Nico's E-Portfolio

Reflective Statement At first, I thought that this class would be a repeat of every other English class that I have taken in the past. Many English classes I've been through in high school have turned the very complex subject of writing into a mathematic equation. It introduces essays and writing as formulaic equations with little to no room for creative expression and creation. It is mere mindless typing consisting of pre-generated formats of intros, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Because of this writing was a subject that never really interested me in high school, instead made me groan in disappointment and despair. This class though changed that outlook, from the very first assignment. When we began the explanation for the first project I remember the moment where I knew things in this class would be much different right at the beginning. My professor Ayo, was explaining and people kept asking the same questions. “How many body paragraphs should be in the essay?” “How lon...

  How a Beginning Can Be the Start, Middle, and End I chose to analyze the opening scene of the film Port of Shadows, especially concerning how it sets the tone for the entire film and foreshadows many of the events to come. Before that, it's essential to understand the rather depressing message that Marcel Carné was trying to convey with his film’s story. Port of Shadows is a film that basks in the tragedy of its own story and seeks to represent the lower-class masses who were trapped in their situation own impoverished situations at the time. It tells the story of a world with no happy endings unless, of course, you  are born into money. The Film sets out to convey the fact that all dreams and happy futures are doomed and out of sight while still giving you a slimmer of hope just like many of the citizens of France had at the time; marching on with their endless cyclical lives trying to reach their goal with nothing but fog in their path.  With this in mind, it is ...

Industrialization and Efficiency as Depicted in Mon Oncle Jacques Tati is a believer in the idea that newer doesn't always equate to greater. In his movie Playtime, he displays an alternate future where everything is systematic and many of our traditions are already abolished. Mon Oncle also directed by Jacques is a comedic and cute story that takes place before the events of Playtime when industrialization is still taking place. The movie is a clear critique of industrialization and specifically uses the imagery of efficiency in order to illustrate the absurdity of the changing times. It is a subtle warning and calls for the preservation of a more traditional way of living. This analysis will strive to show specific examples of how the shots, editing, sound, and (most importantly of all) the mise-en-scene all work together to illustrate how foolish industrialization for the purpose of efficiency truly is. The first element to showcase is Jacques's use of sound. Right a...

  Multimodal Persuasive Campaign Issue: The negative impact behind the romanticization of mental  Stance: I argue that romanticizing mental health is extremely negative and specifically am striving to get people to realize their negative habits. Genre 1: Podcast Mostly unscripted discussion on issues pertaining to the mental health of the youth, explicit and discusses controversial topics. Audience: Young adults or older teenagers especially ones interested in psychological matters. Final version here Genre 2: Facebook Post A raw post advising parents to make sure that their own kids don't fall into the habits of becoming romantics towards mental illness. Audience: Older parents who use Facebook Genre 3: Movie Review on a blogpost I will be reviewing the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and seeing specifically how it romanticizes mental illness. Audience: Younger people who like to blog and are interested in film/psychology Blog: A film that does mental health more or les...

Rhetorical Analysis There's no question that culture changes with the times, but in recent times the culture the youth tends to follow is going in the wrong direction. The rhetorical situation that I chose to investigate was the trivialization of mental health problems specifically the romanticization of specific mental health disorders which can be detrimental to the overall well-being of the masses. The two artifacts I chose to look into are a really well-put-together informational video titled “The Desire to be Sad: "tragically beautiful" Art & Romanticizing Mental Illness” by a Youtuber that goes by the name of OliSUNvia and an article titled “Gen-Z Romanticizes Mental Illness, it’s not Good”. I am going to discuss how these artifacts, especially the video, do a great job of diving deep into the subject and offering a really good analysis of the matter using rhetorical strategies while also staying within its genre. Content creator OliSUNvia (or Olivia) is a g...

  America’s Declining Mental Health Nicolas Lede 9/24/2023 The United States is a great place to live and is past many problems that plague many other countries. I’ve lived in the U.S. all 19 years of my life and I feel like I've noticed a trend over the years. I chose to pursue the field of psychology because growing up I saw many of my close peers at school struggle with mental health problems. So many struggled with thoughts of suicide and overall depressive thoughts. Worse than that sometimes these thoughts would be manifested into moments of self-harm. Then there was the Stoneman Douglas shooting which completely shellshocked me and my entire community. This is when I knew that I wanted to pursue psychology because despite America surpassing countless other problems, I feel like general mental health has been declining through the years in America. In this paper, I want to investigate this, I want to see if this is true, how drastic the issue is, and how it is affecting Am...