Facebook

After reading about the connection between students who check facebook once a day and bad grades it really makes me question many statistics out there. After only surveying a little over 200 students, you can’t come to a conclusion. There are millions maybe even billions of people on facebook. In addition how can you even say that checking facebook once a day is even that much of a distraction from school. On the list of things a college student does, facebook is distracting, but not nearly as harmful as drinking. I think the article should be about drinking rather than facebook. Maybe students who drink at least a few drinks a day may have worse grades than students who either don’t drink, or drink very little throughout the week. I’m sure there are many other statistics out there that appear as shocking, but are only based off limited individuals.

Analytic Slaughterhouse

Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse Five with a variety of different messages regarding war. The overall text functions as an anecdote to war and it’s common generalization or homogenization of fighting, always for a good cause. In a tralfamadorian world, much like the one Billy Pilgrim pretends to be living this is acceptable, but living as a human in a linear aging process it is not. Because Billy Pilgrim is “unstuck” in time, this allows him to travel through time in a circular fashion rather than the progressive linear fashion like that of a common human.  Throughout the novel, Billy travels in and out of time in different periods, every time he travels he knows what is going to happen and neglects to do anything to change the outcome. He knows he is going to get in a plane crash when he gets on the plane to the optometrist convention, but he does not do anything to change it. The tralfamadorians insinuate that there is no such thing as free will and Billy seems to agree through his time traveling experience. The prayer that Billy recites and that is inscribed on Montana’s locket explicitly states “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…” this is stated because Billy knows he cannot change the outcome of the plane crash. According to the tralfamadorians the plane crash has always happened, will always happen and there’s nothing to do about it. I believe this prayer relates to the affect of war, there is nothing good that comes from war, children fight for their country in effort to accomplish what their country decides is the right thing to do then they die. It is an overall massacre of the human race. Vonnegut makes a comment about what war does to an individual, that is takes away the character of a person. This is exemplified through Billy’s life. Billy’s life after the war seems to be pretty successful, he is married has kids and became a doctor and is making a pretty good amount of money. What more can people ask for than to have a steady job, be successful and have a family?  Because Billy has had the de-characterizing experience of war, he is now unable to understand the true satisfaction that comes from the common pleasure of success and having a family. The reader knows how the story is going to end at the beginning of the book, Vonnegut basically says the story will end with “poo-tee-weet”. This was intended to function as a supplement for the book’s organization as well as a description for war. The bird chirp shows that there is really nothing to say about war, nothing can be said to describe the feeling and horrifying experience of war that a simple chirp of a bird might as well be used to describe it. The bird chirp also starts the repetition of becoming unstuck in time as Billy Pilgrim. This allows for the reader to follow the book in a tralfamadorian manner, in a circular pattern rather than in a chronological order. The whole book functions as a group of similar events experienced by a man in war, but viewed in a tralfamadorian manner of anti war.

Slaughterhouse Reader Comments

In response to Clark’s creative Slaughterhouse Five response (http://newagesdawn.wordpress.com/) I think he does an effective job of displaying a certain stance and mood distributed by Kurt Vonnegut. In Slaugterhouse, Vonnegut creates a feeling of the affect of war, how innocent beings such as the dog, or the horses are being harmed by the “good guys” fighting against the “bad guys”. Rolad Wreary who is fighting for America, goes ahead and kills innocent beings while the Americans are fighting the Germans. This shows that whether you’re fighting for good or bad, there is nothing good that arises from war. The good guys are killing the bad guys, but also killing the lives of innocent and armless people. The synopsis of Montana’s thoughts portrays an image of the “good guys”. Montana represents the consensus of an average American, and her compassion for American belief. Even though she is passionate for the American values, and the Americans are against the Germans, what she does not know is the Americans are still committing terrible things and that no matter if your fighting for good or evil, there is nothing good about war.

