Just a thought

Have you ever noticed how one little thing can change someone's day, or even life? Like how when someone gets a compliment on their hair and they start to wear it like that more often, or the stories of people who saved a life by simply asking someone how they were doing. It's the little things that make the biggest difference. This can be for the better or worst. I will make a conscious effort to try and say more of the nice things in my head out loud. Maybe if we could just all successfully do it we could live in a more positive world! Just a thought....

Thinking Outside the Box

1) My hell would be a place of complete and utter emptiness. Nothing to do, no where to go. In my hell all you can do is sit and think about all the mistakes that you have made to get there. The most tragic part is that there is no going back, once you're there you can never leave or change. The environment of hell doesn't matter. One can suffer in a tropical paradise or a 106 degree desert. Hell is a mindset, a state of being, an awful inescapable space from which you can never be free. A person can be in an unfortunate place without being in hell. Some people float through their days effortlessly under the harshest of circumstances. Those are the people to admire. Those who can live happy lives with awful backgrounds are the ones who have made a conscious effort to be happy. They are the heroes.

2) Too much of anything can be bad. Most good things in life are only good in moderation. Take food for example, most people love food but too much can make you sick. Lack of self control can create a hell for anyone. Moderation is the key to a well balanced life.

3)  Sartre creates their hell in a normal looking room. It looks not different from any place found on earth. Their hell is found in the people they are surrounded by. My world could be turned into a hell if I chose to focus only on my flaws. Human beings are all flawed naturally, so no one can be exempt from this type of hell. We all just need to focus on being our own best versions of ourselves, instead of being "perfect".

4) Like Plato, Sartre also understands that mankind's view of themselves is flawed. He seems to have a good understanding of what it means to lead a truly unimportant life. Like Plat's prisoners in The Allegory of the Cave the characters in this play can't see past their own perceptions of reality. This is the tragic flaw that has lead them down the path to hell.

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

The cave is a place you wish not to be

Trapped in dust for an eternity

With shackles and chains you know not much

You know only of the shadows you use as a crutch

This cave is a place for those with small minds

They choose not to learn about their own kind

With small ideas and no dreams at all

Without true enlightenment they will never see fall

To leave the cave may have been a delight

If it weren't for the pesky pain caused by the light

Until they learn to move on from their fears

They will be trapped in a cave with nothing but tears

Plato was sending a message about the problems of humanity

He knew a life without knowledge is one of insanity

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1) Plato's Allegory of the Cave represents humans inability to see past their own truths. It is in our nature to fear the unknown, and therefore we can never learn anything new. This is one of the biggest flaws of human nature.

2) The key elements of imagery where Plato's ability to describe the people living in the cave, and their conditions. It is the chains and shadows that make this story. If the people in the cave weren't forced to look only at the shadows they would have knowledge of the world around them. I think this is why Plato wrote them this way.

3) Plato suggests that the process of enlightenment is a difficult and arduous one. One way that Plato does this is by describing the pain that each person from the cave would feel when first looking into the sun. This is the symbol for the pain that is necessary to gain knowledge. 

4) The shackles and the cave being in the story represent what a terrible life one might lead without knowledge. They also represent being trapped in one's own perceptions of what life is truly about. These things don't seem so bad to people inside the cave, because that is the only life they have ever known.

5) In my personal opinion I think that some ideas about religion and ignorance have shackled the mind. I don't mean to say that religion is bad, but I do think that some people who are religious have a very strict idea of what society has to be like. Ignorance shackles the mind, because people who do not learn about the world around them can never truly be a part of it.

6) A free prisoner can understand why his previous views of the world around them are incorrect. Whereas the prisoner who is still in the cave is blissfully ignorant. He or she will never have to cope with his or her new understanding of the world. A free prisoner can grow and learn, but a trapped prisoner cannot.

7) One may find themselves confused because they don't understand new information, or they were not given the opportunity to gain knowledge.

8) Prisoners can only free themselves by leaving and comin back to the cave. Only when they have gained true knowledge of the world around them can they be free. This suggests that it takes time and experience to learn about the world.

9) I agree that there is a difference between appearances and reality. I think the saying " you can't judge a book by it's cover definitely applies. If the whole world judged each other by their appearances what a superficial world this would be.

10) If Socrates was incorrect about his theory no one would be able to hide who they truly are. We would all be completely honest people. This could also be an ideal world.

We hang together

• Throughout history we as a society have discovered that the only way to achieve anything in life is through collaboration.

• Competition is the key to a successful business.

Ex. Coke and Pepsi

• Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest is dependent upon human proclivity to collaborate.

• Interdependence can not exist without some level of trust.

• All over the world the greatest results have come from collaboration.

Ex. 9/11

• If our society continues to grow more selfish there will be no interdependence, and therefore no coming together for a bigger cause.

A poetic inquiry

I still really like my big question. I wonder daily about why people are so judgemental of each other. I am really bothered by this phenomenon, so I think I want to leave my big question as it is. 

I really liked this sonnet. I know it's not the most eloquent example of a sonnet, but I really like the message. I think it relates back to my big question, because the poem is written from the viewpoint of someone who has dealt with judgement and bullying. I think this sonnet is inspirational.

Sonnet analysis #1

Hamlet Remix

Hamlet Essay

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare a young man seeks vengeance against his father's murderer. The central problem in the story is that Hamlet can't seem to transform his thoughts into actions. This is what Fredik deBoer was talking about in his essay "The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare's Hamlet." Every move Hamlet makes is well planned out. He is a man too cunningly sneaky to be crazy. Could it be that the reason he takes so long to act on his urges to kill is because he is thinking of a plan? Hamlet's actions seem to be effected most by self overhearing and his inability to see past his hatred for his uncle. 

In Fredik deBoer's essay he describes self overhearing as taking your own advice on any given subject. Upon analyzing the "To be or not to be" speech it is clear that Hamlet can very easily either talk himself out of doing something, or convince himself to do something. In this particular case Hamlet was trying to decide if life was worth living in the situation he was in. Later in the play Hamlet mainly struggles with the decision to murder his stepdad/ uncle.

Although Hamlet pretends to be ready to kill his stepdad he seems to struggle with actually killing him. Every decision that Hamlet makes throughout the play ties back to his hatred for King Claudius. He pretends to be mad with love for Ophelia just to get away with this murder. He made cold calculated decisions that lead to many deaths. He doesn't care who he has to hurt to kill King Claudius. These cold calculated choices make readers question Hamlet's character.

In conclusion, there are many instances of Performative utterance in this play. Hamlet struggled with the decision to kill himself and others. Hamlet is a character who thinks about his decisions before he makes them. That being said when he does make decisions he usually makes them, because of self overhearing. His intense hatred for his stepdad profoundly influences all of his actions. Hamlet isn't mad he is simply a great manipulator.