Metamorphosis is about a man name Gregor who takes care of his families finances. His parents are capable of working but instead choose not to while Gregor works to pay off their debts. One day Gregor wakes up as a cockroach and no longer can work. His family alienates him and confines him to his room. In the end Gregor dies and his parents begin to work again. This story resembles human nature. When someone continually gives you something, most people do not want to change that. Gregor’s family took advantage of him. Because he kept working they had no motivation to find a job for themselves. Eventually we see there capability of working after Gregor dies.
Category Archives: FreeChoice
MOMA–The Starry Night
I had gone MOMA for so many time when I was in high school. I still could remember the first time I visited MOMA, I did not know any thing about those arts and why we needed to go to MOMA during the class time. since I just arrived NYC and I had so English , so instant of asking question I just like looking around on alone. After a few time later, I saw an art with a big tornado which made me interest to know the background and why the artist painting this, at first I did not know the name and the history of this art. Until the last two week I went to MOMA again, I realized it is call The Starry Night painted by Vincent Van Gogh. I also knew this painting was Van Gogh painted for his bother when he was ill. This paint saw the dream world of Van Gogh because when he was ill he could went out side, so he only imaged the world and painted down what he saw in his mind. In Van Gogh’s paint, I always can see the both safe and unsafe images in one paint. This is why I like his painting, because he always told to watcher both side of thinking.
Desire led to Tragedy, be simple!!
For the whole story of “Candide”, I concluded that Desire led to tragedy. Candide wanted to be with Cunegonde and then was kicked out. People wanted more property and territory and then led to wars. Or others did not satisfied with their current situation and then led to fighting or stealing and so on. After Candide was kicked out castle, he suffered a lot as he was caught by others and escaped again and again. He met his tutor Pangloss and saw how he died and later got to know he was alive. He got to know the miserable experiences from Cunegonde and others later. He also experienced cheating, fighting and helpless. However, he still believed things would get better as time went on. As last, everyone got disappointed and gave up trying. As Candide met the ugly Cunegonde, as all of his money was cheated by a man, as they had nothing but a small farm, they gave up trying to do anything. However, as Candide heard the story from a man who lived very happy with his family who only owned a small farm, he got to know the truth. Everything will be better and be the best if you are satisfied with yourself and current situation, you will be very happy and satisfy. After that, all of them did farming on their farm and lived happily together.
I have learnt from this interesting story that the author was trying to tell people to not desire too much, if they did, lots of tragedies would happen. If you want to live happily, just be simply. Do not let yourself to be too much complicated. Everything would be happening very well and the world would finally be the best if you are simple. Sometimes people desire too much, and then try to think of many ways to get what they want and lead to miserable outcome. Author is trying to let people understand this simple and important truth through this story. However, how many people will understand it and can do it!!
“Chinese New Year”?
I know I am late, but I still like to share my thought about the Chinese New Year.
For the Chinese New Year, I think we should take off like American did. Yesterday, I had heard about that so many people say, “Happy New Year” to each other, but many people forgot what the meaning of the New Year is. Therefore, most of Chinese did not take off, because they though to keep in working and earn money are most important things. I know for the outsider, to keep all traditional holiday is very difficult, but New Year is the biggest holiday for a country even a person. Therefore, I think as a Chinese, we should respect our cultural first, and then others will respect, too.
When I was in China, when the New Year is coming, people always back to home, no matter where they are, because they just want to have the dinner with their family on the New Year Eve. This is not about the money, this is all about the cultural and they care of their family and cultural. When the day is coming, people always get relax, because they had work whole year and they need to have a break. This is a time that for all workers to commit with their family member, because most of people are work outside home. However, in the USA, people are very busy, especial the Chinese.They have no time to commit with their family,because they need to work and want to provide better life for their children. However, they (Parents) never think about what the real thing that their children need is.
Is That the Best of All Possible Worlds?
Voltaire was one of the Enlightenment thinker, “who embodied the values of human rights, freedom and tolerance, the hope for progress through reasonable debate, and the urgent desire to end human suffering where we can.” “These ideals of Enlightenment helped shape our own political, and sociological landscape nowadays.”
Pangloss irritated Voltaire by asserting Candide that “everything is for the best in this world, that their world was the best of all possible worlds” because he had struggled too, he has experience almost similar difficulties too, but it’s certainly not the type of philosophical thinking that helped him overcome it.