Slaughterhouse Response

            Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know the future? There is one person that knows how he will die, when he will die, and every little detail of each experience he will have in his life. Most people can remember bits and pieces of their childhood, specific events that made an impact on your life; Billy Pilgrim does not remember anything from his childhood. The only thing Billy remembers is waking up one morning as a 16-year-old living by himself, and the only thing he knows is what will happen to him throughout the next 27 years of his life. Billy did not always have this lack of memory, when he was born his parents left him and a woman named Montana Wildhack adopted him. Montana was famous; she was a gorgeous porn star recognizable to any male who ever picked up a playboy. Montana fueled life by her attention she got from others for her beauty and sexiness. This was a new experience for her because she was in fact teleported to earth from another planet. She was a complete different being, from a place called BenTroc. BenTroc was a planet made up of billions universes, all of which BenTroc had complete control over. No earthling had knowledge of BenTroc, or it’s ability to control the future of each of his or her lives. Montana became attached to Billy, because in BenTroc you are not raised by a family, you never have kids, life is simply a game living through the control of other beings on different planets in different universes. Kilgore Trout was the name of the leader in charge of Montana. Montana was sent to earth by Trout to monitor the lives of the human race. When Trout found out that Montana had become attached to Billy he ordered her to return to BenTroc. She then copied and all her knowledge and inhuman abilities to Billy. When Billy finally awoke, he remembered nothing but now knew everything. In a brief moment Billy could fast forward and picture every single event that will happen in his entire life. He soon learned that no matter what he did, the same event would come out of it. Billy now knew that he was going to die in 27 years, and it would be from the destruction of the earth. Scientists would be conducting an experiment with a nuclear drill and the core of the earth, the drill will have a bad reaction with the molten center and cause the entire planet to combust. How do you go about living life if you know humankind will end from a manmade experiment? Knowing how the world is going to end, Billy had two options. Billy could devote his life to trying to prevent the scientists to conduct the experiment, or he could devote his life to making the people living within the earth appreciate every bit of life. Now having no real feelings because he has BenTrocian powers, Billy was able to travel teleport around the earth speaking to crowds, meeting with people, and motivating individuals to take life for granted do everything they can, because you can’t live forever. Billy looked at himself as a messiah correcting the corrupted views of individuals and their mal perception on life. Billy did this 24/7 everyday of the year until he was 43 and the earth virtually exploded into smithereens, and BenTroc had one less planet to control.

blog sluaghterhouse

in slaughterhouse 5 kurt vonnegut expresses his opinions about war in a very different way. he uses a fictional story including another aspects such as space travel, time warping, aliens, and a somewhat of a sixth sense called the fourth dimension. This fourth dimension is part a literary concept that functions as a key view of any type of war. In slaughterhouse five, this fourth dimension represents kurt’s view of the war. He knows there will always be war, there has always been war, with and without 18 year old or “children”, but there is never anything that is going to be changed about it. Much like how the tralfamadorians describe the end of the universe, it always will happen, and always has happened, and will continue to happen until ultimately everything is gone.

Project Proposal

1) A particular identity. 

2) The identity of a person pursuing a career in the construction industry. 
I am a building construction major, every time I tell someone that doesnt know about construction m y major, they automatically assume im going to be a laborer building stuff with my own hands – not the case. 
speaking for all BCN majors, and people already in the industry. 

3) Popular opinion is that construction is an unimportant part of society, people dont go to college for it, when i say im a BCN major most people assume im going to be building things myself with my own hands – not the case. 

4)  Construction is a key player in society, without construction technology developed in labs, cars, nothing would be developed. It is the building block of expansion of society. attitude is that it isnt respected, it is for highschool dropouts, people dont really go to college for that do they?

5) Egyptians – one of the most advanced engineer/construction oriented organizations in history. 
it shows how construction blends the person with his surroundings to more easily cordinate teamwork, advancement. 

6) identity through bonding with other people in construction. using my passion for the sight of success and aplying it to my career path. 

7) Egyptian pyramids, my father being in construction and his influence on me – he is now part of the BCN history at the rinker school of building construction as being inducted into the BCN hall of fame. the southern family and the legacy now established in construction. 

Recipe

I think one of the most important things we can take from this week’s readings, is the concept of relating to our atmosphere, friends, family, community, and how the result of experiencing the different parts of your surroundings changes what you do as a person. In the tripmaster monkey, kingston writes in a way that makes the main character seek to find a medium between himself as an american and himself as a chinese man. At times he avoids the chinese culture because he seems to relate to himself as an american so much, but through his experience as an american there are so many things relating back to chinese culture that he exhibits through the story.

