A Cross Dresser and a Singer

Author’s note: If you realize it or not, real people have connections to fictional characters. Sometimes, they’re only alike in personality, other times they’re alike in their actions and things that reflect themselves. Also, a conflict with a real person can resolve in a way a fictional character may handle it. Today, I will be analyzing the conflict and resolution that made Lady Gaga into who she is today, and while doing that I will be comparing Lady Gaga (AkA Stefani Germanotta), to a character from one of my favorite Manga’s, Princess Jellyfish.

Situations in reality can often times result in a resolution that is similar to a fictional characters. For example, let’s take a situation that the author has been through. The author was bullied for quite some time, and with bravery and perseverance, she showed the bully that she was stronger, and made him go away. This resolution is similar to Maka Albarn’s way of defeating a terrible Kishin, who was known to be undefeatable. But, by using bravery, Maka defeated the Kishin with ease. The person and character this piece will analyze is Lady Gaga, and Kuranosuke, otherwise known as Kurako.

Lady Gaga, otherwise known as Stefani Germanotta, had been raised with music. She grew up with it, embracing it and loving it like it was her own child. Once she turned 14, she went to a very prestigious Catholic school in upstate New York, where she began to be bullied relentlessly. She got pushed into garbage cans, in lockers, and verbally abused also. Kuranosuke was bullied also, but not by his peers. Kuranosuke was bullied by his parents. He was verbally and physically abused by his father to be a politics buff like himself, even though he’d prefer to go into fashion. Stefani, a real person, and Kuranosuke, a fictional character, both have been through different types of bullying, both of them having to suck it up and deal with it. But, their resolutions aren’t what would be expected in this type of situation.

Both of these people, real and fictional, resolve their problems by improving their self esteem in a funny way. Stefani lets her talent envelope her, and she becomes Lady Gaga, the confident, self assured person that she had wanted to be for all of her life, but the school had held her back. She becomes fashion savvy, and vocally amazing, all with a little help from nightclubs and producers. Kuranosuke decides to basically tell his dad that he doesn’t care about politics, and he decides to start cross dressing as Kuroko, a fashion savvy rich girl who is confident, and friendly. As Kuroko, Kuranosuke becomes friends with new people, such as Tsukumi, who is the main character in the story. Kuroko is the person that Kuranosuke wishes he could be all the time, but around his dad, he still has to be Kuranosuke, thus the conflict comes back.

The resolution for both of these people, fictional and real, is to put on an alternate persona to the person they really are. For Stefani, becoming Lady Gaga is her safe haven, a person that she becomes where she can be herself with no limits, no restrictions. And for Kuranosuke, becoming Kuroko is the way to get away from his dad, and to be friends with girls who typically wouldn’t look twice at him. These people’s conflicts where almost exactly the same, and so was their resolution. For them, putting on an alternate persona fixed their problems that they had at school, or at home.

Never Surrender Take 2

The beginning of each chapter in Battle Dress, by Amy Efaw, you are greeted by a quote related to the military. Each quote demonstrates different kinds of  metaphors. All of which related to the army in some way, but they all have a way of affecting the reader.

Tone in this book is important in understanding the character. If you understand the tones she’s using as she talks, then you understand almost the entire book. For example, if the tone of the book seems a little hesitant, or scared, you’d know that the main character Andi is scared, or hesitant about something. I believe that tone in this book is amazing, because it makes up the book. The tone shows just how brave she is, and how smart she is.

Your cannot choose your battlefield,

The gods do that for you,

But you can plant a standard view,

Where a standard never flew.

~Nathalia Crane, “The Colors”

This quote, or stanza from a poem, is one of the first things you read when you begin reading “Battle Dress”. You don’t exactly know what it has to do with the book, and you don’t necessarily know what metaphors are in it. But, the entire stanza (or quote) is a metaphor. The first line, being, “Your cannot choose your battlefield”, doesn’t just relate to the army, is also relates to life in general. This being, the “Battlefield” being which path you take, because no matter what you do, your life will be a battlefield (at least in my opinion). The next line, which is, “The gods do that for you” is talking about how you don’t choose your destiny, gods do. But, in my opinion, you choose your own destiny, not gods, not your parents or friends... You do. I think that line is necessary yes, but I don’t quite believe in it. “But you can plant a standard view, Where a standard never flew.” I believe that is referring to your thoughts and opinions on things, and it doesn’t quite matter what anyone thinks, it’s what you think that matters in the end.

