Conservative Point of View

In the final unit of our class Forbidden Books, we learned about censorship. We did not do an action project for Unit 2 because our teacher thought this project hold more substance. In the 3rd unit, we learned about the censorship of books. We read Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." We had weekly book clubs to discuss the book. We visited our local public radio station, WBEZ, to meet with their south-side correspondent Natalie Moore. Ms. Moore wrote a book about the South-Side that was banned in Illinois prisons. We talked with her about what it was like to be an author of a banned book. At the beginning of this class, we chose one of five banned books. The options were: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I chose The Color Purple because i've seen the movie before and really enjoyed it. We then had to read the book and write an essay about why it was banned. I wanted to take a spin on this essay and write about the banning in a conservative point of view.

Conservative Point of View

Love has traditional values in the way it should be shown, given, and more importantly in the way it should be written. Love is the theme that was portrayed in The Color Purple. For example, Celie and Shug in a rather odd way, shifting between a very physical attraction to her to a sisterly love, and then right back to the love a daughter has for a mother. She says "I love looking at Shug." (Walker, 77) and "I work on her like...she mama." (Walker, 55) Even in the very beginning of the book, you get this feeling that Celie envies Shug's life, and really wants to be like her. Then it transforms from an admiration to a genuine love for Shug as she gets to know her, and then settles in on a sisterly love. The Color Purple is written in the form of letters that Celie (main character) writes to God. Celie is a uneducated, poor, African American 14 year old girl. The letters she writes to God talk about the trials and tribulations she faces. Her father Alphonso is mentioned heavily throughout her letters because of the damage he has done to Celie. Celie's father beats her harshly and rapes her continuously, she has been impregnated twice, but the children were both been abducted by her father. Eventually Alphonso marries Celie off to a man who is just as bad as him. The name of Celie’s husband is not mentioned, only written as Mr.__. Mister marries Celie to take care of his four kids, look after the house and work in the fields. Celie seems somewhat content with her marriage because she can take her younger sister Nattie out of her Father's house. Soon enough Mr. kicks Nettie out after Nettie rejects his sexual advances. After Nettie leaves, Celie’s life gets worse as she’s now separated from the only person whom she loves and who loves her back. Shug is Mr._ mistress, she becomes Celie's friend and eventually her lover. Shug remains a mentor who helps Celie evolve into an independent and assertive woman. Celie tells Shug how Mr._ beats her repeatedly and decides to stay to protect her. Shug and Celie’s relationship grows intimate, and Shug begins to ask Celie questions about her sexual habits. Celie grows admiration for Shug as she was the first person to show her signs of affection towards her. This form of love is not one that is rooted in traditional roots and should not hold educational values because of it. The Color Purple does not hold any educational values in the school system; therefore, it should be banned.

The Color Purple does not have any educational values based on the non systematic theme that it holds. West Virginia took action and banned The Color Purple in 1986, like several other school boards because of its troubling ideas about abuse, man’s relation to God, and human sexuality. Bernard King, a member of the school board said, "It could lead to different sex games and violence and other things" (Washington Post). The long established curriculum keeps the students formulated into a systematic ideology and detain from the toxicity emotional attachment does. Ultimately, these are topics that have no matter in a school system that holds the majorities inclination.

There are several examples in The Color Purple that school system point to as reasons it should be ban. For example, “He [Pa] never had a kine word to say to me. Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t. First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my p****. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it”(pg. 1). This quote was problematic because its explicit depictions and language. Secondly, “Ain’t no way to read the bible and not think God white, she say. Then she sigh. When I found out I thought God was white, and a man, I lost interest. You mad cause he don’t seem to listen to your prayers. Humph! Do the mayor listen to anything colored say?”(pg. 194). This quote depicts the controversy of religion in a demeaning way. Quotes like these are throughout the book and holds no value. They are only expressing vulgarity with no necessity. The Color Purple influences political, religious, and diversity disputes, but because the delivery speaks figuratively the vulgarity outweighs the significance. That being said, it was problematic from the fact that the book hold text that triggers every social aspect. The Color Purple touched on religion when talking about God being a white male, politics when talking about the government not listening to colored folks, and lastly the diversity in race.

The ideologies the book expresses holds no substance in any systematic matter. This ratifies how the banning of The Color Purple is justified to be out of reach for kids. Reasons be the vulgarity in the depictions of violence, the lack of educational values based on the non systematic theme that it holds, and how love has traditional values in the way it should be shown, given, and more importantly in the way it should be written and with that being The Color purple portrayed love being an unhealthy in every standpoint. Alice Walker the author of The Color Purple implemented these ideas with a purpose, her controversial text was apart of her creative writing to expose a certain system that has been oppressed by the majority. As she states, "Also, I think it is anyone’s right to do what they feel they have to do. They have a job. I have a job. I will write what I think is right for me to write. They will oppose it. In a way that makes us equal. Though when one’s work is completely suppressed this is a bitter acceptance."(GuernicaMag).

