Authors note-This is my response to the book Life of Pi that we read in class. I combined the two prompts of all life is a story and there are no facts; all we do is based on belief. I chose both of them together because I think they share a similar theme.

How many times in a normal conversation would you say that you make up a story or tell a lie? This happens all of the time and we know it's only human. When you read a book or hear a story that is placed in the category of fiction it is really based on one thing; interpretation. The interpretation translates into important parts of real life, but life is nothing but another story considered Truth.

For most people religion is a huge part of life, and the religion you have or chose generally says a lot about you or your lifestyle. Pi's life in Life of Pi is greatly impacted by religion as he practices 3 religions; Christianity, Hinduism, and Muslimism. In the story Pi contemplates the thought of agnosticism, and disagrees with it because he believes it lacks faith and imagination that should be present in the stories told through the practice of religion. That shows just how much religion is stories. Some people may disagree, but in religion nothing is proven, it's all stories meant to be interpreted into something greater so the stories are just based on your belief.

Besides the stories of religion; Life of Pi is a story within a story. What you get out of the stories is all based on how you take it and what you believe. It was a little bit of a shock to find out that the Authors note was all made up. Why was it such a shock for it to be made up when after all it is a fiction book? It is a shock, because when someone tells you something like it is a fact, most people will believe it. Richard Parker, the tiger Pi sees throughout his journey, is just a figment of his imagination turned into another story.

Because everything is a story, what makes your life is what you choose to believe. How you choose to separate your beliefs from your doubts is part of what makes you, you. Stories are your whole life and that is why your interpretation and reaction to them is so important.

Is it Worth it?

Have you ever gotten caught up in so much pressure and felt like you needed to escape, to just go to another place for a little bit? If you have had this thought drugs could've possibly come into your mind as a solution. Even though they aren't a good choice many people fall into the trap of the addiction to drugs. Although when you take drugs you get a little chance to forget your problems, but once you come back to reality the pain is much greater and people want the happy place they go to back, which is part of why drugs become so addictive.


Pi's behavior is showing that he really isn't enjoying life right now and he feels it getting worse and worse for him, so he just wants to go into a different state of mind, leave the boat for a little bit, just forget about his problems. The trance he puts himself in when he uses the wet rag to put over his eyes gives him a way to do that and he goes to a place in his mind where all of his problems just go away. This is like a drug to him. It takes away his problems for a little bit, but the pain of having them back, thrown in your face once again, when you come back to reality creates great pain.

with pain comes equal pleasure. Therefore using drugs is not worth it, because in the end the pain will make up for the pleasure you got leaving no point in doing it in the first place. Pi's behavior is showing that he is starting to give up and loose hope. He tries to just forget about his problems and go to another place by using his trance. That is giving him the same effect that drugs would be and he would probably just be better off without it.

Meaningless

If a young boy always agrees with everyone so he never has to stand up for himself and goes through life unnoticed with no friends, he will grow old staying the same way and never learn what love really means. Putting on a smile as fake as the matching look in his eyes, masking the fear and emptiness that he feels does nothing . Because he goes through life untouched, also not touching anyone else around him; there is no point in his existence. This boy is unaffected by, literature, a great gift of life, and no others are affected by the gift either. At first Montag goes through life without changing anything in the world from the way it was before, and when you do that there is no point in existence, for life then, is meaningless.



"Are you happy?" Clarisse asks Montag. Maybe it's a question that more people should find themselves asking. It served as a wake up call for Montag, and really made him think about his life and if he was happy. He in fact, was not happy. Knowing this, he looked at his life and found things that made him unhappy, forcing himself to make new opinions and have new thoughts about things in his life he never would have thought twice about before. One of the many things he was unhappy about was his wife. The person he was supposed to love, and the person that he thought he loved, he didn't love. Their love was fake. As fake as his smile, as fake as the look in his eyes.


Realizing the faults in your life, is an important thing, because consciously knowing they're there, can help you turn them around. A couple of the two most important things in a persons life are their job and their family. Montag was unhappy with both. His close family was only his wife, and after thinking about it, he didn't and never did, love her like he thought he did. Relationships shared between a husband and wife should be full of love and communication . Their relationship had neither, and when Montag tries to fix that his wife does nothing except complain. Mildred, his wife, agrees with his job as a firefighter just wanting to keep their somewhat stable lives, but he on the other hand disagreed with the whole meaning of his job, and had gotten into it because of his father, just going along with what people told him to do. Now he began to act out on this and was diligent to fix the mistakes they were making, which ended up getting much better in the end.


Montag made many mistakes in his life, and couldn't take them all back. The reason of these mistakes is because he did what he was told and said what he thought people wanted him to say always agreeing with people. Sometimes disagreement is a good thing, because opinions are what make the world work. Going along with everything people tell you to makes you unhappy when you disagree with the things they tell you, and that is why it is important to stand up for your beliefs or your life will end up being meaningless.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Have you ever made a huge mistake that hurt you, and now wish you could take it back? Almost everyone has, but think back to your mistake. There should be a lesson that you learned from it, so it ends up that your mistakes benefit you in the long run. Neitzsche said, "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger," and, to me, this means mistakes you make that hurt you, but don't kill you, make you stronger by teaching you and strengthening your intellect.

