Brave new world 3

What aspects of the early 1930s, which is when Brave New World was written, are present in the story?

What are Huxley's views about the nature of happiness?

In what ways do the societies in Brave New World and 1984 exercise extreme social control over their people?

"Communist Utopia" Thomas Hornung

1. The eyes symbolize the constant scrutiny of a communist government.
2. He has a very negative view of communism.
3. A perfect surveillance system would allow a perfect communist society. 

"Don't You Want Me?" The Human League

1. The couple of 5 years is splitting up.
2. The man thinks that he has put the woman where she is now, but the woman thinks that she did it all on her own.
3. I side with the man because a person usually needs help to go from a cocktail waitress to a successful person in only 5 years.

Emic v. Etic perspectives

- 1. The Emic perspective is when the researcher immerses himself in a culture to understand how people of that culture perceive the world. Etic perspective is an unbiased and scientific perspective of the culture that cam reveal the actual social reasons for cultural behavior.
2. Neither approach is better than the other. It is a case by case basis.

- 1. This allows a researcher's findings to be subjected to criticism.
2. This allows the researcher to get a large amount of information about the culture.
3. This prevents the researcher from harming or deceiving his or her subjects.

"Rain on a Scarecrow" John Mellencamp

1. A farmer who loses his land.
2. The conflict is the farmer v. society.
3. The wooden cross symbolizes death.
4. The use of the word legacy in the first chorus implies that this farm has been in that family for generations.
5. He sympathizes with the farmer because we see the situation from the farmer's eyes.

Why we consider some groups as the other: How we view the middle east

1. It is the projection of our negative aspects and an exotic land.

2. They are viewed as one group instead of individuals.

3. Their actions are determined by instinctive and savage emotions. Their emotions are determined by racial considerations. 

4. The west has been viewed as a symbol for progress and inovation. Creating a common enemy unites the people of a society. 

5. Yes

Deaf girl Cultural conflict video

1. I thought the girl was being rude, but she was actually deaf.
2. The girl is deaf, so she doesn't hear the boy. The boy thinks she is being rude. This is the conflict.
3. It is the girl not being able to hear and the boy's assumption that she can hear.
4. The girl didn't want to tell the boy that she was deaf, but she didn't want him to think that she was rude.
5. She tells him that she is deaf.

Brave New World 2

How do the individuals feel about their society?
As a whole, this society seems to be filled with very happy people, but I wonder how many individuals feel the same as Bernard? Bernard is an obvious exception within his class, but he is still superior to other people in that society. It is possible that many lesser individuals in the Onestate feel as if they have been cheated of a better opportunity at life. This I prevented by the Onestate by one of their hypnotic messages that says "Every one works for every one else." It is possible that a member of a lesser class to realize that his life is not a good as the lives of those above you. One could realize that this message is false, and, therefore, the Onestate is false.

How close are we to this society?
I believe that we are closer than we would like to believe. The religious reverence of technology that is iconic of the Onestate is similar to our love of social electronics that we have today. We also have similar mentalities about drugs to make our lives better. These ideas might not be to the extremity of soma, but we do have a large variety of pills and other medications that make our lives better. We also have marijuana, which is currently illegal but will probably be legalized in the next few years, that has a similar euphoric yet suppressing effect. This drug is also considered to be fine to smoke, which is similar to the idea that " a gram is better than a damn."

How does the Onestate deal with nonconformists?
This question is clearly addressed in 1984. It is very clear how they deal with people who don't buy into their system. This situation is obviously not a huge problem in the Onestate, but the fact there is a person who does not believe that the Onetate is good. This presets a threa to the Onestate that they should have a system to deal with. "don't you want to be happy in your own way?". This question threatens everything the Onestate is supported by.

Brave new world 1

The government in the world state has created conformity by cloning humans and creatig them specialized toward their specific social class. They eliminate by having an almost spiritual reverence for technology. Their calendar is based off if when Ford invented the model T. They have transformed sexual activity into some recreational sport, comparable to golf. They have eliminated all individual rights by having a persons social class decided for them before they are even born. Although the people are content with their society, I believe that this is a distopia because there are no real feelings in this world. Human life is very undervalued, and the lack of true emotion is defenitly evident through some if the characters thoughts. We see an example of this in the passage where John basically sumataizes his feelings about this world that begins with "Mother, monogamy,romance" (41). These thing are the aspects o life that John believes this society lacks and needs.  

