Making Connections # 2

Selfless acts are not common in our society. It seems like as Americans, our main concern is to take care of ourselves and please ourselves. Sometimes when you feel compelled to perform a selfless act you are tricked into thinking that it is the right thing when in fact you are only serving yourself by giving yourself peace of mind. I can attest to this fact by using my real life experience of trying to always fix my family’s problems. I have always thought than when something wrong occurred and someone in my family needed help I would help purely out of my love for them, in part I was, but I also did it to make myself feel better. One day my father lost his job and it was near the time that my mother was putting together a dinner party to celebrate their twenty first anniversary, after he lost his job they decided to put it off until they were in a more secure place. When they told me the news I felt so bad because I knew that it meant so much to them and I decided that I would pay for the party and in my mind I was doing it to boost their spirits. Looking back on the experience I can recognize that I was partly paying for the party to lift their spirits but I was also doing it because it would make me feel better to see them feel a little better and enjoy themselves. Sometimes performing a selfless act can be somewhat of oxymoron, no one does anything for no good reason. When you donate money to the Red Cross, on one hand you do it to help people but you also donate to make yourself feel less guilty when you see than a natural disaster has occurred and you have been spared for not being affected by it. In many cases people perform seemingly selfless acts for the superstitious fear that the same disaster or bout of bad fortune could happen to them. The same principle applies to situations in which you see someone on the side walk asking for money. For example, one day last month I was leaving the Wal-Mart Super Center in Palmdale and there was this old man with an oxygen tank and I thought to myself that someone like this does not deserve to spend his supposed “twilight years” begging for change, so I gave him some money and made my way home, all the while thinking how lucky I am. Reflecting on my decision to give him money when so many would pass him by made me consider why I felt the need to do it. Certainly a part of me felt bad for him but also I thought about this belief that my mother passed on to me and her mother passed on to her. It goes something like “you never know if that person is God in disguise and you wouldn’t dismiss our Lord if it was”. So obviously then a part of me did it not literally thinking it could be God but for the teachings of my faith that teach that you do not turn your back on anyone or refuse to offer them some sort of help. Brownie points aside, I gave him a few dollars because it made me feel better so it was arguably beneficial to me to help him. It isn’t wrong to help someone because you know it will make you feel better, im my book that is just a side benefit.

Blogger # 2

We respond in countless ways to literature, sometimes we respond in ways that we would expect and sometime we may find that literature can inspire us to do things or take actions that we would never have thought we could or would. I think almost everyone has an emotional response when it comes to literature. When you read something and are interested in it, the action becomes more of a pass time than a chore. On the other had when you feel that you have to read something you would not normally pick up your emotional response would probably be one that reflects your negative attitude toward the subject. Intellectually, almost, if not everyone, has some kind of response to literature. More than anything I fell that actively reading, meaning you are truly focused on what you are reading, improves your intelligence and improves your understanding of the world. I know that in the book Animal Farm by reading the story and being interested in it I was able to better understand this individual tale and its mirroring of certain governments and the fine line that exists between having a strong leader and tyranny. A book such as this makes you examine the question of to what degree do we employ the practice of justice and equality. There is no way to have both without sacrificing something important. It is lessons such as this hat cause you not only to examine the world around but also your place in it and your reaction to it. You have to wonder what I would do if I were in this situation. The answer to a question such as this shows you who you are and in many ways I do not think there are many mediums that accomplish this feat as much as literature does. Literature can also inspire you to try new things or to believe in new ideals or causes that might have meant nothing to you before. For example, reading Animal Farm made me more aware of the ramifications of not being involved in my government and how ignorance is not bliss. I think what I am trying to say is that literature can change you, for the better or worse. That is why throughout history governments have tried to stifle created thought and burned books to accomplish that. The change that it can inspire can bring down nations or it can build them up. The ways in which literature can change us, be it emotionally, intellectually or inspirationally, comes about through critical analysis and active reading. When your read something it is not enough to simply look at the words, you have to think about what you are reading and try to understand it. When you are reading literature for a class you need to be able to analyze what you are reading because first of all you will probably going to need the information for a test, but you also need to analyze it so you at least gain something out of the experience, even if it is not enjoyment. When it comes down to it is virtually impossible to read and not criticize or analysis what you are reading. In some way you relate or understand what the story is about or what the characters are experiencing.

Literature is a way to go somewhere without having to leave your seat. It is a way to experience places and cultures that are different from your own and meet people that do not exist. My parents always exposed me to books and literature from a young age and they passed on to me their love of reading. One of my earliest memories is of my mother taking me to the library and helping me pick out books. Later, as I got older, she or my father would read to me and let me read to them, it always seemed like they had all the time in the world to listen to me. I think in part this is one reason that I’ve always loved to read and preferred it over watching a movie. I guess in some ways reading reminds me of family and simpler days.
Sometimes literature can teach you a lesson that life or a movie wouldn’t have time for. Regardless of what era the literature is from or whom it concerns, it can teach you something worthwhile. Even if it is just learning the patience to sit down and finish something you start, such as finishing a thousand page book would or immersing yourself in a world that is not your own. In most cases literature can give you a better appreciation and understanding about a topic or story than another medium could. For example when you read The Handmaid’s Tale and later watch the movie, it is only in the book that you understand and feel Offred’s desperation and raw hopelessness. The movie cannot impress upon you the rigid and harsh rule of Gilead and its people, even after you have finished the book the impression and sadness that you feel takes a while to diminish. I think this is one of the most powerful aspects of literature and the reading of it. It can make you feel things that cannot be explained away, it can create emotion s that may feel as real as any in real life.
I do not exactly know how this class will alter how I perceive literature I probably won’t know till the semester is over. I hope it will make me more understanding of the undercurrents and symbolism of the literature I read. Sometimes it seems that in reading you can get so caught up in the interactions and trials of the characters that you forget that any meaningful story has an underlying meaning. I hope going through this class will help me to appreciate the reasons that writers put pen to paper, not just to pass the time or fill the empty hours but to inform and change people and their outlooks. I think sometimes it’s rare to find really great books that can change how you look at something or how you perceive it. Hopefully, by heightening my senses through literature and the exercises in this class, I will be able to transfer this perception to real world experiences and understand people and what motivates them better. Besides achieving growth in terms of literature and perception I hope this class will aid me in my writing ability. By reading and practicing with exercises’ such as this blog I think I will be better equipped and experienced to do well in future classes, besides English.