THIS JUST IN!

Thank you Izzy for this awesome reference :)

Also make sure to check out Emma Seppala's Website  AND IF YOU ARE A QUOTE FANATIC LIKE I AM YOU WILL LOVE HER INSPIRATION PAGE!  (I think I'm in love)
Associate Director
Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research & Education

Resource of the Day

Last semester my project focused on compassion as a whole, but this time around I plan to go in depth... My masterpiece is related to compassion and is centered on how it is an act that is biased and only favors some human beings. My goal is to draw people in and to make them look at compassion in a different way. I want them to find a new perspective on compassion.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY

With College admission notifications coming out and scholarships to fill out...I AM STRESSED, FRUSTRATED, HAPPY, AND CONFUSED (class of 2014 you know what I mean)...as much as I feel like giving up sometimes I remind myself that I have to keep moving. Albert Einstein said " Life is like riding a bicycle in order to keep your balance you must keep moving." and to express that in music Rascal Flatts said "Life is a highway." 

Whooo umm yeah...
Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside ev'ry darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
To break down the garden gate
There's not much time left today

[Chorus:]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights

Knock me down get back up again
You're in my blood
I'm not a lonely man
There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus]

Gimme gimme gimme gimme yeah

[Chorus]

There was a distance between you and I (between you and I)
A misunderstanding once
But now we look it in the eye

Ooooo...Yeah!

There ain't no load that I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus: (x3)]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Gimme gimme gimme gimme yeah

IS THERE AN EXPERT IN THE HOUSE?

COMPASSION...

I believe it is everywhere
In some places more than others
and in some people more than others...

Some are well known for it

I believe that an expert does not have to be well known and that is why I am in search of an expert in my community or close by. I have someone in mind but I will not post her name until I get her permission. (hint: She works at school)

THIS IS ONLY A TEST

The word test freaks me out.

 It has been instilled in my brain as something to fear since I first began school. I strongly dislike the word and I believe that it does not define what I know or do not know to a full extent.

The test that will allow me to know if I passed and succeeded with my masterpiece will be the reaction of my peers.

As they watch my video I want to see expressions of doubt, questioning, yet softness, and understanding. I want my video to change a persons perspective on how they view compassion and how it is distributed unevenly. My masterpiece will consist of a video based on compassion, what it is?, where it may be?, who has it?,and  why and how it is biased.

HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD

Please explain how listening/watching the author himself changed your perspective on the work and the essay you turned in.

      I feel like now that I have heard from Huxley the novel does not seem to extreme. What I mean by this is that he is “Normal!” He thinks the same way many people think about our world. It is Overpopulated, Over-organized, advanced with technology, full of propaganda, and drugs. At first I though Huxley was exaggerating, in it is arguable, but in a way we do not see it as an exaggeration because we are a part of it, it is all we know. If we take a step back to think about what Huxley has suggested about our world and where it is heading there is an astonishing amount of truth in it.

      The 1997 AP Essay I wrote on BNW was focused on how a character’s actions alone were evil or immoral and why the character drew sympathy from the reader. I would say that Huxley did an excellent job because by putting certain attributes of our world today into the world state we (the readers) are able to identify with John the savage. I felt like John the savage was a representation of us right now and the world state “people” were a representation of what we are heading to as a society.


Notes from In-Class


Overpopulation

• reproduction is popular = BNW no parents

Over- organization w/ tech. 

• In our world tech. is advancing and getting better & better as time goes by
• In Huxley's this over-organization is the making of the clones/ppl
• Huxley believes TV is a distraction

SOMA

• Same effect as some drugs in our world today

Propaganda

• brain washing
• breaking down a person/society & training them to believe new ideas = the BNW way...flowers/ books ....electrified/shocking
• Russia- idea for totalitarian world state

• Passion for power- common in people
• Power is dangerous 
• freedom is necessary for a productive society

BNW 1997 AP Essay

Pre-Write:


John the savage
• An outcast in the world state & in the reservation
• Non-conformist
• Educated (reads old lit.)
• Has a sense of morality (therefore he is IMMORAL in the eyes of the World State)
• Loyal to his mother & his people
• Confused and frustrated w/ World State
• Finds the way out by killing himself.

Examples from text
• Refuses sex from Lenina and calls her a whore
• He goes crazy when his mother is dying and wants to save her
• Refuses soma- he would rather deal with his emotions naturally
• Reads & uses old literature (Shakespeare)

Literary Techniques:
• Allusion to the tempest
o Theme is difficulty distinguishing between men & monsters
• Symbolism
o John can easily symbolize the reader and how they would react
• Doubleness of character
• Indirect Characterization/Direct Characterization


What makes us react sympathetically?!
• The reader feels pity for him b/c he is not fully accepted anywhere
• The reader can relate to him b/c he is the most “human” of them all
• He is not an actual character, but is good enough to fool the reader throughout the novel
• The reader agrees with John’s morals & take on life

        John the savage from Huxley’s “Brave New World” is considered to be immoral by the residents of the World State. The reader is given the impression of this through direct and indirect characterization, and is proven because John is not fully accepted in the reservation nor in the world state. This confirmation is the main factor why the reader sympathizes with the savage. 

As the reader is presented to John we know he is different, because he is a native from the reservation and because of indirect characterization. “But they wouldn’t let me. They disliked me for my complexion. It’s always been like that. Always.” Tears stood in the young man’s eyes; he was ashamed and turned away. Other than being peculiar to Bernard and Lenina the reader realizes that the savage is loyal to his people and believes strongly in their rituals. The fact that he has a sense of morality and is loyal allows the reader to feel some compassion for him. 

The biggest difference between the savage and the world state residents is that John is abstinent. The Brave new world is stabilized by “everyone belongs to everyone”, and this of course means belonging to everyone in a sexual and lustful way. Unlike many of the residents, John refuses to take part in sexual intercourse without being married first, and calls Lenina a “whore…damned whore!” This is yet another reason why the reader can easily relate to the savage. In our world today, abstinence is still considered something sacred. 

Everything the world state presses on the savage, he pushes away. He is kind and allows Bernard to use him as a stool to get to the top, but gets quickly sick of it and revolts. Though he is not a real character, there are many similarities between the reader and the savage. In some ways he symbolizes us in our world today. The allusion to Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” is the world state monsters versus the reservation men or visa versa. It can also be symbolized to represent the people of today and how many are so evil that they cannot be distinguished between men or monsters. The world state is an exaggerated version of our world today. The savages from the reservation only form some of our population. For that reason is that the reader rallies John on throughout the novel, because they see themselves in him. They do not want to finish their journey with their feet dangling “South-south-west, south, south-east, east…”