1984 blog 3

At the end of 1984, Winston and Julia are caught by the thought police and are tortured until they submit to the party's control. They both betray each other in the face of unbearable physical pain. Big brother has definitely won in this situation because e has taken two people who were dedicate o destroying him and forced them to love him. If the One state's torture methods are as effective as they are described, it would be very difficult for a small group of people to have any effect. In order to have any kind of effect, there would have to be a mass realization that the party and the one state are depriving them of basic personal freedoms. This is extremely unlikely and could only be caused by some major event (i.e.the death of big brother). Winston has become completely brainwashed by the party. He used to feel sickened and angry at the sight of big brother, but there is a scene at the end the book where Winston sees big brother and immediately feels safe and happy. This drastic behavioral change is the evidence of Winston's and the rebellion's permenant defeat.

This Land is Your Land

1. This song is supporting individualism. This is prevalent in the line at the beggining of the last stanza: "nobody living can ever stop me."
2. This song is anti-government because it mentions wellfare and how it destroys people's freedom.

The Egg

1. The father started out as a nice person, but the ambition and greed caused by the egg made him mean.
2. The narrator hates chickens and eggs.
3. The grotesques symbolize the negative change in the father's personality.
4. The egg overcame the father's happiness and replaced it with ruinous ambition.

Aristotle quote

I definitly agree with this quote because it stresses the importance of looking at the other side of an issue. Even if you don't agree with that side, an understanding of the counter argument will give you a better understanding of the issue as a whole.

Individualist v. Collectivist

1. An individualist society values confidence and self reliance. A collectivist society values a hardworking and compassionate individual.
2. The society that vaules the oldest family is collectivist because they respect a prosperous and secure group. The socuety that values the PhD is individualistic because the PhD has succeeded through his own accomplishments.
3. A collectivist teacher who goes to an individualistic culture may encounter some conflicts. Some of the teacher's intellegent students may think that they are being underappreciated because the teacher treats everyone the same.
4. An aquataince is someone the you know but not well enough to be a friend. This word has a neutral connotation.

1984 part 2

In my opinion, Winston is so conflicted between doing his job and doing what he thinks is right because he remembers a time when the Party wasn't in control. He remembers that there wasn't all of this hardship and suffering before the Party's revolution. He knows that the Party is a lie because it is his job to create their lies. His small acts of defiance are a form of protest because he is very slightly disrupting the order and the stability of the Party. His protests cannot be compared to the protests that are seen today. The people who are occupying Wall Street do not know what they want, and even if they did, they probably would not be able to unite and accomplish it. When Winston joins the secret Brotherhood, he has joined a complex society with it's own hierarchy and chain of command. The members of the Brotherhood understand what they are doing and know exactly why they are doing it. The masses see this type of protesting as futile and pointless. The government is probably a little more concerned, but that is just because it is natural for the government to be worried whenever some people are in a state of unrest. I do not think that the protest of today are anything like what Winston and the Brotherhood are doing to the Party.

"2+2=5" by Radiohead

1. The ideas of a utopia will backfire to create a distopia.
2. The music in the beginning is calm and peaceful. The music in the later part of the song is very chaotic and the sounds are strained and edgy.
3. In 1984, Winston said the one day the Party will control the truth so much that they will say the 2+2=5 and people will believe them.

Conflict

1. The Western values and the Muslim values.
2. The western values are clashing with the values of other areas.
3. The eastern people get new, western role models.
4. Muslims follow the Koran. Westerners follow the U.S. constitution.

What is a utopia?

1. A utopia is a perfect world.
2. In my utopia, I would be the supreme ruler of all things. I would be immortal and be able to create or change anything. This might not be the perfect world for everybody, but it wold be for me.
3. The background music for my utopia would fit whatever my mood was. There would definitely be a lot of White Stripes.

