During this unit, we read the play Antigone by Sophocles. It was written in Greece in 441BC. It demonstrated an individual going against the laws set by the ruler of the land. It showed how one could stick with the beliefs and nothing would stop them from doing what they need to do once they have the right motivation.

Our unit question was, how might an individual understand his/her own values and morality through the ways in which he/she is willing to question the status quo and face marginalization?
After this unit, I think an individual can understand their values by standing up for what they believe in when questioning the status quo. In Antigone’s case, we saw that she wanted to go against the law because she saw the unfit part of the law and society.

“Debate Reflection”

My thoughts about the Nike advertisement:
Explain whether you are in support of it or not. Make connections to yourself as a viewer, to the ad, to Colin Kaepernick, and to the context.

I see the ad and Kaepernick separately. I support Kaepernick and his beliefs, but I don’t support that Nike made an advertisement for this controversial action. I believe people would support Kaepernick if he protested at another time, but from his perspective, that was a perfect time. He had the audiences that he needed, when all attention was settled, he could protest before all eyes. I don’t think he should’ve protested during the anthem, as that disrespects many, and some are really touched. However, I support his heroism and views as well as his bravery to act. I don’t know how, but if he and Nike were to take a different approach, I think the majority would be supporting them as well.

Readers, Writers, Text
We have now looked closely at the Nike Ad featuring Colin Kaepernick and we have debated about its content, context, and purpose. We have looked at it through the lens of readers, writers, and texts.

Explain to what extent the context of production should be considered when analyzing advertisements.

I think the context should be fully considered when analyzing advertisements. It helps with providing a lot of background knowledge of where the author is coming from or what the real intention is. Also, contexts like time periods can alter the perspective a lot, things change all the time and what we see now may vary from what people see from decades ago.

Readers, Writers, Text
Why do we study language? Consider how the structure or style of a text affects meaning.

A language is a form of communication, we study it to see what and how people convey. It relates to our history, society and psychology, as well as many other things. It could be interesting to view the same item from two different languages, it’s like another perspective and way of conveying their ideas. Different languages have different representations of things and that meaning could be changed when being translated.

Readers, Writers, Text
In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted? Consider your POD-ahaa annotations, the persuasive techniques, and the articles that you read.

An artist once said that the audience is apart of the artwork. I think that is true and it applies here. How the ad was released, as well as its intention, may vary when viewed by the audiences. And depending on the audience, they may view the piece as something negative or positive. There are multiple perspectives, and people pick sides for a reason. That reason may be as shallow as following the trends of social media. But in the big picture, Nike couldn’t care less about it, they release their ad, if it were controversial, they might not have predicted it. But they made their point that they signed an athlete activist who stood up for something he believed in, whether that created haters or not.

Here are work examples we’ve done in this unit. The following presentation is the outline for my “untimed” essay, and below that is the essay itself.

This here is a document of a part of the information I’ve typed up for one of our final projects in groups. We had to create a website and make either a video or a debate. Our group chose to do a debate and here are my points in the document.

Areas of exploration (Time&Space)
It is really important when viewing a text to consider its context or background. When Antigone was written, that era may have stereotypes or perspectives that are absent in modern society. But one of the stereotypes that can be seen in the play is that men are stronger than women. It proves that a woman can stand up to a male superior just as easily as men could. From that, we can see how society has evolved and how things have worked out.