"Me Talk Pretty One Day" Response

1. Sedaris makes this into a humorous essay by making fun of the teacher. He makes sarcastic jokes about her, and her relationship with the various students. He is humorous when he cannot understand the teacher. The funniest moment is at the end of the essay when he attempts to speak in French, and he uses words it the literal sense that don't fit the meaning of the sentence.

Deadpan humor is a bland and expressionless form of humor. Sedaris uses deadpan humor when he describes the other students in the class. He does it a completely serious manner, but its results is humorous.

2. Sedaris slowly reveals a lot about himself in this essay. He characterized himself through his reaction to to other people and his analysis of the situation he is in. By the end of the essay one can assume that Sedaris is intimidated with trying to learn a new language, but he is laid back, comical, and the situation he is in entertains him and thus the reader. We can base the assumption off of his reactions to various situations. 

My Unflattering Procrastination

Everyone has at least one thing that they hate about themselves. This is my extreme procrastination for me. Whenever I have homework, a task that is boring, or something that I simply do not wish to do, I will always wait until the last minute to complete it. I really do not enjoy this fact. It often causes me to stay up extremely late, or get grades that definitely  could have been better if I had a little more time to spend on something. One of my most severe cases of procrastination was my freshman year science fair project.

All throughout the process of the science fair I was handing things in on the last minute. I had no idea what my experiment was going to be until the night before I had to submit an idea for one. This last minute ordeal was also true of the lab report, and the display poster. The worst of all was the poster. It was the night before science fair and I didn't have a poster board, and much less an idea of what to put on that poster board. Yet somehow I managed to get the poster done at 3 am, and get four hours of sleep. Even more amazing is the fact that I earned second place in the science fair. This was both amazing and disappointing. I was amazed that my last minute project could have earned second place. I was disappointed because it will always haunt me that maybe if I had worked for more time I could have won. However, it doesn't bother me that I got second because I knew that my experiment was very good even if it was done at the last minute.

I somehow have very good luck when I do things at the last minute. It is a punishment that I procrastinate so much, but it is a blessing that I work extremely well under pressure. These two things combine, and the result is usually something very good. I will wait until the last minute to do something, but then I  do an excellent job on it because I know its the last minute. Sometimes I feel as though if I did an a task early, I would do a lazy or bad job on it. I always study for every test only on the night before, even on finals, and every high school essay I have written thus far was written on the night before it was due. It is definitely not a good idea for others to try and follow this method because it most likely will turn out terrible. In order to be successful at what I do you must not give up even when its 2 am, have a strong desire to get everything done, and have some very good luck. I am not saying that procrastination is a good thing, but it is just the way I am. It works out  for me only because I work better under pressure. I always try very hard to break this habit, but I haven't been successful thus far. As evidence of this one only needs to look at what time I published this post. (2:09 am)

Shooting an Elephant Question Responses

1. Shooting an Elephant contains two major themes. They are; the results of imperialism and the influence of peer pressure. The story relates to imperialism because during this time Britain was an Imperial Empire that was controlling India at the time that this story takes place. The officer hates his work and does not believe in imperialism. At the same time the story involves peer pressure. This is because the officer is pressured into shooting the elephant by the surrounding crowd. This is also how the two themes relate. The officer is forced into shooting the elephant by the principle of imperialism. He, as a white man and an example of the empire, must show his dominance over the surrounding natives. The natives must not see the empire as weak so he is pressured by his peers into killing an innocent elephant.

2. Orwell reveals his unflattering traits by showing his thought process. He states every thought and influence in his mind that lead to his final decision. He reveals that he is easily influenced by peer pressure by showing what is going on in his mind during the situation.. He states about what she should have done or what he wanted to do, then he tells of his decision making process that changed that original thought, and lastly he states the final outcome. 

How to be Popular

1. Have lots of friends but don't know any particular one very well. Just be good friends or acquaintances with everyone you meet.

