Purity, Forgiveness, Trust

In the novel, The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, the lives of ironic beings are portrayed as well known figures from the Bible."Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain: Temptation shall not come in this kind again, The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."(T.S Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral) Following your convictions and your heart will take you farther in life than creating happiness for the goodness of others rather than yourself. Bible figures were represented as strong beings that taught people lessons about life and their religious beliefs. This novel takes you to a place where belief, heart, and passion are important, and since the characters are carefully emphasized to have the free will to decide their own paths in life, their decisions on what paths they take will lead them to the amount of power and glory they get in life.

Judas--one of the twelve apostles of Jesus in the New Testament and best known for his role in betraying Jesus into the hands of Jewish religious authorities--is much like the mestizo in the novel, The Power and the Glory. The irony is that although he means the priest nothing but harm, he actually provides prospects for the priest to commend heroic and gallant acts. Throughout the novel the mestizo knows that death surrounds him, but has faith in the priest to comfort him with health and hospitality along the way, but soon comes an opportunity for the priest to turn away from the life of leisure, and recommit himself to his ideals and his duties. During his night in the hut with the mestizo, the priest has trouble keeping himself awake, recalling the night Jesus spends in the garden with the disciples who cannot seem to keep themselves awake. The mestizo, with a never ending desire of selfish devotion, asks the captured priest to pray for him. The priest then begins to tell him that forgiveness just isn't handed to you, but instead it must be earned.

In order to find forgiveness of your sins true soul-searching will lead your way. You need to find yourself first and understand that the sins you have committed were wrong and have some reason to why they should be forgiven. The mestizo is, in many ways, a mirror image of the priest. The priest--who has done this soul-searching-- despairs over having no listeners to hear his confession. But, while the priest attempts to root out all self-interested motivations from his mind, the mestizo is concerned only with his own advantage. Nevertheless, the priest's actions towards the mestizo make the mestizo a seem like a sympathetic character.

When you think of a priest you picture a man with a soulful heart and very wide open to helping and listening, but the reflection of the priest in the novel is a mirror image of a priest opposite of what we believe to be true. The unnamed main character in the novel, the priest, is on the run from the authorities, who will kill him if they catch him. A "whisky priest," and not the finest example of his profession, he is an alcoholic who has also fathered a child. Now as a fugitive, he feels guilt for his mistakes and sins. Nevertheless, he continues to perform his priestly functions and it is his determination to attend to the spiritual needs of a dying man that leads to his eventual capture and death."It was for this world that Christ had died; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization-- it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt." (97) The priest had lost all respect from the people that followed him before for his crimes and mistakes he has undertaken. The priest had lost himself, but some were still dependent on his beliefs, they believed in the priest and were destined to find God within him, just as people did with Jesus. They searched to find answers and the reason for those answers given by Jesus. All it took was trust in Jesus and know his deeds are having an impact on the followers of the Christ figure.

There is a relationship between Judas, the mestizo, and Jesus, the priest. When Judas turn Jesus in to the police, Jesus is being hunted down to be arrested, whereas in the novel the priest is arrested by police for his use of alcohol after the hunted him down through the city. Another scene in the book parallel to the Bible was when the priest and the Mestizo were traveling to hear the confession of a man who was both a murderer and a thief. When they arrived to speak to the man about his confession, the priest was able to convince the man that he shall confess, but soon after the he dies. This has a relation to the bible because when Jesus was on the cross he had a thief and a murderer standing next to him. Here Greene shows the exact relation of one perfect man's crucifixion to another imperfect man's death ironically.

Purity, Forgiveness, Trust. Three words that describe the Bible. Three words that the priest was trying to find in himself after his life when down the drain to the point where he felt nothing at all, not even pain, it was nothingness. Jesus has forgiven our mistakes and sins even before they are made. No human being is perfect and no human being makes all the right decisions. Its about learning from you mistakes and moving forward. The priest did the exact opposite of this. He dreaded his mistakes and kept hiding from them, digging a bigger and bigger whole for himself to a point where t was impossible for him to get out. The novel, The Power and the Glory, is about living up to yourself and your convictions and doing things because you know its right no matter what happens in the end.

