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Maus Analysis Text

      I found a general analysis of Maus I and II on a docshare website here is the link: http://www.docshare.com/doc/158846/Textual-Analysis-of-Art-Spiegelmans-Maus-I-am . I believe that it is similar to what we have been discussing in class and touches on similar themes. The author is not mentioned and the analysis is rather short but I think it discusses very important points. 

    The analysis text would not be the best to use for a lens essay due to the fact that it briefly describes why the author believes Spiegelman wrote Maus in the format it was written. The author states that a comic strip was undoubtedly  the best way to separate Vladek's story from the other victims of the Holocaust. The comic strip allows Spiegelman to easily transition from past to present without confusion. It also allows the reader/ viewer to easily see the emotion involved in literature such as Maus. 

    The author also brings to our attention that Spiegelman chose to portray all the characters as animals because it keeps the story"fable-like". I do agree with this statement but the author continues on to state that this is because Spiegleman did not want the reader to have to feel the pain as if the characters were human. However as I read the text I definitely saw people not just animals. This allowed easy identification of the characters, however it did not take away from the pain the characters show to the reader.

    The author lastly states that the comic strip and details included make the story very personal. I also agree with this. However, I feel that a more complex analysis would have stated that Spiegelman wanted to ensure that the reader realized that this is not the grand narrative of the Holocaust. The author just brushed the surface of this idea. I feel that within the text it is very obvious that Spiegelman wants the reader to see this as an individual story. As a part of the Holocaust but not the whole. This is to allow the reader to realize that the experience of one man does not account for the experiences of all the victims of the Holocaust.

See The Cat? See The Cradle?

"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies." - Kurt Vonnegut.
This whole book is a critique or satire of modern ideas. He begins his seemingly whimsical book with the line above. While this is a weird way to try to critique an idea, such as modernism, it allows the reader to see the idea of modernism as silly. He revolts against the previously concieved ideas such as pure science leads to the perfect world, by saying that pure science leads to a gray area between good and evil. He combats the idea that knowledge is always good, and states that knowledge somethings leads to destruction. He also states that the pursuit of truth is pointless because there is no absolute truth. While others fought to cling to the idea that knowledge could lead us to a perfect society, Vonnegut stated that perfection does not exist and if you constantly pursue it you will go mad.

It is hard to sit down and read a story that is against what many people believe, such as religion is a shameless lie. Therefore Vonnegut wrote a story in which directly he attacked modern ideas by pointing out the obvious flaws in his exagerrated examples. While reading his book an individual must realize that in order for utopia to be attained reality must be given up. But if we give up our own personal truth then how can we ever be happy living and denying our true self.  For this reason it is easy to see the Vonnegut is attacking the pursuit of perfect society which it the goal of modernism.

The religion of Bokononism is a complete lie that consumes the people who believe in it. This allows them to get away from reality and pretend their life is more than it actually is. The religion itself is a testament to Vonnegut's stance on modern beliefs.  

So Excited For Another Essayyyy

Alright so I finally finished Brave New World and I for some reason was assuming that we were not going to start an essay right away. I guess not. So anyways I was thinking I could write about how easily "reality" can be altered by what you are surrounded by. This would be easy to bring in Brave New World, The Tempest, and even 1984. The problem is that it would be pretty similar to what we already wrote for the 1984 essay. Another idea is to write an essay in relation to the belief that the grass is always greener on the other side. I could talk about John, Bernard, and possibly Lenina. I am still trying to figure that one out. Or I could write about the way innocence or ignorance can effect “reality”.  I would of course tie The Tempest in to this essay. I would focus on John and relate him to Miranda.

The problem is I do not know exactly what I would like to make my essay about but I have many little analyses that I would like to include. I would like to discuss ethics but I do not know how I would build that essay. I still have to work on this write about what you want attitude. I am so used to writing for a prompt and making sure the teacher is going to like it so you use really big words that you do not even understand. Haha I will get better at this eventually. Alright so, I need to write more. J Well since we are talking about Brave New World I found it interesting that John had such a strong conviction for helping give these people freedom, and then killed himself. I mean he was definitely unstable , but it was interesting that he changed from having so much passion that quickly.

