Humanities Seminars
Being Peace
Rule #1- Fiesta everyday: This rule basically means that you need to have the right of having a party everyday; it doesn't matter if it is short or long but there have to be a lot of people. This rule will help the person who practices it by increasing its potential to make new friends, talk and laugh. I believe that when a person is not alone tends to be happier, this can be because when you talk to someone you forget the most of the disasters that are in your mind. This is why I encourage everybody to take a small break and have a party with your friends everyday. But this is not an easy thing to do; because if we look the definition party it means “A social gathering, as of invited guests at a private home,for conversation, refreshments, entertainment, etc” (Dictionary.com) Many people tend to be confused with this idea and usually associate the word “party” with “alcohol” and this is why a social activity usually becomes a social conflict.
Rule #2- Tell someone you love them: This rule is not very hard to understand; it basically means that you have to tell someone that you love them. I think that this rule would help the society in a very fantastic way. When someone tells you that it loves you feel important and when you feel important you feel more confident about yourself which means that you will be more focused on the things you are working on. This rule can be bad if a person falls in love with the person who is telling them that she loves them because when you fall in love you can't focus on things which also means that you will not be able to do the things well.
Rule #3- Tell the teachers how important they are: Without them I would probably not be writing what I am writing now this is why you should tell them how important they are in your life. The teachers are probably who make us what we are so I think that they should be appreciated and encouraged to continue teaching as well as they do. The bad thing is that maybe a teacher can consider you a “teacher's pet” and start hating you.
Rule #4: Become an organ donor: When we die our organs will be wasted but now there is a way in which we can save lives by donating something we don't need anymore, organs. When you donate an organ you don't only help a person to live a life but you continue living in another person's life. This is why donating organs is not hard for you and necessary for another. The problem with this can be that there are families who don't like their death familiar to share its life so they can oppose. This usually happens because when a familiar dies it is hard for us to assimilate it and we just want them not to be opened.
Rule #2- Tell someone you love them: This rule is not very hard to understand; it basically means that you have to tell someone that you love them. I think that this rule would help the society in a very fantastic way. When someone tells you that it loves you feel important and when you feel important you feel more confident about yourself which means that you will be more focused on the things you are working on. This rule can be bad if a person falls in love with the person who is telling them that she loves them because when you fall in love you can't focus on things which also means that you will not be able to do the things well.
Rule #3- Tell the teachers how important they are: Without them I would probably not be writing what I am writing now this is why you should tell them how important they are in your life. The teachers are probably who make us what we are so I think that they should be appreciated and encouraged to continue teaching as well as they do. The bad thing is that maybe a teacher can consider you a “teacher's pet” and start hating you.
Rule #4: Become an organ donor: When we die our organs will be wasted but now there is a way in which we can save lives by donating something we don't need anymore, organs. When you donate an organ you don't only help a person to live a life but you continue living in another person's life. This is why donating organs is not hard for you and necessary for another. The problem with this can be that there are families who don't like their death familiar to share its life so they can oppose. This usually happens because when a familiar dies it is hard for us to assimilate it and we just want them not to be opened.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Write about what happens to a person who walks away—extend the story beyond what LeGuin has shown us.
The people who will start feeling feelings and will live in an amazingly emotion-full society forever.
There are some people who can't live in a perfect society. Those people are not strange, they are just not able to fit in a society where everything is good. Those are the people who are able to scape from this world that looks like a “fairy tale” maybe just because that doesn't give them the happiness that they need to live. My definition of Happiness says that “Happiness is what we feel when we get something that we have been fighting for”. In a perfect society we will never have to fight for anything, therefore, we will never be happy. So, as I say before those brave people who decide that Omelas is not their favorite place will leave the city thinking that they will find something better out there. Those people will find two things ; sadness and happiness. As they have never experienced anything similar before they will be terrified by the power of the emotions. As you can imagine some of them will have enough mental power to handle it but many of them won't so they will have to go back to an emotionless society.
But the people who decide that they want to sell their lives to the emotion-full society won't feel very good at first because it will be the first time that they will feel sad. But it won't take long until they discover that sadness and happiness go together and that you can't feel happy if you have not felt sad before. This is why these people will start feeling feelings and they will live in an amazing emotion-full society forever.
If this story is a large metaphor, what are two of the main symbols, and what do they stand for?