1984 part 1

The Party eliminates all conflict from their society by carefully monitoring the thoughts of all of the citizens of that society. If someone in that society has the potential of being a threat to the government, they kill that person and make it so that he never existed. This is shown in the book when Winston is very afraid of not going to the meetings or seeming like an outsider because he does not want to be seen as not part of the whole. This could cause him to get vaporized. They create conformity by making everyone wear the same clothes and act the same way. They have monitors in every room of the houses that they live in that make sure that everyone acts appropriatly even when they are alone. When they are not at work, the people of that society are expected to attend the public events and listen to propaganda with everyone else. They make everyone wear the same facial expressions all the time, and if you have an expression that is not approved, you will be vaporized. The Party forces happiness on its people by altering the historical records of what life was like before they came into power. They make everyone think that, before their revolution, everyone was a slave to tyrannical people called the capitalists. They convinced everyone that the capitalists were cruel rulers who were glutonous and made everyone under their domain suffer. This is completely false, but there are no records to prove otherwise. The society that they have created is not a utopia because people are either constantly living in fear that thier facial expressions will betray their ture feelings about their situation or they are so brainwashed by the Party's propaganda that they lose any semblance of individuality.

Reading Critically

The first step to reading critically is to read through the essay and take in it's general meaning. It also helps to know some background about the essay, the author, and when the essay was written in order to have an idea of what it might be about. You should also make sure and analyze the title and make a prediction about how it relates to the story. While you are reading, you should actively annotate the parts that you think are important. When you are finished reading the first time, you should summarize what you have read in order to understand it better. Then you look at your summary and your annotations and begin to think critically about the author's purpose in writing the essay. When you have a general idea or what the purpose might be, begin analyzing the essay by breaking it down into smaller parts. You can make inferences about the author's intentions and synthesize what the author is trying to accomplish. You can also critically evaluate the essay if you wish.

"Young Life" Bo Bartlett

Claims and Facts

Ways of life are passed down through generations. The boy is holding a stick in a similar way that the father is holding his gun, which suggests that the boy aspires to be like his father.

The deer represents what supports the family. The deer is above the heads of the people and is curved like a roof. This could be because the deer protects and provides for the family.

The child doesn't want to be like the father. The boy is facing away from the father. is standing far away from the father, and is dressed very differently from the father. This suggests that the boy is trying to reject his father.

Paragraph

The entire painting is a representation of a house and what supports this family. The most important and supportive aspects of the family are in the center of the painting. At the top is the deer that we can assume the father has just killed. This deer is curved in a way that represents a roof, and the positioning of the deer over the heads of the family stresses this symbol. Directly below the deer is the father, who is holding a gun. The father's head partially covers the deer, and this positioning establishes the central support for the family because he is supporting the symbolic roof. Supporting the father is his female companion. We do not know if she is he wife of his girlfriend because she is not wearing a ring, but we know the she has intense emotional connections with the father because of the way she is clutching him. In this house analogy, the placement of the mother/girlfriend implies that she emotionally supports the father because she is firmly clutching him, but she has no connection to the deer above them. The father is holding his gun in a interesting manner. If the line the deer makes is continued, the gun would be protruding out of the roof of this house. This suggests that the gun is the chimney of the house. The purpose of the chimney is to remove the potentially toxic waste from the fireplace in a house. Fire is one of the most essential components of life, especially when cooking a deer, and the chimney expels these necessary toxins. Similarly, the gun expels necessary evils (bullets are designed for the sole purpose of killing other living creatures) at a target to provide protection or a source of food. Both structures expel evil for the benefit of people, and in this way the gun and the chimney are similar. Even though the father is symbolically supporting the deer, the muddy green truck behind him is what is actually supporting it. In this house analogy, the truck would represent the walls of the house that are just as necessary as the father for the support of the roof. If the father did not have this car, he could kill a hundred deer, but he could not get them back to his house. The child is the last major object in this painting, and he is the farthest away from the center, which represents his minimal contribution to the family. However, his clothing color is bright and eye-catching, and this tells us that he is not entirely insignificant. The child is standing where the door of this house would be, and this could mean that the child will go out into the world and make and support his own house. He is also holding a stick that could be symbolic for the door itself. 

SOAPSTone for "Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out"

SOAPSTone for “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out”

            The subject of Dave Berry’s “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” is to humorously express the difference the difference between men and women. The psychological differences between these two sexes are illustrated by the humorous examples that Barry uses to represent these fundamental differences. These differences are represents by real life examples that we can all relate to.

            “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” was written during the time after the party when the men left the conversation to watch the World Series. The essay’s time of creation is illustrated by the use of the author’s past tense and the author’s reflective tone, as if he were looking back on an amusing memory. The probable place of this essay’s creation is a workshop or some other personal and reclusive writing place.

