Response to Shrek: Parody or Form of Retaliation?

Luo Jiner (Smily)
ENG 1430
Dr. J. Marquardt

Response to Shrek: Parody or Form of Retaliation?
     Jeffery Katzenberg once employed by Disney. But he felt that he was not appreciated in Disney. He left Disney and teamed up with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to form he DreamWorks. It led to a competitive race for success between Disney and DreamWorks. In 2000, Shrek was produced. A definite sense of tension between DreamWorks and Disney exists throughout the film. 
     When I was young, I just regard Shrek as a common comic. Now I knew that why there are many traditional fairy tale roles in Shrek. Jeffery Katzenberg tried to create the Shrek to satire the Disney. In Shrek, Lord Farquaads kingdom, Duloc, shows one looks very  similar with Disneyland. People dressed up as Lord Farquaad, (like Disneyland’s characters), greet Shrek and Donkey when they first arrive at the kingdom. 
     I think Shrek is not only a parody of Disney movies but also a retaliation for Disney. Katzenberg was so smart because he was making fun of Disney and avoid any legal battles with Disney. This kind of development actually is a win-win situation. Eisner and Katzenberg's argument made both company to develop. As an audience, I am looking forward to watch much more great movie.

Explanation of the Quote

Luo Jiner (Smily)

Dr. J. Marquardt

April. 27 2015

Introduction: Queen Rania of Jordan is the Queen consort of Jordan. She actively involved in educational institution. She is also an avid user of social media and she maintains pages on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Quote: “In education, technology can be a life-changer, a game changer, for kids who are both in school and out of school. Technology can bring textbooks to life. The Internet can connect students to their peers in other parts of the world. It can bridge the quality gaps.” by Queen Rania of Jordan

Explanation: Rania suggests that technology change the way students study. Technology brings a lot of benefits and convenience to students.  It’s obvious that technology can improve the education.

Response to Insights from a Cinderella Story

Smily (Luo Jiner)

Dr. J. Marquardt

April 16, 2015

Word count: 266

Response to Insights from a Cinderella Story

The Insights from a Cinderella Story is an analysis that is totally different with other analysis I’ve read before. I read a lot of article about how Cinderella related to gender equity. The author suggested there are many symbols in Cinderella story. These symbols and inner meaning teaches us about something about coping. That’s the first time I heard about this idea. And author analyzed variety versions of Cinderella story rather than analyzing one specific version. Using evidences from different version of one story could strengthen the accuracy because finding similar meaning from different story means there must be something in common.

       I think author’s idea that Cinderella story teaching us about coping is almost right but a little bit unreasonable. Author pointed out that the process of Cinderella stepping to an upper class by the help of others is similar with the process of adulthood. For example, losing parents means we will all face some challenges. Wearing elegant dress to the party means that we each have an inner elegance and a noble quality to reclaim.

       There is one thing I don’t agree with author. The author said, “She is faithful to her dreams, keeping them secret and nourishing them until they are strong enough to bear fruit.” It seems Cinderella is an active character. However, I still believe that Cinderella is a positive role in Cinderella story because what she does is just waiting. I’m not sure if Cinderella is faithful to her dream.

       Whatever, author also said that there are thousands of possible implications for each detail. And I love this comprehension very much.

Response to "Marriage Plot"

The author discussed why marriage plot never gets old in novel. He first quoted Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel “The Marriage Plot,” An English professor complained that sexual equality is good for women but bad for novels. The liberation of women and liberalization of divorce law are undone the novel completely so marriage plot is a continuing subject for writers to write.

In my opinion, marriage plot will never get old because marriage is a symbol on society. Marriage is not only a combination of two people. We give marriage many meanings. For example, marriage could be regard as a symbol of identity. People who marry with someone with high status may also be regarded as high level people. Marriage is not a simple staff. Authors have tons of stories about marriages so marriage plot will never get old.

Response to RuPaul, Big Freedia, and the Mainstreaming of Gender Performance

Luo Jiner Smily

ENG 1430

Dr. J. Marquardt

April 10, 201509.15

RuPaul is a drag queen, which means a person live as a man but act like woman. RuPaul has his own drag race. We watched a drag race at last class. I was shocked by those drag queens. I won’t recognize that they are men if I was not told before watching. I can’t see any masculine factor from them though they are exactly men.

Freedia is a singer who is also a drag quenn. Maybe people will think they are sick or abnormal. But I really appreciate them. They are brave enough to face the truth that they like to dress like women. I heard that there are some men wear women’s dress covertly. They feel ashamed when this secret was explored to public. However, Drag queens are not afraid of being conquered. No matter how people discussed them, they chose to be themselves but not pretended to be normal people in other’s eyes. I believe people could stop to this kind of prejudice in the future.

Response to Cinderella and Feminism

Luo Jiner/Smily

ENG 1430

Dr. J. Marquardt

April 6, 2015

Word Count: 281

Response to Cinderella and Feminism

I had made a presentation about Bluebeard which is a fairy tale written by Charles Perrault. Bluebeard is a story within violent elements but it’s for children to read. I doubted that some fairy tale is not suitable for children. Then I did some research about the origin of fairy tale. I found that many fairy tales are adapted from folk tales while folk tales are not only written to children. Folk tales are created in ancient time and bear the values of ancient time. So I assumed that those values are not proper in modern times but those stories are still told generation by generation.

Let’s turn to the Cinderella and Feminism. In this article, author believed that the “angelic female” in Cinderella emphasize subordinate role of women in society. Cinderella is beautiful, kind, caring about nature and submissive. Author said, “Those actions mirror what kind of mother, wife, and caretaker she would make in the future.” Then author showed her worry about young girls. People now value feminism highly. Women should not be submissive any more. But those “harmless” stories are told to girls at young ages which then “establish the normality of the domination of men in their minds.” So we should consider if young girls should still read those old fairy tales. If not, story like Frozen could be a new choice for young girls. Frozen is a story about two brave and independent girls Elsa and Anna. The ending of Frozen is not that Prince and Princess live happily ever after but two princesses finally came over the difficulties. It shows that girls don't always need a “prince”. Independent girls could also live a happy life.

Response to Why Women Smile

Luo Jiner/ Smily

Dr. J. Marquardt

Eng 1430

Word count: 178

Response to Why Women Smile

From Why Women Smile, I know that women smile not always because of happiness. But people in society don’t understand women’s smile. For example, Japanese people use smile to hide pain and sorrow. Women don’t express real emotion because they are required to smile.  Amy Cunningham points out that female always do artificial smile. Women smile to satisfied society but not themselves.

In our society, women are required to perform femininely. Keeping smiling is a feminine behavior. So smiling is not just a way to show happiness but a tag of women. So women have no choice but keep smile all the way. People like to put tags on different people. For instance, we believe artists are always odd. Then the artists behave like normal people are not easily recognized as an artist. Gender roles are almost the same. Gender roles are constructed and reinforced by Society. Even many people support sex equality, this idea itself is a kind of bias. Sex equality will be a long process and I hope one day women could smile more spontaneously.