Icons: Citizen Rex and McCloud

Sergio Bautin debunks urban legends or concepts that are false. He is trying to escape the truth takers because if he tells the truth, the truth takers would capture him for weeks. Sergio took Hazel (who is Sergio's robot assistant) to the recharge lounge for a checkup on her memory files. She's about to enter, when suddenly A.T.T sticks a probe in her memory port. Now the truth takers are free to see Hazel's observations. Sergio enters the Bloofer Apartments where he saw Hazel and the truth takers mixing ingredients in a soup. They offer Sergio soup and he decided to drink it and do what they want so that both Hazel and Sergio can be safe. They left, knowing that his name is Mr. Bloggo which also means he writes the web column under the name of “The 3 o'clock” signed by Bloggo. When the truth takers leave, Hazel mixes the soup and then found a foot impaled on her spoon. Sergio looked sickened and disgusted, held his paws to his mouth as lines surround his figure that represents shaking. When the reader views this part, they will be able to see the sickness in Sergio in motion. He thinks he's a cannibal when Hazel hands him the foot and says “Do cannibals eat rubber, Mr. B” (16). Then his facial expression turned from a miserable state to looking relieved. McCloud would explain the foot as an icon which are images that resembles their subjects. He would explain how Sergio mistakened the real foot as a rubberized foot because he “assign [ed] identities and emotions where none exist” (McCloud 33). Sergio observed the rubber foot and became ill when he gave it a role through his perception which is a real foot that has been chopped off. He made “the world over in our [his] image” (McCloud 33). If I made the world over through my eyes and perception with the ultimate truth, it would not be a rubber or real foot. When I don't see this as an icon anymore, all I see is the screen on my laptop that reflects back to me a screenshot of a foot. The theme surrounding panel 16 is that truth should be told at all times. When Sergio figured out the truth that the foot is made of rubber, he is content. McCloud can save Sergio from a dangerous adventure just by saying it's only a drawing. The artist and writer go hand in hand to try to create a false reality through ink and paper. But in Sergios perception, every drawing is real and can have great potential in affecting him. Readers on the other hand will perceive every drawing they see as an icon.

Question- What does Sergio realize about the foot? How many ways can this foot be viewed? What would McCloud say to someone who is against violence in cartoons?

Helene Maria Viramontes "Miss Clairol"

1. Which section does both Arlene and Champ walk into when they enter K-Mart? Why does she dye her hair frequently? What is society's view on the huge amount of cosmetics women use?

2. What are some examples of similes in the short story? Why do you think Viramontes picked these specific places to put similes? What does this say about the way authors use similes?  

“...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him” and “Aria” Scene

Scene- [Rivera sitting in the cemetery and Roadreeguess is visiting his grandma's grave]

Roadreeguess- Hola!

Rivera- Hola amiga! I need help. I need to come up with a lie. If I go home my parents are going to whip me.

Roadreeguess- What's going on?

Rivera- This guy comes up to me and said that he doesn't like Mexicans because they steal. I hit this guy because he hit my ear. Am I going to get expelled? I dislike being here, they check my hair for lice. They mostly do it to the migrant workers' children. She then puts on top of my head a large jar of what looks like Vaseline and made me take off all my clothes. I'm getting tired of the embarrassment just because I'm from a different country. You know what the school administer told me? He said that “they could care less if I expel him... they need him in the fields” (94).

Roadreeguess- That's why I'm glad I'm an adult now. I remember those school days. Back then the kids around me were freaked out over the first day of school. When my parents left, I remained curious about my surroundings to see I'm finally in the public life. I noticed my teacher couldn't even pronounce my name right. That's when my culture started to tarnish.

Rivera- I wonder if I never was patriotic towards my culture would I still be safe in school?

Roadreeguess- We have an advantage. We are both bilingual and so that means we have 2 ways of being individualized. We have private identity and then we assimilate and absorb until it turns into public identity. We have both social and political advantages. I lost something and gain something. And the pros and cons list can go on for eternity.

Rivera- What are you doing in the cemetery?

Roadreeguess- I'm visiting my grandma. my grandma would mock me when my Spanish started to get worse. But I still used to sit with her and even though I was silent I liked her intimate utterances. Intimate because it was a family loved one. When I speak English, it's a cue to public life. But the strange thing is when I saw my grandma dead, she looked like she was out in public. There were many people who were not impressed with the way I started to forget Spanish. The lady in the Mexican food store gave me the look of judgment. My uncle would throw lame jokes about it. The reason why I don't speak good Spanish anymore is because it all started out when the nun came over one day to talk to my parents about my bad English. She told them that it's best to stop speaking Spanish in front of me and start speaking in English. Didn't the nun know by their replies that they don't know English either? What a disaster. I'm put in a different mood when I speak Spanish. I'm more excited because it's easier to express myself. I can't help that this language got deep-rooted in my childhood brain. Whatever language you grow up with, it'll stick to you the best. So I'm glad you're standing up for our culture.

Rivera- Slowly I'll make my way up until I can change the law stating people from out of state can fish around the cemetery.