Life of Pi

It is a long road to walk from the point you are born to adulthood. The bumps in the road are things you are just going to have to try and get over so you can keep moving forward towards your growth of being an adult and learn the aspects of how to act as an adult. We are just waiting and waiting for the time to come when we can be independent; to not rely on our parents for everything. At the same time, we are scared for this large step in life that we have been preparing for, for the past 14 years of our lives. We just have to take a leap of faith, see where it takes us, and hope for the best. The main character, Pi Patel, is a loveable teenager with a lifelong curiosity for animals and religion. Pi grows up as the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India. He practices Hinduism, Islam and Christianity equally. When Pi is about 16 years old, his father decides to relocate the family to Canada. Pi's father arranges for the family to accompany some of the animals bound for North America on a cargo ship named Tsimtsum. The ship suddenly and quickly sinks. Pi is instantly orphaned and left to survive. The novel, Life of Pi, is a tale about survival, the struggles of life, and taking that leap of faith to help you become a stronger person inside and out.

What is a taboo? Taboo is a topic of discussion that you wouldn’t want to actually discuss with certain others in sight. Relating to the novel though, a taboo is like an ocean compared to a pool—which is where Pi got his nickname. A pool is safe with boundaries, whereas an ocean is wide open symbolizing the struggle and journey of life itself. It is a sense of unknown, a sense of vast power, and a loss of direction. What do you rely on to take action when there is no one there to guide you? The answer is yourself. This novel is about surviving on your own and knowing your boundaries. Pi was meant to go on this journey across the ocean to explore and find who he really is. "Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it." (91) Even though Pi was confronted with uneasy circumstances, he still has to take it the way it comes at him and handle it in the best way he can. If he makes a mistake along the way it is okay, because we as humans are meant to make mistakes so that we can learn from them and grow as a person. This is the kind of thing that makes us stronger and it is the kind of thing that made Pi stronger as well. Life is like a game of baseball. You have to time it just right to hit the ball, and then you finally take a swing and make a run for it. The outfielder has to be prepared to catch that ball at any given moment. In life you have to take your time to get things just right, and then when the situations strikes you, you have to put it all out there and go for it. Also, things in life are thrown at you unexpectedly and you have to be ready for the worst, and turn the worst into the best.

When we are in that stage of taking chances, our fear tends to overwhelm us. To the average brain, there are many things that all of us are "afraid" of, but do we truly know what fear is? It is just a four letter word. A four letter word with a simple definition-- to be afraid or feel anxious about a probable situation. "I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life." It is your decision to choose if fear defeats your life. It is only up to you for that not to happen, and Pi came across this decision many times along his journey. He had to choose between living life or letting fear take over himself. Taboo is displayed all throughout this novel, fear being one of the subtopics of it. Even though fear isn't a comfortable topic of discussion when you having a conversation with others, it is still something we have to face as children and as adults. My biggest fear is death, but I know we all have to go through it. Life would be pointless if it went on forever. What would you be living for? Death is supposed to scare us a little and make us think that our lives could end at any second, so you should always live life to the fullest with no regrets. "You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you." (162) Don’t hide from your fears, because they will always catch up to you. Being open and expressive is better than keeping your thoughts trapped up inside of you forever. It is all part of the growing process from your youth to an adult.


