Adventures at Post Oak High

A human right is any such right that is guaranteed to each and every human regardless of creed, class, color, race, gender, or sexuality upon birth. However, to say that because every human is guaranteed these rights that these rights are untouched is a falsity. Today, human rights are constantly violated every day, and it was no different in Douglass's time. In Chapter 10, on page 35 of the novel, Douglass describes how we was sent by his then-master, Mr. Covey, to gather a load of wood using a wooden cart and two oxen. Covey tells Douglass to hold on tight when the oxen begin running. In no fault of his own, Douglass is dragged at an immense speed by the oxen, who crash the cart into rocks and trees. When Mr. Covey learns of this, Douglass is then brutally whipped, even though he had no prior experience with oxen and this particular exercise. Beyond slavery itself violating an essential human right, Douglass describes the numerous times when he is beaten, occasionally to life-t...

Frederick Douglass, as mentioned at the very beginning of Chapter I, was separated from his mother at a very young age. In fact, really the only thing he remembers of her is the fact that she talked to him at nights when he was a very young boy - but when he woke up in the morning, she was gone. Unfortunately, such an event was not uncommon with slaves. Because slaves were treated as property rather than people, slave families were often separated to prevent a human bond between them, which would likely interfere with the ordering of harsh, strenuous work and even harsher punishments. Additionally, Douglass mentions the fact that slaves were to know as little of themselves as possible, in order to preserve them as property, born not to think or feel but to work. In the masters' eyes, this would have likely had slaves see the world as one to work on, and so that is exactly what they would do. Of course, slaves eventually did rebel against their masters and go to every length to de...

  Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child Through a Sinful World (c. 1520) One huge component of Renaissance era painting and culture was religion (in most of Europe, Christianity in particular). And while I didn't manage to get any pieces pertaining to the English Renaissance per se , I did manage to find a painting by a follower of celebrated 14th-15th century Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 - 1516), whose themes exhibited in his and his follower's works transcend many nations of the European Renaissance, including England. The European Renaissance is known for its Christian symbolism, certainly exhibited in many of Bosch and his follower's works, including arguably Bosch's most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights . These paintings, however, typically take the form of Christ's crucifixion or Saint Mary with the infant Christ, and are rarely so abstract as that with Bosch and his followers, with this particular painting showing Saint C...

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. We Real Cool" is a great piece of literature. It doesn't take more than fifteen seconds to read, and yet I found it to be one of the most interesting poems I have come across, not only for its surprisingly deep meaning, but also for it's enjoyable and catchy use of sound devices. Some uses of sound devices in the poem are obvious. For example, the two sentences in each stanza (not counting the use of enjambment with the word "we", which, by the way, is an interesting visual choice) produce a couplet, as they rhyme. However, looking deeper into the poem, we start to see more hidden devices, such as the consecutive rhyme "we thin gin" and the fact that on the first and second lines of the second and and the first line of the fourth stanza, al...

The poem "Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup" by Amy Gerstler contrasts the sweets of the speaker's youth to the soupy, flavorless aura of fruit cocktail. The interpretation I got from the poem was that the "light syrup" in the title represented the sugary, artificial corn syrup present in so many sweets. A strong supporter of this idea comes from the direct mention of syrup in the poem, in the line "With it's striped triangular 'kernels' made of sugar, wax, and corn syrup..." I do also believe that the title is clever because, to me, it's almost saying that the only way to improve fruit cocktails are to drown them in the sweet corn syrup that the speaker is so nostalgic about. But I still do wonder: why 'light' syrup? Does the speaker believe that this is the acceptable alternative to drowning the fruit cocktail in syrup? I guess that, like most poetry, there are an indefinite amount of answers I can create for myself.

 My personal thought at first when I read the poem was that this "Penny" represented a woman, as Penny is a female name/nickname. But upon further investigation, I suddenly realized that the two lines - "Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love." seemed to be a pretty strong indicator of the penny representing a wish of some sort (which Xander originally suggested), because the language of these lines seemed to be a pretty strong indicator that the penny in question represented a wish, as he discusses throwing the penny (like into a fountain) and hoping for the best. Andrew Gross suggested that the penny might represent an advice-giver, as throughout the poem it sounds as if the speaker is addressing the penny as if it is human. Looking at both his and Xander's views on the poem, I found them to be far more interesting and likely then my original guess. I have combined both of their views to suggest that this penny acts in the poem as some so...

Having not been to the Museum of Natural Science in a long time, I was quite excited for our trip to HMNS for the Out of the Amazon: Life on the River exhibition. And I was pleasantly surprised. To be completely honest, not at first. The exhibit looked quaint, tucked away in the back corner of the  top floor of the museum. But you better think twice if that doesn't look good enough for you. The selection of artifacts available to see on display is, for a lack of a better word, stunning. The museum boasts that they have attained one of the largest collections of Amazonian artifacts in the world, and from seeing the exhibit, I can believe it. Because of the Amazon's sheer size (four times the size of Texas), many of these cultures, being so far away from one another, have developed completely different lifestyles, religions, and taboos. All of their traditions were fascinating to me, from "stinging-ant" ritual ceremonies (more on that later) to their mythologies. I scou...