frankenstein

hi everyone ! So we go through the letters and 5 chapters of Frankenstein !
I took out a few sentences and used allusions to enable the reader to understand in a more comprehensive manner.

"But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and then eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles."

In this quote, I see biblical figures. It has an illusion to the bible. Philosophers can represent "God". In the Bible, it was written that God made Adam with dirt. "Whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt" relates to the process of how Adam was created. Next, "then the eyes to pore over the microscope" reminded me that God made every single person perfectly, unique in their own way. Right now I am taking Biology as a science class and i am currently learning about Mitosis and Meiosis. My Goodness. It is so hard to imagine that that this process of dividing a cell has so many steps in order to get to its goal and all this process only takes play in the nucleus of a cell. There are millions and millions of cells in a human body and each process that takes place is perfect. His "eyes to power over the microscope" tells me that every single aspect of humans were created carefully and that every little detail counted. By making Adam, God had "performed [a] miracle".

-Angela Hyun

"The End of Solitude"

            "The End of Solitude" by William Deresiewicz was one of my favorite pieces that we have read in class thus far. Although I myself take part in the online social networking world by using facebook, I have always thought that it creates a false feeling of how many "friends" one really has and prevents the close relationships people had before the technology developed. My generation has also disposed of many other aspects of life that existed before myspace and facebook such as the privacy of their private thoughts, longer attention spans, and the opportunity to immerse oneself in their own creativity and thoughts whenever boredom creeps upon us. Many of us have accepted checking for updates as a healthy substitute for activities as natural to the growing mind as thinking.

    Not only does this take a toll on our creativity, it raises the question, what will our generation be remembered for? All the great literary periods had their unique characteristics, as the article pointed out, but what kind of great style of writing will emerge from our generation when everyone is too busy online to express their ideas through literature? Unless we can manage to compose great poetry in less than 160 characters to "tweet" on twitter, it seems that people need to close their web browser and open their word processor and get to typing. Otherwise, we may become the real Lost Generation. 

   This is not to say that we are completely hopeless and that there is absolutely no form of art that can emerge from our constant updates about what we had for lunch. I am not proposing that we must return to feather quills and parchment in order to achieve pieces of timeless philosophy, technology changes and our means to express ourselves can change with it. The technology we have available enables us to communicate much faster than in the days of Henry David Thoreau or Oscar Wilde, and this can work as a double-edged sword. We can recieve and send ideas across the world in seconds and this gives us an advantage not even Mary Shelley could have imagined. We just need to concentrate less on artificial popularity and more on our or attention-craving psyches. 
-Bobby Rodriguez

Alice, Ulysses, and Me

As people grow older they tend to give up experiencing the nuances of life. They stick to one pattern and are not willing to try new things. However, I believe along with Alice and Ulysses that it is never, “To late to seek a newer world”. No matter what our age may be or what rules society puts upon us, we all have the ability to make our own decisions. Old age does not necessarily have to dictate the lives that we have to lead. Alice lives in a strict Victorian Society and Wonderland details the troubles she has growing up into a young lady. She has to obey certain rules of etiquette growing up and has to learn to be lady like, but these rules do not prevent her from doing what she wants to do. She continues to be an imaginative young girl and does not let her maturation process change what she is as a person. Ulysses had to go through many trials and tribulations to come back home from the long war to his wife and son. Although he is nostalgic about the many adventures and obstacles he had to overcome to reach his final destination, he was not willing to sit idly and let life pass him by. He understood that the peak of his life had passed, yet he was willing to seek newer “worlds” and try out different things. Along with Ulysses and Alice, I also feel it is important for one to stretch his boundaries and try out new things. Age should not deter one from purpose and adventure but instead should make new experiences better. Along with age comes wisdom, and this wisdom can be applied to various circumstances and events, making the experience much better. People should learn to not limit their possibilities because it is never too late to explore new challenges.

                                                                                                    Jehan T.