Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

To prepare for the Jane Eyre writing assignment, my team members and I held a verbal discussion about some of the themes in the book, acting as Charlotte Brontë, the Academy student, and the publisher. We recorded the conversation with a digital recorder and composed a transcript of the discussion. I found this process very beneficial in that it allowed me to realize the roles of each of our characters in the discussion as well as address the themes and elements of the book from these varying perspectives. The discussion itself provided a solid foundation of ideas that formed our writing assignment.

This entire process exposed my brain's methods of learning and understanding and I've come to the conclusion that the best way for me to learn or unearth new ideas is through discussion. The practice of bouncing ideas off of one another was incredible because there were a few occasions where I realized something I hadn't before. It was fantastic.

As far as writing the transcript itself, I would look at the topic being discussed and see how I could weave in an important theme all the while making each character remain true to themselves. I found that I was able to have each character's defining traits complement or challenge the others'. For example, sometimes I would have the curious nature of the Academy student question the motives of the author, Brontë.

Overall, I liked my mind's ability to piece together multiple levels of information, especially from varying perspectives.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre

As I read Jane Eyre, I heeded Mr. Allen's advice and took my time to finish each reading assignment. I tried to focus and not rush reading as I simultaneously evaluated and enjoyed the text. I found that taking time to read as opposed to just getting the assignment done improved my ability to take in details and make connections.

However, I noticed that there were times when reading Jane Eyre was quite difficult as the plot lulled and Bronte described scenery excessively. Although I am not doubting the importance of scenery to the story, I've realized an unfortunate characteristic of my thinking that my mind tends to wander during the more dull points of the text.

On the other hand, I do like the fact that I can evaluate the text and even recognize elements of good writing at the same time. It was very well written and I think my mind was very effective in analyzing the writing and ideas of Jane Eyre.

360 degrees: Big is Beautiful

It's a well-known fact that the media displays the "ideal" embodiments of the human being through magazines, TV, movies, and any other mode of communication or entertainment. These "ideal" images are telling young girls that "thin is in" and that beauty is directly related to your dress size, causing many girls to develop eating disorders at young ages. A change in times have altered these images for the new rise of obese and overweight individuals. A popular catchphrase, "big is beautiful," has grown to be a methodology for many, but is it really beneficial?

Some say yes, this new ideology has reshaped the thinking of females to focus less on their physical appearance and accept themselves for who they are. "Big is beautiful" has allowed many girls to realize their inner beauty and value themselves for character rather than dress size. It boosts her confidence and can even improve her outlook on her life. The acceptance of larger people into society has given birth to plus-size fashion lines, now allowing big men and women to dress fashionably, further fostering personal acceptance.

However, this new ideology also excuses children and adults for being overweight. It seems to exempt individuals from the health risks associated with obesity and labels it as something along the lines of "acceptance of individuality." Obesity is a growing epidemic and a serious matter that cannot continue, but now it's ok because big is beautiful. Wrong. Obesity is never ok. It's unhealthy and harmful. Also, the introduction of plus size as a new size for models may even be encouraging such behavior.

But maybe the catchphrase "big is beautiful" provides stable grounds for improvement. It could serve as inspiration to improve unhealthy lifestyles and get back on track to live a healthily and therefore happily.

From any perspective one views the situation, one thing is clear: there is a beauty revolution going on that's reforming the way we see ourselves. Is it positive or negative? I'll let you be the judge.

An Inconvenient Truth: All good things must come to an end

As spring break has come to a close, it's rather depressing to accept the end of a wonderful break and the dreaded return to school. So as school starts tomorrow and my euphoria dissolves, it has inspired a deeper thought that all good things must come to an end.

Yes, it may seem obvious that goodness can't last forever, but don't we hold the reins to our own lives? Can't we just live so that we only experience happiness? Although it may not be impossible, on a biological level I do know that the human brain experiences a variety of hormone-induced emotions that are functions of daily activity. Now, some of these emotions can be learned, like guilt or shame; so can someone be ignorant of these emotions and live in a world of happiness?

