TOW #10: The Silicon Valley Suicides

Times have changed in high schools. Whereas adolescence used to be associated with rebellion and carelessness, it is now associated with high expectations, stress, anxiety, and depression. Especially in affluent high schools, students are continually becoming more unstable as the pressure to do well is piled on from peers, parents, and students themselves. Hannah Rosin, national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of the book The End of Man, takes on this topic in her investigative essay "The Silicon Valley Suicides". In this piece, Rosin analyzes the negative implications of overachievement by focusing on a cluster of suicides in highly affluent Palo Alto, California. She uses poignant anecdotes from former students who dealt with academic pressure in order to show that the pressure to succeed in affluent areas has created a toxic culture of depression amongst adolescents.

Rosin writes her essay to the unknowing parents of stressed out students, who unconsciously catalyze the ideology amongst students that success is the only option. Rosin argues that despite positive reinforcement, achievement based parenting is still detrimental to the mental health of teens. After delving into the lives of many of the afflicted former students of the Silicon Valley area, she deduces that parenting where achievement is seen as the only justification of parental satisfaction is extremely damaging to students. She argues that this causes students to think that success is the only way to gain approval from their parents. To support this claim, and her main claim that the culture of achievement has created and extremely depressed group of teens, she uses heart wrenching anecdotes from students who suffered from achievement based depression. One such anecdote is of former student Taylor Chiu, who said that after an academically drowning semester that she wished "that someone had broken up with her, or that she was anorexic, or that she had some reason to explain to her parents why she felt so sad." and that  "She didn’t want to ask for a break, she said, because people would think she was lazy. “But having a mental disorder? That’s serious. People would listen to that.” It would be, she thought, like a man being held back from a fight: He would never have to admit he couldn’t win" (Rosin). Through including Taylor's anecdote, Rosin is able to aptly embody what goes through the minds of stressed students. Her inclusion of the last metaphor, relating Chiu's unwillingness to quit to a man being held back from a fight, especially encapsulates the mindset of students who believe there is literally no other option but success. 

Thus, Rosin adeptly shows parents how the values which they covet so much--studiousness, intelligence, overachievement--are making their kids absolutely miserable. Rosin's essay is heart breaking and revealing. After reading, it leaves the reader with a sense of bitter irony; that good intentions and dreams of the best success are what are slowly killing students. 

TOW #9: Visual Text

There have always been two definitive parties within American politics, whether it be federalists and antifederalists or democrats and republicans, there have always been parties representing two different sides of the political spectrum. However, in recent years it has been more common to see smaller more radical factions developing within the two larger fundamental parties. This is topic of seasoned political cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune Scott Stantis's September 2010 cartoon, The Tea Party. In this cartoon, aimed at the average American voter, Stantis uses juxtaposition to show how the Tea Party had become a large burden on the Republican party.
This visual text depicts a fiery young girl demanding that a large, seemingly bewildered elephant drink his tea at her tea party. However, on a deeper level, this humorous cartoon jabs at the American right wing political faction: The Tea Party. The elephant, the symbol of the GOP, represents the Republican Party. The little girl represents the Tea Party: a radically conservative (perhaps that is an oxymoron) faction of the Republican party. In this cartoon the Tea Party is depicted as having a comical control over the larger, yet scared, Republican party. Stantis shows this through his juxtaposition of the little girl and the large elephant. The large elephant would seemingly be stronger than the little girl, reflecting on how the Republican party should be stronger than the grass roots Tea Party. However, the little girl appears to be extremely loud and demanding, whereas the elephant is passive. This comparison of the small but verbose Tea Party to the powerful but easily cowed elephant shows how the Tea Party is able to control and hinder the Republican party despite its power. Thus, Stantis's comical juxtaposition effectively shows the absurdity of the fact that the small Tea Party is deeply and negatively affecting the larger Republican Party.

IRB Intro Post 2: War

For my second independent reading book I will be reading War by Sebastian Junger. This book was recommended to me by a fellow friend and classmate, who said that the book read like a narrative and was very fast paced, which are qualities I tend to look for in a book. The book, written by Sebastian Junger (Author of the famous book Into the Storm), focuses on the time Junger spent as a journalist in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan with U.S. troops. It follows the American soldiers through their harrowing experiences, and shows war from an objective point of view. I was especially interested in this book after realizing it was the text that corresponded with the documentary Restrepo, one of the rawest and most moving documentaries I have ever seen. I am very much looking forward to reading this book, and am interested in seeing the un-romanticized and un-hollywood aspects of war.

TOW #8: IRB Please Kill Me (2/2)

The first half of the book Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain focuses on the early roots of the Punk movement, as well as the burgeoning careers of many Punk symbols such as Iggy Pop and the Ramones. The second half of the book does the opposite: it focuses on the fall. While the book in its entirety is an amalgamation of the chaos that made up the Punk movement, the last half seemingly acts as the swan song to a movement that could never be maintained. McNeil and McCain artfully show--rather than tell--the labyrinthine odyssey of punk, drawing on their first hand experiences as pioneers in the movement: McNeil was the first to coin the term "Punk". They present the chronology of punk as a linear narrative not told by the authors themselves, but rather through first hand accounts from the punk symbols themselves in order to create a feeling that resembles that of a documentary. Through the use of these varied snippets of first hand accounts, McNeil and McCain are able to skillfully convey to the reader that the chaos that birthed the punk movement was also responsible for its death. As the first hand accounts of punk lead the reader down a path of sex, drugs, nihilism and insanity, the instability of those involved becomes evident. There was no unifying mantra or code amongst the vast and varied subgroups of punk, only a common sense of rebellion. This is expertly exemplified through the carefully chosen first hand account of Jeff Magnum, bassist of the band The Dead Boys. When recounting an extremely tumultuous encounter with law enforcement, he says "All I wanted to do was play the base real loud. I didn't want to hang out with these maniacs. Jesus what is this" (323). What prompted this outburst were the actions of bandmate Cheetah Chrome, who "threw a bunch of shit out a window and called the cops" (324) and said "'Come get me. I'm mental. Please come and get me'" (324). Magnum was further baffled by these actions, and said "I'm on mars. This can't be right. This can't be the way you're supposed to be in a band" (325). Through including this first hand account, McNeil and McCain show the chaos and disparity that plagued Punk bands. Magnum's description of his bandmate's crazed behavior and his obvious disapproval of it shows how the punk movement had no linearity, and that there was extreme polarization amongst those involved. Thus, McNeil and McCain showed how this polarization would crumble the punk movement as fast as it was built. McNeil and McCain's hands off approach to Please Kill Me in this way accurately epitomizes the rise and inevitable fall of punk culture.