Schulz Part 4

It was in this part of Sparky’s life that he found religion. A twenty year old Sparky experienced a change in himself when he was baptized. According to Michealis,
“His baptism imparted a new sense of wholeness. His work improved; he was conscious of a purpose and, as never before, of a sense of identity. For the first time since his mother’s death, his days were suffused with meaning. Here was the real start of the new life toward which he had been struggling since his return from war. Why hadn’t he seen it before?” (193).
Sparky had never fully gotten over his mother’s death, but his new found faith helped him to get over her. I find this very interesting; it seems that all his trouble just went away after his baptism. It may have just been a mental thing in that he needed to get these burdens off his shoulders and then finally found some real meaning in his life to let loose those feelings of anguish. He probably found it very satisfying that he always had someone to talk to for once because his dad was constantly working and didn’t have any steady girlfriends in his life. Religion may have helped him finally get over Dena’s death, but his self confidence issues would need much more than the church to fix.
Sparky struggled for love in his early twenties. He always wanted to be liked and appreciated. According to the author, “Sparky still wanted to be as well liked as his father had been among his many constituent customers, and he set this wish among his highest ambitions…Behind it stood the question of his life: Will I be–was I ever–truly loved?” (Michealis 198). That would be a terrible question to have to ask ones self. How did a man so tormented make such great comics? Well I think there are two parts to the answer. Throughout his whole life and especially near his mother’s death, Sparky had worked tirelessly to prove himself to her and everyone else. I think his constant need to be liked made him work even harder to make it big. It also helped shape one of times most endearing characters, Charlie Brown. Also this book has so far just pointed out most of the negative parts in his life. I’m sure he had a lot of good times in his early years as well.

Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

Charles Schulz Part 3

Charles Schulz’s life was not easy by any means and he had to make many tough decisions, but these life experiences helped him form his code of ethics. He believed in himself and his cartooning, but had to go through the pain of being rejected by newspapers almost everyday. However, the anguish he received from rejection is not even close to the pain of his mother’s death. Obviously he was very sad because of his mother’s early death to cancer, but he was also mad because of the way that no one was telling her the truth. The author shows Charles’ feeling towards her care, “For Sparky, the most harrowing part of his mother’s torment was that no one told her that her disease was incurable. She remained in the dark until the bitter end” (127). Charles thought it was unethical to let a person die without them knowing that there death was inevitable. Dena Schulz had been going up and down in her health and so it must have been horrible for a person with his ethics so sit there and not tell his mother that there would be no recovery this time. I have said this in a previous blog, but I think this is why he has no adults in his comics. The painful memories of him just standing there and watching nobody do anything while his mother slowly unknowingly die must’ve been very hard for him to bear.
Was it ethical for Charles to stall his mom’s death do that his talents could be proven to her? Charles was a person who wanted to be loved by everyone, but when he didn’t receive much love back he had to prove himself to the world. I wasn’t as if he was a bad person, he just had the unfortunate combination of being short and shy. He wanted his mother to see his work as the author describes, “What kept itself fiercely alive for more than five decades was the sock of realization in June 1940 that, once his part in the yearbook had come to nothing, he had little time to show his mother that he was something” (113). Above I described his personal anguish with the doctors and there treatment of his mothers, but he had to make an ethical decision too. Was it ethical or selfish for him to want his mom to see his life’s works? I think that he wanted to stall his mother’s death so that he could show her that he was somebody. When the doctors decided to end treatment I think he went into a panic, in that, he always thought that his mom would be alive to see his work, but it was beginning to appear that that was not the case. It was time to say goodbye to his mom whether he liked it or not and looking back I bet he wished he would have went about it differently.

