Thinking Outside the Box

Plato’s “Allegory of the Caves” and Sartre’s, “No Exit” both show the limitations of human thinking, which is slavery, but also provide solutions. The limitation of “Allegory of the Caves” is that humans have a distorted reality, and they will remain that way unless they are enlightened by philosophy. The limitation in “No Exit” is that people lack confidence to accept the inalienable freedom of defining themselves. The solution implied by Sartre is for people to stop seeking validation from other people, because it will give them peace and freedom from enslavement of other peoples beliefs. Plato and Sartre are similar because they both presented the limitations of our thinking with an allegory, they also presented the solution with a story, and they seem to have hope for humans because they imply ways to escape the chains of mental enslavement.
Both philosophers present the problem of freedom vs. slavery in their stories. Plato’s issue is that the cave slaves have a distorted view of reality, because they know nothing of the world except the wall they are chained to and the shadows that they can see. They are a slave to ignorance. A character is released from the cave and shown a larger slice of the world. He is now free from chains he never knew enslaved him. Because he has seen “the light”, he can never return to the old life he knew.
In comparison, Sartre also presents the issue of freedom vs. slavery on a level that surpasses physical chains. The three main characters in his story are also chained. They were in Hell before death, as well as after death. The source of their discord and discomfort came from the habit of looking to other people to validate themselves. Garcin, the journalist from Rio, struggled most with this because he could not have peace until other people believed he was innocent. He believed that he could never feel mentally free from crime unless other people believed his innocence. This is an issue within himself, not a chemical or physical change that can take place. The two other characters are also chained to the emotional cinder block of finding self-worth and satisfaction from other people.
To conclude, Plato and Sartre’s stories both aim to target the issue of mental enslavement. They try to share their enlightenment with the audience by showing them how silly it is to be enslaved by beliefs and other people. When your happiness or peace-of-mind is determined by other people, you automatically allow yourself to become enslaved by them, hence “No Exit”.

Literary Terms: climax, parody, realism

Climax- Noun
1. The highest or most intense point in the development or resolution of something
2. In a literary work, a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot.
My definition of the climax is the highest, craziest, and most intense part of a story! A mnemonic for a Climax is the scene in the movie, Titanic, when the ship is sinking nose first in the icy water, and the beautiful Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet are holding on to the boats railings for dear life. The top of Titanic is the climax of the ship’s height, but it is also the climax of the movie. At this moment, the audience has no clue whether these two characters are going to fall or not. The possibilities of the next moments are endless, and everything in the story has led up to the inevitable sinking of Titanic.
Here I included a snip of this scene:




Parody- Noun
1. A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of writing.
2. Any humorous, burlesque, or satirical imitation of a person, event, etc.
A parody makes fun of the actual product. We see this on TV shows. For example, in the Disney Channel show, So Ramdom!, there is a skit called The Real Princesses of New Jersey. This is a parody of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Over the past year, starting with Jersey Shore, many reality shows have come out that claim to have Jersey origins, and sport the popular “snooki poof”, bling bling, and GTL. As a result, many New Jersey parodies have come out that poke fun of the original copies.






Realism- Noun
1. A manner of treating subject matter that presents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the lower middle classes.
2. A theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is.
Realism is exactly how it sounds. It is the act of presenting things how they really are. A movie such as Twilight, Enchanted, or Transformers would NOT be considered realism because everyday people do not deal with vampires, storybook characters, or alien robots on an everyday basis. A good example of realism are movies that have events that could happen to an average person.

The Big Question

How does one reach greatness?
Since I was a child I have defined greatness as one who has overcome great odds to reach a goal. Yet, it seems like many mainstream rappers or even tv hosts are proclaiming themselves "The Greatest". I have always wanted to achieve greatness. That moment when you are the best in the entire world! Whether it be to hold the gold medal in the Olympics, to win a nobel prize, or even create something that helps humanity! That is where I want to be, I want to know what it takes to be a remarkable great person.

