BNE draft 1

There are a few characters in Brave New World that feel isolated even though people aren’t shunning them. These characters reveal new perspectives on the society of the novel. Bernard actually thinks about who he is and what he thinks. His thoughts uncover shocking features of the culture. John was raised into a completely different society, so he doesn’t understand the norms and beliefs of the society or where they came from. His presence brings sharp contrast to the story to emphasize the features and views of the society.

John simply doesn’t know what the society thinks, or how they react to changes. When he hugs his father, who was raised in a different culture, his father gets upset. This shows that the people in the society not only aren’t attached to others, but also reject this type of attachment. John’s father is very uncomfortable in this situation because he was completely unprepared for it. John wants people to open their eyes and think about what they are doing and how its wrong, but the people in the society don’t seem to mind because they were raised not to react to the ramblings of another. The fact that John cares about the people shows that the people don’t really even care about themselves.

Even though Bernard was raised in the culture of not caring about others or feeling anything but happiness, he feels unfulfilled and looks for more in life. Bernard rejects the sex and drugs that all the other people are doing, in order to better understand life and himself. Bernard has the capability to feel comfortable while looking out over the ocean by himself, while any other person in the society would quickly become bored and go do more sex and drugs. Bernard reveals that the people have become reliant on physical stimulants in order to be happy, and anybody who wasn’t was simply strange.

These two characters different personalities reveal different things about the society. Since John didn’t know how people would react, he was much more up front about the things he wanted to express. Bernard quietly questioned issues that arose around him. John’s presence emphasizes how people interact with each other and how nothing in the society is personal or heartfelt, whereas Bernard’s presence shows the problems around the individual’s own thoughts and habits.

Huxley uses alienation to express the norms and moral viewpoints of his society. He points out the differences in the features of his selected characters and the culture they are surrounded by to identify what the society believes. John the savage questions the society to attempt to change the unchangeable. Bernard questions himself to change the small corner of the world which he can make better.

Sheeple

                          This image pretty much summarizes the key points of American conditioning.

Image provided by XKCD.com under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

New Chapter

Chapter two is up and posted to the Charlotte and the Witch page. Click the tab at the top of the page to check it out.

March Lit Analysis

For my literary analysis for this month, I will do the same thing I did last month. The point of this assignment is to read in order to better understand how authors use literary devices and strategies. I am HACKING MY CURRICULUM to change the assignment from reading and reporting these literary strategies, to actually practicing writing and using these strategies. I plan on gaining a new perspective on how authors are able to convey messages through their writing by becoming an author and using them myself. This is what I have so far.

Recent changes

If you havn't noticed, there's now a tab for Charlotte and the witch at the top of the blog. I'll post here to let you know when I update it. I just  added more this morning, the second part of chapter 1. As requested by Beka, my additions will be longer but less frequent.

First Quarter Review

I think I've done very little as far as required assignments go, mostly because I don't post Lit Term remixes. I rarely look at other people's blogs. I have done a Literary Analysis, so I'm doing better this semester in that regard. I have been working on my project a lot in this class, so the time I spend here is not wasted. See other posts.

Next quarter, I will work on my project a lot more often. I will do more required assignments and look at other people's stuff more. As far as suggestions go, I would like to have student presentations where we talk more about each student's SPs/BQs/CWGs.

Charlotte and the Witch Ch. 1 Pt. 1

Charlotte’s body shook her awake. Her legs stood her up and her eyes went to the stone she had carved earlier. She waited patiently and obediently as the witch would try to wiggle her fingers in just the right way to change something whole and natural, into a complete abomination.
Charlotte could do nothing but closely watch as she practiced her magic. The fact that her body used the stone statue of herself as a target for the various spells she observed herself cast horrified Charlotte. She waited in suspense as the witch crumbled her likeness in thousands of different ways.

Charlotte hated living in the dark cave, but her body didn’t seem to mind. When she needed to eat, her hand would feel the ground to find the life forces of vermin that she would catch, kill, and cook with one flick of the wrist. The only source of light was the dancing orb her body had created above her head. Her rests were infrequent and inconstant. Charlotte began to realize she was trapped, but without her captor and the power she possessed, she would be dead anyway.

The moments her body spent training blurred together. The witch had quickly gotten used to the ability to harness the magic she had brought with her into the child, but would still train harder and harder, as if to improve further her own capabilities. Charlotte had begun to believe that she wasn’t the first person to be possessed by this witch. The old lady before her, and most likely even more before the old lady were possessed in a similar manner, and forced to serve the witch until old age. Charlotte had accepted this fate, as many before her had, but wondered why she was able to think so clearly about it. With each passing moment, Charlotte felt smaller and smaller.

Charlotte noticed that the bears that the witch had slaughtered were not there anymore. She also noticed that the steps her legs took no longer felt straining on her physical form. She felt herself sit down, blink, then stand up. That's all her rests felt like to her. Blinks. She couldn’t dream like she used to. The prison offered no form of escape, even in spirit. Her body stood up again, as it had done countless times before, but this time, turned towards one of the walls. Her hand felt the wall, and then blasted a large hole through the wall. The resulting light was brighter than anything she had seen. This light was different from something the witch could have made, it burned her skin.

She stepped through the hole in the cave to find a familiar forest, but everything seemed... smaller. Not tiny, like she was a giant, but tree branches that she had recalled as being out of reach were now within reach. She wanted to climb one of the huge trees, but her body just made a small motion with her hand. A sort of mist appeared where her hand swiped. She saw herself in this mist. A young girl. She didn’t look like a baby anymore. Her face was pale, her hair was long and dark. She saw herself in this mist getting smaller and smaller. She saw the tips of trees, then the trees turned into a green blur. One corner of the mist wasn’t covered in this green.

Charlotte’s head turned, her eyes stared off into forest at some distant target she couldn’t see. Her hand dismissed the mist, and her legs walked off into the forest. There was a quietness about the forest. No animals could be seen or heard, no birds were singing and the twigs underneath Charlotte’s feet weren’t snapping as she walked over them. The quietness seemed almost unreal, even more unreal than the fact that her body was walking without her control.

Her eyes wouldn’t allow her to admire the forest, to take in the nature that her wandering mind wanted to. The trail that her feet were walking on looked boring and repetitive. The few flowers that were allowed into her vision were pretty and colorful, but, as much as she wanted to, her body wouldn’t allow her to walk up to them, and bury her nose among the petals to smell these gifts of nature. Free will isn't something Charlotte could have any more. Each tree blurred by, the forest seemed to pass through her.

Charlotte noticed the sun had set. The sky was dark and her body was cold. Her hand pointed itself at the ground and a hole appeared. Her feet jumped in and sat down. Her hands raised and the hole was sealed. Charlotte’s eyes blinked.