English Literature Blog
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Blog #29: Final Reflection
At the beginning of the year, I was nervous about starting Senior year classes, especially English. We began starting to use our gmail accounts more and began using the blogger app. It seemed very easy especially embedding them, despite the confusing instructions and multiple tasks to do just to get an embed code to post. Then came the first group assignment for the Poem, The Black Walnut Tree, I thought that the Google Drive App would help speed things up in group efforts, but the problem was that we had chaotic schedules and only I was online after school to work on this. I ended doing the whole thing after I finished my section to save our grade and learned that I should just switch groups with people that are actually productive and helpful. Best choice I made because I can't work with poel that can't be productive. My new group were very nice and let me join them and Ms. Wilson also approved, whom I thank very much for allowing me to do so. When we started our next project, we actually finished on time and everyone talked to each other about their sections and got some tips or edits form each other using the chatroom feature as well as comments feature. Overall, this small change helped improve myself in English as a student and a teammate as most assignments in each class are individual and some groups in group projects don't really focus unless they are disciplined in focusing on the task at hand. I don't blame my old team for almost getting us to fail we just needed more cooperation and focus to help encourage cooperation when tasks were being shared out. Nayonika was like the glue that kep the group on task. In the future, whether you are a student in school or an adult in the workforce, I recommend working with a group of people you know well and can help get the job done.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Blog #27: Art & The Artist Organization Chart
Blog #26: Prewriting for Art & The Artist Unit
1. What is Art?
Art is a form of escaping from reality where you can live
out your dreams and wishes. It changes the way we think. It creates a story.
2. What is the artist’s role in society?
To show their own interpretation of the world and human
activities.
3. How can we effectively utilize are in our
lives?
Art is a form of communication between our world and its
own.
Curiosita
As a child, I was always a handful, always full of spirit
and practically curious about everything, but anything related to water always
spiked my highest curiosity. Today, I am a senior in high school and soon to be
graduate, that plans to earn his degree in marine biology. I think what perked
my interests on the ocean was going to aquariums and zoos when I was little
with my family. I actually remember seeing an orca show, and I was only one or
two years old. On top, it’s like sheet that hides the real canvas underneath,
full of all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. Anyhting to do with the sea, my
paretns were always doing what they can to make my dream a reality. Now here I
am almost graduating and a spot at OSU Mansfield Campus, and about to show what
I can do.
TED Talk “How Art gives shape to cultural change
1. What is Art?
Art is a form of expression that
changes the way we think. It creates a story in our minds that we never get
tired of hearing.
2. What is the artist’s role in society?
To express thoughts, feelings and beliefs of one’s self.
3. How can we effectively utilize are in our
lives?
According to Thelma Golden, art is about
considering the implications of what this generation has to say to the rest of
us. It's considering what it means for these artists to be both out in the
world as their work travels, but in their communities as people who are seeing
and thinking about the issues that face us. It's also about thinking about the
creative spirit and nurturing it, and imagining, particularly in urban America,
about the nurturing of the spirit.
Surface
Drama
Shallow
Concept of time, facial expressions,
nonverbal communication, body language
Deep
Nature of friendships, Preference for
competition or cooperation, concept of “self”, concept of past and future
The reason I chose the theme Drama is because I am a part of Drama Club. Since freshman year, I have seen great people come and go, but not before performing every play from Dracula to Fiddler on the Roof. We are all great friends and are like a giant family. When the play is announced auditions are a free for all as those who have acted before and fresh talent that could make it far in acting. A play in my opinion, is a work of art. Actors express their characteristics of their character to a point they become them and we believe it. The emotions, expressions, and body language is what helps create the character for the audience, but in the end, whether we were villains or bystanders, we're all a bunch of chums that enjoy the life of the theater.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Blog #25: Final Research Paper with Title Page & Works Cited Page
I
have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason
High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title
page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the
process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or
plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the
possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the
paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.
Signed:
_______________________
Peter
Kociba
English
IV
Ms.
Nichole Wilson
Peter Kociba
Ms. Nichole Wilson
English IV
April 2015
New
World, New Rules
If we had
a chance to live the future, today, but had to give up our humanity to do so,
what would be our choice? Everyday people are given a choice – a choice to
reach for their goals or do what makes them happy. In a perfect world, these
would be one in the same. Aldous Huxley presents this utopian world in his
book Brave New World, where the people are governed and trained in a
totalitarian regime that not only ensures that people are happy, but also is
able to control the behavior of each individual and keep society stable. Upon
closer inspection of Today’s society, we are not any closer to this type of
government.
