We as a society create things with no idea of the consequences. It is not that we are all stupid, or have harmful intentions- it’s that we cannot possibly foresee the result of our actions. It is shown in some of our greatest literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to something more modern, like our iPhones. Originally created for better communication, due to the advancement of technology, the iPhone now lets us look anything up without lifting a finger using the feature Siri- in addition to better communication. However, though our iPhones, or smartphones for that matter, allow us to contact on social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat, they isolate us from our surroundings. We have all been in a conversation where one person is engaged on their phone rather than speaking to us. In fact, an article written by Katherine Hobson states that in a survey done of adults ages 19-32 “People who reported spending the most time on social media — more than two hours a day — had twice the odds of perceived social isolation.”
As for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the main protagonist of the novel, Victor Frankenstein, spent months devoting his time to creating a creature that ultimately destroyed his life, killing all of the people Victor loved, leaving Victor in a state of despair. This revenge on the people Victor loved, was the reaction out of the extreme loneliness and alienation, a consequence of the creature not being like the world around them. Victor Frankenstien was driven by his ambition to create his creature, which clouded his judgment. In his work process Victor Frankenstien never once thought of how the create would react, or how the world would, and ultimately ambition was his fatal flaw. Though something that seems positive, ambition, when there is too much of it is one of humanities tragic flaws.
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The drill is always the same, at the beginning of every semester each teacher has us, the students, reflect on the past semester. As the new semester starts and I reflect on the previous months, I can with confidence say I have bettered as a writer. There is no doubt that over the first semester of my sophomore year, each assignment I wrote improved my work, however, in the past, this is always how my work was improved. A slow and gradual development, whereas at the end of the semester one paper stands out in improving my writing with a quick and sudden change. In my class of World Studies, I was to write an essay, the requirements of which were challenging. I was to tie William Golding’s critically acclaimed novel Lord of the Flies, and the French Revolution with the overarching theme of fear. I have had teachers and lawyers tell me that just from the description the paper it sounded challenging, and that was an understatement. After I completed a rough draft I had a teacher review my work. The feedback I received wasn’t that I had misinterpreted the instructions, but the teacher I suggested I approach the material a different way and to help me out they gave me a few possible ideas. It was the day before the paper was due and being told this sent me into a state of panic. Thoughts like “ I’ll never get this done,” or “ how will I do this,” were consistently repeating in my mind and though I told the teacher I didn’t know if there was enough time to change my paper, they urged me to do so. I ended up deleting most of my work and starting over with the bare bones of my idea.
After I had completed my essay and had the satisfying moment of clicking the button that turned in my work, I was glad I was pushed to change my paper. I learned how to step out of my comfort zone as a writer, by accepting feedback which challenged me to do something completely different, an important quality I lacked before. Instead of writing a three paragraph essay which explained the Lord of the Flies, The French Revolution, and fear, I wrote an essay of how Lord of the Flies was an example of fear in the individuals and the French Revolution was fear in a group and how fear drives the decisions we make. Regarding, my school work, stepping out of my comfort zone is difficult for me. It is important to me to get good grades, it is part of a larger goal of mine, and I know that the idea of stepping out of my comfort zone is stressful because I fear that it will be the result of a bad grade. With this recent skill I’ve obtained, I know now that I am able to step out of my comfort zone, for example put a difficult idea down in words as I did in this essay, and that gives me the confidence as a writer that I am able to try new ideas with no fear and push myself to produce my best work. Like most things, there is still progress to be made. After turning in my paper and receiving feedback on my final product, my errors were not with the ideas itself, but with the quotations, which were in the "developing stages." I had given the page numbers and source from the texts I had taken from Lord of the Flies and articles about the French Revolution, however, I wrote my citations in the first person and was informed in the feedback given, it was to be written in third. When the class was given instructions on how to write the essay I know it said what to do with the quotations, but I failed to read it and this can be attributed to a bad habit of not carefully reading and reviewing the material. This is a fault I have not yet conquered and have realized I struggle with it in all of my classes. Just like New Year's resolutions that we make at the beginning of the year, teachers often have us make goals for the new school year. After much reflection on all my classes, (not just World Studies the class I mentioned previously), I have fully become aware this is something that I need to work on, and I will make it my goal to fix it. I can start my completing of this goal by checking the rubric/instructions at the beginning and end of my work, making sure I have what I need