By experiencing fear it means that we are in reality. "I have a story that will make you believe in God." Once we hit reality, belief is a part of knowing who your are. Another closely linked idea in the novel is belief, religious belief. Pi has three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Each comes with its own tales and fables that are used to spread the teachings of beliefs of that faith. Pi enjoys the richness of these stories, but also gets the sense that each story might be aspects of a greater story about love. Life of Pi also has links to religious beliefs because Pi declares that both require faith on other human beings as well. Surprisingly, Pi admires atheists, for him being such a religious young man. "If we, citizens, do not support our artist, then we sacrifice our imagination on the alter of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams." (x11) Pi is showing that you should be believing in something no matter what it is. It is better to have faith in something than nothing at all, and that something is what gives life a purpose. Although religion can be a taboo to most people, that doesn’t mean you can't have different beliefs than others. Pi can appreciate the atheists and their ability to believe in the absence of God without knowing about the truth of absence. To Pi, people that can't make a leap of faith in any direction are like people who can't appreciate the truth inside a fictional story. It seems to me that Pi believes in many things because he is afraid of having his mind set on one belief and making a commitment to that belief. It is hard to believe something without knowing the other side if there is any. "If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?" This goes to show that seeing and experiencing is believing. It is hard to believe in love unless you truly know you have experienced it before. How do you know if you are in love though? It is about taking that leap of faith and going after what your heart thinks. If you think you believe in something and have experienced it then go after it and don’t give up.

Pi definitely understands, not only the meaning of life itself, but the meaning of his own life as well. He is faced with taboos along the way on his journey, and not once did he back down from them. He has concurred a new world, a new life, a new him after all the battle he put up with. He has grown as a person and as an adult. In the novel, Life of Pi, Pi took a leap of faith and made it throught his struggles of survival on his journey to finding who he truly is.

Relation to Fahrenheit 451

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, these firemen that are for creating fires rather than eliminating them are against the usage of any books in any household. Their job is to get rid of any book that enters their sight and burn them to ashes, and then burn the ashes so that the book is nonexistent. They think books are made to change the way people think, act, and communicate. This is true, but for the better of the people; books bring you to another world, another point in time, another way of life. It is seen more as a cleansing resource rather than one that brings fear and harm to you. Just like books, texting is changing the way kids think, act, and communicate, and this is bringing danger into their lives when teens least expect it. By burning the books they thought they were creating safety for society. If we get rid of texting, that will create safety for our society as well.

Scenario

I am not a licensed therapist. Nor do I have any degree in psychology. I am a hard working stay at home mom. I am dedicated to giving everything up for my kids. This past week has been very stressful though because my child was hit by a car while he was walking home from his girlfriend's house. He has broken 3 ribs, has permanent brain damage, and has fractured his spinal cord. It almost came to the point to him being paralyzed. This could have been prevented if it weren't for my sons addiction to his cell phone. He had just left her house and was already texting the girl. Not only was my son texting, but the driver in the car that hit him was as well. He walked right into the road without doing what he was taught-- look left, then right, then left again--instead he just kept walking while looking at his phone. You would think it would be common sense to stop before crossing, but research shows that each generation, kids are becoming more attached to their phones, and each year kids younger and younger are receiving cell phones from their parents. Should I scold my child for texting and not paying attention, or should I give him all the love I can so he makes it through his injuries? Should texting be excommunicated from the country because it is creating more harm than anything? How can we handle this situation in a properly manner without making our society angry with our decisions?

Teen Addiction to Texting

Above the Influence Foundation,

I am here today to inform you about a crisis that is happening all throughout the United States for many years. That being said, I am becoming convinced that this generation of teens faces a new addiction of texting. I see kids who text during movies, in class, and even during worship services and Bible Study. Although teens get told many times that texting is a problem and it needs to be cut back, I don't think they will stop this nonsense. Why? Because much of their actions and the way they take in this advice resembles that most of them don’t care and they all are considered addicts. "I honestly don’t think there's anything that can make me stop texting." or "I don’t think anything will happen to me when I text and drive because I feel like I'm a good enough texter." (anonymous) These are quotes from teens that were questioned about their texting addiction. As a mother, I often talk to my kids about addiction-drugs and alcohol, but how many of us have conversations with our kids about an addiction to cell phones? I understand that kids text each other because they are relational and they want to stay connected with others. Don’t get me wrong, I am human too. I have been guilty of texting when I should have been paying attention in a meeting. I understand that this is the way they communicate. Somewhere, somehow, responsible adults like me need to draw a line and say, "enough is enough." We need to recognize that texting can cause more harm than good in some situations. While the popularity of mobile phones has grown enormously in the past two decades, it's still unclear how greatly cell phone calls and texting contribute to car crashes. What is clear is that talking on the phone and texting behind the wheel both lead to distraction, and driver inattention is the leading cause of accidents.