In Fahrenheit 451 Montag makes a huge mistake, but it helps him a lot in the end. In the beginning of the book Montag is just an ordinary fire fighter who goes to work daily to burn buildings and books, but when he meets Clarisse she asks him a couple important questions that were a wake up call to him. One was "Are you happy?" and the other was "Do you ever read the books that you burn?" Montag most definitely was not happy, and I think it really took her questioning that to make him start to realize it more. At first in the book he is the type of person who just goes along with what everyone else tells him to or says, but Clarisse showed him that he doesn't have to do that. After Montag reads a book he realizes that everything he's been doing is wrong, and things need to be changed.

Montag's mistake in going along with everyone else really helped him fight hard in the end, because it taught him not to make the same mistake again leaving him unhappy. This concept can apply to many situations, big or small, and it really is true if you think about the lessons that you have learned from mistakes you've made. All of the lessons build up to make you intellectually stronger.

Showing Your Patriotism

When was the last time you thought about soldiers far away, fighting for America? Veterans are easily forgotten about in our everyday lives, because you don’t hear very many stories of events going on in Iraq now. Just because stories aren’t there to remind you, or there to make you think about it every day, doesn’t mean you showing your patriotism is now suddenly becoming unimportant.


Heroes accomplish so much with little or no reward in return even when they deserve it the most.  Veterans are like our own real world super heroes and they deserve a lot more thanks and reward than the get. They do so much for our country and many of them don’t get rewarded at all or if they do it’s something small. Many of them don’t want anything huge, because they feel like it’s their job and it’s just what they have to do for their country, but saying thank you to them can go a long ways.

Soldiers don't want much in return, they just want thanks and very little things like that can show your patriotism, and next time you see a veteran you should thank him for fighting for our country. You just have to walk up, shake his hand and say thank you for your service. It means an incredible amount to them and it's not a hard thing to do. They were away from their families for month’s maybe years and all you have to do is take out a little piece of your day to say thank you to them.

 Showing your patriotism and letting soldiers know that you care really does matter. Everything they had to go through made a huge impact in their lives and they deserve a thanks, and to be shown some respect. Although, it is easy to forget about something that we aren’t constantly reminded, you should still think about the people sacrificing their lives for our country and feel grateful to have them. Simple things like saying thank you to a soldier or reciting The Pledge of Allegiance mean so much and can really make a person feel better and confident about the work that they have done and achievements that they have reached.

Stand Up For Your Beliefs-Response to Animal Farm

By Delaney McCabe

4/28/10

Everyone has their own beliefs and they could be about anything, from politics to religion. Beliefs and opinions are a big part of what makes people individuals and what would it be like if everyone dropped their beliefs because our government wanted to change them? That is similar to what happened in Animal Farm. Beliefs are an important part of how you live your life so they cannot be forgotten about or changed, because of what someone with greater power tells you, to favor themselves, and you must stand up for what you believe in no matter what.

The pigs are great hypocrites in Animal Farm, and by the end of the story it becomes very sad. Once the humans are chased out of the farm the pigs write rules on the wall for the farm stating things like "no animal shall walk on two legs," or "no animal shall drink alcohol," but by the end of the book all of the rules had "suddenly" been changed on the wall to favor the pigs. One example is "no animal should drink alcohol excessively." All of the pigs were drinking alcohol and walking on two legs while other animals watched them do this like nothing was wrong with it.

While the pigs changed the rules they also abused their power. One of the reasons that the animals wanted the humans gone in the first place was so they could all have more food, and that's how it was at first, but then the pigs started eating much more than their share. The pigs also got the dogs to kill any animal who spoke out against them which went against the rule "all animals are equal" which was later changed to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." It was very disappointing for them to use their power for evil instead of good, while no one could speak out against them without going "missing" the next day. All of the pigs were turning into humans, and that made a lot of the animals wonder if it was truly much better without the humans.

All of the animals made the wrong choice letting the pigs have absolute power and it caused corruption. They all let the pigs change their beliefs and what they stand for leaving them less equal than the pigs, because all of them became gullible and didn't stand up for themselves when they should have. That is why no one should ever forget about what they stand for. Everyone needs to stand up for themselves and their beliefs, because that is where the animals were flawed, and this is an example of what that can lead to.

The Presence of Love and Hate

How can someone absolutely hate an idea while another person loves and completely believes in the same exact idea? This happens the same way people decide which party they will be for politics. Everyone creates their own opinion. In The Host love and hate are both very present once Wanda is with the underground community of humans, and all of the different humans have many different emotions towards the situation.

It's important for everyone to have their own opinion, because otherwise we would only look at things from one point of view, which isn't the right thing to do, and it's very boring. Everyone involved in the underground community has their own point of view on what happened with Kyle and Wanda. Even though they all know that Kyle tried to kill Wanda, some of them think that it was for the best and it would have been better if he succeeded. Others think that Kyle should be killed for it to follow the rules. That's why they went to "court" to see which opinion was the majority.

In a way I'm glad they went to their court to decide how to deal with the situation, because it really brought out everyones' opinions. I'm not sure if I agree on what they decided or not, but I think that it's probably best if a human doesn't have to die because of something they did to Wanda. There are many different ways to look at the situation and it would be wrong to dismiss Wanda's point of view, because she didn't do anything wrong. This is why it is very important to look at situations from every point of view and never to decide anything before you have done so.