On a philosophical level, epicureans live their lives to experience the most pleasure possible. However, sometimes an epicurean will sacrifice feeling immediate pleasure for experiencing long-term pleasure. In Sophie's World, Gaarder uses the example of a sum of money. One could easily spend that newly-earned money on a chocolate bar and feel immediate pleasure or one could wait, save the money, and use the savings to buy a brand new bike for a long-term sense of pleasure. This concept was called the "pleasure calculator."

So, even though an epicurean lives to be satisfied, he or she still makes sacrifices to achieve the utmost satisfaction. So can someone be truly happy all the time? I think not, for all good things must come to an end.

Dialectics: Regionalism and Globalism

My initial inspiration for this blog post was not from the examples given on the blogging prompts page, but from our French book. Two of our vocabulary words for the chapter are: la mondialisation, or globalization, and la regionalisme, or regionalism.

Globalization and regionalism are, for one, different in the areas they address. Globalization expands across the earth whereas regionalism applies to a specific region. Obvious, I know, but now we have the basics out of the way.

So what exactly is globalization? By my definition, it's the communication of people across long distances, connecting all four corners of the earth.

Regionalism is the sense of belonging to a specific region. It gives the region a feeling of being larger and more important and focuses in on its prosperity

So, in a sense, the connections through globalization make the world seem smaller as communication becomes faster, easier, and more prominent. It feels as though the world has shrunk in size and relations with faraway lands are increasingly more attainable. However, regionalism focuses in on one region, making it the center of all decisions and thought. This makes the region seem much larger, as it is the sole purpose and focus and outside elements become less important.

With each mode of thought, perspectives change. Globalization accepts and welcomes outside nations while regionalism is more self-centered.

Yet, either way, both of these methodologies bring masses together, whether on a global or regional scale. They formulate close connections and elements that bind us together.

Blogging Around: Connor and Merrick

Connor's dialectics blog post was about the role of business and government in society.

My comment:

"I completely agree with you in that business and government should remain two separate entities and should not intervene with one another. You addressed important yet unfortunate effects of each institution holding too much power and realizing these outcomes are vital in maintaining society. This was well written and thought out."

Merrick's blog post was about colonialism and its long-term effects on Africa's development.

My comment:

"This really grabbed my interest because I, too, have pondered Africa's slow progression (compared to the rest of the world). The idea of European imperialism stunting Africa's growth makes perfect sense and I completely agree. I also agree with you, Merrick, in that Africa didn't benefit under European rule. It only led to a wounded society that never seemed to fully recover."

Best of Week: HOD through the eyes of an African

During our Heart of Darkness discussion, Mr. Allen had brought up a point about introducing an African perspective to the story. This idea immediately sparked interest within me for I was curious to explore the difference one narrator could have on the story.

Not only would it change the literary aspect of the novel in ways I will describe later, but the historical background would be altered concerning the position of blacks in society at the time. Not only were the Africans in the story of a minority race, they were "savage" indigenous peoples who were subject to white colonial rule. Therefore, introducing an African perspective to the story would take away some of the pride in imperialism and methods of The Company from a European colonist's eyes and replace them with disdain towards whites, altering the feel of the book.

From a basic literary standpoint, the language and rhythm of the writing would differ if from an African's perspective. I also think it would change the mood of the book from a story about colonialism rich with modernist and post-modernist elements to a diary of an indigenous African and his/her relations with European colonists. However, I think the reader would be subject to even more of the modernist idea of multiplicity through African fascination and reverence for Kurtz.

Also, during class someone had brought up the idea of making a character in the book African, using the Russian as an example. We evaluated that if any of the characters were "Africanized," then they would be reduced to being of little importance. Relating back to the historical aspect, only a century ago, Africans were of the lowest social class, so any character of high stature in the story would be reduced to a minority with a change of race.

