.

[noah-davis01-blog]

Secondary Works 4

In Shawshank Redemption (1994), Andy maintains hope that he will breakout and obtain the freedom that he rightfully deserves. Most people would associate hope with the wanting of a desirable outcome. For Andy, this desirable outcome comes true. In a sense, Andy’s breakout can be seen as symbolic. Andy had a desirable outcome that he wanted to see come to fruition, and it did. His breakout was a situation in which one’s hope actually panned out and so people use his breakout as fuel for their own hope.