Group 9

REMEMBER: every time you make a post, be sure to choose the label "Group 9" so that your post ends up in the proper place. If you don't do this, your post won't appear in your group and you won't get credit for it.
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Group 8

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Group 7

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Group 6

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Group 5

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Group 4

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Group 3

REMEMBER: every time you make a post, be sure to choose the label "Group 3" so that your post ends up in the proper place. If you don't do this, your post won't appear in your group and you won't get credit for it.
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Group 2

REMEMBER: every time you make a post, be sure to choose the label "Group 2" so that your post ends up in the proper place. If you don't do this, your post won't appear in your group and you won't get credit for it.
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Group 1

REMEMBER: every time you make a post, be sure to choose the label "Group 1" so that your post ends up in the proper place. If you don't do this, your post won't appear in your group and you won't get credit for it.
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Weekly Post on Adam Smith and his 'Wealth of Nations'

I will present you two videos that can help you understand Adam Smith and Karl Marx better.

The video above summarizes some key points from Adam Smith's and Karl Marx's ideas. It clarifies the relations of cause & effect and gives examples concerning the philosophers' ideas. It covers Smith's Wealth of Nations, but does not touch upon the Estranged Labour or the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Instead, it gives insights about Marx's ideas about the class system and his views on Capitalism.

At the beginning, Adam Smith's concept of the "invisible hand" came somewhat complex and ambigious to me but the video HERE helped me better understand what it actually is and how it works and regulates the economy. You can find indormation regarding the simple relation between businesses, supply and demand relations, laizzez-faire and a brief glance at how economy changed over the course of time.

Weekly Post#4: A New Perspective for Macbeth's Personality

Above is the graphic of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after killing Duncan the King, illustrated by R. T. Bone. In this image, Macbeth's wide open eyes indicate that he is horrified by what he has just done. He cannot stand on both legs balancedly, so he leans towards Lady Macbeth and holds her hand, which suggest that he has lost his control due to his shock, and is in need of help to carry on, not only psychologically but physically, too. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, is still very confident, powerful enough to support and (still) manipulate Macbeth, as inferred from her upright posture, frowned looks and left arm and fingers that connote of giving orders or instructions for a new task.

The image made me able to criticize Macbeth's character, because I was more prone to blame external factors for evil deeds Macbeth committed, yet now I believe it is a personality flaw to be manipulated so easily and have a weak stance in terms of personal decisions and plans. Aristotle asserted that all tragic heroes have some sort of fatal flaw which causes the character's downfall; and in this case I argue if it was the real evil inside Macbeth or his weakness against Lady Macbeth and her manipulations that leads to Macbeth's downfall.

Weekly Post#5: All hail the play 'Macbeth'

"To mankind in general Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stand out as the supreme example of all that a host and hostess should not be." – Max Beerbohm

I am very surprised to find out some interesting sides of Shakespeare's play Macbeth - from the real names of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to a "curse" caused by the 'unlucky'ness of the play. I would recommend you to take a look at this link!

I believe that all what we learn from this website are evidence for how powerful a play Macbeth is. 

To begin with, the idea of flattering a king's reign by a character in a play sounds ridiculous at first; but is the play is a one which flatters the concepts of fair and foul, dream and real, right and wrong, and which ends in a way that nothing in the world really has any meaning, yes, it can flatter a non-fictional king's reign as well.

Besides, the supposedly "curse" of Macbeth in theatres and the 1849 riot that took place in New York concerning the play both indicate how seriously the play was taken centuries after it was written.

The last point made on the page reminds us the contributions of the play to English language, although it is only indirectly related to what Shakespeare wrote... While we talk about all the hidden meanings behind the metaphors, symbols, long passages or the soliquys, we are so concerned about the meanings that probably very few of us pay enough attention on the language Shakespeare used. We appreciate all the ideas and emotions the play gives us, but we should appreciate the beautiful and neat language and style in which the play was written.

Smith & Marx's Definitions of Man

“Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.”

