Why Does Memory Sometimes Fail

In both "Maus" by Art Spiegelman and "Postmodernism for Beginners" by Jim Powell, the horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust and Auschwitz are discussed.  Powell states that "to reduce the degradation, death and stench to a concept-drowns out the screams."  Powell says this to show that no matter how hard we try to use memory to remember the events of the Holocaust, the magnitude of this tragedy can never be truly comprehended by those who have not experienced it firsthand.  This is mainly because it is nearly impossible to imagine the level of trauma that each of your senses would have to be put through when subjected to that horror.  The indescribable stench of death, the sounds of your fellow people being subjected to torture and death, the feel of the punishment from the Nazi soldiers, the taste of blood and dirt in your mouth as you are worked to death, and the sight of the high fences and the guards that signal to you that you will probably never be able to escape this hell.  Just saying these words may already sound bad, but it pales in comparison to the actual event.  This is where "Maus" comes in.  "Maus" being a graphic novel helps to slightly bridge the gap left by only memory and imagination.  The graphics shown help by adding the sense of sight into your imagination.  The novel shows you the events of the characters leading up to their sentence in Auschwitz and even tries to show you just how bad it really was there.  These images depicted by Spiegelman are used to evoke some of the emotion lost by traditional, only text storytelling.  The graphic novel still can't fully show you the horrific events of Auschwitz, but that may be a good things because if they could, you may start to suffer from PTSD after reading Spiegelman's work.

Why Does Perspective Matter

After reading "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace I was intrigued.  This passage was my favorite out of all the other passages we have read so far in 11 AP English.  I think one of the main reasons for this is because the passage was very straightforward and easy to read while also leaving for a lot to still be analyzed by the reader. Wallace also introduced an interesting topic.  There is a generally accepted saying that everybody is unique and this saying, in most cases, applies heavily to the human mind and consciousness.  Wallace goes in the other direction, saying that no matter what, humans are naturally self centered and mainly only keep themselves in mind when making decisions.  He also goes on to state that this selfishness is "hard-wired into our boards at birth" meaning that we are this way from the very start of our lives.  His reasoning for this claim makes sense though.  Seeing as we as individuals have only seen our world from the perspective of our own body, it makes sense that our decisions would be based solely off of what we know without a doubt to be true and beneficial to us.  Most people will not openly admit that they are self centered because there is a societal stigma based around being self centered, but according to Wallace, the only way to not be in this mindset is to first acknowledge it, and then change how you think about the events you experience.  In the passage Wallace talks about how someone with the self centered perspective might only be able to see their own problems and because of this they have a horrible day and get frustrated.  On the other hand, the consciously shifted perspective acknowledges that the other people that have frustrated him could also be having a just as bad or even worse day, and in doing this the author shows how one could have a happier life overall.  Though one thing that slightly goes against his claim is that a few years after Wallace created this speech, he commit suicide.  In the passage he specifically states that someone of the self centered mindset could be prone to suicide, but if Wallace, who I would assume is going off of his own principles of not being self centered, commit suicide, then how effective is the method that he described in his speech?

Why Is Lying Seen As Bad

After reading Billy Collins's poem, "The History Teacher," some conflicting thoughts come up in my mind.  There is a major debate about the ethics of lying.  About whether some lying is OK if it is meant to protect someone, and at what degree of lying does it become unethical.  In the poem, the history teacher is "Trying to protect his students' innocence" by lying to them.  He does this by taking all of the cruelties out of major historical events, but in doing so, he was not teaching his students accurate information.  The teacher may have good intentions, but does his lying do more harm than good.  In this poem the grade of these students is never mentioned and I feel that their grade could be one of the determining factors in whether the history teacher.  The reason I believe this is because if the children are of a low age and grade, like kindergarten or first grade, the teachings don't matter as much as they can be taught the correct history as a later age.  This way innocence of the children can be preserved while later being taught the correct information when it actually matters to them.  If this were the case then what the history teacher did doesn't seem so bad.  On the other hand, if these students were of a higher grade level, where every bit of information that one learns is vital, the misinformation provided by the history teacher seems much worse.  There is also the thought that there is no point in lying to these kids as they seem to already have the cruelty preprogrammed into them.  This is shown when Collins says, "The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak."  There is no point in trying to protect someone when they have the problem within them.

Why Do We Even Celebrate Independence Day

After reading Frederick Douglass's speech in "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," my perspective on Independence Day as a whole has changed.  Aptly stated in the name of the holiday, Independence Day celebrates the independence of the people of America, and this is a widely known fact.  However not all people of this nation were allowed their independence.  For example, the slaves living in the United States would not gain any benefits at all from this newfound American independence.  In his speech, Douglass states, "The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common."  While the white population was celebrating its freedom, the slaves were still being made to work and could not experience that freedom.  A few years after Frederick Douglass's speech, the events of the Civil War occurred and the slaves were freed, finally gaining their independence. 

In today's society, Independence Day has not changed too much. It is still celebrated on the Fourth of July and friends and family get together to have fun and light off fireworks.  However, something still seems wrong with this beloved holiday.  Most people just see it as a day to have fun and have work off.  They don't recognize the significance of this important holiday.  We are meant to celebrate what many of our ancestors worked so hard and died for: the freedom of this great nation from all others.  A war was fought over the topic and America's side won out, but in the end many people still don't remember the sacrifice that is celebrated on that specific day.