Jordan’s AP Blog

Bokonism tries to solve the issue of violent dogmatism by making the whole religion playful. Nothing in the religion is holy as they say in one point in the novel not even God. You cannot take anything too seriously or you miss the whole point of Bokonism. What would they have to be driven about? The whole religion is one great big play. Everyone is having too much fun being playful to take the idea of religion serious.

Spark notes took a different approach to the question then I did. They pondered what drives a person to do violent dogmatic acts. I questioned what a person would have to be dogmatic about. Their approach focuses on the lies that Bokonism is built upon while mine focuses on the tone of the religion.

Felix mocks the idea of evil through his perception of the world. Evil is a subjective idea and Felix has no idea what the word means. He remarks “What is sin?” While this could be read as being simple ignorance it is also a deep question, pondering the nature of evil. One could think Felix an evil mad scientist creating both the atom bomb and ice-nine. The only problem with this perception is that Felix has no malicious intent with these ideas. He is simply indifferent to anything outside of his vision and neglects to take the holistic view of things. He represents unfettered uncaring science which is an ideal many hold but his character shows how such an ideal would not necessarily be what people are hoping for. Instead of inventing things to help mankind Felix is more fascinated by those that can end it. His apathy is the true evil in the novel.

The spark notes answer takes an interesting approach in thinking of not necessarily evil people but in terms of maturity level. The source of destruction falls not into evil hands but rather ignorant hand, those unable to comprehend what they hold.

Dr. Breed’s commencement speech is ironic for many reasons. The first is that he says that science will solve all problems. This is very ironic because science has just created the atomic bomb the largest source of destruction known to man. Dr. Breed claims that science is solving problems and it is in a sense. The bomb ends the war by causing so much devastation the other side doesn’t want to fight anymore. It’s solving problems but not in the way that people think about solving problems. He is not curing diseases he’s making weapons of war, promoting conflict. The other ironic thing is that he claims science will find the secret of life. It turns out that they have but neither the hooker nor the barkeep can remember. The concept which seems so vital to science means nothing to common people. This secret which seems so vital means nothing to most people. Life exists does it matter why it does?

The spark notes answer neglects to mention the irony in Dr. Breed’s claim that science will solve problems. It does however mention that the reason the secret of life doesn’t matter to most people is that there is no self gratification.

The difference between Julian and Bokonon’s lifestyle is in how they are trying to help people. Bokonon is trying to help people psychologically. He is a believer in mind over matter, that people’s beliefs can transcend their circumstances. Julian Castle however is trying to physically go out and help people. Bokonon doesn’t have the resources that Castle does to go out and help people. Castle spends his day in a hospital helping care for the bodies of the people of San Larenzo. Bokonon is hiding in the forest helping care for the minds of the people of the island.

My parents and I discussed the illusion people maintain of friendliness. Your never going to be friends with everyone but pretending to be can make things a lot easier.  Proverbs 10:12 says “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” As you go through life you find this to be more and more true because when you disagree with someone a lot of times they will go out of their way to make things difficult for you. I have experienced this and am slightly ashamed to admit I’ve done it before as well. It might not be something large or even something conscious but there will be a time when you treat them different then you would a normal person. Because of this psychological effect is it easier to at least pretend to be friends with everyone. Like the proverb says if someone hates you they will often go out of their way to try and cause problems for you. But friendship or love can smooth over a lot of wrongs. Think about it if your best friend breaks something of yours your going to be a lot more forgiving of them then your enemy. Consider history America didn’t care that the British developed nuclear technology but we had an entire cold war because the Russians did.

Leopold’s treatment of natives in Africa was considered horrendous even at the time. He was a cutthroat businessman who kept his costs low and his profits high by exploiting the natives and those with good intentions for the natives. The volunteers with good intentions funded his efforts continuing on the horror. In Vietnam many soldiers condition was unclear at the time. Officially the Senate has decided they are most likely deceased although a rider was written into the Department of Defense’s budget  many years ago. It stipulated that every three years after last known contact with a soldier the Deparment of Defense must reexamine his case.