If this story would be a large metaphor I think that the perfect society would be all the developed countries in the world and the child in the closet would be all the underdeveloped countries. Evidence of this is that she says “Perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition and neglect” (P.8). Analyzing this piece of evidence I would compare it to the feelings that the presidents of the underdeveloped countries must have. They must have fear because the developed countries are taking their resources (such as Petroleum) and they must also have malnutrition, not only talking about food, they have also economical malnutrition because they don't receive a lot of help. The other piece of evidence is that she says “I do not know the laws of their society, but they were a few” (P.3) In my opinion this describes the developed world because we have to admit that pretty much we do what we want when we want, for example (Specially in Europe) the number of people who lie to the government is crazy and because there is not law that regulates that the economy decreases.
If this story would be a large metaphor I think that the symbol of the people leaving the city would stand for the immigrants. In the last paragraph she says “They know like they, like the child, are not free”. In my opinion this evidence explains the feelings of a lot of immigrants who leave their countries because they are trying to find a freedom that heir country is not able to give them. I once talked to an immigrant who told me that she didn't leave the country because of the money, she left it because she felt not free in such a corrupted country. The other evidence is that she says “They ahead into the darkness” (Last paragraph). This shows how blind you are when you leave your country to go to a place where you don't know anyone; it is a hard decision to take but it is not worthless.
The people who will start feeling feelings and will live in an amazingly emotion-full society forever.
There are some people who can't live in a perfect society. Those people are not strange, they are just not able to fit in a society where everything is good. Those are the people who are able to scape from this world that looks like a “fairy tale” maybe just because that doesn't give them the happiness that they need to live. My definition of Happiness says that “Happiness is what we feel when we get something that we have been fighting for”. In a perfect society we will never have to fight for anything, therefore, we will never be happy. So, as I say before those brave people who decide that Omelas is not their favorite place will leave the city thinking that they will find something better out there. Those people will find two things ; sadness and happiness. As they have never experienced anything similar before they will be terrified by the power of the emotions. As you can imagine some of them will have enough mental power to handle it but many of them won't so they will have to go back to an emotionless society.
But the people who decide that they want to sell their lives to the emotion-full society won't feel very good at first because it will be the first time that they will feel sad. But it won't take long until they discover that sadness and happiness go together and that you can't feel happy if you have not felt sad before. This is why these people will start feeling feelings and they will live in an amazing emotion-full society forever.
If this story is a large metaphor, what are two of the main symbols, and what do they stand for?
If this story would be a large metaphor I think that the perfect society would be all the developed countries in the world and the child in the closet would be all the underdeveloped countries. Evidence of this is that she says “Perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition and neglect” (P.8). Analyzing this piece of evidence I would compare it to the feelings that the presidents of the underdeveloped countries must have. They must have fear because the developed countries are taking their resources (such as Petroleum) and they must also have malnutrition, not only talking about food, they have also economical malnutrition because they don't receive a lot of help. The other piece of evidence is that she says “I do not know the laws of their society, but they were a few” (P.3) In my opinion this describes the developed world because we have to admit that pretty much we do what we want when we want, for example (Specially in Europe) the number of people who lie to the government is crazy and because there is not law that regulates that the economy decreases.
If this story would be a large metaphor I think that the symbol of the people leaving the city would stand for the immigrants. In the last paragraph she says “They know like they, like the child, are not free”. In my opinion this evidence explains the feelings of a lot of immigrants who leave their countries because they are trying to find a freedom that heir country is not able to give them. I once talked to an immigrant who told me that she didn't leave the country because of the money, she left it because she felt not free in such a corrupted country. The other evidence is that she says “They ahead into the darkness” (Last paragraph). This shows how blind you are when you leave your country to go to a place where you don't know anyone; it is a hard decision to take but it is not worthless.
Jihad vs. McWorld
As we all know Jihad means violence ;and if I would have to define violence I would say that it is the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual. Jihad is a structural violence, basically because it is caused by a system or society and the perpetrator can't be identified. The purpose of Jihad is to scape from McWorld,what also means that Jihad is the fight for the Independence and self-expression. Jihad defends the idea of fighting for a culture of solidarity because once you get it your identity will be stronger. But that has also many inconveniences; for example, many of the countries who live with it live in a society of repression, persecution, violence and fundamentalism.
Because of these inconveniences I have decided to create a poster against Jihad because in my opinion it is great to have a strong identity, but I find it worthless to stop living in a country that promises you peace, prosperity, efficiency, productivity and tranquility just because of your identity. Another thing that made me chose this point of view is that I think that all the countries are headed to live in McWorld because in a couple of years they will realize that the best way to have an identity is not using the violence. So, because of this I really think that there is not reason to support a way of life that will disappear soon.
