Honors Blog 3

Quote

“’I know I got limitations,’ Frank continued. ‘They’re the same limitations my father had.’”(198)

The reason I picked this quote was because Frank is the son of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Felix Hoenikker. His father was very neutral when it came to science; there was no difference between killing a person for science or studying a newborn baby. Frank was offered leadership of San Lorenzo but he refused, I believe the reason he refused was because of his similarities that he had with his father, he didn’t have enough judgement in his morals.

Connections

I consider Felix Hoenikker’s views on life very similar to mine, I had to open up several mice at my science internship two years ago and I had a lot of problems completing my assignment due to moral and ethical issues. I couldn’t believe that I was opening up mice and killing them in a gruesome way, the experience at that internship changed who I was, before the internship I already agreed that discoveries for science are more important than some ethical issues like killing mice but I was unable to overcome my ethics and morals to help science until I performed the experiment several times.

A small connection I made to San Lorenzo’s country was the law that the government was Christian and nothing else was allowed. I connected to how China only allows the practice of Buddhism in their country but people secretly practice Christianity or other religions. In the book, although Bokonism is not allowed, everyone in the country secretly practices it. I am not sure if China still has this law or not but last time I checked, China still didn’t allow other religions.

Felix’s personality also reminds me of a child, a person who tries to gain knowledge but does not have the term “evil” that most people associate with malicious intent. Felix is not malicious, he researches what he pleases ignoring what is considered evil or good, similar to a child that does not know what is good and what is bad. A child will make many mistakes that would be considered evil if the child realized what he is doing but he does not, similarly in science, we do not always know what the outcome of our experiments will be.

Discussion Questions

What does the title “Cat’s Cradle” have to do with the story?

Was the Apocalypse cast on the world caused by evil or science?

How Vonnegut satirize Religion and Business using Ice Nine and the fake country?

How does Vonnegut use the fake religion “Bokonism” to satirize human’s obsession for the truth?

What does the practice of connecting one’s feet to another person’s satirize?

Visual Representation

I chose this picture to represent the book because this is what I would imagine the entire earth would look like after the Ice Nine escaped and froze the world. This is a picture of Mount Everest, I chose this because it reminded me of John’s words at the end of the book, “If I were a younger man, I would write history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow,”(287).Mount McCabe is the tallest point in the fictional San Lorenzo and so it reminded me of Mount Everest as well as the icy conditions that have befallen the world.

Reflection
The book was split into a couple hundred chapters, it’s as if each chapter’s title is a thesis or summary, I really enjoyed this style of writing that he put into the book. I praise Vonnegut’s unique styles of writing, in each book that I have read of his, he explores a different representation of his writing, this time he used extremely short chapters, in a different book Vonnegut drew his own pictures. I did not find the book funny, even though I heard that this book was made to make people laugh, I guess it’s because this book was written a very long time ago and perhaps this book was very humorous back in the day.

Honors Blog 3

Quote

“’I know I got limitations,’ Frank continued. ‘They’re the same limitations my father had.’”(198)

The reason I picked this quote was because Frank is the son of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Felix Hoenikker. His father was very neutral when it came to science; there was no difference between killing a person for science or studying a newborn baby. Frank was offered leadership of San Lorenzo but he refused, I believe the reason he refused was because of his similarities that he had with his father, he didn’t have enough judgement in his morals.

Connections

I consider Felix Hoenikker’s views on life very similar to mine, I had to open up several mice at my science internship two years ago and I had a lot of problems completing my assignment due to moral and ethical issues. I couldn’t believe that I was opening up mice and killing them in a gruesome way, the experience at that internship changed who I was, before the internship I already agreed that discoveries for science are more important than some ethical issues like killing mice but I was unable to overcome my ethics and morals to help science until I performed the experiment several times.

