Propaganda of the Past and Present

                According to the definition provided by Webster dictionary, propaganda is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” In history, most particularly during wartime, propaganda was used in order to persuade people to do something that might sometimes be contradictory to their principles. In instances such as World War I, the British were using posters such as ones about defending British womanhood to persuade people to enlist in the war. Due to the heavy causalities sustained by the Allies during the war, they decided to use propaganda to institute nationalistic fervor in order for the citizens to continue their support for the war and fighting in it. In addition, the United States made posters such as the one with a little girl asking her father what he did during the “Great War.” Consequently, Americans decided to travel across the Atlantic Ocean and participate in an European war that does not entirely involve the Americans except for the 100 American citizens on the British ship, Lusitania that were killed by a German submarine. Some people might not even care about those 100 American citizens, it was against their principles, or religion to take up arms and kill another person but propaganda persuaded them that they are fighting for a justified cause so they fought.     

                Contrastingly, in 2011, propaganda is used in other situations due to the lack of major wars. In the case of McDonald and other fast food restaurants, they post advertisements on Television and on the internet about how their food is the best plus how their customers are enjoying every bite of it. Even though those foods might taste delicious according to personal experience, the ads do not state the health implications such as diabetes and high blood pressure/cholesterol plus other problems that the foods might cause as long as people are persuaded to buy it. In my opinion, these advertisements and many other ones selling different products to consumers are different kinds of propaganda. In advertisements, the companies always want to state the positive facts about their products while also hiding the negative effects at the same time.  Consequently, people would want to buy the products without knowing the entire truth about the product’s usage and effects so while the companies profited from the sales, the consumers are left in doubt or anger after using the products. Although, propaganda is useful only in the view of the individuals profiting from it but without them, how can mass amounts of people ever stand united for a common goal. Even if most of the time they are iniquitous, good things do happen because of them such as in the opposite meaning of this quote “The greatest harm can result from the best intentions,” which can be translated as “The greatest benefit can result from the worst intentions.”

Open Response to Black Boy

      The first time that came to my mind when I thought of this topic is the experiences that shaped Richard’s character base on how he responded to those events. According to the chapters that I have read so far in this book, I would say that Richard had been involved in physical and mental battles throughout his childhood. A few of the physical fights that Richard had been involved in mostly happens to be the ones during the few days that he had transferred into the schools because he was new. An example of that would be during one recess afternoon when a group of boys decides to surround Richard at the school that he transferred into when he was staying with Uncle Clark. After hearing the laughter of a gang of boys, Richard decides to fight back because he thought physical power was required to gain acceptance at the school. In addition, at Jim Hill public school, Richard responded to the challenge imposed by the two brothers in the only way that he knew which is by fighting. Based on what Richard had experienced on every one of his first days at a new school, a gang of boys always tried to intimidate him and he thought, either he resorted to violence as a way of either protecting himself or gaining acceptance when currently, people settle arguments peacefully through conversations.

    There had also been occasions of mental battles between Richard and his relatives that shaped his character. In the case of religious belief in his family, Richard stated that he did not feel God so he did not give his consent to act of baptizing but after seeing how his relatives pressuring him to believe in God and his “paralyzed” mother begging him in front of all the church members, he reluctantly concurred. Consequently, Richard began to view religion as a way for people to conform to the social norm and preserving their pride in front of other Christians instead of dedicating themselves to the teachings of God so he hated Christianity for its lies. Also in many clashes between Richard and his granny, it seems that they always argue over the idea that Richard is a minor so he has no right to make any decision without the consent of his guardians, which is his granny.  Whenever Richard asked his granny if he could get a job, she always responds with the answer no because he was a minor and Saturday is a sacred day to seventh day Adventist such as herself. After seeing how the boys in his school can buy their own food during lunch and wearing first-rate clothing, he began to dream of being like them and wanted to get a job so he could earn his own money but granny never let him. There was even one occasion where Richard decided to leave home so he could get a job but in the end, he stayed because after a short period of arguing with his granny, she finally agreed to let him work on Saturdays. Consequently, these arguments and mental battles with his granny had shaped him to become a character that would result to physical resistance in order to accomplish his goals and a person that would break the cultural norm if he thinks he have the correct reasons to do so.       

Is young Richard alone in his cravings?

     Well that is the blog topic of the week. Do I think young Richard is alone in his cravings? I definitely do not think he is alone. Besides from talking about what others crave for, I should first talk about Richard's cravings. In chapter 1, Richard always crave for attention in the beginning such as how he decided to burn the curtains because everyone is trying to take care of his grandma. In addition, he decided to go to the salons daily to help men and women spread words around because they gave him the attention that he craves and the money he could use to buy food to ease his hunger. The reason why he started to have a craving for food was because his father didn't want to take care of his family anymore so without money, Richard was hungry all the time.
     Richard is not the only character in the book that has cravings although he is the one more focused on by the author. In the case of his younger brother, I would think he also craves for attention similarly to Richard because whenever Richard is about to do something bad, he is always saying phrases such as "I am telling". The reason he wants to be a tattletale might be because he wanted his mother to notice him more and gratifying him for warning her about the bad things Richard did. Also in the text, Richard's mother said she only wants to comfortably raise her children so they won't grow up into bad adults which is her craving for a softer life.
     In the case of the book, that is what I have known about the characters' cravings so far but even in modern society, everyone have things that they crave for so Richard is definitely not alone. The more common examples are money, love, and happiness. Without cravings, nobody would have a goal in life and society would stop progressing because no one wants anything. That is why although people sometimes view cravings as something to avoid, they are still necessary for progress such as if Richard wasn't craving for something, he would not have become such a successful novelist.

Purposeless activity may be a phase of death. --Pearl S. Buck