Aphorism- connection to Joseph Campbell's

The aphorism that I chose is "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade". This saying to me represents that life gives you different opportunities, and you choose what to make of them. This relates to Joseph Campbell's story because he took an opportunity in life, and decided to backpack across america. He had a great life, great education, and very good friends, but when he got fired from his job life presented him with a chance to travel. He was presented this opportunity also known as the "lemons", and he decided to travel and get to discover himself more deeply "the lemonade". If Joseph hadn't traveled the United States he probably would have stayed at home unemployed dealing with a depression which is not lemonade. A lemonade is made with effort, lemons and sugar which can represent your attitude, so if it is negative then your lemonade is going to be bitter. 

I believe that in life you choose your future, not that everything happens for a reason. You are presented with choices, and those choices can open many doors and close others. Those doors represent different opportunities, so your decisions and your actions make who you become. A personal example which I believe is a good example of how this works is my fathers decisions in life, and how I have also been affected by them. When my father accepted a job with HSBC he was presented with a decision to make, weather he wanted to be promoted therefore being transferred to Asia or remain in his current position. He chose Asia. In Asia he was given the choice to stay there or move again, so we moved again. He was also faced with other decisions, for example which school we should be placed in, or our house. The point is that decisions have made me what I am today, some where made by me and some by others. They have all affected me as a person, and I am thankfull for who and where i am today.

section #4 Siddhartha

This section deals with many things , like Siddhartha noticing he has fallen into the materialistic world , and discovering he has a son. He also accomplishes what he has been searching for during all his life, which is enlightenment. After being a wealthy merchant for many years he realises that this is not the way he wants to live his life, and he had escaped the jaws of materialism once and he had now fallen back in. This reminds me of a character in a movie named LOL. The character is a boy who has a band and loves to play the guitar, but his father doesn't allow him to play and tells him that he has to study, and basically has his entire life planned out for him. One day this character gets tired of obeying his father, and decides to leave to the concert, because he realises that he has been living a life he doesn't want.

later on Siddhartha reaches a river that turns on his switch of enlightenment, the river speaks ohm to him and he decides to live there with a ferryman. He is now enlightened and feels at peace with the river, until kamala and his son appear back in his life. Kamala then dies and Siddhartha must take care of his son. He claims to love his son , yet he had never loved anyone before. So when Siddharthas son said he wanted to leave it was very sad news for him so de did not let him, but later on he escapes. This also reminds me to another fragment of the movie LOL. The main character , Lola , is a teen ager that is very similar to her mom but neither she or her mother know that. One day lola goes to paris and has many adventures there and she writes about them in her diary, so when her mother reads it by accident she is very surprised. Lola's mother than prohibits many of her activities and keeps her on a tight leash, but later on she sees that Lola is exactly like her. So this relates to Siddhartha in a sense that Lola is Siddharthas son and her mother is Siddhartha, because Siddhartha wants to hide his son from all the dangers , just like his dad did with him. So you can see that history seems to repeat itself and you can see how you change your points of view as a character.

Section #3 Siddhartha

In the third section you can see that Kamala and Siddhartha have established a type of relationship but Siddhartha is forced to become a business man, this goes against his beliefs. Siddhartha analyses his relationship with kamala and concludes that they don't love each other , but for him it is a new opening to the world, and for her it is a chance to profit. I can relate this idea (of two people being with each other because they both benefit) to many different things , first of all to the movie the princess and the frog. In this movie the frog claims to be a prince, and charms one of the princess servants into kissing him, supposedly to make him prince. Here the servant profits because the prince had promised her a bakery, and the frog profits because he gets to become human. In the end the movie ends up making the servant a frog , along with the prince. In the book Siddhartha, Kamala benefits because her work consists of sex and Siddhartha is one of her regular clients and she gains from that. Siddhartha gains a new way to see love , to see the world, and Kamala teaches him to love even though they don't love each other. This allows Siddhartha to get closer to enlightenment.

