Sunday, May 8, 2016

Reflection to English 102

Of all the classes I have taken over my academic career, I can say that Professor Brady is one of my favorite teachers. She is kind, caring, will always help a student in need, and will not take any form of excuse. She may be rough, but that roughness is what forces her students to hone their skills, utilizing more of their outside knowledge in order to pass her class. She uses her own analytical mind to get the minds of her students working, the gears turning as she fills our heads with her own thoughts and opinions about stories and poems.
While I am more a fan of science fiction, fantasy, and otherwise out-of-this-world literature, I came to love the genres of books we spoke about. Unlike in my own previous years of education, which had us read a work of literature and summarize it, Brady had us use outside sources, viewing the world in different perspectives than when we began the class. I came to like the stories we read, such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Birthmark.”
In general, while I cannot speak for the majority of the class, I believe a full class year of Professor Brady’s eccentric personality and hands-on approach to educating her students benefited me in more than just an academic standpoint. It gave me goals to set; a goal to perfect my writing, and a goal to become teacher just like her.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Response to the Lecture on Self Delusion

          Delusion has many, if not infinite, sub-genres. Self delusion happens to be the topic of another influential lecture, in my eyes. Regarding the incident that happened to Blanche in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche is in a deluded state that she isn't poor, and that she is wanted by men, and that she has a line going down the block of men that want a chance to date her. 
          While Blanche is depicted as attractive, she is aging, and out of her prime, and hardly has any man going after her. However, in an attempt to make herself happy, she makes up the story that she is wanted and loved by all men, until Stanley comes and ruins that image she has of herself because he, himself, is insecure of his failing marriage and severe anger issues. Is self delusion necessary in order to keep some sanity? Is it needed for happiness?

Response to the Lecture on Egalitarianism

          Egalitarianism. The philosophical belief that, no matter what your origins depict, we are all equal in the eyes of nature. We all have a birth, and we all, inevitably, die. There is no controlling the elements, not controlling nature, and, hence, we are all equal. This lecture was another that stuck out, mainly due to how I view the current structure of society as being horridly shaped in the form of a materialistic hierarchy. In my own personal opinion, we are all equal, referring to how we all end up recycled into the Earth. There is no escaping the fate of being one with the Earth once more.

Response to the Lecture on Existentialism

          In February, we discussed Existentialism as it related to Antigone, a story about a woman who fights the law itself to show the respect she felt her brother deserved. In the lecture, we went in depth about the difference between regional laws and moral laws, and how one's moral standing dictates their views of their regional code of law. Most of the class stated that either their family or friends would come before the law of the land, which shows just how strong the bond of family can be, as we saw with Antigone and her brother, Polyneicies.
          Overall, like most lectures this semester, the one focusing on Existentialism, the knowledge of freewill, stuck out more so due to how it was structured, with many points being drawn to the work we were focusing on as well as in history and modern society.