Four More Years (of War)

Today in English class we watched a portion of the most recent Republican presidential debate. I must say, as a whole, the next four years are looking pretty bleak if any of those candidates are elected president. Before I get too ranty, let me share an awesome gif of John Kasich playing Fruit Ninja.

Now we know what John Kasich was doing with his hands during the debate. https://t.co/U6izaJyCVD pic.twitter.com/Nq5L0f3JZn

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 17, 2015

Now that you’ve laughed at one of the candidates’ hands, time to fear for your life at everything that comes out of their mouths. First, and dumbest, of all is Donald Trump. All I can say about him is that if he is elected president, I am putting the odds at about 50% that we will all be nuked off the face of the earth before I can graduate college (on the bright side, I won’t have to pay back student loans). The only other thing I will say is that the only thing that is scarier than his ideas, is the fact that 40% of the Republican party supports his ideas. Now time for another quick gif to help forget that terrifying fact.

via GIPHY

The rest of the candidates are potentially even more harmful than Trump because they are actually creating policy out of their crazy ideas and their ideas are no less insane, or illogical, than Trump’s. My favorite was Ted Cruz’s call for “targeted carpet bombing” of ISIS. Carpet bombing, by definition, is not targeted, it is designed to destroy large areas, and “targeted carpet bombing” would then just be bombing, which is no different from what we are doing right now. There were also plenty of misleading statements and outright lies, like that George Bush deported 10 million illegal immigrants while in office. 10 million is the total number of  people who were turned away at the border for various reasons during that time, a vastly different thing than deportation. The other repeated mistruth is that our military is shrinking. Yes, we do have less ships than before, but the ships are much larger and more advanced. An aircraft carrier does not equal a tiny destroyer. We also do not have as many active troops, but there are no more open battlefields and we have unmanned technology like drones replacing human jobs. Alas, I do not have enough time to debunk every lie that was said, but if there is one thing to take away it is that we are in for a rough four years (if we don’t get nuked first).

Stamping Envelopes

For all high school seniors, this is a busy time of year. There are college applications to still finish and you finally start to hear back from early action schools. There are a lot of tests and projects that need to be crammed in before Christmas break. There is procrastination to be done because it's almost the holidays and you don’t want to do any of that stuff. I know that I have been extremely busy and will only get busier for the next few weeks. That’s why I was very intrigued at something I did yesterday.

Every Wednesday I volunteer at the library, sometimes helping people and sometimes doing odd jobs. Yesterday, I was given the task of stamping return addresses on a box of 500 envelopes. I know that most of you reading this right now are probably thinking that sounds terrible and it sort of was miserable, but at the same time I kind of enjoyed it. I am so used to doing a million things at once and my mind being all over the place, so stamping envelopes was an interesting change because it required absolutely no brain activity. As menial and boring as stamping envelopes sounds and is, it is also very relaxing. It enabled me to just not have to think about anything for an hour. It was also kind of nice because with all of the stuff we have to do as seniors, it often feels like we never make any progress, but I got to literally watch a giant pile of stuff to do turn into a pile of completed things. It felt very satisfying to actually feel like I accomplished something. Does anyone else find menial tasks like stamping envelopes relaxing?

Maternity and Paternity Leave

In English this week, we have been reading Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, a (very, very long) essay about the patriarchy in early 20th century society. Along with analyzing the book, we have been spending a lot of time talking about effects of the patriarchy in our society. One topic we spent a lot of time talking about was maternity leave. I was surprised to learn that the school does not offer paid maternity leave. I knew that it was not required by law and that teachers only got two months, but I always figured it was paid. I thought that mostly only entry level jobs did not pay maternity leave, but the school does the bare minimum as well.

I was also surprised to learn that the school offers absolutely no form of paternity leave at all and that teachers cannot even use their sick days because the school requires a doctor’s note if they are out for more than 4 days in a row. This is almost worse than the school’s policy on maternity leave because teachers could be fired for taking just one week off when their children are born. How are they supposed to spend any time with their kids if they have to return to work immediately? I think that there should be at least 3 to 4 weeks of paternity leave even if it is unpaid. Plenty of countries do offer paternity leave and the US offers one of the least amounts of paternity or maternity leave out of developed countries. For example Norway offers 35-45 weeks of maternity leave at at least 80% pay and 14 weeks of paternity leave at at least 80% pay. If America offered even half of that, it would be more than double what we currently have and would be at least mostly paid.