A small connection I made to San Lorenzo’s country was the law that the government was Christian and nothing else was allowed. I connected to how China only allows the practice of Buddhism in their country but people secretly practice Christianity or other religions. In the book, although Bokonism is not allowed, everyone in the country secretly practices it. I am not sure if China still has this law or not but last time I checked, China still didn’t allow other religions.

Felix’s personality also reminds me of a child, a person who tries to gain knowledge but does not have the term “evil” that most people associate with malicious intent. Felix is not malicious, he researches what he pleases ignoring what is considered evil or good, similar to a child that does not know what is good and what is bad. A child will make many mistakes that would be considered evil if the child realized what he is doing but he does not, similarly in science, we do not always know what the outcome of our experiments will be.

Visual Representation

Discussion Questions

What does the title “Cat’s Cradle” have to do with the story?

Was the Apocalypse cast on the world caused by evil or science?

How Vonnegut satirize Religion and Business using Ice Nine and the fake country?

How does Vonnegut use the fake religion “Bokonism” to satirize human’s obsession for the truth?

What does the practice of connecting one’s feet to another person’s satirize?

Reflection

The book was split into a couple hundred chapters, it’s as if each chapter’s title is a thesis or summary, I really enjoyed this style of writing that he put into the book. I praise Vonnegut’s unique styles of writing, in each book that I have read of his, he explores a different representation of his writing, this time he used extremely short chapters, in a different book Vonnegut drew his own pictures. I did not find the book funny, even though I heard that this book was made to make people laugh, I guess it’s because this book was written a very long time ago and perhaps this book was very humorous back in the day.

Honors Blog 2

Quote

"I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?" (254)

Throughout the story, June doesn’t know if she could consider herself Chinese because she knew little of the culture. She lived in The U.S. her entire life and didn’t know how to deal with Chinese cultures, this made her nervous about meeting her half sisters for the first time since her sisters have lived in China their entire life. I chose this quote because it represents June’s desire to be part of both cultures but she doesn’t seem to think it is possible by using her daughter as evidence of that.

Connections:

One thing that I this book reminded me of was of a movie I saw which was called the Last Emperor, the reason that I thought of this movie was because the emperor in the movie had two wives, somewhat similar to An Mei’s mother who was married to a man with four other wives, the mother had killed herself hoping that the husband would take better care of the children. It wasn’t just the fact that the two people both had multiple wives but because of the way some wives were treated compared to others, the emperor showed less affection to her second wife similarly to An Mei’s father who had treated her mother differently.

The quote that I put up reminded myself of what my parents wanted for me, I think that they wanted me to have a good American life but have the characteristics of a Chinese person but I think that I have definitely strayed off from what my parents have wanted me to be and when I think about how I’ve turned out I get sad to think that I’ve become more American than Chinese but just like June I realize that it’s in my blood and my family that I will always be Chinese.

One connection that I made which I chuckled a bit at was on page 109 when the family had moved to a new house. Waverly’s mother was talking nonsense in the new house but her father replied “‘Your mother is just practicing her nesting instincts,’”(109). The father continued talking about the mother’s preparations for a baby as if she was a bird that is what I kept thinking of whenever the father said nesting.

Visual Representation

I chose this visual representation of the Joy Luck Club because this is what I imagine June and the other Chinese women would be doing except in a room. I wanted to find a better picture but there are few pictures of people playing Mahjong in a room. During the first couple of chapters right before they start a game of Mahjong, An-mei said that the Joy Luck Club started investing in stocks because “‘You can’t have luck when someone else has skill. So long time ago, we decided to invest in the stock market. There’s no skill in that. Even your mother agreed’”(30) The picture is a visualization of how the club members probably played their Mahjong games although these people were probably playing for fun.

Discussion Questions:

The members of the club send messages through their stories instead of just saying them, what difference does it make to tell a story and have a moral instead of making a statements directly?

Why do you think the club was named Joy and Luck?

Why did the remaining Joy Luck Club members pay for June to meet her half sisters?