First,
the government controls how the people in the World State are born and are
treated like products that need to go through a series of tests before being
‘shipped out’. Instead of being naturally
born, the World State uses a form of artificial birth to determine which child
will be in what category of the caste system. Huxley generates "community" by
dividing the population into segments, where the Alphas serve as intellectual
superiors and Epsilons function as pure menial labor. In Brave New World,
“[they] decant [their] babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or
Epsilons" (Huxley 13). Children are taught throughout their life to be
happy with their caste so they have no desire to change. The basic ideas of
society are also "wedded indissolubly before the child can speak. But
wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale [...] for that there must be
words, but words without reason" (Huxley 28).
Next, the
government for the World State controls what Caste the baby will be born in and
what its future job will be for the World State. In an experiment at the
beginning of Chapter Two, one can notice how Delta babies are forced to learn
“…what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and
flowers” (Huxley 22). Their love for books and flowers may influence the
efficiency of the lives The Controllers want humans to live. Deltas are trained
to avoid roses and books by giving them electric shocks when they touch those
items. Before they even know it, their freedom of choice and belief is
eliminated. Psychologically, this conditioning also lowers these classes to the
status of animals. They are trained to hate books in case they read something
that might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes. They are taught to
hate flowers, so that they will not spend too much time in the countryside,
away from work and responsibilities. This again applies to the efficiency of
the society. Alphas are given challenging jobs and Epsilons are given grunt
work that would be boring for higher caste members. “Alphas are so conditioned
that they do not have to be infantile in their emotional behavior. But that is
all the more reason for their making a special effort to conform. It is their
duty to be infantile, even against their inclination” (Huxley 98)."Stability"
in their society is ensured through the limitations placed on the intelligence
of each group.
In Brave
New World, their happiness is only as limited as what they are told and the
use of a special drug used to forget these emotions. The drug in question here is soma, a
hallucinogen used by those in power to subdue the citizens in their society’s futuristic,
totalitarian setting. It is described as "the perfect drug," with all
the benefits with no drawbacks. The citizens of the "World State"
have been conditioned to love the drug, and they use it to escape any momentary
bouts of dissatisfaction. The problem, as The Savage identifies, is that the
citizens are essentially enslaved by the drug and turned into mindless drones
and are still prisoners of their own freedom. The hypnopædic platitude
"Every one belongs to everyone else"(Huxley 47) is a great example of
the sort of confinement we see in Brave New World. No one can be free
because everyone is subject to the desires and urges of every other person
through the conditioning and soma. How can we have freedom when we are
considered property?
The society
Huxley presents is based on many things, one of which is the desire to consume.
The people have been conditioned in this manner. From the economic standpoint
of the society, if people consume readily as they do, there will always be a
need for jobs thus completing the supply and demand cycle. Huxley’s world was
intended to be a future utopian society, but is in reality a dystopia. This
reality to any human would be devastation for everything that people have
worked for. People want to be free and the chance to feel. As the Savage put
it, "I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger,
I want freedom, [and] I want goodness. I want sin" (Huxley 240).
In today’s
society, nobody has a right to limit anyone’s intelligence. Those who are
intelligent enough will become what they desire, and their knowledge will be
contributing towards the whole world. By conditioning the population to tell
them to respect each other’s caste, and to be happy with their identity and the
community they form, where the only reason for living is to benefit others,
those freedoms are eliminated and no one is given a chance to choose, think, or
change. They have stripped themselves to choose freely and give up a part of
humanity by being created in a tube and look like everyone else instead of
being born and really living.
As we grow
up into adulthood, we would think that being able tell whether or not we are
happy would be easier, but, judging our own happiness can be difficult. There is often a disconnection between what
our brains tell us and what we actually feel. In “How to Intentionally Design a Happier Life”
by Elizabeth Segran wrote Paul Dolan, a professor
at the London School of Economics, a government policy advisor and one of the
world’s leading happiness scholars, says "We tell stories about the things
we think should make us happy, but sometimes, when we look a bit closer, we are
not really that happy at all"(Segran). He explains that landing the dream job or
getting engaged can make us feel happy, but in reality, the negatives may not
register to someone such as the co-workers are mean or anxious about tying the
knot. It takes a lot of energy to be constantly thinking about whether or not
we are happy ourselves, which is why
most of us adopt a philosophy about what goes into meaningful life—such as
finding satisfying work, getting married, having kids—then we stop wondering
whether we are happy. Dolan concluded that “thoughtful, driven people spend so
long reflecting about what makes a meaningful life, they sometimes lose sight
of what actually feels good to them on a daily basis” (Segran). To be happy, we
make mistakes and learn from them such as making mistakes as a child. For
example, children learn not to play with fire if they burn themselves once. One
should not be taught to hate things that are not dangerous for their own
health, otherwise these individuals are considered narrow minded and ignorant.
