Power Leads to Corruption

a thematic response to Animal Farm by George Orwell

You wake up and you live a life where you own nothing. Nothing at all. Everything is owned and hoarded by the government. What started out a brilliant idea of sharing has gone to exactly what wanted to be avoided. This is what happened in Russia in the early 1900’s. This is what happened in Animal Farm by George Orwell. John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton said it best, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In Animal Farm, the animals, representing Russia’s people, were upset with the management of the farm. They were eating only enough to stay alive, so they finally had a breakthrough and Rebelled against the humans on the farm, representing the Royal Family in Russia. When the pigs came into power they had seven commandments by which all of the animals need to live.

Because the pigs had ultimate power they were easily corrupted. Just trying little things to see if anybody would notice or question. Then they tried something a bit more drastic and these behaviors fed on themselves, and by the end of the novel the creators of the commandments had broken all of them. Just to protect their coveted treasure or expand it. They even made a fellow founder the common enemy. Every time that a commandment was broken the commandment was changed as to not reflect the error. By the end of the novel it had changed from those seven to a single one: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

This transformation from dictatorship to ‘Animalism’ was then a full circle transformation back to a dictatorship, but with a different leading party. Orwell even chose the pigs to play the leaders in his satire, because they represented the piggish characteristics shown by the leaders of the Russian Revolution: Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin. Pigs, being omnivores eat anything and everything that is thrown to them, even their young if it gets in the way. As did Napoleon anyone or anything that got in his way, he destroyed or killed or banned from society. Most of these things just happened to be Snowball or closely associated with him.
This is shown very mightily, when they slaughtered perfectly innocent animals just because they were rumored to fraternize with the enemy. The leader, Napoleon, came out of the old farm house only very special occasions like mass slaughters or his birthday. The only things that are of even the slightest importance to him.

Absolute power made the pigs’ desire multiply and feed on itself until they can do nothing except feed it. They are tempted by alcohol and drink it exuberantly. They are tempted by clothes left by the farmer and need to try them. They are tempted by walking on two feet and again must try it. The only way to avoid these situations is to never let anybody have absolute power.
Having absolute power will corrupt even the strongest and most courageous people. Temptation will get to their conscience, and will begin with them thinking, ‘If I do this there won’t be consequences. No one will even notice.’ Then they do something a bit more dramatic, thinking, ‘If I got away with that this will be a breeze.’ Until everything and anything is hoarded except for the bare minimum, and even sometimes that is taken from us.

Human Reliance On Technology

A Response to I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

This symbol, based on the Chinese Yin and Yang symbol shows that opposing forces rely on one another in turn giving way to each other, for they cannot exist without the other. As is in I, Robot, Isaac Asimov wrote of a completely robot controlled existence, but without the supporting humans they would do nothing, for they have lack of 'street smarts' and only have 'book smarts'.
In this case it is shown representing the battle of modernizing our world and the struggles it brings upon us. The red dot is meant to be the eye of a robot while the other circle is meant to be a human eye. The outer part or the circle around the robot eye is meant to be of human characteristics, and the part around the human eye is meant to be of robotic qualities. This is because the book is about integrating robots into the human world but not having them run or take it over.
In the futuristic world that Asimov created, robots have essentially taken over the world as we know it now days. They are double checking the entire world economy, but as the robots take these high up and important position, their inner workings, made to follow the laws of robotics, are making them output data that will further the humans into the abyss that is a robot ruled world.
This symbol, however crude, due to lack of artistic abilities, is about keeping balance. Just a slight shift in this balance could do horrific permanently damaging things to the balance, and functioning robots with thought capacities, as being investigated in Los Alamos, could be that shift. If we integrated robots into our lives they would both be a help and a hindrance. They would help by doing the dangerous tasks such as setting explosives or doing jobs where one slight error could end up a huge problem. They would hinder us by taking some jobs that many humans want for an income of any kind or by having the world’s obesity population increase.
Every thing in life has a balance that must be upset to get any where but if favored too heavily in one favor could mean destruction. Even something as simple as an argument between parent and child. One ‘force’ so to speak must gain an edge on the other.

