Harrison Bergeron ( I am not doing this willingly)

As I read, "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut, I had a realization of how society is getting dumbed down and how even if we are special, there will always be someone there to take us down a level.

Text: In the story, how does George react to what to what happens on TV what happens to his son?


George is at first horrified and astonished to what happens, he knows it's Harrison. Then since, he is above average, he is brought down with a hearing aid that disrupts any intelligent thought. He knows what is happening is wrong, but then his hearing aid disrupts this thought. He obviously loves and cares for Harrison, this is evident in the way his body reacts. He is just unable to express in words because of his man made handicaps.


Reader: How could this relate to the teachers in school who never challenges you, just so no one feels below average?


Some, not all teachers, do not challenge you when you are above average. My big sister went to Murray for eighth grade year, she did not learn one thing. She taught herself the things she needed to pass. Harrison is like my sister in a similar way, Harrison is a fast learner and can easily retain knowledge, while some people like Hazel, are slower and have a worse memory. Some teachers have worked for a long pushing their students, and then they give up, only doing the minimum. They believe no one is special, no one is bright. When really every person is intelligent in their own way, whether in English or in Science.


World: How does this relate to the policy of No Child Left Behind?


Harrison is above average and the government at this time believes that no one should feel below another person. Our government at the present time, is doing something very similar. No Child Left Behind forces teachers and schools to hold back their average and above average students for kids who may be below them. In Harrison's story, they use physical and mental handicaps to dwindle people's intelligence, while in real life they use rules and restrictions. In the details, these two situations are very different, but in the main idea, they are exactly the same.

What in your hometown would you show new friends from college to help them know you better?

Having been a Wilmingtonian (my sister Doria made that up) for my entire life, I have been able to explore the corners and cracks that have been shaded from the general public. My family's opinion of living anywhere, is that our duty as citizens is to explore all of the big and small wonders that your town has. Which is why I found this question particularly interesting.

Having really no true mode of transportation, my knowledge of Wilmington was sparse at best. This all changed this Summer. My older sister Doria came home from college and finally got her driver's licence, thank God. My life was now open for the next two and a half months. We explored every corner of Wilmington, and one of my favorite places was the Country Store (we call it that, that's why I capitalized it).

With its homemade cheeses and breads, the Country Store has an abundance of goodies. Every time my sister and I go there, we both get a piece of fruit, a slice of cheese, and a bottled soda (try a Nehi, it's like drinking a peach). Then we go to the Battleship and enjoy the scenery.

The people and the odd things they sold at the Store, were what made the experience special. They sold single circus peanuts, and pig's feet fried (I'm a vegetarian). Mini pumpkin pies, were also one of my favorites. The store smelled of tobacco and flour. It smelled like Southern happiness (smoking is bad though, don't do it). It was so new and clean to me, when probably it was at least twenty years old and hasn't been properly cleaned in years. It was an entire different place.

The entire experience of the Country Store, exemplifies how no matter where you come from, or how you dress, the simple things, like cheese that costs sixty-eight cents, is what makes life grand and special. A life that's worth living.

What issues in this story are similar to real-life issues that you have thought about or had some kind of experience with?

For some odd reason, every time I even think about even picking up a Romance novel, my thoughts beforehand are always negative. "This couldn't happen in real life," that's what always goes through my mind. When truly, whenever we read or watch a movie, we don't want to hear about something that is possible. We want to fantasize and imagine about things that will never happen in our lifetime. Lately though, this idea has been changing in my mind. Maybe the messages and ideas hidden in the ridiculous plot lines actually have a meaning, actually have a truth.

When I first started reading Love In the Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I already knew the entire premise. Having already seen the movie,(not the best, but definitely not the worst, have you seen Nine?) I knew the basic story. A young, rich, beautiful girl named Fermina caught the eye of a middle-class boy named Florentino. They fell madly in love, when Fermina's father finds out, he whisks her away and eventually had her married. Florentino seeing this, waits and pines for Fermina for fifty-two years until they can finally be together. I know what you're thinking, not the most original idea. The thing is though, once you really get into this novel, there is something about it that sings.The way the author describes their love, how it is not a need, but a want. In most love stories, they need to be together, it's only lust. Marquez writes Florentino and Fermina's love in a such an endearing that make you not only pity them, but also applaud them.

As I read this novel, I began to think of my own life, the life I want as I grow older. For my entire childhood, I expected love to just fall into my lap. Watching so many movies, where it came easy, and the only tricky part was how to keep the love. When truly, love is earned. Through trust and the act of caring. Most people do not think objects mean love. The only thing they want from one another is for them to care. They want each other to want to be around one another. They don't want jewelery or cars, they want someone to understand them, to truly care about them.


Being a skeptic about love and relationships, I can tell you love doesn't come easy. It's hard and you have to work at it, and what you want isn't exactly what you get. Love is one of the only things in the universe that has a 100% certainty that you will get hurt. Isn't worth it though? If you had ten minutes of happiness, and then a lifetime of misery, wouldn't that be better than never being content, never feeling love? If I was you, I would go with the former.


Though Love in the Time of Cholera was on an extremely drawn out scale, the message it sends to its readers is timeless, "It is life, not death that has no limits."

Love in the Time of Forever (cheesy!)

What did this make you realize about life?

