4/22/16

It was what I am

I believe that there is a lot of merit in looking back.  Looking back at what you've done and looking back at what your dreams have become.  Too often we continue on changing without ever considering what we use to be; we pride ourselves on progress but rarely reflect on how much that progress is. In my opinion, moving forward without noticing how far you've gone is like running a race without ever looking up to see if you've crossed the finish line. People say that you think about the beginning when you've come to the end and I believe that to be true so as my time in IB comes to an end I'm finding myself thinking about the beginning.

On the first day of my first IB class I remember not knowing anything about what was to come.  I mean in theory I knew what IB was supposed to be like but for all I knew the informational meetings and classroom observations could have all been an elaborate scheme to get kids to sign up.  Thankfully I survived my first day and many more days to come and I now have a better grasp of what the IB is.  I'm not going to describe the IB program because we all have a pretty thorough understanding of what the IB is and some of us have a few choice words to describe it too.  Instead, I want to talk about how I've grown as a person during my last two years at Millbrook.

I know that a lot of teenagers say they haven't learned anything from school but they're wrong.  Even if you have never paid attention to a single word a teacher has said you've still learned something, in that case how to make it look like you're paying attention.  I've learned the importance of finding a passion and cherishing what you love.  Having something that you love and enjoy spending your time doing makes life that much more interesting and gives balance to the work you deal with everyday.  For me, this passion is golf and traveling.  There is nothing on this entire planet that makes me happier than seeing a new place and interacting with new types of people.  There is also nothing better than breaking a personal record on the golf course or hitting the perfect shot.  These moments have become like flashbulb moments in my memory where simply thinking about them makes me smile.  I've learned that having something that will always make you happy is comforting when  you need it and exciting when you do it.

I've also learned the importance of investing in others and what they love.  People generally want to help one another and struggling alone is a lot worse than if someone were to help.  Showing someone that you care about their happiness is the most beneficial thing you can do for them and will pay off in the long run.  People are always more inclined to help someone who encouraged them in the past and I think that the relationships where people help one another are the ones that last.  For me, supporting someone takes effort because of the time that it takes but is well worth showing that I care about them.

The things that I've learned in IB haven't been all facts and statistics but things that will help me in the future.  The experiences that I'm taking away from High School will stay with me for a long time and have become a part of who I am.  The things that I have learned are what define me and impact the actions that I take.  In conclusion, it was what I am.  What my experience in IB has taught me defines me and what makes me who I am.  

Scrolling through Walt Whitman's journal, I noticed a few things about the structure and the content of the journal and had a major difficulty deciphering his handwriting.  The structure of the journal is extremely informal and consists of a mostly questions and brief ideas concerning these questions.  The journal often writes several questions in a row and then moves on to give brief ideas about how to answer these questions using examples.  Whitman also writes several stanzas of a poem about questions written but most seem incomplete.  He includes drawings of characters and things that I think are either inspiration for a poem or someone he has seen using much more detail and care than the writing in the journal. This journal seems to me like a collection of ideas about questions Whitman has pertaining to everyday occurrences and how they could be turned into poems.

In this journal, Whitman expresses his concerns about the world and his opinions on how it can change through his ideas for poems and the questions that he asks.  This reveals that Whitman is a person who cares about the world around him and notices the larger themes and troubles of everyday life that escape most people.  The questions asked in the journal talk about themes that apply to the people of the time period and potentially in the future.  This shows that Whitman is a writer who believes that change can happen in the world and aims to enlighten people through his work about problems that affect the people.

One part of the journal that stuck out to me was the idea about the ship.  Whitman wrote, "Welcome the storm- welcome the trial- let the waves why how I shall see what old ship is made of" (Whitman 7).  He then goes on to say that the ship is the "ship of the world- ship of humanity- ship of the ages- ship that connects the world- ship of the hope of the world- ship of promise" (Whitman 10).  This idea about the ship stood out to me because it is the epitome of the purpose of Whitman's Leaves of Grass in that it aims to connect people and to raise questions about society.  Whitman uses a metaphor of a ship in order to draw a connection of humanity and hope between people to talk about hardship.  I think that it is extremely effective to unite the readers in order to encourage a purpose and Whitman's ideas show this.

