Fast Food Frenzy

Morgan Spurlock's extreme diet demonstrates the hazards of consuming too much fast food. Since so much of the American diet contains processed, fatty items, obesity has become a significant, widespread epidemic. Does Spurlock's documentary effectively identify the problem and offer a solution? Is his experiment a valid one, and does he treat the issue fairly? How do his film-making techniques compare to Michael Moore's? Which part of Supersize Me did you find most effective?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

As you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, consider the targets of Ken Kesey's narrative: the hospital, with its emasculating nurse and sadistic orderlies, stifles individual expression (read male urges) and renders the patients both figuratively and literally impotent. The novel's "Combine," an allegorical representation of the oppressive forces of conformity in Kesey's world, and its main enforcer, Nurse Ratched, systematically prey on the men's neuroses and alienate them from their own free-spirited natures.

The book has received much criticism (and been banned in many schools) for its apparent misogyny (the female characters are either castrating nurses or prostitutes) and racism (the African American orderlies are charicatured as cartoonishly sadistic "black boys"). Do you think such criticisms are fair? What challenges does having a narrator who is a paranoid schizophrenic, often divorced from reality, present for the reader?

After the novel won wide acclaim, Kesey became a cultural icon, traveling around the country in a bus (Further) with a group called the Merry Pranksters. How did the novel help usher in the cultural changes that defined the 1960's?

Buy! Buy! Buy!

In The Persuaders, Clotaire Rapaille claims that consumers respond to unconscious cues that push "reptilian hot buttons" in our brain and bypass rational decision-making. Select an ad (from TV, print, radio, or the internet) and analyze its subrational content. What does the ad tell you about American culture in general and the target consumers in particular? What "reptilian hot buttons" does the ad push? Share your insights with your blog group in a well-developed discussion thread. You can find clips to many television commercials at advertisementave.com.

A History of Segregation

As you watch the documentary Deforce and consider the factors that have led to Detroit's current state, speculate about what steps we need to take to improve economic and social factors in the Detroit Metro Area.  Like many urban centers, Detroit suffers from a pervasive, systematic segregation along racial lines.  How does this segregation influence the local economy and shape Detroit's future?

The Racial Prism

With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, many pundits declared America's racial problems over.  Still, as the recent protests in Ferguson, MO indicate, many of the old biases and mistrusts remain. Are we still suffering from the wounds of slavery, or have they healed over (or, as Langston Hughes observed, are they "fester(ing) like a sore" below the surface)?  To what extent do racial biases play a role in daily life here at Groves High School?  Does the self-segregation that we can observe in the cafeteria, in the hallways, in the classrooms indicate a pervasive problem, or does it indicate a natural (and harmless) urge of people to hang out with people like themselves?  Also, the Detroit News Special Report that you read in class chronicles a history of Detroit that might seem different to people of different backgrounds.  To what extent do people filter their life experiences through a prism of cultural bias?