"Things Fall Apart" blog post

I plan on including the feminism lens in my essay on Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". Throughout the book Achebe reveals the strong male dominance in the Umuofia clan through characters such as Okonkwo and most other male characters. In my essay I plan on using Okonkwo as one of my main topics' even though he isn’t female or a victim of feminism. I feel that the way Achebe portrays him still relates to the feminism lens. Based on his fathers actions, he has become more masculine to make up for his fathers mistakes. This masculine ego in turn shapes how he thinks and treats women with-in the Tribe. Don’t get me wrong Okonkwo isn’t the only male guilty of feminism, just about every male in the book sees women as replaceable objects instead of real human beings. For example, when Ogbuefi Udo’s wife was killed the virgin they requested from the other tribe was given to Ogbuefi as a gift. This shows how women in that time were portrayed as objects rather than human beings.

 After the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo falls into a weak state in which he referred to himself as being a “shivering old women”(55). By being in a weak state, and referring to himself as being a shivering old woman he is portraying women as weak and powerless. Another possible point is how Okonkwo views his oldest son Nwoye. He sees him as lazy and emotional, and likes to do women’s chores. The ironic twist is that Okonkwos favorite child is his daughter for she is masculine unlike most women, and shares more similarities with her father than the rest. Okonkwo’s masculine ego might created a reverse effect on his children where his daughter want to be like him so she can get respect and in Nwoye’s case he views his father as someone he doesn’t want to become.

The main reason I chose to talk about feminism is that I was very unclear about the postcolonial lens. So far this is what I plan to talk about in my essay. Please let me know if I do not understand topic, or if I’m heading in the wrong direction with the feminism lens. Honestly there parts of the book I didn’t read so I wouldn’t be surprised if I were off topic.

        

Technopoly

         In Neil Postman's Technopoly, he defines technopoly as the "totalitarian technocracy". Technocracy is a society that has the urge to invent and goes by traditional religion. This chapter talks about how the United states is the only Technopoly in the world, but many are beginning to show signs of joining the United States.
         In relation to Brave New World, Technocracy represents the New mexican Reserve. The natives do everything by religion and tradition. Whereas outside the reserve in the "New world" people live in a Technopoly, In-which redefines their "mean by religion, by art,by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, do that our definitions fit its new requirements. Through explaining this Neil Postman helps the readers of Brave New World to piece the book together.
        Also discussed in this chapter of Postman's book, is Fredrick Winslow Taylor. Fredrick W. Taylor is sought to be the founder of Technopoly through his application of scientific management. Postman explains how "his ideas about what culture is mad of remain the scaffolding of the present-day American Technopoly.
       Through reading this chapter, it has allowed me to better understand why the two different societies in Brave New World are so set apart.

2nd blog post

          I feel that the reason that Bernard is different than the rest of this so called human society in "Brave New World" is that he believes what humanity truly means. In the article "The Year Man Becomes Immortal", Grossman explains the beliefs of Kurzweil in which that "we can scan our consciousnesses into computers and enter a virtual existence or swap our bodies for immortal robots and light out the edges or space as intergalactic godlings. Within a matter of centuries, human intelligence will have re-engineered and saturated all the matter in the universe.". I feel that the use of the words "Human Intelligence" should not be used in this quote for the reasons being that to be human is to be with in the "natural" human guidelines. Otherwise we as a society will have to create a whole new meaning of the word "humanity". To be paired with robot intelligence in order to aid ours, is to re-define what is "humanly" possible. In chapter six of "Brave New World" Bernard tries to show Linina what a relationship actually means, ""Id thought we'd be more... more together here- with nothing but the sea and moon. More together than in that crowd, or even in my rooms. "". Its almost like Bernard is the last remaining person who truly understands what humanity should be like. On the other hand Linina is the complete opposite, because she is so caught up in the new society. I feel that Bernard is being romantic, but at the same time I feel that he is on to something. Its hard to tell if we are in danger of the progression of technology. I feel that there would be many positives to gain, but at the same time I feel that we would be loosing our human (sense) just like the people in "Brave New World" did. They eliminated their human ability to be unique and different from one another, which could happen to our society if were not careful.
     

Analysis of Marina A. Kenney's "Ahab's Devolution in Moby Dick"

Marina A. Kinneys article on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick was purposely written to discuss captain Ahab's devotion towards catching Moby Dick who is a long time menace in that he consumed captain Ahab's leg. Kinneys makes connections to her audience through connecting Ahab's troubles with theirs. As Ahab is so caught up in revenge he looses touch with the outside world around him and devotes himself to finding the monster whale. This is very much relevant to the modern day person. If a person is so caught up with one thing in their life whether it be work school or something that has happened to them, they forget what life has to offer. The overall main point of the article is to express the change that took place in Ahab as he let revenge overcome him and control his life. In Kenneys article, she used many quotes and commentary to help express her main idea. As I read this article I found it to have lots of elevated language. In the article words like microcosms and monomaniacal were used to show her elevated style of writing. Through out the her writing she used many clear examples of comparisons and contrasts, which served mostly to facilitate her main topic. Through the large of concrete details and commentaries she proved to have established a large authority over the subject.
         In doing this assignment I feel that I have a long way to go in being comfortable with this type of writing. Through the past years I have been so use to writing in a specific format. It was weird knowing that you don't really have any guidelines to follow like specific placement of a thesis or structuring a body paragraph to have a certain number of cd's and cm's. I expected it to be very easy, but i picked a article that was kind of difficult to comprehend. Its a very simple style of writing if you understand what you are reading. There for the next assignment like this I will probably pick an article more suitable for me.