To speak; to produce sounds or audible sequences of individual or concatenated sounds of a language. Though this is the scientific way of looking at the act of articulating, there is so much more on an emotional stand point of speaking. Whatever you’re feeling, you always want to tell it to your friends and family; but, what if something happened? What if something happened so heinous and horrid that you couldn’t talk? Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson shows the importance of communication with others.
As summer was drawing to a fun-filled end, happy go lucky Melinda Sordino, the soon to be ninth grade protagonist and her “BFF” Rachel were headed to a party. Once the two friends had made it to the party, they soon find out there was alcohol on the premises. Though not shocking for any standard high school party, they were underage. Being naïve and in a way feebleminded, they each took a beer and didn’t think anything off it. As our main character becomes less and less sober, she and a stranger lock eyes. The protagonist is so happy knowing that she may actually have an older boyfriend going in to high school, but this was surely not an equal thought. When they finally start to talk, they seem to hit it off well and they decided to go for a walk. Melinda's meeting of an older boy who leads her away from the safety of numbers and into unknown danger is a common scenario you would likely see in a safety video. As they walk farther and farther away from the party, the unspeakable thing happens to Melinda. The high schooler she thought about being the one who would protect her, raped her. Like most rape victims, the rape affected Melinda tremendously and caused a downward spiraling of her emotional health. Not only is the rape an unbearable event to deal with alone, the whole school was shunning her for calling the cops during the party. Because of these events Melinda goes into a stage of being unsocial towards any and all people. This is as clear as glass during the hours she is in high school. Because of this, Melinda starts failing classes left and right except for Art. This may be because she can express her true feelings without the awful comments of peers. The art piece that is truthful to this statement is the turkey carcass sculpture in the chapter “Wishbone” (pages 61-65). In this piece a head of a Barbie figurine is resting inside of a turkey with tape place over her mouth. This array of horrific sight may be a metaphor for what she is going through in her dreadful life. Many may be shocked at this and think she may be an “Emo” or a “Goth” because of this, but at least she letting it out in a safe and nonviolent way. As the story progresses, our protagonist life goes from bad to worse when the rapist turns out to be a student at the same school. Knowing this fact mentally torments her every day. Many couldn’t believe that this could actually happen, but it could, and it does.
Though rape is a thing nobody would ever want to experience, what happened to Melinda is not the most uncommon thing. According to the Rape, Abused, and Incest National Network 29% of all rapes are between the ages of 12-17 years old. As stated before Melinda knows the rapist as the story goes on and this is true with actual rapes. 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker, just as Melinda knew the rapist who soon revealed to the reader by his name, Andy Evans. Even though Melinda is a fictional character she realistically depicted the effect caused by rape. Contemplating suicide, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are just a few of the terrible, terrible symptoms Melinda faced. Thankfully Melinda tries to communicate about the traumatic events and isn’t shunned or looked at as a mental patient, but is embraced with kindness needed to overcome the past.
Whether it be texting about a funny YouTube video or having a deep conversation about important subjects, communication can start and or improve relationships with others. With Melinda finally trusting someone, her life is now enhanced knowing that she can tell someone what is on her mind freely. Because of this, she can now begin a new life.
A Response to Brave New World
Birth: the act of creation. This procedure is the act of producing the next generation of our kind. Producing one who may change the world, whether it is good or bad. But what if this basic human instinct was placed on to machines? What if humans were grown and harvested as though vegetation on a rural farm or garden? Though these horrific and unthinkable events maybe just thoughts, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley shows the strange dystopian world it would be like if humans were born by machines.
