Udantha Panditha 4/27/19
Blog #1 Period 7
AF Chapter 8 and 9
Sophomore 2020
Working from home has its upsides and its downsides. On the upside, there is more free time and it is much easier to relax after schoolwork. On the downside, it is a bit tedious as I cannot go outside as staying at home can be extremely boring. The online classes are alright, but I feel like I have a harder time remembering what classes to join. Classes do not feel as good to me for some reason; I feel as if a personal connection has been lost when working from home. My schedule feels mostly the same, as it was before the epidemic. As the coronavirus rages on, I learn more about how our government deals with major issues. Since the United States is composed of 50 States whose governors have more control over their own state over the president, and since our current president is very controversial, I feared that the response would be delayed, and lo and behold, the response was futile at first. A lot of arguing in the media. The news has not been the same ever since Trump was elected president, and I was only slightly surprised when America had most coronavirus cases reported. I knew that China would downplay their numbers and I was shocked to learn that the WHO and the UN were corrupt, I feel like the UN is the League of Nations 2.0 in that they won’t actually do anything to stop conflict, because some of the biggest humanitarian disasters; i.e North Korea haven’t been effectively solved, neither has China, an authoritarian nation that started the Coronavirus pandemic, puts Uyghurs in death camps, and harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners. My reactions were shocked and angry, but when looking into the final details, this has been a pattern from the UN for several years. Also the protests that are happening right now are insane. The racially motivated death of George Floyd was an injustice and a clear representation of society’s ill racism. Also the extreme force on the protesters, even when it was peaceful strikes to me as suspicious. During the anti-lockdown protests, which were mostly propagated by white people with guns, the government didn’t use full force and used calm tactics to quell the protests, but for this, it uses police. The protests should be peaceful, looting is unacceptable, even if it comes from a good place, because that represents the ill of an uncontrolled mob. I feel it does not reflect Martin Luther King’s principles which was to have peaceful protests.
Aim: How does Orwell criticize society through Boxer and Benjamin?
Agree/Disagree: “I can trust those in positions of authority to make decisions that are in my best interest.”
I disagree, if you had asked me this a few years back I would have agreed, but now that I have gotten older and more jaded, watching the current political status, I do not trust the government at all. As Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..." Now I know that our president does not have absolute power, but I know that people of power use that position to benefit themselves. Wars start only because there is something to gain, whether it be land or power. All figures of authority use their power to benefit themselves or their political party, as seen when any president does or says anything questionable, their party will try to defend them because the party’s ideas, bills and reforms have a higher chance of being passed, since the president needs to approve of the bill for it to become a law.
If you had knowledge about a situation that could help someone else would you tell them, even though you might get in trouble? Explain
It really depends on the situation that I would be in. If this person had some sort of personal relationship, such as a friend I would tell them, even if I would be in trouble for it. If there is some personal gain and if it results in something favorable for every one, I will certainly divulge that information. But the background also matters, as if the government is authoritarian, I would be more careful.
Notes for the Day
The class discussed how Orwell uses Aristotle's methods of persuasion throughout animal farm, which were Ethos, Pathos and Logos. First, we discussed how these appear in our everyday life. Most of the time these three are used in advertisements, so the viewer would buy their product. These are also used in debates, to win over one side. Later on in the class we discussed Boxer and Benjamin, as well as their place in Animal Farm. Boxer is the strongest animal on the farm and is often used as a tool by the pigs for their labor projects. He is not that intelligent and is naive, which leads to his downfall. The class debated whether Boxer was a tragic hero or not. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience.He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” A tragic hero has the potential to save the day but is crippled by their glaring flaws and these flaws eventually make the hero lose. Tragic heroes are mainplace in tragedies, obviously. The key aspects of a tragic hero defined by Aristotle were Hamartia, which is the fatal flaw that causes the downfall of the hero; Hubris, which is excessive pride; Peripeteia, which is the reversal of fate; Anagnorisis, or the “Oh Crap! Moment”; Nemesis which is a punishment for the hero, due to their own hubris, and Catharsis, which is the pity and fear the audience feels for the tragic hero. The purpose of a tragic hero is to evoke emotions of sadness, fear and pity from the audience.Then Ms Peterson made us do the Tragic Hero worksheet, which was a chart where we had to put the aspects and see how Boxer fit into these characteristics. When the class looked at the aspects, and compared them to Boxer’s traits, there were many parallels. When I did this, Boxer’s hamartia was his lack of intelligence; His hubris was that he was too trusting of the mischievous pigs; His Peripeteia did not come yet, but I fear that it would come soon, perhaps with death. Boxer did not have an “Oh Crap! Moment”, due to his lack of intelligence. The mistreatment of Boxer has made me feel bad for Boxer, so he gets a Catharsis point; referring to the aim, Orwell uses Boxer to warn us that if we are oblivious to the ills of the government, then we are bound to suffer from it, as boxer did. Orwell uses Benjamin to warn us that if the intellectuals refuse to put down evil, the evil would spread further.
Reflection of the Class
Today in Class I learned what constitutes a tragic hero. It turns out that there is more to it then I had previously thought. I used to think that a tragic hero was the hero that you root for, but eventually dies in the end. There are arguments for Boxer being a tragic hero, as Orwell clearly wants the reader to empathize with the plight of Boxer. We used the tragic hero definition in conjunction with the previous lesson that had to do with the characteristics of a good leader. In that lesson, we determined that the Pigs did not have the Animal’s best interests, and only cared for themselves, proving further that power corrupts. Also that lesson shows how memory is manipulated to fit a certain agenda, as the pigs changed the Seven Commandments to fit their agenda, since most of the animals were not able to read or remember. I also learned how leaders manipulate the working class, as seen with Napoleon taking advantage of Boxer’s foolishness. I think that we learned about tragic heroes so that we would be able to identify them in future texts, such as in Shakespeare’s tragedies, i.e Othello and King Lear. Also the new words such as Hamartia, Hubris and Anagnorisis would be excellent to use in future writing prompts when doing a profile on a character. These words indicate an advanced knowledge on literary concepts and traits. To be able to write a tragedy, one must be able to analyze a tragedy and use the traits from the tragic hero to concoct their own.
Aim: How does Orwell criticize society through Boxer and Benjamin?
PARTNER WORK—WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Analyze and choose two images to both discuss and write about with your
partner. Consider and identify the following: the audience, the bias, the message,
the perspective, and the persuasive technique (Aristotle’s) being implemented.
The social media one is aimed at investors, and is probably Biased towards facebook owned properties such as Whatsapp, Messengers and Facebook itself. It is Logos, aka facts and logic
The poster with the chick is meant for people, and the bias is in favor of veganism, and it uses ethos, as it implies eating chicken is unethical.
No comments:
Post a Comment