Bullshit by a Teenager

Existence:(7/15/2005)
What is existence? Is it reality as one knows it? is it limited to our perception of reality? does each individual have a vastly different view of how life itself is lived?,portrayed?........is each individual reality absolute, or is there but one? or are all realities....what occurs when these realities and counter realities interact, cross over, and/or go into flux? do past,present, and future tense collide?....or become warped beyond on's own imagination? what one does not know  does not exist, until one is cast headlong into one's own destiny.............

A general sense of contempt:(1/11/2006)

I don’t kill people.

   Perhaps it's just another inhibition to do away with. Perhaps not. There’s really no way of telling. It’s possible I’ve just never been able to well up so much interest in any person to care enough to end their life. I’d much rather avoid them altogether. Most of them. It’s night, the sky is beautiful. Up and away from this room and this bed and this oppressive inevitability of sleep. I hate sleep. But sleep always comes (that or madness). Fighting off heavy eyelids gets lonely. But spending time this way does allow you some insight on certain things, though perhaps trivial, as most things tend to be. You begin to get very familiar with mortal compilations and you begin to resent those who turn their things into laughable theatrics, and twist it into yet another fashion. It’s not skull-buckle boots, or white makeup put on bad skin. It all loses its significance once you cheapen it by making into a style thing. But with all these irritations present I still maintain my stupendously sunny deposition. Having predominantly unpleasant thought is just another thing to accept normality, and eventually becomes part of the blood that fuels you. It’s all very amusing. But. In no way does it render you invulnerable to the effects of a bad day. But I’ve managed this nicely. I mean, well I still haven’t killed anyone.

Human Relations: (1/11/2006)
I can’t say I hate very many people specifically: so few seem real enough to deserve that level of attention. Certainly, though, there are soon good people out there, somewhere. It’s just that, here, in a world of patterns, it’s so rare to really feel anything from anyone. Connections are difficult. There’s an irritation in being among people who’ve found there connection, and finding that those left who haven’t are undesirable as the void they would be replacing. The numbing mind-ream of knowing your alone not because people wont accept you, but because you find so little worth accepting. An imposed solitude is better than simply tolerating your company in waiting for something better. So loneliness is not such a terrible thing when you consider that the alternative to thought provoking solace is to be surrounded only reminders of why that solitude is preferable. I’d take film and music over blurry mass of faces i've encountered. People begin to look like mere fleshy reaction machines: passionless and dead. But this is all in my own head; I can’t claim to be arrogant enough to be certain of any particular perception. After all, reality is what we make it. It’s just unfortunate that the general population has made it so unpleasant. I’m meandering. 

Answer to life: (2/16/2006)

You people aren’t worth my Knowledge of the things right before you face. So oblivious is the world, wrapped up in there own pain to not see others. I know the meaning of life. There isn’t one. We are here by the chances of being in the right place and time of the universe. Religion is our own creation used to give people the easy answers before philosophy and science was discovered. Hope of a better world if you play by the rules of a false belief. The world needs religion to keep it alive, to make it thrive in existence. Those who fight against it are the fools, you can’t change people from thousand-year-old paths carved into minds passing from one to another through childish influence. Don’t pity those who embrace the truth of no meaning to this existence. Families disowning their children to this day. Minds so poisoned with lies and over elaboration of life after death. Let the beliefs stand, death will elude us. These things I have told you many ears cant decipher for people need a reason and a god to live and fester.

The Research Paper on Redheads

Some people look at red hair and just see it as a hair color. For a redhead, there is a whole story most people don’t know. Redheads are told to never, NEVER go out into the sun without sun block. Also, they are told how beautiful their hair is at all ages. Most of all, redheads see how rare it is to pass one another. For each of these there is a long history of studies and experiments which can explain things redheads have already noticed. In the following, questions will be answered and the whole science and history will be unveiled.

Many facts have been discovered to explain the red hair phenomenon. From ancient redheads to genetic composition, scientists have explained many questions about red hair.