            The time and place of this essay’s creation influence the essay by adding a reflective tone. The tone of this essay is created by the reflective tone that sounds like the author is reflecting back on a memory from several years ago. He has just realized how funny the situation was and decided to write about it.

            Dave Barry’s specific audience for this essay is the men of America, especially those men who like baseball and are stereotypically unaware of how dirty something is. The author’s target audience is exhibited by the examples he uses and the point of view of the essay. The essay is designed for men to connect to the speaker.

            Dave Barry’s purpose in “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” is to be humorous and point out fundamental differences in men and women. These differences are expressed in the examples he uses, such as the subjectivity of clean or the importance of sports. These are examples that everyone can relate to and are humorous in nature.

            Dave Berry, a humorist, believes that there are major psychological differences between men and women, and when these differences are expressed, it can create very funny situations. The sentence that describes the way the men at the party exited the conversation to watch a World Series game is both funny and revealing. This shows that Berry believes that the differences in men and women are both extreme and hilarious.

            Dave Berry’s use of humor is evident in the hyperbole he uses when describing how awful the situation was when he couldn’t watch the World Series game. This greatly influences the essay’s purpose by lightening the tone and making the essay more enjoyable to read. This changes the essay from an analyzation into a funny reflection.

            Dave Berry exhibits a humorous tone and a lighthearted attitude about the differences between men and women in “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out.” These attitudes are expressed through the hyperbole he uses when describing the situations that express the differences between men and women. This shows that he is trying to be humorous, and that he is not very serious about this topic.

"Shame" Avett Brothers

1. Subject- A man is shameful because he emotionally hurt a girl.
Tone- The tone seemed like he was sad, shameful, and seeking remorse.

2. boatloads, shame, blame

Voice in Liturature

1. Voice is your personality and way of speaking expressed in your writing. Word choice and syntax are used to create it.
2. We don't got to do nothing. This is a very hillbilly voice.
3. I would probably talk around asking someone to do a big favor for me. I would gradually build up to it rather than go right out and say it.
4. The importance of voice in nonfiction is to make yourself sound profesional. You must always stay in the third person when writing an academic essay in order to make yourself sound official.
5. A good way we could practice voice is by writing mote personal essays or reading books and mimicking the voice of others.

Kandinsky vs. Pollack

1. I think that Kandinsky is better because there are more colors and more movement than in the Pollack.
2. I think that the Kandinsky is more pleasing to the eye because the colors are brighter and the shapes are more uniform, while Pollack has very dull colors that are not as eye catching as Kandinsky's colors.

Sign Language- a short film

1. The single effect of the film was that people should find beauty in the mundane.
2. The bright colors of the main character and the girl; The dull colors of everyone around them; the brightness of signs they were holding.
3. If I could change one aspect about this film it would be the fact that he couldn't talk to the girl. This takes away from the single effect because if he was able to talk to the girl and was afraid to, it would add to the effect of making the most out of little things.

"Shooting an Elephant" George Orwell

The subject of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is the sham of imperialism that turns the rulers into puppets that are controlled by the will of the people they rule. This fallacy is illustrated through Orwell’s lack of control over a situation that he should have commanded. Even thought Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant, he was forced to because he did not want to appear weak or foolish in the eyes of the natives behind him.

“Shooting an Elephant” was probably written in the later years of Orwell’s life as he looked back on this event of his youth. The essay’s time of creation is conveyed by the author’s past verb tense and the assumption he allows his readers to make that he is no longer in that country any more. In the first line of the essay he says, “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people.” This implies that he is no longer in Moulmein and the people there have forgotten about him, which tells us that this essay was written at a later point in his life. The probable place of the essay’s creation is Orwell’s house or other usual place where he writes that is in England. This is because we have already assumed that he has left the country that the essay took place in, so that means he has probably returned to England.

The time and place of the essay’s creation influence the essay by creating a more thoughtful and recollecting tone for the piece. The tone of the essay is created by the analyzation of the flaws of his youthful personality and how they reflect the illusion of imperialism. This tone makes the most sense if it is used while looking far back into the past when Orwell is much older and much more different man than he was when he shot the elephant. The tone of the essay implies that Orwell has aged and changed from the events of the essay to it’s writing, and this demonstrates the affect the time and place have on the piece.