What seems to be the difference between the characteristics of the Chinese women in this book and American women?

How does Mahjong embody the Joy Luck Club’s members’ experiences?

Reflection:

This was an amazing book and was extremely easy for me to read, I highly recommend it to others. It accurately captures the way some women in China act but can also be too stereotypical at times but it is definitely a way for others to get a better insight into Chinese culture. The story had a lot of touching moments and the article that my teacher, Kelly Williams gave us of Amy Tan’s influence on the book from her mother could be connected back into the book. I might be a bit bias coming into this book because it is written by a Chinese author and that automatically made me like it a little bit but the many things that Amy stated in the book that I understood made me happy to know that a book about Chinese women and family was so popular back in the time.

Shadow of the Hegemon

Quote of the book:
"'Are you so determined to believe in your own lack of virtue?"'
Bean, the main character of the story is a unique human being that doesn't have the normal ethics and morals that most humans do, he was asked this question because Bean does actions that a normal human not do and thus will sometimes trick himself.

Connections:

I immediately connected this book to Ender's Game and the other Orson Scott Card books, the writing style is all similar due to their Universe but you can also see the progress Bean has made from being a teenager to becoming an adult.

I also connected this book to Batman and the Joker, Achilles and Bean are arch enemies that continue to fail killing each other because Bean is too smart and Achilles continues to hide. This is similar to the relationship that Batman and Joker have because Bean had a chance to kill Achilles but refused and sent him to a mental institution similar to how Batman will not kill the Joker.

Another connection that I had was between Achilles and Sister Carlotta, Sister Carlotta had brought Bean into a school away from the streets similar to the movie, The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Bean is taught to be a commander of an elite group of troops while Jaden is taught martial arts to defend himself.


This is my visual representation of what Bean may look like, in the book he has grown exceptionally fast due to his DNA, Bean had no idea that the genes that he possessed would make him grow exponentially.

Discussion Questions
If Ender had stayed on earth, what differences would it have made on Earth?

If Bean had made the decision to kill Achilles in the original novel, what would have happened to Achilles' captives?

Does Bean have a sense of humor?

Does this book simulate real political science?

Has Bean's learning ability changed since he was a kid at all?

Reflection:

The change between The first book and this book and to the fourth book is crazy. At first the problems are located in small areas but quickly spread to world events in the second book and was even crazier in the 4th book. My greatest dislike about the book's change is that it felt more emotional when the characters were still in school and there was that one leader of the group and the powerful second in command that backed him up, I also don't feel as though the political and global events that happened in the second and fourth book were realistic or even plausible in their universe.

Honors Blog Post 3

Here is a quote from the book, the Vonnegut Effect

““This veteran decided to take his car into the basement, and he closed the door and started down, but his wedding ring was caught in all the ornaments. So he was hoisted into the air and the floor of the car went down, dropped out from under him, and the top of the car squashed him. So it goes”. End of the story? Not in the brave new world of harsh details and naked emotions that was characterizing American life as toughened up by four years of war effort.”

This is just one of the quotes from the book but the reason I chose it was because one of the books that the author, Jerome Klinkowitz talks about in the book, Slaughterhouse 5 which was derived from Kurt’s real life experiences, has powerful emotions because of the realism behind it.

Connections

In the first few chapters of the book, the author talks about Kurt Vonnegut in college, I related this to myself because I’m applying to universities right now and when I read about Kurt Vonnegut’s enrollment at the Cornell University that sparked my mind. It’s weird looking back at Universities back then when you could suddenly be recruited to go to war since that’s exactly what happened to Kurt Vonnegut.

An obvious connection that I had made was when he mentioned Kurt Vonnegut’s time as a prisoner of war because he survived the bombing of Dresden during World Ward 2 by hiding in a meat locker. I connected to this because I read Slaughterhouse 5 but also from the movie Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull because Indiana Jones had survived a nuclear attack by hiding in a refrigerator.

