Part 4: Community Discourse

Part 4: Community Discourse- Main Assignment p.191

When I was growing up in Madison, Alabama one of the most exemplary and inspiring figures in our community was the Bob Jones High School principal Robbie Parker. He had an especially southern accent that every high-schooler heard most mornings over the intercom. He was always friendly and would talk to students in the hall, and made it a point to inspire everyone he came across. Even in an atmosphere where teachers, administrators, and adults in general might have faced resistance in connecting with students, Mr. Parker was always able to connect with students by getting on their level and treating students with respect.

I remember when Mr. Parker gave a speech at our class's graduation. It was a very inspiring speech that emphasized the importance of family over career and education, despite the importance of all three. Mr. Parker had inspired so many students and parents within the community that he received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end of his speech. Mr. Parker has become a commonplace name among the community because of his service to the students and parents of the community.

Part 4: Chapter 7: Exercise p. 182 "The Quest Schema"


In the movie Click Adam Sandler seems to play both the hero and the villain where the "universal" remote he acquires begins to take over his life, but the consequences are still of his doing. Adam's ORDINARY WORLD is his life before he gets the remote. In this world he is under appreciated at his job and feels threatened by another man who flirts with his wife, his OUTER PROBLEM. His INNER PROBLEM involves his desire to be a better dad by being able to balance all of his current life problems. In Adam's search to make his life easier, Christopher Walken offers Adam a solution, the universal remote to control his universe. Adam eagerly accepts the CALL without knowing the full-potential and consequences involved with the remote. The remote seems to make Adam's life easier by finally making available to him his SPECIAL WORLD. However, the remote begins to TEST Adam when it begins to learn his preferences and automatically make his decisions for him. At first this seems convenient but quickly gets out of hand when Adam can no longer control the remote that is slowly making his life worse by ultimately realizing the current path he was heading down, his ORDEAL. Adam attempts to RESURRECT his life before the remote by attempting to mend relationships, but soon realizes his attempts are futile. While Christopher Walken seemed to be the villain in this story, we soon realize he was the MENTOR all along. As the remote's consequences come to a close, ultimately destroying Adam's relationships and ending his life, Walken steps in to show that the whole SPECIAL WORLD of the universal remote was a test. Our HERO is allowed to return to his ORDINARY WORLD before the remote and his RESURRECTION is finally realized giving him a second chance to live his life with the knowledge that he gained during his ORDEAL.

Part 4: Chapter 8: Exercise p. 223 "Lyric Evaluation"

"We sent out the SOS call.
It was a quarter past four in the morning when the storm broke our second anchor line.
Four months at sea, four months of calm seas to be pounded in the shallows off the tip of Montauk Point.
They call them rogues, they travel fast and alone.
One-hundred-foot faces of God's good ocean gone wrong.
What they call love is a risk, cause you will always get hit out of nowhere by some wave and end up on your own.
The hole in the hull defied the crews attempts to bail us out.
And flooded the engines and radio and half buried bow.
Your tongue is a rudder.
It steers the whole ship.
Sends your words past your lips or keeps them safe behind your teeth.
But the wrong words will strand you.
Come off course while you sleep.
Sweep your boat out to sea or dashed to bits on the reef.
The vessel groans the ocean pressures its frame.
To the port I see the lighthouse through the sleet and rain.
And I wish for one more day to give my love and repay debts.
But the morning finds our bodies washed up thirty miles west.
They say that the captain stays fast with the ship through still and storm.
But this ain't the Dakota, and the water is cold.
We won't have to fight for long.
This is the end.
This story's old but it goes on and on until we disappear.
Calm me and let me taste the salt you breathed while you were underneath.
I am the one who haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the sea.
I spoke the words but never gave a thought to what they all could mean.
I know that this is what you want.
A funeral keeps both of us apart.
You know that you are not alone.
Need you like water in my lungs.
This is the end."

The mood of these lyrics is a very somber one and seems to be an extended metaphor to indicate that the end is close for a relationship of some sort. There is a lot of strong but sullen imagery and while the song never says "I'm sad this is ending" it's very evident that is the case. While the visual in the video above is only an image, black and white seems to fit the atmosphere that the song creates as the singer seems to be standing alone, displaced from his surroundings. The music itself coordinates well with the lyrics. The guitar and vocals are very paced and leering and there's even a change in the music's time within the last verse that seems to signify the actual transition to "the end."