Some Neanderthals may have had red hair and pale skin according to a new genetic study. The traits were common in European Neanderthals. The studies lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona discovered the amazing fact. In the cases of both Neanderthals and modern Europeans, he said, the gene mutation that caused fairer complexions spread only after the respective populations migrated from Africa. From intact DNA from 230,000 to 30,000 years ago, Lalueza-Fox and his colleagues were able to study two separate samples unearthed in Italy and Spain.  While studying Neanderthal DNA samples, Lalueza-Fox's team found an unknown mutation in a key gene called MC1R. Red hair only appears with people of two copies of the same mutation on the gene. MC1R protein is found in the skin and eyes instead of a darker melanin. The mutation is a recessive gene located of chromosome 4. MC1R is also the key to all colors of every human. The official name is melanocortin 1 receptor or a stimulating hormone receptor. It provides instructions for making pigmentation in hair ,skin ,and eyes. MC1R can be found in the retina also effecting vision. There are two forms of this gene which cause lighter or darker colors. People with red hair have a higher amount of pheomelanin which causes skin to not tan. The advantages and disadvantages of MC1R will be explained later.

It is so rare to become a red head, but there are even fewer who become famous. There are famous redheads all through history that many people didn’t even realize had red hair! Here are a few red heads that you would recognize: Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Vincent van Gogh, Lucille Ball. I would assume that you knew they all had red hair. Paintings or black and white photos has washed away some you could not have guessed ere redheads. Here are a few more surprising discoveries: James Joyce, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Napoleon Boneparte, Cleopatra, Christopher Columbus, Oliver Cromwell, General Custer, Emily Dickinson, Judas Iscariot, Florence Nightingale, Dwight Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, King David, Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, William the Conqueror. Redheads made many foot prints in history. There are facts still unknown about redheads through out the world though. The sale of at home red dye kits has gone up seventeen percent since the year two thousand hit. There is a belief that redheads are prone to industrial deafness. Adults have about 120,000 hairs on their head; redheads have fewer. The country name of Russia means "land of reds" in honor of a redheaded Viking by the name of Rurik. In the late 16th century, the fat of a redheaded man was an essential ingredient for poison. The Romans kept red haired slaves, and at a higher price. By now it is obvious that so many things effect redheads over the years. So how many redheads are there and where could they all be? There are about 2% of the human population with red hair. In northern Europe it occurs frequently so about 6% of their population are redheaded. Scotland has the highest population with Ireland following it. Some scientists have speculated that this rarity indicated an extinction of redheads. Over 30% of people carry the traits to create more redheads, thus keeping the population level.

Red hair just isn’t a hair color. What causes red hair can effect the whole body and health or even the future of its host. Scientists of today has pin pointed its advantages and disadvantages along with what is being done to help people of other hair colors.

Geneticists Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University studies in the pain laboratory uncovered some advantages of red hair. Withstanding 25% more pain that others, redheads express a natural pain reducer. Less pain killers are needed for red headed women during child birth. This is caused by the mutated MC1R gene interacting with pain senors through the skin. Because MC1R also caused the skins paleness it collects more vitamin D in low sun environments. Chemistry professor John Simon at Duke university discovered this can also cause DNA damage. Redheads skin requires less energy to start a chemical reaction producing free radicals. It can be linked to skin cancer, which many red heads suffer from. Also sunburns can be extremely painful and easy to get on red haired people. Through these advantages and disadvantages scientists are finding ways to help people through these Gene mutations. Along with more effective sunblock for redheads, they are discovering new ways to replicate their natural pain killers. Geneticist Ian Jackson of the United Kingdom Medical Research Council plans to study redheads. Jackson says," We thought that MC1R was involved only in hair color."

Redheads know they are special. Either it be a mutated gene or thousands of years of natural selection, redheads will always feel a since of pride to be like they are. From “land of the reds” Russia to Florida, USA, red hair will continue to be apart of human history. No matter how many times scientist say they will go extinct, a new generation is sure to come.  From advantages to health risks or rumors to facts, redheads will never run out things to say about just how cool they are. But don’t be discouraged, all other hair colors, there is a reason for you too.

v4641 Sagittarii

Black Holes

A black hole is a region of space that has so much mass concentrated in it that there is no way for a nearby object to escape its gravitational pull. There is no limit in principle to how much or how little mass a black hole can have. A typical mass for a  black hole would be about 10 times the mass of the Sun. They weigh about a million times as much as the Sun. You can't see a black hole directly so we have to rely on indirect evidence that black holes exist. This is the topic of my research paper.