Hamlet and Performative Utterance

After reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I walked away with the idea that all of the conflict and dysfunction could have been avoided if everyone had based their actions on facts, and not only beliefs. Everyone makes decisions based on their quest for a better life. Claudius murdered King Hamlet because he thought his life would be better if he was king. Laerates sided with Claudius to destroy Hamlet because he felt it would improve his lifestyle. Performative utterance plays a huge role in the play because self-overhearing definitely shapes Hamlet’s perspective; and as a result affects other characters. In comparison, self-overhearing affected me in memorizing “To be or not to be”.

Performative Utterance is very similar to the Biblical teaching of “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is the man.” Verbal communication is classified under three headings of action: locutionary force (ability to deliver a message), perlocutionary force (what is said is achieved), and the illocutionary force (what is being done is said). Hamlet’s words, like everyone’s, hold power. Hamlet had many soliloquies, and in each one he experienced self overhearing which slowly altered his character.

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet uses his words to explain that he is planning to take revenge on Claudius for his father’s murder. Every time Hamlet said this, his passion for revenge grew. This leads to him being sent to England, the play, and even rashly stabbing Polonius. This impacts the other characters because Hamlet’s actions cause a domino effect into their lives. For example, Ophelia is able to talk herself into depression and suicide after her father’s death. Laerates talks himself into helping the king. The queen even decides to abandon her “lunatic” son. All of this ultimately ends in everyone’s deaths; which was all caused by everyone’s self hearing being based on false assumed information.

Self overhearing in my own life is evident in my memorization of Hamlet’s soliloquy “To be or not to be, that is the question.” The day I decided to learn the piece I went to my room and decided not to come out until I knew it by heart. My thoughts had changed from hopeless to positive. Learn the soliloquy or bust.

Because I made the decision to learn it, it made it easier. In the beginning I fought the idea of learning it because I thought it would take too much time, thus it ended up costing me more time and energy. Now looking back on memorization assignments I see them in a positive light, so I will be more willing to tackle them in the future. Many students who live with a defeated attitude find memorization assignments extremely difficult and set themselves up for a hard time.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is the man.” This quote is relevant because self overhearing can also be spotted in thoughts.

Hamlet And Beowulf on Language

            Hamlet and Beowulf are very different characters when it comes to their use and style of language. This gap is blatantly evident through their interactions with other characters, their reaction time after setting a goal, and also the degree to which they tend to be introspective.

            Hamlet’s interactions are those of the stereotypical clever or intellectual prince. He does not simply say what he means in a straight forward manner, but instead leads his audience through loops and metaphors before the main idea can be inferred. For example, in Act 1 Scene 2, Hamlet is sad, and this is how he expresses his sadness, “O that this too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed his cannon ‘gainst (self-slaughter!) O God, God, how (weary) stale, flat,, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” In contrast, when Beowulf is asked his purpose by a Danish patroller, he answers, “We have come seeking your prince, Healfdane’s son, protector of this people, only in friendship: instruct us Watchmen, help us with your words!”

            Both characters also differ in their reaction times. Hamlet tends to be more drawn out. After the ghost comes to Hamlet, he decides to take revenge on King Claudius; yet it takes him the entire play before going through with his plan. He tries multiple times to test the waters and procrastinates until he no longer can. In contrast, Beowulf acts fast. After being told about the murderous monster, Grendel, without hesitation he decides to go deafeat it. It was the same situation when he decides to fight Grendel’s mom, as well as try to fight the dragon.

            Final example of their differences is their level of being able to look into themselves and think critically before making decisions. Hamlet definitely takes the cake for that, considering his many monologues and soliloquies. The classic example from the text is “To be or not to be, that is the question.” In contrast, I do not remember any introspective soliloquies in Beowulf.

            Hamlet and Beowulf both use the tool of language to express themselves. This is evident through their communication with other character, their reaction style, as well as how introspective they are.

What I've Learned in English so far...

I have learned a lot about how the internet works! There are endless opprotunities on how it can be used, but i learned that a major way that big corporations such as Facebook and Google use it, is to collect information from its users. This is really important because it shows that the tide is turning, and companies are starting to advertise based on whats new in our lives. We are the trendsetters.
I feel this video is relevant because it shows how facebook and technology have become so intertwined in our culture.

