March 19, 2009

Propaganda

Image from here

This poster was one aimed at the American people as a whole and trying to keep them from being swayed by German or Japanese propaganda. It's somewhat insulting to the American people though since it sends the message that they shouldn't be duped by the other sides' propaganda, just their own since that's the one that doesn't harm them and can in fact help them. It's a believable idea since the religions mentioned on the poster were the big three of the time and therefore directly applicable to the vast majority of citizens of the country. The idea of the slogan, that the enemy is trying to play the people against one another, would stay in people's minds but not necessarily the actual word for word slogan. Rather than making the target audience feel manipulated by the poster, it would have made them feel that they were actually being released from the manipulation by the Nazis and Japanese and that the people could then see what the "truth" of the matter really was.

We-Patterns

In Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, there is the obvious pattern of geometric descriptions of everything in D-503's world. D-503 even describes sounds as having shapes in "He looked at me, laughed sharply, javelinishly" (Zamyatin 80). This pattern is used to exaggerate the dependence the society has on math, so much of one that even abstract ideas or non-tangible items must be condensed into an easily understood, definite, mathematical idea. If this mathematical need wasn't there, D-503 would not have been able to describe it as "javelinishly," giving it a definite shape, but instead could have said something such as, "it pierced me" with it still having the sharp connotation, but remaining abstract.

March 11, 2009

Dystopian Journal #1: Topic C

In We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the idea that math can be used to explain everything in the universe is pushed to the extreme in the sense that the fictional society starts to believe that math should be used to explain everything. Not only is everything to be explained by math, but everything has geometric descriptions: face like an X, O shaped mouth, etc. This hyperbole of a civilization is shown to be the result of mathematical growth from today's society. Everything lately has been in terms of numbers such as the economy where everything depends on formulas and figures determined by other formulas and figures and so on. Zamyatin is not telling people to abandon math, the society functions just fine using it, it is just an extremely boring one if it is relying solely on arithmetic properties. The main character, D-503, even starts out loving the preciseness of math and how he is able to use it to explain anything he wants using a formula, so clearly the reader is not supposed to despise math and all of its results, just realize the lack of excitement it brings with it. Zamyatin suggests an alternative that math is an acceptable tool for areas of life that would require it, such as engineering, science and architecture, but indirectly related areas should be left clean of it. In general, life should be full of spontaneity and unpredictable events rather than cold and calculated numbers dictating exactly how everything will function for years upon years to come. If everything is able to be calculated from information of the past, those calculations would be able to predict what would happen in the future and the point of having a future is so that one can go into it not knowing what will come next.

-Word Count: 300

March 3, 2009

Journal: Meursault's Conclusion

By the end of The Stranger Meursault comes to the conclusion that he doesn't in fact care about any part of his life once he has accepted the idea that he is going to be executed. Camus most likely did not intend for the reader to come to this same conclusion unless under similar circumstances where inevitable death was coming quick and even then, probably not. Most likely, Camus intended for the reader to feel sorry for the man who had but a few days left to his life and would make nothing of them except to be completely apathetic about every aspect of his dwindling time. Camus wanted the reader to realize that in the last days of his or her life, he or she should make the most of what is left instead of giving up after accepting the fact.

March 2, 2009

Journal: Thesis Statement

Although many regard Albert Camus' The Stranger as a purely existential work, it is shown that, through use of symbols, character foils and the author's tone, the theme is in fact that meaning to life invades one's being no matter how hard it is resisted.