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Creative Writing Piece
To wrap up this project we were given the task of completing a piece of writing. This piece could be any genre we felt would best represent something true or beautiful or enhance the truth and beauty in Brave New World. Instead of writing an analytic essay or writing the last chapter of the book, similar to an alternate ending, I wrote my own dystopia. In my writing something that I was trying to illustrate was that all humans are the same on a much deeper level. If I say that I am a doctor, or I am a lawyer, that really isn't what I am it's simply what I do. In my story the two main characters break through the expectation to be perfect and connect their vastly different worlds, both realizing that in the end all humans come out equal. Another, more personal, note would be the fact that the overwhelming pressure to be perfect has heavily been impacting me. Something that I have noticed is that if I am always trying to be the top of my class, the captain of my sport team, involved in the community, or whatever, but it never seems to be enough for me. I think that one thing that is causing this unsatisfied feeling in myself even when I know that I am doing fine is the fact that I am not taking time out of my day, or even my week, to just accept who I am. I often times overlook the fact that as a human I need time to decompress and just relax. Because of this personal experience I have realized that if I am always trying to push myself and be the best, no matter how good I am doing it will never be enough unless I realize that I am perfect just the way I am and in the end it isn't all about competition.
Seminar Reflection
1. What was the most interesting idea discussed in your seminar? Explain it and develop detail.
One really interesting idea that was brought up in the seminar was that Brave New World could be thought of as a perfect world, and that there could be happiness without having pain. Although this argument and point was completely against what I was arguing during the seminar, it really made me think and work to formulate a reasonable response. Before this point in the seminar we were talking about how there has to be intense pain or sadness in order for someone to be able to really understand and appreciate happiness and because Brave New World was a world where they fabricated happiness, it was immediately a dystopia. Avra Saslow brought up the idea that she thought happiness could exist without having an opposite emotion. I thought that this was really interesting along with the idea that the novel really could be a utopia. She reasoned that the world could be a utopia because there is no crime, no sickness. In this world everything works together like perfectly oiled gears and everyone is happy. How can it not be a perfect world when everyone is happy and has the same opportunities as everyone else? I thought that this point was really interesting because we had all been viewing the world in a negative way and automatically jumping to the conclusion that it was a dystopia, when really, it was only a dystopia to our world because we haven't been conditioned to be okay with the system of things.
2. Quote one quotation from the novel you wish you would have included in the discussion, and explain why you wish you could include it.
""'We prefer to do things comfortably.'
'But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.'
'In fact,' said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy.'
'All right then,' said the Savage defiantly, 'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.'
'Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.'
There was a long silence.
'I claim them all,' said the Savage at last."
I would have liked to point out this quote when we were discussing when Mustapha Mond says that 'happiness is a hard master--particularly others happiness.' I think that if I could have brought this into the discussion it could have made more perspectives arise. I would have made the point that Mustapha means that when you are dealing with other peoples happiness, for one, it is very delicate, as well as it being hard to keep everyone in Brave New World happy when they have no way to express any other feeling. Mustapha was really saying that when you give someone happiness, you have to keep all of the other negative emotions out of the mix which is hard because usually opposite feelings come together in a package.
3. What were you most proud of about your seminar performance?
Before we seminared we wrote down a goal for the seminar, and I am proud to say that I think I completed my goal. My goal was to clarify ideas and ask questions to push the conversation deeper. Throughout the seminar I feel like I did a very good job of speaking clearly, and clearing up other peoples ideas that the rest of our peers didn't quite understand. Also at one point during the seminar I asked a question that I feel caused everyone to think deeper and relate the subjects to themselves. Overall, I feel very confident about this seminar and I think that my seminar performance was definitely an improvement compared to past seminars.
One really interesting idea that was brought up in the seminar was that Brave New World could be thought of as a perfect world, and that there could be happiness without having pain. Although this argument and point was completely against what I was arguing during the seminar, it really made me think and work to formulate a reasonable response. Before this point in the seminar we were talking about how there has to be intense pain or sadness in order for someone to be able to really understand and appreciate happiness and because Brave New World was a world where they fabricated happiness, it was immediately a dystopia. Avra Saslow brought up the idea that she thought happiness could exist without having an opposite emotion. I thought that this was really interesting along with the idea that the novel really could be a utopia. She reasoned that the world could be a utopia because there is no crime, no sickness. In this world everything works together like perfectly oiled gears and everyone is happy. How can it not be a perfect world when everyone is happy and has the same opportunities as everyone else? I thought that this point was really interesting because we had all been viewing the world in a negative way and automatically jumping to the conclusion that it was a dystopia, when really, it was only a dystopia to our world because we haven't been conditioned to be okay with the system of things.
2. Quote one quotation from the novel you wish you would have included in the discussion, and explain why you wish you could include it.
""'We prefer to do things comfortably.'
'But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.'
'In fact,' said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy.'
'All right then,' said the Savage defiantly, 'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.'
'Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.'
There was a long silence.
'I claim them all,' said the Savage at last."
I would have liked to point out this quote when we were discussing when Mustapha Mond says that 'happiness is a hard master--particularly others happiness.' I think that if I could have brought this into the discussion it could have made more perspectives arise. I would have made the point that Mustapha means that when you are dealing with other peoples happiness, for one, it is very delicate, as well as it being hard to keep everyone in Brave New World happy when they have no way to express any other feeling. Mustapha was really saying that when you give someone happiness, you have to keep all of the other negative emotions out of the mix which is hard because usually opposite feelings come together in a package.
3. What were you most proud of about your seminar performance?
Before we seminared we wrote down a goal for the seminar, and I am proud to say that I think I completed my goal. My goal was to clarify ideas and ask questions to push the conversation deeper. Throughout the seminar I feel like I did a very good job of speaking clearly, and clearing up other peoples ideas that the rest of our peers didn't quite understand. Also at one point during the seminar I asked a question that I feel caused everyone to think deeper and relate the subjects to themselves. Overall, I feel very confident about this seminar and I think that my seminar performance was definitely an improvement compared to past seminars.
Animas High School 3206 North Main Avenue Durango, CO 81301 (970) 247-2474
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on: 5.7.12
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on: 5.7.12