As stated in the first amendment, "congress can't make laws establishing a religion, prohibiting it's free exercise," however the idea of religious freedom is demonstrated quite differently in Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi. As free citizens we have the right to practice the religion we want to practice and there are no recorded laws telling us how many religions we can belong to. In India -- where Pi was raised -- the thought of practicing more than one religion, is simply looked down upon. Therefore when Pi decides to practice three, the priests, and his parents are questioning what exactly his motivation could be.
Each religion has its own fables, its own beliefs and its own ways of worship, therefore how is it wrong for someone to belong to more than one religion, to believe more than one story? When questioned about his faith, Pi replied, "all religions are true. I just want to love God." (p.69) Throughout the novel, story telling and religion walk hand and hand, simply because it is those who listen, who truly believe. Although religion may be something not talked about, -- a taboo in our society -- that does not mean it is unimportant. Whether it be one religion, or three, Pi helps illustrate the impact religion has in our lives, taboo or not.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Fahrenheit 451
Imagine living in a world with families lining the streets, wandering the streets, wearing no warm clothes -- no coats, no jackets, no hats or gloves. I as a thirty five year old mother of two, every night drive into my subdivision and see these helpless people making makeshift huts out of whatever they can set their hands on. Now if these people were to have an actual home, a place for them to stay and get food when they need it, our society as we know it would change drastically. Every month we have a weekend set for fundraising to help gather clothes and money to help us build one more homeless shelter in the community, but we still do not raise enough. Therefore I am asking you to help fund a shelter to help get the people of our commmunity safe and sheltered once again.
Mister Senator,
As you may already be aware the homeless population has increased dramatically over the past
few years. Due to the rising numbers, more people have been roaming the streets in search of a place to call home. Now if these people were to be given a place to stay -- a warm shelter, to share with others, like themselves -- our society as we know it, would change considerably. Therefore I -- a thirty five year old mother of two -- am writing to ask you to help fund homeless shelters across the state of Wisconsin to help these people find a warm place to spend the winter.
Each day as I drive home from work and pull into my subdivision, along the sides of the street live families -- mothers, fathers, and children -- walking the sides of the road, searching for somewhere to spend the night. Homelessness is a problem close to home, which although cannot be fixed overnight, is not an impossible task to take on and therefore not an impossible task to change. All of us can pitch in to make a change; donating clothes, money, and food to the local food pantries. But we still need your help. Even just one homeless shelter is enough to make a huge difference in our community and enough to help hundreds of families in need.
Every third Saturday of each month, I help run a community night to help gather money and clothes to give to shelters around Wisconsin and a portion of the procedes helps to raise enough money to build the one shelter we need. After years of this program we still are not even half way to our goal. Families big and small attend community night in search of something fun to do on their weekends off. Please help us raise the money we need for it could take years if we continue to do this on our own.
Helping to get these families off of the streets, should be a top priority in Wisconsin, for it is a problem, which needs to be dealt with. Please consider donating money to help support these people and to help us collect enough money and donations to build one more homeless shelter, for one more is enough to change the lives of many. Thank you for your time and please take this letter into consideration.
Sincerely,
Taylor J.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 firefighter Guy Montag comes across a group of men, wanted by
the government, who live their lives on the run, and make shelters alongside the railroad tracks, for they have no where else to go and no one else to turn to. If these men were to have a shelter built for them -- a place where they could stay and where they could seek comfort whenever they may need it -- the homeless population would decrease once again, and these men and their families could once again be safe and protected.
Mister Senator,
As you may already be aware the homeless population has increased dramatically over the past
few years. Due to the rising numbers, more people have been roaming the streets in search of a place to call home. Now if these people were to be given a place to stay -- a warm shelter, to share with others, like themselves -- our society as we know it, would change considerably. Therefore I -- a thirty five year old mother of two -- am writing to ask you to help fund homeless shelters across the state of Wisconsin to help these people find a warm place to spend the winter.
Each day as I drive home from work and pull into my subdivision, along the sides of the street live families -- mothers, fathers, and children -- walking the sides of the road, searching for somewhere to spend the night. Homelessness is a problem close to home, which although cannot be fixed overnight, is not an impossible task to take on and therefore not an impossible task to change. All of us can pitch in to make a change; donating clothes, money, and food to the local food pantries. But we still need your help. Even just one homeless shelter is enough to make a huge difference in our community and enough to help hundreds of families in need.
Every third Saturday of each month, I help run a community night to help gather money and clothes to give to shelters around Wisconsin and a portion of the procedes helps to raise enough money to build the one shelter we need. After years of this program we still are not even half way to our goal. Families big and small attend community night in search of something fun to do on their weekends off. Please help us raise the money we need for it could take years if we continue to do this on our own.
Helping to get these families off of the streets, should be a top priority in Wisconsin, for it is a problem, which needs to be dealt with. Please consider donating money to help support these people and to help us collect enough money and donations to build one more homeless shelter, for one more is enough to change the lives of many. Thank you for your time and please take this letter into consideration.