Traitors on the waterfront

In On the Waterfront every characters has there own definition of a traitor. The father feels very strongly about it. He recognizes the unjust ways of the mob by the docks and he wants change, but needs the help of the workers. He thinks that the workers have a moral obligation to rat for themselves and others, but many will not. When Doogan finally does step up, he doesn’t see him as a traitor, but as a hero. He doesn’t think that the men are bad people because they are rats, but rather they are bad because they are not ratting. He doesn’t see why the men wouldn’t want to get a decent pay everyday. He wants the mob to turn out like the poor longshoremen, so he tries to enlist the help of Terry. At the beginning, Terry feels sympathetic towards the people that he helped kill, but not enough to act on it. He begins to figure that what Johnny is doing is morally wrong and it begins to bother him. He wants to rat on them, but he is not ready to put away the man who brought him to ball games and employed him. To Terry, it is not being a traitor that bugs him, but rather who he is squealing on. He doesn’t think he can do it, but then the father came along and began to sway him. Between the father and Charlie’s death, Terry severs his bond with Johnny and is ready to take the stand for him and the workers on the dock.
I can understand what Johnny was going through. He wanted to help people and end the unethical behavior of Johnny, but his relationship with Johnny was like a roadblock. I personally hate it when my brothers and sisters tattle on me, but those things are tiny compared to the ethical decisions real whistleblowers face every day. The reason many people don’t say anything is the fear of retribution and I think that is wrong. If it is something significant like reporting company’s shady dealings then a whistleblower should be able to report without getting death threats. I am glad that they have the whistleblower act, but one shouldn’t be in trouble for doing what they believe in. If companies and businesses were not so greedy then these moral crusaders wouldn’t have to step up only to wonder why they ever opened their mouths.

All My Sons

Throughout everyday life we encounter many problems that we solve using our own individual belief systems. Rarely do we stop and think about how these decisions will affect society as a whole. More often we think about how these choices will affect us and the people closest to us. Choices like Joe Keller and Chris Keller have to make in All My Sons. Joe Keller believes in family first. To Joe, supporting his family was above all, as he clearly states, “For you, a business for you!” Joe uses his family as justification for sending out the defective airplane parts. He is clearly wrong because he didn’t look at bigger picture and 21 pilots lost there lives as a result. He must suffer the consequences for his actions, but instead he shoulders the entire load on his partner. Unfortunately for him, his story begins to unravel. His own son doesn’t want any part of this business especially because he was in the war. Chris was out there fighting for his life and his men’s life while his father was letting defective airplane parts slip through with the false hope everything would be already because he was doing it for his family. Chris looks at the larger picture stating, “For me! I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell did you think I was thinking of, the Goddam business?” Chris knows that family is important, but being in the war has shown him many things. He doesn’t care about his father’s business because he knows that it is wrong to kill people in order to have a profitable business.
I think that everyone makes mistake sometimes; we put family and career before society, and that almost never ends well at all. We can take a look at many major bankrupt corporations. It may be a nice thought to go to bed thinking that you and your family will wake up to $10 million dollars like the major CEOs, but honestly who needs that much money? How many more major corporations are going to put there and there families’ well being before the public before we put an end to it? Enron is a great example because the people up top ruined hundreds of peoples lives to make some extra dough, but just like Joe they didn’t get away with it and had to pay the price. Don’t get me wrong putting family before society isn’t always bad; it’s just immoral when you have to take out other families to satisfy your needs.

Charles Schulz Post 2

I could get a sense of what the next section was going to be about when I read the title of the first chapter “Class of One.” Charles wasn’t exactly what someone may call outgoing. He was very awkward around girls and could never get the courage to go and talk to them. According to his cousin Lorraine, “He’d stand in the window and watch her go by on the St. Croix. He’d say, ‘Oh I’d like to meet her.’ Very quiet, so no one else could hear” (Michealis 105). Although Charles was obviously not much of a brave guy when it came to women, I cannot blame him because his family moved around a lot. It was hard for him to make new friends when they were moving around the twin cities, especially a self-conscious sophomore like Charles Schulz. I can definitely draw parallels between Charles Schulz and Charlie Brown because they both were very afraid to talk to girls as shown in the cartoon below.

Charles decided to forgo college and continue to cartoon, but he soon received his draft papers. Unfortunately, he received bad news about his family as well. His mother, who had been doing a lot better lately, had fallen ill once again. This time, however, there would be no recovery because her cancer could not be cured. Charles, who was nicknamed Sparky, was not happy with any of it, according to the author, “For Sparky, the most harrowing part of his mother’s torment was that no one told her that her disease was incurable. She remained in the dark until the bitter end” (127). Charles really wanted to have his mother see the fruits of his work, but she never had the chance. He felt so helpless and wished that they could’ve done more, but with the barber’s salary his father, Carl, was receiving and health care at the time, Dena Schulz had little chance of survival. The combination of his dad’s ultra busy schedule and his mom’s premature death may have carried over with him into his cartoons, which don't show adult figures just voices of the parents.

Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

"Comics.com." Comics.com. 2008. Comics.com. 24 Nov 2008 .