Secrets

an essay in response to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

Last week your co-worker told you their deepest secret about their childhood. Ironically it involves your spouse, but they made you swear on your life not to tell anybody. Every day you go to bed and wake up with it burning a hole in your conscience. Every time that you are about to tell the secret to your spouse you are unable to because your co-worker’s face pops into your mind. Tom has his fair share of secrets and realizes their consequense in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Everybody has at least their fair share of secrets in their life, both that they have told and those that have been told to them, but it is their responsibility to do with the secret whatever they wish.

Having a secret isn’t always as it was in elementary school. Two young boys mere ages of around ten, are forced to keep a secret of knowing a murderer was not even a suspect in the case of the murder which he committed. As Tom and Huck are faced with this tugging feeling in their gut, they keep in the secret because of fear. Their fear is driven by the crazy, revenge driven murderer who is on the loose. That man is Injun Joe. When Tom does eventually tell the courtroom that Injun Joe did kill the doctor Joe jumps out of the room, and runs from the police until the search is given up. This symbol blatantly represents as we face our fears they never truly go away, but lurk in the deepest, darkest corners known and unknown to mankind, poised unleash a terrible wrath on the one who banished it to such places.

Keeping secrets can also bring immediate consequences just because you hold the secret. This happens to Tom when he takes the whippings intended for Becky. Tom took the whippings out of love. The book states "'Rebecca Thatcher' [Tom glanced at her face -- it was white with terror] -- 'did you tear -- no, look me in the face' [her hands rose in appeal] -- 'did you tear this book?' A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his feet and shouted -- 'I done it!'" Going into the day Tom knew that Becky had done something wrong and thought he wanted to see her punished but when the matter came down to it he couldn't bear the guilt that would have come with it.

The deep hardship that is holding onto secrets is endured by every person in their life, but only few can hold onto the secret and use it properly. Tom told his secret at the sole time that it would be important and not immediately life threatening. He used this secret for its full purpose. This is one of the skills that mankind should learn from this romantic and classic novel.

Age

You are young and innocent. You have no idea what’s going on in the world right now getting ready for being older. As you enter your young adult years you think that getting older will greatly diminish your mind, body, and spirit. We try to run from an immanent attack. Age, the thing most people fear, is the best thing that can ever come upon our lowly souls in such an insignificant role in this universe.
Francie realizes that she has no control over her life when Johnny, her father dies. She sees he did nothing wrong nor did she, her brother or her mother. As she is faced with all of these trials and tribulations she sees that God has plans for everybody and no two are the same. As a person seeing many of these tragedies unfold she realizes life is not perfect ever for anyone. Knowing this along with her father’s death shoves her into depression.

Her teacher, Miss Gardner, makes it no better saying that her compositions are “…’little sordid stories.’ Sordid... Sordid: Filthy. Filthy? She thought of her father wearing a fresh dicky and collar every day of his life and shining his worn shoes as often as twice a day. Dirty. Papa had his own mug at the barber shop... Gross. Never! Papa was a dancer. He was slender and quick. His body wasn’t gross. And mean and low. She remembered a hundred and one little tendernesses and acts of thoughtfulness on the part of her father. She remembered how everyone had loved him so..." Francie had written stories about her father’s life so when Miss Gardner called her stories sordid Francie broke under the burden of her father’s death that she had been carrying aging her at such an accelerated rate that she was no longer a child at her mere fourteen years but a woman.
Francie was trying to hold onto what was left of her childhood. One that so many of us would find revolting she thought was absolutely beautiful. Although she found her true place in life, she must remember that she has no control over her life which is so insignificant.

Final Response to Tree Grows in Brooklyn

When you are young you look out onto the vast world wondering what will become of you. As you age this longing dwindles and there is nothing left to wonder. You question your existence everyday. You feel as if you've been everywhere and nowhere. The path from innocence to experience is a twisted and complicated one, but for us to do anything significant, with our seemingly insignificant life, we must embrace it.