2. Play the sport that you are best at, and always act like the best on the team.

3. Get average grades, but don't study too hard or be overly concerned with school.

4. Act relaxed at all times.

5. Always have something to do or somewhere to go.

6. Act like you've seen the movie that everyone else is talking about even if you haven't.

7. Always be surrounded by other people.

8. Dress to stand out from others, but don't dress strange.

9. Act like your open or accepting to anything that any one of your friends likes.

10. If someone has a problem with you handle it yourself by causing a big scene.

Against Homework

Homework is a terrible task that keeps students up into the late hours of the night. It often causes parents to yell, “Go to bed!” as students desperately try to complete it before exhaustion claims their weary bodies and minds. There is no student in the world that enjoys homework, and it is always the worst part of his or her day. The purpose of homework is to reinforce material learned in school. However, it rarely fulfills this purpose because of all the problems it causes. Homework has an overall negative influence on students because it makes school have negative connotations, it causes massive stress and health issues, and it is seldom effective at achieving its purpose.

            When students simply hear the word homework it is automatically linked with school. You cannot have one without the other. Since most students hate homework, they will, as a result, begin to hate school. This can happen from an early age, which can be devastating. If a student has hatred of school it will certainly lead to problems later on in life. This negative relationship could result in a student dropping out of school, all because of homework. It does not matter if the student is intelligent or not. Giving a smart student homework on something that they already have learned is useless. Giving homework to a student who does not know how to do the assignment results in them either giving up, or doing it incorrectly, and feeling ashamed the next day. If teachers could work at an efficient rate, and get everything done in class, there would be no need for homework. Homework can extinguish a young child’s curiosity for learning. If homework were eliminated students would enjoy school, and get to spend the other limited hours of the day doing different activities.

            When a student arrives home from school the last thing that they want to do is their homework, and yet it is always looming the back of their minds. It is nearly impossible to get off a student’s mind, especially with their parents constantly nagging them about it all day. Students have next to no free time. Between school, eating, and sleeping there is little time for anything besides homework. Usually sleeping will be sacrificed in order to complete ridiculous amounts of unnecessary and repetitive work. Lack of sleep will only lead to less effectiveness in school, and all the more risk of getting sick, which leads to missed school days. Next to suffer is time for nutrition. Students may miss breakfast in order to get to school early and do homework, or they could spend lunch doing homework they were too tired to complete. Homework also causes stressful relationships between parents and their children. No one likes to nag someone, and no one likes to listen to nagging. Homework can cause fights between parents and children, which makes it all the more of a stressful activity. If a student is physically or mentally unhealthy they cannot do well in school. If homework is the cause of this unhealthiness, it is obvious that it needs to be eliminated. Homework causes mental and physical issues and, it is not what it was intended to be.

            Homework is intended to help students not harm them, but all it does is cause harm. Teachers would argue that doing homework helps boost the grades of their students, but that is just giving students points for doing the teacher’s job. Once a student completes their homework there is no urge to learn further. Who would want to learn more after doing three hours of homework late at night? All students are focused on is getting their work done and going to sleep. Teachers would also say that doing homework involves applying techniques learned in class, and this will strengthen a student’s knowledge. On the contrary, the more a student does a certain type of assignment, the more they will begin to become bored of it and dislike it. That student will only perform well on that one test or quiz and then simply forget the information. Material that is freely learned or researched will be easily remembered, but material that is forced into a student’s brain will push itself out as soon as it can.

            The negative effects of homework far outweigh and out number the trivial positive effects. It makes students associate school with a terrible chore. It also makes parents constantly annoy their children to do their homework until it becomes too late, and that turns into telling them to get some sleep. Homework ruins the confidence of students, and it is not what teachers perceive it to be. Homework only makes students’ brains into sponges that absorb information, not knowledge, and squeeze it out onto a test paper, after which it never returns.

Self- Esteem

What is your opinion yourself? We as humans often judge other people and their decisions, but we also judge ourselves. When we judge ourselves approvingly we have a high self-esteem, or we could be disapproving of our own character, which results in low self-esteem. Having a higher self esteem is naturally more advantageous then having a low self-esteem. 

