Murder by law

The article To Kill Or Not To Kill, by Patricia Smith shows us that there is nothing a person can do that deems them worthy of nothing short of a slow and painful death. However this is what Clayton Lockett and Joseph R. Wood faced. Instead of the allotted death by a lethal injection, both faced an agonizing and drawn out execution due to a malfunction of the injection. The death penalty is a less and less popular choice as the opposition has risen sharply in the last few years.

The ability to lawfully kill someone is the ability no human being has the right to possess. However that is the meaning of the death sentence, the ability to kill another human free of repercussions. "Are some crimes so horrific... That any punishment short of death is simply inadequate?" No, there is no possible position in which the murder of a potentially innocent human being, no matter how heinous the crime of which they are accused, is morally justified.

However the party opposing the death penalty is on the rise. The amount of states refusing to back the murder of another human being has risen by almost one per year for the last five years. And "the number of annual executions in the U.S. has declined from 98 in 1999 to 39 in 2013." Another 11 states are close to the same conclusion. If people are being executed for the murder if others, why doesn't the death penalty apply to those administering it?

There is no activity in which we can partake that is so brutal and cruel that for it we deserve to die. A life taken is no excuse to take another. Similar to the idea that we let violence lead to more violence, we are letting death lead to more death. As a nation, by justifying the death of criminals, we are saying they killed someone and that that's illegal, why don't go ahead and kill them.

A trip to the museum of the city of New York

During our trip to the museum of the city of New York we began to explore the topic of activism. Though words, like Martin Luther King; violence, like Malcolm x; or strikes, like occupy wall-street. The museum tour was a great start for a unit on activism. It gave me a good understanding of how a protest or riot might get started. While we were there, you could see displayed everywhere the things people were fighting for. From small petitions, to women's suffrage marches. Everywhere people stand up against oppression and get others to stand with them. Through activism power is brought back to the people.

We saw everything from makeshift, spur-of-the-moment riots to long, thoughtfully planned out boycotts and marches. It opened my eyes to the true problems of the world around me because if something isn't right people will fight it. People will join to get her against it whether they are a group of well organized strikers or a mob of enangered gay people. Someone will always match or strike or stand outside a building with a sign for an hour, and someone will always jump into the fray ready to punch someone. That's the way activism works and from this exhibit, I have so many more questions about it.

Carrie by Stephan king

The religious references in Carrie

The book Carrie by Stephan king is a horror novel exploring the possible effect of extreme bullying. The main character, Carrie White is a secret telekinetic who has grown up with an insane and religiously fanatical mother. At school she's bullied and altogether isolated. Carrie snaps and kills half of her hometown after a cruel and elaborate prank is pulled on her. But the main source of Carrie's humiliation and pain is the presence of religion in her life.

Carrie's mother often abuses her on the grounds of religious justification in addition to drilling into her daughter the idea of many common occurrences being caused by her "sins." Carrie's mother tells her that showering is sinful and that "your pimples are The Lord's way of chastising you." When the book says "momma leaned forward, and the knife came down in a shining arc," the reader can see how deranged Carrie's mother really is, that she would kill her own daughter to repent for her sins. Carrie grew up in a problematic home focused around religion, and religion is always associated with humiliation and pain for Carrie. Every time religion is brought up in the book, something bad happens.

It's not just her abusive mother that causes pain for Carrie that's associated with religion. The way religious presence is portrayed in Carrie, it's a bad thing. When Carrie is remembering all the times she's been humiliated or made fun of, the book says that when she was "on the church picnic and kneeling down clumsily to pray and the seam of her old madras skirt splitting along the zipper like the sound of a huge wind breakage." Carrie is publicly shamed in this scene and this is taking place at a religious event.  Her mother says "I almost killed myself," when she found out that she was pregnant with Carrie. This couldn't have been a good thing to hear for Carrie, and the first was humiliating and extremely public, religion is only mentioned in the book in association bad things like these.

carrie synthesis page

synthesis page

archetype headings that you can't read

the abusive mother/religious fanatic        the victim turned villain  the popular girl/the mean girl  

this shows judgement and abuse often lead to violence performed by the former victim.

victims of bullying often become very isolated and hostile and while holding it inside is harmful to yourself, in both real life instances like columbine and fictional ones like carrie people can be killed because the game went too far.   

