Throughout the study of the semester, we have learned how the human nature shapes the community. The invisible rules that enact on the population in some ways that the people who have power can control the result.

When I was around 10 years old, there was one cartoon that really inspired me, even though I couldn’t fully understand the meaning behinds every sentence, but it was the first ever work that opens my door to the “reality”. Lately, I found out that it was the adaptation from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. There are also film and musical play versions. The setting of the story is in the early 19^th century in France. The story is based on a man named Jean Valjean who were guilty of theft. When he began to follow his old tracks-stealing. A bishop forgives what he had done in the past and gives him a second chance to start a new life. Because of bishop’s kindly reaction, Jean Valijean was pulled out from this ugly world by the bishop. He understands that human nature is good and kind, there may be many different kinds of flaws and injustice exist in the world, but people can be changed, from bad to good. All people shall be threat equally. The pre-judgement prevents people from correcting themselves. Later on, he focuses on the way to make himself a “better person”, eventually, he becomes mayor of a local town and owner of the factory. However, there is one police inspector named Javert, does not allow him to go back to “normal” life, he believes that Valjean once a law-breaker, he cannot change into a good person. One of the factory workers – Fantine, willing to do everything for her dearest daughter – Cosette, before she dies from the illness of being over working or bully by other people, she asked Valjean to take care of her illegitimate daughter. In those turbulent moments, Valjean stays his ground and helps others as much as he can.

The concept of being justice is an intangible abstract idea that controlled under the powerful people to create their ideal world. So, what is justice? The meaning of justice doesn’t fully explain by just pulling out the meaning from the dictionary. Friedrich Nietzsche thinks that the meaning of justice is unspecific that is it flexible with no fixed meaning. The ultimate definition of being justice is to be “positive” or “good”, but Nietzsche tries to challenge the norm that people have forgotten and the meaning of the concept, by raising some questions of how do we know what is included and what is excluded? The concept of justice may not exist because it is a use of language that people tries to approach the truth. The community has hard time to define some moral action, in that said, they need to create some sort of laws to help them identify which action is “good” or “bad”. It’s just a metaphor that people use to judge the world.

The concept of responsibility also occurs in both cases. Because there is no fixed meaning of justice that’s given by God, therefore, people or the community should come together to create a “definition of justice” in order to make the society function well. In addition, everyone has their own responsibility to follow what is written on the paper. The concept of justice is rational and no true meaning. It can be changed as time goes on, and develop with the growth of the society. In the story, The visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, the people of the town that are under the control of Claire, agrees that Ill’s death can be deemed as Justice because of the mistakes that he had done. By sacrificing Ill, the debt of the whole town can be resolve. Even though Claire comes back for the revenge, she has more control in the town than Ill does, so does this action can be seen as justice? People pushing Ill to death in order to clear the debts, they think that it is justice because Ill was guilty. The “justice” that we see in here has a lot of negative images. However, in Les Misérables, we can see two different kinds of “justice”, one is positive and one is negative. The action of the bishop by forgiving Valijean can be defined as a positive justice which he gives a guilty person an opportunity to start a new life. This act would be doubt in a modern society since people who admitted crime shall be punished by law. The “justice” that the police inspector Javert is the opposite of the bishop, he believes that people who once done wrong, they will not change to a better person.

Overall, the human nature is pure and good, the action of being justice is the highest transformation that wakes up the conscience.

“The Judgment” is a short story that present the relationships between family, friends, and marriage. In this story, Georg the main character who always write letters to the unnamed friend in Russia, was struggle to reveal his engagement with a girl name Frieda who is from a wealthy family background.  Even though he decided that he wanted to inform his friend about his Fiancée, he went to his father and asked for advices. The fighting and argument between Georg and his father is the major conflict of the story. Even though the author didn’t mention about history background previously, we can understand the whole situation through the argument. Georg and his friend are both characterized as business man, but the difference between them was that Georg always rely on other people, which his father descried him as “weak” and “not mature” while his friend, are independent that he is able to live alone and do what he wants. Georg was under his father’s control that “his father, by insisting on doing everything his way in business, had prevented Georg from pursuing any real activity of his own”. Georg was growing in such environment and lack of love from mother, since his mother passed away. On the other hand, his fiancée was deem as a strong woman who make decision and concern about herself. She forced Georg to inform his friend about their relationship and insisted him to do so otherwise she claims that there is no meaning of the engagement.