As I was reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, there was this oncoming feeling of happiness. A warm fuzzy feeling that you get while reading Jane Austen or watching Titanic (I had to throw that in there). The book is about two star-crossed lovers (as in Romeo & Juliet) who are torn apart by the young girl's father, seeing the boy, named Florentino, as unfit to marry his daughter. Floretnino was so in love with Fermina, at most times, much more than she. Even when Fermina was married to her husband, who she grew to love, Florentino never wavered in his love for her. He took his pent up anger, and put it into many love affairs that never really meant anything to him. Fifty-two years later, after Fermina's husband has died, Florentino finally pursues her, and wins her heart once again.

Though I have seen the movie many times and read similar books to it, the way the author gets the overall message across is quite sweet. He could have quickly put Florentino and Fermina together at a young age, so their love seemed more idealistic, but he wrote it in a way that is slow, showing that real love, true love doesn't happen at once.

Many novels now a days (Nicholas Sparks) force you to think that people see each other and magically fall in love. When the truth is, love is slow and sweet, and kind. Love isn't dependence, it's a want, a want that isn't for a moment, but for a lifetime. Fermina for so many years, pushed her love for Florentino to the back. She wanted to be a good wife, a good mother, she pushed her wants back so she could make someone else happy, even though she was partly miserable.

Even though they were apart for such a long time, and were both with different people, the moment they were together again, it was like they were never apart. This novel teaches you that no matter how long you were apart, there will always be some part of you that belongs to one another, always linking you together.

I really do not want to see things from Both Sides.

Both Sides Now

By Joni Mitchell

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air.

And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at at clouds that way.

But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.

So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,

From up and down, and still somehow

It's clouds illusions I recall.

I really don't know clouds at all.

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel

As every fairy tale comes real; I've looked at love that way.

But now it's just another show. You leave 'em laughing when you go

And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now.

From give and take, and still somehow

it's love illusions I recall. I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud to say, " I love you," right out loud.

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way.

But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed.

Some thing's lost but some thing's gained in living everyday.

I've looked at life from both sides now,

From win and lose, and still somehow

it's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all.

As children, we rely on our parents to learn, thus their views and opinions are transferred to us. We may see things the way they see them. Like when it comes to gay rights, abortion, and religion. As we get older, our minds expand, they open up to new views and ideas that a few years ago they wouldn't have accepted. You start to see things in a new way, and that is what has been happening to me in the past year, I have started to see things in a new light.

I have always seen religion in one way, either you're in or your out. As I got older, I started questioning it, the enitre idea, if I believe in God, if I even want to put the energy into this thing that was created thousands of years ago. Was it even relevant today? Even when I had my Bat Mitzvah, I just didn't believe in it. This was a big change from five years ago, my entire life was about my religion, when I met people I would say, "Hi, I'm Audra, I'm Jewish." As I got older, something changed inside of me, I stopped believing everything people told me, I became cynical and way less trusting. I think part of me just stopped caring, about anything, especially what had been so important to me not so long ago. I started seeing things from different sides.

In the song above, it talks about growing up and the fairy tales you thought of so much when you are a kid start becoming less realistic, how simple things like clouds, turn in into something totally different. Some people call this maturing, I like to call it a loss of innocence. Whatever you call it, I am slowly going through it. Let me tell you one thing about it, it is not fun.

Being an Orch Dork

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

Following my sister and brother's foot steps, I enrolled in orchestra in sixth grade (or as I like to call it, the most ridiculous year of your life). I had taken two years of violin lessons; we used the Suzuki method (you listen, then you play it). Not only did I extremely suck at violin, I could barely clap with a rhythm. My older sister, a musical genius (not Mozart, but closer than Handel) could play a violin, banjo, viola, and spoons better than anyone in my family. For the past Summer, Doria and her two friends , Dani and Sydney, have been trying to put together a folk band. If you went to Shakori, you would understand. When you camp out in the middle of a field with 500 other people, you really start to like folk music.


As I traveled through middle school and then entered high school, orchestra was the only constant, a forced constant, but never less a constant. For the first two years I had Mr. Singleton, he wasn't exactly the best person to teach you when you are first learning, he was in a way, lackadaisical. The truth was that I wasn't naturally good at the cello, at least with his way of teaching, by the beginning of eighth grade it was obvious I was far behind. Much to my surprise, I had a new teacher, Ms. Fuchs. She was young, maybe twenty-two. Fresh out of college, she really hasn't found her place in the teaching world. It didn't help that I was the only cello (thank you Michael, not). I am not going to lie, the first couple of months of eighth grade was hard, I worked a lot harder than I thought I was going to. It was all worth it when the Fall concert came around. The first song was perfect, I got all of the dynamics, bowing's and articulations. I was extremely proud of myself. My mom was too, she bought me ice cream.

As I entered high school orchestra, the torture began. As you have already previously assumed, I am a talkative person. I love to express my opinions and ask about people. Most people say this is a good trait, I'm personable. Apparently it's not a good trait in orchestra. Before we even start tuning she locks her eyes in me and makes me move forward. Why doesn't she just move me there indefinitely? It would save us both a lot of work (well, mostly me). Her grading system is ridiculous, if you get six out of seven on a test you get a seventy-five! That is a huge, failing grade in not only my book, but also my parent's. It is bringing down my GPA, the thing that will cause me to not get into a college I want. All the seniors score 100, that's because they are seniors. I'm not the only one of us either, people like me are everywhere in that class. Thankfully, I am one of the lucky ones, my parents are letting me drop out. Hallelujah!

I am not very good at staying with things I might not exactly enjoy all of the time, like playing the cello, I'm reckless and independent when it comes to things I loathe, like partying and playing the cello. When it comes to things I love, I will do anything for that experience and repeat it over and over again.