Sincerely,
Taylor J.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 firefighter Guy Montag comes across a group of men, wanted by
the government, who live their lives on the run, and make shelters alongside the railroad tracks, for they have no where else to go and no one else to turn to. If these men were to have a shelter built for them -- a place where they could stay and where they could seek comfort whenever they may need it -- the homeless population would decrease once again, and these men and their families could once again be safe and protected.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Art Museum
Various colors and shapes
Differing obstacles
Differences
Troubles of the world
Obstacles
The random pattern of today
Freeing ourselves from all surrounding us
Erasing all reality
We are free
Free to do as we please
Free to act how we want to act
Free to express ourselves
In a way all our own.
Project
For my project I am thinking about writing a pretend letter to the government asking them to build more homeless shelters. This idea relates to the novel because Montag found those people living alongside the train tracks, for they had no real home. If shelters were built these people would have somewhere to go to keep them off of the streets.
Does anyone have any ideas to help me improve this idea? Please comment. :)
Does anyone have any ideas to help me improve this idea? Please comment. :)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Fahrenheit 451
When living in an ironic world, never being able to speak your mind, and everyday living with a sense of fear towards the government, there is but one person you can turn to, one person to share your ture feelings with -- your husband. Detatching yourself from the rest of the world, only caring about what plays on your parlor walls, and consuming sleeping pills as if you life depends on it, illustrates the insignificant life in which Mildred Montag lives. Spending hours on end watching people on screen to the point where you don't remember when and where you and your husband met is an unimaginable thought, for you and your husband are supposed to be inseperable, helping each other through everything and always being there for each other, and if you can't remember how you met this man -- not rememberig one of the most important occurances in your life -- it is time for your life to change dramatically.
Closing yourself off from the real world, speaking yet not speaking, loving yet not loving, and living as if you are not living at all is a fear Ray Bradbury describes as the most tragic event we could ever encounter. Forgetting the most important events of your life, only hoping to get back to the television screen, is a life so ironic, only Mildred Montag could ever bear to live it; as demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451.
Closing yourself off from the real world, speaking yet not speaking, loving yet not loving, and living as if you are not living at all is a fear Ray Bradbury describes as the most tragic event we could ever encounter. Forgetting the most important events of your life, only hoping to get back to the television screen, is a life so ironic, only Mildred Montag could ever bear to live it; as demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Quote Reflection
"Pip, dear old chap, life is made of so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one maan's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppermith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come." After choosing to become a gentleman, choosing money over friends, choosing to part from the ones who truely love you. Hoping the love of your life will love you back, hoping to make something of yourself, hoping to make her proud. After choosing all these things -- money, repect, and social popularity -- to try to make yourself look better, would you forget about your family and friends and treat them as if they are not worthy eough to talk to you? Not worthy enough to be treated with respect; even though they are your family? It is clear Pip has made his choice, after being so rude to Joe that Joe leaves Pip's home and returns back to his own, for it is simply unjust from him to be treated this way.
Even on the worst of days, after doing poorly on an assignment, after loosing your job -- whatever the case may be -- when we return home, we can always seek help and love from our family. Helping us overcome these problems, doing whatever they can to make us feel better, even for a little while. Knowing that our family loves us, knowing they are the reason we are who we are, knowing that they are the reason we act they way we act, would we abandon our family after we are done with their services? Now that we are able to provide for ourselves would we leave our family once and for all? When able to reunite with them we would make this a time to remember, to make up for the time we have not seen each other; we would never even consider treating them as if they are unimportant because they belong to a lower social class than ourselves. This form of disrespect was illustrated through Pip's reunion with Joe, where Pip treated Joe so badly that Joe left Pip's home, for he did not feel welcome there. Disrespecting those who loves us is an unjust act to our elders and a form of disrespect we ourselves cannot even imagine, something Pip was taught while living in the house of Joe and Mrs. Joe. However now that he has moved to London, this idea of respect is gone.
Even on the worst of days, after doing poorly on an assignment, after loosing your job -- whatever the case may be -- when we return home, we can always seek help and love from our family. Helping us overcome these problems, doing whatever they can to make us feel better, even for a little while. Knowing that our family loves us, knowing they are the reason we are who we are, knowing that they are the reason we act they way we act, would we abandon our family after we are done with their services? Now that we are able to provide for ourselves would we leave our family once and for all? When able to reunite with them we would make this a time to remember, to make up for the time we have not seen each other; we would never even consider treating them as if they are unimportant because they belong to a lower social class than ourselves. This form of disrespect was illustrated through Pip's reunion with Joe, where Pip treated Joe so badly that Joe left Pip's home, for he did not feel welcome there. Disrespecting those who loves us is an unjust act to our elders and a form of disrespect we ourselves cannot even imagine, something Pip was taught while living in the house of Joe and Mrs. Joe. However now that he has moved to London, this idea of respect is gone.
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