George Orwell’s specific audience for “Shooting and Elephant” is people who believe that imperialism is beneficial for the leaders of an imperialistic state. The author‘s target audience is identified by the unique view that Orwell has because he has experienced the effects of imperialism first hand. The point that Orwell is trying to make with the essay is that imperialism is not a positive thing for the rulers of an imperialistic state, and this argument would be wasted on people who already agree with him. The argument is for people who do not agree with the point he is trying to make, and those are people who believe that imperialism benefits the rulers.

The author’s general audience for the essay is anyone who would benefit from learning the negative effects of imperialism on its leaders. This could be the leaders of imperialistic states or anyone who is debating with themselves or others about whether or not imperialism is positive or negative. The author’s general audience is expressed by the insight and first hand account of the negative effects of imperialism. This point reveals the general audience because the people who could benefit from knowing the negative effects of imperialism could benefit from a first hand account of these effects.

George Orwell’s purpose in “Shooting an Elephant” is to reveal the negative effects of imperialism. These negative effects are illustrated through the mastery the natives had over the police officer even though the police officer should have been the one in charge. This shows that in an imperialistic society, the leaders are at the mercy of the people who they should be in charge of. Orwell says that the leaders are trapped and are constantly trying to please the natives.

George Orwell, who served the Imperial Indian Police in Burma, believes that imperialism negatively affects its leaders. This value is illustrated by the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness he had while he was watched by the crowd of natives. These feelings express Orwell’s idea the imperialism causes its leaders to become the puppets of their people. This helps support the negative effects of imperialism, which is the purpose of this essay.

George Orwell, who did not want to shoot the elephant, also believes that you should not conform to a group if you know that you will do something wrong. Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant, but the crowd of natives behind him wanted him to, so he did. He tells us that he did not want to shoot the elephant but did so in order to not seem like a fool. This shows the negative effects of imperialism because Orwell was controlled by the will of the native people, even though it disagreed with his beliefs.

George Orwell uses imagery in the scene when the elephant is dying. This imagery helps us see that killing the elephant was a terrible thing to do because the elephant was peaceful and died in great pain. This influences the essay’s purpose because it show what negative results can occur if leaders succumb to the will of the people they rule.

George Orwell exhibits a pensive and regretful attitude about his experience with the negative effects of imperialism in “Shooting an Elephant.” These attitudes are expressed by a reflective and slightly ashamed tone. The reflective tone demonstrates Orwell’s thoughtful attitude towards the negative effects of imperialism and the ways that they completely dominate the leaders of that society. After he shoots the elephant, the reader feels an almost ashamed tone in Orwell’s writing because he has a regretful attitude towards what he had just done. He had succumbed to the will of the crowd and fell right into the trap that imperialism creates for its leaders. These attitudes and tones support the purpose of this essay, which is to reveal the negative effects of imperialism, by casting an unfavorable light on the crowd’s control over Orwell’s actions. 

Harry Nilsson "Good Old Desk"

S- a man talking about his desk
O- Nilsson writing a song
A- people who do a lot of desk work
P- to appreciate his desk
S- Harry Nilsson
T- grateful

I first took the song very literally and thought he was talking about his old, reliable desk that he works on, but our class discusion revealed that he was talking about his relationship with God.

"The Runaway" by Norman Rockwell

In the painting "The Runaway" by Norman Rockwell, there is a boy at a diner talking to a police officer and the man behind the counter. The boy has a bandana tied to a stick with supplies inside, so we assume that he is a runaway. The expressions and body language of the police officer and the man behind the counter suggest that they do not expect the boy to follow through with his plan and return home once he has thought things through. However, the rising counter culture in the 1950s suggests that the boy will follow through with his plan and be in serious danger. Rockwell overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America in the 1950s - an emerging counter-culture that was not concerned with how things were in America but rather how they are.

"Across the Universe" The Beatles

1. I saw a field of tall, wavy grass. I saw a man laying on a hammock on the back porch of a large, white farm house on the top of a hill in a field of tall, wavy grass. The sky above the field is bright and perfectly blue with large, white clouds that dominate the heavens and add to the brightness of the day. The green of the grass is always changing and flowing as the grass waves in the soft wind and the sun reflects and creates shadows in different parts of the field.

