evil

I have learned a lot in the first semester in English 213. I learned that many people think that humans are no longer using the concept of evil to regulate behavior. Therefore making people act in more harmful and cruel ways. I’ve also learned about satire and racism in America before the Civil War and how Mark Twain wrote the novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to satarize how society was in the US before the Civil War. I hope that in the second semester I can learn more things that are interesting.

I think that satire is sometimes a good way to entertain people with humor as well as to make them aware of the many social problems that we have had recently. For example, in class we talked about shows like the Daily Show or the Simpsons. They all are shows that entertain the audience with humor and makes them aware of what some problems of the American society are. I think that the reason they do this is because by using humor to indicate the problems with the world, they attract more audience. Most of the people love the satires because they now what the cretor of them wants to tell them and they understand the jokes. However, for the person who doesn’t agree with the satires that are created, the satires aren’t funny at all. In fact, they are offensive. In Borat, for example, i know many people loved it because they understood the jokes and thought that they were hillarious. On the other hand, I heard there wereplentiful people that hated Borat or even wnated him to go to court because they thought his movie was very offensive. Depending on the different kinds of views satires make people react in different ways. Personally, I usally like all those shows that are satires like the Daily Show or the Simpsons. I don’t find anything offensive about them. But I’ve known people that hated those kind of shows. Therefore, I feel that satires in some cases are useful to show people how bad the things are working in society, but they can also be bad in that people might be offended by them. Then the whole purpose of the satire has been defeated.

This morning we talked about Frederick Douglass and slavery. Many people though that the most surprising thing in the reading was how the slaves used songs to tell how miserable they are or so that they make their lives a little happier. However, I felt that there were other things that were more surprising. It said that the slave got 8 pounds of pork and a bushel of corn a month. That’s horrible! also, they didn’t get beds and they had two sets of clothing for a whole year. Instead of beds, the slaves would get blankets, but that is only the adult ones. The children didn’t get anything. THey just got very little food and a shirt. They did not get pants, or blankets or anything. I just felt that it was horrible how the people treated slaves. I just hope that nothing like this still happens today somewhere.

When I was reading about the Jim Crow Laws in Mr. Wasserman’s class, I found that many things about the laws were put in the novel A lesson Before Dying. I remember that in the book when grant went to visit Pichot he forgot to adress him with “Yes, sir” and things like that. This made Pichot and the other white guy very anooyed. I now realize that it is because at that time in the South there was a law that actually forced them to address every single white person with Sir or Ma’am. I just thought that the black people had to do that just because whites would beat them up or do something bad to them, but I didn’t know it was a law. That surprises me.

The other day in class, we talked about the war in Iraq and about what should we do about it. Many paople have many opinions. Some people say they want to retire all the troops at once to stop the american losses. Others say they want to put even more soldiers to make Iraq safer until they establish a democratic government. I say, that they should take the troops out of Iraq quickly. It was a huge mistake to overthrow the government and try to put a new one. What George Bush did there was make the country worse for it’s people and send many Americans to death. Before, Iraq had a stable governmnt with Sadam Hussein. Yes, he was a dictator, but Iraq was strong and there was order. However, George Bush had to go in there and take over the government using the excuse of Iraq having weapons of massive destruction and make Iraq have an unstable government. Now, even though Iraq doesn’t have a dictator, Iraq is in complete chaos and people are killing each other, along with the American troops. Just because Bush’s dream of having a democratic country in the middle East so that he can then have control of the oil there american troops souldn’t have to pay for it. The thing is though, now George Bush has gone so deep into the Iraq business that he cannot take away the troops immediately. They have to take the troops away slowly. First, they have to stop sending troops. Then they take the troops slowly and let the Iraqis deal wit their government. They should just have some troops to be there to make sure that there is no civil war or something like that. After that, if the Americans see that the Iraqis are making progress by themselves, they leave them. If there is still no peace in Iraq, then there is nothing more America can do. They have ruined a country so much that now nomatter what, Iraq is doomed. America should just leave and admit that what they did in Iraq was a disaster, just like the Vietnam War.

I’ve finished the book and this is defenetely the creepiest book I’ve ever read. At the end of the novel, Brendan and Gary go and take hostage all of of the school in a dance. It is horrible because everything is perfectly planned and all the doors to the gym have bombs attached to it and both of the teens had guns, loads of ammunition, and food! Obviously they are going to stand there for a very long time. First, when the gym tecaher tries to resist and defend the students, Brendan goes ahead and shoots him near the heart, missing the veins. Very lucky for the teacher. Then, they go to the football player that kept teasing Brendan and Brendan actually shot him in both of his knees. While he was bleeding, something surprising happened. The girl form the group that they had comes out and helps the football player. Brendan and gary are shocked. Brendan immediately threatens her and Gary tells her to get out of there. However, she goes on and helps the football player. Then the boys get in a huge discussion because they do not want their friend to be harmed. WHile they are arguing, one of the students free himself and starts freeing other people. Suddenly, Gary commits suicide right in the gym, but the reasons are unkown. Brendan confused, doesn’t notice that one of the football players has been freed from the ropes around him and tackles Brendan really hard. Soon, the police comes in with the ambulance and everyone is saved.