Arthur
Brooks, author of “Free People are Happy People”, suggests that in order for us
to be happy, we have to be free in our own society. Therefore freedom and
happiness are connected. In 1976, an experiment was conducted to explain how freedom
causes happiness, “Psychologists in Connecticut gave residents on one floor of
a nursing home the freedom to decide which night of the week would be “movie
night,” as well as the freedom to choose and care for the plants on their
floor. On another floor of the same nursing home, residents did not receive
these choices and responsibilities” (Brooks). The first group, which were no
healthier or happier than the second when the experiment began, quickly showed
more activity, greater awareness, and better moods.
As man has
progressed through the ages, there has been, essentially, one purpose – to
arrive at a utopian society. A society where everyone is happy, disease is
nonexistent, and strife, anger, and sadness are unknown. Only happiness exists.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley counters this by showing that these
items are not what the human soul really craves. In a utopian society, the
individual is lost in the melting pot of semblance and world of disinterest.
Huxley uses his knowledge of science along with his imagination to show how a utopian
society would be pictured. In Brave New World, he removes individuality
and has made happiness and the enjoyment of life into an artificial feeling
with the constant presence of soma. Freedom is what makes people human and in a
world where freedom the freedom of choice is taken away, feelings then
disappear.
In the
society of Brave New World, the population only know how to be
conditionally happy and oblivious to the fact that their world is not a slice
of heaven. According to Biswas-Diener and Kashdan, the secret of happiness is a
concern of growing importance in the modern era. “We are no longer
hunter-gatherers, so to speak, concerned with where to find the next kill, but
in truth, we worry instead about how to live our best lives” (Biswas-Diener and
Kashdan ). The fever to search for our happiness is encouraged by a growing
body of research suggesting that “happiness does not just feel good but is good
for you—it's been linked to all sorts of benefits, from higher earnings and
better immune-system functioning to boosts in creativity” (Biswas-Diener and
Kashdan ). The citizens of Brave New World's futuristic
society are in a constant state of imprisonment. But because they have been
conditioned to love their servitude, no one seems to have any problem with
this.
Now we
bring ourselves to the final question, “If we could live the future today, but
in return had to give up our humanity and happiness to do so, what would be our
choice?” Our thoughts would not be our own, nor would our actions. The people would
be governed and trained in a totalitarian regime that not only ensures our
happiness, but along with being able to control our behavior of each individual
and keep society stable. We would be under the influence of false facts and
drugs to a point where we are treated like animals. In today’s society, we
choose what we do and what we think, which is what makes us human. Everyday people are given a choice – a choice
to reach for their goals or do what makes them happy.
Works Cited
Biswas-Diener, Robert, and Todd
B. Kashdan. "What Happy People Do Differently." Psychology Today. N.p., 19 June
2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Brooks, Arthur C. "Free People Are
Happy People." City Journal. N.p., Spring 2008. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1932.
Keyes, Alan. "Freedom Means
Having The Choice, Liberty Means Using It To Do Right." The Daily Caller. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015.
Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Landau,
Elizabeth. "Why Happiness Is Healthy - CNN.com." CNN. Cable
News Network, 25 Dec. 2014. Web. 26
Mar. 2015.
Segran,
Elizabeth. "How To Intentionally Design A Happier Life." Fast
Company. Fast Company & Inc, 12
Feb. 2015. Web.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Blog #24: Research Proposal, Research Questions & Annotated Bibliography
RESEARCH
PROPOSAL AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BNW
Research
Proposal: In Brave New World, scientists talk about the perfection of mankind and
improving society, but the citizens don’t have a choice on how they improve it.
The scientists take away the freedom to choose, and shows that no one is sad or
unhappy with the lifestyle they were designed to live. My topic will be about
the different perspectives of freedom in the World State and the Savage
Reservation, as well as their goals.
Reasearch
Questions:
1. How important is freedom of choice?
2. What does it mean to be human?
3. What are the ultimate goals of human
society?
Peter Kociba
Nichole Wilson
English IVB
25 March 2015
To be
Human and To Be Free
Segran, Elizabeth. "How To
Intentionally Design A Happier Life." Fast Company. Fast Company
& Inc, 12 Feb. 2015. Web.