The author also talks about Kurt Vonnegut’s works with the Saturday Evening Post, I had no idea that it was a real newspaper till I discovered Kurt Vonnegut because the only pictures of the Saturday Evening Post I had ever seen were in a Hometown Buffet near my house.

Discussion Questions:

Do you think Kurt’s experiences in the war inspired him to switch his major from Chemistry to Anthropology?

Kurt described himself as many different affiliations of religions, which religion do you think he had before he died?

Does Kurt use black comedy in his books to hide or try and take away from some of the sadness of his books?

Did Vonnegut ever seem to show his actual feelings or emotions in his books?

How can Vonnegut’s influential writing be shown in today’s books and articles?

Image: Skye the image thing isn't working for me but here's the link. http://www.artrepublic.com/attachments/image/304/16304/16304.jpeg

I chose this image because in the text, Jerome writes that "If there is a major difference between the stories Vonnegut preserved and those he did not, it may involve a delayed appreciation of the domestic element.

What I think the author means by this is that, the stories that Vonnegut had kept and didn't forget about were the stories that related to himself, other people may have enjoyed the writings but Vonnegut kept the ones that seemed most important or related to himself.

Breakfast of Champions

When I first heard of the title I didn’t know what to expect especially since I had finished Slaughterhouse 5, a book by the same author that was pretty surprising. The book is about two men that have crossed paths, one sane man that considers himself an unknown writer while the other man is a maniac that gets even crazier when he reads a book written by the other man. The narrator of the story eventually breaks the 4^th wall and talks to both you and the characters in the story while being completely conscious of the fact that he controls the story.

“I hold in my hand a symbol of wholeness and harmony and nourishment. It is Oriental in its simplicity, but we are Americans, Kilgore, and not Chinamen.” This is a quote from the epilogue of the story where the Narrator is talking to Trout, one of two main characters in the story. I believe this quote represents the story’s symbols, every symbol that has appeared in the book is interpreted differently by different people and that there may be a different meaning that the author was trying to show us or there was no meaning at all and he was just trolling.

I thought of several connections when I read this book, most of my connections are with Dwayne Hoover, the other main character that is crazy and psychotic. Dwayne reads Trout’s book and believes everything that the book had said, I don’t relate to Dwayne this way but the information that he obtained from the book intrigues me because I have always thought that perhaps no one in the world is actually real, that everything is an illusion, I am the only true person and I am trapped in this fake world.

Another connection that I thought of was how the narrator had joined the other characters in the book and started interacting with them. This reminds me of Bruce Almighty because Bruce talked to god and it just reminded me of the book because Bruce had met the creator of the world.

The gay son of Hoover’s that went to military school reminded me of my friend that went to military school because he just wanted to have fun but he was sent to a military academy because he didn’t focus enough on his academics.

http://api.ning.com/files/Z9tNby4JdPrtWIRPZJk9bgjwA3FjrvpX1ZZCdjrgcuiRgpQz51bt3mHWYYcWSZpHgogCyRpgMEyzuoaD8g-eyLVsxoxKPQI9/48048693.jpeg

I chose this picture because it reminds me of what Hoover did to a bunch of people in the book because he thought that all the humans were robots. Trout’s book was about how everyone around the reader was a robot and the only real human was the reader, Hoover read the book and took it seriously and started to wreak havoc.

Questions:

How is the narrator similar to the author if at all?

Is this book racist? Why or Why not?

What might have caused Hoover to become crazy?

Is Kurt Vonnegut for or against gay people?

What is the meaning of the title besides the drink?

This book was amazing and I enjoyed this more than Slaughterhouse 5 which is by the same author. I think that the book was well written and the book continued to surprise me, since Hoover is insane the book could jump to many different plots. I do recommend this book to people in high school and older since it contains some inappropriate content but the book is an enjoyable ride from start to finish.