A Brief Rant

Many different people have had many different responses to the attacks last week in Paris. Some people have offered compassion and assistance to those affected, like those who literally opened their doors to victims in the aftermath of the attacks. However, of course our government has taken the exact opposite route and have used the attacks as an excuse to spew hatred towards muslims and, especially, Syrian refugees. There was Donald Trump with the brilliant (and highly unconstitutional) ideas to close all of the mosques in America and REGISTER ALL MUSLIMS IN A DATABASE! Yes, that’s in all caps because that is literally how the Holocaust began and no one in America seems worried that the person who is winning the Republican primaries is seriously advocating for that.

Even forgetting all of Trump’s crazy, fascist ideas, there are many others in our government who are using the attacks as a reason to attack muslims. 31 governors, including our own (Massachusetts rocks! (not)), have said they are not going to allow Syrian refugees into their states. First of all, if any of them looked at the law, they would know that they simply cannot do that. Second of all, it is believed that NONE of the Paris attackers were Syrian. In fact, at least 7 of the 8 attackers were Belgian or French. If politicians actually did research, they would know that if we do not want to let terrorists into the country, we should ban all French and Belgian citizens from entering, not the Syrians. While the events in Paris were horrific, the vast majority of ISIS’s victims are the Syrians themselves. By stopping the flow of refugees, we are not preventing ISIS from entering America, we are stopping Syrians from escaping ISIS, which will ultimately lead to even more deaths. While America has taken this cruel and illogical response, the actual victims of the attacks, the French, have actually announced they will accept MORE refugees next year. So please, before you violate the Constitution and basic human rights, read Wikipedia for five minutes and have a heart.

I'm A Bacon Truther

Since we can write about anything we want in these blog posts, I am going to write this one about something that has upset me a lot over the past few weeks, learning that bacon allegedly gives you cancer. A few weeks ago the World Health Organization published its findings that eating processed meat, like bacon and hot dogs, leads to an increased risk of colon cancer. At first I was heartbroken; I wondered what good was left in the world if even bacon is harmful. This despair lasted for a full 30 seconds. Then, I realized that, first of all, I was going to ignore the study, regardless of what it said, and eat bacon anyways. I also realized, from what I learned in AP Statistics, that there are a lot of issues with the World Health Organization’s findings.

First of all, the World Health Organization did not, and cannot, conduct a study to see if bacon gives you cancer. Studies that involve causing intentional harm to the subjects are unethical and are not allowed to happen (except for when the US exposed their own soldiers to atomic blasts in the 1950’s). Instead of conducted their own study, the WHO looked at 800 other studies of unknown relevance and quality. I highly doubt that 800 studies have been carried out just to study the link between meat and cancer, and, so, they are likely to have many confounding factors unaccounted for. Even if the study’s findings are true, I still don’t care. I realized that pretty much everything nowadays “increases your risk of cancer.” If we focus on everything that may slightly increase our risk of cancer, we will not be able to enjoy life, so I decided to just not care about the findings and if I am 1% more likely to be at risk of possibly getting cancer at some point, so be it.

College is Done (For 25 More Days)

In English class this week, we are working on essays about Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Since we are done with the book, we are able to write about anything we want this week. I did some thinking and I realized that Winesburg, Ohio is not the only thing I finished last week; I also finished my Early Action round of applications. It is a very weird feeling to have put so much effort over the past three months into my college applications and, then, just be done with them and have to wait for results.So I figured, what better way to deal with being done with applications, then to spend my time not working on college essays writing about college.

College has been the primary focus for me this fall, especially the last few weeks. I have spent countless hours writing countless drafts of countless essays and questions. In terms of writing skills, this process has been very unique because of how  much time and revisions have gone into a single essay. By the time I had submitted my common app essay, I had gone through about eight drafts, not even including the many I started at the beginning of the process, but threw out because the topic was terrible. This is literally more drafts than I have written for the rest of my high school career combined. This focus on perfection was a new and difficult challenge, but definitely payed off in my final application. I finally applied to college and now can just relax (aka wait in agony for decisions in December). But then I realize that I have 1400 words in supplements due on December 1 for BU, so this weekend it is back to college essay writing mode.

George Becomes a Man

In English class this week, we finished Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. I noticed that as the novel progresses, George’s role in the stories increases. In the early stories like “Hands,” George simply is being told the story, but by the end of the book, George is has significant involvement in the plot of the stories (usually as a person who gets beat up). Since George’s role is larger, I noticed a lot more about George in the end of the book. One significant thing is that George develops from a boy to a man by the last story. In Anderson’s depiction of this maturing, he uses a lot of Freudian symbols of masculinity.

