police brutality Image

Saboteur

“When a scholar runs into soldiers, the more he argues, the muddier his point becomes.”

            I struggled to find a deeper meaning to this story. The only thing that I can think this story is about is how the police officers in this story were being brutal to this man for no reason. Although there could be a deeper meaning to the story that I am not getting, the focus on police brutality in this story could be important. The authors purpose could have been to zone in on the mundane of police brutality.

Brokeback Mountain

“It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he'd thought, long ago in some

damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing,

stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt, the pair

like two skins, one inside the other, two in one.”

This quote is important because it brings a lot of closure to the story. It sums up the relationship of Jack and Ennis into one line. I think that this describes how attached Jack and Ennis were. In the beginning of the story when Ennis is driving away from Jack he becomes physically sick. His stomach starts to get cramped and he tries to puke but cant. I found this part of the story interesting because I have never read a story or saw a movie where the characters were that entranced by one another.

            Certainly, I have read stories when the characters become irrational and emotional when their partner leaves them. However in the stories I normally read the characters usually just get depressed after a breakup. And they may do irrational things, for instance some people think so irrationally that they cant move on at all. Although that is not the way the story goes. Neither character in this story thinks irrationally because of the way that they feel about each other.

            This story is a great example of a paradox. Jack and Ennis meet and their lives are changed forever. The power of their attraction controls their life. When they see each other they begin to feel whole again. Through out the story neither of the characters becomes irrational. Normally if something has complete control over a person it can cause them to act out irrationally.

the voorman problem

This film made me think about God as a cynical creator. When Mr. Voorman is asked why he seeks amusement in humans I found it interesting how he considers himself to be a bored God. For the sake of this blog post let it be known that there is a God, and there is only one God. Now if this is true and I am not saying if it is or isn’t, but if it is would you be afraid of God? If there is a being that can control every aspect of the universe is that something to be feared? This film shines light on how it is very frightening to not actually be in control of your own life.

            Mr. Voorman embodies the reasoning behind God. He is very cynical, and the reason why he creates what he creates is for pure amusement. To think that the reason why we are here is because God is bored and he is looking for entertainment is a frightening thought. That makes me feel very much like Dr Williams at the end of the film. If God were actually as cynical as Mr. Voorman I would feel helpless. I would think that every decision I made wasn't my decision. I would begin to think that my whole outlook and perception is just the way that someone else wanted. I figure if there is a master plan that god wrote there are two ways to look at it. The first way is I can choose to not do anything important because I don't want to give in to a god. The other way of looking at it is I can choose to change and grow for myself. But the catch 22 is if I choose the latter is that all part of Gods plans. Was it he who decided my fate or was it me.

            Fortunately I don't have to worry about it. No one knows if there is a God, and no one can prove if there is or isn’t a god.

tim parrish blog

“And at that moment I hated him, for hitting me, for making bob go to war, for being an adult in a place that made no sense. But mostly I hated him for being week in the way a child sees weakness, hated him for being unable to solve complexity with a single gesture, hated him because when he held Mr. Ramos I’d seen the limitations of his strength.”

             This quote has multiple meanings. There is the meaning that this quote has in general, the meaning of this quote for this particular part of the story, and the meaning this quote has in the grand scheme of the story. In general to hate someone because they are acting like an adult shows that the main character, like many other kids, doesn't want to grow up. The irony of this is that the main characters sense of strength is that of an adult. From the perspective of the main character solving a complex problem with a simple solution is the best way to do it, even if that means losing that sense of pride that many adults carry with them. In his eyes this makes him weak as an adult.

            As and adult the characters father makes many decisions that are questionable. He hits his child, and he doesn't try to convince his other son to stay home from Vietnam. This quote is important because it sums up what the main character has been thinking and leading up to the entire time. And it is written in such a formulated way that this is probably exactly how the kid felt, but could a kid in real life articulate his thoughts like this.

            In the grand scheme of the story I think that this quote goes a long way in helping the reader find meaning. For most of the story I didn't have a sense of what the point of all this was going to be until I read this line. This line highlights the limitations that adults have when faced with tough decisions. Sometimes it is easier to think like a kid when deciding something important.

SQ response

“He used to say, “ Once you know what you’re doing, the only thing you need to think about is how to do it.” I believe that is deeply true.”

            This story was different. I think that its an original idea to create a post-modern world where mental health is being perfected, and I think the author captures what this world might be like quite well. My opinion on this world and the world we live in today is that everyone is a bizarre in their own sense. If people weren’t interested and passionate about bizarre things the whole world would be grey. The people that are interested in something out of the ordinary is what makes them sane.

            I find this quote intriguing because it manages to mention the what and how of living, but it doesn't mention the why. There is always a reason why someone does something. And if the why of the equation isn’t strong enough to that person then they will lose interest and stop doing what they are doing. To elaborate on this story, I don't know why people where failing this test, or what for that matter was even on the test. Most people are sane in a very unique way. The world is filled with millions of toys, gadgets, books, culture, music, and religion, that one person from one side of the world might say to a person from a different culture who listen’s to different types of music and reads different literature, and say “You are crazy”. However that person is doing may seem completely normal to them. It is what that person believes to be cool, true, or normal.

            In this story there is also the narrators motif of believing. The narrator talks a lot about belief. In the beginning the narrator says that she believes people need beliefs. What I find interesting about this is the connection that it has to the secretary running the world at the end of the story. The secretary is running a world that is basically empty, with most of the civilians in an asylum. She acts like running the world is easier than one might think, and I think that this connects to believing in something. I like to think that this is a metaphor for how everyone runs their own little world by believing in something that matters to them.

the most dangerous game played

“Maybe. But sometimes I think sailors have an extra sense that tells them when they are in danger. Sometimes

I think evil is a tangible thing--with wave lengths, just as sound and light have. An evil place can, so to speak,

broadcast vibrations of evil.”

I think this quote is interesting because Rainsford didn't know what the Casscus was talking about when he said that he was hunting something new.  He didn't have the slightest idea until the man went on about how what he was hunting was a creature with reason. I also think this quote is interesting because it doesn't really fit in with the story. After this quote is written there isn’t anything else that references evil in the story, besides that a man is hunting humans. It almost seems like this quote should belong in a horror story rather than a thriller like this one. So what does it mean?

My best guess is that this means that the theme of the story is how evil in the story is being hunted. This would mean that the humans in the story are evil and are being hunted because they are evil. But that contradicts the ending of the story—a man who began the game of hunting evil dies from that same evil. Although this could allude to the quote if you live by the sword you die by the sword. Meaning if you live to hunt evil, you will die from that same evil. If this story is anything like dying by the sword than this would make sense. Also if evil is tangible maybe it is released when hunting a human. In the bible it says that we are all born sinners, and although we have done nothing wrong we already have sinned. I can see how if the writer had this in mind maybe the wavelengths are the energy of the soul exiting the body.

Thinking on a more grounded level, I think that this story’s lesson is that a person gets what they have coming to them. At the end of the story the man knows he has lost and simply bows before being killed. This can project what happens when a person who knows they are in the wrong, yet still equipped with reason, will do when they are being killed.