Because of these inconveniences I have decided to create a poster against Jihad because in my opinion it is great to have a strong identity, but I find it worthless to stop living in a country that promises you peace, prosperity, efficiency, productivity and tranquility just because of your identity. Another thing that made me chose this point of view is that I think that all the countries are headed to live in McWorld because in a couple of years they will realize that the best way to have an identity is not using the violence. So, because of this I really think that there is not reason to support a way of life that will disappear soon.
Slaughterhouse 5
The seminar that we had yesterday made me think about things that I had never thought before. For example, my host brother John Rhoades stated that “We make choices that will mark our destiny”. I totally agree with this and I think that the best example of this is myself, because I had the choice to come here or not; but I chose to come and this will probably change the rest of my life.
I think that I am not Billy Pilgrim and I have some reasons to say it, for example I would not be able to write an article to the newspaper without earning any money like he does in the chapter 2, because if we learn something in this life is that we shouldn't work without having something back; maybe it is enough recompense for him just to let the people now about the Aliens, as he says in this same chapter, but I think that here there is the first big difference between him and me. The second big difference that we have is that in the war I would not let a German shooter shoot me many times without doing anything as he does in the Chapter 2 because I would react to the first shoot running, so I think that this clearly shows how desperate the war can become you. Passing to the third chapter we can see that Billy does not say anything bad to the German who are making him prisoner, even thought that they are young people who are just trying to collect prisoners, I would have tried to make them realize about what they are doing and what they should do that is probably let the people free.
Talking about his time travels, they really confuse me because they show how crazy the war can become you. I think that the real problem of Billy is that he is schizophrenic and this is what I think after reading his adventures with the Tralfamadorian people in the chapter 4 where he starts traveling with this small green aliens that probably his mind has created. I have also problems trying to figure out why he doesn't do anything when he knows how he is going to die because if I could know when and how I am going to die I would probably try to don't let that happen. Sometimes I really think that the biggest difference is that Billy is so much careless than me for example in the chapter 4 when the Germans throw poisonous gas over him, he does not do anything!!!!
In Slaughterhouse Five there are several ideas that came up, for example, when I read that the German where doing one operation called “Operacion Limpieza” in chapter two, it really made me think in my country, Spain where something similar happened there when the dictator Franco started the civil war. He killed thousands and thousands people in our country, specially Basque people, and he didn't realize that he was killing innocent people that had had just the bad luck of being born in the same decades as this monster did.
It is not easy to find connections between this book and All Quiet on the Western Front because the writing of the authors is really different. But I think that if there is something that both of the writers say is that to be a prisoner is one of the worst things ever. In these books you can see two different perspectives of it because for example in Slaughterhouse 5 Billy is a prisoner from the fourth to the sixth chapter and he can suffer the cruelty with what the German were treating them; and in the other side in All Quiet on the Western Front you can see how bad the protagonist feels when he sees all the prisoners that his country has.
I think that I am not Billy Pilgrim and I have some reasons to say it, for example I would not be able to write an article to the newspaper without earning any money like he does in the chapter 2, because if we learn something in this life is that we shouldn't work without having something back; maybe it is enough recompense for him just to let the people now about the Aliens, as he says in this same chapter, but I think that here there is the first big difference between him and me. The second big difference that we have is that in the war I would not let a German shooter shoot me many times without doing anything as he does in the Chapter 2 because I would react to the first shoot running, so I think that this clearly shows how desperate the war can become you. Passing to the third chapter we can see that Billy does not say anything bad to the German who are making him prisoner, even thought that they are young people who are just trying to collect prisoners, I would have tried to make them realize about what they are doing and what they should do that is probably let the people free.
Talking about his time travels, they really confuse me because they show how crazy the war can become you. I think that the real problem of Billy is that he is schizophrenic and this is what I think after reading his adventures with the Tralfamadorian people in the chapter 4 where he starts traveling with this small green aliens that probably his mind has created. I have also problems trying to figure out why he doesn't do anything when he knows how he is going to die because if I could know when and how I am going to die I would probably try to don't let that happen. Sometimes I really think that the biggest difference is that Billy is so much careless than me for example in the chapter 4 when the Germans throw poisonous gas over him, he does not do anything!!!!
In Slaughterhouse Five there are several ideas that came up, for example, when I read that the German where doing one operation called “Operacion Limpieza” in chapter two, it really made me think in my country, Spain where something similar happened there when the dictator Franco started the civil war. He killed thousands and thousands people in our country, specially Basque people, and he didn't realize that he was killing innocent people that had had just the bad luck of being born in the same decades as this monster did.
