What Does Being Human Mean?

What does it mean to be a human? Is it that we have thumbs? Well if so, then some of our primates are humans too. I feel that we as humans have the mind that we can love, think, and understand other things that animals and other beings can't. Humans have an edge over everything; because we can think and comprehend what others say and do. Of course other animals can too, but we can feel what others do and sense what others are going to do. There is nothing that can explain in full what being a human means, but to me it means that we can love each other with everything we have and be willing to die for the one that we love.

Call of the Wild

John London's book Call of the Wild astounded me with the way he used anthropomorphism.


Jack London believed in Herbert Spencer's theory of "survival of the fittest," which means basically that an organism or group that is better suited to an environment will have a better chance for survival than an animal or group that is less suited. In other words, Spencer suggested that learning did not play a great role in the survival of a species. London shows that he believes in that by having Buck take leadership of the pack by defeating the top dog. Throughout the story the author makes you think that Buck and the other dogs are actually human by giving them such human traits, and making them talk as humans would do. Buck makes you like him a lot and whenever he is mad/sad it makes you feel a different way. Whenever Buck gets kidnapped and taken to the snow, he acts differently and he has to use his instincts and react differently than when he was in his old home.

This is a great book to read if you are trying to find yourself.

Survivor Synthesis: The Holocaust

Six-Word-Slant

• The Holocaust, the Jews worst nightmare.

140-Character-Claim

• Surviving a holocaust requires its victims to go through a lot of pain and suffering because they desire to live and return home.

(129 characters)

The Cost of Life

If you have no responsibility of life, or no zeal to survive, how will you ever live life with fun, or passion. The cost of life is greater than the effects of death. Some people never find the meaning of life. Then again, who knows the meaning of life? If your life was about to end right where you stand, would you feel accomplished in what you have done with your life. Or if you had the chance to save someone else in exchange for your own life, would you do it, or would you try and save yourself instead?

For example on April 15, 1912 the greatest ship ever built, so to speak, sank in one of the coldest oceans in the world. The Titanic was suppose to be "unsinkable". It was said that "God himself couldn't sink the ship". That is why most people believe that the ship hit that extreme iceberg that cold night. The point is, that night people were frantic trying to save themselves. But why save yourself when you have already lived your life. Wouldn't you want to give someone a chance to live their life, and if you didn't wouldn't you feel very morose for killing someone else. If it were a child you were trying to save? Many people died on that ship the night it sank, but they could have saved many more than what they did, but they chose to be selfish and save themselves; because they thought they were more valuable than a child's life.

My point to you is, is the cost of your life more than some one else's? Or is it the same and you should be the person to die because you have already lived your life and you would like to give them a chance to live? Why be the ferine person and want to let someone else die for you?

Give Life, Or Not

If I was given the power to create life such as Frankenstein did I would choose not to! I honestly think that no man, or women should be able to create life.

In my personal opinion, as the primordial, God is the creator of all living and non-living things. To create life such as Frankenstein did is basically against what God has already done. But if I were to create such a thing, I would do it if I were to be so lonely that I couldn't bear the thought of being alone another day. Then yes I would create life. But the heart of that creature would probably be so brumal that it wouldn't be able to live.

There is no reason to create life other than that. You shouldn't use life as an experiment. That's dealing with emotions, and feelings as well as physical health. It would be different if they were to use a rock and try to bring it to life.

Thoughts Before Reading Frankenstein

Frankenstein, every children's nightmare, was wrote by a girl. If you go out and ask people who you think wrote the story you would think it was actually a guy. I personally never knew that the story was written by a girl, let alone at the age of 19. That's only a few years older than me.

Mary Shelley wrote this story in a time period when girls really didn't get to do anything, or weren't expected to do anything. The world was still in the time period where guys did everything. She had to have a lot of courage to stand up and write a story of that magnitude, and not get criticized. To write a novel at that age, she had to of been a very intelligent person.

Can man create life?

I feel like with the write calculations, and the write information, a man could create another life form. But if it had feelings, and emotions would be very hard to create, because everyone is extremely different in a lot of ways, and to create an original person would be very hard to do.

2012 Theme Word

I choose the word surprise, because I'm getting the opportunity of a lifetime this year. When I was little, I always thought that there was no chance for me to start on the varsity team. But this year all of that is going to change.

Hopefully we can surprise everyone again by winning not only back to back conference championships, but three in a row. That has never been done by a high school team in Batesville. So its a surprise to me, and the team that we can actually do something that no one in Batesville high school history has ever accomplished.

I would love to surprise my family by getting good grades this year. I use to always love to make good grades, but then I sort of fell off and now I must find where I left off and start new and make good grades to make my parents proud. But most of all, I need to surprise myself and get a better relationship with God.