This section also reminds me of a scientific term called mutualism. Mutualism is when two organisms establish a relationship in which each one benefits. In nature this is a very important part , for example a sloth allows algae to grow on his fur. The sloth benefits because the algae provides camouflage , allowing him to hide from his predators, and the algae gets closer to sunlight which allows it to go through the process of photosynthesis. So the message we get is that many times people use each other to benefit. Just like Siddhartha uses Kamala to get closer to enlightenment.

section #2 Siddhartha

In the second section it speaks mostly of enlightenment and how to find it. In this part Siddhartha leaves behind Govinda who has become one of the Buddha's disciples. As i was reading i was able to find certain segments that have a lot of meaning.

"you are clever , O samana," said the illustrious one, "you know how to speak cleverly , my friend. Be on your guard against too much cleverness." - page 26. Here you can see a conversation between siddhatha and buddha. The message the buddha wants to transfer is that you can be clever , but sometimes too much cleverness is bad. had always been clever , superior to everyone else in a way and he was so used to it that he thought he was even smarter than the buddha, but then buddha outsmarted him and bought him the lesson that he deserved.

"He realized that he was no longer a youth, he was now a man. He realized that something had left him, like the old skin that a snake sheds. something was no longer in him, something that had accompanied him right through his youth and was part of him: this was the desire to have teachers and to listen to their teachings. " - page 30. After having a talk with buddha he realizes that he doesn't want to be lectured but to experience the lectures for himself, to explore the world how ever he wants to do so.

"when anyone reads anything which he wished to study, he does not despise the letters and punctuation marks, and call them illusion, chance and worthless shells, but he reads them, he studies and loves them, letter by letter. But I who wished to read the book of the world and the book of my own nature, did presume to despise the letters and signs. I called the world of appearances , illusion. I called my eyes and tongue, chance. Now it is over ; I have awakened. "- page 32. Siddhartha notices that he has been living life in a very different perspective , he was so concentrated on reading the entire book that he skipped some words along the way , to put it in context with the story. I can connect this paragraph to my life because sometimes you have a task to complete and you focus on the big things on the main ideas and not on the small details that are equally as important.

section #1 siddhartha

connections:

• In the text it mentions that Siddhartha´s parents had very high hopes of him , they where very proud of him and I can relate that to now a days when people have very high expectations for their children and are always very proud , many times you can see a type of competition between parents to prove whoose child was the best. 
• Sometimes when people expect a lot from you you try so hard to make them happy so you forget about your own happiness which is the most important.  
• Sometimes when you feel something is missing you start thinking about many things , about your future , about your surroundings, etc. Well at least it happens to me , that I get elevated thinking about my life and end up finding more problems than I thought I actually had.
• when Siddhartha asks his father for permission to become a samana and his father denies it , Siddhartha proves himself by standing all through the night completely still. sometimes when they don't give me permission I try to prove my point in different subtle ways.

paradox and oxymoron

This image represents a paradox. Paradox is an argument that produces an inconsistency typically within logic or common sense. If you look at this image without really focussing you see the structure of a cube, but if you look at it with detail you notice that the structure is not logical. one of the columns passes behind a wooden bar and proves that this is illogic and cannot be done. In many other paintings you can see that illusions are made with stairs and many use black and white so that it looks more realistic.

These are other examples of paradox, as you can see many times the idea is to make you see it in different dimensions , depending on which part you focus on the most. Many companies like to use paradox constructions in their logo because it adds a bit of interest to the company. many times the shadows also have a big effect because they can cause an optical illusion because the viewer bases their perspective on the shadow. If you look at the first image that is made of lines you see that some parts look deeper than others, that is what tricks people.

This is an example of an oxymoron, an oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms. Here you see that one sign tells you to stop but another one located in the same plays tells you to keep moving so they are total opposites. one of the things I analyzed in class with my group was that to know one you have to know the other , for example you can't know light without dark , or you can't know sweet without sour so things are interdependent.

analects

I chose the analect 4.4 of Confucius because I believe that even though it is simple it has a lot of meaning. The analect said "merely set your heart sincerely upon goodness and you will be free of bad intentions." I can infer that from this analect , the master is trying to tell us that even if you do a little bit of good , you will get good in return. But he also specifies with the word sincerely that we must do it with good intentions and with pleasure , and not just so that you can get good intentions in return.

you can see examples of goodness in those who do charity work specially because they volunteer their time to help those in need, they do it only because they are glad to do so and not because they are expecting something in return , like a prize or a cash reward. But sometimes students do the charity work only because they need the hours to graduate high school, and that is what Confucius does not want.