When anybody gets the initiative to do something no matter the odds they can accomplish it. Like Francie and Neeley with the huge Christmas tree. Francie decided that she wanted that tree and she would do as much as she could to get even if it meant making sacrifices in the form of Neeley's face. That is just about as deep of a symbol as there is, because the face represents you and your soul, so this scene is actually showing that sometimes to get what we want it may mean damaging our self or others irreparably.

Johnny also damages himself by letting his alcoholism get the better of him and it leads to his premature death. That is a terrible fate, for then you are unable to complete your true duty for your short existence on earth. He was a great person, pulling through in the most difficult times, but barely making it through in the good times is not a way to live. It makes you live on edge for your entire life leaving you no time to relax and sort out your priorities. You just fall into an unbreakable cycle of falling into your parents footsteps, then your child or children will fall into yours until the need for that profession is nonexistent leaving them in the street begging. Even if you just get a little bit better and your kids do the same they will have a prosperous life if the correct choices are made.

Betty Smith had a very interesting spin on this book by letting the characters more real. She made most of them have two or more personalities. Everybody had a pure side and one were they would make the worst life possible for themselves. In most books there is a clear definite line. On one side good the other evil. In this book it seems as if everybody is straddling it.

Even though the path to experience is a long and strenuous one. Through it we shape who we are and what we want to accomplish, for better or for worse, but it is only us who shape it making the choices we make even if they aren't the easy ones. Most people in their old age they look back on their life and see what they did wrong and what they want to fix, but they only see those mistakes now after they have spent their whole life learning.

Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Have you ever dreamed of doing something that people will remember with your life? Have you done it? Have you even tried to accomplish it? If you ever want to accomplish anything in your life you need no skill no luck, you need courage because with the courage you have you will obtain all the skill you could want or need to do anything.
The courage that all of us seek and only the fortunate have is one of Francie’s greatest trait. For example the Christmas tree toss, she stood up for herself to try to catch the tree. It gave her all the confidence in the world, yet hiding in the shadows is an important, simple, symbol so cleverly woven into the complex novel almost to subtlety. As she and Neeley catch the tree Betty Smith says “… Blood was coming from scratches on Neeley’s face. He looked more like a baby than ever with his bewildered blue eyes and the fairness of his skin made more noticeable because of the clear red blood. But they were smiling…” It shows us no matter how much we are hurt or how hard we get knocked down we must get back up and fight. With the face as the symbol of one’s personality and soul it shows even if your ideas change subconsciously you are still yourself.
Life shows gives us many challenges, and no matter how hard we try to avoid them they must all be faced at one point or another. It doesn’t matter what choice we make in those challenges. What does matter is that we have the courage stay true to ourselves and do what we think is right. We must see that if we want to ever make a difference.

"The Circuit"

Think back to when you were in school. How you dreaded its coming every Sunday night, yet, others may have wanted for it to come sooner and last forever. The thing some fear, some dread, others want to just disappear entirely, can be the only outlet, the only freedom, a haven in and of itself, for others.
The only outlet for Roberto in this story is school it is his only hope yet he hides from it. He does not want to go, but the one day he finally does appreciate it want to return his father takes that away from him. That really puts a strong meaning on you don’t know what you have until its gone. Like who here now in modern society really appreciates that they have food on their table and a bed to sleep in every night?
Roberto’s dad is such a seemingly innocent evil dictator. He even has some devilish qualities, like the fact that he hid the children from the bus almost as Satin did in the Garden of Eden. He completely rules the family and does what he thinks is best for him on the spur of the moment. Like at the end of the story when Roberto comes home and thinks all of the excitement is because he was missed but it was all for the new thrilling prospect of the unknown.
Isn’t that what we all crave? What we don’t know. What we aren’t aware of. Part of what drives the human race is the quest for knowledge, and Roberto is just about to embark on a journey that will change his life for the better in the classroom, but his father just takes it away so casually, almost as if Roberto's life is that of an ant. Even ants need just a bit of freedom, of recognition, of freedom.
We need this freedom, this outlet, any outlet that lets us accomplish what we want to do, what we need to do, to express our true selves. This is so much our most sheltered and carefree life at the same time. We need to realize that and form our life around that not have it form around our lives. This is our Yin and Yang, our balance. That is what truly matters in life, balance.