Lauren Slater attempts to make an argument against holding a high self-esteem, which is one of the pillars of American mentality. She claims that having  a high opinion of one's self will only lead to disappointment, and having low expectations will result in surprising achievement.  Almost every physiologist handles patients by giving them self worth.If a person does not value themself, how can they live life? Slater uses studies that show people with higher self opinions seem to be more abusive. The truth is that these people don't have too much self-esteem, but rather they do not value others. If Americans began to listen to Slater the county would fall into a state of turmoil.

If everyone began to have low-self esteem and disapprove of themselves the world would be turned upside down. This goes against everything we are taught since we are born. We are rewarded and told not to be excessively angry with ourselves.  People would go into a state of mass depression. No one would have goals, and there would be no respect for life. Every human being would consider themselves, and thus all others, as worthless. As this happens violence would be everywhere. People cannot learn the value of the life of another, if they do not value their own life.

Having respect for one's self is vital to living life. Showing self-respect is an obvious path towards misery. Slater is right that too much self respect can lead to problems. If one is overly confident, it can lead to extreme disappointment. This could also lead to a cocky personality, and its hard to be friends with that type of self-centered person. 

Self-esteem, like most other things, is good in moderation. One should have the confidence to make and try to achieve goals, but if these goals are not accomplished they must not get too down on them-self. Having low self-esteem and expectations is not the answer to being disappointed. One must simply remember that anything is possible, and just because they might fail at something does not make them a bad person.

Caesar’s Fate

 It is much easier to trick someone, when you know what his or her values are. In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Decius knew exactly what the main character (Caesar) valued, and he exploits this to his advantage. Caesar has to make a decision that determines his fate. To help him make this decision is his wife Calphurnia, who believes he will die if he chooses to go to the Senate, and Decius, who is conspiring to kill him. Both of these characters try to persuade Caesar either into continued life, or into betrayal and death. Caesar ultimately chooses to listen to Decius because he creates a better argument. Decius’s argument is more persuasive then that of Calphurnia’s because he uses pathos and logos to appeal to the ethos of Caesar, while Calphurnia only uses pathos and ethos.

            In Calphurnia’s argument there is no effective persuasion. She appeals using ethos because she is Caesar’s wife, and therefore does not want him to die because of her love for him. Then, she only uses pathos to warn him of the impending danger that she is unsure of at best. She manages to frighten Caesar out of going at first. However, she does not use logos to explain how this choice would benefit Caesar in other ways. Instilling fear in the brave Caesar is ineffective and it only lasts until Decius enters the scene.

            Decius is able to convince Caesar to not heed the warning of his wife, and instead fall into a trap. He does this in many clever ways. First, he uses logos to twist the meaning of Calphurnia’s dream from a warning of death, into a vision of glory and fortune. Caesar quickly turns away from thoughts of impending death, into dreams of magnificence and honor. Next, Decius appeals to the ethos of Caesar. He knows that Caesar is greedy, and in a quest for everlasting glory. He goes about tricking Caesar in a logical manner. Decius explains what Caesar will be missing if he stays at home in this quote, “the Senate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you shall send them word that you will not come, Their minds may change” (Shakespeare 55-58). Caesar, unable to pass up the chance for a crown, decides to go. Decius also explains to Caesar that it would sound foolish if the other Romans heard that the almighty Caesar would not return to Senate simply because his wife was having bad dreams. Decius uses ethos because he appeals to the character of Caesar. He knows that Caesar is greedy, in search of glory, and striving to become a legend. Decius simply tells Caesar everything he wants to hear, and tricks him easily in this way.

            Caesar makes the choice that he believes will benefit himself the most. Calphurnia only evokes the emotion of fear, which holds almost no effect over a brave character like Caesar. Decius uses all the flaws in Caesar’s character (like greed and selfishness) to his advantage. Decius used logos and pathos to appeal to the ethos of Caesar. This is a very effective way to fool a selfish character. It is much easier to trick someone using logic and telling them what they want to hear, than it is to frighten them, especially when that person is the brave and power hungry Caesar.