Past Present Blog Response

Baca used narrative and persuasive writing to explain how serving a prison term has changed his life. How the millions of people today experience the brutality and inhumanity prison life possesses. Baca writes about how bad prison by saying "What was most shocking to me was not that I survived, but that the prisons still stood, that cruelty of that life was still going on". I concur with Baca, because people need to reform how prisons are operated in the United States. When a criminal goes to prison, the experience tends to make him more criminal then reformed. His writing is extremely effective, he uses first person describing his miserable time in prison. "The vast majority of convicts, imprisoned for petty crimes that have no more to do with wrong judgement than serious criminal intent." Prison makes the most normal person into a rugged criminal. In prison there is a hierarchy among inmates. All groups in prison are all race related. For example there are whites, blacks, northern mexicans, and southern mexicans. To say the least prison is just a miserable experience and people's dignity and respect can be destroyed in a penitentiary. Baca's means of persuasion was effective because he is intelligent and spoke exactly what was on his mind or a narrative.

Sanitized Reality

In the Salamone's article "Images of Main Street" used the phrase "sanitized reality" as a way of describing the atmosphere of Disney World. I've been to Disney World myself and concur that Disney Land is a "sanitized reality". When I walked in the front entrance it was literally cleaner then Vatican Square when I was in Italy. It felt like a slap in the face how perfect Disney World was. You could see roller coasters, Disney cartoon characters, concession stands, and of course the life size castle which is Disney's logo. Everyone there has a smiling face, I swear that Disney hires employees to look like an ordinary family. When I walked around some parts of Disney World, I tried to find trash and it took me a half hour to do so. I agree with the Salamone's when they commented on cleanliness of Disney World. "There is a lack of messiness of real life. The labor of keeping things clean is always conspicuous by its absence or camouflaging"(171). Disney just has the persona of being Perfect America. Disney movies alone have shaped many people's lives. I really don't watch Disney movies but I can name at least five off the top of my head. Let's see Aladdin, Jungle Book, Snow White, Bambi, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King etc... Lets put Disney Land in another perspective. My cousins from Germany came to my house three years ago, and the only thing they knew about America is Disney Land and Coca Cola.


Since the second question is asking for my subjective opinion I will write about what i think, so don't be offended. I think another case of "sanitized reality" in the US is subdivision housing. If you don't know what I'm talking about its a piece of old farmland that scattered by identical looking homes, sometimes more than a thousand at a time. All the homes come with really small yards with fake grass on top. I really have nothing against them, but some of my friends lived there, so i would go every once in a while. It really just made me appreciate my house more because its unique. All subdivision homes look the same and it seems like it would get really boring after a while. I rarely ever see any kind of criminal activity that comes with city life, which is nice if one is worried about safety. It just all seems a little to fake to me and my friends agree.