JE37 Civil Disobedience

            It is good to obey whey it is beneficial to yourself. But it is bad to obey the authority if you think it is not reasonable and not helpful for yourself or your community. Or even worse, it can affect you in a negative way. I have to obey my dad, my mom, and teachers who teach me in PAS. My parents have control over me for almost everything. However, they actually give me freedom and I appreciated it. Teachers in PAS are those who give me grades, assign homework. I have to finish every work on time and try to perform well in classes. I have disobeyed my dad for my struggles with my old school. I could not stand under the pressure of many unreasonable rules and policies. I protested against him for my rights I deserved and my future. The fight happened on a car while he was driving. He was shouting at me and I shouted back too. To be honest, I did say some bad words. I angrily got off the car when he met the red light. Now looking back at it, I think it was an awesome decision because it if was not for that I could probably still be in my old school and suffered a lot from things except for school works. 

JE36 REd Badge Film

            The plot of the movie is pretty much the same from the book. In the movie, it showed a more realistic side of the story. However, there was a scene of Henry and his mother in the book that is now shown in the movie. In the movie, we can see many details and facial expressions in the movie that cannot be seen from the book. The people and situations in the movie are quite different from my imagination. The movie was black and white and was filmed in a bad skill. Therefore, it was different from what I pictured in my mind – colorful with motions and details. Also, there was a part that I imagined the regiment to be settled in a place with lots of trees beside the river. In the movie, they settled in a plain with not many trees. The points that I learned from the movie but not from the book are the real feelings of the each character and the situations of the war. In the book, I learned what was in Henry’s mind and how did he analyze his actions. My ideas about the details of the plot were reinforced because it went in my mind with motion pictures. 

JE35 Government

            I don't think it is a good idea to have government not governing. The reason of setting up a government is to give people a peaceful and stable life. It would be chaotic if people are not limited by laws. I know that the eventual goal of a communism government is that people will need no government and will provide and trade with each other. However, no one is going to work if they shall receive the same amount of food and money. Besides, if a society is not being governed, a crazy guy will definitely come out and declare himself as the king. It is better to keep everything organized. And that is the government’s job. However, there should be freedom among the laws. However, I actually prefer to act freely because I really hate people telling me what to do. Even though it might get a little chaotic, it is still better this way for me. However, sooner or later, there might be someone taking over the government and start to make laws. To have an authority telling me what to do does not necessarily mean that it can govern a society well. If the authority is a bad government, people are eventually going to protest against the government.  

JE34 Theme of Self-Reliance

            One important theme in “Self-Reliance” is individualism. Emerson encouraged people to be unique and listen to their own mind. “Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide,” he wrote. He also used the sentence “Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Emerson compared one’s heart to striking an iron string. What really strikes us is the truth of the message: trust yourself. Conforming to popular trends or shallow ideas shows no independence. One should do express one’s idea despite others’ opinions.

“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its member. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” In order to be a conformist, men have lost their individualities. Emerson concluded that man have to depend on the society however each of them still has their unique perspectives. This shows that Emerson believed society is not a good place to be independent and self-reliant but not necessarily connected to selfishness.

I think the theme is about being yourself and trusting your own voice. To me, this is not a good idea because we thought we knew everything but it is actually better to learn from others’ experiences. Also, I think we can still show individuality and be self-reliant in our society. Though we all have to go to school and do some things that we are not willing to, we can still find the freedom inside. In addition, fully expressing oneself is not possible in this society. There are basic rules to follow. I think the most important part is to find your own freedom within the rules of society and express yourself in your own way.

JE33 Imagery in Nature

            “One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.” The atmosphere may seem insignificant to us because of its transparency but it is actually essential. The most important livings are all contain in this atmosphere. Sometimes human belittle the existence of nature, however, in fact, human and nature are inseparable.

            “Standing on the bare ground – my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space – all mean egotism vanishes.” For me, it means that humans are only a little part of nature. Nature is extremely wide and huge. Comparing human with nature, human really has no power over it. Standing in nature makes us forget our arrogance and vanity because we would realize how negligible we are in this limitless place.

            “Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected all the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.” This sentence gave a feeling that the society has to respect nature. The only way for civilization and nature to live together is to respect each other. Sometimes humans are too conceited that they utilize nature in disrespectful means. Emerson was saying that a wise man would not mess around with nature. 

JE32 The Saddest of All Prisons

             Even today, people still carries secret sins they committed in the past. I think it is normal for human nature because we always want to show the good sides of us instead of bad sides. Sometimes we hide these sins because we might get “labeled.” Part of the human nature includes discrimination. We might look at this person as another if we know about his or her sin. Most people might give him or her a second chance, but the label is still clearly on that person’s back. Even if one can isolate the secrets from others, these secrets are implemented inside one’s mind. I have felt guilty about my past actions. I tried to forget it and denied it as a part of my history. I think it is actually better to keep it as a secret and let time efface the memory. I think it is not that necessary to bring something out. It might cause a lot of consequences. We did something bad because we did not know the consequences and we kept it to ourselves because we introspected and realized it was shameful. To bring it out is to learn a lesson. However, if we already get the lesson and promise that it will never be done again, then I think it is okay to keep it privately. Life is a process of learning from mistakes after all.