Matrix Essay

            In the movie The Matrix, there are many historical and cultural references to books, films, mythology and history that are used in the film to develop the characters and convey the film’s message across to the audience.  The allusion I chose to discuss, which clarifies the theme of the movie was the animated Disney film Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll’s original book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  The protagonist of the film, Neo, shares many similarities with the adventures that Alice experienced, but in completely different ways and about 200 years in the future.  Furthermore, Alice’s experiences and struggles have been read, watched and understood by millions of people, making it a great reference to portray Neo’s struggle and the film’s theme of reality vs. the Matrix.
    

One connection of Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix is that in the beginning of the story each of them are offered a choice.  They can decide their fate and they are well aware of this privilege.  However, they both had something brave in them and went into the unknown.  With Neo, Morpheus takes him into a room and prepares him for the worst.  He reminds him that there is no turning back now and says, “I imagine that right now, you’re feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole.”Morpheus uses that reference to try to relate to Neo at this difficult time.  When trying to explain the Matrix he offers him two different pills.  First, Morpheus offers Neo the blue pill and says, “You take the blue pill, the story ends you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.”  Then he continues, “Or you take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” 

Blog 6

Blog 6: The idea of the prison house of language

In the allegory of the cave Socrates refers to the "prison-house of sight." More recent philosophers and thinkers have talked about the prison-house of language (most notably Jacques Lacan and Fredric Jameson). This week you did some preliminary research on the concept. Write a short essay explaining the concept in your own words and give some examples for your readers. Possible audiences would be your classmates and students in other LaGuardia classes (for example my ENG 99 students)

Blog 5

The Allegory of the Cave

     The Allegory of the Cave is written by the philosopher Plato, but is told in the perspective of his mentor Socrates.  Socrates tells his friend Glaucon the story of people who have been chained down in a cave their whole lives.  There is only a little bit of light along the cave from a fire, which is all the people know.  Socrates suggests to Glaucon to then take the people out of the cave and introduce them to sunlight.  He wonders what would happen if they saw the sun, if they would run away to the cave or embrace it and take pity on those who can’t experience it.  He then suggests that the people might try to kill the one who left for trying to persuade them to go outside.  The cave is all they know and no matter how convincing his argument is they won't leave.

     What Socrates is trying to explain to Glaucon with this hypothetical story is that humans live in pure ignorance and they refuse to accept the truth no matter what.  These people have lived their whole lives in a single illusion and that's what they choose to believe.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Blog 4: The Allegory of the Cave through History

(in-class on Tuesday)
Plato uses the allegory of the cave to discuss the situations in life where people live in an illusion or refuse to accept the truth. Discuss such a situation from human history and explain what the illusion was; you can use internet resources but do not simply copy/paste them. Also, do include the full website where you found your information.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Throughout the “Cold War”  there was in fact no actual physical war, it remained verbal as the United States, Cuba and the U.S.S.R  (Soviet Union) constantly threatened each other.  The one and only time it became close to violent was during the Cuban Misille Crisis in 1962.  To this day we aren’t positive why they were created or even if they were going to attack the U.S.             The government only confirmed that the were building missiles and what type of missiles they were.  I believe the whole “crisi” was an illusion that the government told the people of the United States and elsewhere around the world, to scare us and persuade us to take action against Cuban and the Sovet Union.  I beleve it was a staged event to put us all in panicked state while we gave our government power to do as they wish.  I believe it is a very similar situation to the “weapons of mass destruction” in the Middle East.

The world was told that we almost entered a,”nuclear war”  during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  But during a crisis like so

and excuse for the bay of pigs

no alert was ever issued

We wanted them to take their missiles out no matter what

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#U-2_flights_find_missiles
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cuban_missile_crisis.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/cuba.htm
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war16.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html
http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/03-cold-war-timeline.htm
http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/04-cuban-missile-crisis-timeline.htm
http://www.mgr.org/sect10.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M&feature=player_embedded
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/115a/history/cubanmissle.html

Blog 3

Things I believed when I was younger...