It is not easy to find connections between this book and All Quiet on the Western Front because the writing of the authors is really different. But I think that if there is something that both of the writers say is that to be a prisoner is one of the worst things ever. In these books you can see two different perspectives of it because for example in Slaughterhouse 5 Billy is a prisoner from the fourth to the sixth chapter and he can suffer the cruelty with what the German were treating them; and in the other side in All Quiet on the Western Front you can see how bad the protagonist feels when he sees all the prisoners that his country has.
All Quiet on the Western Front
In the very interesting seminar that we had yesterday, people expressed a lot of opinions which I do not share. For example, for me it was very disappointing to hear that All Quiet on the Western Front is only a war novel, because I don’t think the same. Also it made me feel sad when they said that the best thing to Paul was to die. These were opinions which made me feel angry; because, everybody knows that the life doesn’t finish with the war.
Apart from this, the seminar was a very good way to see how big our cultural differences are; because no one here thinks what we think in Spain, so I think that I learn a lot.
Now, I will explain you why I think that Paul’s death was not the best thing for him.
I think that everybody has a “normal” life until the war arrives; in that moment, you are supposed to leave everything you have and go far away to fight for your country, a country which the politicians can’t save. You stay risking your life, killing people which are very similar to you, but they just have been born in another place, maybe 1000 miles away from your birthplace.
You stay months and months killing people, and which is worse, seeing how your friends die and thinking why you can’t be the next. But you don’t die and you continue in the same way, but finally, they tell you that the war has finished, and you go back home; if you have it.
Of course, you can’t forget what you have seen, maybe you will not sleep during months, because it is not easy to sleep when the only thing that you can have in your mind is your friend's death. But why not, after fighting a lot, you can fight a little bit more, now against your life, and you can start a new one.
This is why I think that if Paul had not died he could have started a new life; even if he thinks that he has nothing.
Now I would like to tell you what this book shows about the war that I did not expect.
I used to have no idea about the WWI, and the only thing that I knew was that I was horrible. After reading this book, I think that it is even worse than I had ever thought before. It explains so good how the people died and it tells personal histories which make you feel like if you were there; with them, in the war.
I have seen a lot of war movies in my life and I will compare the book to “Troya” film. In this film there die a lot of people, but they use their mind and they create a big horse made of wood to enter Troya City and conquer it. The connection between this and the book is that in all the wars in the world they use the resources that there are available in that moment to make the worst attack.
In my opinion the phrase that best explains the Truth of War is the one in the page 199. He says: Guns, guns.
In my opinion he says a lot with these two words, because he explains what the war is; guns and guns.
If I had to represent this sentence in another form I would build a sculpture in which a man is killing another one with a GUN.
I would do this because I think that the sculptures are a very god way to make you think more on the war, because they can be huge and amazing.
Apart from this, the seminar was a very good way to see how big our cultural differences are; because no one here thinks what we think in Spain, so I think that I learn a lot.
Now, I will explain you why I think that Paul’s death was not the best thing for him.
I think that everybody has a “normal” life until the war arrives; in that moment, you are supposed to leave everything you have and go far away to fight for your country, a country which the politicians can’t save. You stay risking your life, killing people which are very similar to you, but they just have been born in another place, maybe 1000 miles away from your birthplace.
You stay months and months killing people, and which is worse, seeing how your friends die and thinking why you can’t be the next. But you don’t die and you continue in the same way, but finally, they tell you that the war has finished, and you go back home; if you have it.
Of course, you can’t forget what you have seen, maybe you will not sleep during months, because it is not easy to sleep when the only thing that you can have in your mind is your friend's death. But why not, after fighting a lot, you can fight a little bit more, now against your life, and you can start a new one.
This is why I think that if Paul had not died he could have started a new life; even if he thinks that he has nothing.
Now I would like to tell you what this book shows about the war that I did not expect.
I used to have no idea about the WWI, and the only thing that I knew was that I was horrible. After reading this book, I think that it is even worse than I had ever thought before. It explains so good how the people died and it tells personal histories which make you feel like if you were there; with them, in the war.
I have seen a lot of war movies in my life and I will compare the book to “Troya” film. In this film there die a lot of people, but they use their mind and they create a big horse made of wood to enter Troya City and conquer it. The connection between this and the book is that in all the wars in the world they use the resources that there are available in that moment to make the worst attack.
In my opinion the phrase that best explains the Truth of War is the one in the page 199. He says: Guns, guns.
In my opinion he says a lot with these two words, because he explains what the war is; guns and guns.
If I had to represent this sentence in another form I would build a sculpture in which a man is killing another one with a GUN.
I would do this because I think that the sculptures are a very god way to make you think more on the war, because they can be huge and amazing.