Everyday use

After reading everyday use by alice walker, i can somewhat relate to my family and the way we value our heritage. My great grandmother died when she was 96, I was 13. one memory i have of her is watching her sit on our couch and make braided rugs. She made probably hundreds of these rugs over the years. After she died, not a single one of these rugs was hung up on the wall, shoved in a box, or put in the attic, each and every single one of these rugs is being used still to this day in the households of my family. that way each time we step on the rug, we remember grandma. everyone in the fam knows too that she was making these rugs for us to use. They looked like this -http://www.gcrugs.com/guide/im/madison-braided-rug.jpg 

This also reminds me of a story my dad told me. A long time ago he was on vacation somewhere with a couple friends. They went out one night drinking and having a good time, as they were entering a bar they all noticed what seemed to be a homeless guy sitting on the ground drinking a decent bottle of whiskey. My dad said to the guy “why dont you come in and have a drink with us” the homeless guy said no. My dad replied “oh come on we’re buyin, save that nice bottle of whiskey for another time” The homeless guy then said “save it? save it for what?” – Kind of an interesting story that relates to antiques and heritage. If you are fortunate enough to have something from your ancestors like an antique dinette set, why not use it for what is was made for? And if you save it, what are you saving it for – your only going to get old and die anyway.

Response 5

Part 1

            Throughout The Plot Against America, Roth distributes many instances where the text functions as an antidote to myth or the consensus. The rise of Lindbergh in and of itself is one of the first parts of the novel that functions as an antidote to consensus. The majority of the nation was fearful of going to war, FDR was in the race for presidency, and his competition was Lindbergh. Lindbergh offered an antidote to the common feeling of fear by the nation by simply stating his view of the war as something over seas and not to America’s concern. Lindbergh also made it clear that the election was about going to war or not going to war, if FDR was elected the country would go to war. Resulting from this fear obviously Lindbergh was elected and a new understanding and living began to arise. Lindbergh then offers an antidote to the previous way of life, this new living was derived from the common thinking of Adolf Hitler and geared towards an anti-Semitic society. This direction is an antidote to previous American living but not a change to the entire world – this moment is an example of not necessarily the world changing, but the people within the world are changing. Now this antidote to old living introduced by Lindbergh has a different effect on the characters throughout the book. For Sandy, it functions as a means to adhere to and change to. He shows his acceptance of this new way when he talks about the meals he consumed at the farm camp in Kentucky when he was away for summer. Sandy eats ham and bacon throughout the entire summer like a “real American”, this goes completely against everything that the Jewish religion was founded on. The anecdote functions oppositely for Alvin. After experiencing anti-Semitic like events and having a socialist boss, Alvin recognizes that the way America is changing is wrong and that he needs to fight for Jewish rights. Alvin then proceeds to move to Canada so he can fight against the Germans. Later on in the Novel after anti-Semitic acts increase to a high level, Lindbergh and the presidential staff come up with a new anecdote to the amount of Jews in America. This new anecdote will move all the Jews to random areas across the nation in hopes to change their views and blend them with the consensus of the majority of the nation. If one family of Jews are relocated to an area with no other Jews, they will be forced to parallel their views with those around them. When I think back on the phrase “perpetual fear” I parallel with the feeling of the Roth’s and the Wishnows. This is an example of unconventional expression, because when you read a book you expect to know what is going on from all characters described, you know something bad or good is going to happen. In this Novel, you are experiencing the same thing as the Jews are, you don’t know if Seldon’s mom is actually dead, you don’t know if someone is going to attack your house, you don’t know if Mr. Roth, sandy and Seldon are going to make it back to Newark. This is a very different approach, and allows you to feel much like watching a movie rather than reading a Novel.

 

Part II

            Roth uses a combination of defense and paralleling you with feeling of the characters within the book. When the Roth family is in Washington D.C. Mr. Roth fights against every instance of anti-Semitism, but at the same time you don’t know what is going to happen to him, whether he is going to get shot or put in jail. Roth makes you feel the anxiety that Mrs. Roth, Philip and Sandy seem to distribute at this part in the Novel. I feel this is a very interesting way of writing and allows the reader to connect with past experiences and combine it with previous knowledge to measure what they feel will abrupt from the situation they are progressively reading. It allows you to analyze the text, and predict what will happen next without actually having any supportive facts of what will come next. 

Lindbergh

After examining President Lindbergh in the Plot Against America, i classified him as a complete hypocrite. How can someone run to be the president of the United States of America without having the values that America represents. During his presidency, is the bill of rights forgotten? The bill of rights is part of what makes America stand out compare to any other country, how could such an important thing be so easily mistreated. I don’t understand how a president can come to power and completely disobey the foundations of the country. Although Roth rewrites history in his on way, i feel he forgot about the key basis of which this nation was founded upon. If he doesnt recall, we were against germany in WWII there is no way a president such as lindbergh could convince the entire nation to possess a certain view.