Osama Free Write

I think that it is a great thing that the US was finally able to find and kill Osama bin Laden.  His death marks vengeance for the United States about the attacks of September 11^th.  By killing him, we basically killed the leader of terrorism of these times, which is absolutely huge, but it also imposes new problems that we may or may not have to deal with, and leads us to many more questions.

For the United States, this event is obviously one to celebrate, but for Al Queda this event is much worse.  Their leader was killed, so now we must wonder who will come to power, and what direction he will lead them into, whether it be retaliation or a time to regroup.  We can’t really predict what they are feeling right now, but we can probably expect them to come back angry and try to retaliate in one form or another.  It is not clear what their intentions are, but I think that we need to prepare.

Another interesting topic about this event is the United States reaction to this.  When I first heard it, I was doing homework and decided to take a break and go on Facebook.  I was really surprised, because my whole news feed was full of statuses about how Osama was killed, and how everyone was proud to be American and stuff like that.  I went downstairs and turned my TV on and was shocked to see this.  At first I didn’t really know what to think because of the magnitude of the situation, but then I became very happy.  It was just nice to know that he was dead.  And then I saw videos of people celebrating, and it did strike to me as somewhat odd how everyone could be celebrating this much, just because of someones death.  And that is one of the interesting things about this story, how much this man affected our lives in the United States and how happy we were to see him dead.  It was just very interesting to see how we all unified.

Based on what we were talking about in class, I don’t really think that this will be a long-term unification for the United States.  It is great that we realized that as a unified country we were able to persevere and kill Osama, but our differences and bad habits are too great for us to completely forget about the problems within the country and solve them completely together.  This event was a great testament to the United States strength and determination, but to expect to be unified is too much too ask.  However, I think that this will be a huge morale boost for the United States, but it in no way will be able to unify us.

All in all, I think that it is amazing that we were finally able to kill Osama and that means a huge deal for us and the world, but we still have big questions and problems for the future ahead of us, and we must prepare and acknowledge these potential problems.

Maus-Night Blog

Maus and Night are both interesting pieces of work, in which they depict the events of the Holocaust.  What sets them apart is how the author presents the story being told.  Night is a novel and is written to describe the horrors of the Holocaust, while Maus is a cartoon which puts the Holocaust in lighter terms, although it also shows the horrors of the Holocaust.  Though they are presented completely differently, they both do a good job of informing the reader about the Holocaust, and they both had similarities.  In both of the books, the characters probably knew what their fate was, and they had to rely on others to support them.  Both books depict how tragic the Holocaust is and how common death is, and both show the hope that remained with the Jews, even in the camps.  I would recommend reading both of these books because they effectively tell the story of the Holocaust in their own unique ways.

Restrepo Blog Assignment

Prewrite:
Soldiers from both Restrepo and Fallen Angels are excited to get into the war. Also, they both go on dangerous patrols and get ambushed while doing it. They both set up a base near a village and try to keep good relations with them to help.  In Fallen Angels, Brew dies and everyone is emotional, and the same goes for when Restrepo dies. They both put a lot of effort into killing at least one man, even though it probably didn't make that much of a difference in the large scheme of things. I noticed how its tough for people in both to sleep because of the terrible things that they have seen war, and it puts them through a lot of emotional troubles. They both are able to talk to their families somehow, but they both usually act cool to their families and tell them everything is fine when it isn't. Other companies and squads lose a lot of people in both, and they remind themselves how they have to fight to not be like them. By the time they actually see combat most of them have lost their curiosity about war and are worried and want to go home in both. Lastly, both of them remember their dead soldiers in a way.  In Restrepo, a flare is shot off over the place where the soldier died and in Fallen Angels they make a cake on Brew's birthday, and they both mourn their deaths.

Writing:
Reading Fallen Angels and watching Restrepo have taught me a lot about war.  The most significant thing I have pulled from these was that war is not like how it is depicted in most movies.  There is a lot less heroism, and combat is much more realistic and balanced between both sides.  In the book and movie, it was obvious that the U.S. military struggled a lot at different times.  When the squads went on patrols, they both took fire and lost soldiers.  In Fallen Angels, they lost Lieutenant Carroll and they lost Restrepo in Restrepo.  When they were in battles, they didn't have an unlimited supply of superior weapons to easily take out the enemy.  The enemy had weapons just as good, and they used good strategies that gave the Americans a real challenge.

Please list 10 ways you can improve your essay scores

1. Make an effective point.                      
2. Come up with a good quote.                       
3. Explain that quote thoroughly.                       
4. Make an effective thesis statement.                       
5. Restate the thesis effectively.                       
6. Write with my own style.
7. Use a good word choice.
8. Use correct punctuation.
9. Write with proper mechanics.
10. Come up with a good ending statement that makes the reader think about the paper.