Lets begin by explaining what a Quasar is. These objects are the very bright centers of some distant galaxies, where some sort of energetic action is occurring, most probably due to the presence of a super massive black hole at the center of that galaxy. The electrons near the center of the quasar can be accelerated to speeds near the speed of light. They emit radio waves. There are no nearby quasars. This is all relevant to my topic.

Now, we will touch on microquasars. A microquasar consists of a binary system in which a normal star orbits around, and loses matter to, a nearby compact object, either a black hole or a neutron star. A dozen or so microquasars have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy. Microquasars are a substantial source of high-energy particles and radiation in the Galaxy. The closest known microquasar and black hole to Earth is V4641 Sagittarii, which lies only about 1,500 light-years away. Now we are to the subject of my topic.

I chose v4641 Sagittarii as an example of a black hole. V4641 was discovered September 15, 1999 by Australian astronomer Ron Stubbings. V4641 Sgr underwent a very strong but very short outburst. Radio observations revealed relativistic jets associated with this outburst.  Is it roughly 3 to 10 times the mass of the Sun and a Diameter roughly 11-37 miles. V4641 Sgr is classified as a microquasar. It is in the constellation Sagittarius with a normal star named V4641 Sgr. It has orbital period of 2.8 days and at quiescence has an apparent magnitude of 13.8. It has a very turbulent magnetic field. That is all I could find about v4641 Sgr.

(REview) Mrs. Evers Boys

What are the ethical considerations seen in the film?

The ethical considerations that Mrs. Evers boys proposed were at the cost of study, how far could the government take it.  The Tuskegee project used human guini pigs and disguised it as a way to benefit the African American cause. They also preyed on the uneducated men, within very important information, and did not fully get their consent to what was going on. The lifelong damage they inflected for the sake of study was inhumane and unethical.

What was the research method used?

The method of research they chose was the placebo effect. They were given no form of actual treatment. Instead, the men were given vitamins and salve that had no purpose.

Do you agree or disagree with the research?

I disagree with the research. They believed it was important for the country to recognize African Americans reacted no differently to syphilis than a white person. It was a completely unnecessary experiment as any doctor at the time could determine physiologically there aren’t any differences.

Do you think the research was beneficial in anyway.

There were no benefits towards the African American cause or the medical cause. It did seem like a convincing argument that in the end of the study it would prove that black and white were no different. But it was the cost of these mens lives. Over 400 men and just 100 left from a preventable and curable deasies. The worst was that the nurse and doctor perpetuated the ignorance of their condition. 

(REview Literature)Irony in “The Cask of Amontillado”

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado is riddled with all three types of ironies. Verbal irony is the interchangeable nature between what words are being spoken and what it actually applies. Situation irony is when the situation or event begins one way to become something entirely different as the story progresses. Lastly, dramatic irony is when a character believes something else than what the reader has been hinted too. Fortunato is the unfortunate named man who the narrator, Montresor creates all types of ironies for.

The first example of dramatic irony is prominent in the first paragraph of the story. Montresor, the narrator of the story is explaining his mind is set on revenge. Verbal irony is show through the man Fortunato, who the narrator seeks revenge against. Montresor does not show any hint of malice toward Fortunato which has created a perfect scenario to enact revenge without suspicion. Montresor already knows Fortunato’s weakness for wine, so he will use this to bait Fortunato into to a trap.

The scene is a festive party at dusk where drunkenness is already prevalent. The narrator runs into his friend who is in a ridiculous clown garb and has already drank too much. Here he tells Fortunato that he has found a wine cask of a rare wine called the Amontillado. Of course this intrigues Fortunato who is curious of the authenticity of the wine, so the narrator persuades Fortunato to join him. Montresor explains that they must go to the vaults, but Fortunato is hesitant because he is weary of the cold and tight atmosphere of a vault. Never the less Fortunato follows the narrator to his palazzo, which he has already ensured will be unoccupied. They take torches and descend into vaults which lead into the narrators family catacombs. Dramatic irony is again present because Fortunato has followed Montresor who is seeking revenge into a dark hidden place.

