The Onion Satire

In honor of tonight being the Academy Awards, I will be discussing an article that “The Onion,” published regarding Leonardo DiCaprio. It is no secret that Leonardo DiCaprio should have won an oscar by this point, and tonight may finally be his big break with his new movie, “The Revenant.” This specific article titled, “Leonardo DiCaprio Hopes He Screamed and Cried Good Enough in ‘The Revenant’ To Win Oscar,” satirizes how hollywood actors are perceived to be petty and unintelligent. To suggest this, the author of this article uses false ethos by incorporating fake Leonardo DiCaprio quotes into his article. In these quotes, the author uses low diction and repetition to imply that DiCaprio is, in fact, is dumb. For example one of the quotes states, “I yelled really loud in this movie when I was angry and I started crying hard after I got upset, so hopefully the guys who choose the winners saw all that and liked it.” The repetition of the word “I” and his low diction of very simple words makes Leonardo seem very uneducated, and his job seem like a joke. These strategies parody a child speaking and implies that acting is somewhat of an elementary task.

The Cycle of Consumerism

In “Consider the Lobster,” David Foster Wallace reveals how consumerism affects our daily lives. For example he writes, “Try to imagine a Nebraska Beef Festival at which part of the festivities is watching the trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there on the World’s Largest Killing Floor or something- there’s no way.” This call to action forces the reader to realize that a life is a life- no matter what animal. Besides that, Wallace also creates this parody to reveal how the mechanics of consumerism has brainwashed us to the point where we forget that we are even killing millions in the first place. In our minds, certain animals are food and certain animals are companions. However, Wallace’s piece questions why we tend to categorize animals into either being slaughtered or saved and our morals behind society's actions.

After reading this piece, I really started to question what kind of food I eat and even my own morals behind my actions. Therefore, I started to research how and why animals are born, raised, tortured, and ultimately murdered everyday. The results are, to say the least, terrifying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBuhSiG1F10

Although my heart was in my stomach throughout this whole video, it reveals the harsh reality of the system that our food comes from. This video forced me to realize that the food on my plate is not beef- it is a cow. The worst part of watching this video was realizing that I, myself, is part of the same system. Although I may not be the person killing the cow, I still played a part of the murder just by eating it. Even more though, I have been raised in this society where food isn’t valued as greatly as it should be. In my family, we often throw food away, make too much, or eat it to the point where we are sickly full. All of these actions disregard the life that was taken for our meal. Ultimately because we know there will always be more at the grocery store. Thus, this vicious cycle of consumerism entraps us to the point where we think of the murdered animal on our plate as just another grocery item.

I Want a Student

I belong to the group of people called students. I am a student.  Not only am I a student, but a learned master of multitasking. All of my peers are also students as well. We tend to all complain about the significant lack of sleep we are getting, the struggles of completing our unimaginable amount of homework, and saying, “I’m literally so done right now” about twenty times a day. Still with the tremendous amount of challenges that we young adults face, I too want a student. Why do I want a student?

I would like to go back to my childhood and depend on my parents for all of my needs. I would like to go back to elementary age and have a bedtime of eight o’clock, so I can always feel fully rested. I want to go back to my adolescent years and my only worry to be about when my next play date would be.

I want a student who will always do their homework, no matter how exhausted. I want a student who can get into the best colleges. I want a student who will never take a sick day in order to keep up with their classes. I want a student who will get a perfect standardized test scores. I want a student who will push themselves to the limit every day in practice after school. I want a student who takes multiple AP’s. I want a student who doesn’t complain about getting up at 6 AM every morning after a sleepless night of worrying about school.  I want a student who will constantly maintain a balance between sports, school, and a social life.

My god, who wouldn’t want a student?

Analyzing the Food in My Fridge

In my family, there is almost no time to properly sit down and eat together. For the most part, dinner isn’t normally a “sit down” meal. Unfortunately, grab-and-go microwavable meals are sometimes the only available option when schedules get chaotic. While actually taking the time to properly look at the food that we have in our fridge, I noticed that we mostly have processed foods and food that is bought in bulk. For example, my dad went to Kroger yesterday and bought ten orange juices. TEN. When I asked him why he bought so many, he explained that there was a “good deal.” Turns out, all of the orange juices expire in about a week. After this conversation with my dad, I couldn’t help but draw similarities between the American family in the book that we analyzed. Just like them, they had way more food than they actually needed, microwaved meals, and unhealthy processed food. This made it clear to me that my family lacks a sense of culture or diversity. Instead of adding a flavor of our own heritage, we settle for what is most easily accessible. To be fair, there seems like there is simply no time to try to cook a traditional Irish dish every night. 

Although the families of Tingo and Shingkhey village may not have the same luxuries as typical American families like electricity, a big home, etc. They all have a greater sense of unity or family in their pictures. Also, the size of their families are a lot bigger than mine, and yet they still seem to be very close. On the other hand, their food is mostly fresh vegetables and much healthier types of food. Although they might lack easy accessibility to their food, their greater sense of family is ultimately more valuable in the bigger picture.