Category: Reflections

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley has become one of the best English books that I have read so far. Despite the difficult use of language in the book, the plot, and events that got me thinking, not always, provided me with a need to continue reading the book. What I liked the most was that the characters I disliked and found annoying turned out to be interesting to read about. The book has a good amount of complexity in the language and narrative that has quite a few things in common with the world we live in now, which makes me a bit sad, and the image of naive characters made a huge impression on my liking of literature.

On the other hand, Amusing Our Selves to Death by Neil Postman did not make an impression on me. Most likely because of its style. As a book-length essay, the text’s format, rather than the content, made it somewhat boring, making it tiring to read.  Postman covered an interesting topic of the effect of TV on the human race, but for me, the stylistic choices reduced the overall enjoyment of the book.

The way I see it in “Brave New World” and “Amusing Ourselves to Death” shows us how society can be too focused on entertainment and pleasure and not enough on serious thinking. Both books warn about the dangers of living in a world where pleasure and entertainment are more important than individuality and critical thought. In today’s world, phones and computers are constant distractions. We should be more mindful of how much time we spend on mindless entertainment and focus on critical thinking to navigate our modern world.

These books relate to each other because they both talk about how we waste our time on little things that barely affect us. Both books also talk about how we let the media control the way we act and who we are. In both books, I noticed that Neil Postman and Aldous Huxley have similar writing styles. In conclusion, I believe that both Brave new World and Amusing ourselves to death share a connection.

When asked about how I felt about the war, the first word that came to my mind was confused. After watching the video, my mind was racing with a series of questions however one question overthrew the rest. The question being: ‘Why?’.

From the very beginning of the video, I was a bit concerned. It was mentioned that the required age for a man to go into war was 19-35, yet boys younger than 19 were supposedly excited to go. They even went as far as lying about their age just to become a soldier. That left me questioning why those young boys wanted to go into war. What was so amusing about the war? What made them want to go into a war ground not knowing if they’ll live to see their families again? Questions like these were circulating my mind.

Another thing that struck me in the video was the amount of excitement these soldiers seemed to have before they went into war. Most of them didn’t even regret going. At this point, I tried to envision myself as a soldier and put myself in their shoes. If I was about to go into war, I’ll be freaking out. In fact, nothing would even make me think twice about going.

The soldiers’ capacity and mental strength to witness death and various disturbing casualties every single day while they were at war was another thing that amazed me. Those soldiers were probably traumatized every day but they still had the will power to keep fighting for their country. Their bravery is something that should be applauded.

Overall, my opinion on WW1 varies. Yes, I am a bit confused by it but I am gradually understanding why it was important. Due to the war, many empires were destroyed which led to the creation of numerous new nation states as well as encouraging independence and much more. Over time, I hope to be more educated on the war and I hope to understand it in a wider point of view.

 

The Shall Not Grow

My feelings when we saw the video were like a rollercoaster because in many parts the scenes were very hard and so many feelings, were like I want to cry but also I cant because I was in the middle of the classroom so were encounter feelings, but also in many parts I had feelings of proud, about the sacrifices that the soldiers have been doing, because since the moment that the soldier go out to his home is so hart to left the family and don’t have the answer that if you going come back. I like the documental because in all the scenes was how if I was living in this era, this help a lot of to comprise the realistic situation that the soldiers lived in the past. This times were very different as now in the actually, for example the roles in the society of women and men were having many changes in the past of the years, so now we have wars but not how were before, one of the most important changes is the innovation in arms technologies, we have a lot of types of arms than in the past. I was very shocking with the places in the soldiers have been and the circumstances that they had, so in the actually we won’t be able to sleep in the ground for many days especially the young, but in the past they it for the proud of their country. And also the food that they were eating was a little portion and only like bread and a cup of water. I like a lot of the language that the military used in all the movie, because it feel very informal how if I was talking with any friend and this helps for feel us more comfortables and be more conscientious with the hard situation that they have been living. The images that shocked me were when the young soldiers die, how they buried them was very shocked to me because this is a big sadness for the family that is waiting with hopefully to them relatives, these are the hardest moments for the families and also we can realize that the harder sacrifice is for the soldiers but also for the families that are waiting. The only part that I felt confused was when the scenes changing so fast and I lost in the story and in the moments. I think that the sergeant used a very realistic language and for the occasions that he been speaking, because for each parts he used the appropriates languages and tones. The situation that had been lived in the past is very different that in the actually, only the interests were changing a lot of, and also the way to see the world of the society. The characters and my actually consider that we share the obstinate that I am with my all goals and challenges, that what I propose I won’t stop until I accomplish it. Well for the end of my written, I consider me a very obstinate person but in a different way of the soldier and this is the reason for why I am so proud of them, because our environments are so different, in the actually we live more comfortables and still  we complain, and the circumstances in them were living many times were so hard. That I thinks after I see this movie is that we have to be more conscientious and grateful of that we have and the circumstances where we living and the lucky ones that we are.