I did some research and found that in 2008, at any given moment, over 800,000 Americans were texting, making calls, or using a handheld cell phone while driving during the daytime. With distracted driving killing nearly 6,000 Americans in the same year, it's no mystery that cell phone use is risky for drivers. Despite the risks, the majority of teen drivers ignore the cell phone driving rules. Did you know that 56% of teenagers admit to talking on their cell phones behind the wheel, while 13% admit to texting while driving? As you can see, this number is extremely high, and it doesn’t seem to be decreasing any bit. 48% of young Americans from 12-17 say they've been in a car while the driver was texting, and each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year. Four out of a hundred doesn’t seem like many, but if you compare it to how many people live in the United States, 4% of humans is an immense amount and it should not be this way.

"Please silence all cell phones" pops up on the screen in every movie theater. Teens are always trying to find their way around things. Most kids listen to this statement when they get into the theater, they turn the volume on their phones to SILENT! Sure, they are following what the screen told them, but they know that’s not what the theater was trying to get across. We all know what "doing the right thing" means, but many of us think it is okay if we don’t always follow the rules. What's the worst that could happen? Lifestyle has changed in the past generation for children. I see parents with their kids, and instead of the parent being the boss, the child is telling the adult what to do. How can parents and adults allow such behavior? It has come to a point where we are too afraid to punish our kids because we feel bad if we do so. I will admit that yes I do threaten to punish my kids, but do I ever follow through with it? Of course not, because I love my children and I never want to see them cry or get hurt, and I believe that each and every other mother would back me up on this statement. The real question though is who is the blame for the obsession? Part of it is their own, having to do with responsibility, but some of this blame falls on us as parents. Parents are roll models to children and we have to set good examples for them to follow. When my kids see me texting they think it is okay for them to as well, but when I see my children texting I am always telling them to stop, yet I keep doing it. My kids always try to tell me that it isn't fair when I do this, but the truth is, I never have realized it before. Our society is to blame for this craze of technology, and it seems we are not able to operate a normal life without any electronical device.

Now, I am not for or against this issue that I bring up. I am simply stating the problem and giving a few solutions in creating a better society. I have put a lot of thought and dedication into making my decisions clear and understandable so that all citizens can manage my choices. Getting rid of texting in general, is that a reasonable option? Many may disagree. It is an efficient, quick, and easy way to communicate with others, yet it is a distraction. Like I said before, it is doing more bad than good to us all. This may be a probable and a quick fix to the situation, but it is not going to go ever well with the people that live in this country. Another option consists of just banning texting while driving. This can prevent many deaths and crashes to form a safer public living space for everyone. A few states have passed this law already, but I believe it should become a world wide law that everyone should follow or serious consequences will follow. This law doesn’t necessarily have to be permanent, but it could be more of an experiment to see if it works. With that being said, we could also experiment with having your child get a cell phone at a certain age and no earlier. I am not sure if this would work because people of every age text. This would be just like driving and getting your license. You have to be a certain age where people believe that you are responsible enough to handle a phone, because, from what I spoke of earlier about young children getting phones, responsibility is a major action when it comes to receiving a phone. All of my solutions are clear and I believe there are many more, but what I am trying to say is that texting is supposedly changing how we act, think, and communicate but not for the better and it is our job to change the dark road our society is heading on.

Sincerely,

Emma Jansen

Great Expectations

“I was always treated as I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading of my best friend.” (page 20) In the beginning, Pip—an orphaned boy raised by his domineering sister and her kind husband—was his own best friend. He had no one there to support and comfort him, no one to give him encouragement, no one to love him and tell him his purpose in life. Pip is living in innocence, the stage of life where situations stumble upon you and you become flustered and afraid. The fact of the matter is in these situations you can’t expect anything and you have to know who to trust. Pip’s life and expectations make for the drama of this novel, Great Expectations, on his journey to rediscovering himself where mishaps happen from day one and secrets start to take place where Pip begins to ponder about his decision to keep his first secret to himself.