Education and BNW

     Well that video is pretty cool I must say:) But anyways there are definitely parallels between the video and Brave New World. Education today is focused on a single from of education: preaching "facts" and then handing out a test. There is no specialization for individuals who not learn in this way. If you are not a very good test taker then you are left behind. Education at the high school level pushes to prepare students for standardized testing which has been placed as the ultimate goal. Standardized testing WILL NOT help anyone in the real world once we are into college and beyond. Students are being spoon fed information and they are not taught to stand on their own and form personal beliefs. You do what the teacher says to get the grades, you repeat what the teacher says on the test to get the grades, you write what the teacher believes to pass the class. As people have gained the access to knowledge outside of school, students are now able to break the biases placed on them by their teachers.  Some schools however realize that they cannot allow this and teachers try to teach without bias, however this is hard to achieve.
     The first similarity is Soma vs. Ritalin. ADHD may or may not be a huge problem. The huge problem is that parents and doctors are perfectly fine with pumping children with drugs because they do not have a proper outlet for their energy. Soma is used in Brave New World to control people in a similar way. It prevents individuals from exploring things that are detrimental to society. If people on constantly on drugs and seeking their desire then the government is able to make them "focus" on what the government feels is important. The next commonplace is of course the "factory model" of education. In Brave New World children are manufacture in factories and educated according by age within the factory. In society as we know it, Robinson states that our education is conducted a similar way. We are told when to leave classes by bells, classes are divided by subject, and we are educated by age not by ability.The focus of education in Brave New World is "Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational". The main difference between Brave New World and the "real" world is the fact that today students have the power to decide, many of them give up that power, but none the less we have the power.     

Brave New World

Wow! Well this new world order sure has a strange way of seeing things. Chapter three is a collection of a few different conversations all intertwined which makes it somewhat difficult to read. But if you are able to follow who is speaking it is not bad. "Wheels must turn steadily, but can not turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as sturdy as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment." This comment seems to be the basis for the brave new world. People need to be ignorant enough to be content in order to keep the wheel turning. If the world is allowed to tend itself then order, stability, and their whole way of life will collapse. 

          In order to stabilize their world they had to rid the world of humanistic qualities; things that allow us to be different from any other species. Family was the main focus to remove. Having a family creates passion, stress, a focus outside of work; so many things that would destabilize the world as they know it. “Home, home- a few small rooms, stiflingly over-inhabited by a man, by a periodically teeming woman, by a rabble of boys and girls of all ages. No air, no space; an understerilized prison, darkness, disease, and smells.” This idea made the students sick to think of family. It was discouraged to be with only one other person because of similar reasons. Love cannot be stable; however, can you find happiness without it? They did by compensating in massive amounts, and yet there were always people who did not find happiness. They restricted feelings and made desire the main focus of life. If the people remained happy then the work would get done.

          I found it interesting that not only was extreme value put onto Ford, but also Freud. In the present world Freud is studied, but his ideas are more of a laughing matter. They are almost completely falsified, and yet in this new world of reason and science they believe the ideas of man with crazy ideas based on no facts whatsoever.     

Tempest Essay.... (sorry this is pretty bad)

So we are trying to come up with ideas for the essay…. Right?? Haha well I think colonialism will most likely be the easiest for us to write about. This is due to the fact that we have talked about it a lot in class. We could use the articles from our last blog by Greenblatt and Will. I’m sure there are a lot more articles about this topic as well.

However, it is going to be very difficult to only talk about opinion. Since so many have already stated their opinion, it would be hard to not just summarize what they have already said. Although it is going to be difficult but I know that most of us are going to have to improve on removing summary from our essays. That is probably the number one thing I need to work on.

Anyways we could also write about the manipulation that is found in The Tempest.  How Prospero manipulated the individuals as well as the whole situation. We could use the other texts we have read to compare the nature of reality and how easily it can be controlled. Although this topic would make for a mostly one sided argument it could still be done.

So the prompt could look something like this:

In discussions of The Tempest, one controversial issue has been colonialism. On the one hand, Greenblatt argues that it is difficult to avoid the obvious connection between natives and Caliban. On the other hand, Will contends that it is unfair to constrain authors by the belief of the time period. Others even maintain that we should view the text as an art form and study the structure of what was written. However, my own view is that once a author has passed away we will never know what the author’s stance was in relation to what other’s now believe.