Roy Christopher Notes Outline

What sparked your internet passion? What got you involved in culture?

-        80’s photocopy magazine

-        90’s friend doing web design

-        he only wanted to do bmx, then learned “html”, then got sucked into it

Any struggle in balancing time between media and other stuff?

-        not a struggle, but a lifestyle

-        R.C. self published himself and wrote his website into a book

-        Self published because he couldn’t find a publisher “internet ‘cross pollination”

-        “hip hop culture is blue print for the 21^st century”

What big projects are you working on?

-        the fish knows nothing of water

How do we train ourselves to reach digital maturity?

-        read Program or be Programmed

-        the more you know about how things work, the better you can deal with it

-        example: knowing about cars, better prepared you to be able to help yourself if it breaks down.

Does a rise in the media create more challenges or opportunities?

-        opportunity because we can teach old people how to use this stuff

-        “youngins” just have to learn it

-        different modes of language,

-        Example: texting, academic, colloquial, etc.

-        trust the young people!

Literature Analysis #2

1. The novel, The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of stories written in the point of view of a 12 year old little girl named Esperanza (which is Spanish for Hope).  She is a Mexican American living on
   Mango Street
   which is in Chicago. The novel is over a year, and over the year, Esperanza grows significantly.  Fulfilling her name, she finds hope of a better life. She realizes that the poverty on
   Mango Street
   can be left, and that the written word and poetry are able to mentally take her to a place of enjoyment.
2. A theme of the novel is healthy relationships. Esperanza, like every growing girl, has dreams and aspirations. Hers include having a nice home in a nice neighborhood far away from
   Mango Street
   . Yet, also similar to growing girls, Esperanza wishes for intimacy with the opposite sex. She then observes relationships in her neighborhood, but they are a terrible example considering they are all dysfunctional. The men are the head of the house, and are mostly abusive to their wives. Because this is all Esperanza has ever seen, she believes that she’ll have to choose between a man and being a strong individual.
3. I believe that the tone of the novel is the story of Hope.  This is not only evident through Esperanza’s name, but by the hope that Esperanza has of a better life. Her family came to America with hope in their hearts of a better life, and they were able to achieve that. Now Esperanza is aware of a world that is better than her own, and wishes to change her situation. In the novel, Esperanza is sexually assaulted, and although a horrific experience, she is able to remain confident and express herself through poetry and writing.
4. To begin, I like the syntax and diction of the novel because it is written like a conversation. It is through the eyes and words of Esperanza, and I like that because it holds my attention. I could really imagine her world on
   Mango Street
   .

Tools That Change the Way We Think

When talking of technology of the future, such as the “implant” mentioned in the article above, I begin to wonder how much of it is invasive or too powerful. I wonder how people will deal with technology that extensive, considering people are already suffering from “information overload” in the safety of their own brains. The act of “thinking about your thinking” is familiar to many of us, yet it could be seen as a state of confusion, and lack of being clear minded.

By comparing myself to older people who did not experience smart phones and 2.0 while growing up, I believe that we learn at the same speed, considering we are all human beings. Of course now we are given more information on the world around us, I do not believe that we have a greater capacity to learn, but I do believe that the average kid is introduced to much more information. Whether they choose to use their resources and exercise their brain is the individual’s decision.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HUL/is_5_32/ai_112686945/

The above link goes to an article called “managing generational differences: school leaders who recognize different needs of baby boomers and generation X’ers can create an organization where all employees are working from their strengths” by Andrew Ansoorian, Pamela Good, Dave Samuelson. Althogh I am neither a part of the baby boomers or generation x, this article is helpful because it describes why there are differences. The reason is that there was a different mood when they grew up, they were influenced by world events, what technology was available, and what movements happened when they grew up.

In Search of

While watching the video, the thing that I found most interesting was that Netflix used the “Filter Bubble”. It rarely hinders my online searches, but in Netflix, it always gives me the wrong movies. This is because the filter bubble is tailored to my little sister (who uses netflix like it is going out of style), so animated movies about princesses and puppies have found home on our Netflix Queue.