Fortunato begins to cough at the musky air. Montresor uses verbal irony in saying “your health is precious; you are rich, respected, admired, and beloved; you are happy, as I once was”. He hands him more wine so he won’t sober up and to keep him going. Still, because of his cough Montresor keeps insisting for Fortunato to return to the surface. At which point it is apparent that Fortunato and his arrogance creates the illusion that he is the one that is has made the choice to follow Montresor no matter what to taste the Amontillado wine. All the while Montresor is feeding him more alcohol to keep him drunk. 

Fortunato is lead to an empty space into the wall of the catacomb. He must go into the dark, and with the hint of situational irony, wraps chain links around his waist as to not get lost. Here the narrator secures a padlock while the drunken Fortunato is stumbling in the dark. Uncovering hidden mortar and stone near the niche the narrator is keeping him excited by the promise of the wine. He begins closing up the wall and inside Fortunato has still not realized his fate.

            A laugh is heard from the depths of the darkness. Fortunato isn’t convinced that he is in trouble nor is he aware of Montresor’s ill intention. Ironically, Fortunato says “We will laugh richly about this back at the party when we are drinking our wine. Let us leave.” At this point Montresor is nearly done sealing the wall, he merely responds with “yes.” Now Fortunato has sobered and probably even realized what is happening.  He shouts “For the love of god, Montresor!” Montresor drops in his torch and seals the last brick. His revenge is complete and leaves, glad to be away from the damp catacombs. 

(REview) A Beautiful Mind

In Princeton University Fall of 1947, in a classroom sat John Nash. Professor Helinger sets off  with a speech. Mathematicians won World War II by creating the bombs, the communications codes, and cracking the ones used by the enemy. This is to tell the new students entering into the Math Department of Princeton they has potential to be important. After class, a recreation is set up for students to mingle. It is apparent that John is gifted by his ability to take linear reflections from glass to apply it mathematically to the design of a fellow students tie. Here is where he meets Neilson, the man who helped crack Japanese codes during his time in the military. Bender, who was talking with Neilson introduces himself as Richard Sol walks up to talk to them. Before John has a chance to introduce himself a man interrupts them and coyly asks John for a refill, as if he is a waiter. John recognizes Martin Hanson, a published writer for his theories. John calls him out on how the whole premise of his book is incorrect and walks away. We learn that both Hanson and Nash were rewarded the Carnegie Scholarship to Princeton and John is known as the West Virginian Genius.

In his room John begins to unpack and rearrange his furniture, putting his desk near the window. A tall gangly man stumbles in proudly announcing he is his roommate. Instead of confessing he drunk, he goes on about explaining how a hangover to the brain is the same as lacking water. John isn’t amused and goes back to his things. His roommate jumps in front of him on his desk and introduces himself as Charles Herman. Taking out a bottle of alcohol from his coat jacket he invites John to the roof to break the ice by getting loosened up. On the roof, John lets Charles know he doesn’t like people much because they don’t like him. Only mathematics is what makes him matter. He thinks going to classes and learning from textbooks is beneath him and students are lesser mortals. Charles lets him know that Mathematics won’t lead him to truth. They laugh together and look out over the campus.

John stopped going to classes and it’s been noticed by Neilson, Sender, Martin, and Sol. Martin tells John he is afraid to compete against him. They settle it over a game, which John loses despite his calculations. Upset and confused, he runs away to do his work. For two days he pours over books in the library. He can’t come up with a topic for his doctorate theorem or an original idea. Charles, seeing it’s time to rescue him, takes John to the bar to loosen up.  Later that week he is meeting with Professor Helinger. Because of his lack of attendance and no papers to grade he is close to losing everything. Martin has completed two more papers and is close to receiving recognition. Scared, he returns back to his dorm to try and figure something out. He furiously writes and draws, so panicked he hits his head causing him to bleed. Charles fights him trying to get John out to find inspiration, that the desk is the problem. Charles pushes it out the window, and they go to the bar. There he finds inspiration by applying a Mathematical theory called Adam Smith, using it to get himself and his friends dates for the night. Afterwards H=he goes to his dorm and works over a whole season proving the Adam Smith Theory as incorrect, challenging 150 years of economic theory. It’s accepted and he is offered a job at Wheeler Labs. He chooses Sol and Bender to be with him on his team.

