Tuesday Write #7 Lord of the Flies Analytical Paragraph

  In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Lord of the Flies represents the devil and evil. When Simon “talks” to it, it tries to convince him to do bad things and not care. One example of this is when the Lord of the Flies tells Simon to give up his efforts to be civilized, and just have fun on the island.“You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island” (144). The Lord of the Flies tries to make Simon feel unwanted in its hope that he will give up his efforts to be civilized and just have fun. While Simon is the pure, Christ like figure, the Lord of the Flies is an evil, tempting  devil figure. It is always trying to tempt Simon to do what he knows is not right until he can’t take it anymore. Another way the Lord of the Flies torments Simon is by convincing him there is no escape from it or from the island. It taunts him, saying “You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there- so don’t try to escape!” (143). The Lord of the Flies is telling Simon how he cannot escape it, and that when he dies he will go to hell and be tormented by the Lord of the Flies forever. This gives Simon fear, knowing he will never be able to get away from his tormentor. Torturing Simon until he can’t take it anymore and blacks out, the Lord of the Flies is a symbol representing the devil.

       

SEAL Team Six: Outcasts- An Insider’s Perspective of What We Don’t Want to Know

By Shane O’Brien

With Bin Laden dead and many al Qaeda members wanting to replace him, who will defend America from these ruthless terrorists? In SEAL Team Six Outcasts, by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin, we look into this question.

Alex, a SEAL Team Six sniper, knows his career is done when he disobeys direct orders and kills a deadly terrorist without authorization. Instead, he is made the captain of a new covert SEAL team, the Outcasts. The Outcast team consists of Alex and three other officers who have similarly been “discharged” for disobeying orders. Their mission is to keep America safe by ensuring a new Bin Laden never rises from the ashes. To accomplish this, they must take out seven highly respected al Qaeda members. Hot on the trail of the third target, however, they discover a plot that may be one of the most catastrophic terror attacks in history…

I found this book to be action packed and exciting, just my kind of story. If you love action packed thrillers such as Act of Valor, this book is definitely for you! This book can make you really appreciate how our soldiers put their lives on the line everyday just so we can be free, and at the same time have fun realizing this. The term page-turner really fits this book. However, pick up this book only if you dare- you may lose a lot of sleep reading it!

This book is written as a first person narrative, told from the eyes of a Seal Team 6 leader. The vivid descriptions make you feel as if you are really there in the battle with him. “Boom! White appeared in the center, followed by a ring of yellow then orange and red. Alex rushed in first through the blown out glass” (172). This quote is one of many examples of the descriptive details that make you feel like a real member of SEAL Team 6.

Maybe the only problems with this book in my personal opinion is the romance part, and how it only focuses on those two characters. While this may appeal to some readers, I found it to be both unrealistic and annoying. It is unrealistic because in real life a soldier would have nothing but a professional relationship with a fellow officer. The romantic and emotional relationships between Team Leader Alex and his team member and love interest Cat in this book is completely absurd. This can also be annoying because a good chunk of the book that could be exciting action battle scenes is instead romantic emotional scenes between the two characters. “Before Alex drifted to sleep, he thought he felt Cat put her hand on his” (98). This quote shows exactly the kind of ridiculous romantic stuff that shouldn’t be in this book. However, this does add elements to this book other than violence and fighting, and can make the book more exciting when one of the two lovers is in danger. For most readers, the romance element will come as an exciting side story and help attract a broader audience to read the book.

Do covert teams really operate like this in top secret, breaking national laws in order to keep the nation itself safe? We may never actually know, but this book is a perfect action packed story of what these teams would or may be like. After reading this book, the only questions you will be left with is "When does the sequel come out?".

How Do our Conscious and Unconscious Biases Differ?

          Sometimes we may do something that we know are a bad idea, but we still do it anyway. Why would we do this? Maybe because even though we know it is not a good idea, on an unconscious level in our mind, it seems like the right thing to do. Take Warren Harding for example. He may not have proven himself as a good leader, but since he was tall and handsome, the people automatically wanted him as a leader. This story stood out to me in a chapter Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" because it is a real story of how everyone had an unconscious, or unknowing, bias for Harding to be their leader even though he hadn't proven himself worthy yet. The takeaway message from this chapter for me is that even though we have automatic preferences we can't control, we should get to know someone before we make a judgement about them.