Your Momma was home and you left.

Your right!

Your Daddy was home and you left.

Your right!

That’s the reason you left.

Your right!

~U.S Army Marching Cadence

The poem above describes the main character, Andi Davis’s family life. Her parents are constantly fighting, making her home life really rough. I can’t really tell what figurative language this piece holds, but I can tell it’s almost like a personal metaphor for the main character, Andi. She says in the beginning that one of the main reasons she’s going to West Point is to get away from her crazy family, and be among a bunch of people who may be in the same boat as her. And as she goes along, she realizes that she’s there for even more than getting away from her family. The poem above summarizes her feelings in the beginning pretty well, considering.... Well, the entire poem. I think the author found this poem, and it really inspired her to make the character Andi the way she is.

There is no substitute for victory!

~General Douglas MacArthur, West Point class of 1903

This quote is only one sentence, and doesn’t really house any specific figurative language, but it does show the progress the character Andi has made since the first chapter. This quote was placed on Chapter 8, which is half way through the book. This quote demonstrates her growth from the first chapter, as well as another look into army life.

Your left, your right,

Your left, your right.

You’re out of sight,

You’re dynamite.

And it won’t be long

Till you get back home.

~U.S Army Marching Cadence

This stanza represents the end of the book. A metaphor in this stanza is “dynamite”. She isn’t dynamite, but she acts like it, meaning that she explodes with personality and such. I can totally see why the author would put this particular quote into the book because it really symbolizes that the main characters journey through the hardships of West Point is done, and she can go home again. Even though by then, she doesn’t want to go home. She’d rather stay with Third Platoon, her squad mates, her family basically. The sentence, “Your left, your right” is apart of an army march. Throughout the book, Andi is marching, listening to these words. And at the end of the book, she continues to march to these words as she goes into the stadium to meet her parents again.

Never Surrender

This has been said throughout the entire book. When Andi is at a part in her West Point life when she just wants to quit and go home, her squad leader Cadet Daily gives her a sort of pep talk and says, “Never Surrender”. In my opinion, this quote represents the entire book. While other people gave up, Andi get marching on, not letting the worst things get to her. Even though she wanted to quit at some points, she continued marching on. Never surrendering. Though she was a girl, and that set her back at West Point, she never let her gender hold her back, and kept pushing on. She didn’t surrender to her gender. When one of her squad mates, Hickman, began telling her she couldn’t do what he could, she proved him wrong and won a competition that only a select few in West Point can win.

She didn’t surrender.

This quote, in my opinion, not only applies to the harshness of the army, but applies to real life as well. For instance, if someone was bullying you, or if you were going through family troubles, thinking “Never Surrender” to yourself can truly make a difference between life, and death. If someone were to tell a person “Never Surrender”, if they were having a bad day, that may’ve saved their lives.

This book is about overpowering weakness and not letting your troubles lead your life. It’s about perseverance, courage, and strength. These are key attributes that people need to know how to do, it could very well keep you from suicide. Never surrender, as they say in the army... And as I’m saying now. Don’t surrender to the things bringing you down. Fight!

Never Surrender

The beginning of each chapter in Battle Dress, by Amy Efaw, you are greeted by a quote related to the military. Each quote demonstrates metaphors, personification, and similes. All of which related to the army in some way, but they all have a way of affecting the reader. During this essay I will give you a quote from the book, and analyze it’s figurative language.

Your cannot choose your battlefield,
The gods do that for you,
But you can plant a standard view,
Where a standard never flew.
~Nathalia Crane, “The Colors”

This quote, or stanza from a poem, is one of the first things you read when you begin reading “Battle Dress”. You don’t exactly know what it has to do with the book, and you don’t necessarily know what metaphors are in it. But, the entire stanza (or quote) is a metaphor. The first line, being, “Your cannot choose your battlefield”, doesn’t just relate to the army, is also relates to life in general. This being, the “Battlefield” being which path you take, because no matter what you do, your life will be a battlefield (at least in my opinion). The next line, which is, “The gods do that for you” is talking about how you don’t choose your destiny, gods do. But, in my opinion, you choose your own destiny, not gods, not your parents or friends... You do. I think that line is necessary yes, but I don’t quite believe in it. “But you can plant a standard view, Where a standard never flew.” I believe that is referring to your thoughts and opinions on things, and it doesn’t quite matter what anyone thinks, it’s what you think that matters in the end.