As we grow up into adulthood, you would think we would be
able tell whether or not we’re happy, but to tell you the truth, judging our
own happiness can be difficult. There is often a disconnection between what our
brains tell us and what we actually feel. Paul Dolan says "We tell stories
about the things we think should make us happy, but sometimes, when we look a
bit closer, we’re not really that happy at all." Perhaps you think you’re
happy because you’ve just gotten engaged and after a series of best wishes, it
may not register to you that you’re anxious about moving in with your partner. Therefore,
Dolan concludes that thoughtful, driven people spend so long reflecting about
what makes a meaningful life, they sometimes lose sight of what actually feels
good to them on a daily basis, and ties with my research question of what being
human means.
Landau, Elizabeth. "Why Happiness Is
Healthy - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Dec. 2014. Web. 26
Mar. 2015.
Happiness -- you know it when you see it, but it's hard to
put it into words. You might call it a sense of well-being, optimism, or even
life satisfaction. But whatever happiness is, we know that we want it, and that
is just somehow good. We also know that we don't always have control over our
happiness. The author suggests that happiness makes peoples’ lives much better
and gives us the optimism for each day. In a study of people older than 60 who
enjoyed life less were more likely to develop a disability. In other words, how
we feel about life and ourselves affects how happy we feel in the future.
Brooks,
Arthur C. "Free People Are Happy People." City Journal. N.p., Spring
2008. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Brooks suggests that in order for us to be happy, we have to
be free. The earliest American definition of liberty is about constraints on
personal actions: if I don’t hurt anybody else, I should be free to pursue my
own will. The idea is that The Founders believed that freedom was one of at
least three fundamental rights from God, along with life and the pursuit of
happiness. These three rights are connected: not only does liberty, of course,
depend on life, but the pursuit of happiness depends on liberty. In a way the
freedoms and laws we have were to keep us happy and keep our slates clean.
Biswas-Diener, Robert, and Todd B.
Kashdan. "What Happy People Do Differently." Psychology Today.
N.p., 19 June 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
According
to Biswas-Diener and Kashdan, the secret of happiness is a concern of growing
importance in the modern era. We are no longer hunter-gatherers, so to speak,
concerned with where to find the next kill, but in truth, we worry instead
about how to live our best lives. In a study of more than 10,000 participants
from 48 countries, psychologists Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia discovered
that people from every corner of the globe rated happiness as being more
important than other highly desirable personal outcomes, such as having meaning
in life, becoming rich, and getting into heaven. This information helps tie
together my research question of what the ultimate goals of humans in society.
Keyes, Alan.
"Freedom Means Having The Choice, Liberty Means Using It To Do
Right." The Daily Caller. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
According to
Keyes, is that humanity abuses the power of freedom throughout our lives. Our
nation wants order, but we also need happiness to balance the order. In other
words, even though a government passes a new law, we can’t force this change on
people who have a different set of morals and choices. For the research
question on the importance of freedom of choice, it is expressed that we are
given this right to express ourselves, yet others take advantage and abuse the
power before them. We aim to bring the world together in peace, but our morals,
greed, and our own choices in life that prevent us from moving forward.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Blog #23: Research Paper Final Topic Selection & Final Graphic Organizers
Brave New World Topic Selection
My Essential Questions:
Freedom & Happiness:
How important is freedom of choice? When should one give up freedom of choice?
What does it mean to be human? What are the ultimate goals of human society? My Final Topic Selection & Why I Chose It/Connection to Brave New World -- I will be writing about the different perspectives of freedom and ultimate goals in their society in Brave New World. In "How to Intentionally design a Happier Life," Elizabeth Segran says "It takes a lot of energy to be constantly thinking about whether or not [you're] happy. This is why most of us adopt a philosophy about what goes into meaningful life—such as finding satisfying work, getting married, having kids—then we stop wondering whether we are happy." In Brave New World, The World State stripped its citizens of their emotions through positive and negative reinforcement after being artificially born and 'created to follow a specific job. They forced the citizens to hate things such as flowers and books, so that they want nothing more than what the World State offers through the physiological need to belong and self-actualization of purpose in each caste they were assigned. Although the citizens have no freedom to choose what they want because they believe they already have what they want. Yellow – Iceberg View of Culture (Concepts of food, concepts of self, concept of past and future) Blue – Outside sources to reinforce connection to BNW Green – Maslow’s Hierarchy
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