The quotation above belongs to Adam Smith and it is not only his way of defining humans but also the distinction that separates humans from other animals, which reminds me of Karl Marx’s concept of ‘species being’.

Well, now it seems very tempting to compare Smith’s and Marx’s definitions and comparisons.

Bargain is the attempt to get something by paying less than its pre-decided price and it is a common thing in man’s world. Adam Smith believed that both the customer and the seller benefits from economic relationships as long as they get what they need. However, by nature humans are never satisfied with what they have, and have a never-ending desire to attain more; so, they try to get something while paying as little as possible. Marx, on the other hand, believes that man is a ‘species being’ who is universal in terms of needs and production; they produce more than necessary for later use, because satisfaction for the moment is not enough; instead, they organize their needs and production universally – considering any time and place.

In my opinion, while Marx’s definition is praise for humans, Smith’s definition is more prone to be understood as a criticism for humankind. For Marx, man is a higher being than non-human animals due to his superior way of living; however, Adam Smith’s quotation reminds me of the greedy, insatiable nature of humanity. Marx’s and Smith’s comparisons of humans to other animals support the conflict as well:

For Marx; humans are capable of working and enjoy working as a part of their lives for the chances of expressing themselves and meeting their needs; from this point arises their quality to build the future rather than the present moment only. This makes humans different from and pretty much superior to other animals. However, Smith highlights greed in his quotation because man is not seeking for an innovation or development but is merely showing his desire to have more in exchange of less. Besides, he does not compare man with an animal known for its hard work, serenity, etc. but uses dogs as the example of animal which is known for their aggression and violence for present needs. Considering these, I believe while Marx praises humanity in his definition of ‘species being’, Smith criticizes human nature. In my opinion, Smith has a more realistic explanation because even though Marx is right about human universality, humans maintain their greed and the desire for more even while practising this universality.

My Own Parable: What Do We Struggle For?

It was a rainy afternoon and on the street, with a fifteen-meter-distance between, were sitting two children with worn out clothes stained with mud and the raindrops. Their feet were naked and clothes too thin to protect them from the coldness the rain brought. They were calling the passers-by with their soft childish voices distinguished by reluctance and desperation. They resembled very much to each other, both had brown hair and brown eyes in the same shape and pale, thin lips which widened for a few seconds with every coin dropped before them; and with every coin each boy look at the other and smiled blithely.

A man, dressed in a radiant black suit, wearing polished black shoes and a navy tie, carrying a large black briefcase, dropped something out of his pocket to the hat where the boy’s coins accumulated; it did not fall down right away like a coin, it hovered in the air while the boy’s eyes widened and glowed with what he saw – it was a $100 banknote. When it fell on the coins, the boy took it up, his mouth opened in amazement and his eyes glimmered with joy. When he managed to take his eyes off from the banknote and look at his brother, he saw him watching with curious eyes. He folded the banknote quickly and put it in his pocket, tried to hide his astonishment, to act as usual and not to make an eye contact with his brother again. But his brother was collecting the coins before him and putting them in his pocket and was soon running towards him.

First he asked him what it was that he put into his pocket and the boy replied “Nothing.” His brother shouted and attacked onto him trying to take the money off from his pocket. Two little boys began to roll around the pavement, biting each other’s limbs and pulling each other’s hair whenever they could, shouting at each other sometimes in anger and sometimes in pain. The banknote passed from one boy’s hands to the other’s, and soon began to wrinkle, rip and fall apart. The coins in their pockets scattered around as they turned and rolled from one side to other. The many pieces of the banknote were scattering around and there were none left in the boys’ little hands. But they were still struggling, snarling and growling at each other, with blood on their teeth and limbs.

A passer-by man approached and stopped the two boys from hitting each other, and asked “What are you two fighting so hard for?” The two boys looked at the man and then each other blankly, and only after a while remembered the banknote and turned their heads to the ground where the coins and the pieces of the banknote were scattered around.

Descartes Reflects on His Schooling

When I read Descartes' biography (see here), I came across his own words describing his schooling.