Throughout Charles Schulz life he did many things he enjoyed and many things he disliked; however, no matter what he could always convey his experiences with a comic. As a young child, Charles Schulz moved from St. Paul, Minnesota to Needles, California. He did not enjoy Needles at all; he referred to his two years there as a “miserable life.” He did well in school, but he did not make very many friends. To describe his life in Needles he made, “an outcast- his most isolated character, Spike, a gaunt, desert-hardened-for community-to bring the desert’s peculiar immediacy and remoteness…” (Michealis 48). The cartoon shown below depicts just that, Spike, the isolated dog. He shows his loneliness in Needles where he didn’t make very many friends, but one thing he always had was the ability to draw and depict that “miserable life” in a way that makes everyone laugh.

Charles also dealt with self-confidence issues as a child. He described himself as “bland” or “blank.” The author comes in to defend him saying, “…it was not he who was featureless, it was the world he grew up in- flat, impoverished in language, stricken by silences, stripped to essentials or less” (Michealis 65). In other words, he wasn’t a dull kid; it was just a dull society. No one could truly understand his gift yet and neither could he because no one paid much attention to him. In the comic below Charles shows how he felt as a kid, in that he thought that he bored everyone.




Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanut: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.
"Comics.com." Comics.com. 2008. Comics.com. 13 Nov 2008 <http://comics.com/peanuts?DateAfter=1975-10-03&DateBefore=1975-10-03&Order=s.DateStrip+DESC&PerPage=1&Search=&x=30&y=13>.
"Comics.com." Comics.com. 2008. Comics.com. 13 Nov 2008 <http://comics.com/peanuts/1957-07-30/>.

(In order of appearance)

$400 Million Mistake

We have all made mistakes in our lives, some big and some small. I doubt, however, that you have ever made a mistake that ended up costing you hundreds of millions of dollars. According to this story, that is what Sean Connery gave up by not playing Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings". He was offered 15% of the worldwide box office receipts and he turned it down because he couldn't "understand the script". What a mistake it was because he turned down almost $400 million. Steve Mcqueen also turned down three roles as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in "The French Connection", Sundance in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Captain Benjamin Willard in "Apocalypse Now". He lost $3 million when he turned down "Apocalypse Now", and a potential oscar for the "French Connection". Will Smith was offered the role of Neo in "The Matrix," but he humbly turned it down explaining that he would have "messed up" the movie. You really don't know what you have till it's gone. Some of these stars have legitimate reasons like not thinking that someone else will do a better a better job, but to turn down millions of dollars because you don't want to film somewhere or not "understanding" the script is crazy. Mr. Connery should've tryed to understand the script a little more or just checked out the huge fanbase before he turned down $400 million. I thought this was very interesting especially thinking about how different the famous movies characters would be with different actors. It is definitely something everyone should read. It is related to class in that we are learning about film and literary analysis and this is a story about film. This is also related to the class theme for this semester about journeys. The actors obviously believed that their journey or purpose was to not do that movie.

Riggs, Ransom. "5 million-dollar mistakes by movie stars." CNN.com 20 Oct 2008 1. 22 Oct 2008 .

Pirates of the Somalian Coast

When we think of pirates, we think of a huge ship with a burly crew that has a win or die trying mentality trying to get treasure from other ships on the seas. We still do have pirates, but like in the movies. They are beginning to become a problem in Somalia’s coast, so NATO is sending ships to protect the seas. According to the article, pirates have seized a Ukrainian ship that was carrying weapons and hostages. Sugule Ali has been the voice of the pirates who have put the ransom at $20 million. He supposedly lowered the ransom to $8 million because of international pressure and the fact they are surrounded by six United States warships with a Russian tanker on the way. The hostages are safe and healthy, but they are still scared and uncertain of the future. The concerns of piracy aren’t just the hostages, but millions of food is sent to people who need it and they will starve without it. NATO plans are not certain as of now, but I’m sure any aid is appreciated and will help immensely. This article was very interesting to me because I thought that piracy was something very uncommon, but that does not appear to be the case. Ships are just going to have to step up security because we cannot cover the entire ocean. This relates to the theme of the first quarter books we are reading, which is a journey. These pirates feel that their journey is to seize this ship and try to earn money off of innocent people. Everyone on the ship had a journey of their own, but it took a very bad turn when they were kidnapped. I would read this again because you really don't read about pirates very often.

