Amy Chau's Analysis

Amy Chau, the author of an article describing her ways of parenting her children as a Chinese mother in article called "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior", describes in the following paragraph what would happen if a typical Chinese child would get a "unfulfillable" grade:

"If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A."

 Though I am not Chinese, my parents are also strict on how I perform in my academic work at school. If I bring back a B on a test to my parents I would get praised for the good effort but my dad would still want an expectation of an A from me. I think this has to do a lot with the fact that my parents were born in a third world country and they want me to grow up successful and happy with my life.

But in ways they are also very different from Chinese parents because they want me to make my own choices

Quickwrite - Animal Farm Connections

Currently, the world has gone into a similar situation during the 18^th century, to the time America went into a revolution to form into the country it has become to be today. Soon after that revolution America fought against the British, France went into a revolution and other countries followed thereafter. America played a big part in taking the lead and taking a stand against corrupted power and influenced many countries to do the same. Similarly, now in the 21^st century, an African nation called Tunisia fought a small revolution against its president. He was eventually ousted by the people of the country, satisfying their demands. Soon after, the whole Arab nation are in uproar to overthrow their corrupted government, all influenced by a small African nation.

In Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, the animals are fed up by their corrupt way of life. Their lives are being controlled without their saying of what they desire for. Similarly, the people of Egypt are fed up with their corrupted leader who has led them for 30 years and was taking them towards poverty. In both situations, the people/animals both unite as one voice, making them more effective in their efforts. In Animal Farm, all of the animals of what was called “Manor Farm” unite to hear the words of Old Major. He gives his vision of animals one day overruling the corrupt humans and taking over the farm. He serves as their leader and inspiration to lead the revolution.

In the situation in Egypt, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei takes up the position of Old Major in Animal Farm. ElBaradei has fought long and hard to gain freedom from the corruption of his beloved country Egypt. He is even shown in numerous photos leading the crowd of anti-government protesters towards justice by chanting anti-government messages and leading them throughout Egypt. The fact that he is well known for his fight for peace and has won a Noble Peace Prize has been given faith by the people to lead the through the revolution.

Eventually, these messages and leadership by these inspirational people eventually succeed and win their fight for freedom and an overrule of corruption.

Animal Farm - Chapter XI

The next day, the lower animals of what was now called Manor Farm again, were speechless. Everyone went back to their regular duties except now it was different. Everyone seemed lifeless: they got their work done, ate the small rations of food they were handed, and quietly went to sleep without saying a word to each other. It was a similar scenario to the time before the rebellion where what they did make up their lives and no one complained of anything being wrong or unacceptable. They just went along with their lives, accepting the new order that was now in place by their own “comrades”, the pigs. The lower animals were lost in thought, confused in so many ways. The pigs were once one of them, an equal animal, who once rejected the idea of being like human beings. But now, it was hard telling them apart.

A few more days passed by and the animals were now restlessly eating their small rations of food. The enormous dog that was keeping a look out of the animals was at the moment distracted by a small rubber ball handed to him by Squealer. Squealer, given his enormous size, could no longer follow through with the simple action of watching over the lower animals. His daily messages from the pigs and Napoleon were no longer given, for they felt there was no need for so. Instead, he spent his time sleeping in the human’s bed along with the rest of the pigs.

Finally, clover managed to do something many of the animals weren’t able to do for a while: she spoke. “So this is life…” she began. “This is what our lives have come to? What ever happened to our younger days?” Then, she let out a burst of anger, “This has become beyond anything any one of us imagined would happen! Where is our justice! You call this life? When was the last time I went to sleep on a full stomach? Why I would rather go back to our old days of Mr. Jones being our superior than some traitor we once believed in!” She began to gain the attention of the four-legged companion of Napoleon keeping watch. He jawed off the rubber ball full of saliva and slowly approached with a cautious growl towards the animals. It left Clover quiet but her temper was not yet done with. She chomped heavily on her portion of hay, keeping calm as the dog went back to his rubber fall. Once distracted by his ball once again, she began again with the attention of the others. “Meet an hour after sundown. There we will discuss what goes on from here.” And with that Benjamin, Moses, and Clover went along with their forced duties with no passion at all, while cautious to prevent the new animals of Manor Farm of their secret plan. It was too late to convince them and the sheep to become trustworthy with them so they kept their word to each other not to share a single detail. Throughout their meals, something about the dog keeping watch of them and his ball caught Clover’s attention. She kept glaring at the once vicious dog that was in a playful state, now that a rubber ball was given to him.