"I had been assured I could acquire a clear and certain knowledge of all that is useful in life. I had an extreme desire to learn them. But as soon as I had completed the course of study, at the end of which one is usually received into the rank of the learned, I entirely changed my opinion. For, I found myself embarrassed by so many doubts and errors, that I thought I had gained nothing else from trying to instruct myself, than to have more and more discovered my ignorance. I had learnt all that others learnt; - I had run through every book treating of such matters - that I could lay hands on - I did not see that I was deemed inferior - my own times appeared to me as fertile of good wits as any that had gone before. All of which made me think that there was in the world no such learning as I had been led to hope for. I took pleasure, above all, in mathematics, because of the certainty and the absoluteness of its reasons; but I had not yet found out its true use; and, thinking that it served only for the mechanical arts, was astonished that, its foundations being so firm and solid, nothing had ever been built on them that was more exalted. Concerning philosophy I will say nothing, except that, seeing it had been cultivated by the most powerful minds that had lived for many centuries, and that nevertheless there was not yet to be found in it one single thing which is not disputed, and therefore open to doubt, I had not the presumption to hope that I should succeed better than others; and considering how many different opinions there are, touching one and the same matter, all of which are maintained by learned persons, while it was impossible that more than one of them could be true, I regarded as little better than false everything that was merely probable. Then for the sciences, since they all borrow their principles from philosophy, I judged that nothing solid could have been built on foundations so far from secure."

A Quote for Hum112

Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.
—    Margaret Mead

It may sound a bit too simple but if I was asked to summarize what I’ve learnt in this course in one sentence throughout the semester, I would say something very similar to what she said above. I think  duality is and will always be representative of our nature. 

2nd Essay Assignment: Beautiful Minds

                               A Comparison between Ideas of Descartes and Pascal:

                                                                Beautiful Minds

Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal share similar starting point in their thought. Inspired by Montaigne, their skepticism and language are the important commonality which can be noticed easily. However, Descartes’ fight was against Scholastic philosophy whereas Pascal held strong arguments against the Jesuits. Descartes expressed his philosophy in a systematical way with a certain structure. On the other hand, nature of Pascal’s philosophy was never systematical or methodical.

In this essay, I will show Descartes’ and Pascal’s differences and points of contact. First off, I will focus on philosophers’ relation with skepticism to explore how skepticism differed in terms of its functions and motivations for each of the philosophers. Secondly, as they both put Reason at the core of their thought, I’ll go through thinkers’ engagement with reason to show what mainly separates them from each other. Thirdly, I will concentrate on thinkers’ attitude toward God’s existence and how and by what means they attempted to prove its existence. This aspect shows us how Doubt in these thinkers hints a major connection between them.

Descartes focused on skepticismbecause of epistemological reasons. He considered it as a useful tool to challenge beliefs since it permits doubt. He used doubt in order to destroy old philosophical structures and beliefs which are Aristotelian philosophy and Scholastic tradition. In Meditation One the Mediator thinks that all the things he knows come from his senses and they might lead him toward wrong conclusions. Therefore, he decides to undo his thinking and starts again from foundations to build his knowledge on more certain grounds. The Mediator also accepts that he might not be able to differentiate his present senses from dream images.  Thus, he concludes that he cannot doubt universal and simple things such as mathematics and geometry whereas composite things can always be doubted. Despite his skeptical attitude, doubt is not an end itself but a step for Descartes. On the other hand, Pascal is engaged with doubt in a very different way. To him, doubt is useful only when it helps man have the best possible orientation toward the religious experience. Because rational principals are vulnerable to the skeptical challenge, and therefore faith is the only real certainty. As it is seen clearly, there is a major difference the way thinkers relate with skepticism: Descartes uses skepticism as a ground for his thought and a way of endorsing reason, Pascal believes that skepticism proves the weakness of reason.

