Book Bannings

I have been looking at all the reasons for why books are banned and all I have to say is that people have issues with everything. It seems that no matter what someone has an issue with almost every book, and while yes I can agree with some books that are banned, I think that others are just rediculous. Books being banned because of use of "bad language", how many people don't go through a day without hearing someone use this "bad language" the author is just trying to make the characters in the book seem more realistic to the reader. I feel that no matter how some may feel about a book whether they like it or not, there is always going to be someone against them.

Fahrenheit 451 continued

As I continue to read this book I keep coming up with more and more questions that makes me want to continue reading to find the answers. I have finished the 2nd part of the book now and it's right at the point where the Firemen pull up infront of Montags house. As soon as I got to this part I was wondering who turned Montag in. We discussed this question in our group discussion and all of us pretty much believe that Mildred was the one who set the alarm. But what I also was wondering was did Beatty know all along that Montag had those books? I got the feeling that he did know because of the way he was asking questions to Montag that seemed to hint that he was on to Montag.

Fahrenheit 451

I find it rather interesting that Clarisse has been able to make Montag almost fully second guess what he is doing with his life. Clarisse is a girl who has done something that most people in the society have seem to have forgotten, she has taken time to notice the world around her. Clarisse and her family are very different than the other families in this society. Montag knows what happens if someone is found to have books, which are banned. His whole profession is to set fires, he's a fireman. The thought of a fireman being someone who set fires kinda caught me off guard because I'm so used to hearing that word and thinking of the heroes who put the fires out. Yet even though Montag knows that if he is caught with what he has hidden in the vent of his house he will be punished he still keeps them. One of the people in my group related the firemen to the KGB and now that I look more at it I can see it. The firemen burn down buildings in a form of book burnings and the KGB preformed book burnings.

1984

1984 was a very interesting book, but at first rather hard to get into. I found it rather scarry with the way that Big Brother was fully able to control people and cause them to fear revealing their own thoughts. I was able to relate one of the value statements very easily. "For an idea to exist, we must have words to express." I feel that this relates to 1984 well because in the book all the people fear expressing their thoughts, which in the book is illegal unless they are the thoughts of big brother. People need to be able to express their thoughts and ideas inorder for the world to advance. When we fear expressing our own thoughts and ideas well become less of a person because we no longer express ourselves but now rely on others for what we should do and how we now have to act.

Down with big brother

When Winston realized what he had written he was worried that the Thought Police would come for him. He had committed a thoughtcrime, which in the book is one of the worst things anyone can do. I want to know why it is so horrible for people to have their own opinons on their lives? I guess living in a modern society like we do today where we are able to express our own thoughts without fear of being arrested I don't see the problem in telling our thoughts. Why is Big Brother such a big aspect of the peoples lives that cause them to live life in fear of their own thoughts?

Thoreau

On Tuesday we read about Henry David Thoreau and how he went to live in the woods to escape from society. I feel that Thoreau went to very great extremes to so escape his society. He said "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life..." Thoreau was trying live life simply without the uses of modern technology from his time. He wanted to live in the moment without having anything control his life. I can relate to that completely. It seems that today technology is controling our lives. I mean look at us right now we are on our computers and using our cell phones constently. They seem to be controling us. I feel that we need to as Thoreau said "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid..." which basically means that we need to learn how to live life again without technology and reopen our lives back to socialization.

Who should take the blame?

On Tuesday we watched the video lecture or Mark Bauerlein and how he felt that our generation is the "dumbest generation". I feel that he shouldn't just come out and blame our generation because the fault isn't all our generations fault. Our generation today has grown up around advancing technology and the media. The fault should not be placed soley on us tho. The blame also needs to be given to our parents. In the past generations parents were more involved with their childs life. But now with our generation parents seem to be to busy to spend time with their child so children now use media and technology as their parental control.
Because our generation has grown up basically under the supervision of the media and technology we have become almost incapable of functioning with it. We have become so adapted to technology that if it was taken away from us we wouldn't be able to properly function.
If our parents had payed more attention to us and tried to teach us more ways to communication we may not be lacking as much of the social skills that other generations feel we need.

How the advertisement industry uses sex to sell their product

Throughout the past week we have been looking at ads and how they sell a type of merchandise. After spending some time looking at these ads I have come to realize that in all ads there is some form of sexual references to sell their product. In almost all ads that are seen today there is something refering to sex, whether it is showing the act itself, the wording that is used, or just a women that is considered a sex object. Why has our culture gotten so caught up in the fact that sex is the only way to sell a product? Not only is it not giving enough reference to the product, but it also discriminates against women.
The reason I feel that it is discriminating toward women is because the women that are seen in the ads are usually these beautiful, skinny, big breasted women that are thought to be the "ideal" woman. The issue with these kind of women being in the ads is the way it effects the way young girls think about themselves. Teenage girls seem to be most effected, they see these ads with the "ideal" woman and they think that that is how they are suppose to look. The self-esteem of a teenage girl is very fragile and just the tiniest thing can make them feel like they aren't good enough. When a teenage girl sees these ads and see how most of those women in ads look they begin to think that if they don't look like those women then they are not good enough.
The advertisement industry needs to stop using sex to sell there products. I mean it isn't sex that they are really trying to sell is it? Or has the ad industry totally forgotten about the products they are trying to sell?

How has the media affected our life today?

It seems to me that in today's society we rely to much on the media. We want all the new gadgets that we see on TV, we believe almost everything that we see and hear through the media, and basically we want to be like those people we see on TV and in movies. We have basically become robots no longer able to hold onto our individuality. We need to find a way out of this hole that we have dug for ourselves or else we will be lost in the confusion of the media.

A quote that i found very interesting in the reading was found on page 7, "Once you start asking questions like this, you are, of course, in real trouble. The moment you fail to understand why the natural world might have any relevance in the day-to-day lives of human beings, you become, to quote my old physics teacher, "a lost ball in the high weeds." Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are."

This quote fits perfectly with how our world seems to be today. We have become so lost in the idea of needing more and more that we have begun to lose or sense of self. We need to figure out how to get out of this mess we have put ourselves into before we totally lose ourselves. The question is how. How do we get out of this situation before we lose our own identity?

January 26,2010

Hey everyone Christine here. I'm from PA and am going to college for psychology. I love hanging out with my friends and having a good time. My family and friends mean everything to me :) I would do anything for them