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!