            In 1953 Dr. John Nash enters into the Pentagon. The military has intercepted radio transmissions from Russia. John looks at the wall of  numbers and decodes latitude and longitude coordinates along a map that crosses the US Border. Above the Lab in a viewing area, he first spots FBI Agent William Parcher, who is unnoticed by other personnel. John leaves to return to Wheeler defense labs MIT campus, where he, Sol, and Bender have offices. John has been making covers of magazines such as Fortune since his time at Princeton. Preoccupied by his own studies and ego, he has forgotten his job as a teacher for MIT. The textbook he must use isn’t his taste, and on entering his classroom he throws it away as garbage. John then writes a complicated math equation on the board proclaiming few or none will ever solve it in their life time and it is where they will begin. At the end of John’s day, he leaves the college building to run into William Parcher again. Here begins the elaborate new job he always knew he was meant for. He did not know the purpose of the coordinates he found for the Pentigon, but Parcher explains. He is lead to a warehouse on campus that was previously thought to be abandoned. There he discovers the FBI have set up computers and scientists to use it as a temporary base of operations. John is now told he now must spy for America and decode hidden messages within the media and then report his findings dropping them off at a secure location. A scientist then proceeds to tattoos his arm with UV numbers which Parcher explains will change to reveal the entrance codes to the drop off area.

            The next day, John is eagerly working on magazine clippings when he is interrupted by a knock at his office door. A student of his, Alicia Larde wants to tell him she solved his equation. With a look over, he says it’s incorrect and expects her to leave. Instead she asks him for a date, as she is attracted to him. This romance blossoms and they marry soon after dating. They move to Cambridge, MA to begin their life. Unfortunately John has told Parcher he needs out of the job, which has left him paranoid about being caught by the Russians. This paranoia causes him to snap at his wife telling her they aren’t safe. This leads to her secretly making a call with urgency in her voice..

            Later John Nash is giving a lecture at the Harvard University National Mathematic Conference. There he runs into his old roommate Charles and Charles’ niece, Marcee. John wants to seek advice from Charles about William Parcher, but it’s his time to go into the lecture. During the lecture, John looks past the crowd to see men in trench coats walking towards him. Scared, he flees the hall and is chased by the men. He is cornered, then approached by psychiatrist Dr. Rosen who tells him they must leave. John refuses to leave lashing out so they are forced give him a tranquilizer and put him in the car. He wakes to find himself handcuffed to a chair. From John’s perspective, he thinks he has been kidnapped by Russian Spies who know about his work with William Parcher. Dr. Rosen explains John has been admitted to the Mac Author Psychiatric Hospital. He isn’t listening, but instead sees his old roommate Charles sitting in the corner shaking his head. John calls out to Charles thinking he was a spy all along who turned him in. Dr. Rosen says there isn’t anyone there and then knocks him out with another tranquilizer.

John Nash is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. His wife, Alecia, finds the work he’s done untouched left at an old abandon house, the same house that John believed was a drop point. He never was a spy for the FBI, it was all in his head. Sol and Bender knew of his strange behavior and ignored it since John would be hostile if they asked about his classified project. Charles never existed, and at Princeton, John lived alone in his dorm. At the Psychiatric hospital, they begin an electro-treatment and put him on medication. Alicia breaks the news that Charles, William Parcher, and Marcee do not exist and his job was fake. Angry he storms away in disbelief. That night a nurse finds that he has clawed his arm trying to find the tattoo with the numbers to prove that he wasn’t crazy. John now realizes that his whole existence has to be questioned now and it’s hard process for him.