Regarding their attitudes toward reason, these thinkers place themselves at the opposite extremes. To Descartes, human’s existence does not require any place or material thing, because essence of a human being is simply to think. He methodically doubts everything and gives up his knowledge and beliefs. On the other hand, Pascal raises strong objections to Descartes’s speculative rationalism and cannot forgive that Descartes puts the reason at the very core of his thought with an isolation in hopes of reaching “its own self” and makes God irrelevant eventually. Pascal believed that it is not possible to answer every question through the use of reason, especially the ones which are outside the realm of reason. He suggested Descartes to enter from the heart to the mind, not from the mind into the heart. To him, totality created by God is essential to existence of humans, and one who follows reason exclusively cannot experience this fundamental totality.

            To Descartes, one can understand that God exists through her use of own reason. Since he proves existence of God by reasoning, his position on faith is ambiguous. In Meditation Three, he makes a deductive reasoning and proves that God is inherent. By Meditation Five the meditator’s empowered mind does not need any logical process because he finds the idea of God within himself just as surely as any shape or number. The idea of God can only come from a superior being since it belongs to nature of God. He states that his understanding belongs to nature of God is that God exists that is no less clear and distinct than is the case when he proves any number or shapes through mathematics and that God exists. Pascal believes that “it is the heart that senses God not reason”. And he defines faith as “the heart sensitive to God”.  This is where thinkers actually became separated on matters of reason and God as boundless. And, yet there are similarities between them. First thing which brings them together is axioms. To Pascal, axioms are anything perfectly self-evident and intuition helps us perceive them, which include “clear and distinct” perceptions of Descartes and mathematical axioms. Secondly, Pascal agrees with Descartes on the matter of Cogito: “I think, therefore I am”.

       In conclusion, each philosophers valued doubt in their own way. Descartes used doubt methodically to shatter old-order and initiate modern thought. Pascal protested against this by pointing out dangers of reason and put faith against doubt. Although they are just at opposite poles on very important matters, they, together, reflect the tension in modern man. 

Hip-Hop & Shakespeare

A modern day hip-hop artist, Akala, in his Ted Talk, shows us the connection between Shakespeare and hip-hop and focuses on power of language on a broad level.

He starts with his speech by asking his audience if they can differentiate Shakespeare from hip-hop. 

And they can’t.

I think this creative artist raises the bar for everyone producing music today and contributes a lot to today’s music culture.

After watching his speech (see here) , it occurred to me that the link between modern hip-hop culture and Shakespeare is stronger than we think. 

Rising Working Hours for the Well-Off

Today, things seem a bit different than the old times.

  

(By old times, I mean the time of Marx.)

From Marx’s readings we know that the capitalist owns means of the production and makes their profit through the exploitation of the worker. To Marx, the actual job is done by the labor but surplus value directly goes to the capitalist. In this picture, the capitalist and the people of higher status appears to be lazy.

Marx would be surprised to find out that in today’s world Ceo’s, executives and rich people like to show that how busy and productive they are. Working for long hours signal social status in today’s world.  

Even movies show the well-off as ambitious proud workaholic.

Maybe, in today’s world does the discrepancy between the rich and the poor not only comes from the exploitation of the labor suggested by Marx, but also rising working hours for the well-off.

The research found that “the share of college-educated American men regularly working more than 50 hours a week rose from 24% in 1979 to 28% in 2006, but fell for high-school dropouts. Highly educated people take less leisure time than they did fifty years ago.”

The Economist’s article see here  focuses on this idea and offers an explanation with a link to the research. 

Marx: What is Capital?

In the societies with simple division of labor people transform commodities into money through circulation of commodities in the market. They sell commodities for money and then use that money to buy a commodity they need. However, capitalism requires different set of principles. Capitalists do not perceive money as a mean of the exchange process in which they only buy and sell things for money. They seek money for its own sake. The capitalist starts their business with a certain amount money, produces commodities which bring more money eventually to them. The money they use to run their business and obtain more money is called capital. Here, the main concern of capitalist is accumulation of more capital, not accumulation of more commodity. To Marx, capital accumulates through the creation of surplus value. Since the value of commodities come from the labor, this extra value only could be gained by exploitation of labors. As commodities of the capitalist is sold in the market at very competitive prices, he gains the advantage and become able to buy as much labor power from the worker at the lowest prices possible which is close to the cost of keeping the worker alive.