and what is required. After reviewing the instructions myself I can seek out feedback from other classmates on if I understood the instructions correctly. As the year goes on I might try or develop new techniques in completing my goal, and I look forward to seeing what those are and progressing even more than I have. Harmatia; a term derived from Greek, the official definition being “ a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero.” Many characters have a fatal flaw, ones that can often be their undoing, however, people believe that it extends beyond literature and that humanity has a fatal flaw. Instead of one, there are actually many, but that all narrow down to Greed, Pride, and Power, three words that will be the main focus of our paragraph to come, and how not only are they in the books we read and the movies we watch but within our society. Humans are greedy. Wars are started because someone wants more land or wants to take resources that the other land has like oil. Maybe that's due to the fact that everything cost a lot now. You can see it for yourself in movies, specifically ones based on true stories. You can see the greed in movies like Deepwater Horizon. The movie follows Mike Williams who is a mechanic for the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon. Shortly after he arrives he sees that many things on the ship need repairs. When he addresses the CEO, Donald Vidrine, he just shrugs it off leaving Mike a little aggravated. Ironically after Donald being told something needs to be done soon, the rig explodes. Mike quickly gets to his feet and starts getting his friends to safety. People start jumping off into the water to swim to rescue boats. They start taking role of everybody who should be there, eleven people didn't respond… Now that we’ve talked about greed, it’s time to get into pride. Pride is something seen in so many characters, specifically Achilles and Oedipus Rex two examples of characters whose pride was ultimately their downfall. Achilles, one of the greatest warriors in Greek mythology, met his fate because he believed he was completely invincible, only to die from a wound to his ankle. Oedipus Rex, another character from an ancient Greek story, who had so much pride he ignored his own prophecy given to Oedipus by the gods. His prophecy was that he would kill his father and marry his mother, things that eventually all happened and resulted with a despairing Oedipus stabbing his eyes out. We often see this in real life, hundreds of years after this stories were written. Granted there are not any ankles or prophecies from gods, but in our society, an overwhelming amount of pride can be a dangerous thing. Take political leaders for instance, too much their pride can have devastating effects on people, whether it’s the words they speak or the actions they do, if it’s fed by pride, it can lead to the harm of others. To quote an article from The Washington Post it says, ”A leader with an overweening, compulsive pride finds it difficult to learn or change”, and, “ A narcissistic leader finds it difficult to feel sympathy for those regarded as failures and losers, for the wounded and disabled, for strangers, refugees and the vulnerable.” Think of that too, on smaller scale, not every political leader is overly prideful, but not every overly prideful person is a political leader, meaning there are everyday people who are and act like this towards the people around them. The last flaw left is power, something that is fueled by both pride and greed. In the world of the popular fiction book, the Hunger Games power is one of the strongest themes throughout the book. The Capitol, the government system within the book, holds all the power. To maintain that power and show it off they pick two kids from each district and makes them fight to the death while broadcasting it on live TV all in the effort to let the people know who is in power and look what they can do with it. Now a little different, because we as a society haven’t reached that state yet, however power is still a fatal flaw within humanity. Again using political leaders, Nixon and the Watergate scandal that came from Nixon trying to become reelected, is just one example out of so any individuals, of power getting to someone's head. Humans have many flaws. These seem to tie together. Greed for example could be caused my money. People want money and things money buys. If you have nothing, you are nothing. This is how society works. Having so much nice stuff with some extra money gives people a sense of pride. With pride, comes power because you can't truly have power without a sense of pride. People will do whatever they can to get to the top of the food chain. Lie, cheat and steal. In some cases… kill. It is very true when people say that money/greed can change a person. When someone dawns those two traits chances are they have power. Greed plus pride equals power Paragraph 1: 100% Isabel
Paragraph 2: 50% Brandon, 50% Isabel Paragraph 3: 100% Brandon Art Idea : Brandon Sources: Google: Character flaw. (2017, July 28). Retrieved August 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_flaw Shmoop Editorial Team. The Hunger Games Theme of Power. 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/hunger-games/power-theme.html. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Tragic Flaw Examples. softschools.com/examples/literary_terms/tragic_flaw_examples/239/. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. IMBD: Dunkirk (2017). www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Free State of Jones (2016). www.imdb.com/title/tt1124037/?ref_=nv_sr_3. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Lone Survivor (2013). www.imdb.com/title/tt1091191/?ref_=nv_sr_1. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Deepwater Horizon (2016).” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1860357/?ref_=nv_sr_1. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. |
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