After reading the annotations, I have a different perspective on what the meaning of the metaphor of the ship is.  At first I thought it was the hardships of the people but now I can understand how it can be representative of the government under Lincoln's Presidency.  I find it interesting how Whitman made up a dialogue between Lincoln and him and continually referenced Lincoln throughout the journal.  Creating a dialogue between two people gave Whitman a lot of writer's freedom on the persona that Lincoln could have and I think it is important on how Whitman represented Lincoln.  Lincoln being seen in an honorable yet distant manner is consistent with his Presidency but I think that Whitman had an appreciatory tone towards Lincoln.  Whitman also used this dialogue to bring up problems within the government and to comment on the fracture of America during the civil war.

3/20/16

I am using my freebie!!

3/6/2016

The first translation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect, uses a passive voice and a simple sentence structure.  The translation uses words such as uneasy, transformed, and gigantic to give the sentence a certain tone of unaccepted surprise.  The sentence is direct as far as structure is concerned given that there are no commas or separating punctuation.  It uses a chronological sequence to organize the sentence and imagery to give a certain tone.

The second translation, Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug, uses a direct structure to bring across its purpose.  It uses words such as uneasy, changed, and giant to add meaning to the sentence.  These words have a different connotation than the first translation in that giant and changed have a smaller weight attached to them than gigantic and transformed.  This sentence also has a simple structure that has no separating punctuation.

The third translation, When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug, used a very similar sentence structure to the second translation.  It includes diction such as troubled, transformed, and enormous to give the feeling that Gregor had a unusual night. This sentence also has a simple syntax with little punctuation.

The fourth translation, One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin, uses a very different syntax than the other translations.  This sentence uses a lot of commas which breaks the sentence up into different thoughts and is organized chronologically.  It uses diction such as agitated, transformed, monstrous, and vermin to give the feeling that Gregor is not pleased with what happened. This translation is the most different when it comes to syntax of the sentences as it is broken up by commas but still retains the same order of the words.

Even though these sentences seem similar at first glance, they are different in several word choices that have different connotations.  The adjectives used to describe his dream are uneasy, troubled, and agitated which all have slightly different meanings.  Uneasy and troubled give the feeling of wariness and uncertainty while agitated has a more angry and irritated connotation.  The diction used to describe the insect that Gregor turns into is different in the translations from insect, bug, and vermin.  These words have different meanings as insect and bug seem less disgusted and vile than the word vermin, which has the connotation of being repulsive.  The differing diction used in these translations gives the sentence a slightly different meaning as these words have feelings associated with them that can change the tone that the narrator has.  The fourth translation has a much more negative and repulsive tone from the narrator as the descriptive words and imagery it uses has a much more negative connotation.  The syntax of the first three translations are very similar in that they all do not contain any punctuation except for a period and have a chronological ordering.  The fourth translation contains multiple clauses broken up by commas and adds a broken speech when reading.  The syntax changes the way the text flows in the readers mind and can make the sentence seem more direct when it doesn't have any punctuation.

These different translations carry slightly different meanings and can affect the tone that the reader believes the narrator has.  Determining if one translation is more effective than another is dependent on the tone of the rest of the novel and which sentence matches that tone better.  If the tone of the novel in its entirety was more accepting and confused, the first three translations would be more effective but if the novel has a more repulsive tone the fourth translation is more effective.  It is difficult to determine which translation is more effective because the translator must try to capture the tone and feeling that the author intends for the novel using words that carry a slightly different connotation in another language.  Languages do not always exactly translate and the words that translators must use will not exactly match the feelings that the author intends for the novel and the translator must choose words as best they can.  Translators must try to match both the diction and the syntax of the original text in order for the novel to carry the same tone that the author intended in order to give the correct purpose of the novel.

Practice IOC!

I analyzed the passage beginning with, "I lower my eyes to the path" for the IOC.

Here's what I thought of my IOC...

