Final Exam - Free Thought quote

Listener - I Don't Want to Live Forever

Transcendentalists believed that you should practice free thought; you should set aside any personal beliefs you carry in order to see every aspect of a subject. In Whitman's "O Me! O Life!" he describes the main question of life "What good amid these, O me, O life?" (Whitman, handout. 10) This is a rather dismal topic; he is basically saying what is the point? At the end of the poem he wraps it all up by saying "That you are here -- that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse." (Whitman, handout. 11-12) He is saying that you, your life, and your deeds will be remembered. In "I Don't Want to Live Forever" Listener says "I don' t want to live forever, I just want to live for me." (Listener, youtube.) In his eyes, living forever isn't necessary, and as long as he lives with the intent to leave the world with his 'verse' he will have lived it to the fullest. He also says later in the song "If I go looking for it, I'll probably find it, but not in the pages of a book." (Listener, youtube.) He shows another key characteristic of transcendentalists by saying this because they believe going out to find the answer in nature is more effective than finding it through a book. 

“Listener – I don’t want to live forever” Youtube. Tangled Talk Records/Sincere Records/Broken Circles, 2010,            October 22, 2010.

Final Exam - Self Reliance

Little Mermaid - Part of Your World

Transcendentalists believed one should work to be reliant on themselves instead of those around them or the government. Arial demonstrated free thought and self reliance through the entire film, because not only did she collect items that came from the human world, but she also desired to come in contact with humans, both of which were frowned upon. When Triton tells her no, she continues to think and live the way she wanted, she decided no to follow her fathers wishes and be self reliant. In Emerson's "Self Reliance", he says "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." (Emerson, Self Reliance. 8) Arial believes this to be true, because normally a person would trust that their father knows what is good for them, but she continues to think the way she feels. Self reliance, free thought, and confidence go hand in hand, because you need to trust that just because other people do not agree with what you think, doesn't mean you're wrong. As Emerson said, "To be great is to be misunderstood." (Emerson, Self Reliance. 61) Transcendentalist believed you should live with the intent to live, not with the intent to please the people around you.

"The Little Mermaid-Part Of Your World" Youtube. Disney. 1989. June 29, 2007.

Final Exam - Confidence quote

Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On

Transcendentalists believed that one must have a huge amount of confidence in their choices, ideas, and beliefs to go out and truly live the life they believe is right. In a excerpt from Walden, Thoreau says "Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights." (Thoreau, Conclusion. 275-278) Thoreau is saying that even in the darkest times you need to be confident in the fact that you can still make something of yourself and not simply give up, the contrast between your high times and your low times only makes the bright times seem brighter. Lupe Fiasco urged his listeners to become individuals and to always believe you can make it out no matter what your circumstance is. "No matter what you see when you look out your window, brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher." (Fiasco, youtube.) Fiasco is saying that no matter what your financial or political status is, you can go out and be what you want. Thoreau also believes this; "However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names" (Thoreau, Conclusion. 250-251) Both of them emphasized on the fact that the cards you have been dealt mean nothing when it comes to who you want to be, that in itself shows that you need to have an amazing amount of confidence.

"Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On" Youtube, n.p, n.d., December 23, 2010

Final Exam - Nonconformity quote

The Matrix - The Pill Scene

Transcendentalists do not follow the crowd for the sake of following the crowd, they believed that they should follow the path that their intuition leads them to. In Whitman's "O Me! O Life!"  he describes society as "...the endless trains of the faithless -- of cities fill'd with the foolish." (Whitman, handout. 2) Whitman is referencing the people who don't know the truth, or in other words are faithless. The Matrix is set in the future, similar to a post-apocalyptic world the 'real world' is overrun by machines and the human population is nothing more than an energy source for the computers. The majority of the human race in this movie live contently in what is known as the Matrix; a computer generated world very similar to a video game. Neo is contacted by Morpheus who offers to show Neo the truth. Neo is offered two pills "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is; you have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance, after this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, and the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I  show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." (Matrix.youtube) Morpheus gives Neo the decision to either go back to life as he knew it, or to find out the truth. Neo takes the red pill and follows Morpheus. The Matrix is very similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave because when Neo 'steps outside of the cave and sees the real world' all of the agents set out to kill him. The agents are the government that controls the "cities fill'd with the foolish" (Whitman, handout, 2) To leave the Matrix Neo showed nonconformity and free thought, both are characteristics of traditional transcendentalists.

"The Matrix (1999) - The Pill Scene" Youtube. Warner Bros, 1999. May 18, 2011.

Blog six: Transcendentalism

1.)

