HW 46: Research and Writing

The Catcher in the Rye is essentially about a boy who abruptly leaves college and wanders the streets of New York City for days without a purpose. The only reason explicitly given was that he was fed up with how phony the people around campus were becoming. He makes several encounters with old friends and a lot of strangers. He mentions his fantasy of being "the catcher in the rye," someone who rescues children from falling off a cliff. At the end though, even after contemplating to run away, he decides to stay and give college another go.

My topic is in regards to college majors/curriculum and career decisions. The book focuses a lot on growing up and acknowledging your purpose. We struggle between career choices just as Holden struggles between going to school or leaving it for good. Of course, his decision actually includes an option outside of an institution.

Holden's abandonment and lack of commitment toward college defies the norm. His critiques of society and their phoniness obtains him some individuality. His dream of being the catcher in the rye-catching children and saving them from the harshness of the world-ends before he even fully acknowledges it. In the end, he was unable to escape the institutions, thus demonstrating how powerful they are even in the face of a guy who has been expelled time after time.

This raises the question of individuality and whether it can only be achieved outside of institutions. Is the path of choosing a college-given major or a career, a path that can help you find "yourself?" Or is wandering the city a better way to escape all the phoniness and help you understand who you really are?

Without school, Holden is constantly searching for company or some sort of activity. Depression and crankiness kicks in when he runs out of stuff to do. Institutions are made to propel our lives, to create the illusion that we are going somewhere. From high school, to college, to graduate school, to our careers and families, the steps have been designed before we even know it had to be built. These institutions give us options yes, but these options are binded by false pretenses that tell us we are choosing the type of person we would like to be. In reality, we are all the same- tools of society.

These systems serve as distractions from the one thing that scares us most: isolation. Society is in constant search of entertainment, deathly afraid to acknowledge the fact that we each are ultimately alone. Alone, we are no one. When we are forced to become spectators of institutions (as Holden was), we recognize the phoniness. We grasp our true tool identities. When we're participators however, we subconsciously will ourselves to accept the phoniness because we are afraid to do so otherwise.

HW 44: Big Expectations for School

Personally I thought Obama's speech was really inspirational. When I first heard it, it gave me a new sense of hope and encouragement. When you look at it more carefully though, it's easy to identify a feeling of "baby patriotism" as Sam had said. He makes a constant reminder that the amount of work we do today will determine the future of our nation. If we quit, not only are we quitting on ourselves, we are "quitting on [our] country." It is surprising to hear the president give us a speech that we've heard so many times before. I agree that education has its benefits, but the way he expresses it makes it seem like our sole purpose is to serve the country as opposed to following our dreams (ie. basketball star, singer etc.) His transcendent belief offers us a concrete route to achieve success in the future. However, his focus on the future contradicts the immanent mode which focuses on the here and now, thus providing little incentives for students. This reminds me a bit of The Stranger, and about how while the rest of society was living according to the future's absolute, Meursault chose to only live for the moment and disregarded everything else.

HW 42: More Research and More Thinking

Is Society successful in structuring our education system in a way where structure overrides creative thinking? In other words, are they turning us into puppets or encouraging us to become free thinkers?

Society has successfully convinced us to tailor ourselves into an extremely structured environment where we are taught the things they/we believe should be taught and where we create the kinds of goals they pressure us into feeling we should have. After pinning us down and forcing children books, math, and visions of being a scientist or a politician down our throats, we now swallow them voluntarily and are even paying good money to do so (myself included). From my interviews, I've came to the conclusion that we should be deciding our life goals based on life experiences, and not solely on the things we learn in school and from textbooks. It's also wrong, the amount of pressure that is put on students these days, through grades, and classes, and testing etc. In my opinion, education should allow more free thinking and provide a more flexible curriculum where students would be motivated by their interests rather than getting that next A and doing their society and parents proud.

Given my personal experiences, I think a lot of my efforts are motivated by my parents and the idea that excelling in a class means you're smart, and that you're approved of, that you're good enough. Coming from a family with 7 other female cousins, all around the same age as me, and all competing for our family's recognition, made it seem even more necessary to fit in. I'm glad that I've got the chance to learn about all this stuff, but like many others, the structure grows old and your crave for learning, your curiosity isn't met by the classes they provide. I start to lack incentive and motivation. I start to question what is the point? I don't even know what I really want anymore because I've been blinded by the intense focus I had for school over the years.

School doesn't provide the experience that is needed to determine a life's path. It only provides you with facts and knowing facts isn't going to help us find out what we want to do with our lives as Imani said. It'll maybe get a lot of us to become puppets of society one day, but I think a lot of people are realizing that now and are attempting to find something they are passionate about that they can do with their lives. So I guess my point is, students now realize that we need more of an incentive to succeed in life than what education has to offer. We need to discover what we love, what we enjoy doing, what will make our life worthwhile, as opposed to just going through the motions and letting the government decide what we will contribute to society.