Criteria A:
I would score myself a 6 because I discussed some of the themes present in the novel such as power, societal structure and status, and fertility but not as in-depth as needed.  My statements about these themes were accurate but they were very basic and relating to the novel as a whole instead of the passage specifically.  I discussed the theme of power as it related to Offred and the Handmaids, but not the power dynamic that the whole society had constructed.  The quotes that I chose supported my argument well but I should have focused more on them instead of discussing the novel as a whole.

Criteria B:
I would give myself a 6 because I discussed the quotes and their effect on the reader but didn't address the specific literary features that the quotes used.  The effect that I stated on the readers and the novel was very general and not specific enough as an effect.  I should have discussed the specific literary features the passage used and given a more specific effect on the reader because of  the passage.

Criteria C:
I would score myself a 4 for this section because my commentary was organized by the introduction, including a brief context, the themes that the passage contained and their relative effects, and then the conclusion about the purpose of the passage.  The transition between these things was somewhat smooth and I stayed on topic for each of the themes.  I should organize my thesis and conclusion better and state them more directly in the future.

Criteria D:
I would rate myself a 4 for this section because I used a diction that was semi-formal and appropriate to the text.  My word choice was accurate for what I was trying to convey and I spoke somewhat eloquently.  I could use a larger range of vocabulary and could add more literary devices in order to do better in the future.

2/6/16

Never Let Me Go

The four covers of the books are very different at first glance but they contain underlying messages relevant to the novel.  Each cover alludes to a theme within the novel that is important in the characterization and purpose of the book.

Three of the covers contain a light color scheme while the final uses grey and black.  The lighter color scheme creates an undisturbed and tranquil mood for the reader while the grey cover has an almost horror mood. Three of the covers contain either people or drawings of a body but none of the covers contain a full image of a person's face.  This goes along with the importance of the clones physical bodies and the disinterest the government has about their souls.  Two of the covers that contain a person are not complete drawings of the person but only contain parts or are blurred that also support the context of the clones being treated as less than human.  The cover with the book is different in that it doesn't contain a person but rather a picture of the boat that Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy visit.  This is representative of the hope that the clones have concerning avoiding dying because they spread rumors at the center about the boat and the possible sequence of events that led it to be washed ashore. This causes the clones to have hope because they are limited on what they can do and envy the freedom that regular people have.

The cover of the blond-haired girl sitting in a patch of flowers appears peaceful and calming with the choice of the color pallet and the lighting used in the image.  Using earthy tones with lighter colors has a natural look and both the way the girl is sitting and how she is dressed creates an image that is completely normal. She also sits alone in a green landscape with her face turned away from the viewer hiding her features.  If someone hadn't read this book they would probably think that this book had a romantic aspect and was a summer story of young woman because of the background and her attitude.  This cover does however have an important connection to a contextual theme in the novel in that the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, depicted the clones in a typical English setting with human characteristics.  This was a main purpose in the novel as Ishiguro commented on how similar the clones are to regular people and begged the question of what qualifies and makes us human.  I think this cover pictures Kathy because of her posture and how Kathy tends to be small-spoken and keeps to herself.  The viewpoint of the cover is from Tommy's eyes because he the character that views Kathy with a romantic aspect and would see her as being peaceful and contemplative.  The creators of this cover wanted to emphasize the human aspects of the clones and the relatively normal lives that they live hoping to draw in readers who typically wouldn't read dystopian novels.

This cover is extremely different from the other covers because it contains a crude drawing of a human torso with the organs as the main focus.  This cover points out the darker aspects of the novel as it emphasizes the organ donation the clones must make.  Not showing the face of the person and only sketching a torso with organs is meant to point out how the clones were treated as less than human with their only purpose being to donate organs.  The grey color scheme and the font of the words adds to the morbid purpose of the cover along with the lack of detail of the sketch and the outline of the body with stitches.  This cover aims to point out the ethical dilemmas contained within the novel concerning how the clones should be treated and whether or not they should get the rights regular humans have or if they should be harvested for organs. People who hadn't read the book would probably think that the book was a horror book about morbid things happening to people and would contain characters that would hate the situation they're in and wouldn't be content.  Although the book does contain a morbid aspect as the clones are harvested, I wouldn't consider it a horror book because of how the clones view their situation and the happiness present in their lives.  I believe that the cover is in the point of view of the authorities who make the clones donate and regular people who believe that clones aren't human and should be harvested without a normal life.  The creators of this cover wanted to emphasize the grotesque facet of the book hoping to draw in readers that enjoy horror books and wouldn't usually read a story about kids growing up.