• I used too believe in the tooth fairy until she didn’t leave money under my pillow anymore.  My mom said she, “forgot.”
• Santa Claus didn’t respond to my letter.
• I believed in ghosts until my dad told me they didn’t exist
• I used to believe in peter pan and that I could fly.
• I used to think Billy Joel’s name was Billy idol.
• Clowns were evil.
• Vampires.
• Clifford the big red dog.
• I used to think when adults drank alcohol they were alcoholics but I learned only when they drink too much.  I told mom dad was an alcoholic after a summer at my dad’s house and then she explained to me.
• All adults were suppose to be nice until I had my 2^nd grade P.E. teacher
• There was a purple house down the street that I thought was haunted but then it was knocked down a few months later.
• I would never go trick or treating alone because I thought it was scary, but I learned no ghosts were going to hurt me.
• I would cry every time I walk into a cemetery.
• My mom told me I was a great singer, until my friends laughed at me.
• I thought cigarettes were drugs and I saw the neighbor smoking and tattled, but I learned from my sister that they were just tobacco.
• Candy man in the mirror, until I did it at a sleepover
• I thought my sisters were my full sisters, but my teacher told me they were my half sisters because we had a different dad.
• My friends told me I was a mistake because I was so much younger than my sisters.
• My sister told me if I kissed a boy that my mouth would turn green.

Blog 1

         As a society, we are forced to act a certain way when in public, compared to our usually selves in private.  Take New York for example, our lives are constantly under pressure to act a certain way everyday.  This pressure can be problematic as it can affect our individuality, sometimes at a slow pace, or rapidly.  There is a New York standard that we live up to and an attitude we thrive for.  Our behavior in public is very different than at home.  This change of attitude can even be subconscious from repetition, but we want our behavior to give a good impression when in public.

         Public transportation is a way New Yorkers get from here to there on a daily basis.  How you look or act on the train can affect they way you are portrayed in public.  These strangers make a snap judgment on your appearance or behavior no matter what.  There is a constant need to look good in New York.  Some people won’t even leave the house without make up and their new suit or outfit on.  When you see a person on train with last season’s shoes or a mismatched outfit you immediately judge.  When I am home I will wear different color socks and my pajamas or something comfortable, but I would not be caught dead in public with that outfit.  We like to look “put together” and successful as if we have something to prove to these other people.  Even a total stranger’s opinion matters to me and to most New Yorkers.  Which is why we choose to dress or look the way we do.  This pressure can be very problematic, but will remain unchanged.  No matter what we do people will always judge and we will always care.

         New Yorkers also tend to forget their manners in public.  Everyone is always in a rush to get somewhere and our behavior changes.  Instead of saying “thank you” and using the magic word “please,” we push past people and curse at each other if someone walks to slow.  The New York lifestyle is very fast paced and chaotic and after you live here for a while you get used to it.  But when we see tourists we roll our eyes, we scream “SHIT” when we miss a train even if there are children around.  We forget that we aren’t the only people in the city and our behavior can seriously offend others.  Being impolite and selfish is seriously problematic because all of our actions can affect the people around us.  We laugh at homeless people instead of thinking about what they have been through.  We forget that everyone struggles with things that you couldn’t even imagine.  We take that out on people around us instead of working on it at home.  But when we get home we like to be relaxed and with our family.  The at home attitude is what we should also be feeling in public, but for some reason we don’t and most of us never will.

         In conclusion, our private and public lives will continue to remain separate lives because of the pressure on us by society and our lifestyle.  Perhaps we can learn to just be ourselves everywhere we go but we feel as if we are constantly under a microscope.  I feel that if we learn to stop judging each other, we can learn to treat each other with respect and understand them more from just one look.

         

Draft For Blog 1

Hello world, my name is Shannon Marie and I am currently a student at Laguardia Community College.  I just started this blog for my English Composition class to post my essays and any other written materials i might have.  I have always wanted to start a blog and this class gives me a chance to start!  I will be on later to write a little bit more.

See you later,

Shan