Author: kienzle.11

Text Review of “The BFG” by Roald Dahl

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The work I selected to analyze was The BFG by Roald Dahl. The BFG or Big Friendly Giant is about a friendly giant (named BFG) who lives amongst huge man eating giants. The friendly giant with his companion Sophie sets out to stop the giants from killing innocent human beings. BFG and Sophie convinced the Queen of England they needed her army’s help to stop the giants. The giants were stopped and everyone lived happily ever after.

The BFG was “othered” by his fellow giants. He identified as the runt of the group and assumed the role as the outsider. Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, explains that, “ if the Other is not to regain the status of being the One, he must be submissive enough to accept this alien point of view” (Beauvoir 1). At first this is exactly what the BFG did. He assumed the role as the other and allowed the other giants to walk over him.

However, Sophie, an orphan who befriended the BFG, talked some sense into him. Sophie reminded me of Marjane’s grandmother in Persepolis. She told him wise words to help motivate him to save the humans. The BFG turned a switch like Marjane did when she shouted “I am Iranain and proud of it!” (Persepolis 200). He set out to stop the giants from all the pain and torture they have caused. 

Cultures collided when the giant met with the queen. This parallels humans coming together from different cultures. As we have learned throughout the semester, cultures colliding sometimes causes bad things to happen when people do not accept them. This luckily was not the case. The queen accepted the BFG into her palace and they formulated a plan to stop the other giants. 

I believe the author wanted us to take away several themes from the book. One of the main themes being don’t judge a book by it’s cover. This means don’t categorize a person as the other and yourself as the one. Sophie did not condemn or “other” the BFG for his speech impairment (because he never was taught) yet sought to help him in every way she could. We are all equal and deserve to be treated with respect. 

The BFG is not the best conversation starter around identity, power, and injustice but I do believe these ideas are relevant throughout the story and there is a lesson to be learned. If you have some time, I strongly encourage everyone reading this post to read or watch The BFG with these themes in mind.

Have a great summer everyone! I hope you all stay safe and healthy during these tough times.

Black Panther Origins

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Before watching Black Panther, it is interesting to know its origins as a comic. With the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Marvel was under scrutiny of not having any black superheroes. African Americans wanted a superhero they could relate to. In an interview with The Comics Journal, co-creator Jack Kirby stated, “I had a lot of black readers. My first friend was a black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else” (Groth,1). Marvel recognized they needed to correct their faults. Thus, the Black Panther was created. 

It is most interesting to note when the Black Panther was created America was undergoing an extreme civil rights movement and racism was a part of everyday society. Creating an African superhero was extremely risky for Marvel. They could have possibly angered thousands of their readers. However, they did what was right and moved forward with the creation of the character.  Black Panther was created in 1966 and was featured in Marvel’s Fantastic 4 comic. The superhero was created by comic icons Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This would be Marvel’s first superhero of African descent. In 1968 Black Panther joined the ranks of the Avengers, Marvel’s elite class of superheros. 

The Black Panther name was shared by a political party designed to challenge police brutality on African American people. Although the comic superhero was created before this party, people questioned if the character had any associations with them. Comic legend Stan Lee denied any correlation with the group. However, to further address this issue, Marvel changed the name of the superhero to the Black Leopard. This was short lived and in 1973 the character was named once again the Black Panther. The Black Panther comic has been created off and on ever since its creation and new Black Panther comics are still coming out today. 

Work Cited

Groth, Gary. “Jack Kirby Interview.” The Comics Journal,       www.tcj.com/jack-kirby-interview/6/.

Sanderson, Peter, and David Roach. “Black Panther.” Encyclopædia   Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Apr. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-comic-book-character.

Thomas, Roy (August 2011). “Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Interview!”.    Alter Ego. TwoMorrows Publishing (104): 38–39.

The Big Problem with the Money Bail System — Aaron Kienzle

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Image retrieved From -https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html

I was watching a T.V. that followed around people in jail. From participating in this course, I got to thinking about the systemic injustices that lie in our criminal justice system. I believe there are a lot. One of these would be the money bail system that we currently have in play. The money bail system is where someone gets arrested and they are given the option to either stay in jail or pay a payment so they can be released until their court date. Once they show up to the court date they get their money refunded. However, there are a lot of problems and injustices in this. First of all the presumption of innocence (where people are considered innocent until proven guilty) is completely thrown out. If you are falsely accused and could not afford bail, you would be stuck in jail until your court date. Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopf in their article named Detailing the Poor stated that “34% of defendants were detained pretrial for the inability to post money bail.” This means out of 100 people charged and booked for a crime, 34 of them were offered bail and could not afford it. Innocent people sitting in jail because they cannot afford bail is definitely a problem. This is highly impactful to the lower class people who do not have a lot of money. Why is it right that a person with more money can get out of jail and a poorer person can’t? It simply is not. Upper class people are given a major advantage just for having money in their pocket. This system can be related to the theoretical work of othering we have learned in class. The system sets upper class people up as the one and lower class people as the other. All based on how much money the person has. Justice should not have a monetary value. In order for this wrong to be righted a new system must be put into play, a system that does not focus on social classes to decide if you can or cannot stay in jail. This reformed system must focus on equality among all people and fairness in the trial process. There are two articles linked below that help understand the injustices that lie in the money bail system. If you have the time, check them out!

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html

https://talkpoverty.org/2016/04/27/the-many-injustices-of-the-money-bail-system/