Because I am most familiar to Google, I typed in “Search Engines without filter bubbles” into the search box, and the only search engine that came up was Duckduckgo.com. On the bottom of the wedsite, it advertises “We don’t bubble or track you!” So I typed in “Shakespeare” the first thing to come up read “Shakespeare was a playwrite” then the second was “Shakespeare, New Mexico, United States” I can already tell that this is different than Google. I clicked on http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 which was supposedly a biography of Shakespeare’s life.

Notes on "Hamlet"

As a class, when we first began reading Hamlet many things have changed in my mind about both the plot and the characters since the king’s ghost showed up at midnight. To start with the star of the play, I learned that Hamlet was not a knight in shining armor like I had always imagined, but he was a distraught son who knew about a great injustice that had struck his family; This being, the murder of his father by his uncle, as well as his adulterous mother. I realized that he spends his time trying to set things right threw revenge. Hamlet is not a mad man like they think in the beginning, but he is simply misunderstood. He is in the place of the stereotypical teenager, who is the only sane person in a world of insanity. At the end of Act 3, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, and I predict that the King will try and put Hamlet in jail forever as a result, considering that he does not want Hamlet to tell everyone that the king murdered Hamlet’s father.

Who Was Shakespeare?

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/timeline.html

After typing in “Shakespeare” on Google I found the website above. There was a timeline (1558-1616) of Shakespeare’s life. I found it interesting that he married a woman named Anne Hathaway, which is the name of a current actress. It also says that he acted in as well as wrote his own plays. Something that I still wonder is how Shakespeare’s experiences contributed to his stories, considering authors write about what they know.

When I hear the name “Shakespeare”, my mind plays a b-roll of images of my “Shakespearean experiences” those that include confusion, then once explained to me, I see it as sheer beauty and cleverness. I remember the humor of Romeo and Juliet during a time when I felt I was experiencing a similar naive romantic tragedy. Then there is Julius Caesar whose monologue I was challenged to learn and memorize “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your ears!” I finally recognized the many allusions to Shakespearean plays made by my father. I remember the many references, such as the animated movie “Gnomeo and Juliet”, Taylor Swift’s song, “Love Story”, as well as the carb-alicios restaurant, “Little Caesars”. Over the years my appreciation for Shakespeare has grown along with my knowledge. Understanding his works has gotten easier, but I am constantly reminded that when reading Shakespeare, I must concentrate; considering it is not written in colloquial English.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook..

I remember the beginning of my interest in online social media; it sprung in junior high when all of my friends were on Myspace. My parents did not allow me to be apart of the online community until I grew to a mature age where I could handle it. Well, it is now 2011, and Myspace is ancient history. Facebook currently holds the interest of my peers, and as an initial impression I realized that it was more invasive as well as convenient (disregarding uploading pictures) than Myspace. From the beginning it was obvious to me that it was a great tool to gather information, and those companies were able to collect this information from the masses. The benefits of this tool, is to better market products; and at the same time making the advertising world way more fast pace. Risks are the obvious privacy issues which seems a bit shady, considering many people are unaware of how much information they are giving away.  After discussing the article “Why Facebook is After Your Kids” by EMILY BAZELON, I was informed by my teacher that an elementary computer wiz can track your exact longitude and latitude simply after you uploaded a picture.

Hamlet Essay

            I believe that Hamlet should decide to embrace life and take full advantage of the opportunities that life offers, which death could never give. As Hamlet weighs the pros and cons of suicide, I felt that the cons out weighed the pros; for example, “and in that death of sleep, what dreams may come?” Hamlet is asking a question that infers that dreams are wonderful and meant to be enjoyed. On the other hand, because death is an unknown, it is scary. It is unknown to Hamlet, whether death simply sends one into oblivion, is an eternal torture chamber, or a heavenly homeland. “But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?”

            From my own life experiences, I have come to believe that one is never at the end of their rope, and that adversity is tough, but it is an opportunity to achieve greatness. Hamlet’s strongest argument against suicide is “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them.” This sheds light on the truth that there is always light beyond the darkness, and hope beyond the despair.