Here, his focus is heavily on the economic aspects of the issue. And he argues that the capitalist economic system creates the mechanism of exploitation and is source of social antagonisms that will eventually bring the end of the capitalism itself. 

Third and Last Short Essay Assignment: History/ Memory

La Jetee & Kierkegaard

Human beings place great amount of emphasis on their memories when they need to make sense of their lives. Memories evoke varying emotions in us. Dealing with challenges of the present or uncertainty of the future, we recall them and create our unique relation with time. We can consider our past as a place in which our experiences, knowledge and values are created. In the short movie La Jetee, scientists hopes that they can recue the present by calling on the past and future. But finding a person who can bear such an experiment is not an easy thing for them. One should have mental strength to stand up to the shock of time travel. One of the prisoners become distinguished from others in terms of the clarity and strength of his memories. Here, the key to his past is a memory of a woman and a moment in which he saw a man dies. In this movie, we see that our connection to the past always has an important role in our lives in trying to understand the present and the future, but this connection cannot solve the puzzle of our lives. Although things in the past appear certain to us, they might have completely different meanings which we cannot understand them by looking at them from our current perspectives.

As it is stated in the movie, it is the story of a man marked by an image from his childhood without knowing the actual meaning of the image. The man sees his own death but he never realizes it until he returns and dies in his past. We can associate this with the idea of Kierkegaard, is that life must be understood backward but it must be lived forward. Because we cannot understand the progress perfectly when we look into the past. Here, looking to the future is not the solution either. There will always be events which seems not related to each other but require us to see the connection and link them together. Neither past nor future can solve this puzzle for us. To Kierkegaard, we should have the faith in that the dots will somehow connect in the future. This also shows us that we never can escape from the present even if time travel is possible. The present always drags us back into the here and now.

Also, in this movie we see that our civilization and technologic advancements does not only bring benefits to us but also cause distress in our lives. The time travel experiments in the movie take place in the aftermath of the Third World War. It actually reflects the atmosphere of 1960’s which is when the fear of nuclear annihilation was a major source of concern. Also, voices whispering in German gives us the historical context of the movie. This may be an allusion to the Nazi occupation of France which was still present in the French consciousness.

Third and Last Short Essay Assignment: History/ Memory

La Jetee & Kierkegaard

Human beings place great amount of emphasis on their memories when they need to make sense of their lives. Memories evoke varying emotions in us. Dealing with challenges of the present or uncertainty of the future, we recall them and create our unique relation with time. We can consider our past as a place in which our experiences, knowledge and values are created. In the short movie La Jetee, scientists hopes that they can recue the present by calling on the past and future. But finding a person who can bear such an experiment is not an easy thing for them. One should have mental strength to stand up to the shock of time travel. One of the prisoners become distinguished from others in terms of the clarity and strength of his memories. Here, the key to his past is a memory of a woman and a moment in which he saw a man dies. In this movie, we see that our connection to the past always has an important role in our lives in trying to understand the present and the future, but this connection cannot solve the puzzle of our lives. Although things in the past appear certain to us, they might have completely different meanings which we cannot understand them by looking at them from our current perspectives.

As it is stated in the movie, it is the story of a man marked by an image from his childhood without knowing the actual meaning of the image. The man sees his own death but he never realizes it until he returns and dies in his past. We can associate this with the idea of Kierkegaard, is that life must be understood backward but it must be lived forward. Because we cannot understand the progress perfectly when we look into the past. Here, looking to the future is not the solution either. There will always be events which seems not related to each other but require us to see the connection and link them together. Neither past nor future can solve this puzzle for us. To Kierkegaard, we should have the faith in that the dots will somehow connect in the future. This also shows us that we never can escape from the present even if time travel is possible. The present always drags us back into the here and now.

