My Reflection

This unit was all about existentialism and my favorite book in this unit was The Stranger. The Stranger explores existentialism because Nick gives his own life meaning and even will the lawyer tries to help him and get him off for the murder, Nick just tells him the truth and he doesn't even stretch the truth while on stand. Also, Nick does not have a lot of character or personality. Normally I would not like a book like The Stranger because I would not like the Nick as a charater but something about him and this book made me love it. I like what was really driving me was that I really wanted Nick to go to the trial and see what the jury thought about him. I feel like being an existentialist would be hard, because to think that you are the only person who can influence your life is hard to imagine, especially when you have so many other influences and people you give your life meaning. I think that being an existentialist led to Nick's downfall because he would not let other people like Maria, the lawyer, or the magistrate give meaning to his life. Also, I feel like he would have believed and let this people influence him, he would have able to convince the jury that he was in fact not guilty. I just wished that Nick and Maria would have gotten married and that Nick would not have had to have an appeal. I also did not appreciate the way the book ended. I wish that the appeal trial would have been in the book. This just leaves me with too many questions that will go unanwserd.

Mrs. Burnett, this has nothing to do with the blog this month. I just wanted to say that you are a fantastic teacher and I wish that I would have applied myself better in your class. I wish that I would have done most of the work and read more of the books. I did not use my full potential while in your class, but I just wanted to let you know that I really did enjoy being in your class. I am going to miss you being my teacher so much next year! Best of luck with all of your classes in the future, none of them will be as good as ours! Thanks for being my teacher! 

Gender Studies

Throughout this unit we have read books about the roles of the sexes in different cultures during different times in history. My favorite book that we read during this unit was A Thousand Splendid Suns because it was more recent and I feel like it was easier for me to relate to the people in the book even though women in the United States have not lost but gained rights. The women in A Thousand Splendid Suns lost all the rights they were used to. They lost the right to hold offices, the right to vote, and even the right to just walk outside without a man. I think men like to be domineering in general. I don't think they enjoy listening women because they see them as being lower than themselves. I think that A Thousand Splendid Suns shows how the women slowly lose more and more of themselves as their rights are taken away, whereas here in the United States, women keep gaining more and more rights. Recently women have been given the right to fight on the front line in the military in the United States, which is huge. I think these steps that we, as a country are taking, are slowly going to create equality among not just women and men, but also between minorities in our country. I don't mean the "equality" that we see today, but real equality. Why can't we just treat everyone equal?

Women's Rights

This month we have been reading books about the rights of women and it is also Martin Luther King Day. The rights of women and the fight they had to go through reminds me of the struggle that African Americans had to go through to gain rights. Women had to prove themselves as equal and African Americans had to do the same. The women would stand outside of the white house and boycott the white house, while african americans boycotted and went to restaurants that wouldn't serve them, or they would sit in the back of the bus. This just shows that to get what you want you have to work for it. This reminds me a lot of A Thousand Splendid Suns. It does because in a way the women in the middle east were treated as minorities and they had almost all their right stripped from them. Even though this is the decline of women's rights, A Thousand Splendid Suns, shows that the women recognized that the Taliban were in the wrong, but if they tried to retaliate they would just be killed. I am also reminded of A Thousand Splendid Suns because it shows how controlling one group of men are and how they can take rights away as easily as rights were given. I also feel that women are still downgraded by some men today in the United States even though women are said to have "equal rights". This topic of women's rights sometimes confuses me and is very controversial even today. Some men think that women should stay home, clean, cook dinner, and take care of the kids, others think that women should also have a job but then some men think that the roles should be reversed. I don't really know if there is a better way but I do think that women and African Americans have come a long way, but in my opinion, they are still not equal to the typical white male.

Cultural Relativism

This article was very intriguing. I enjoyed reading it and learning about the challenge of cultural relativism. I belief that everyone has their own moral codes and in a individual society only one is seemed to morally correct. I enjoyed learning that cultural relativism and how it is basically a theory about the nature of morality. I also believe cultures having different moral codes is what makes other cultures so intriguing to learn and read about. I agree with the statement that, "We would have to stop condemning other societies merely because they are "different." I agree with this statement because I think that as a society we should not judge or condemn other societies because their morals is what makes them a society and a culture. I feel like this topic is very contradictory because everyone says that everyone and different societies included should be different, but then when people are different, they get judged and people look down upon them because they are not like them. Also, I agree that most cultures do in fact have some morals in common. This article reminds me a great deal about Things Fall Apart. I immediately made the connection because the article is about how different societies have different moral codes just as the missionaries in Things Fall Apart believe that the tribe should learn their religion and their moral codes. In Things Fall Apart, the missionaries wanted the tribe to convert and become what the missionaries thought that everyone should be. I believe that becoming what others want you to is completely wrong but unfortunately not everyone thinks so. For the most part I agree with the theory of Cultural Relativism. "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism." An article wrote by James Rachels in 1993.

Brutality in Prison and Boarding Schools?

Within the American prison system, many of the inmates are treated badly and some are even killed. In multiple states there have been cases where inmates have been shot or brutally beaten. Within the book The Power of One, Peekay, the main character, is treated harshly when he goes to attend boarding school. Peekay is constantly tortured by the other boys and one of the reasons may be because he was the only English speaker and the other boys saw that as a threat. Peekay was both physical and verbally abused, and he was called derogatory names. Like one inmate in California who only had a three minor felonies in his life and was sentenced to 25 years in jail. The only reason that he stole the things he did in the first place was because he was hungry and didn't have any money. This man never shot or hurt anyone and still has to do 25 years. I strongly disagree with this and I think that this is terrible because this many never hurt anyone, he just stole food because he was hungry. I think that California's "three strikes" law is ridiculous because even for minor offenses a man can go to jail for longer than he needs to. Another example is that some prison guards make prisoners rape other prisoners for extra food. This is absolutely terrible and needs to be stopped and hopefully it is because it is already enough to have to be in prison and then to be physically harassed and raped just makes the jail experience that much worse. I hope the guards who make the prisoners do this have to jail time and find out what it is like in the jail cell to begin with so they can see how they physically and emotionally hurt people. The above facts about the brutality the American prison system came from "Inside the US prison system-frame-ups, brutality,and murder."  An article wrote by Kate Randall in July 1999.