           

Later on that day, while the pigs were in their beds and the rest of the animals on Manor Farm were fast asleep, Benjamin, Moses the raven, and Clover all met up in front of the barn yard. There, the plans were to be discussed. They spent all through the night, making sure there was no margin for error in their plan. And right before sun rise, the animals hid back to their places and were able to get an hour’s sleep before getting up again to work.

Then, the time came. Moses scarcely did any work on the farm, given his old age and his ability of flight. So once all the animals were awakened, he flew off to the distance. Time passed by and it was no feeding time. Clover and Benjamin ate their food and off to the distance, they see Moses come flying back in with what they had hoped he would bring. In his beak, he held the handles of a bag that carried an enormous weight of rubber balls. He dropped off the balls in front of Clover and Benjamin, who were approached by a running dog. Clover, acting as planned, held up the rubber ball in mouth and moved it in a swaying motion, back and forth. The dog, to their surprise and amusement, stopped right in front of them with his mouth wide open, following the motion of the ball in her mouth the whole time. Then, she dropped it right steadily in front of her so that the dog can gain distance towards her. It was an extremely risky thing to do but it paid off. The dog, which was earlier ready to viciously tear their necks apart, was now biting playfully in front of the three animals. Moses gave the dog a slight rub on the hand and the dog gave a joyful wagging of his tail.    

Animal Farm Mini-Essay

The power to lead a civilization can be very tempting not to abuse. Though there are a very few who obtain power and keep it intact, most will abuse it and lead themselves to corruption. In the book, Animal Farm by George Orwell, there are two major characters that stand out: Major and Squealer. How these two characters use their words, tone, and topics to influence the lower animals on Animal Farm to lead them to power are uniquely different.

In the first chapter of Animal Farm, the animals are living their typical lives working for Mr. Jones on Manor Farm when the eldest of the pigs, a boar named Major is introduced. The rest of the animals of the farm (so-called “lower” animals) respect Major and are willing to contribute anything to his ideas. Because he is the eldest of the animals, he has experienced many hardships throughout his life as a boar and due to this fact, his tone of confidence has become to be very reliable by the animals. His topics have also come to be reliable because of his longevity on Manor Farm. In his speech to animals, he states:

 “Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It I summed up in a single word---Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever” (28).

Major is the only one at this point in time to be able to put forth these words of wisdom and actually convince the lower animals. His experience and knowledge of Manor Farm has put him forth as a leader they can look up to. With such confidence he says these unheard ideas and topics that the lower animals cease to think it cannot work. When Major speaks, it’s as seems nothing can go wrong.

Squealer on the other hand uses a different approach to influence the lower animals. Squealer represents a  military-like character by always referring to the lower animals as “comrades”. Squeler's ideas sound very communist-like and his ideas makes him and the pigs sound like dictators. He does this by speaking in a confident tone but his topics and words make his confidence unlike Major's. Instead, his words and ideas are meant to bring fear upon the lower animals and encourage them to work more into following the pigs’ ideas.

“Bravery is not enough. Loyalty and obedience are more important. And as to the Battle of Cowshed, I believe the time will come when we shall find that Snowball's part in it was much exaggerated. Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today. One false step, and our enemies would be upon us. Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?” (79).

Based on this dialogue he gives to the lower animals, Squealer uses a loud and angry tone to bring fear upon the animals and make them do as he pleases based on fearfulness than based on their will, like when Major spoke. This brings communist feeling into Animal Farm, especially how he always brings up the topics of Mr. Jones and his men coming back to take over the farm. He also brings upon them fear when he tells the lower animals that “one false step” and the enemies will be back upon them, bringing him a feeling of more superiority.

While Major depended on the voice of what was right for the animals to influence them (democracy), Squealer used fear to influence them into fighting for his more power to the pigs (communism).

Opening Statement: Wikileaks

Wikileaks has been an extremely debatable topic recently. Currently, the Pentagon is taking action to try to prosecute and take it down due to the release of numerous documents chronicling the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Created by Julian Assange, Wikileaks was created to keep government activities open worldwide. What was unique about the site was that it allowed for anyone an “innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to [its] journalists”. So, the question arises: is Wikileaks overall more harmful or more beneficial to society?