After a year of treatment and recovery John is released from the hospital. He starts working on another theorem to try to get his old job back and his life on track again; however, the medication starts clouding his thoughts and he secretly stops taking it. In April 1956, his visions return and tell him Alicia is a threat to his important work.  William Parcher returns and tries to get John to kill her. Alicia seeing John is once again being irrational calls Dr. Rosen. John sees Marcee playing and makes a realization that she can’t be real because she hasn’t aged. John decides he will try to control the visions without medication and Alicia loving him, decides to stay with him. In June, he stops by Princeton to meet with his old rival Martin Hansen. He is the new headmaster and has taken old Heligers office. John asks for a small job in the Library and to attend classes. Martin cautiously gives John a chance. Later on in the hall his hallucinations show up again. He sees Marcee, Charles, and Parcher, there he promises them that he will never acknowledge them again.

It’s 1978, and an aged John Nash is in the Princeton University Library. On the windows he has drawn and solved the unsolvable equation, Reimanns. A student recognizing John and his work and asks if he would like to join him and his friends for tutoring help. He reads over the student’s equations and gives them advice. This sparks his passion to teach again, later asks Martin if he could be a teacher again. In March of 1994, John has been teaching successfully for many years. As he is dismissing his class a man by the name of Thomas King is waiting outside, and with all new introductions John confirms he is real by asking a student if she can see him. King is a coordinator for the Nobel Peace prize committee. John learns he has been nominated for the Peace Prize.

The Nobel Prize Ceremony is held in Stockholm Sweden on December 1994. John Nash gives a warm speech marking the point he returned from self-destruction. He ends the speech by thanking his wife for staying with him during his purge of medication. Nash’s theories have influenced global trade negotiations, national labor relations, and even brought breakthroughs in evolutionary biology. To this day he keeps regular office hours in the mathematics department at Princeton and walks from his home every day.

(REview)Sociology within Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine

Within Little Miss Sunshine there are sociological messages to explore. We are following an estranged family who are taking a trip to make little girls dreams come true.  Essentially everyone was out too complete some kind of dream. The Hoover family is comprised of Olive Hoover, Dwayne Hoover, Richard Hoover, Edward Hoover, Sheryl Hoover, and Frank Ginsberg.  Olive is a little girl who competed in a pageant and since then made it her dream. It reveals the social pressures revolving around beauty. Dwayne, her older brother, has taken a vow of silence until his 18^th birthday to become an Air Force pilot. It’s a look into the dedication some have to the military. Richard Hoover, their Father, aspires to be a motivational speaker for those who feel like losers. Many before him had thought they found the secrets to make people happy. His dad Edward recently returned home from the retirement home where he was kicked out for drug use. His age and the demographic he represents are important to the quality of life in the country. Sheryl, Richards’s wife, is trying to be the glue and is stressed. Her brother Frank comes in at a time where he just attempted suicide after a series of bad events.  The things which he says made him lose his value of life are things anyone could have experienced.  I will look at each character to explore in depth they’re part in sociology.

First we are introduced to Olive Hoover. She is admiring Mrs. Louisiana     on the television.   Olive Mimics the pageant queens happiness during the moment of winning.  Her Aunt or Sheryl the mother’s sister took Olive to a pageant and let her compete in California. They were called The Little Miss Sunshine regionals, the pre-qualifying pageant.  There are obstacles Olive must face and the first one is her father. It is hinted at that Olive is an overweight girl and she is the last person to know. Olives father used an opportunity to criticize her weight by explain ice-cream creates fat.  Suddenly he asks   are the Miss American pageant queens fat or skinny. He attempts to teacher Olive winners are only skinny and she will be fat. This pressure on a young girl is the societal norm. It creates eating disorders and devalues of self-worth among alarming rates of teen.  Olive has a chance to ask Mrs. California herself if she eats ice cream, and she does. Proving to Olive that a woman can be both skinny and beautiful and not be afraid of what they eat. We see more society pressures and the standard of beauty during the Little Miss sunshine competition. When other children are spray tanned, and showing as much skin as possible to impress the judges, Olive states true to her style. For the Bathing suit, it was a one piece modest outfit and for the formal dress it wasn’t as situating the hips. The largest controversy was during the talent portion. Olives grandpa choreographs and extremely sexual and inappropriate song. It was blatantly honest and highlighted the fact that there isn't outrage toward dressing a child as a sex object.  Pageants are made to explode and elaborate on changing a young girl into the sexy women they want to immolate. After a tussle on stage to let his daughter perform the father dances her routine with her in support.  A sweet bonding of this strange family happened and it resulted being banned from competing ever again. Olive won by leaving the ordeal unjudged and unchanged from her.