An Inconvenient Truth: Food, Inc.

Today in health class I was faced with the inconvenient truth of the practices of our agrarian society. The movie, Food, Inc. is a documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of today's food manufacturers and their treatment of animals as well as poor production methods. As I watched merely the first 45 minutes of the film, I was horrified, disgusted, and deeply saddened all at once.

Food, Inc. took me back to the ideals of Ishmael and humanity in the rest of the world. The Fall marked the beginning of man's grasp on the earth; the ability to bend the environment to suit our own needs. We tilled the land to feed a growing population that would only keep growing, rationalizing our actions as sustaining the population. We as humans gave ourselves permission to tamper with lifeforms and form them to support our populations with the help of science, technology, and the might of the human race. And what are we left with? Now we genetically modify chickens and cows and plants to be bigger, better, and less susceptible to disease and we mass produce them. Animals aren't born. They're manufactured to our needs. They're manufactured to make money. This is what has become of the hunter-gatherer societies of the Stone Age. Well done.

Another angle to this situation is that our new agrarian practices make us richer. Food is made cheaply and efficiently and is engineered to give utmost satisfaction. The fast food industry is now booming and more and more people have grown to rely on it. Also, science has helped us make our food safer and more nutrient rich so that we may receive vital vitamins and minerals.

Although it is difficult to accept our current food situation, it is important to realize that the progression of our society has led to increases in population, and we must feed this population cheaply. However, I don't have to accept the horrors of this situation, but I can accept that maybe green and organic initiatives will continue to grow and hopefully our newly developed food technologies will be used for the better.

Connection: Heart of Darkness and the East India Company

During our Heart of Darkness discussion on Thursday, we talked about the relationship between government and economics with the main question being: "To what extent should government be involved in businesses?" I connected this idea to the English East India Company and their involvement in the colonization of other countries.

The East India Company (EIC) established especially close relations with India after the 1757 Battle of Plassey when troops defended the weak Mughal empire from rebellious warlords. This resulted in a peace treaty making the commander of the EIC troops the official tax collector for Bengal. From 1757-1858, the EIC progressed to become the de facto government of India, illustrating the mesh of government and business.

This is along the lines of Heart of Darkness as Europeans scramble to exploit African commodities and African society suffers European enroachment and brutal power. This is visible as Africans are enslaved to work in mines and businessmen from European nations travel to Africa seeking ivory.

This connection sheds light on the relationship between government and business because at one point, business organizations or companies became the government and ruling body of these nations. It shows their political weakness but also the changing times and the modernist/post-modernist development of Heart of Darkness. The connection further illustrates the post-modernist worldview that globalization leads to more complicated representations of society and the way people live and relate to one another, for example.

Metacognition: 1000 Word Essay

Word count FAIL: Before writing the 1000 word essay, Mr. Allen made it seem as though the word count would be easily fulfilled and even surpassed. However, while writing the essay I found that this word count wasn't as easily attainable as I thought it would be. I found myself tossing in words just to reach the goal of 850 words, throwing the desired succinctness down the drain.

Structure/organization FAIL: I had conformed to the age-old 5 paragraph essay format taught as early as 3rd grade. For a reason unbeknown to me, I had assumed that it was part of the assignment to follow the lovely formatting, but after turning in the essay I quickly learned that this wasn't the case.

Quality FAIL: My essay lacked deep insight and perspective as well as voice.

As is quite visible, I did not like my essay very much.

But, to preserve optimism, found that I was able to piece together many philosophers' perspectives and find underlying commonalities. I also found that I enjoyed delving into this question and hunting for the answer within the lines of Sophie's World.

While writing the essay I pondered creation and evolution and their conflicting roles in society. Science has taken a new stand in today's world and religion isn't very welcoming of its growing power.

Throughout the semester I had gained a lot of insight into various philosophies that will prove to be very helpful in my essay writing and thinking. It is mode of thought that is foundational to many fields of study, no matter how contradictory they may be.