        Alex’s views on possessions, money, and society do not match my personal views. I agree with his view on society to an extent because I don’t necessarily like how society works or how it views people, but I would never go as far as completely shutting myself out from it. When Alex leaves he donates all of his money and ditches his car, both of which most people would never be able to do because we live in a greed driven society; we always want more than we have. He refused his parents offer to buy him a new car because his ‘old beater’ still ran fine. I would never pass up a new car, who would? Alex donates all of his money, every last dollar. He didn’t save anything, I would never be able to go through with that, and while it’s a wonderful thing to do I don’t think it was smart. Alex believed that that material possessions meant nothing and you don’t need them to live a happy live, but I would never be able to survive a week, let alone, a lifetime without my iphone. I don’t agree with his views on these topics but I can understand where he is coming from.

2.)

       Alex was not living life to the fullest by submerging himself into the wilderness because he never took himself as far as he could have gone into school, a career, or even a family. Every person has some sort of goal or image in their head about what they want to have done or accomplished in their lifetime, and most people aspire to marry, have children, make a living, and other long term things like that, but his vision of a life well spent was gutsier; he wanted to abandon the cliché American dream and go find himself by taking a journey to Alaska. Even though Alex's ideal life is very different from the typical, he did live the way he wanted to, so to say he wasn't living life to its full potential would not be fair. He lived his life and followed transcendental views to live in a very free state. I don’t think he took himself as far as he could have, because he had so many options and connections but he didn’t use them. His father worked for NASA, he could have gone anywhere and done anything he wanted to but he ditched that life and went and got by on absolutely nothing. He died at a young age from the decisions he made and his lifestyle seemed miserable. If I am supposed to judge his life by the standards that I hold myself to, I would not say he lived it to its fullest; he could have gone and gotten an amazing education and made a something of himself. But if the definition of a life well spent is to approve of your own choices and to accept you for who you are, it wouldn’t be a judgment anyone other than Alex could make.  

Blog 5 Fear

Fear is a highly effective motivator. When threatened, people can be manipulated to do nearly anything in order to save themselves. Often, fear is used by people who are in authority, or people of a higher power; they use it to their advantage and often gain more power using it. Fear instills a sense of urgency in the people it is being used against; they feel as though the person officially means business. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” they explain how you live on tiny thread that is so easy for God to break, “The God that holds you over the pits of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire, he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else” (154) This description places a very real fear in the puritans, because it makes them realize how good they needed to be in order not to be condemned to hell. Everyone has a fear of the unknown, life after death goes along the same lines; the puritans scared everyone straight by bringing in a higher power that warns about what happens to bad people when they die. People also fear accusation, because innocent people are found guilty all the time. Being falsely accused in medieval times often meant death and that terrified people. In The Crucible, girls were being accused left and right, so the use of scapegoats was really high. This is the same in many other situations cause hysteria; in our little social experiment Maddi quickly gave up one of her friends in order to save herself, she used scapegoats such as “I’m not the only one in here that does it.” And “she was with me when I did it” these let her avoid the blame and took the spotlight off her. Fear has many different effects on people, but in the eyes of the person using it, it is a very useful tool. When fear is used, it can make people fess up, or stand down depending on the situation; if it is being used to call people out like our experiment, or if it is used to eliminate rebellions, such as the KKK did during The Civil Rights Movement. Fear is a motivator that is highly effective because, depending on the situation, it can threaten your grades, the way people see you, or even your life.    

Themes In The Things They Carried

There is no absolute truth in story telling; everyone will see something you didn't, and everyone will interpret it differently. When Tim O'Brien is describing Curt Lemon's death he says "In any war story, but especially a true one, its difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen." (71) This is true in any story really, people tend to get mixed up when telling a story until it's a mashed up jumble of what happened in reality, what they were feeling, and how they processed it. He continues to say, "What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed." (71) Technically speaking, every side to a story is true; the 'good guys' story is obviously going to differ from the 'bad guys', but just because they are different doesn't mean one is wrong. After telling the story about the baby buffalo, O'Brien says, "How do you generalize? War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." (80) Everybody interprets and feels differently about every situation that is thrown at them; some will sit through hell with a smile and others will crawl through green fields crying about every little thing. Peoples' definitions of hell are different, so their stories are going to encompass different details.

In order to be a good person, you do not need to have a set religion; you just have to have a set of morals. In "Church" Kiowa and Henry Dobbins are talking about Dobbins' childhood dream of being a minister, "He shook his head. "I just don't have the smarts for it. And there's the religion thing, too. All the years, man, I still hate church." (121) The idea of church is hard for some people, personally, I hate the quotes  from the bible and the creepy songs and dances that people do at church; that is the part that makes it seem fake to me. I believe that religion isn't something that you should have to be taught and memorized, it should be more of a 'do what makes you happy sort of thing'. When asked about his religiousness, Kiowa says "I grew up that way." (122) I don't think that 'growing up that way' should be the way religion works, you should grow up being taught what's right and what is wrong and figure the rest out on your own. Dobbins perspective on this subject is very similar to mine; "All you can do is be nice. Treat them decent, you know?" (123) You shouldn't be forced into every aspect of religion, you should just try to be the best person you can be.

