Literature Analysis #2

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

1. Invisible Man begins with the narrator telling us the he is underground writing a story about his life. He calls himself the "invisible man" and he is an African-American. The main part of the story are flash backs on the narrator's life. He was a talented public speaker and was selected to give a speech in order to receive a scholarship. The narrator goes off to college and while he is there he is the driver for the college's trustee, Mr. Norton. Mr. Norton faints after getting a drink and when the college's president, Dr. Bledsoe hears about it he blames and expels the narrator from the school. The narrator goes out into the city of New York to find a job. When he gets one, he ends up getting hurt and he loses his conscience. When he finally wakes up, he is asked by Brother Jack, a member of a brotherhood who heard the narrator's speech, to join his brotherhood. Jack wants the narrator to become the next Booker T. Washington. The narrator works with the brotherhood for several months when a magazine interviews him. The brotherhood calls him out for using the brotherhood for personal gain and force him to work in Harlem for women's rights. After a while a small riot happens and the narrator's friend is shot and killed. The narrator leads a march in Harlem to protest his friend's death. However when he gets back to the brotherhood, they are angry at him for tying the brotherhood with his friend, who they claim to be a traitor to the brotherhood. The narrator leaves the brotherhood and goes to Harlem to speak out and protest. A large riot happens and the narrator falls down a man hole where he has stayed since. The narrator finishes by reflecting on his devotion to the brotherhood and his choice in the end.
2. The major theme in this novel is find out who you are. 
3. The author's tone is calm and to the point. He doesn't show anger at the issues in the book.
4. 5 literary techniques used are

• metaphor
• allusion
• symbolism
• simile
• diction

Tools That Change the Way We Think

The first thing I thought of when I read "Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer." is how easy tests will be, the next thing was that if this happens no one who has this implant will ever have to try to think for themselves ever again, which can be very bad.

Extensive use of technology can make use lazier, or more efficient depending on how you use it. For me it is a little of both. When doing my homework I sometime get distracted from it because I am looking at something else and forget about the homework. However, I can also get work done faster because I have the internet right there and don't have to look up the answers in a book. Lastly, I have to say I am more connected to the world because of the internet. For example I wouldn't have known that Qaddafi was killed the other day as soon as I did.
NY Times-Qaddafi

In Search Of

Watch this video on Filter Bubbles.

 I knew that search sites filtered the information that you got to see but I never thought of sites such as a news site filtering the news to what they think you want to hear. I now see the internet as another way media can distort our reality of the world to make it seem like something that it isn't. The internet is still fine but you just have to be wary of the action behind the curtain. A question I have is how badly does these bubbles actually distort our view of the world? Also, is there a way to stop or change the filters? I will try to from now on to always search use multiple search sites, not just Google, when searching for information and news about the rest of the world.

When I re-searched Shakespeare I did a couple of things to try to widen my bubble.
The first thing i did was search "Who was Shakespeare?" on Google and Yahoo!. The the second thing I did was changed the wording of the search. I used "William Shakespeare" and "Life of Shakespeare", and I even searched "Eduard de Vere" to see what came up as well.

Overall I got more results and a wider source of information but I still wonder what more information is out there that I didn't get to see because of the filter bubbles.

Notes On Hamlet

Act III:

In Act III, Hamlet finally started his plan of avenging his father's murder. The play he wrote, which closely replicated Claudius' murdering of Hamlet S.r., worked perfectly in causing Claudius to reveal his guilt to Hamlet. Hamlet had a chance to kill Claudius but didn't fearing that he would go to Heaven if he was killed during prayer. Hamlet wanted him to be damned for all eternity. It ends with Hamlet killing Polonius and warning his mother of what he is about to do.

We see in this act that Hamlet is not the mad, indecisive guy, but the cold-hearted, cunning prince who knows what to do and how to do it.

I think Hamlet will take his time and wait for Claudius to slip up before he kills him, since he now has Claudius on the defensive and frightened.

Who Was Shakespeare?

After doing a quick search on google of "Who Was Shakespeare?" the top three site were:

1. Who Was Shakespeare?- PBS
2. The Shakespeare Mystery
3. William Shakespeare - Wikipedia

 So, who was Shakespeare?
Well we know that he was an English playwright, he was baptized  26 April 1564, and died 23 April 1616.  He married Anne Hathaway and had three children with her. He the son of a Glover and a farmer. He was the third of eight children. Also he wrote about 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.
However, this article, opened my mind up to idea that Shakespeare was just a cover for an English nobleman.
The movie Anonymous sounds interesting enough. but the idea behind it is a little ridiculous. To  prove that Shakespeare was false their argument was that "there must have been a conspiracy to suppress the truth of de Vere’s authorship; the very absence of surviving evidence proves the case." need I say more?

To Facebook or Not to Facebook?

Facebook is very popular for every age group around the world. Social networking in general has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years and is still on the rise. After reading an article in the New York Times, I learned somethings that the average user doesn't know.

• Facebook takes all the information of its users and sells that information to various companies. This allows the companies to make more specific ads, which Facebook then shows those ads to you that they think you will be more apt to buy. In short, they sell you to the industries, so the industries can sell their products to you, but you only see the products that they think you will like.
• Facebook isn't all bad though. It's a great way to meet up with old friends and communicate with current ones.
• The article really showed me that Facebook can affect ones perspective on the world if you are not careful and understand the whole picture. Don't get me wrong, I like Facebook and think it's a good way to connect with the rest of the world.