Wendy's

Maus Research

http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/2/299.full.pdf

"This study examines whether the area of settlement of Jewish con-
centration camp survivors has an impact on their mental health. Using the Langner
mental health index, survivors in Israel are compared with an earlier study of survi-
vors in Montreal."

"The suggestion is raised that the
numerous memorials and ceremonies commemorating the Holocaust in Israel in-
crease the salience of the survivors' remembrance of the past."

From this article, I have taken that it is more likely for a survivor to suffer from mental deterioration if they are constantly remembered of the horrific acts done upon them and their people. Maus II attempts to show the story of the holocaust in a less negative light. By utilizing animals to portray the different racial classes, Spiegelman is able to lessen their specific stereotypical aspects. Even though the Germans are still portrayed as the domineering characters in the novel, one is less inclined to make a snap judgment concerning their group as a racial whole. The Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, and so on. The Jews are portrayed as mice because during the holocaust, they somewhat fit the role. They were being chased by cats (Germans) and were simply trying to survive.

 I believe this can be used as a lens text because it really shows how the holocaust had such a lasting effect on the world. If even to this day, survivors are still suffering mental degradation and grieving for their lost loved ones, the impact must have been great. Holocaust survivors on different corners of the world, Montreal and Israel, both suffer from decreased mental health due to the fact that they were abused so badly. In the novel, Spiegelman touches on the fact that he has made so much money from the holocaust, as in one scene his desk is held up by the corpses of many of the holocaust victims. This goes to show that not all of the effects of the holocaust were negative, but that profiting financially from the holocaust really goes against respecting the lost lives of many.

Cat's Cradle

I think one of the characteristics that makes Cat’s Cradle classifiable under postmodernist literature would have to be its spontaneity and very dark humor. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut playfully attacks religion, science, and others. For the most part, the humorous, playful tone and the jumpy style cancel out the serious underlying implications that Vonnegut is attempting to show. I believe that Cat’s Cradle can also be shown as a postmodernism novel through its absurd situations. The book parodies humanity’s capacity for destruction of the very earth with Ice Nine. If Felix Hoenikker were to have let the Ice Nine into any of the world’s water supplies, the entire population would be wiped out. This dark humor is utilized by Vonnegut to show that even though humanity has progressed so far technologically wise, we are still oblivious to many possibilities for error. This may be connected to Brave New World in that even though society seems to be advancing with leaps forward in technology; in reality technology becomes a hindrance to society when even those who created it do not have the power to control it. It ends up consuming the society as a whole, and humanity’s failure to see there is a problem is parodied by Vonnegut throughout the novel. Cat’s Cradle also utilizes dark humor in order to attack religion lightheartedly. In the made up religion in the novel, Bokononism, even the first few verses in their book, (Maybe similar to the Holy Bible?) state: “All of the true things that I am to tell you are shameless lies.” This attack on religion attempts to show how simply people conform to beliefs held by the majority. How people believe that there is a bearded man in the sky just because they want to believe something so bad. Through this, Vonnegut parodies humanity’s need to be socially accepted.

Developing a Topic for Brave New World

I don’t exactly know what I am going to write about in this essay, but I believe I have an idea that is pretty close. I think I can tie in things from 1984, and the Ken Robinson video on education in order to show how others view Brave New World.

Using the Ken Robinson video, I would probably address the widespread use of amphetamines to dull ones senses and the “plague” that is standardization. From the video, Ken Robinson really shows how the education system in this country is flawed, and how people are educated based on assembly line technology. Individuality is lost with this method, and I believe it ties in directly with Brave New World where Ford is praised. Robinson believes the entire system mainly focuses on churning out as many students as possible into society, where individual talents are neglected. The medication given to children to calm them down also further ruins their creativity by shutting off parts of their brains.

From George Orwell’s 1984, I believe I can connect some ideas about utopian societies and what not. How they repress the people and kill off individuality for the better of the society in general. I can relate the positions the main protagonists are placed in, and how they view the society differently from everybody else.

I could also tie in The Tempest to Brave New World, because apparently the title, Brave New World, is actually a direct quote from The Tempest, Act V Scene I where Miranda says, “O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!” I don’t exactly know how the two literary works tie together yet, but I think with some brainstorming of ideas I can be on my way to writing a pretty decent essay on this novel.

Brave New Education?

I believe the main point of Ken Robinson’s video is to show how the education standards today are simply creating “drones” of students. In the video Robinson mentions the use of ADHD medications, which are amphetamines that act to make one unaware of their senses. I believe this connects very well with the soma medication taken in Brave New World used to “make lives emotionally easy.” Robinson claims that children today are so overly stimulated, that they need to be calmed to be able to learn at school. But to do this with pharmaceutical medications is simply killing of any creativity or individuality one is born with. I really enjoyed the longitudinal study Robinson mentioned, where when children’s creativity is tested at a young age, 98 percent are deemed geniuses. I believe the current school system’s main priority is churning out similar students to better aid society, such as in Brave New World where Ford’s assembly line technology is deemed their deity, the reason behind their so called perfect society. I believe the current system of education is not far off from “hypnopaedia” as mentioned in Brave New World. In the current system, Ken Robinson explains how creativity is killed in order to mass produce students that are all similar to each other. How students are broken up into groups by age and not by skill set or level of comprehension. Ken Robinson attacks the current system for creating a “false epidemic” of ADHD that has not been scientifically proven to be a real condition. Ken Robinson believes that the over stimulating world we live in today has caused students to not be able to focus in school, and therefore believe that they are “dumb,” when in fact they can be extremely gifted in other areas, talents that they may never discover due to the current system of education

Brave New World Order

In Brave New World, we are shown what it takes to run a so called “perfect” society. According to the book, in order to have a stable civilization, you need social classes. Even though in theory it seems reasonable to have the less able individuals doing the less demanding jobs, Aldous Huxley demonstrates the need to manipulate people’s lives to create this ideal utopian world. Huxley shows this through Mond’s description of social equality, “Or the Caste System. Constantly proposed, constantly rejected. There was something called democracy. As though men were more than physico-chemically equal.” This quote explains how democracy is based on the fact that all men are created equal, however there is a need for different jobs and leadership. Who gets stuck doing the lower class jobs if all men are supposedly equal? The explanation comes from the book, which goes to show how cruel a society must really be in order to be perfectly stable. Huxley demonstrates how people would need to be physically handicapped before birth in order to keep them interested in their lower class jobs. He shows how conditioning the population can lead to a society focused on consumption, with a thriving economy. Huxley shows how the negatives of a utopian society greatly outweigh the positives of one.  If everything up to human reproduction and DNA needs to be messed with in order to provide society with the type of people it needs, why bother? War and other crisis may be abolished under their “New World,” but at what cost? Mond describes the symbolic wheels as needing to be turned, which is exactly what a society needs. However, Huxley shows the absurdity of truly attempting to create a utopia through his description of the completely artificial future, the focus on Ford’s assembly line technology, and the loss of individuality.