Table of Contents
Film: The Wasp Women- 25 points
Film: The Black Scorpion- 25 points
Poetry: Haikus- 6 points
Poetry: Short Poem- 5 points
Insects in Popular Culture – 10 points
Original Comic- 30 points
References
Honor Pledge
The Wasp Woman, 1959
The Wasp Women tells the story of Janice Starlin, owner and CEO of a cosmetics company. To bolster her declining sales she enlists the help of recently fired beekeeper Dr. Zinthrop. Zinthrop was fired for experimenting with wasps, specifically enzyme extracts from the royal jelly of a queen wasp. Starlin funds his research it the hopes of creating a formula to slow the aging process, with the condition of Starlin being the human trial. The serums are not working fast enough, so Starlin gives herself extra doses, causing her to shed 20 years rapidly but also to periodically transform into a killer wasp.
Since this movie was made in the late 50’s there were some notable entomological related inaccuracies in the depiction of a wasp. One of the biggest inaccuracies were that when Starlin transformed into the wasp, she wasn’t a full bodied wasp, there was no apparent thorax or abdomen only her head took on the appearance of a wasp. Another error were the location of the antennae. Wasps typically have antennae project from the front of their heads, while in the movie her antennae protruded from the sides. Also her antennae were thicker and coarse, while wasps typically have thinner filament type antennae.
Earlier in movie, one of the characters described queen wasps as being on the same level as black widows; they are carnivorous, paralyze their victims and kill their mates. They are wrong on a few counts. Wasp stings don’t paralyze victims, neither do black wi...
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...d, but they’re hind legs are more designed for jumping. The end lyric is, “flying, striking spreading their wings. Locust and plagues…:. Locust have been known to have a prophetic nature. They appear in book of Exodus in the bible and occasionally be symbols of doom and strife.
References
Agent Steel. "Mad Locust Rising." Mad Locust Rising EP. Combat Records, 1986.
The Black Scorpion. Dir. Edward Ludwig. Perf. Richard Denning, Carlos Rivas, Mara Corday. Warner Brothers, 1957.
Cranshaw, Whitney. "Nuisance Wasps and Bees." Nuisance Wasps and Bees. Colorado State University, 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
"Volkswagen Beetle 2011 Super Bowl XLV Television Commercial." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 4 Feb. 2011. Web. 31 9 Mar. 2014.
The Wasp Woman. Dir. Roger Corman. Perf. Susan Cabot, Michael Mark, Anthony Eisley.
Filmgroup, 1959.
In life, actions and events that occur can sometimes have a greater meaning than originally thought. This is especially apparent in The Secret Life Of Bees, as Sue Monk Kidd symbolically uses objects like bees, hives, honey, and other beekeeping means to present new ideas about gender roles and social/community structures. This is done in Lily’s training to become a beekeeper, through August explaining how the hive operates with a queen, and through the experience Lily endures when the bees congregate around her.
Everyone has a secret life that they keep hidden from the rest of the world. Lies are told on a daily basis in order to keep these lives stashed in the dark. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees are the ones that have the most secret life of all. They each have their own specific role to play deep within the hive. It's obvious that the author had meant for some of her characters to portray the roles that these buzzing insects have to dutifully fulfill every duty. Lily and Zach are the field bees, August is a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is the Queen bee.
The insect keeps the meat fresh by not immediately killing its prey. Instead, it cuts carefully around body parts integral to life, first eating the ones least necessary to survival and ending with vital ones. Gould likens this process to that of drawing and quartering; an antiquated execution procedure practiced by humans, writing, “As the king’s executioner drew out and burned his client’s entrails, so does the ichneumon larvae eat fat bodies and digestive organs first… preserving intact the essential heart and central nervous system” (Gould 2). Gould refers to the human victim as a “client,” a word which connotes partnership and consent, making it seem as though the person in question agreed to their own death. As Gould extends the executioner metaphor to the wasp through his use of analogy, one is lead to believe that the victim of the wasp willingly consents to his death as well. Furthermore, the grisly process detailed in the passage seems quite ordinary, as the reader is desensitized to the violent actions of the wasp through Gould’s cold, clinical word choice, or lack thereof. The stark contrast between the wasp’s brutal actions and the lack of descriptive language denys one an opportunity to fully comprehend the agonizing death of the insect’s victim. This portrayal of the wasp plays directly into the religious perspective by depicting it as an insensitive being with a shocking lack of compassion for its victim. As morality is defined by the ability the determine right from wrong, the wasp appears to be totally immoral as it mercilessly murders another creature for its own
Miline, Ira Mark. Ed. "The Secret Life of Bees." Novels for Students. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Print.
