Poem Reflection

"The Little Girl That Lost A Finger" by Gabriela Mistral is about a clam that takes a little girl's finger and then goes into the sand as the sea washed the sand away. Then the whalers go out and retrieve the finger from the clam out in the deep blue sea. As they come back they receive a wage for their deeds, then become known thought town.

The meaning in this poem is how the finger and the little girl is society, the clam the money and the fishermen the hunters. The clam shows how it doesn't like to be hunted by taking something from society, when this happens the hunters go out and take back what is theirs, as a result they earn big bucks because that is how society gets their way where they live. Tell me what you think?

"Thoughts of Hanoi" by Nguyen Thi Vinh is about two brothers far from each other and one thinks that they will meet but this time as enemies and he fears of what may happen when that day comes. The boy fears that his brother may not remember him and all the things that they have been through in Hanoi and how they were "plotting our lives together" (line 64). This talks about a brotherhood that when the time comes they will see if it is stronger than the war and violence. The boy also wonders if his kin is also going through these thoughts as days go by, pondering about the good and the bad about all of it. Just wanting to stay in the present and "bury the past, to burn the future" (line 8-9)
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this piece as well, let me know what you thought about it. You can also ask me questions that you may have about it.

New Post For World Lit.

Everything above this post is for World Lit. class!!!!!!

This is a blog

“Which is the most universal human characteristic: fear, or laziness?” (Waking Life)

In this quote from Waking Life, it says how the most universal human characteristic is either fear or laziness. Well, according to all of what we have seen throughout life. It has always been laziness. Laziness is the thing that stops humans from striving to do things, not saying that all humans do this, just a very good amount of them do.

"Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled." (Santayana)

This quote from Santayana, says that reason is something sane that can be used for good. Waking life is a dream controlled. This explains that a dream is not a reality until you are actually awake and conscious of what you are doing and what is happening.

Truth

All of these stories explain truth in different ways that make sense to the story, of course, but the meaning behind each one is that not everything is as it appears to be. Nothing we see really there until we face it and see it with our own eyes.

In "How to Tell a True War Story" truth is never really explained to the point to which someone that is being told the story to, actually understands the real gruesome of how a war really is. I mean, sure you can tell a person how some of it was, but you will never really be able to make them understand all the hardships you went through so its a pretty tough challenge and obviously they aren't going to a war just so they comprehend you. In the story it talks how a squad of men go into war in Vietnam and all they do is just stay in some secluded area and wait, just wait for anything that they think is out of the ordinary, seems like an easy job but they aren't even able to talk to each other while they wait, all they do is just lay there behind a bush or something of cover and stay silent until anything of the sort happens. Then one time they hear a weird noise that seems pretty weird but they wanted to make sure it wasn't just some animal wondering around but then they start hearing some people talking and drinks being passed around so they just decided to call the air strike on the mountains which was where the noise was coming from. The air strike unloads on the mountains for a very long time and then it all becomes very quite , so quite that it seems almost as if the world had ended, there was no noise whatsoever. Now something like may help you picture somewhat of what was happening at the time but even then you still weren't able to really "feel" what all these people were going through.

In "The Wolves's in The Walls" truth is never explained to the person that wants to know it because the people that were close to her thought that it was too much too handle even though a person younger than her knew what was going to happen. The character hear wolves inside the walls and gets scared so she decides to go to her mother and ask is she hears it she tells her that she must be hearing things because if such a thing were to happen then "it would all be over." Now she doesn't know what this means so she asks her dad and he says the same thing, so she then decides to say this to her bother and he also says that it would all be over. Then soon the wolves do come out of the walls and take over the house and it really was all over because they lost their house. Not the whole story was told to the main character because the people that are in care for her think that she was too immature to understand such a thing so the whole truth was never explained to her.

In Dickinson's poems they talk about how the only real truth is God itself. "I Know The Moon" is showing how every animal in the story believes that the moon has a different shape and size to their own eyes. In the end truth is never just one single truth that everyone should be forced to agree on but instead a truth that if one believes it's true then it is what it is and if someone else decides that you are right then that person believes your truth.

Humanity is in trouble

Issac Asimov's predictions towards how the world will function in the future. All of his predictions were not at all insane, I mean, if you really think about it he was really to the point with all of it. When he talked about how population control, he meant that Earth, in due time wont have enough terrain to sustain so many people, thus being in danger of a huge overpopulation. This problem alone really needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. If we don't soon Earth as we know it will run out of resources thus making the world an unsafe environment for everyone and society will die of starvation and thirst. Consuming food will also have to change drastically. Ever since we started putting chemicals onto all of our food just because we think its better that way or because its "good" for you doesn't mean that in the future we wont be affected by it in the long run. Schools will too have to better the education. As the years go by, humanity will have to improve the education due to the fact that all of the people that will continue to live in this world will be the ones running it, they are our future.

One thing that I found kinda interesting was the fact that when Issac was talking about that if we lived in a world without racism, ageism, sexism and war, he says that it's gonna be a pretty dull world. Now I don't entirely agree with him but he is right. If none of these things existed then what will we watch on the news? All these factors make us aware of whats going around the world, if this doesn't exist then we wont live a life of excitement and everybody likes to live with a little adrenaline going through their bodies.

This lecture reflects on with synoptic philosophy because Issac uses many examples from other stories he has read in the past and he when he thinks of them now he really sees the big picture of what he was reading meant all along. He puts these pieces together and he notices that the world is a big place full of stupid people, people that wont realize that wasting the Earths resources so quickly will live nothing for the generations to come thus making them suffer in the long run.

Understanding Life's Meaning

"If there is one indisputable fact about the human condition it is that no community can survive if it is persuaded--or even suspects--that its members are leading meaningless lives in a meaningless universe."--Irving Kristol

Irving says in this quote that if humans being led by a leader that corrupts or dismantles their society then, us humans, wont acquire that power or freedom that we should receive as a society. Humans need to feel the attention (not the one of a leader, because that's too much) but the that of a person who does make a difference in the world, an attention that will show the world that anybody can succeed.

Having said that, Irving is correct with that statement. Since the beginning of time the human race has always been lead by a leader, a leader that has control of their people. Think of Hitler for example, when he into power, his amazing speech abilities got him places he could have only dreamt of, and with this speeches he was able to make his followers pursue all of his commands creating the horrible event that we call World War II.

In Russell's "The Value of Philosophy," he talks about how philosophers always enjoy searching the meaning to every answer. Finding the "final" truth is something that I believe can't be done, because to every response you may get to your question their will always be another one popping up, therefore, unveiling the truth cannot be done.

Plato's "Apology," tells us that humans need to feel the power that no one else can have, even more powerful than God itself. Although, according to Irving's quote, we as a society cannot accomplish such a thing because in the end we will never be more than what we already are, humans.