Your Momma was home and you left.
Your right!
Your Daddy was home and you left.
Your right!
That’s the reason you left.
Your right!
~U.S Army Marching Cadence

The poem above describes the main character, Andi Davis’s family life. Her parents are constantly fighting, making her home life really rough. I can’t really tell what figurative language this piece holds, but I can tell it’s almost like a personal metaphor for the main character, Andi. She says in the beginning that one of the main reasons she’s going to West Point is to get away from her crazy family, and be among a bunch of people who may be in the same boat as her. And as she goes along, she realizes that she’s there for even more than getting away from her family. The poem above summarizes her feelings in the beginning pretty well, considering.... Well, the entire poem. I think the author found this poem, and it really inspired her to make the character Andi the way she is.

There is no substitute for victory!
~General Douglas MacArthur, West Point class of 1903
This quote is only one sentence, and doesn’t really house any specific figurative language, but it does show the progress the character Andi has made since the first chapter. This quote was placed on Chapter 8, which is half way through the book. This quote demonstrates her growth from the first chapter, as well as another look into army life.

Your left, your right,
Your left, your right.
You’re out of sight,
You’re dynamite.
And it won’t be long
Till you get back home.
~U.S Army Marching Cadence


This stanza represents the end of the book. I can totally see why the author would put this particular quote into the book because it really symbolizes that the main characters journey through the hardships of West Point is done, and she can go home again. Even though by then, she doesn’t want to go home. She’d rather stay with Third Platoon, her squad mates. The sentence, “Your left, your right” is apart of an army march. Throughout the book, Andi is marching, listening to these words. And at the end of the book, she continues to march to these words as she goes into the stadium to meet her parents again.

Never Surrender

This has been said throughout the entire book. When Andi is at a part in her West Point life when she just wants to quit and go home, her squad leader Cadet Daily gives her a sort of pep talk and says, “Never Surrender”. In my opinion, this quote represents the entire book. While other people gave up, Andi get marching on, not letting the worst things get to her. Even though she wanted to quit at some points, she continued marching on. Never surrendering. Though she was a girl, and that set her back at West Point, she never let her gender hold her back, and kept pushing on. She didn’t surrender to her gender. When one of her squad mates, Hickman, began telling her she couldn’t do what he could, she proved him wrong and won a competition that only a select few in West Point can win.
She didn’t surrender.
This quote, in my opinion, not only applies to the harshness of the army, but applies to real life as well. For instance, if someone was bullying you, or if you were going through family troubles, thinking “Never Surrender” to yourself can truly make a difference between life, and death. If someone were to tell a person “Never Surrender”, if they were having a bad day, that may’ve saved their lives.

This book is about overpowering weakness and not letting your troubles lead your life. It’s about perseverance, courage, and strength. These are key attributes that people need to know how to do, it could very well keep you from suicide. Never surrender, as they say in the army... And as I’m saying now. Don’t surrender to the things bringing you down. Fight!

Questioning Sanity

Author’s note: The Raven is one of the most discussed poems in American literature, and today, I have come to discuss our narrators sanity. Which side will you be on? This is my point of view piece on, the Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, is one of the most known pieces in classic American Literature. It’s words have been known to shake people to the very core, and in some cases, scaring people into not reading it ever again. In the Raven, we focus on a young man grieving over the loss of Lenore, his lover. The point of view makes the man gives the reader the impression that he’s the victim. But, can we trust our narrator in the first place?

A Raven, a young man, and a dead woman are the main characters in the Raven, and our narrator is the young man. The poem is focused on this man’s feelings as the raven that enters his home make his life turn upside down, but is he really as innocent as his words claim him to be? Is he really a madman in an insane asylum? Maybe the raven is really his doctor, and the doctor is coming into his room to sedate him into sleep. Perhaps, there’s more to everything than meets the eye. But, the point of view of the piece is centered around the man, so we’ll never know just who he really is.

As far as we all know, our main character is a man grieving over the loss of his wife, Lenore. Are we really sure that it’s his wife? Could it be his little sister? Granted, he says, “a rare, and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore”, and a person could argue he most definitely is complementing his deceased wife. Maybe  his little sister died when she was five or six, and he always called her his beautiful maiden, and cherished her as if she was his wife.  How can we really depend on the narrator though, because, as we read the poem, it seems like he’s going mad? Whose side should we truly be on?