Please write any 15 thoughts about the book Slaughterhouse-5.  For each thought, please refer to a specific part of the book that generated this thought (for instance, “It was funny” receives no credit; “It was funny when he described the Tralfamadorians” receives full credit).

1. Death is insignificant. "So it goes."

2. Tralfamadorians are intelligent.  When they describe their views of life to Billy.

3. War is pointless.  When the Tralfamadorians are talking to Billy about it.

4. Time is not linear. The Tralfamadorians explaining their fourth dimension.

5. Reproducing needs a lot of different people.  The Tralfamadorians analysis of how many "sexes" the humans have.

6. No moment is more important than another.  The Tralfamadorians view of death.

7. Humans are stupid.  The Tralfamadorians analysis of their wars and reactions to death.

8. Pain is worse than death.  Billy crying at the horses in pain.

9. It was action filled.  The scenes of the Dresden bombing.

10.  It was interesting when Montana Wildhack first came to Tralfamador.

11. The concept of being unstuck in time is interesting when he goes back and forth in his life.

12. It was intriguing when Billy was about to die but didn't care.

13. It was very interesting when Billy saw the books by Kilgore Trout that were basically about his experiences with the Tralfamadorians.

14. It was neat how it was a war book, but the "hero" didn't have any heroic qualities.

15. It was unique how the main character's death was in the middle of the novel.


State 5 possible themes for the book Slaughterhouse-5.
1. I think that from this book, I have learned that pain is much worse than death.

2. Death is insignificant in the large scheme of the world, it is simply another moment in time.

3. War is pointless, and accomplishes little since it relies so heavily on death, which is also insignificant.

4. Time is not as linear as most of us percieve it to be, if we think it can be much less linear than we believe.

5. It is not as important to fear one moment when you can be living in the current moment.


Write a conversation between yourself and Billy Pilgrim in which he tries to teach you a lesson based on his own experiences.  You must explain IN DEPTH at least 3 specific events and details from the book in order to receive full credit.  This conversation should go on as long as it takes to demonstrate YOUR UNDERSTANDING of Billy’s experiences.

Billy: Hello, Scott!
Scott: What's going on Billy?
Billy: Well, I'm going to tell you about the Tralfamadorians.
Scott: The Tralfamadorians sound crazy, who are they?
Billy: They're aliens that live on the planet of Tralfamadore.  One night, they abducted me and took me to their home planet.  They introduced me to their way of life, and explained to me their views on war.
Scott: I don't believe you.  Tell me more.
Billy: Well, they taught me that time isn't really linear, and I became unstuck in time.  I kept on flying back and forth to different moments in my life.  One time I even traveled to the time of my death, but I didn't even care because it was just another moment in time.
Scott: Wow, sounds neat.  Did you have any other interesting times with time traveling or the Tralfamama-bobbers or whatever they're called?
Billy: Well, after I got in a plane crash, I decided to tell everyone about my experiences with the Tralfamadorians.  I went to New York and went on the radio and everything.  But one of the most interesting things about it was that I discovered that there were books written by a man named Kilgore Trout, and the plots of his books matched my experiences exactly!  It was pretty strange.
Scott: That is amazing!  Well I have to go now, bye Billy!
Billy: Bye Scott!

Odyssey Thematic Writing

Throughout the Odyssey, a common theme of valuing loyalty is shown.
In Book 22, the theme of loyalty is shown by Odysseus killing all of the suitors. When he was gone, they believed he was dead, so they became disloyal to their leader and started acting like they were leaders themselves. When Odysseus returned, he was not pleased. "You dogs! you never imagined I'd return from Troy-- so cocksure that you bled my house to death, ravished my serving-women--wooed my wife behind my back while I was still alive!" (pg. 440, 35-39). The suitors were disloyal to their superior, and they paid the full price. Through the adventures of Odysseus and his people while he was away, The Odyssey shows us that loyalty is something to be valued.

Book 12 also illustrates the theme of loyalty through the crew of Odysseus. Odysseus commands his crew to not eat the cattle, because they belong to Helios, and they would be killed if they did. They decided to be disloyal to Odysseus' commands and ate the cattle, but were promptly killed by Helios. "Unless they pay me back in blood for the butchery of my herds, down I go to the House of Death and blaze among the dead!" (pg. 283, 411-412). When the crew disobeyed Odysseus' orders, they proved themselves to be disloyal and paid the price of their lives. With this Book, it is clear to us that being disloyal can have very serious consequences.