[Both look at each other then jump into the cemetery river with knives. They can't fish but who said anything about knifing? It's the new Mexican version of fishing]

Question- How much would it have to take to give up your own culture?

“Never Marry a Mexican”

"On the way home, on the bridge over the arroyo on Guadalupe Street, I stopped the car, switched on the emergency blinkers, got out, and dropped the wooden toy into that muddy creek where winos piss and rats swim. The Barbie doll's toy stewing there in that muck. It gave me a feeling like nothing before and since” (82).

In this passage “Never Marry a Mexican” by Sandra Cisneros, it takes place near the end of the short story. It contains imagery, symbolism, anthropomorphic characterization and regionalism. The scene would not make sense until you include what happened to her. Then the inanimate object murder will start to make sense.

The Barbie doll was Drew's gift to Megan that was found at the end of the babushka dolls. The narrator said that Drew got her the same exact one. So as she takes the gift and paints a picture of a scene that could be seen out of a horror movie if you replace the “Barbie doll” with a person. Which makes me think symbolism is used here to show her fantasy happen in cartoon blood, nobody got hurt. Of every place she could have picked to drop the toy, she picked the place most killers would dump a dead body all the way to the bottom of the deep cold waters like a huge morgue freezer. She uses anthropomorphic characterization when her disdain for this wooden object was triggered by Drew. So every beating the doll gets is all thanks to Drew. She just had to mention it's “where winos piss and rats swim” a place so revolting to reinforce her disgust. Now the Barbie doll can swim with the rats where it truly belongs.

Her tone in this part is calm but deadly. She watches the doll in the creek carefully observing every moment of what it's doing to not miss out on sweet revenge happening in front of her eyes. The scene is quiet because she's cherishing the “feeling like nothing before and since.” Which shows a justifiably sadistic side in destroying what was valuable to Drew. He cut off every nerve in her body until she stopped believing in marriage. What he made out of her is turned her into the robotic Hulk and now get's drunk on poor impulse control since that's the last feeling she had for him. This makes the tone sound dissociative since it's not something she would do simultaneously calmly glad things worked her way.

The setting is set in regionalism since I can see the relationship between her action and the region. She got out of her car and had a choice to be in any area but decided to choose a contaminated place full of filth. Her intention is to demolish one of the worst that could happen to her. Which gave her the excuse to be delusional to a situation that's unimaginable. This place is best for sick intentions, and she must be lost in a hypnotic state if she found this much pleasure in destroying a piece of wood in a dark atmosphere.

The imagery and setting work together to set a chilling atmosphere. The anthropomorphic characterization in this story became a kind of voodoo doll to her. In that, the Barbie doll and voodoo doll is about revenge.

Question- What if the place she threw the doll is in a river full of flower petals underneath a rainbow out of skittles, where milking out cows gives you chocolate milk and gummy bears swim? Would her intentions be different?

I am Joaquin

“I am Joaquin” by Gonzales is a poem mostly about having a bloody revolution to take back what belongs to him. He speaks about this through a tone similar to speaking and wraps it around with metaphors, repetitions, and similes. Throughout he keeps on mentioning he is a bunch of certain people who all have one thing in common; they are part of a whole society.

This poem is free verse with repetitions. An example would be when he repeated the beginning in Spanish and then translated it into English. It also contained similes such as “like a sleeping giant” although this poem sometimes sounds like an angry rant in form of a speech. Throughout the poem some sentences are in caps lock so as I read he is screaming in my head “MY OWN PEOPLE...THE GROUND WAS MINE” making the reader realize his imprisonment. Sometimes the tone changes into a passive and melancholic voice when he said “And see part of me who rejects my father and my mother and dissolves into the melting pot to disappear in shame.” Then at times the patriotic voice bursts out in lines such as “I am Cuauhtemoc, proud and noble, leader of men, kind of an empire.” At other moments the poem gets dramatic which can be seen when Gonzales said “I drove him from the pulpit to lead a bloody revolution for him and me.... I killed him.” A lot of imagery that opens up the senses can be read in quotes like “Now I bleed in some smelly cell from club or gun or tyranny.” What I noticed is he talked more in the beginning, then starts to use many different kinds of images near the end. The metaphors that were used made strong statements to his beliefs, he said “I am the sword and flame of Cortes the despot. And I am the eagle and serpent of the Aztec civilization.” The rhythm is normal speed but then at times he goes fast when in the heat of passion. Most of the exclamations he used are centered around people from his culture or the languages of Mexico.

What I noticed is that the author keeps repeating that “I am Joaquin” but then in the middle of the poem he said he is Cuauhtemoc, an Aztec ruler or Nezhualcoyotl, a warrior or philosopher. Then he said he is Diaz and Huerta who were controversial dictators but then he is also “the black- shawled faithful women.” It seems as if it doesn't matter what one does, whether they're a defenseless peasant, politician, psychopath dictator, or killing 100 people for every family member killed, all of these different kinds of people have their place in society. A society would not exist without them. Since this is a poem for the country he said he is all these people to be the spokesperson for everyone. He's the poet who notices what is going on and is taking a breather to put every piece of history, thought and observation together to unify Mexico.

Question- If he was a dictator instead of a poet, how would things change for the society?