Also, in this movie we see that our civilization and technologic advancement does not only bring benefits to us but also cause distress in our lives. The time travel experiments in the movie take place in the aftermath of the Third World War. It actually reflects the atmosphere of 1960’s which is when the fear of nuclear annihilation was a major source of concern. Also, voices whispering in German gives us the historical context of the movie. This may be an allusion to the Nazi occupation of France which was still present in the French consciousness.

Weekly post 4 image assignment

I found this image is interesting since this image reflects the hallucination that Macbeth saw before killed the king Duncan. This image tells us the Act 2, scene1 when Macbeth start his sentence of      "Is this dagger which I see before"...In this pisture Macbeth has a far away look like losing his conscious. His eyeshots show his fear of being murder.

We also see that Lady Macbeth hold his shooulder in order to  jolt Macbeth  out of his fearful stiuation.  In this picture Lady Macbeth looks hotheadedly thats why she try to awake Macbeth from the shock.

The Process of Writing a Blog Post

It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was sitting in front of my computer thinking about ideas to write a blog post on. I started thinking about the movie inception. After a while I realized I was hungry. I grabbed my phone from my desk and headed to the kitchen. While walking towards the kitchen, a friend texted me about the study questions for humanities class. I started heading to the living room and sat on the couch. I responded my friend's text message and started looking at my emails, then Instagram and Twitter...

The Playstation controller was in front of me and I thought it would be OK to play Minecraft for 20 minutes. I started playing then I realized I was even more hungry. I stood up and headed for the kitchen once more. I checked the fridge and realized there was no bread. I had to first go outside and get some bread before starting to cook something. However, I had not yet taken a shower and my hair was a mess. I headed for the bathroom to take a shower.

After the shower, I put on my clothes and dried my hair. I headed towards the door to get out. Once outside, I realized it was a little bit cold and went back home to get my jacket. I headed outside once more and started walking towards the market.

I made it to the market and got some bread, oh and it was the season for green plums. I got some of those too. Then, I paid for them and started walking home. While on the way home, I saw my friend and we sit on the grass to talk for a brief moment. After taking with him, I started walking again.

I made it to home, now I had to cook some food. There was some raw meat in the refrigerator. I took it out and put in the microwave because it was frozen. Then I took out a pan to cook it. After cooking the meat, I headed upstairs to grab my laptop because I watch Youtube videos while I eat. I started watching a Minecraft video. I finished eating and the video was still going on. I had to finish it first. After finishing the video, I cleaned up the dishes and went upstairs.

I was looking at my computer and the blinking cursor with an empty blog post once more. I knew I had some idea about a blog post before and tried to remember it but no, it was gone. I had to find something new.

I looked at the clock and it was 7 o'clock, and there was no blog post. The cursor was still blinking.

Thoughts On An Imperial Message

On the first look, this parable seems to be referring to the mechanics of a huge empire. The regular people are referred to as “insignificant shadows.” They get so little attention and have so little impact that Kafka does not even use something materially present in this definiton but a shadow, merely a darker spot that never draws the eye to it. In this machine, it is impossible to reach out to every individual, to speak to them and hear them speak back and let each voice be heard because there are too many obstacles and steps in between. The powerful man who is trying to reach out to the undistinguished citizen extinguishes his time and strength on overcoming these hurdles without success, while the citizen remains at the same far away spot dreaming about being reached out to. This is mainly an issue of communication. The parable might also be referring to the issue of understading. It is hard for the powerful and rich to understand the ordinary and poor when their worlds are as remote and distanced from each other as mentioned in the parable: separated by great halls and chambers, shiny staircases, courtyards and outer palaces. The emperor is so secluded from his subjects, it has become much harder for him to acknowledge them and to recognize and address their problems.

We can also interpret the parable to have an epistemological theme. In this sense, the humble subject would be any human and the message would be ‘the absolute truth.’ Every human ‘dreams to himself’ about hearing this message. In other words, every man cares about the truth as it helps them find meaning in life and it is also one of the most important questions for humankind. Similarly in the parable, this message is clearly incredibly important: The dying wish of the most powerful man in the empire is for this message to be delivered and he even double checks whether the messenger understood it correctly. But the message never reaches the subject in the parable – the man never really obtains ‘the absolute truth’ – because of all the obstacles in the way. The material obstacles (chambers, gates, palaces) between the subject and the message, in the context of absolute truth, might be interpreted as man’s unreliable perception of reality. So the parable tells us that the man will never know anything for certain because cannot trust the knowledge he gains through his senses, his mind or anything else.