             We should take this unconscious bias idea into consideration when electing leaders by really getting to know the leader and their policies, philosophies, ect. before making them our leader. Can we undo unconscious biases? Yes, but it takes a long time to and is hard since your unconscious bias isn't even up to you. However, we can try and ignore them when making an important judgement and see the whole picture, not just one quality such as height. There are many other qualities we can look for in a leader, such as honesty, trustworthiness, listening to the people, having the approval of the people, good morals, and many others. Physical attractiveness has absolutely no correlation with being a good leader, so if someone wants to be a good leader, they must possess those qualities along with many others.

           All this talk about how important unconscious biases can be got me wondering, "Do I have any unconscious biases?". With this on my mind, I hopped onto my computer and went to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ to discover the answer. After I was done, some of the results surprised me, while others didn't. After taking the race IAT twice, my results varied. The first time my results said I "moderately prefer African Americans over European Americans", and the second time the results came back as "The data shows no automatic preference for African Americans or European Americans". I believe the second test is the most accurate, since in my own controlled conscious I am not racist, it doesn't surprise me that my uncontrolled thoughts aren't either. Another IAT I took said I automatically associate European Americans with weapons over African Americans with weapons, which doesn't surprise me either because in many of the action movies I watch either the protagonist or antagonist(s) are White. While my unconscious bias was linked with my conscious bias, many people do not unconsciously agree with what their conscious minds decide. However, no matter what our unconscious biases may be, we should not let them affect our conscious when trying to make the right decision.

       

Why Reality TV is Bad for Us

      
       While some reality TV may be helpful for us, the majority of it is harmful. These reality shows are harmful because they are mostly scripted and gives people a false idea of life, have no educational value, and exploit people.
       One of the bad things about reality TV is that it is mostly scripted and gives people a false idea of life. Almost all the arguing is scripted, and acted out for the entertainment of the audience. For example, after Kim Kardashian was quote "In Dubai", she was photographed days later exiting the studio looking exactly the same as she looked in the episode! Her now ex-husband (who was only married to her for 72 days, many people suspect it was a publicity stunt) tweeted soon after "“I can’t wait for the truth to come out! People will be surprised or maybe they won’t. #FCC.” Oftentimes in reality TV shows the producers edit down the multiple takes they film and only show what they think will be interesting to the people watching the show. Even in challenge shows such as "Biggest Loser", the film is all edited down to show only what they want to show.
       Another bad trait of reality TV shows is that they have no educational value. Old TV shows such as Thomas the Tank Engine taught lessons such as the importance of sharing. Reality TV such as the "Real Housewives" series are half an hour of the ladies talking or arguing and causing drama and have no educational value. They don't even learn lessons about respect in the end. The only lessons that can possibly be learned is how to lose your friends.

       A third bad trait of reality TV is that it exploits people. Reality TV often exploits young people, and certain cultural aspects. Many people watch shows such as "Finding Bigfoot" or "Ghost Hunters" just to make fun of the people's honest opinions. In shows such as "Real Housewives", the ladies rarely do much other than get drunk and argue, destroying friendships for the pleasure and entertainment of the viewer.
       One could argue that reality shows are good because they give you a look into the "real" lives of famous people. People like rappers, professional athletes, rich business people. But these are not their real lives. The drama and issues they face are often times scripted or not real. Why else would they have so many issues so often? People may also say reality shows can give you a look at the "real lives" of pregnant teens or people with eight kids. It isn't "real life" though. Even when there is a small issue, it is played up enough to make it enough of a problem to be an hour long TV show. While these shows may show some aspects of real life, they don't give a true look at the honest real lives of people.
       Not all reality TV is terrible and harmful though. Shows such as Duck Dynasty can teach important values such as the importance of God and family. That doesn't mean they aren't scripted though. The cast even admits things such as that they grew their beards for the show. The shows can still be entertaining to watch though. Unfortunately, even with entertaining shows like Duck Dynasty, the majority of reality TV is harmful, useless, and should not even be on TV. This kind of TV can only harm us and negatively affect the younger generation.

Introducing Myself

             

            Hi, my name is Shane O'Brien. I was born in Boston in 1998, and I moved to California when I was nine. I spend most of my time at football practice, and football is something I really love. When I'm not at football, I spend my time hanging out with my friends, watching sports on tv, or playing my bass guitar. 

          Since I'm from Boston, I love their sports teams, especially the Patriots. I go to watch them every Sunday.

      

          I am very excited to be in English 10 this year. I don't have a specific favorite book, but I love to read action/adventure books. One of my goals for this year is to get better at understanding hidden themes and messages in books. I also love to write. I've always been a pretty good writer. One of my goals in writing this year is to learn to make better transitions between paragraphs. I'm excited for a great year of English in R8 this year!!!