Literature Analysis Answers: "Snow Falling on Cedars"

Questions:

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.
   2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
   3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
   4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

                                                   

 Answers:

Snow Falling on Cedars by Greg Guterson

1. “Snow Falling on Cedars” by Greg Guterson is both a mystery and romance novel. It takes place on San Piedro Island in 1954.  A Japanese man named Kabu is suspect of the murder of Carl Heins. Because this takes place after World War 2, there is tension between the whites and their neighboring Japanese, and this is evident in the trial. Because San Piedro is such a small island, every character is intertwined. Threw the novel we discover that Kabu’s wife, Hatsue, had a teenaged love affair with the white island journalist, Ishmael. Ishmael find out some information about the trial that would save Hatsue’s life; yet he is reluctant to share it because of his jealousy that Hatsue left him for Kabu. In the end, Ishmael does the moral thing, and helps Kabu win the trial. He is sent free and able to return to his family.

2. The big obvious theme of this novel is prejudice. First, racially, there is distance between the Whites and Japanese. They live separately, yet they help eachother out economically. For example, the Japanese pick strawberries from the white farmers homes when its time to harvest. In return, the white men pay them. Another bias is physical. Ishmael lost his arm during the war, and people look at him wired. Ishmael is also a journalist, which is a huge contrast from the other men who are either farmworkers, or fishermen. They view Ishmael as weak.

3. The overall tone of the novel is very aware of feelings, for all the characters know exactly what they want, and are rarely confused. Example 1. In this scene, Hatsue and Kabu are realizing their love for eachother: “He had begun to love her, to love more than just her beauty and grace, and when he saw that in their hearts they shared the same dream he felt a great certainty about her. They kissed in the back of a crew truck coming into camp one night, and the warm wet taste of her, however brief, brought her down for him from the world of angels into the world of human beings.” The Second scene takes place when Ishmael is at war and is about to go into a deadly situation, so he attempts to write a letter to Hatsue, “He explained to her the nature of his hatres and told her she was responsible for it as anyone in the world. In fact, he hated her now. He didn’t want to hate her, but since this was his last letter he felt bound to tell the truth as completely as he could- he hated her with everything in his heart, he wrote,… ‘I hate you with all my heart. I hate you, Hatsue, I hate you always.” The Third example is when Edna Heins, Carl’s mother, finds out about the plan to send the Japanese to an internment camp, “The Japanese man blinked at her steadily. He said nothing, didn’t touch his coffee either. He’d gone rigid, gone cold. She could see that he was angry, that he was containing his rage. He’s proud she thought, I just spit on him, and he;s pretending it didn’t happen that way. Blink away she thought.”

4. Examples- The Japanese internment camp is in very bad condition. This shows the bias that people have against the Japanese. If they didn’t think of them as prisoners of war, then they would have better accomadations.

Foreshadowing- Etta hates the Japanese man who wants to buy their land, and never wants him to have it. “You’re the man of the house, you wear the pants, go ahead and sell our property to a Jap and see what comes of it.” After carls death years later, Etta sells the land to a white man, before the Japanese are finished making the payments.

Characters- Ishmael Cambers never feels like an entire man because he does not have the woman he loves. Once he loses his arm, it is even more obvious than before that he his less. Hatsue says no to marrying him, and this is why, “It was in her to say good-bye forever and tell him she would never see him again,to explain to him that she’d chosen to part because in his arms she felt unwhole.”

Descriptive language- Carl Heins senior loves strawberries, “Her husband was a true lover of the fruit, but Etta couldn’t feel anything for it. To him strawberries were a holy mystery, jewels of sugar, deep red gems, sweet orbs, succulent rubies. He knew their secrets, the path they took, the daily responses they made to sunlight.”

Symbolism- The Cedar tree that Hatsue and Ishmael hide out in, symbolizes a protection from the outside world. Weather does not even protect the tree. “On Sunday afternoot, at four o’ clock, Hatsure told her mother she was going for a walk; her last walk before leaving, she pointed out. She wanted to sit in the forest she said, and think about matters for a while… followed the path to the cedar tree. Ishmael she found, was waiting there for her with his head propped up on his jacket.”