In my opinion, Wikileaks overall is more beneficial to society because it leaves people with the knowledge of their government’s censored actions, something that should be available to the public without the hassle of Wikileaks. When America was first founded, all decisions were to be made public to the American people. But as time has gotten by, we are moving more towards corruption by making private decisions and committing censored actions. What is the need for these decisions and actions to be censored? If it is because what is being done is wrong, then why are they being done at all?

Jeff Cohen is an associate professor at Ithaca College, TV commentator for CNN and MSNBC, and has numerous columns in daily newspapers such as USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globes. He once said:

"Media is the nervous system of a democracy. If it's not functioning well, the democracy can't function."

The point that he is making is that the media is responsible for keeping the people informed of the government. The media inform us on our politics and their actions. The media of today can only go so far in reporting the daily activities of the government. Sometimes, the sources of the media aren't even primary sources but instead released statements from spokespeople or rumors spread from other sources. The point is that the media is no longer functioning well and Wikileaks has become the solution into bringing order back into the media. When Wikileaks started publishing the war diaries of Iraq and Afghanistan, it was a big surprise to a majority of our country. If our media was functioning properly and our democratic system was functioning properly then the stuff that were released out of Wikileaks should have been well known by the people.

Political Corruption

In my opinion, yes, political power (in most cases) does corrupt those who attain it. When we look back into history, our thoughts pass by infamous leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. These two notorious leaders provide this topic with perfect examples as to why or how political power corrupted those who attain it. Adolf Hitler served his country in World War One before gaining interest into politics of Germany.  His experience in war started to gain him support from his people before ever becoming chancellor of Germany. Once chancellor of Germany, the ambition for more power gets to him, leading to a campaign to take over Germany by making promises of a better country. It heads downfall from there. After becoming head of state of Germany, he changes into a whole different character, likely from this ambition for political power, and starts another World War that takes even more casualties than the last one. Hitler single handedly destroyed the lives of many of his home country and others around the world. His ambition for more power eventually led to corruption. Another example is former president George W. Bush. He ran for office bringing hope of a better America. Instead, he left the country to deal with two wars, over a trillion dollars in debt, and a troubling economy all in eight years.

I think that George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, would answer this question similarly. His reason for writing this book was to show the message that political power does corrupt those who attain it and about the many different forms of political nonsense such as dictatorship (in the book’s case, the farmer Mr. Jones is the dictator).

In the book, Animal Farm, a meaningful quote in the book that signifies the corruption of political power reads as follows:

“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself” (Chapter 1)

The leader of the animal is leading a plan for a rebellion against their leader (Mr. Jones) so that they can control the power that occurs around the farm. The leader, who dies not too long after his announcement, has started an ambition for power by the animals of the farm that will eventually lead to corruption and downfall.

Freewrite - Last Semester

Looking back over the first semester of sophomore year, I can say it was the worst I have experienced so far in high school. It went wrong in so many ways, I didn't know if it would end or not. Luckily, the three week winter break came in and gave us a break. But before that, things weren't looking too good for my grades.

One problem that I was having that played a huge part of my downfall was procrastination. I would get home, take a nap, watch some TV, etc. and end up starting on my homework at around 10pm and finish around 2 or 3 am! And even after that, I still wouldn't finish up all my homework. This leaves me with no sleep at all for the next day and almost always zoned-out when teachers spoke in class. Some might think I'm anti-social but the truth is I'm too sleepy to talk to anyone. Another problem I had was taking shortcuts. Instead of reading over the material we received in class or as homework, I would go straight for the questions at the end, sometimes not knowing if anything I was writing down made sense or not. What I would do instead is wait till the last day before the quiz and study which made it even more stressful. Even though it would work out with my test and quizzes, how I studied for them wasn't worth it. This habit also made me forget a lot faster because i was learning it all in one day.

One other problem I had was not taking advantage of opportunities and time I had. Instead of working steadily on a two week project throughout the two weeks I'd wait until the last few days to work on it and most likely get nothing out of it. What was even worse were the awkward presentations that would come out of it, knowing that I barely took any serious time into it.

So far, a week has gone by in the second semester and I've made sure to avoid the troubles I had last semester. So far its looking good: I've completed all my homework, went to sleep around 1am (better than 2 or 3 am), and studies ahead of time. By looking over these mistakes, I hope to avoid the stressful trouble I went through and finish off Sophomore year on the right track.