Discrimination

Discrimination means unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice. Most, if not all, discriminations are named base on the victim. For example, a free thinker and completely ordinary person discriminates a Christian, it's called discrimination against religion; a physically normal person discriminates a person who is visually impaired, it's called discrimination against disability. I categorise discriminations under against intrinsic or extrinsic characteristics. Intrinsic refers to innate characteristics that are usually unchangeable. Extrinsic, on the other hand, refers to things not given upon birth and could be changed. I do admit, however, that the categories are quite ambiguous. For example, with modern technology, it is possible to change the gender via transsexual operation and its sometimes unclear whether gender is an intrinsic or extrinsic characteristic.

Intrinsic
1)Ancestry. One person might be a descendant of a notorious person in history, and many might think that he would follow the footsteps of his ancestors and thus discriminate him.
2)Race. Negroes were once discriminated in America and they were not granted many rights.
3)Gender. Many believe girls are better behaved than boys; therefore boys usually get a harsher scolding for committing a same offence as a girl.
4)Disability. Many look down on the physically disabled and think that they are inferior to them. Some of them might even rub salt into their wounds by insulting them.
5)Psychological disorder. Many mock the weird actions of the mentally unsound and also look down on them.
6)Age. People believe that old man are usually unable to do manual labour and therefore they never allow them to do so even if they can.
7)Intelligence. People believe others of inferior intellect are inferior to them in other ways too. THey even insult the intellectually inferior.
8)Appearance( face, etc). Some people judge the book by it's cover and believe that people with particular looks are immoral and therefore habour feelings of hate against them.
9)Family. People might believe in things such as 'like father, like son'.

Extrinsic
1)Education. A person who has been taught by an elite school would think that another person taught by an ordinary school is inferior to him and hence look down on him. He might even take some actions against the person taught by an ordinary school just to prove that he is superior.
2)Reverse Discrimination. A person might hate someone discriminating him and decides to let him 'have a taste of his own medicine'.
3)Political Affiliation. A person might from a stereotype-based prejudice against someone with a particular political belief. For example, he could say that 'all anarchists are violent', and starts insulting them.
4)Employment. People might discriminate others based on their jobs. For example, cleaners are stereotyped as smelly and dirty people. Some people intentionally avoid them or even purposely cover their nose in disgust when walking past them.
5)Nationality. Some people insult others based on their nationality. Europeans once discriminated Africans and Asians and bought them as slaves.
6)Marital status. People might think that old unmarried people are incapable of marriage and thus insult them for being incapable.
7)Social Status. People might hate the rich simply because they are richer and discriminate them.
8)Appearance(clothes, etc). (Same as 'appearance(face,etc.)')
9)Religion. Hitler once discriminated the Jews and massacred them.
10)Reverse reverse discrimination.

Of course, there are many other forms of discrimination that are not typed above.Also note that the discriminations might sometime be against two characteristics of the victim, for example, people might discriminate the child of a rich person because they are jealous of the comfort he enjoys. In this case it's discrimination against social status of family.

Literature and life

The little boy and the old man by Shel Silverstream
1)The underlying message that is being conveyed in this poem is that little boys do not usually get the attention they desire from adults and sometimes little boys would rather do something embarrassing like wetting their pants and crying often than not gain the attention of adults, which goes on to show how much attention is desired by little boys. The little told the old man various embarrassing things he did, most probably to get the attention of the old man.
2)Yes, the entire poem was in dialogs so as to describe the conversation between the little boy and the old man more clearly, to emphasize on the short replys the old man gave to the little boy, just to show how much the old man wishes to refrain from engaging in a conversation with the little boy and therefore show that the adults do not give the little boy the attention he desired.

Messy room by Shel Silverstream
1)This poem is humorous in an ironic way. The persona criticizes the owner of the room for the untidiness of it and said that whoever who owned this room should be ashamed. However, in the end, the person realises that the room is actually his own, and he was actually criticising himself all the long.
2)The aspect of the human character highlighted in this poem is the innate tendency of human beings to blame others, whether or not they are at fault.Around the end of the poem, the persona started speculating on who the owner of the room is, blaming Donald, Robert and Willie for the untidiness of the room when the one who made the room untidy was actually himself.

Cloony the Clown by Shel Silverstream
1)The irony was that when cloony the clown desires people laughing at him, what he got was sympathy, and when he desires sympathy, what he got was people laughing at him.
2)Shel Silverstream managed to convey the fact that when we want something, what we get would be something else; and when we want something else, what we get would be the thing we originally wanted.
3)Shel Silverstream used repetition various times to convey the message. Repeated passages include "But he just wasn't, just wasn't funny at all", and parts of sentences that are repeated include "Everyone...", "He had a...", "He told...", and "They laughed...". These passages were used to emphasize on the actions of the persona and other characters.