Associated Press. "NATO sending ships to tackle Somali pirates." CNN.com 9 Oct 2008 1. 9 Oct 2008 .

Hero or Not

Question 2-
I do not think Odysseus is a hero for modern times. When we think of heroes we think of people who are physically and mentally tough. These people do not give into their weaknesses and will stop at nothing to obtain their goal. In Odysseus’ case he is trying to get home, but along the way he gets caught up with Calypso. Calypso will not let him free to get home to his beloved Penelope. He is not entirely faithful though because he sleeps with Calypso while he is on the island. A real hero does not give into his temptations no matter what the predicament. Martin Luther King Jr. could’ve given up at any time, but he knew what he had to do and he did it. Similarly, Odysseus happens upon Circe’s island. There he becomes her lover and lives there for a full year. This one is a little different in that he chooses to stay and she freely lets him go. This is not a hero like I said before a real hero does not give into his temptations. Certainly, one would think that a hero would willingly put a goal behind him. In the end, it just takes Odysseus that much longer to get home.
Additionally I think that Odysseus is not a hero because he is just a brute and is always out for revenge. Odysseus is transformed into a beggar and ends up in a palace. Irus, another beggar, taunts Odysseus and provokes him to begin a fight. Odysseus has his power restored and beats the snot out of Irus. Does a real hero get revenge and fight back? No, a real hero shrugs it off or takes it; they don’t go and beat up everyone who says a bad thing about them. He has power and he needs to use it responsibly. He is meant to help save the family not kill innocent beggars. Once Odysseus shows himself to the suitor it is too late for them. He does not give any mercy and kills all of them. Additionally, he has the disloyal servant women clean up all the bodies and blood and then kills them as well. A real hero has mercy, they will not get revenge. Odysseus doesn’t care about anything besides the fact that they were disloyal or suitors. Therefore, in his mind, they need to be killed.

Chinese Gymnast Controversey

The 2008 Olympics were held in Beijing, China this year in spectacular fashion. Inspiring stories reafirmed our belief that anything is possible if we dream. Records were broken and the U.S. came away with the most overall medals. Should we have had more though? In gymnastics the Chinese women gymnasts won most of the medals, most notably the overall gold. However, their ages have come into question because of their appearence and sketchy birth records. An investigation was made into their ages, but the results proved the Chinese were all at least 16 that year. According to the article, Dong Fangxiao, a participant in the 2000 Olympics, was 14 during the olympics. She worked as a technical officer in the Beijing where her birthdate was listed as January. 23, 1986, but her official birthdate is listed as January. 20, 1983. The reason they have the minimum age at 16 is to protect the still-developing girls from injury. Next year, they will start using a license system to aviod these controversies. I was very interested by this story because I personally thought that they were underage just by looking at them during the Olympics. Some looked like they still had baby teeth or just losing them. I think that the IOC (International Olympic Commitee) should have looked into this earlier instead of at the very end of the olympics. This isn't a matter of sour grapes because the U.S. lost, it is a matter of trust because the Olympics are meant to be a time for everyone to come together and put aside our differences. I would read this again because I wanted to find out how this was going to end.


Associated Press, "Ruling Backs Chinese Gymnasts." New York Times 1 Oct 2008 1-2. 1 Oct 2008 .

Fearsome Wrestlers

The story opens with a team of wrestlers in Chechnya, Russia. For many years the city could not participate in the olympics because they would not take them. Chechnya tried to break away from Russia, which led to war. Now things are different mostly because of the new political and fighting hero Ramzan A. Kadyrov. However, many view him as something much different because he has been accused of beating, toturing and killing rebels and their families. He is a man of pride and denies these allegations so that he may not look like such a brute. This article relates to the whole theme of pride in The Iliad because pride can turn you into someone you do not want to become. Hector's pride made him delusional as did Mr. Kadyrov. Well according to this article anyway. It seems that Ramzan like Hector and Achilles has lost his way. I would read this again because I have never heard of Chechnya and it sounds like an interesting place. They are very athletic, which is probably why 2 gold medals came out of there this year.

Chivers, C.J.. "Wrestlers Wrest Heritage From Wars’ Wreckage ." New York Times A624 Sep 2008 1. 25 Sep 2008 .

Welcome to EE10

Hi, my name is Kyle. This is my EE10 outside reading blog. I will be posting interesting blogs throughout the year. Please check every week if you are lucky for a new post. I hope you will enjoy my informative posts about what I have been reading!