Next we look at Richard Hoover. He is an aspiring motivational speaker who wants to changes large groups of people’s lives for the better. From the turnout at his speech it seems to not be going well. We come into his story while wanting book deal.  It is about his motivational 9 steps to stop being a loser. His character is driven to only be a winner. When news of Olive’s pageant comes it’s at a crucial point of waiting on his publisher to sell his books. Part of the decision to that the road trip to California is when he Tells olive to not even try if she’s not going to win. Because she believes in herself, he believes they are going to win Little Miss sunshine. Along the way, it’s clear his work affects his family negatively. Because he believes he has the best way to not be a loser then he is insensitive. He insults olive about her weight, point out Franks flaws, and condescends his son’s efforts.  Suddenly Richard Loses the book deal. This puts him back in his place where maybe he is the loser all along. He begins to see what the pageant is and how this judging is wrong. Richard is scared for olive and doesn’t want her to compete.  Now a new man he does the unthinkable during olives show. To show support in his daughter he begins dancing with her first. Richard doesn’t have the answers to fixing societies problems. Learning that he was flawed also changed how he’ll treat the people he cares about.

 The third character to analyze is Dwayne. He is 15 years old with died black hair and typical angst posters. What makes him interesting is his vow of silence for 9 months. Whenever he has a chance he is working out.  The driving force of this life direction is the Counting down to being 18 to join the air force.  He feels he is surrounded by idiots and Hates everyone. He loves his little sister the most and continues the road trip just for her. With her help by showing him a simple eye test it was revealed he is color blind. His months of devotion to joining the air force were wasted. Now that he can speak, his options begin spilling out in the same colorful way their grandpa spoke. He doesn’t like society or the pageant. By pointing out the hypocrisies of the whole organization he proves he’s got good intentions of wanting Olive to not compete anymore. With his family, as they danced in spite of the disruption, they took back little of the morality. Dwayne’s commitment to forcing the armed forces built his character to be resilient.

Next Grandpa Edwin Hoover the drug addict. He was kicked out of the retirement home.  Edwin Believes being old is the reason why to do drugs.  When Richard losing his book deals he shows he is a good father. He’s proud of him trying to get a book deal. When olive is being insulted by her father he tells her that she beautiful. He calmed olive down when she fears she’ll be a loser and her father wouldn’t like her. Shortly after Edwin dies from drug over dose in the hotel bathroom. The hospital wouldn’t release the body so they stole it and traveled with it. Richard decides it’s not right anymore and calls California’s merge. He left behind good lessons though he was crass. His advice resonated with what every character needed to hear.

Finally Frank Ginsberg, Sheryl’s brother had the most effective character in my opinion. He attempted suicide after losing his boyfriend and job and his home.  He grew the most, developing to be a part of this family. The scene of his sprinting to register olive in showed he loves her. The trip gave him vitality back into his life. Even after running into his ex it didn’t send him spiraling. He showed allot how in America the struggles we face affect all kinds.

We all have our own obstacles and goals and this family highlights sociology in the dynamic. For Olive she wasn’t one of the countless girls sent down a dangerous path of conformed beauty. Richard learned from his mistakes that a mass of people aren’t a one size fit deal, it takes all kinds. Dwayne’s reproach the dilemmas teens face about what they’ll do when they grow up taught him life is about experiences. Edwin was a hidden part of the retirement age no one gets to see. Frank got the bad end of allot and it showed the pressure someone can be under because of societal norms. All together this large family solved a few flaws but like there wasn’t a real happy ending. Learning about sociology is about observing the big picture and accepting humanity in all its different shades.