Candide

Voltaire was a man that strongly opposed the aspect of religion. He believed that it was created in order to exploit people, hence his  short novel Candide serves as a satirical story that points out many flaws in the Deism religion. The Deist believe that a higher being created the universe and simply left it to run on its own, such as a clockmaker and a clock. The main character Candide is a young boy that tries to follow in the footsteps of his philosopher role model Pangloss, and Pangloss fully believes that everything in the world is as it should be. This philosophy is tested throughout the story when back to back catastrophic events take place. I somewhat agree with Voltaire's mockery of the idea that every bad circumstance in life serves for some greater purpose. As a christian I believe that God doesn't give us anymore than we can handle, and some incidents in life occur to mold us into a better and stronger person. Yet, that does not mean that I agree with Deist view that God just lets the world run on its own. I think that every human being on this earth has the freedom to make their own decisions and with each decision provokes certain consequences. As with Candide, when he decided to make a move on his crush Cunégonde, he had to suffer the consequences of being banished from the kingdom and everything that happened afterward.  However, in the end of the story,  Dervish's philosophy of work proves to be most sufficient. Dervish proposes the idea to keep working in order to prevent boredom and take care of your responsibilities. This is a good philosophy to live by because hard work does pay off and instead of worrying about the rest of the world if you just focus on yourself and your own responsibilities I believe you will live a happier life :)

Love vs. Gifts

O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi tells the story of a young couple that encounters a daily struggle with money. We can infer that this couple has money problems based on the way in which the wife tries to save every penny she can. Christmas is just around the corner and the wife, Della, wants to find the perfect gift worthy enough for her husband. However, gifts such as that do not come cheap, so in order for her to obtain more money she sacrifices her long, beautiful hair. As the story unfolds we realize that Della's husband has bought her combs for her hair which she no longer has, and Della bought him a platinum fob chain for his watch which he no longer has. The couple each sacrificed something that was important to them in order to make their partner happy, and although the couple is portrayed as acting foolishly, I believe that it is the ultimate love story. If only marriages today were concerned with the happiness of their spouse, divorce rates would  not be as high. As the reader we expect the story to have a typical "happy ending" and although its not the ending we expected, I believe it is much greater. The ending proves that the couple has unconditionnal love for each other and that is something that money cannot buy.

A Christmas Carol

I have heard the story of Dickens A Christmas Carol multiple times throughout my childhood. I have also seen the disney cartoon as well as the newly made movie, yet I had never even thought twice about what the word humbug could have possibly meant. When Dr. Vince told us that the word meant hypocrite my entire outlook on the story changed. Its crazy because after 13 or so years of having the same opinion, one minor detail in the story can erase that opinion completely. I now see the character of scrooge in a different light. It is very sad to know that people can not be genuine in their christmas spirit, but it is the truth. Now a days Christmas has become a season of greed and deception. People will run you over just to grab a pair of jeans during the big christmas sales.

"A grandfather was knocked unconscious to the floor in Arizona, a California shopper used pepper-spray on fellow bargain hunters and gunfire erupted at a North Carolina mall."Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066011/Pepper-spray-Black-Friday-sales-madness-grandfather-body-slammed-cops.html#ixzz1kPTft4lB

Scrooge was right when he said that people are hypocites on Christmas, and the above article proves his point. In a perfect world people would be in the Christmas spirit 24/7 365 days a year, but that is only wishful thinking. Scrooge chose not to participate in the fakeness of the holiday, but when his heart changed he became a better man not only on Christmas day, but for the entire year, and that is what we need to strive for.

What is the World?

What is the world? This question was asked on the first day of class and my immediate answer was the place in which we live. However, I learned that it is so much more than just a place. We are in the world and the world is in us! It is an easy concept to understand that we are in the world..because duh we live there, but I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that the world is in us. However, no matter what your age, color, or background is, each generation will be shaping the world through our ideas, culture, and language.