Our narrator, who is grieving the loss of a woman  close to him, could possibly be very very unreliable. How can we take any of his claims seriously, when it seems he is on the threshold of madness throughout the entire poem? We start to realize he’s mad towards the end of the poem, when he yells at the raven, “Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!”. We know he’s completely lost it here, even though there are hints of madness throughout the entire poem. But, he is truly trying to keep his sanity, like when he says, “Doubtless, what it utters is its only stock and store”, it’s as if he’s trying to convince himself that it isn’t real. Because the narrator is ranting to the Raven, he makes us all feel his emotions, his grief, his anger... All of that. So, when he’s going mad, we tend to want to be on his side, but, as I’ve said, should we really be on his side?

Although I’ve brought up all these points as to if we can trust the narrator or not, there is no possible way to tell for sure if he’s trustworthy or not trustworthy. Even if we had the best literary analyzers look at the Raven, all the opinions from them would be diverse. Why? Because it is the readers choice as to if we can trust the narrator or not. It is the readers choice if we should be on his side, or our own. None of us can prove if he is sane or not. Only Edgar Allan Poe would be able to, but it’s too late to ask. The poem is vague in telling the complete story, and leaves the reader guessing, in a pleasantly mysterious way. Edgar Allan Poe’s works have the ability to toy with our minds, and the Raven is most definitely one of his more mysterious poems.

Being a Lion

Author's note: This personal metaphor describes how I think my personality is, and I hope that my message is clear!

I am a lion

My words loud and fierce

My actions wild and free

I protect the ones I love

And hurt the people who hurt me or my family.

My courage is un matched

My palate quite large

But underneath the strong façade

I’m just a cuddle bug. 

Comfortably Numb?

“Is there anybody in there?” My manager said, slapping me on the face. “Nod if you can hear me...” He rolled his eyes, “Come on now, I heard you were feeling sick but this is ridiculous... Can you show me where it hurts?”
Heh... I don’t know why he keeps trying, I can’t hear what he’s saying.
I’m not feeling any pain, not really. He’s only coming through in waves, heh, I can only see his lips move.
See, when I was a child, I got a fever... my hands felt like two balloons.
Now I have that feeling again, I can’t explain the sensation, but this isn’t how I am.
“Ok.... Just a little pin prick, there’ll be no more----”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” I screamed, not knowing why  I screamed.
He sighed, “You may feel a little sick...” He mumbled, “Can he stand up?” He asked the rest of the group around him. They all shrugged, then pulled me up to test it. “That’ll keep him going through the show, come on, we have to go.” He said pulling my arm, tugging me along to the car
But...
I’m not feeling any pain!
I don’t understand, there’s nothing wrong.... I swear there isn’t.
When I had a fever, I got a fleeting glimpse, but when I turned it was gone..
That child has grown, and the dream is gone.
I’ve gone comfortably numb.

Memoirs of a Geisha Prediction Piece

Author's note: This is my prediction piece


During Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri encounters a man that she knows as the Chairman early on in the book. As I was reading this, and reading all the things that seemed to put a wedge between her and the Chairman, I started to think that no matter what happens, the Chairman will somehow become her danna (ie: a danna is basically a provider for Geisha).

As more and more things seperate the Chairman and Sayuri, I started to think that my prediction may be incorrect, and thought about things that might happen instead of my original prediction. During Sayuri's life, a man named Nobu takes an interest in her early on. Nobu soon begins to make Sayuri's life change drastically, when he starts talking about becoming her danna. This was one of the major wedges that I thought drove Sayuri and the Chairman apart, and I was I was proved correctly when Sayuri informed me that she felt the Chairman and her drifting apart. When Sayuri knows that Nobu will become her danna, she takes drastic measures and decides to basically betray Nobu by having sex with a colonel from America, telling her best friend Pumpkin to have him come and see this happen. But, Pumpkin betrays her and makes the Chairman come instead. This is by far the biggest wedge (or so Sayuri thinks) that drives the Chairman and her apart. When Sayuri returns home to her okiya (ie: Basically a place where Geisha live, and or where they train from a young age), and is horror struck when she gets a call that sats Nobu-san wants to become her danna. Sadly, Sayuri pulls herself together and goes to the tea house to meet Nobu-san, but much to her surprise, the Chairman is waiting for her instead of Nobu-san. Sayuri, quite shocked, sat next to him and asked what was wrong.
The Chairman then announced he would become her danna, and they kissed.
Overall, my enitial prediction was proven correct, and I predicted this as soon as I knew what a danna was.
Thankfully, Nobu-san didn't protest, in fact, he never talked to Sayuri again.