Kayla's Corner

     I dislike blogging. Last year, my teacher was the only English teacher who made her classes do weekly blogs. I was jealous of all my friends who were in different classes because they weren't forced to do them. When the year ended, I thought I was free. I didn't expect to be forced to write them for a second year in a row. My life would be so much better without them. However, I can say that the prompts this year are definitely better. I don't like writing them, but I do like reading them. It would be nice to get class time to read other peoples blogs.      Choice reading is not really "choice" reading. Yeah we get to chose a book instead of  being assigned one, but we can't just choose any book we want. Its highly recommended that we pick one off of the AP list which really means we have to select one of them. Not in a million years would I chose a single book off of that list if I was actually given a choice. I want to read a dystopian novel or ...

The play Fences can be analyzed in many different ways using multiple lenses. However, today I'll take a deeper look into the play, specifically the characters, using a psychoanalytic lens. In the play Fences , by August Wilson, Troy's approach to his familial relationships and the problems that arise within them, are influenced by his childhood trauma and past experiences. To prove that it is the childhood trauma and past experiences that affect his relationships, the play must be analyzed through a psychoanalytic lens. However, to understand this lens, some background on psychoanalysis is necessary.  Info on Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud in the early twentieth century, and it was used to treat people's emotional problems by understanding conscious and unconscious aspects in the mind. The conscious mind represents what people knowingly do whereas the unconscious represents what people do without knowing. In addition, the unconscious mind includ...

On Christmas Eve, most of my moms side of the family gets together to celebrate. After we finish dinner, everyone gathers by the fire. My Grandpa and his two brothers always get up and share stories from their childhood. The stories are hard to believe and most of the time involve something illegal. The story that I remember the most, as it is told almost every year is when my grandpa and his brothers were in middle and elementary school. They were setting off fireworks and had the police called on them. The two oldest ran off leaving the youngest, my uncle, to talk to the police. When the police came my uncle made up a huge elaborate story and the police never did anything about it. My grandpa and other uncle only got in trouble by their mother for leaving their younger brother alone. My great grandmother had no idea the police were called on her children for years. My mom always told me to not fully believe the stories as half of what they said was to make their stories more dramatic...

  A few days ago I was trying out for cheer over zoom. Normally, we tryout at Troy High but because of the current lockdown order by Michigan's very own Gretchen Whitmer, we were unable to meet in person. I logged into the Zoom call and was greeted by my coaches, one of which sounded a little raspier than normal. If there wasn't a world wide pandemic going on, I would think nothing of it. However, that is not the case, and my mind immediately jumped to COVID. I find it funny how that was the first thing I thought of. I failed to think about the fact that the weathers changing and my coach could just as easily have a cold. I automatically assumed she had COVID. Anywhere I go, if someone coughs or sneezes, I jokingly turn to my friends and whisper "COVID". However, I am always half serious. Its very possible that they could have it. Making these assumptions doesn't just go for me. I'm afraid to cough of even go as far as clear my throat in public because I know ...

The podcast I listened to was  One Last Thing Before I Go.  In the beginning it talks about how during COVID, patients could not see their family while in the hospital so they would make video recordings of things they would say to them. Also, nurses would take notes on the patients who were in critical condition because the family members couldn't visit them and the nurses wanted the family member to know that the patients were seen as people and not just patients and also so family members would know that their loved ones were being cared for in their final days. This reminded me of a Greys Anatomy Episode where a patient made video recordings to send to their family members just in case they didn't make it out of surgery. This was a great idea because family members could have one last thing to hold onto from their loved one who didn't make it. The majority of the podcast was dedicated to the "Wind Phone" which was created by a guy who wanted to speak to his fa...

  This is a painting called The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory . It is painted by Salvador Dalí who was a Spanish surrealist artist in the 1900s. He produced over 1500 works of art in the span of his lifetime.  I didn’t know who Salvador Dali was until I went to the Salvador Dali museum when I was in St.Petersburg Florida a few years ago. I spent a long time looking at all his artwork. I found the colorful paintings very captivating. They were nothing like anything I had ever seen before. With each look at any of his artworks, I noticed something new that I hadn’t seen the previous times. At first glance, I saw only part of the paintings, but when looking again, a different part came into view. I love how his paintings have a lot of depth and so much going on. This is not just the case with what’s visually present but also with the actual meaning of the paintings themselves. One of my favorite works by him is called, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory...

Satire is defined as,  “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.” However, satire isn't just used to poke fun at people. The artist,  Banksy, uses satire in his street art to voice critiques of social and political injustices. One of Banksy's works titled, Napalm girl, uses satire to expose the many facets of America. Banksy doesn't really use humor in this particular art piece, rather he uses ridicule. His work criticizes America. In the image, Banksy uses a pre-existing image of a girl fleeing from a napalm attack on her village in Vietnam and shows her holding hands with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald. In the image, the two well known characters are smiling, while the girl is screaming and crying, which gives the piece a twisted and messed up tone. Banksy successfully uses satire to get his point across because he places two characters that represent the fun and carefree side of American culture with a ...