Explanation of "Before The Law"

When I first read before the law, the first thing that popped into my head was how the law was for every single individual in society but the fact that this person in the parable couldn’t reach the law showed me that there were corruptions in the system. Though the law supposedly never separates one person from another and that everyone is equal, we always see that power or money can make a difference.

The person waiting at the door consistently wants to take a step inside and find out what the law is consisting of his own matter but to my understanding he is not a person of strength or does not have a lot of money. He is kept waiting there until he becomes old and the doorkeeper says to him that this door was made for you and you alone. And the image that there where millions and millions of doors just came into my mind and that in every other door people where waiting to get inside, some who where powerful and knew the right people and were not afraid to go inside went inside faster while other less influential people had to wait a long time but also had their chance and were recognized by the law. They were judged accordingly and then could go outside and continue living their lives while the character in the parable gave his whole life to this, but was not recognized and the struggle to fight for his rights took over his life but this struggle was never rewarded with true meaning.

You Know Nothing John Snow

      The day was a sunny monday. Mother lily gave birth to his first son John. John was raised with great conditions.He have already had all of the things he wished to have. He went to a great school. He graduated from his school from best score and then he found a great job. He was earning thousands of dollars per a day. He worked harder and harder then he doubled his money and again he worked harder and harder. He became a millioner. However; after all of the appetites he had and not just appetites but his great education, he realized that he was not satisfied. He said that why? why? why I still feel this strange thing? What is this incompleteness inside of me. I am rich. I had great education and I had everything but still I am searching for more. I cannot stop myself. I have to find a way to prevent this dissatisfaction. I got great education. I have been working for years so hard that I could be a wise man and answer must be something I know. Then, he said to himself; how can a man know this answer while he was very poor against his self's dissatisfaction. One day, he was walking in the street and across the street, there was an old man whose clothes are very dirty and his hair is scattered is  just staring at him and laughing . John went through this man and then asked, what are you laughing at you old man? He again laughed with high volume ahahahhahaha. I pity you  John. You are pathetic. John said who the hell are you? You know who I am? I am the boss of snow company and I am the one who was always comes first in every scholl I went. I am the one everything you lack of. Old man said after everything you have and you learned, you still know nothing John Snow but you may learn some when the day comes that you laugh at the ones who spit out to your face, you may learn some when the comes that you that you do not live for yourself but for others and you may learn some when the day comes that you know that you know nothing John Snow. When John heard these words which are very humiliating for him, he went crazy and he kicked the bin on his back.  Then, he turned back. He was shocked that the man disappeared in a second. He was shocked but after some minutes he went on his way. After few moths, John's dissatisfaction of his life is getting worse so at last, he decided to leave all of what he has,his wealth, his friends and even his familiy. He became a wanderer. He stayed away from crowded cities but sometimes he visited some villages and listen people.  He always listened people and do not talk much that even people assumed that he was dumb. He also continued reading .He never left reading books. In the most silence places, when the shadows extinguished the light of sun. He thought and listened himself. After many years of this life, his nature seems to be softened a lot. In many villages, people were calling him dumb and children were throwing rocks to him but he does not care. In one day, he again visited a village to get some food as he is so hungry and he thought that he may help  people. After he helped some people and get his food, there was a little child crying on the corner. He went there and without talking, he asked what is wrong with this child. Child said he is very hungry. Altough John is much hungry than child, he gave all of his food to him. John was in a very miserable situation with his hunger. While he was sitting inn a corner, a farmer came and saw John. He said that who is this ominous man? Look at him. He will bring bad luck to this village. he spited out to Johns face. From John's cheeks' tears were dripping but he did not say anything and left the village. He sit on a rock and he bend his head to front with sadness. However; he felt no dissatisfaction in spite of this terrible life seemingly, on the contrary, his physical body was burning but his soul is like in peace. When he was thinking these, somebody came to the in front of John. John did not even lift his head and look at the man. The man asked to John tell me who are you? John who speaks so so rarely wanted to answer. He said a man who knows nothing. Then, the man said that you started to learn John Snow ,you started to learn! When John lifted his head, there was nobody.