after reading the end of the novel I have noticed that Brendan and Gary were so miserable that they were driven to the point of insanity. They both took the whole school hostage and wanted to kill all of the bullies in the school. If anyone got in their way he or she would be dead. I understand that they can have a lot of hatred towards the football players, but why would they take the whole school hostage? They also shot some tecahers and almost even shot their own friends, so this wasn’t just about the football players. It was about their misery in life. That is why Gary commited suicide. What happened to these boys they went from nice kids to crazy mass killers, and that’s has a high score in the evil scale. I think that this book tells us that the reason people turn evil and start killing other people or commit other evil acts is because we treat them as freaks. We treat them as if they were inferior just becuse they are different. Of course, after many years of teasing and insulting these people, the hatred within them gets out and they suddenly are out to get everyone. This book has also tought me to respect other people more, or they will resent you for the rest of your life.

I highly recomend this book and I think it is defenetely worth reading. The only question still unanswered,though, is: Is teasing and isolating other people the reason why all the school shootings happen? If there are more reasons I hope to read more books about to comprehend even more what makes humans turn into people who commit evil acts.

I have now read 2/3 of the novel. So far the novel is getting darker and darker. Brendan and Gary are now very scary. Brendan has just bought a gun and they are both obsessed about it. They are now isolating themselves form the rest of the group. Their friends, are very worried one of them says that everyday after school they would meet somewhere and Gary and Brendan would shoot stuff while naming the people they wanted to kill. Also, one day Gary and Brendan gathered all of the group and they all went to the forest. The rest of the group didn’t know why, but it actually was because they were going to test a bomb. Gary and Brendan were very excited when they saw that the bomb was successful, but the rest of the group was freaked out. They all knew that Brendan was always a little sinister, but Gary too? He was one of school’s shyest kids.

I am know very freaked out by the events described in the book. Two boys get a gun and have fun shooting stuff while naming their future victims and manage to make a bomb that works. These kids have gone from compltetly innocent kids to horrible people who are about to commit evil and horrible acts. I was most surprised about how they managed to make the bomb. That takes a lot of time and planning, and were did they get the materials? It is obvious that these kids have worked hard in order to fabricate a bomb. Has the teasing caused all this, ort was it just that the evil that was in them since they were born has finally come out to get revenge in the people that are making them miserable, (go back to my first post about evil). I have yet to read the last third of the book. I just hope that it will answer all of my questions.

I am 1/3 of the book so far and many interesting things have happened. So far, the two main characters, Gary and Brendan have been introduced. Gary had come into the High School before Brendan did. Gary was a little bit over-weight, but he hasn’t been teased a lot. He really gets teased when he befriends Brendan. The bullies basically tease Brendan because he is different than all the normal kids and he wants to be different. Because Gary is his friend, they also tease him. Also, they tease the gorup of friends in which Gary and Brendan are.

It is horrible to see that this two new kids come to school and are completely teased just because they want to be different. Unluckily, this happens in all schools. As I read the book, I was surprised when a football player pushes Brendan into a locker really hard and a teacher, who was standing right there, didn’t do anything about it. I thought that the teacher would stop the bully or help Brendan, but he just stood there. This made Brendan hate the people in the school even more and more. Also, in gym class, the class was playing American Football and one of the football players tackeled Brendan really hard. They were playing TAG football. The tecaher, however, didn’t do anything. What really scared me was Brendan’s reaction. He said he wanted to get a gun, shoot the teacher, and then shoot the football player in both legs. Then he would leave him there and make him suffer until he dies of bleeding.

Even though I might not be a psychiatrist I can now see why Brendan completely hates the school and the people in it. But to actually wnat to torture the people in them? This would be considered very high in the evil scale that Mason has in his blog. Is teasing and bullying the reason why some teens become so violent and make them commit evil acts? I hope not, because so far I have seen so many good people being teased badly and it would scare me if they wanted to commit evil acts on other people.

Since I couldn’t find any of the books in Mr. Wasserman’s list he has let me read the book To Give a Boy a Gun. This book is supposed to be a book about two teens who go to a high school and get teased and beat up by the the bullys or by the football players. Therefore, one day they decide to take the whole school hostage.

Before reading this book, I thought that this book would be interesting since in the high school I sometimes see people humiliating other people in school. Normally, I don’t really think much about it, but I am sometimes afraid that the kid who is being teased might hate everyone and one day start shooting people if he gets a gun. Which is what happened in the book.

I also wanted to read the book because I hoped to see what make the people to actually think that the solution of their teasing problems is to kill the people who do it. I have heard many stories like the one in the novel about students with guns in the school who shoot other people because they are miserable. Those stories are just hardly unimaginable for me, just to see teens killing other teens in school. By reading the book I hope I can understand the problems that the teens had in order to make them insane. I also want to see what’s going on in their mind and what the other people’s reaction is to the whole incident 

So far, our group has made a lot of progress. We separated our group into two small groups according to each scene. We already have our roles assigned, and we have just started acting and memorizing the lines. We still have to begin our promptbook, but we have already assigned parts of the promptbook to the people in our group, the large one. We already have an idea of what the soundtrack, setting, and costumes.