Danielle Jacobellis
Coulson
English 10
14 March 2014

          Othello Impressions

          As a reader my first impressions of both Desdemona and Othello are very vague. I do not know very much about either character, probably because we are only a few pages into the play so far. But as much as I know about them I can make a few assumptions. Othello is an African-American male that loves Desdemona (later to be eloped) and Desdemona loves Othello as well. Othello is a very good soldier from previous knowledge, and many people are jealous of him for being ranked so high in the military.
          The biggest controversy that I am able to see in the play so far is the relationship between Desdemona and Othello. Their relationship seems to be forbidden and is only know of by a few people. This is made out to be a big deal mainly because Brabantio (Desdemona's father) does not know a single thing about her relationship with Othello. It may seem fine and dandy and you're probably wondering what this is still such a big controversy but it's probably because Othello is African-American, and probably looked down on by other white "higher class" individuals, including Brabantio.
          So far in the play (uuuuh like three pages into it) I am able to see the Reaction Guide statement that fits best is "Secondhand Information is Reliable", even though it's not at all. It's called SECONDhand for a reason, it's not at important as FIRSThand information. Don't always believe something that an outside source is telling you, like Iago telling Brabantio about Othello being a "theif"... Okay maybe thats true but how is Brabantio supposed to know whether it's true or not without him finding out himself. You can totally believe whatever you want, even without proof but thats just you doing you. I personally like to investigate and get to the bottom of things before I make my final decision to believe what I've been told is true or not.

Danielle Jacobellis

February 22, 2014

English 10

Power: Control Over the Intellectually Inferior

         

         When someone has power that means that they have a higher control over a group, large or small. In this case its about having a hight level of intelligence than a group that is not smart enough to make their own decisions and too gullible to believe anything that they are told.

          In chapter six there is many examples of this, the most obvious is the windmill being destroyed. Napoleon tells all of the animals that Snowball had destroyed the windmill, but the night before there was a horrendous wind storm that blew off roof tiles, blew over the flagpole and an elm tree had been uprooted. With common sense you would believe that the wind had also destroyed the windmill too, Napoleon takes this to his advantage and blames it of Snowball. Napoleon says,"Comrades, do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!" (69-70). All of the animals immediately believe Napoleon, they believe everything that he tells them. 

          In the real world I see this happen all the time. Me being a big makeup enthusiast am no fool to animal testing (testing the products on animals to see if they react to the product that has been applied on them). You can easily check on the back of the products packaging to see whether or not it is cruelty free or not. If said product is cruelty free you will see a small image of a leaping bunny or a bunny with its ears in the shape of a heart, like the images at right. Most people don't think twice about animal testing. They may just assume,"Bunnies with lipstick on them and their nails painted hot pink, thats cute" but they don't understand that animal testing is burning, poisoning and killing over one hundred million animals a year in the United States. Without deeper research companies advertise luxurious products that make everyone beautiful and happy, but its really ironic that the animals that could make that product possible went through pain and misery to make it happen. The animal being tested could be your pet dog, how would you react to animal testing then? I bet your whole view on it would be completely changed forever. What if you had to watch OR EVEN TEST on your own animal being tested on for the sake of cosmetics and toiletries. Some brands like: Dove, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, MAC, Revlon and Olay all seem like brands that do good for society, but the sad truth is they all use animal testing. So the next time you apply your favorite MAC lipstick, think about the animals struggle. To the oblivious person they wouldn't care about animal testing at all, they just want to look beautiful. I guess the saying "Beauty is pain." is a true statement. Not only for the average person, but animals too.