Book 19 is a tale of disloyalty that reveals the harsh consequences if you don't obey your superiors. Odysseus returns to his palace disguised as a beggar to test the loyalty of the suitors and his wife. All of the suitors are revealed to be disloyal to Odysseus, but Penelope appears to still be very loyal to him. “I yearn for Odysseus, always, my heart pines away” (pg. 394, 151). Odysseus, enraged by the suitors, slaughters all of them for their disloyalty, while leaving Penelope alive for her loyalty. The outcome of this Book, finishing with all suitors dead and Penelope alive, helps illustrate how loyalty plays a large part in The Odyssey.

Siddhartha Blog

I have learned and observed many life-lessons through my reading of Siddhartha.  The theme that is most prominent to me is that teachers are an inferior medium through which you gain knowledge compared to your own individual actions.  Throughout the book, Siddhartha is struggling to attain his clear goal of enlightenment, mainly due to his doubtfulness of his teachers.  He realizes that these teachers are trying to teach him the ways of the world, but their teachings are confined to words and could never teach the lesson trying to be conveyed.  Siddhartha thinks to himself, "He has robbed me of my friend, who believed in me and who now believes in him; he was my shadow and is now Gotama's shadow.  But he has given to me Siddhartha, myself" (36).  Siddhartha realizes through his doubt of Gotama's teachings that he himself is the only teacher he needs and the one that will teach him the most valuable lessons.  At the end of the book, Siddhartha is ironically teaching Govinda that wisdom cannot be communicated, and that you must experience it yourself to fully understand the meaning of something.  "I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust. . . in order to learn to love the world, and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, some imaginary vision of perfection, but to leave it as it s, to love it and be glad to belong to it" (144).  Siddhartha learned that he must experience these sins and actions to understand their importance.  To really learn, you must realize that you are the best teacher you will ever have and that you need to experience what you are learning to understand it.

Macbeth - "Be a Man"

Quote:
Macbeth
What man dare, I dare.  
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The armed rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble. . . . 
Why so being gone,
I am a man again.--Pray you sit still.

(Act 3, scene 4, lines 121-131)

Context and paraphrase: Macbeth is at the dinner, and the ghost of Banquo appears.  Macbeth explains that he is now always many besides when the ghost is present.

Interpretation and Explanation: In this quote, Macbeth is telling the point that he has now done plenty to become a man, and the only thing that is stopping him is Banquo's ghost.

Quote:
Lady Macbeth
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised.  Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. . . .

(Act 1, scene 5, lines 15-18)

Context and paraphrase: Lady Macbeth is speaking about Macbeth killing Duncan.  However, she doesn't think that he has what it takes to kill him.

Interpretation and explanation:  In this quote, Lady Macbeth implies that to for Macbeth to be a man, he must kill Duncan.  However, she doesn't think that he will be manly enough, so she has to talk him into doing it.

Quote:
Lady Macbeth
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty . . .

(Act 1, Scene 5, lines 47-50)

Context and paraphrase: Lady Macbeth is trying to do everything she can to get Duncan killed, and she doesn't think that Macbeth can do it by himself.  She is trying to say that she wants to become more masculine so she will easily be able to do the task or at least help Macbeth, which would be the manly thing to do.

Interpretation and explanation:  She thinks that by becoming more like a man, she will be able to kill Duncan or at least she could.  She is disappointed with Macbeth and has the ambition to do the task, she just wishes that Macbeth would be the manly one and do the deed.

Quote:
Lady Macbeth
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.

(Act 1, scene 7, lines 56-58)

Context and paraphrase: When Macbeth is having doubts about killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth tries to convince him to follow through with it.  She is basically saying that he was a man when he said he would kill Duncan, and he would be an even bigger man if he actually did.

Interpretation and explanation: This quote shows that by saying that you are going to do something doesn't necessarily make you a man.  You must follow through with what you said you will do if you really want to be a man.

Quote:
Lady Macbeth
. . . Are you a man?

Macbeth
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appall the devil.

Lady Macbeth
O, proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear.

(Act 3, scene 4, lines 70-74)

Context and paraphrase:  Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are at the dinner, and Macbeth is yelling at the ghost of Banquo that he is seeing.  Lady Macbeth is questioning his manliness, and Macbeth replies by saying that he is doing what the devil may not.  Lady Macbeth replies by telling him that it is nonsense, and that he is hallucinating due to his fear.

Interpretation and explanation:  After killing Banquo, Macbeth is very afraid of what he has done, so he begins to have hallucinations about Banquo.  Lady Macbeth insists that these hallucinations are cowardly, and make her question his manliness, because he can't handle the murders that he is causing.