Voltaire was a trouble to the authorities because he didn’t just fold his hands and justify the bad attitudes of the corrupted churches, and selfish authorities toward the population as an unknown a reason. He used his reason to bring light into the lives of those who were living in total darkness and that lead him to a big problem. He had suffered a lot during his lifetime; he was imprisoned in the Bastille, later exiled to England, humiliated in the Royal courts of France and Prussia. He had to seek for refuge to avoid persecution from the French authorities and corrupt churches.
As a Deist, Voltaire believed that as human beings God gave us reason and left us to freely us it. To Voltaire, being optimistic about unexpected events that have damaging effects on the society, assuming that assuming positive things would happen after all that was the most absurd way of thinking as a philosopher.
Things never happen without at least one reason and by focusing on them, we as human beings will always solve the problems.
Is Everything For the Best in the World?
Candide is an unlikely story about an innocent man who has many terrible things happen to him through out his lifetime. In the story Pangloss uses his philosophy to teach Candide the ways of the world and why things happen to people. His philosophy is that everything happens for a reason and that it is for the best. At one point he even says that the “bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for the Anabaptist to drown.” He also believed that syphilis was the best for the world because Christopher Columbus brought is back with him from America and without him they would not be able to enjoy chocolate.
Voltaire mocks the philosophy that “everything that happens is for the best.” He believes this is ridiculous and absurd and wants people to realize that. Is he effective in doing this? Do you think Pangloss’s theory is rational? I think Voltaire delivers a successful satire. The events that happen through out the story are so ludicrous and unbelievable. I think he proves that Pangloss philosophy is completely wrong and that everything that happens can’t possibly be for the best.
Have you found Nemo yet?
As much as I would love to blog about last week’s readings, there is a much more pertinent topic of discussion on my mind this weekend; 6 inches of snow or as the national news media likes to call it “super-mega-deathstar-stay-the-fuck-home-storm nemo”. On Staten Island I got to personally witness gas lines going down all our major avenues and boulevards and lines in our supermarkets that took hours to get through. I don’t know if it’s shell-shock from Hurricane (actually a tropical storm) Sandy or just a result of over-sensationalized news reporting of weather conditions. More than likely it is a combination of both. I’m not exactly sure what makes snow so terrifying for people that they think they need to stockpile food in a terrorist cell-like bunker when they could just stay home with some cocoa, their loved ones, and wait til the morning to shovel and go about their business as usual. If we were to follow this train of thought, let’s consider the people who shovel their sidewalks as snow is still coming down (I don’t mean to offend if you are a follower of this practice) I have witnessed my neighbor do this every single year to no avail. Hey buddy, wait til tomorrow, that inch of snow you peeled off the ground is gonna be right back there momentarily.
As an aside from my rant about the “impending-doom-for-us-all-hide-yo-children-storm nemo” I would like to mention an interesting fact about clownfish. When a clown fish’s mate dies, it has the capability to change it’s gender to reproduce with its offspring. This means that throughout the entirety of “Finding Nemo” we were watching a clownfish chase after his son to change gender and make more clownfish babies. Ah Disney……..
If you were thinking that I lackadasically wrote this post an hour before it was due, and that I spent most of my weekend frolicking in the snow like a small child you’d be right. But since I don’t want to look bad next to my fellow professional blogging peers I feel obligated to at least mention some of the reading from these first few weeks of class. One concept that particularly stuck with me from all of the enlightenment readings was one that Wollstonecraft mentioned in “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” was that the pursuit of beauty keeps us from achieving equality. I really like this concept because I believe that it is most definitely true. However, it is a concept that I feel can be applied to both genders, if we were creatures of utility then everything we wore would have some sort of use to it. Unfortunately, today we are all victims of “fashion” and pursue the aesthetically pleasing holy land of having our peers be attracted to us because of the paint we splash on our faces or the various animal pieces we cover our bodies in. None of which serves any real purpose anymore, can someone explain to me why you would be wearing dress shoes when there is snow and slush on the ground? They ain’t got no traction. Cop yourself some boots because you slippin.
Sátira Filosófica
Last class, we were assigned to read Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s “Poem 145,” and “Poem 164.” After digesting her words, my eyes wandered to the next page which was the beginning of her poem “Philosophical Satire.” At first I was hesitant, but I thought, “What the hell? Who doesn’t love a good satire,right?” Right.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz boldly writes of the wrongdoings of men towards women which include, but are not limited to, accusations, judgements, controlling behavior, and contradicting expectations. And from these negative actions, come negative reactions which are then deemed unreasonable. Though written in the 17th century, I believe this conflict is still prevalent today. She writes:
You’re always so stubbornly mulish
that, using your unbalanced scale,
you blame one woman for being cruel,
the other one, for being easy.