Frieda claims that she has the right to meet all his friends. In addition, Frieda says “I really do feel offended” because She may think that Georg is not transparent about their relationship.

Georg’s respond plays an important role in here because it shows how Georg was trying to make decision on his own by doing what he think is the best. He was so under control by everyone. In his letter to his friend in Russia, he writes “do not concern yourself about anyone else and do only as you think best.” This explains why he said “That is how I am.” He is trying be who he wanted to be, however, he is not quite mature as his friend. But “that is how he must take me”, Georg saying that he may not be the same person as his friend, who he is approaching to, but “his friend” need to accept who he is.

Georg’s friend is a threat to himself, since his father claims that his friend is a better person than him.

After talking to his father, Georg feel even more depressed, and admit his personal failure in life. And he commit suicide. Throughout the story, we can tell that Georg was struggle by getting over the sorrow of his mother’s death. And he also sees himself as a failure. The life of his friend in Russia, is something that he wants to be achieve as a mature, independent, and free man. Therefore, we can say that Georg represent the dark side of the character, and his friend is the opposite. Also, we can connect it to the topic of mind and body. If Georg’s friend is imaginary, then his friend represents the mind, while Georg represents the body.

The revolutions that happened in Europe had marked a significant point throughout the human history which the Industrial Revolution accelerated the development of modernizing economy environment that everything is fast-forwarded by the machines.  On the other hand, French Revolution, was a period of time that more and more people got a chance to express their ideas freely during a social and political upheaval. It was a time that inspired people to encourage people to seek for individual rights. Enlightenment was meant to awake those lost and limited freedom. Despite Edmund Burke shares the same idea with Shelley that tradition should be inheritable, he has a different view from Shelley about the measure of freedom. They both agrees that enlightenment was one way that helps people retrieve what is been losing since the world has been changing over time. It was a time that rebuilds the sentiment that was lost under the pressure of the society. People ought to fight for their freedom, the spirit of believing in individual rights, by reason. Rational is a power that pushes people to look forward to the truth. In a sense that Shelley claims that “poet are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” which they help inspire and guide people into a right way of thinking. Shelley thinks that freedom is ought to be equally if people question the authority while Burke believes that freedom is still limited by some sort of status.

You may find that the same stories that you have been told by your family or friends that are slightly different than other people who had heard about it.  That is the beauty of orature. They are not necessary to be written down, but they still can be passed down from generation to generation. They can a short story, poem or history that hidden the wisdom or message behind the words. Since the spread rate of orature is out of control, stories are changed time by time or maybe varies in different regions. The use of language and the mix of cultures makes the orature seems more attractive than the boring letters on paper. On the other hand, it is easy to understand. Orature is one of the spotlights in the literature.

By reading the Three Anansi Stories and the US Slave story & US slave Spirituals and Secular Songs, one common theme is about the rise of the slaves.

Three Anansi stories are from Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States. Anansi is characterized as a cunning spider. The origin was from Ghana, however, while it spreads to worldwide, the name and personality of Anansi have changed as well. All the characters in the stories are animals with human behaviors. Different animals represent different kinds of group of people. In the Ghana and Jamaica version, Anansi (Ghana) or Annancy (Jamaica) are brave and full of wisdom. It is a positive figure that acts as a model for the society. We all know that spiders are small in size, but, by using his knowledge, he is able to defeat the enemies that are stronger than him. Anansi symbolized power and resistance. Anansi, however, named Aunt Nancy are deems as a negative figure in the US. It changed from male to female, from hero to devil.

