A "Quote"

Today, during RS lessons, my form teacher, Miss Yeo said, "Do not ask questions which would betray your intellectual ability".

I agree with what she said to a certain extent. If we ask "smart" questions, people would think that we are at least thinking through what we say and not just say all the nonsense or ideas (to put it in a better way) that comes to our brain. If we just speak our mind, if our mind is thinking the "smarter" ideas, then, it is fine. Having said that, it is still very dangerous. We cannot really control what we think. I still feel that we should always think through before even saying or doing anything.

That is all for now, readers.

P.S. I hope that there is no offense taken by anyone because I was just voicing my view on what I feel that was quite meaningful.

Just for more: "Meaningful Quotes"
Meaningful quotes might not just come from people who spend their whole day thinking of something smart to say. Meaningful quotes can come from anyone, anywhere and even anytime, be it when someone is feeling happy, sad or angry, when one is teaching students and it just naturally come out, or even when scolding students. I am not kidding. Many of these meaningful quotes can appear when a teacher is scolding students.

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AAP Homework

The details are in the picture above...

To just explain because the picture above is not very clear, the advertiser has used extremely close-up shot to show just the hair and show clearly the hair problems. The advertiser has also used the aerial shot to show the hair clearly too. It also uses medium shot to show body language and facial expression.

That's all for now.

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The Lottery -- Themes

I have identified a few themes in "The Lottery". Some are blind leading the blind, self-preservation or self-interest, traditions and rituals, sacrifice and superstitions and ironies.

1) The first theme I have identified: Blind leading the blind
The villagers, in order to have good harvest, actually held lotteries and stoned people to death who picked the unlucky lot. Why did they do so? One point is that their ancestors have been doing this for decades, or even centuries, just a long period of time. They just follow blindly. This is just like the blind leading the blind. The ancestors just had a superstition (refer to point 5) that stoning someone to death would let them have good harvest. Are they sure? They were just like the 'blind'. Then, the descendants. They just followed blindly. Isn't this just the blind leading the blind?

2) The second theme I have identified: Self-preservation or self-interest
Another reason why they have this lottery is to 'preserve' themselves. Just for good harvest, they can actually just stone someone to death. The villagers want to preserve themselves. Have a better harvest, earn more by selling more in the market or having more to eat, and they are happy. They just look out for their own interest. I conclude from the above two points that the villagers that they are very simple-minded. All they want is good harvest. Sadly, they seek for it the wrong way.

3) The third theme I have identified: Traditions and Rituals
Traditions and rituals can be deadly. One example, the lottery. However, not all traditions are bad. Is giving angbows during Chinese New Year bad? In one of my previous posts on lottery, I have said that I opine that bad traditions are traditions that involves sacrifice or injury to one, especially one who could be so close to you.

4) The fourth theme I have identified: Sacrifice
In my above point, I have opined that bad traditions are those that involves sacrifice. Sacrificing someone in your village for a probable good harvest, is this fair to the person being sacrificed? I know, in a sacrifice, there is nothing known as fairness. There is no fairness in sacrifices. But, this lottery, this sacrifice, is it even necessary?

5) The fifth theme I have identified: Superstitions
The lottery, superstition or not? This question is subjective. To the villagers and the ancestors of them, the lottery is not a superstition at all! It is a fact, the truth. To many of us, we would feel that this is obviously a superstition. Let me give an example, one very famous superstition amongst my peers is something known as Friday the 13th. This day, falls on a Friday and the 13th of the month. For example, this year (2010), August 13th falls on a Friday. It is an example of Friday the 13th. It is known that on this day, unlucky things would happen to all. Some unlucky things just coincidently happen on that day and people would believe it. Bringing it back to the lottery, the villagers might have experienced good harvest the year they stoned someone, so they continued it. But, the good harvest could have been caused by other factors. Am I right?

Thanks for reading my long post. I apologise if this was too long. It just came naturally to me. :)

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The Scarlet Ibis --- Was the narrator too much??

Why I think the story was called "The Scarlet Ibis"
I feel that it was called "The Scarlet Ibis" because it is a symbol of Doodle. The Scarlet Ibis was very similar in many ways. But, I am going to share only one main similarity between them.

