Advertisement and Seven Deadly Sins

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 

Source: http://sokoniadvertiser.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/samsung-note-3-and-Gear-lady.jpg

Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/sites/default/files/note3-astral-transitbacklit-tor-1_aotw.jpg

Denotation:

Samsung used the pictures above to advertise for their Samsung Galaxy Note 3 last year. In the first piece, there appears the hands of a woman. One hand is holding the phone, the other hand is holding the Smart pen while touching the side of the Gear on her left wrist. There is a bold text "DESIGN YOUR LIFE", below it is another text "Visually Elegant, Intellectually Powerful. Helping you achieve your life's work every day". In the second piece, there appears the hand of a man under his sleeve. He is holding the phone and the pen in one hand, and wearing the Gear on his wrist. There is a bold text saying "LOOK WHAT WE HAVE UP OUR SLEEVE". Both pieces are edited in black and white, but the colors are still remained on the main objects (which are the phones, the S pens, the Gear) that the creators intended to emphasize.  

Connotation:

As technology is getting more and more advanced, we see advertisement and commercials for the newest products everyday. These billboards and posters are found mostly in the bus stations, subway stations, on the buildings, by the high ways in big cities From the first piece, we can infer that the woman is an independent woman and she is using these products in order to be more convenient for her work. The text "DESIGN YOUR LIFE" conveys the message of being a woman who is having control for her own life. In addiction to that, the text "Visually Elegant, Intellectually Powerful. Helping you achieve your life's work every day" aims to encourage the audience to buy the products. That would help to increase the desire of owning these products. Because women would want to have the kind of phone that is not just elegant, but also able to make work more convenient for them; and it would also become their favorite accessory along with the Gear because the image shown in the picture depicts a fashionable woman. The intended audience of this piece is mostly women who are financially independent that can afford these products, which implies that these women would be from middle class or higher class.

In the second advertisement, the intended audience is men who are also from middle and upper class. In here, the Gear features as a symbol for business and/or successful men. It serves as an accessory and also helps to replace normal wristwatch with more modern functions. The text "LOOK WHAT WE HAVE UP OUR SLEEVE" indicates the Gear as a powerful tool that men should have. The idiom "Have something up one's sleeve" means to have hidden or secret plan, idea, etc., to use to one's advantage when the time is right.  It emphasizes the usefulness of the Gear and how the idiom would apply to it as it is amazingly helpful to its users. Through that, the audience would desire for these products more because they would think that "I would look as fashionable and stylist as that guy when I have those!" The creators used Lust of the Seven Dead Sins in the two advertisements to persuade the consumers into buying new products. Lust is a strong desire for something. In this case, lust is as the desire for these fantabulous technologies. They also intended to not include the face of the two persons in these pictures with the aim of having the audience thinking that they could be anyone. 

ohoho check out this ADORABLE commercial~ it's really cute xD :3  

Can't bury these tales: Canterbury Tales & Jane Eyre

2. How would you best describe the central idea of this chapter? Which phrase from the chapter best helps develop the central idea? 

In Chapter 7 of Jane Eyre, the author portrayed Jane in Lowood, which was a Christian boarding school. The girls were having a hard time while living in Lowood, as they were mistreated by the supervisor of the boarding school for the orphaned girls, Mr. Brocklehurst, who was depicted as an antagonist and a hypocrite by Charlotte Bronte. The author often showed that Mr. Brocklehurst tried to manipulate the girls and the ladies who run the orphanage by using the influence of Christianity. Through it, we can see that the reference to Christianity was just a reason for Mr. Brocklehurst to be able to practice his ideas/beliefs (or in fact, his lies) on the girls, who were in no positions to oppose him. Despite knowing the conditions that the girls had to go through hardships (such as not having enough food to eat that caused malnutrition, not having enough proper clothes for the cold weather, and most important is that they did not have basic necessities provided), Mr.Brocklehurst wanted them to sacrifice as of God's sake, and as if them being suffered is really important to Christianity. 

The central idea of this chapter is to emphasize how the religious belief was taught wrongly  and how it was used as a tool to manipulate the people, but not essentially a belief. We could see that Mr. Brocklehurst took advantage on the girls who had learned that God sacrificed himself for them, therefore they would also need to sacrifice themselves for God. We also learned about  his shameless hypocrisy as he told the school that Jane was a liar, meanwhile he was the biggest liar of all. The phrase that best helps develop the central idea was: "A brief address on those occasions would not be mistimed, wherein a judicious instructor would take the opportunity of referring to the sufferings of the primitive Christians; to the torments of martyrs; to the exhortations of our blessed Lord Himself, calling upon His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him; to His warnings that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; to His divine consolations, "If ye suffer hunger or thirst for My sake, happy are ye."" This quote portrayed the lecture of Mr.Broklehurst as he was saying that the girls' suffering was not at all suffering, but more like sacrificing for God, and that wasconsidered as something they should be honored about. The girls were being controlled like puppets by Mr. Broklehurst as they believed they were following God's words, in fact they were controlled by Mr. Broklehurst, who considered himself as a person that taught God's words. Through these details, the author revealed to us that Mr. Broklehurst was just using Christianity as a device to cover up his lies. 

What's in a name?

Freebie~