The censorship of books has been a necessity for many years, whether they were banned because of vulgarity, suggestive themes, religion, or just plain hate against a certain group. The "forbiddance" of a book keeps us safe from a world thats created with ideologies and nonsystematic themes. Looking into a school system we should feel safe that our kids are going to school filled with factual strategic knowledge and no unhealthy ideas. In conclusion The color Purple holds no matter in any learning environment.

“The Pipeline of Book Censorship.” Tavaana, tavaana.org/en/content/censorship.

Works Cited:

“WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOL BOARD BANS 'THE COLOR PURPLE'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Nov. 1997

“Why was the book "The Color Purple" banned? What was done to allow the book "The Color Purple" not to be banned?” Enotes.com, Enotes.com.

Stimulate the Mind

In our second Unit of our STEAM course Disease, we learned about mental disorders. This Unit we learned about different kinds of mental disorders, learning disabilities, and mental illness. We also learned about different brain waves and when they distinct. With this information we learned how to plot these on a graph and solve a piecewise function. Another thing we learned about was the DSM-5 This is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. This is a manual of many mental disorders that have criteria used to diagnose people. Although we didn't have any field experiences in this unit, we did have lots of class activities and discussions. For this project, we had to pick a mental disorder. I chose False Memory Disorder. We then had to create a lesson and simulation to try to get our classmates to feel the effects of the disorder. We also had to graph the brain waves that we thought our lesson would evoke. We then graphed these as a piecewise function. We filmed the lesson so we could document the experience. I thought this action project was awesome. This action project led me to see an aspect of the medicine field I wasn't exposed to before, this made me curious and want to learn more about neuroscience which I think is extremely interesting field to dive into. Well I hope you enjoy!

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation describes the condition as a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories that are factually incorrect but that they strongly believe. In other words false memory disorder is a predicament in which a person's identity centers on a memory of a traumatic experience that is false but that the person strongly believes occurred.

Signs of false memory disorder included in the DSM-5:

• Significant memory loss of specific times, people and events

• A sense of detachment from your emotions, or emotional numbness

• The person must be distressed by the disorder or have trouble functioning in one or more major life areas because of the disorder.

I wanted to dive in deeper with a person who struggles with false memory disorder in order to make my simulation as accurate as possible. So I watched a video of a person who deals with this disorder. Rebbeca Suger was 20 year old woman who dealt this disorder and has gone to court with a serious accusation that wasn't true. When she was 14 she accused her father of sexual abuse later to find out it was all made up. One thing that spoke to me was when she said, "the mind creates your reality". This made me realize how reality is made up of people imagination and beliefs which I found very fascinating.

Brainwave is an electrical impulse in the brain, they are the root off all our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Specifically looking at a brainwave graph we have different types of brain waves that are associated with different states of consciousness, like being asleep or awake or even meditative states. In a brainwave graph we have: Gamma waves that is hyper brain activity, which is great for learning, Beta waves are your thinking waves where we busily engage in activities and conversations, Alpha waves is a relaxed state of mind seeping into meditation, Theta waves are the creative waves that drifts you into daydreaming down into sleep, and lastly delta waves that occur in deep dreamless sleep engaging in nothing but deep sleep. Everyone goes through there daily life engaging in these brain waves, but people who are diagnosed with false memory disorder tend to use some more than other in long periods of time. False memory disorder is mostly effected by Gamma waves, scientists observed electrical activity in their brains to determine whether specific brain waves were associated with successfully storing and retrieving memories. Researchers found that a fast brain wave, known as the gamma rhythm, increased when participants studied a word that they would later recall.

This is the lesson plan I wrote to simulate False memory Disorder with my classmates, I include a video to demonstrate the process in order for anyone to understand and try it out themselves.

 

This is a video demonstrating the simulation I presented that stimulates their mind (hence the tittle). This video is a "brain game" that takes them into a staged robbery to figure out who were the culprits. In order to solve this case as a witness its very important to remember every detail, but as we find out its very hard to remember certain events even if it was just seconds ago. This shows how False Memory works in a way that your mind makes up certain actions thinking they actually happened.

Here is a graph of the presumably measure of the brain waves my classmates might feel throughout the activity.

GA, "Brainwave Graph", 2018

This Flyer spreads the word about False Memory Disorder.

GA, "False Memory Flyer", 2018

Works Cited:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/14/truth-about-memories-jarrett

http://www.fmsfonline.org/?ginterest=ButItIsInTheDSM

https://youtu.be/5HdF-hexNjc

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-sense/201307/remembering-something-never-happened