SPELLBOUND

Should we still have spelling bees? Why? Why not?

When it comes to spelling bees my position is neutral. I believe that participating and preparing in a spelling bee has positive and negative effects. When you inscribe in a spelling bee you are submitting yourself into a long process that has various rounds of competition. If you want to get far in the competition you have to study a humungous quantity of words, now this will take up a big amount of your time. Having little time left makes it very hard to have a social life , and even if you had time many societies specially the one in the United States doesn't include "nerds" much, well at least that is what many people consider the participants of spelling bees. But on another side the positive outcomes of participating are that you don't get involved in things like drugs , gangs , alcohol and other unhealthy things. You also develop more academically and expand your knowledge. When you go to the contests you can become friend of other participants that are just like you and that will give you a social life that is more suitable for you.

Allowing spelling bees to continue have good opportunities just as I had mentioned before, but also has its down side. The state gives children a chance to participate but it is their choice if they give up their social life and possibly stress from the pressure that is placed on them. But it also gives them a chance to participate in a group of few people who share the same interests.

Choose one subject (person). Describe how winning the spelling bee is important to that subject.

Neil , a indian child from Sanclemente, California was probably the one with most pressure to win the competition. He studied 8,000 words daily and had various tutors for the different languages. His parents where very demanding on this subject and pressured him a lot to do his best. His grandfather hired various people to pray for him and offers to feed a few thousand people in india if he won the spelling bee, so he had the pressure from his family. It was important to him so that he didn't disappoint his familly.

ETHOS, PATHOS , LOGOS

This advertisement is ethos because it is promoting a brand (Nike) by using a characters credibility (Serena williams).

This advertisement is pathos because it appeals to our feelings in order to help a cause (help Haiti).

This advertisement is logos because it uses facts and reasons for people to do what the add indicates ( stop smoking).

Malala Yousafzai

As I read this article I was shocked that there was still a country that was in the midst of a religious and ethical war. I thought that as technology advanced people would begin to become more modern and more tolerant to different religious and ethical beliefs. But this girl opened my eyes to a whole new idea of Pakistan, a country that is in one of its worst moments and that is reflected on society. Malala shows us the reality of being a teenager in pakistan and is not afraid to do so. She wrote under an anonymous name but that still didn't keep her safe and now she is in the hospital in recovery , but the consequences could have been much worse.

In the article they show a passage from her diary  On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace... to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone." This shows us that she didn't get very alarmed but she did take precaution and walked faster. This demonstrates to us that to threaten someone with killing them is very common , and i can relate that this to the years 2000 in colombia when drug lords would have people kidnapped, killed , etc.

I want to thank Malala for risking her life to show the world what is happening in her country and I believe that she has a great future.

The Passport

Even though the book says that this was a while ago many countries still close their borders during wars nowadays. And many times civil wars start since people want to leave the countries for safety reasons or other personal reasons , sometimes they even have to escape.

When they mention that the little girls uncle dies because of a grenade I start to think that maybe he was so shocked and stressed that any little thing would make him have a heart attack and that was why the grenade killed him even if it didn't explode. they also state that his son was take to be a soldier at a very young age. You can see this in colombia and many other countries with terrorists groups like the guerrilla who take children with little resources and convert them into guerrilleros.

The Sheep

I can relate to this personally since I feel that when the little girl tries to participate in a adult conversation they make what she says useless. To be more specific she told the adults what she had heard on television , and her father reacted in a way that disapproved her comment since it stated something that he didn't agree with. Sometimes when I talk with my parents I feel that way because I don't know much about the topic, but when i try to participate with a comment that i believe is use full it is just ignore by them.