“ It felt very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known.” Have you ever thought what it might be like to be alone all the time with no direction in life, fighting for yourself just so you can make it to the next day, but for what? Just to do the same thing again tomorrow. Many of us wonder if life is even worth living. Every morning of my life when I wake up I have a list going through my head of things I have to get done. That is something to live for. Pip, on the other hand, is much like the person I described first, but this is because he is an innocent and deprived child. “I looked all around for the horrible young man, and could see no signs of him. But now I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping.” (page 5) Pip was encountered with something unexpected as he wandered though the marshes near the churchyard one morning. He approaches an unpleasant man—all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, broken shoes, and an old rag tied around his head. A man who limped, and shivered and glared, and growled. He demanded Pip to answer many unnecessary questions, and the young boy had no other option that to answer him. Threats were made towards him if Pip didn’t get what the convict wanted—a file. Shaking the poor boy vigorously up and down, Pip was terrified. What had he gotten himself into? He definitely was not prepared for an event like this. At this moment, Pip woke up from his mindset of there being no excitement, no purpose. Although he was scared, he now had an adventure ahead of him.

After Pip hurries home, the next day he has to awake bright and early fore he had a job to take care of. He searches to find the file in the kitchen and soon finds it and heads off into the misty mashes where he hopes to find the convict. This was Pip’s first step in unfolding his life before him. “…think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” (page 24) This event was the first link of Pip’s chain. It built his character, changing him into a young man. He learned for his mistake of listening to the convict, trusting him, and hiding it from his family. As a child, or even an adult, we make mistakes that we regret, but the best thing to do is learn from them and become a stronger person on the inside and out. Life does have a purpose, life can be filled with excitement, but it doesn’t just appear in front of you. You can’t expect it to happen for you, pursue it and make it happen.

Pip has expectations that are far too great for him to comprehend, yet he still learns to understand what life is truly about. It only took one moment, in the churchyard with the unattractive man, to realize that he can only trust himself. By the end of his road he did find comfort, encouragement, and love. All it takes is one person and one opportunity to change your way of life. There may be moments when you are afraid or scared of what could happen because you are expecting a bad ending to a bad beginning, but it’s all up to you and how you look at things and you can expect something greater. In the novel, Great Expectations, Pip’s journey in rediscovering himself is a success due to his first decision with the convict.

Veterans Essay

Once every year on the eleventh of November we honor our veterans—some still living and others that have passed-- who fought at war for our country. They risk everything—their family, friends, and even their own lives—to make sure that all citizens of the United States are safe and secure wherever they go. Brave men and women step foot on that battlefield everyday fighting not only for their own freedom, but the entire country's freedom as well. These people are dedicated to what they do because they know they are making a difference for this country. Some of these soldiers are family members or friends who we know; for them to take such an immense responsibility like fighting at war is astounding. Now, as we think and look back at all the soldiers and times they have had to jeopardize themselves and everything they have for us, is one day enough to honor all of these diverse men and women? Your answer to this may be different to how others answer it, but the real answer is no. Every day you should appreciate and admire the courage and strength each and every man and woman give to create safety, freedom, and rights for us.

Many of us take for granted how fortunate we are to live in a country like the United States of America. “I am proud to be am American where at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.”~Lee Greenwood. Have you ever thought how we got to this point in time right now? How did we get this freedom and independence? All of the answers to these questions are because of the veterans. Too few of us take the day, November 11, as a joke and don’t realize the importance of that day. Without these kinds of authoritative and enduring soldiers we may not be here today. Don’t take things for granted especially when it comes to your own freedom, because it is others brave enough to put their life on the line to get us to the liberty that we are able to experience today. Honor our veterans, honor our soldiers, honor those who have made a difference for this country.