• Foreshadowing: Catherine uses foreshadowing when she says the rain scares her because it tends to ruin things for lovers. Henry and Catherine’s relationship does end in the tragedy of the death of her and their baby.
• Symbolism: The rain in the story is a symbol. It symbolizes the idea that all happiness in life comes to an end. It appears several times through out the story most notably as Henry walks home from the hospital after the deaths.
• First Person Point of View: Henry is a very unreliable narrator always drinking and yet he provides us with a look at the war that we would never be able to appreciate from a third person point of view.

A Farwell to Arms

My intial reaction is dislike for the main character who we discover through out the book is named Henry. Its hard for me to truly like the man. I understand he is drained by his life in the front line but he does so many things i consider wrong. His abandonment of his companions on the front line is especially hard for me to accept. But there are so many things that he does that bother me from the beginning when he tells the priest he’ll visit the priest’s family and doesn’t get around to it. The fact that he is an ambulance driver and thus should know something about medicine and yet ignores their advice and gets an early surgery. Any one who spends time around those of the medical profession quickly realize that people who ignore doctor’s advice are idiots who deserve to be sick. Then there is the game he plays with Catherine originally that’s all it is to him is a game. This cold view of a relationship with a woman who was recently heartbroken makes it hard for me to truely understand him. Although that could be what Hemingway is trying to convey is how war changes people. It changes Henry into this cold, numb person. The one moment of respect i have for henry is his conviction to get the trucks back as the army is retreating. He is willing to even shoot his own man which is a bit extreme but i can respect his determination. But all of it is for naught as he loses my respect again as he feels to go be in the mountains with Catherine.

Marlow’s journey after page 85 starts with a ten day stage at the first station. He stays there with the chief accountant clothed in gleaming white. At the end of ten days he beings a 200 mile trek to the next station. Looking at a map of the congo this probably is done to save time as it cuts out one of the meandering parts of the river. How long it takes exactly is unknown as Conrad is very vague with most of his time frames. We do know that it takes him several days and with the average human walking speed being three miles per hour we can estimate it took him around 5-6 days to make the journey. Then Marlow spends an unknown amount of time sitting at the second station waiting for rivets to fix his boat with. When they finally arrive he sets out on his journey for kurtz and estimates the journey will take two months.(102)The first stop on the journey occurs when Marlow finds the bundle of wood and the note telling him to hurry.(107) Chronologically this journey takes two months yet it only takes 5 pages which shows the time distortion which the book is written with. This suggests that the journey itself is not important that in fact what you discover on the way is more important. At this stop Marlow estimates he is 50 miles away from Kurtz and then two days later Marlow estimates he is only eight miles away.(109) This allows us to get a rough estimate of the speed of the boat. Since it doesnt travel at night we can estimate it travels at a whopping 2 miles an hour. This is most likely due how often the boat gets stuck on sandbars. The rest of the journey takes another two days due to the fog and native attacks. Finally Marlow returns with Kurtz on page 145. He says they are going twice the speed because they have the current pushing them along. After this the journey is largely devoid of details until it progresses to a year later and Marlow is giving his papers to Kurtz’s fiance. This part of the story is comparable to most stories the journey going back is always much shorter then that of the one getting there. This suggests that the process of the journey makes you wiser enabling the trip back easier and less notable.

At the age of 24 John Keats left his job as assistant house surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London. (really he was just a dresser) He was unhappy the then current forms of poetry and developed his own form which “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is  an example of. He added a second voice and the poem is dialogue between the two voices. The poem itself describes the relationship between art and reality. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was not appreciated until the mid 1800′s. There is also a long standing debate upon the meaning of the last line of the poem.

The major change i would make to my essay would be to be more focused as i answered the prompt. I had a good theme statement and was usually on topic but occasionally i would go off on tangents for example  i discussed the origins of geometry and Euclid.

The story “War Dances” is a work of literary merit as seen by the evidence that the story is driven not by the plot but by his character’s development.The piece bounces around from incident to incident preventing the development of an intriguing plot. The last section of the story even lacks a plot making the argument that much stronger. The piece does feel somewhat reflective though as Sherman Alexei did have a shunt put in his brain because of water problems much like his fictional character.  The title of the piece seems to reflect the habits (rituals) to give us success in life. (war)

The theme statement of “Everyday Use” could be “In rejecting her immediate heritage in favor of a different identity Dee misses the point of her heritage.”