I find that I can identify with "Messy Room by Shel Silverstream" the most. Messy room gave an vivid illustration of that particular aspect of the human character, the tendency to blame others whenever they see something embarrassing. When faced with an embarrasing situation, the human mind will instinctively, and often arbitrarily, point the finger at someone else. Whenever you see something embarrassing, in this case the messy room, there would be a 'voice' in your subconscious that says "This is not done by me". Sometimes you don't even bother checking if it is or isn't done by you, because the 'voice', your dignity, would just 'tell' you "This is not done by you". Even though you never heard these voices before, it is implied from your sometimes unreasonable actions that this 'voice' in your subconscious actually exists. This 'voice', called dignity, is probably an innate aspect of a human being, just like the conscience. Men are born with it, and sometimes, it is the one that influences decisions, decisions that might change yours whole life

Book Review: Animal Farm

The book I read was Animal Farm by George Orwell. In the story, a group of animals take over a farm, with a pig named Snowball leading them. Snowball believed that "All animals are equal" and started teaching the other animals to read. Another pig, Napoleon, took some pups and trained them privately. Snowball announces his ideas of a windmill, but Napoleon sent his dogs to attack him, and Snowball did not appear in the story after that, presumably dead. After Napoleon gained power, he told the animals that Snowball is evil and tried to abuse his power, changing the Seven Commandments of Animalism, to the pigs' benefit. A farmer attacked the farm, and in the process many animals were injured, including Boxer, a horse. Napoleon said he would send him to the vet, but Boxer's friend Benjamin found out that the car Boxer is in is bound to a Horse slaughtering place. Years passed, and the pigs began to look more and behave more like oppressive humans. In the end, the animals can't even differentiate between the pigs and the humans.
My favorite character was Boxer because he was hardworking and I felt that he did not get what he deserved in the end, getting sold by the pigs to the Horse slaughtering place just for the pigs to earn money for whisky.

Book Review: Around the World in 80 days

The book I read was Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne. It is about a man named Phileas Fogg and his adventures around the world. In the beginning of the story, Fogg hires a new servant named Passepartout. Fogg decided to bet that he can travel around the world in less that 80 days. They rescued an Indian woman on the way named Aouda, and meanwhile in Britain there was a bank robbery and a detective named Fix believed that he was the robber. However, when the travellers were back in Britain, they were ahead of schedule, but Fix put them in jail for just enough time to delay their arrival to London, and caused Fogg to believe that he had lost the bet, but actually he was early by one day.
I like Passepartout the most in this story because he is loyal and has faith in his master.

Book Review: Treasure Island

The book I've read is Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Jim Hawkins was a innkeeper of Admiral Benbow Inn. One day, a sea dog came to his inn, and wants him to look out for other sailors. Jim did not know that he had an important map that could lead people to Treasure Island. Soon, pirates started attacking the inn, to look for the map, and the sea dog died.Jim found out that the sea dog had a map and escaped with his mother. He then bought the map to Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney and they decided to set off to the place where there is treasure. Their crew included Long John's Silvers, and Jim managed to know that he is a pirate. There was a battle between the pirates and the rest of the crew, and in the midst Jim went on shore and found a man named Ben Gunn, who had already found the treasure. After the battle was won, Jim and Ben and the part of the crew that were not pirates and managed to survive the battle returned with the treasure.
I liked Jim most in the story because he is brave and determined.

Book Review: James and the Giant Peach

The book I read was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. James Henry Trotter, and 4 year old boy, was orphaned and had to live with his horrible aunt Sponge and Spiker. After 3 years of torture, James met an old man who gives him a magical potion and consumption of which would "Give James wealth happiness and great adventure". However, James accidently dropped the sack and it burst into magical green crystals that vanished into the soil. However, the old peach tree near their house suddenly beared a giant peach. Sponge and Spiker thought they could make a profit out of this, and thus decided to charge people for viewing the peach. One night, James went into the giant peach and saw colossal insects: the Centipede, Miss Spider, the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the Silkworm, the Earthworm, Mrs. Ladybird and the Glowworm. The peach itself broke off from the tree and squashed the aunts, as it sails across the Atlantic to New York. They had nice adventures on the way there.
I like James because he is brave and he told us that nothing is impossible, even at such a low point in life you can still bounce up.

I love eating my ice-cream,
always nice and always sweet.
I will never stop eating it,
cos it is way more delicious than meat.

I love eating my ice-cream,
cos they are as delicious as they seem.
And I prefer licking it,
to eating it.

I love eating my ice-cream,
cos it never ever has heat.
Ahh, the melted cream down your cheek,
just make you feel so fantastic.