One example of George’s attempts at maturing is when he gets drunk in “An Awakening.” Only adults are supposed to drink, so alcohol is a symbol of adulthood and masculinity. Not only does George get drunk, he also pretends to be much more drunk than he actually is. This shows that George really wants to grow up because he is trying to act older and more masculine than he actually is. George also tries to act masculine by getting into several fights. George gets into a fight, and loses, in both “Queer” and “An Awakening.” While fighting is not actually a mature act, it is seen as masculine, so George does it.

George actually demonstrates that he has become a man in “Departure.” One of the largest steps of the transition to adulthood is moving out of your parents’ house, which is exactly what George does by leaving Winesburg; he becomes independent. George also becomes a man because he is successful at his goal of leaving and moving on to greater things, something his father could never achieve. Because of this, George is described as a “taller” man than his father. Success is also considered masculine. For all of these reasons, George fully develops into a man when he leaves Winesburg.

Not Everyone in Winesburg is a Grotesque

For the most part, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of stories about miserable people living miserable lives, so it stood out to me that the short story, “A Man of Ideas,” is about a character who does not seem that bad off. After looking at it more, I noticed that there are several things that set this story apart from the rest of the stories we have read so far. In almost every other story, George has to seek the story out himself and many characters are hesitant to tell their stories. However, Joe Welling is one who seeks out George and he freely tells his story. He is also closer to George than most of the other characters; he openly envies George and wants to become a reporter like him. Joe Welling also lives at George’s inn, making him even closer to George. This relationship is unlike any relationship George has with other characters. Even with his own mother, the story isn’t freely told to George; he has to seek it out.

“A Man of Ideas” is also unique because of its more lighthearted tone and happy ending. Joe Welling’s truth is simply his wordiness, unlike many darker truths in other stories. As a result, the story is not as dark and Joe does not experience any significant hardships or challenges. Joe’s truth also also helps him instead of hurting him in the situations he faces in the story. In the baseball game, Joe spews out his excitement and is so loud that “the opposing pitcher [becomes] confused” (107). As a result, his team wins the game. Joe’s talking also helps him in his courtship of Sarah King. Sarah’s father and brother are known as “proud and dangerous” in town, so everyone believes Joe will be hurt for his pursuit of Sarah (108). Instead. Joe “[carries] the two men in the room off their feet with a tidal wave of words” (110). Joe’s ideas win over the Kings’ strength. In both of these instances, Joe’s words and ideas lead to his success instead of leading to his failure. Because of this, Joe is one of the few characters in the novel who is not a grotesque. Since he lets his ideas out, they do not affect him. This makes Joe Welling, and “A Man of Ideas,” unique from the rest of Winesburg’s inhabitants and stories.

Tightening of Form to Open the Minds of the Characters

In English class, we have started to read Winesburg, Ohio, an episodic novel by Sherwood Anderson. In Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson uses a lot of symbolism, but one thing I noticed repeatedly appears is tightening of form.Tightening of form is giving the structure of the story and physical objects in the story symbolic meaning. This is accomplished mainly through the use of motifs. Tightening of form is present in many of the short stories within the novel. One story it occurs in is “Hands.” In “Hands,” Wing Biddlebaum lives in a small house “near the edge of a ravine near the town” (27).The location he resides possesses a lot of symbolic meaning. He literally lives on the outskirts of town to symbolize how he is an outcast and isolated from the community because he is believed to have molested a child when he was a school teacher. Wing also literally lives on the precipice of a ravine which is symbolic of his mental state. He feels lonely and frustrated at what happened to him because his downfall was his urge to inspire his students. He is on the edge of depression and he displays somatization as a way to handle his frustration; he takes his hands and “[beats] them upon a table or on the walls of his house” (29). This behavior shows that he is standing on the edge of madness and depression, just like his house stands on the edge of the ravine.

Tightening of form is also present in “Paper Pills.” In the story, Doctor Reefy physically isolates himself after his wife's death, which reflects his emotional state. He “[sits] all day in his empty office” and “he never [opens] the window” (35). He feels isolated and lonely after his wife dies and, so, he makes himself actually isolated. One day he tries to open the window, “but [finds] it stuck fast and after that he [forgets] all about it” (35). This is symbolic of Doctor Reefy trying to assimilate back into society, but failing because he had isolated himself for so long, just like a window becomes jammed if it is never opened. In both short stories, physical isolation is used to symbolize mental and emotional isolation. This tightening of form adds more depth to the stories and their analysis. It both informs the reader about the mind of the characters and enhances the quality of the writing by using symbolism to show instead of tell.