1/24/2016

TED Talk

This TED Talk entitled "What Fear Can Teach Us" by Karen Walker discusses the relationship between fear and storytelling.  She argues that the fears we imagine have the same structure and ideals of a story but can help us prepare for situations.

Walker explains her proposition that fear and storytelling are similar by analyzing the components of each.  She states that fear has the characters, plot, setting, and author that a story possesses.  Characters in our fears include ourselves and occasionally others while the position of the author can be changed.  Walker says that we can view our fears as either an artist or a scientist in that an artist becomes enveloped in the creative aspects of fear.  A scientist however evaluates fear with a clear mind and judges whether the fear is likely to become true.

The imaginative aspect of fear was also important to Walker's argument as she explained that fears are the creative side of trying to predict the future.  She says that as children our fears are extremely vivid are unlikely to come true but as we grow older they become less eccentric and more applicable to real life.  However, fears are imagination based no matter our age so they are unlikely to come true.  But every now and then, our fears do occur and how someone views them determines their actions. If we view them as an artist, we are likely to perceive the most outlandish fear as a possibility while a scientist would consider the likelihood of something unrealistic happening and would not be terrified of it.

She also says that fear is similar to storytelling in that all of the events that occur can cause a chain reaction.  Walker explains that as an author you have to think about how one change or event will cause something else and something else until there is a chain reaction.  She says that this is the same in fears because people start with something small and then it grows as one detail causes another until the fear is obscene.

Walker supports her claim with the example of when 20 American sailors sank in 1819 in the Pacific Ocean.  These sailors had three choices of how to get to safety:  they could sail the short distance to Tahiti, the longer distance to Hawaii, or the longest distance to South America.  All of these choices had fears attached as Tahiti was rumored to have cannibals, Hawaii would have lots of storms, and the trip to South America was so long that the sailors could starve.  The sailors decided that the cannibals were far too terrifying and sailed toward South America.  By the time that the sailors were found, half of them had died because they didn't take the shorter trip to Tahiti due to a misguided fear of cannibals.

The purpose of this presentation is to convince the audience that fears and stories are similar and how we interpret them influences our choices.  Walker makes this her purpose to teach the audience something about fear and that it doesn't have to be a weakness or block but if used correctly, something that can help us.  She wants the audience to be able to analyze their fear and to make correct decisions based off of it.

The speaker persuades the audience to her point by using ethos and logos.  Ethos is used as Karen Walker is a fictional writer and therefore has a lot of experience telling stories.  She gives examples of how she determines what happens after an event occurs creating a chain reaction and her own experiences as a child afraid of Californian earthquakes.  She gives vivid imagery of her experiences as a child and describes them in a way that makes them relate to every person, which adds to her credibility.  Walker also uses logos to support her claim because she analyzes the structure of both stories and fears while comparing them.  She states the components of a story that most everyone knows of, such as plot and characters, and applies them to fears in a way that is logical and well supported with the example of the sailors.  I would however say that a weakness to her argument is that Walker doesn't give any counterexamples and provides limited examples.

This talk appealed to me because of both the title and how it can relate to me.  Fear is something that we all deal with on a daily basis whether we acknowledge it or not and is always unconsciously present in our thoughts.  A lot of the decisions we make our influenced by what we are afraid of and I wanted a different perspective on how we can interpret fear.  Fear has been a part of my life recently as I am about to make life altering decisions and don't necessarily feel prepared to make them.  I will soon pick what college I attend, what career path I venture towards, and where I want to live whether I am ready to choose or not.  Fear of choosing the wrong thing is a large part of these choices.  How will I know that I chose the right path for me and what if I decide something that turns out to be wrong?  This fear will influence my decisions but being able to think of them as stories and to see that one thing leads to another might change my future from being a roadkill collector to something that captivates my passions.