Blog #8: Thematic Connections

                Throughout the semester we have seen common thematic connections in the texts and movies we have seen. These thematic connections include

·         Reality

·         Utopia

·         Dystopia

·         Ignorance

·         Free Will

·         Determinism

·         Ethics

·         Morality

In my opinion, the most important of the connections would be Free Will. From the beginning of the semester, I was not aware of how much the idea of choice would come up. Looking back on it, In comparison to the text of “The Allegory of the Cave”, the first text we analyzed, I felt as though the prisoner Socrates describes to Glaucon is limited for the fact that he was held captive all his life. It is not until he is released and becomes aware of reality that he goes back and decides that although painful, reality is for the better. He ultimately had the choice of returning to the cave but decided otherwise. I didn’t understand the importance of Free Will until it began coming up in Movies and Text such as “The Matrix” and “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report”. The connection with all of the works we have seen this semester is that all characters are faced with options and a decision and they all deal with it differently with somewhat of the same outcome.

At the beginning of English 101, my idea on free will  seemed to be more narrow in the sense that I was not convinced that the characters free will and so much effect on what was supposedly determined for them and I didn’t become open to this idea until we watched “Gattaca”. In the movie “Gattaca” Vincent is genetically disadvantaged at birth not being genetically engineered like his brother Anton and is predetermined to face heart failure by the age of 30. Despite being incapable of getting the same jobs and having the same advantages as someone who is genetically designed, he faces the odds, and goes by unethical means to take on a job he has always hoped for. Like the other characters, he knows what his against him and choses to prevail. Free will in every text we have used this semester outweighs the theme of determinism which comes up as often however I believe Free Will has been more important.

Blog 7: Reflection on blogging

In my experience, in the past few weeks using blogger has allowed me to compare my progress from the beginning of English 101 until now. It has also given me the option to compare and contrast my progress to that of my classmates although I must admit I haven’t taken full advantage of this perk. Compared to writing in a journal, blogger gives others the option of critiquing my work whether they chose to or not which is beneficial in the sense that I can see my flaws from people who do not necessarily know me and their opinion would not be biased. The drawbacks to having blogger is that it is a permanent display of my writing which I may not be fully comfortable with people seeing late on down the road but at the same token it shows my level of writing at this time in my life. With having this blog, I have seen in what areas of my writing I excel in and what areas in can work on which are expanding my vocabulary and working on not getting lost in my idea and focusing more on the topic at hand.

Ultimately, I do not feel that knowing everything that I have posted on my blog is public has change the way I view myself as a writer. I think my focus is more on me completing our assignments and assessing how I can complete these task in the best way I can that not only shows my understanding of the topic, but that I challenged myself. I believe that if blogging has changed me as a writer it has been for the better. An example of this is the minimum word use and the time deadline that is assigned to us. I feel this has helped me to organize my ideas quicker and make sure that I have the ability to write lengthy blogs.

Coming into this class, I felt that one of my weaknesses was not writing essays or journals, but actually beginning them. It has always been a struggle for me to clearly state what it is that I would be writing about in the first place because there was so many ideas that I wanted to talk about and had trouble staying focused with what I originally was discussing but over this period of time blogging has helped me slowly eliminate that issue.

Blog 6: Free will and determinism

Free will discuses ones ability to act without precaution where determinism discuses the idea that all of ones actions are premeditated. In the Movie “Minority Report” director Steven Spielberg plays with the idea that everything in fact is predetermined and that free will cease to exist yet at the end we see freedom of choice occur. In the play “Oedipus the King” the viewers are left with the impression one has free will yet will always be confronted with the fact that fate cannot be changed. So is it in fact possible that free will and determinism cannot exist without the other?

In the “Minority report”, the viewer sees a world which is murder-free thanks to a system known as pre-crime, which stops foreseen murders (predicted by precogs, foster children who were experimented on)  from happening before they are committed. With the idea that this system is for the better of mankind, the theme of the movie raises eyebrows, making one question what justice is being served if in fact these murders never take place at all? “Free Will and Determinism” by Michael Huemer, raises the idea that these precogs alter the future by predicting the actions of these individuals making their visions invalid. The pre-crime system was able to function by brainwashing society into seeing the positive of pre-crime and overlooking the flaws of the system, like all systems in fact have. At the end of the movie, we see that in fact we do have a choice other than what is pre-determined for us but we then question what say do we have in our fates if the outcome are controlled by others.

Like The “Minority Report”, “Oedipus the King” shows how destiny is predetermined. Trying to escape the reality of his father’s murder, he runs off to Thebes and becomes king, marrying his mother a short while after. Suppressing the fact that he indeed killed his father, he becomes ignorant and disobedient, ignoring the advice of the prophets who made him aware that he would be confronted with truth soon. He finally discovers he is in fact is fathers murderer and his wife was actually his mother, whom he had a child with. Oedipus was so consumed with the idea that he find the murderer, that instead of altering his destiny, he drove himself right into what was predetermined for him by nature. Unlike the case of John Anderton, in the “Minority Report” who after learning the truth of his fate finally decided he had a choice to decide his own destiny yet ultimately the same outcome arose. In both cases the two characters free will drove them to the same conclusion that is shown to the viewers.

Though both “Minority Report” and “Oedipus the King” make one question do free will and determinism coincide the outcome of the play and movie were different. “Minority Report” shows that we as humans have the ability to use our free will to change our fates. “Oedipus the King” ends with the thought that trying to escape what we are destined for will only drives us that much faster to the harsh truth of our fates. Both situations show we can take control of our lives regardless of outside forces yet sometimes those outside forces unconsciously bring us to our realities that much faster.