I Didn't Use Procrastination as a Defense Mechanism to Cope With the Anxiety of Having to Write this Blog Post

This week in English we have been learning about Freudian psychology. Freud believed that there were three parts to the mind: the id, ego, and superego. According to him, the id is your primal drive and is where all of your emotions and impulses come from. It is instinctual and the same for everyone. The superego is the conscience of the mind and resists the id’s impulses and tries to make you act in a mature and responsible way. The ego is what mediates between the id and superego and deals with reality. I found this theory of the mind interesting because it is fairly similar to the age-old image of the devil and angel standing on your shoulders trying to influence your decisions. The id is like the devil trying to make you do what you want, while the superego is like the angel imposing morals and influencing you to make the right decision. While I do not necessarily agree with Freud’s exact image of the brain, I do agree that there is an impulse center and a rational center and that they work to influence how you behave.

The other thing we learned about this week is Vaillant defense mechanisms. These are the different ways that your mind deals with traumatic events and range in acceptability. The least acceptable ones are considered psychotic and prevent people from functioning in society. The mechanisms range from those to ones that are considered mature and perfectly acceptable and healthy. We all exhibit some of these defense mechanisms, though the vast majority of what we do is considered perfectly healthy. Freud was especially interested in two of these behaviors: suppression and sublimation. He believed that suppression, the postponing of emotions, was the most basic mechanism. As long as people eventually deal with their issues, it is perfectly heath, and even positive, to put those emotions aside temporarily. I know that I do this a lot. If I am nervous about doing something, I just try to forget about it and just do it. For example, whenever I get a shot, I just try to think about something else until it is over. The other defense mechanism Freud thought was particularly important is sublimation. Sublimation is the channeling of negative energy into a positive action, like working out when you are angry. Freud believed that this is the most advanced defense mechanism and the best one because it makes a positive outcome from a negative influence.

A Modern Example of Modernism

In English this week, we did something very different than I have done before in high school English. We watched a movie that was not based on a book we read, but, instead, a mainstream movie made in 2010, Christopher Nolan’s Inception. It was a nice change from all of the early 20th century or earlier literature that has been the sole thing studied in high school to date. It was surprising and very cool to learn that a modern movie possesses many of the modernist characteristics of other literature we have been studying recently and to view a film in the critical lense that is typically used to view literature.

Inception contains many different modernist characteristics. One is that the plot structure is not linear. The film starts in medias res, in the middle of the story. The first scene where Cobb goes to Saito’s castle is continued in one of the last scenes and is the end of all of the dreams. The concept of time and space as interior objects is also used. Time in the dream spaces is equivalent to approximately 20 times the time in the previous level. This idea of time being adjustable is central to the plot as the whole arctic hospital raid scene takes place within the time it takes for the van in a higher dream level to fall off of a bridge into the water. Space is also tinkered with with illusions like the infinite staircase becoming reality in dream space. Physics is also bent in the gravity-free hotel hallway fight scene and the streets of Paris are literally bent during Ariadne’s first dream. The movie also utilizes an ambiguous ending with powerful results. At the end of the film, the top, that signals if they are in a dream or reality, appears to be about to fall, but the scene cuts out. This leaves the viewer wondering many things at the end of the movie. Among others, the main question is is Cobb in reality and truly reunited with his kids or is it just another dream? All of these techniques add a lot to the film and the film is a good way to understand the modernist movement.

The Power of a Title

This past week in English class was spent studying Modernism. We read several short stories, two by Ernest Hemingway and one by Virginia Woolf, and we learned about and discussed the modernist techniques and characteristics present in the stories.One story I was particularly fascinated with was “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. We spent most of our class discussion of the story talking not about the story itself, but the title instead. I was surprised by how much the title embodied both the plot of the story and modernist characteristics.

The title sums up the plot of the story very well. Hills are round and, so, serve as a metaphor for a pregnant belly. This refers to Jig being pregnant in the story and the debate over abortion that the story is about. The phrase “white elephant” also refers to this and is used as euphemism in the story. A white elephant is an unwanted gift which is exactly what the man feels the baby is and is why he wants Jig to have an abortion. Furthermore, it also is something that is more trouble than it is worth, which is also a description of a baby from some points of view. The title also contains several modernist techniques. One of these techniques used is language that is not transparent. The meaning of the title is not immediately obvious to the reader, but as they read the story and figure out the meaning of the story, the meaning of the title becomes apparent. This is also an example of impressionism because Hemingway expects you to pick up on clues in the text to figure out what the conversation is truly about and, consequently, what the title refers to. All of this depth to the title is why I found it interesting.