It died because of an external force making it/him do something beyond its/his power. The scarlet ibis was forced to fly over long distances to avoid the storm. The external force here is the storm. And the thing it did beyond its power was flying over such long distances. In the case of Doodle, the external force was the narrator. It was the narrator that forced Doodle to do things that he could not do, but still did because the external force was too strong. In the end, both the scarlet ibis and Doodle died because of this external force, which can be so strong it is destructive.

A Little about the story
The Scarlet Ibis is a touching story about a brother trying to let his younger brother do things like a normal kid could do. The younger brother was verdicted to not being able to live more than 3 months. His parents actually asked a carpenter to make a mahogony coffin for the younger brother since he was going to die. The only person who trusted that the younger brother would not die was the person who delivered him, Aunt Nicey.

Naming Doodle/William Armstrong/narrator's brother
After three months, the younger brother did not die. The parents decided to name him William Armstrong. When the younger brother was two, he started to crawl and talked a lot. Since he always crawled backwards when he crawled, the narrator decided to name him Doodle. The narrator feels that "Renaming [Doodle] was perhaps the kindest thing [the narrator] eveer did for [Doodle], because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle."

My Opinion on the name "Doodle" given by the narrator
I would like to voice my view on what the narrator felt. Although looking superficially, it looked as if the narrator was trying insult his brother. However, looking deeper, what he said made some sense. He did so to not let people have high expectations on Doodle because if they had high exectations on Doodle, he might not even be able to meet any.

Doodle and the Go-Cart
Then, whenever the narrator went out, his mother would want him to bring Doodle out in his go-cart. The narrator wanted to discourage Doodle from coming with him, thus he would "run with [Doodle] across the ends of the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels". The narrator was then, childish, and did not show much love to Doodle.

Doodle learning to walk
Going down the story, the narrator wanted Doodle to walk as he was tired of pushing Doodle around in his go-cart. The narrator "took [Doodle] by the arms and stood him up. He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty flour sack." They tried this many times until Doodle could stand alone for a few seconds. Then, they continued and Doodle could finally walk. Without the narrator, would Doodle be able to learn how to walk? Wouldn't he just be lying in his bed, waiting for death?

Doodle after learning how to walk
The narrator was ambitious. After making Doodle learn how to walk, he wanted to teach Doodle how to run, jump, swim and fight like a normal kid could do. It would be obvious that they would face many challenges. Doodle woud have experienced pain. But would Doodle's life be so rich without the narrator?

Class Discussions
In our class discussions, we have come to a conclusion that the narrator is cruel to Doodle because he loves him. In love, there is always a fight for more power.

That's all for now. :)

The Lottery

When people hear of lotteries, most would envision grand prizes of a few hundred thousands of cash prize, a plasma television, a trip to Las Vegas and many other luxurious prizes. Most people would want to earn lotteries, but is it the case in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.

In the lottery in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, villagers draw lots for their family. Then, the family who got the unlucky lot, everyone in the family would then draw lots. The one in the family which drew the unlucky lot would be stoned to death by other villagers as a tradition. This is so ironic as in my above paragraph, lotteries are meant to be good things and people who win it would be very happy. It is so much different in the story.

This tradition of those villagers was started off from a superstition that if they do so, they would have good harvest. Making someone die so painfully just for your own needs, I do not think it is fair. Moreover, this superstition might not even be true.

Are all traditions bad? If it is so, then giving angbows to other people would be bad too. Giving gifts during Christmas it bad too. To me, I feel bad traditions as those which involves injuring humans no matter physically or emotionally. Like in "The Lottery", it involved injury and even death to the villager who was unlucky to get chosen.

This lottery is very cruel. The villagers can actually be evil enough to stone someone who was living with them for so many years to death just for good harvest. This tradition might not even be true. As years pass by, the villagers would become more and more cold-blooded. They become inhumane. They become barbarians.

Another irony is that one of the villagers said that the village near them wanted to abort the lottery. What he said was that "next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves." This is ironic because the lottery is as savage and barbaric a ritual as any practiced by cave dwellers. He is criticising himself and his whole village without knowing it. They are so barbaric and they do not even notice.

Speaking of barbarians...A little off topic...so...
I have created a facebook group called Monsters VS Aliens. Join it and invite all your friends...:):D:P Look forward to as many people in this group as possible. Let's make it the most popular group on facebook. Yeh!! I am using propaganda techniques...

Thanks for viewing this blog post patiently. :)