For how can she be temperate
when you are wooing after her,
if her being mean offends you
and her being easy maddens?
This situation happens often in today’s society- the judgement not always coming from just men. If a woman decides she doesn’t want to have sex with someone, she is dubbed a prude. On the other hand, if she decides she wants to be sexually liberal, she is dubbed a slut or any of the other synonyms listed in Urban Dictionary. Unfortunately, not every woman is as fabulous as our girl Sor Juana and some give into this archaic belief of male dominance, allowing it to dictate their behavior. But what makes some of us give into this conception and others to evade it? I believe that at least a small portion of it is due to education or lack there of.
There is that horribly cliche phrase “Knowledge is power,” which was laminated and carefully tacked into the walls of just about all of my elementary school classrooms, exuding optimism and the stink of primary colors. However ugly this phrase may be displayed, I must agree with it.
I believe that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was able to rise above the male-dominant society’s demands due to the fact that she educated herself. Not many women were educated at the time, therefore, most of them went through life abiding all of the “rules”, trying to meet impractical expectations, and letting judgements control them. Nowadays in most developed countries, all women have the right to education, and accordingly, there are less “barefoot and pregnant” wives than there were in the 17th century. But why are there still women today in the United States who believe that they are subordinate to men, that men have the power to determine a woman’s identity or role in society?
“WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.”
As we all know, Alexander pope was a famous poet. He gave us lots of thoughts about the faith of life by publishing his poems. The life is not always going to be easy, when pope was young, he got Pott’s disease. This disease made him stop his growth, and he never married until he died. “An Essay on Man” was a famous poem that he wrote about the faith of life. After the discussion of the class, I felt directly that the god had the power to regulate human’s life. In pope’s world, he thought there was a god made the world goes round. For example, he wrote that “Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by god, or thee?” we had discussed those lines in class, I thought we were just the human beings. Although there were something which we could control, there were something would be out of control. If something is going to happen, it will happen.
When I read this poem, I was kind of learned some life lessons from it. People might have different thoughts from me, but I did believe it. Pope wrote “All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee […]; All partial Evil, universal Good […]: One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.” When I read those lines, I was started to think about our real life. Human could not prevent themselves from the natural disaster. Since we could not predict when will it be happened. In addition, most of people may think the natural disaster was a bed thing. If you think it in the opposite way, the result is gonna be differently. For one thing, earthquake will not only destroy people’s house, but it will also make a great of economic loss. Think it on the other way; the earthquake is also the form of the earth release of energy. To sum up, whatever it will happen, it is going to happen. The god is always above us, it make the order of the world. All we need to it is follow the order. “Whatever is, is right.”
Driven “Free Choice”
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I know it seems a little old to still be on the topic of “Enlightenment”. But this is partially what I want to speak about today! Must I say, being “enlightened” is over-whelming. To me, being enlightened is to be driven for the betterment of one or all, to be knowledgeable. We all believe that we are all doing the right thing by coming to class everyday. Unfortunately, college is not the only thing that us students have to balance. Some of us have other priorities such as being a mom, having to work to support ones self and many other things. It is never an easy decision to pick one thing over the other when you don’t have a choice. Lately I have been feeling so constrained. Usually, I am able to balance the world on my hands but I’ve been finding myself not able to cope due to the fact that there are so many outside forces stopping me from being able to concentrate on everything all at once.
I have been putting my health at risk so many times and I have realized the damage that it is causing to my body. This blog is stated to be a “free choice” blog, luckily for me but it’s not really free because we still have to do it and I am still not having a option. Being enlightened is great and all but Pope is right in “An Essay on Man”! We are not God! I am over it! It’s impossible to take all these classes that I am taking that are all reading and writing intensive and tell myself that all these classes are truly going to enlighten me when I know that I will probably forget at least a third of it by the end of this semester. Although I truly am driven to achieve success, I cannot allow it to kill me. There is only so much that man can do and retain. Sometimes in life whether we have the “free choice” to go left or right, we still cause a lot of damage on the way, in some other aspect of our lives which has consequences for not doing one or the other, landing us in the slaughterhouse.