Satire

Maus II

In the Holocaust the Nazis gave no civil rights what so ever to the Jews. They were not treated as people but as animals. After the Holocaust many of the survivors who were dvout believers of God, gave up on the idea of religion because many asked, if there id a God, why would he stand around and let such a misery occur? After this type of tragedy there is a lesson to be learned by the generations after. It is that if something like this event ever resurfaced again, it is the superpowers of the world to intervene and put an end to such a hanis crime. The author of the novel, "Night", Wiesel, won an award for writing this powerful graphic novel. In his speech when excpeting the award he says, "This award is for the people that died in the Holocaust and the concentration camps  because I can not describe their experiences because they are no longer with us, they have no voice no more." In Maus II Art has a couple pages where many interviwers and businessmen are pestering and asking him various questions. But one of Art's answers was something along the lines with what Wiesel says. He can not describe the deceaseds experiences at Auschwitz because they are no longer alive to relay their message to him. Art was able to write this graphic novel, or comic book, because his father had survived Auschwitz and could inform Art exact details of what really went on or what the Nazis had done to the Jews. He was able to cut out all the rumors and lies and write about the events that took place. No one or no country should ever allow another event or a genocide like the Holocaust to ever occur again.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2558681/examining_the_holocaust_in_maus_i_and_pg2.html?cat=38

postmodern and cats cradle

According to Lyotard, modern life could be described as "all the world's cultures, rituals, races, databanks, myths and musical motifs are intermixing like a smorgasbord in an earthquake." Postmodernists seem to take belief in that there is no central truth and that there is a beauty in all the chaos and different lifestyles. The prople or world are driven on the idea that there is a central truth or meaning that they are trying to figure out, when really there is no such thing. With the postmodernists arguing that holding or reaching a central truth would destroy all ultimate happiness, and possibly destroy humanity. In the beginning of the story, Vonnegut claims that nothing in the book is true, rather it is a bunch of "foma" (lies). In the book Vonnegut creates a religion called "Bokononism" which is just another lie but makes all the people and follwers of the religion think. It was simply another lie to make the people think and become distracted with their meaningless lives and to keep them on the search for the central truth. Toward the end of the novel a character would start to ask "See the cat? See the cradle?" What he is really meaning is that you play the game but you never see the cat nor the cradle because its just a game that is a lie which never ends. Keeping the player distracted and off target of trying to reach the end of the game.

Brave New Wolrd

After reading the novel Brave New World, i have learned that there are so many different topics that someone can use to write about. One i would like to take note of is the individuality of Bernard from everyone else in the society. He doesnt think or act like anyone else which you are suppose to do. A person such as Bernard, who is acts the way he does is not considered "normal." But what is normal in their society? I would like to  bring in a text, an article from Postmn Technopoly, which in the article what he is trying to say is that the technological advansments in our society are occurring and happening at a supersonic speed. This can be compared with Brave New World because the advancement in technology in the novel allowed the ruler and higher people of society to control the citizens and make them believe what they wanted them to believe which is the main objective of the novel. They are also able to manipulate the morals and norms of the citizens of the society. They try and do this to try and make the people who they want them to be, not giving the people their rights or individuality because everyone is the same as everyone else. I would also consider using The Tempest to help write the essay becuase of the connections between the two books. Caliban, who is considered a saveage, is mistreated by new people who have never seen anything like him. But when the John, the savage in BNW, enters Bernard's society, he feels out of place and feels he is not treated as he should be. But that is because niether of them are like the people around them or the people that they have met. I could probably use something from 1984 also and the talk about the way the two seperate societies try to manipulate and control their citizens.
   

Video

After watching the RSA video I would like to make a couple comparisions with it to Brave New World. First off i noticed the parallel between the drugs Ritalin which are given to kids with ADHD and soma which the charatcers take in the novel. Ritalin is a drug that is given to children who have ADHD which does not allow them to focus very much in the classroom. In Brave New World soma is a pill that is provided to everyone in their society and is encouraged to be taken. It is a pill that allows you to escape from reality and take a "holiday" sort to say. When the kids can not focus the doctors proscribe drugs such as Ritalin whcih helps keep the kids attention focused on school and what they are suppose to be learning. When something is wrong they just give them a pill to fix it. This draws and exact parallel to Brave New World in which the people of the society are provided with soma. "And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." (16). In Bernard Marx's society and the world that he lives in, all the people are encouraged to take soma to always be happy. If there was an accident or something happend to you that ruined your day and you just cant quite get over it, you take a gramme or so of soma. They are encouraged to cover up all their emotions and real feelings with soma. I also really liked what Robinson was saying on teh education system and how the students are not allowed to study or take classes on the courses that they are interested strongly in. But intstead they are forced to take general classes that everyone else is forced to take and learn the same exact facts which they must spew back out for the test.

Brave New World

In Brave New World human experiences are manipulated to produce family, monogamy, impulse, feeling, and desire. The quote used on the ap lit home page is saying something along the lines of humans are produced to enjoy what they must do. In Brave New World humans are no longer made the old fashion way, but are made by man and machines. While as an embryo they are then conditioned in certain circumstances in which they will be living in when they mature. The D.H.C. trained little children to scream when ever they saw or came close to a rose or other types of plants. They did this to make the children not want to be around plants. But why would they not want them around plants? Because they dont want the children who will grow up into workers, to waste their time outside slacking off from their work. They are making them more efficent workers by making them not want to stop and take a break outside. "What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey..." (41). This quote is coming from the Mustapha mundo, hes telling all the learing students on how the world was before they worshiped Ford. The people had never been conditioned to like or enjoy the work that they would grow up and have to do. No one was ever even guranteed a job or forced into a job which they had no say in because they were given it when they were just in the beginning of creation.

Preparing to write the tempest

In the discussions of the Tempest, the main issue or debate is colonialism written in the text. There have also been various different opinions about Caliban. He has been viewed as a savage and also viewed as a person who has been taken advantage of. In the packet given to us in class with the argument about literature, George Will argues that disscussing the meaning and digging deeper for a different meaning of a text takes aaway from what the author writes about or his true meaning. He also goes on to argue that we over analyze everything we read which takes away the real meaning which the author intended us to understand. But then there is Stephen Greenblatt who believes in the exact opposite. Greenblatt argues that going deeper than just the surface meaning does not take away the meaning in which the author intended. He actually thinks that we should do just that. Greenblatt believes that we all should not just scratch the surface with the meaning but instead dig deeper and analyze the text. He thinks that analyzing the text and finding a different meaning allows us to understand the story or literature work more then just reading the surface meaning. I do have to agree with both sides though. There are various authors that write a story which leaves the meaning just in the surface of the text, but there are various authors who write a story and want you and make you analyze and overthink the meaning of the story. When an author makes a person search beneath the surface, it makes them use critical thinking to help find the true meaning that lies in the story. But then writing is a form of art because it is a way of expressing who you are or how you feel. Everyone has their own opinion and could argue their case which means no one really has the right answer. Especially when you are not the one who wrote the literature work and could not ask the author what their true meaning behind the story really is.