The Missing Part

As you know, Kafka’s parables sometimes makes no sense. When you read them you sometimes react like “What was that?”, “Why did he do that?”. I think Kafka tries to include the reader into the parable by leaving some parts of the story to imagination of the reader. By this way, he makes people think about the untold part, let them to think whatever they want. I think it gives a different taste of literature.

In parables of Kafka there are missing parts in them. Some does not have development part, some does not have conclusion. These missing parts in the parables lets people to create their own parable. In my opinion these spaces in parables is the thing what makes Kafka’s parables interesting. In An Imperial Message, parable starts normal, an emperor gives a messenger a message to deliver. He goes on his way, nothing can stop him... and the story ends, Kafka says “But you sit at your window when evening falls and dream it to yourself.”. How am I related the messenger? Does Kafka trying to give a message like “You are sitting at your window but there are people who are trying to do their task, they are so ambitious that they can even fight against a dead man.” As I said, you do not know what Kafka is trying to say. He lets the reader think, fill in the blanks. Also, in Give it Up! you do not know why the policeman says “Give it up! Give it up!”. Like the other parable, I think, Kafka wants to include the reader into the story and he wants us to think why would a person answer such a question like that. It might be a cliché like “Who you gonna call?”. We cannot know. There are infinite possibilities which Kafka wants us to think about.

In conclusion , Kafka wants to include reader into his parables. He wants people to think about blank spaces in stories; wants people to fill them, create infinite stories. These stories does not only gives pleasure to the reader also gives chance to think about non-existing parts, create an “own” story. This is the thing makes his parables so interesting and successful.

Last Essay Assignment - La Jetée

     La Jetée is a French sci-fi short movie that was made by Chris Marker in 1962. In the film, the way of narration is actually unusual because it was made in a different way; the technique of “photo-roman” was used. The story focuses of the period of Third World War. A man is tasked with an experiment by scientists and his aim is travelling to the past and the future in order to find the solution to save the present, which is completely destroyed after the war and riddled with radioactivity. When themes of the movie is explored, it seems that time and memory are crucial themes for the film because it involves some significant messages and hidden meanings for both.
      Actually, the narration of "photo-roman" was used in the film for emphasizing the preservation of memories. With photography, any instants, memory and events can be stored. Relatively, images also evoke memories. Some images in the film can easily evoke people’s memory about the war and therefore, it also reminds the past with its technique. With this way, audience can also get a sense of time travelling. Time travelling is a necessity for treating the concept of time. The man’s time travel needs the help of his memory, so that he appeals to those images. In that case, the technique of "photo-roman" has a considerable role on the plot of the film. As the film moves through the projector, these film images become“present” as they are happening now and it also shows that each person can live in their past only with their photographs. In that case, the film might be considered as realist because it presents images of memories, instead of screening those memories directly.
     While he is travelling back to the past, he meets with a woman that he is fond of and dates her. Meanwhile, he is just a prisoner who is also a subject of experiment in the real present. However, while his aim is preventing the expected future, he is completely fascinated by that woman and it creates a serious problem. Because of the woman, he cannot make any change in the past. It actually demonstrates that the past cannot be changed and one way or another, the fate is going to happen. This film is a reminder of the cyclical nature of time. The narrator intones that one cannot escape time, and also the protagonist cannot, though it is only in his final moments that he realizes this. In a nutshell, it underlines the inescapable side of time, although some memories of past create some tragic traumas. Turning back to past, not literally, can be only made in minds with images and photographs, therefore memories are a kind of key of the door that is opened to the past.