The bees symbolize Lily’s unspoken guides throughout the novel. Kidd’s constant reference to the bees indicate that Lily eventually understands the importance of female power in the bee community, which she connects to her own life. When Lily initially sees the bees in her room, Rosaleen warns her that they can sting her if she tries to catch them, but Lily ignores her and continues to trap them, thus asserting her determination. Later, the bees reveal the message to Lily that she should leave her father. Kidd notes that one bee landed on Lily’s state map that she kept tacked on the wall, foreshadowing Lily and Rosaleen’s journey to Tiburon (10). The bees also symbolize the secret life that Lily lives as she hides her secret of running away from home. The hive represents society while the bees represent all of the humans inside. August tells Lily about the hives and announces, “Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” (Kidd 148). The beehive cannot sur...
...erms of the upbringing is that from birth, queen bees are treated royally being placed in a queen cell with abundant food supply (royal jelly). The behavior being showed from this scenario is due to the pheromone.
Eliot and Kafka use images of insects as well, although for different purposes. Eliot’s use of insects portrays Prufrock as being an insect “pinned and wriggling on the wall” being observed as an object of study (l.58). This is indicative of Prufrock’s anxiety and neurosis as he feels judged by everyone he meets, especially the women. Kafka’s use of insect imagery is prevalent throughout the entire novella, as Samsa has transformed into a giant bug.
...re the now grown wasps simply fly away from the dead host caterpillar that acted as their apartment through their developmental stages. The wasps are endemic to Europe and several tropic zones throughout the world.
The Wasp Factory is a novel that focuses heavily on the power of gender. It is a novel that associates masculine power and feminine weakness to animality. Within the novel, males are characterized as skilled, cunning, smart, and powerful; they are associated with dogs. On the other hand, women are viewed as stupid, docile, and frightened; they are associated as sheep. Each of these characterizations is made clear by viewing what Francis Cauldhame is (sheep), and what she desires to be (dog).
The bee population has been declining for many years now, one report stating that “Between April 2014 and April 2015, about 42 percent of the honeybees in managed colonies died” (Weeks). That is an extremely alarming rate, and while scientists have some ideas as to why the decline took place, there is still not a definitive answer. However, scientists do agree “[that] pesticides are contributing to widespread declines of bees, butterflies and
One interesting fact about the Asian giant hornet is that it’s the largest wasp in the world. Also the Asian Giant Hornet is able to sting victems multiple times unlike other wasps. The venom inside the Asian Giant Hornet’s stinger has 3 different chemicals inside of it. To make the sting more painful
Winfree, R. . The conservation and restoration of wild bees. Annuals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1195, 3 May 2010, Pages 169 – 197.
For some people, bees can be very annoying. They might have buzzed around you, chased you down the street, and sometimes can even sting you. Although this may seem unpleasant, the truth is, if bees didn’t exist, neither would humans. Bees are found in almost all habitats and they play a vital role. There are “nearly 20,000 known bee species in the world, and 4,000 of them are native to the United States” (Hamilton). They might look different and they might have different names, but they almost all do the same basic thing for us and for the environment. They pollinate plants and help make sure they are able to reproduce. Furthermore, bees are essential for most of the foods that we eat. “One of every three bites of food eaten worldwide depends on pollinators, especially bees...(Grossman)”. Even though bees can be a burden, they are a necessity to your wellbeing. Among the top one hundred crops that make up ninety percent of people’s diets around the world, has been responsible by bees for pollinating more than seventy of them. The fact is, these insects are nearly extinct. In order to
Bees are the type of bugs that sting people for a specific reason. Bees sting humans because of fear and protection. It all starts by trying to kill the bug. When bees fly around you, it means that it is interested to see what the humans are doing. This starts the paranoia of the humans. When the bee is near humans, the humans panic or are annoyed by the bees flying near their face. When the humans reach the certain point of anger, the human swipes at the bee to try to kill it. When they miss, the bee comes back to try to sting them. When the bee goes back to the human, the human will swing at the bee again to try to kill it. Now the bee is angrier than ever. The bee will then go full speed back to the human leading the stinger as the bee
Well in the spring all the males and young winged queens leave their nest and fly high in the air and mate. The few ant queens that survive this “marriage flight” cast off their wings and instinctively begin to look for a spot to start a new ant colony. After making a nest, the young queen ant seals off the entrance and begins to lay eggs. Some of the first batch are eaten by the queen for nourishment. When the surviving eggs hatch, they become like larvae. After a few weeks each larva spins a cocoon around itself and pupates.