US Slave story and Spirituals and Secular Songs shares the same theme that slaves are fighting for their freedom. In the history, slaves are an object that can be purchase and trade. They had no individual rights and treated terribly by the slave’s owners. In the short story “All God’s Children Had Wings”, it shows that slaves wished to leave the “hell” so badly. Every man, woman, child is forced to work hard without having rest. The slave’s owners are deemed as devil who have strong power that taking away other’s life. In this story, the old man may represent the god who can bring slaves out of the situation. The woman who just had birth was not allowed to rest until her body are recovered. She was forced to work while breast feeding the baby. The woman fell repeatedly, but the overseer forced her to get back to work. It shows how cruel the society was, when slave was on the bottom on the “food chain”. At the end, she flew up to the sky and leave all the troubles behind her. You could say that she maybe died and went to a better place without suffer. But, it is also a sign that slaves finally realized they need to fight for their own rights by going further and untied the chain that’s on their feet. They are no needed to be afraid to seek for freedom. The story also indicates the culture difference, it states that “He replied; but the driver could not understand what they said; their talk was strange to him.” It is clear, that orature can be limited by the different language. The US Slave Spirituals and secular songs are pass down to every slave that needed to unleash from the chain. They are passion about fighting for freedom. They rationalized they are equal as everybody. Loser are weak when they are acting weak. Those songs promote and inspire slaves to get out of the box to fight against the strong power.

The connection of Anansi and this short story shows how slaves getting out to find their own freedom by against the strong power. Anansi are also deemed as the slaves who are weak because they are small and have no strength. However, they use their wisdom to confront the people who are “stronger”. The desire of being free is big enough to be brave and confident.

During the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution. We see how the environment changes rapidly by the influences of ideal rational life and technology of science etc. Those tools push the people to step ahead further that makes them question the world by breaking the rules and orders. People acknowledged from the new ideas that flowing around. When there is a time for changing, there must be someone out there to motivate and influences people’s minds to create a new world that satisfied everyone’s needs. Poetry had made a significant contribution by awakening the people into a new era. People often say that poetry is nothing but just some words on a piece of paper that has no impact on the society. Yes, we all agree that poetry is a type of a recording tool, but what makes it interesting is that it has feelings that connect to the readers who are reading it. By reading the poetry, you can retrieve the author’s emotions at that moment and link it with your personal experiences. Poets often use allusion metaphor to turn abstract ideas into reality which create a strong connection between readers and the writers. Poetry can also see as an invisible conversation which the readers may to comprehends the meaning behind the words. Shelley also suggest that poetry could be used in a traditional way. People pass down lessons by reading at those works. It reflects one’s culture. Poetry is a place for ideas expression. It states “The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry.” It shows how poet can influence people’s mind and opinion by expressing their own thoughts, however, it’s not necessary for people to follow blindly. Overall, poetry was a great powerful tool that has ability to communicate people’s feelings and fast-forward the revolution.

After the reading of “Discourse on Method from Rene Descartes, he inspired me and changed my attitude toward learning. The biggest doubts that I have in mind after reading the whole text was “What is learning? What is knowledge?” As I read the article, I agree that knowledge is not just something that put into your mind and reinforces it.  At the begging of the article, the author talks about how the “old method” – Aristotelian science that is based on demonstration and syllogism. He was unsatisfied with the educational method that claims he would get everything he needed to know for higher education. Even though he completed the learning successfully, he felt that he should not just satisfy whatever is given to him. He believes that those “truth” are uncertainty, and he needs to reexamine the right and wrong. By having this idea in mind, he attempts to put away the precepts and principles of Aristotelian philosophy and adopt the new method to fulfill his desire of finding certainty. He argues that people should doubt and questions the “truth” instead just accept them by not knowing the certainty. After he decides to abandon the former principles, there are four rules that guide him through his journey. And I find these helpful for studying new knowledge. The four principles are (1) Do not accept everything as true unless it is evident, (2) solve problems individually by breaking them down into small pieces (3) learning from the basic knowledge and go toward higher level (4) double check/reexamine your work carefully. His theories seem as philosophy, which he claims that “I am thinking, therefore I exist.” His ideas have great contribution philosophy study, he argues that his mind can be distinct from the body. This argument raised some significant philosophical questions such as the relationships with my mind/body and myself. And the connection with the body and mind. His thinking has inspired the others, and his ideas could also see as the role of modern philosophy. Overall, it was a great article that it can raise many debates on this topic.