My Antonia

Willa Cather in her novel My Antonia offers her view of life during the pioneer time by telling the story of Jim Burton and his experiences with Antonia and his life. If "My Antonia" was told from Antonia's point of view the story would have been very different. Antonia would have told her opinion a lot more and the reader would have been told what all had happened to her a lot faster than the way it is already written from Jim's point of view. When I read  the book "My Antonia" there are some parts in the novel that I can tell that Cather was using a little more women style of thinking. Jim was a little bit more emotional than what a regular man would be back in the time depicted. I think the reason why Jim made the name of the book My Antonia and not just Antonia is because of the fact that he was so close to Antonia that he wanted to make it known to the reader before they even opened the book. These are some of my ideas that I wanted to share with you about the book, My Antonia.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.


Chunk #1: Comment the effect of the setting on the characters within the novel.

The setting has an amazing effect on the characters. Antonia is impacted because of the events happening to her. When she is faced with challenges she has to work hard to overcome them. She has to prove to herself that she is capable of doing anything.



Chunk #2: discuss the effect a setting on you, including imagery (lots of adjectives) and a simile or a metaphor as you describe the land.
My front yard symbolizes my sanctuary, calling to me, pulling me in, saying, "come on home." There is no other place like home. When you have had a long day, you just come home and its like a sign of relief. Seeing the leaves on the ground, like ripples on top of the water. Its almost like never ending happiness.

Argument- The Death Penalty Should Not be an Option.

Assertion or Claim

• We shouldn't be able to decide if someone dies or lives, thats God's decision.

Commentary 1

•  It would be better for someone to stay alive and live with what they have done.

Commentary 2

• Instead of being put to death, live with what you have done, and in the end let God decide what happens to you.

Assertion or Claim

• When an execution is publicized, more murders occur in the day and weeks that follow that execution.

Commentary 1

• "The Linberg kidnapping was a good example," after that death penalty more kidnappings occured in the following two weeks.

Commentary 2

• Publicity of the execution, will most likely encourage crime instead of prevent it.

Opposing Claims/ They Say

• One would think, that murder is bad, but they still do it. Therefore they should be put to death.
• Taking someone's life is bad. Everyone should know that and face the consequences.

My Rebuttal/ I Say

• Although i grant that one should know murder is bad, but I still maintain that they should have to live with the decisions they have made.
• It will hurt them more to sit in jail and think about what they did that day/night when they commited murder, or rape.

My Paragraph

We shouldn't be able to decide if someone dies or lives, thats God's decision. It would be better for someone to stay alive and live with what they have done. Instead of being put to death, live with what you have done, and in the end let God decide what happens to you.When an execution is publicized, more murders occur in the day and weeks that follow that execution."The Linberg kidnapping was a good example," after that death penalty more kidnappings occured in the following two weeks.Publicity of the execution, will most likely encourage crime instead of prevent it.

One would think, that murder is bad, but they still do it. Therefore they should be put to death.

Taking someone's life is bad. Everyone should know that and face the consequences.

Although i grant that one should know murder is bad, but I still maintain that they should have to live with the decisions they have made.

It will hurt them more to sit in jail and think about what they did that day/night when they commited murder, or rape. So as you can see, the death penalty should not be enforced for the simple fact that we as humans, do not have the decision to end one's life.

My Thinking

I am an Inductive thinker, because i saw that the death penalty was being inforced and i created a hypothesis based on it.

Source:

• Death Penalty Arguments

The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is an amazingly good read. 
In the book, the author refers to Henry as the youth. And the theme of the book, is to don't worry about what others think of you. Because in the book he lies about getting shot because he doesn't want to be seen as someone who didn't do anything. So he has to use celerity to get away from the war.The authors voice is unique, it gives you a since of war in a way. It is very serious. But in the end, Henry grows up and faces his fears, because in the end he realizes he is still going to be scared he just has to face it. I would recommend this book to people who are trying to find themselves.

WAR IS.......

War is needed, protecting our rights.
War is horrible, killing everyone in sight. 
War is despicable, fighting every last day.
War is unbearable, killing every person in the way.
War is important, protecting our freedom.
War is dreadful, shedding tears every day.
War is life, mourning for the lost.
War is long, planning for a change.
War is rediculous, expanding as we speak.
War is endless, lasting long, and traveling far.

9-11

    9-11, was a horrible moment in my life, and as in many peoples lives. Even though I was a little kid at the time. I still knew most of what was going on. My teacher got a call, and then she almost started crying. Everyone in the class was shocked, and didn't know what to do. She didn't say anything she just turned on the tv and everyone was silent as we watched the horrible sight. I will never forget how quiet it was in that room that day.
     For a long time after that day I never knew why the terrorists did that to us, and I thought what if that happened to our school, or our houses. My mom would talk about it over the phone to all of her friends, and that just made me think about it even more. My dad just acted like he didn't care, so i tried to but it was still in the back of my mind.
    My mom just told me that God will forgive those who did that to us, because they didn't know they were doing wrong. She said the only reason they did that was they had a different belief. She told me that we will always be safe, but we have to believe that God will protect us. I feel like those who did that, needed to be brought up in a different way, and in a different country. The only reason they did what they did was because they didn't know what they were doing. They got brought up the wrong way.