2. I did not pay much attention to the lyrics of the song, but from the class discussion I gathered that it was about the constant flow of ideas that the singer has and how he cannot keep all of those ideas into his head at one time. Despite the fact that my image is based on the singer's accompaniment, I think I can relate my image to the lyrics. The man in the hammock is contemplating the field of grass outside his house. He realizes that the field is constantly changing and that he could never take in the entire scene every time it changes. This means that, with each passing moment, he is missing some beauty that will never return. However, he also realizes that despite the field's constant change, it still maintains a fundamental beauty that never goes away. This means that regardless of the fact that he can not examine the beauty of every shift in the field of grass, he can be content with the beauty of the field as a whole, which is something that he can enjoy at any time.

3. A symbol in my life would be Saint Dismas. Not many people know the story of Saint Dismas, so I will summarize it. When Jesus was crucified, he was not alone. There was a man on his left and right who were also being crucified, but since they were common thieves, their punishment was not as severe and they were only tied to their crosses. One of the men next to Jesus confronted him and said that if he was the son of God, he should free them from their punishment. The other man, Dismas, defended Jesus by saying that Jesus was being punished worse than them even though he was innocent. Because Dismas defended Jesus in his hour of need, he made Dismas a saint, but since Dismas spent his life as a thief, Jesus said that Saint Dismas must help all those who prayed to him the find the things that they are looking for. We have a large family and we lose many things on our house, so my father bought himself, my mother, my sister, and me a chain with Saint Dismas on it to help us find the things that we have lost.   Everybody is looking for something, and if you pray to Saint Dismas, he will help you find it.

"Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis

1. This song made me feel very chill and relaxed.
2. The artists used a slow beat and heavily synthesized instruments.
3. There was nothing that was remotely loud or fast in the song, and the vocals were difficult to understand, which added to the calming effect.

"Semeadores" by Diego Rivera

1.
S- two farmers working in a field
O- time- early 20th century; place- Mexico
A- higher class people
P- to show how difficult and grueling farm labor is
S- Mexican communist
T- the tone is very dull and lifeless, with the farmers looking like they are part of the field

2. The main theme of the painting is to show the higher class people how hard the lower class works to sustain them. The farmers have no faces and look like they are becoming part of the land in order to show how much farm labor consumes most of these workers' lives.  

Creative Process

1. They took a song and deconstructed it to see if there were more exiting ways to approach it.
2. The biggest aspect of my creative process for writing is creating a thesis. Once I have my thesis, I can sit down and write any paper.
3. I look at the prompt and look at all the things that it is asking me to do. I base my thesis off of that.

Nostalgia Blog

1. Nostalgia in the longing for something that once was
2. The first song was very festive and made me think of an old fashioned party. The second song made me think of a high school prom night from on old movie.
3. Every time I smell chlorine, I get an small adrenaline rush because usually when I smell chlorine I am about to swim in a race.

Poverty Painting Questions

1.     A major contributing factor to a person’s economic status is what type of family they are born into. Impoverished people are usually born into poor families.

2.     The artist definitely portrays poverty in an unfavorable light.

3.     The artist’s message about poverty is that it is a terrible situation to be in and it is very difficult to get out of it, but there is still hope.

4.     The dark colors in the painting help give a sad and gloomy tone, and the bars behind that family symbolizes the difficulty of escaping poverty.

First Reading Response Blog - Poverty

            The two essays that we read, “Live Free and Starve” by Chitra Divakaruni and “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by Peter Skinner, have contrasting views on how to deal with children in need in third world countries. Divakaruni argues that it would be better to leave the children where they are now because they will not be able to survive in the harsh world of the streets of a third world country. Singer, on the other hand, argues that we should give every penny we can to these children in need because it would be incredibly immoral for us to live is luxury while others are in mortal peril. While Divakaruni does make an interesting point, I must agree with Singer because it is wrong for us to squander our money that others desperately need.

            I definitely had some reader bias while reading these essays that pulled me toward Singer’s side of the argument. Singer’s side agreed with my beliefs and everything that I had been taught about compassion and sympathy. However, I also believe that without this reader bias I still would have agreed with Singer because his argument was more compelling and more morally sound. Divakaruni’s argument was an undeniably unique and interesting look at a mostly one-sided issue, but it is difficult to imagine following through with the idea that children are better off in their factories and not with their families. Not only Singer’s argument better presented than Divakaruni’s, but also it is more morally sound. It is obvious that the right course of action in the scenario that he presented is to save the child’s life, no matter the cost. Not to do so is completely immoral and, whether you have reader bias or not, should be opposed.