The story is set in a London six hundred years in the future. People all around the world are part of a state run by a dictator, free from war, hatred, poverty, disease, and pain. They enjoy leisure time and material wealth. However, though this town seems to be a utopian world, all is not well. In order to maintain such a smoothly running society, the ten people in charge of the world, the Controllers, eliminate most forms of freedom while also twisting around many of the traditional human values. A realistic form of the Controllers may have been Adolf Hitler because of how he treated Germany and of its people. These rulers of this dystopia also believe that the process of Standardization is a value worth allowing. Though this way of life may be less problematic what these dreadful dictators are missing is the creativity stand point. But, with all that aside, how these tyrants keep this rule of standards across. These Controllers create human beings in factories, using technology to make ninety-six perfectly “normal” babies from the same fertilized egg and to condition them for their future lives. After the birthing process and the infant stage these test tube children are raised together and subjected to mind control through sleep teaching to further condition them. All the children spend their free time indulging in harmless and mindless entertainment and sports activities. As adults, people are content to fulfill their destinies as part of five social classes, from the intelligent Alphas, who run the factories, to the mentally challenged Epsilons, who do the most menial jobs. Teaching the lower groups such as the Epsilons is a very abusive task. So the child learns to hate books and more specifically reading, the spray them with high-powered jets of water. This technique might work for calming a riot down, but for these teachers to use it a kids is just crude and psychotic at the very least. Having these social classes though improving the overall standard of the workday, the rulers of this “chimerical” country are turning the citizens into workaholic, brain-dead, robots.
From making toast to making Toyotas, machines make our lives a lot easier. But though the act of childbirth can have many dangers and can be quite painful, is doesn’t mean we have to have machines carry out the procedure and let us go off and do something else. Even though there are afflictions, without them there would be no love for it for that pain can make love and relationships grow. Though Huxley was writing a satirical piece of fiction, not scientific prophecy, it is a sure sign of what may become of the human race if we let robots take care of everything.
Symbolism In Santa
When people think of Christmas they might think of family, food, presents, and travel. However, most likely when people think of Christmas they think of Santa Claus. For those who don’t know of him, Santa Claus is a character that is in many Christmas stories from the famous Christmas poem entitled The Night before Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. He also known to deliver presents to the good girls and boys on the night of December 24. But is there more to this holly jolly fellow than meets the eye? Is there really symbolism in Santa? Some may call this hogwash, but I believe there is.
As children run down the stairs in their little footy pajamas, they hope that their list of toys and goodies are located beneath the Christmas tree, but at the same time hope that they weren’t bad enough to get the worst present ever: coal. As many know, Santa distinguishes nice and naughty by punishing those who are naughty with a lump of coal. Many believe that the deep black color of the coal symbolizes evil because of its negative connotation (blacklist, black mail, 'black death'). This dark combustible mineral substance also may symbolize the soul of the child if he or she continues there naughty ways of life.
Though this somewhat dark side of Santa seems a bit evil for a children’s character, his symbols of niceness surely counterbalance the overall image of Saint Nicholas. He is probably best known for his red suit and cap; red being a color that represents joy, sensitivity, and love. There is little doubt that this color was used to lower the defenses of children and have them grow attraction to Santa. But, the number one greatest reason kids love Santa is that he brings lots of presents. This fact, and this fact alone, makes Christmas superior to the other holidays for youth. Some may say because of these gifts, this holiday has become more about receiving presents rather than the actual story of Christmas. Surely these events weren’t the original idea for Santa’s creators, but because of the symbolic aspect of Santa as the gift giver, parents focused on only that aspect missing the really great qualities of our jolly fellow completely.
Though this somewhat dark side of Santa seems a bit evil for a children’s character, his symbols of niceness surely counterbalance the overall image of Saint Nicholas. He is probably best known for his red suit and cap; red being a color that represents joy, sensitivity, and love. There is little doubt that this color was used to lower the defenses of children and have them grow attraction to Santa. But, the number one greatest reason kids love Santa is that he brings lots of presents. This fact, and this fact alone, makes Christmas superior to the other holidays for youth. Some may say because of these gifts, this holiday has become more about receiving presents rather than the actual story of Christmas. Surely these events weren’t the original idea for Santa’s creators, but because of the symbolic aspect of Santa as the gift giver, parents focused on only that aspect missing the really great qualities of our jolly fellow completely.
