Independent Reading Journal #4

Benjamin set off to London to make money. He earned a new job as a worker in a printing office. He worked hard, and gained more and more money. Benjamin was also promoted to compose articles. When the owner decided to cut Benjamin's wages, he quit and returned to Philadelphia. There, he started living his life as a owner of a successful printing house. He started to think about getting married, but it was hard to find a woman that would decide to marry him. This part of his autobiography shows that those who endure some hardships and sufferings in their lives become influential. Benjamin Franklin, was a mere poor boy when he was young. However, he went through the difficulty of poverty and became a influential person until now.

Independent Reading Journal #3

Benjamin described his adolescence. Because of poverty, he had to work as a deliver boy, and at the same time, he worked hard by himself. In this part all I can say is that I am amazed that a mere teenage boy can manage to work for his living and studying. Compared to him, I am a blessed teen, who's provided everything. If Benjamin could overcome his hardships and were in a worse situation than me, why can't I get over with my problems?

Independent Reading Journal#2

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The autobiography starts with Benjamin's salutation to his son. Benjamin Franklin is now taking some time off to record his ancestory, and his life. In the first page, he mentioned that although he had gone through great hardships, he likes his life and wants to repeat it. He said, however, if he has such chance, he would correct some errors and mistakes. I totally agree with his thought. Although I haven't lived as long as Benjamin did, I already have things that I regret. If I ever have a chance to turn back my time, then the first thing I would do is to go back to my childhood and learn how to play a instrument and focus on a sport. Since I grew up in a Korean culture, where nothing but academics are encouraged, I thought those (sports, music, and other activities) were meaningless, or even useless. However, these days, I found out that work or studying can't be everything in my life. I asked some of my friends about it, and most of them, surprisingly, agreed with me.

Independent Reading Journal #1

Today, I had a chance to read some poems and short stories written by people around my age. Reading the Inkblots was quite surprising, because unexpectedly, there were so many good pieces of writings that I first thought they were written by at least amatuar writers. The theme was also very abstract: pride and self-control. However, the writers expressed their thoughts towards the topic in a very creative way. For instance, one of my favorite poems of the Inkblotz, Pride, written by Jason Rhim, described 'pride' through our five senses. The more I read, the more I wanted to know about the subject that the author was talking about; the poem successfully grabs the readers' attention. I also liked the way that Tanner described the pride; it was depicted as if it were a beast looking for its prey.

Blogs that I left comments

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Current Situations

*are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

The caste system of the novel reminded me of India; the country's known for its strict caste system. For instance, a person from a certain caste isn't allowed to marry or talk to other castes, just like people in the novel ignore each other. In real life, Indians are classified according to their parents' classes, however, people from the 'new world' are classified by their appearance.
The soma, which calms people and brings pleasure to them, made me think of drugs, such as marijuana or LSD. Once people take the drug in real life, it's extremely hard to stop. They start to rely on the drug. Just like the drug addicted, people in the new world depend on the soma to cope from stress and difficulties. The novel doesn't suggest any solutions to the situation, instead, it tells the readers that one cannot uproot the whole society by himself. For example, John the Savage who is the main character, chose to commit sucide after struggling with the situation. In addition, the novel didn't tell any specific ways to prevent people from relying on the soma. In a nutshell, Brave New World ends without advising readers how to fix the wrong situations.

The Climax of Brave New World

The climax of the novel is when John whipped Lenina and the crowd who came to watch John hitting himself went crazy. Before the event, John had been stuggling against the whole society; he wanted to make it humane. However, after he rioted in the hospital, he gave up and fled to wilderness. There, he disciplined himself not to stay too comfortable. He also whipped himself for an atonement. However, his actions were recorded by reporters, and caused a sensation in the 'civilized' world. Being curious, people visited John's lighthouse to see him 'abusing' himself. Then John saw Lenina, which simply represented the world he abhored, running toward him. He whipped her, and people started to strike each other, just like John was doing to his body. After the event, John found to be dead, and the novel ends. Although I could foreshadow the ending from the describtion of how desperate and cornered John was, I simply feel somewhat empty, becasue I expected him to overcome such isolation and rebel or overthrow. The way the ending was described was pretty impressive. The phrase 'South-South-west, south, south-east, east...' was more effective to leave deep afterthoughts in readers' minds than directly telling that John hung himself.