And then there were none

Our primal instincts, our basic goal in life is self preservation. Even the most docile creature can become a killer if it means their ensured lifespan. Christie's character Vera Claythorne is a prime example: she has a calm demeanor and innocent appearance, but when her animal instinct kicks in and she kills someone,  the overwhelming feeling of remorse drives her to suicide. Vera's animal instinct is self preservation, but the thing that makes her human is the feeling of regret.

Vera is the most innocent, sane, and collected character in the book And Then There Were None, but the will to survive is always there in her and it is the thing that pushes her to murder. She holds a standard of serenity for herself as expressed in her saying to herself " this isn't like you. You've always had excellent nerves." She holds herself like a true lady, even in the midst of death. Even the strangers stuck with her on Soldier island trust her. Another character, called Philip Lombard even says " you strike me as being one of the most sane and leval headed girls I've come across." Even though Vera maintains a collected and ladylike manner, the need to survive shines through making her a killer.

Vera, like any other human being, wants to be alive, and she will kill to stay that way.  When at the end of the book Vera is left alone with Lombard, each believes the other to be a killer. When Lombard jumps at her for a revolver, her instantaneous reaction is to shoot. The most human reaction of all is expressed within the sentence: " automatically Vera pressed the trigger." This is a blatant display of a calm exterior that masks the instinctive panic that shines through in moments of danger. The consequence of her violent instinct is her remorse.

Her words of regret are that after you've killed someone, " you keep on remembering." When it builds up inside her and Vera decides to take her own life. The book says " like an automaton Vera moved forward [towards her death]." While our most primal instinct is self preservation, our most human emotion is remorse and it will drive us to insanity and even suicide.

The importance of Vera Claythorne is that she defines the inside and outside of a composed lady. That in times of danger and even death, we must  go on, no matter our internal conflicts. She shows us the power of impulse and human nature, that both can drive us to murder and suicide, but most important is that she teaches us the power of remorse.

It's Kind Of A Funny Story

           It's Kind Of A Funny Story
                                  By Ned Vizzini


It's Kind Of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini  is a story about depression and what it means to be human. It's a shoutout to everyone in need and to every person on the planet, because we all need help. That sometimes we don't know who we can go to for help, and no matter how open about it we are, when we need help, sometimes there's no one who can really provide it.

We all need help sometimes. The days when you feel like everything will come crashing down around you if you get out of bed. This  book just proves it. There are people who can't handle everyday life, and some days we're those people. Our minds are spontaneous and beautiful with " the most complicated, unnecessary highways." Sometimes we " can't function here [life] anymore."
We need to learn to turn to each other when we can't get out of bed or we can't stop crying, because if you can't-do-it-anymore then you can't keep living.

We need to use eachother as emotional and phsychological stepping stones to get to a place where we can be those stepping stones for others. When we can help others, we can keep helping ourselves. You need to turn to the person in front of you for help. We need to keep going forward and like Craig, the main character says, "I can't ride my bike to the Brooklyn bridge; I can't take a whole bunch of pills and go for the good sleep; the only thing I can do is crush my head in the toilet seat." We all get to a point where when we think about it, we can't live, and we can't even die right. Maybe that's good, maybe it's bad, but we are the only ones who can keep us going eternally in life, and in death.

I guess I only shared the effect this book had on me and my life. But isn't that what reading is supposed to do? Ned Vizzini shared with me the meaning of life through Craig and Noelle and all his characters. If we revert to simple instructions, we can keep living. And the meaning of life... We'll read the book and find out.


Quotes:

1) pg 409 paragraph 10
2) pg 258 paragraph 4
3) pg 258 paragraph 4