Persepolis

I once read in a book about the holocaust that during the wars they would take away the man of the family. This reminds me to the part in this chapter where many children's fathers are taken away for prisoners. In the book it mentions that the mother or woman is forced to make uniforms for the nazis.

Another thing I can relate this chapter to is a movie I watched that talks about a man who goes out hunting and leaves his daughter at home, but he never comes back because he was kidnaped. So that could have been a possible outcome from the situation that the main character faces when her father does not come back.

The Veil

Capitalism : an economic system that is based on private ownership, and the creations of goods and services for profit.

Decadence : it is used to describe decline because of a moral or ethical tradition.

Veil : a piece of clothing that is used to cover the face, mostly used by women.

Prophet : a man that has been chosen by God to be his messenger.

Demonstration : a political protest.


Questions :
Why does the main character skip 2500 years and is still alive ?
What are her parents protesting against ?

XI

During Gilgamesh's journey he starts to wonder how a man can become immortal and tries to find out a way to do so , on the way he met Upnapishtim who is the god of floods, he starts to tell Gilgamesh the story about how there is a flood and he has to build an arc and put two of each animal in it. and how after the flood he finds land. Gilgamesh then asks how he can become immortal and he sends him on some quests , one is not to sleep for a week but when he is about to begin he falls into a deep sleep, Upnapishtim tells his wife to bake bread every day until Gilgamesh wakes up so that there is proof that he was asleep since he would deny it, Gilgamesh woke up on the seventh day. This story is like the story of Noah's arc because he builds a boat (arc) to ave all the animal species from a flood, he is then honored for saving the animals and human kind.

VIII - X

This section in Gilgamesh I understood a lot that since Enkidu was dead he had a lot of questions and wanted answers even if it was a very dangerous or long journey to find those answers. He starts to think about how a human can be immortal or be a god , on his journey he meets a lot of people that try to help him find answers. A movie similar to this is Hercules he is a god but doesn't know. Once he finds out he initiates a journey to find out where he belongs and what his purpose in life is. So for being the first text ever written (Gilgamesh) they have the same theme or morale as some moved from now a days.

I believe that when we die we go to heaven, that is only if we have been good. Heaven to me is a place where the soul goes after death, there we meet with other people and loved ones who have passed away and we join them there. I think these pictures represent heaven in different ways. The first shows how we reunite people in heaven, the second one shows that it is a superior place that there is a light at the end of the tunnel(the tunnel being death) and the third shows that it is beautiful even though no one knows how it truly is.

VI- VII

I can relate to this section because I think that the bull that was sent by the goddess is a problem, so if you treat it in a good way with respect and wisdom nothing bad will happen, but if you treat it in a negative, disrespectfully or you harm it you will have karma. So when Gilgamesh killed the bull that the goddess sent out of revenge, he got more karma which later on ended up affecting two people, Gilgamesh himself and Enkidu, Because the goddess got mad and killed Enkidu because Gilgamesh was gifted. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh feels a terrible greif and pain which leads to a time of sorrow. So I believe that if you get karma you can also affect someone close to you in a way.

IV- V

What do the dreams that Gilgamesh has represent in the story ?
How does Enkidu know what they mean ?
How could the smell of the demon be death but the forest be so pretty and alive ?
Why did both Gilgamesh and Enkidu hide but one first and then the other ?
Why does the demon surrender at the end of the battle ?

I- III

At the begining the story reminds me of two movies, the beauty and the beast and the little mermaid because in the movie the beauty and the beast the beast is tamed by bella a woman who by kissing him turns him into a prince. And then the little mermaid gives up her tail to get legs and become human so that she can marry the prince. So that relates to the palace prostitute taming the man of the wild.

There is another movie that I saw and relates to another event, the movie is called "Big Mike".  It is a movie about a homeless kid who is adopted into a wealthy family and protects the children from danger, I think that this is exactly what happens in Gilgamesh. Because Gilgamesh's mother adopts Enkidu so that he can battle the dangers until it is time to fight the demon.