Connections and Differences

Overall, the stories told by the veterans and those in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried are pretty similar with only a few differences that really stand out. The way the soldiers handle their fears were fairly similar, "Among the necessities or near necessities were... chewing gum, candy, and cigarettes..." (O'Brien, 2) Rob Miller talked about how a friend of his sent him a package of cigarettes while in Iraq and he started smoking again, and Kobe Bazelle talked about a close encounter he had with an enemy and how he smoked immediately after. The reality of war and death shocks Kiowa and some of the veterans. When Kiowa was describing Ted Lavender's death he seemed fairly surprised that Ted's death wasn't very theatrical, that it just kind of happened. "...it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something- just boom, then down- not like the movies where the dead guy rolls around and does fancy spins..." (O'Brien, 6). This is also how Truman Muir Irwin describes Wise's death, he said it all happened so fast and that he looked over and he was just covered in blood, he also talked about how it still doesn't feel like reality. One difference that stood out to me was what the soldiers choice in reading, "Kiowa always tool along his New Testament..." (O'Brien, 9). In the book, the soldiers carried religious readings but Kobe Bazelle talked about how he subscribed to as many magazines as he could before he left so he wouldn't get bored, he subscribed to things he had never even heard of and got a lot of grief from the people around him, Truman Muir Irwin talked about how he was watching an episode of Friends when an explosion went off, and Rob Miller talked about how they were blasting music into a city when they were moving through a city. The things they talk about are obviously a little more up to date than what is in the book.

The Things I Carry

Brooke Terry
Barnes, 1
The Things They Carried

She carries the usual things; a back pack full of binders and textbooks. She tries to only carry the bare minimum, always seeming to leave something in her car, at her house or at her gym. Like the average teenage girl, she carries her phone, her makeup, her perfume, her brush, and of course her shallow appearance based judgments. She carries the lighthearted gossip she shared with her teammates about a random moment in last night’s episode of Dance Moms. She carries the heavier tension caused by the drama buried deep in the roots of her ‘not-so-ordinary’ family. She carries binders full of half-finished assignments that really should have been done this morning. She carries the guilt of the conscience decision to put gymnastics before school. She doesn’t feel as though she really has a choice in that, the expectations put on her by her coaches, her parents, but mostly herself seem to be far too high for any sane human being to take on, and they’re still growing. She carries her gym bag, full of grips, therabands, powerbars, the half-full bottle of advil, and it’s other half scattered at the bottom of the bag. She carries her heavy body; seemingly dead from the practice she dragged herself to the night before. She carries her fear of being late; something that seems to happen far too often. She carries her love for food, clothes, and reality TV. She carries the typical new student stresses and insecurities, the things everyone else takes so lightly often mean the world to her. She tries fairly hard to seem tough when in reality the smallest things could easily crush her. She puts too much pressure on herself, or at least that’s what she is told. She has inadvertently created a ticking time bomb out of her body and she is ready to explode. She carries an odd paranoia of people, a fear that they are all as fake as some, a fear that they will all make a joke at her expense, a fear that she is not entirely sure of where it came from, but also a fear that she hasn’t been able to shake since third grade.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is rarely thought of as a lifelong sport, but the attributions it brings to its athletes are extremely applicable in later life situations. My name is Brooke, and gymnastics is something I not only value, but hold very dear to my being; without it I honestly don't know where I would be right now. I am in the gym four to six hours a day, it has forced me to get on top of everything I have to deal with, especially school. Gymnastics has made it a necessity for me to use every minute to my advantage. Gymnasts tend to be really competitive with just about everything whether it be a friendly argument, or an intense game of Monopoly. We have to win. Gymnastics has helped me accomplish so much just because it started the fire in my stomach to win. The  gym has always acted like a second home for me and without it I don't think I would have ever gotten the crazy idea to switch high schools. Without having my 'family' at the gym I think moving to Monarch would have been some distant idea, and I would never get to open myself up to so many new opportunities. Without gymnastics I would be in the same spot I was in two or three years ago, I wouldn't know how to change myself for the better or just how far to push myself. It has taught me that the only limits you face are the ones you build yourself. It has given me the knowledge that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, and with that the freedom of knowing I can reach whatever goal I have set.

Images from usagym.org