iWorld
iWorld Defense
My “Life” Findings While in iWorld
In my iWorld class this year, I have learned a lot of things. These things range from Shakespearean language to how to write a five paragraph essay with a thesis. In addition to learning those things, we also learned many life rules. The purpose of all these life rules is to help us be active and engaged citizens, people who put their society before themselves. In order to learn these life rules, we had to read books. This year in iWorld, we have read several books; each of these books had an important life lesson to be learned that will help us be active and engaged citizens.
The first of these books that I will discuss is the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. The life rule that we learned from this book is that total power will corrupt leaders. Therefore, to be an active and engaged citizen, you must make sure that no one person has total power, not even yourself. An example of this would be when Squealer says, “‘You have heard then, comrades,’ he said, ‘that we pigs now sleep in the beds of the farmhouse? And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a ruling against beds?’” (80). In this quote, Squealer and the pigs have totally dis-regarded the rules and take the farm beds for themselves not letting the rest of the animals be as comfortable. In turn, he is not putting the others before himself.
The second book in which we learned another important life rule would be the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The life rule that we learn about in the book is that you should never excessively use money that you do not have A.K.A., credit. By doing so can lead to economic problems in your community, which are hard to fix. An example of this from Of Mice and Men would be that the book takes place during The Great Depression. The Great Depression, started October 29, 1929 and went on until, the mid 1940’s, it all started because of the introduction and un-education of credit. People were buying everything on money they did not have this ultimately led to the situation that George and Lennie were in for most of them. The people who did that to the economy were not active and engaged citizens.
The Third book that we learned an important life rule from was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The life rule that we learned in this book was that, to be an active and engaged citizen you shouldn’t control the amount of information and individuality that your community has, doing this would lead to a community free of idealist and idealist are the models for everyone else if there is no role model how would everyone turn out. They would turn into cold hearted people who kill others and themselves for fun. A good example of this from Fahrenheit 451 would be when Ray Bradbury illustrates on page 13, how Mildred had taken a whole bottle of sleeping pills in one night and was now dead. Then, Bradbury goes on to talk about how Montag feels so sad and stunned by the event. This is not being an active and engaged citizen, because if you kill yourself, you don’t just hurt yourself you also hurt the people in your community who knew and cared about you.
The fourth of these five books is the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In The Book Thief, we learn about probably the most controversial life rule of this time period, discrimination. In able to be an active and engaged citizen, it is important to not discriminate against others in your community. This is essential to being an active and engaged citizen because, if you discriminate against someone in your community, it creates stress between different groups of the community and therefore makes it more difficult to collaborate for the better of everyone. We see this in many times in The Book Thief due to the fact that it takes place during the Holocaust in Europe. One example would be when Hitler and the Nazi’s prosecute the Jewish people for things they did not do because they were Jewish. We see this life rule applied in this quote because the Nazi’s are discriminating against the Jewish people. Therefore, this rule is completely necessary to being an active and engaged citizen.
The final book that we learned the last life rule needed to be an active and engaged citizen, was in the play Romeo and Juliet. The life rule that we learn in Romeo and Juliet, is that love over powers hate, the reason that this is an essential life rule is because in the event of hate in your community, you can fix it with love. In fact, the whole play of Romeo and Juliet revolves around this idea. We see this through-out the entire play, in fact it starts in the first scene of the first act, and doesn’t end until the last sentence. It starts with the long on-going feud between two families, the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. These families are sworn enemies and hate each other with a passion. However, there is an un-foreseen love erupts between an offspring of the two opposing families. Unfortunately, for these two lovers their love ends with the death of both of them. We see the after-effects of this tragedy when both sides find out and when Capulet says “O brother Montague, give me thy hand- This is my daughter's jointure, for no more- Can I demand.” (5.3). In this quote we see how the love of these two kinsmen of the families have overruled the extreme hate between them, this quote/book is truly touching. Since the hate was now gone between these families, there was no more senseless killing between them.
In conclusion, to be an active and engaged citizen, you need to have many traits and there are many life rules you must follow to do so. If you ever find yourself in a situation in which you don’t know what to do in your community the answer, can often be found in books. After all, that is where all of the life rules above have come from, all you must do is read and interpret.
In my iWorld class this year, I have learned a lot of things. These things range from Shakespearean language to how to write a five paragraph essay with a thesis. In addition to learning those things, we also learned many life rules. The purpose of all these life rules is to help us be active and engaged citizens, people who put their society before themselves. In order to learn these life rules, we had to read books. This year in iWorld, we have read several books; each of these books had an important life lesson to be learned that will help us be active and engaged citizens.
The first of these books that I will discuss is the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. The life rule that we learned from this book is that total power will corrupt leaders. Therefore, to be an active and engaged citizen, you must make sure that no one person has total power, not even yourself. An example of this would be when Squealer says, “‘You have heard then, comrades,’ he said, ‘that we pigs now sleep in the beds of the farmhouse? And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a ruling against beds?’” (80). In this quote, Squealer and the pigs have totally dis-regarded the rules and take the farm beds for themselves not letting the rest of the animals be as comfortable. In turn, he is not putting the others before himself.
The second book in which we learned another important life rule would be the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The life rule that we learn about in the book is that you should never excessively use money that you do not have A.K.A., credit. By doing so can lead to economic problems in your community, which are hard to fix. An example of this from Of Mice and Men would be that the book takes place during The Great Depression. The Great Depression, started October 29, 1929 and went on until, the mid 1940’s, it all started because of the introduction and un-education of credit. People were buying everything on money they did not have this ultimately led to the situation that George and Lennie were in for most of them. The people who did that to the economy were not active and engaged citizens.
The Third book that we learned an important life rule from was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The life rule that we learned in this book was that, to be an active and engaged citizen you shouldn’t control the amount of information and individuality that your community has, doing this would lead to a community free of idealist and idealist are the models for everyone else if there is no role model how would everyone turn out. They would turn into cold hearted people who kill others and themselves for fun. A good example of this from Fahrenheit 451 would be when Ray Bradbury illustrates on page 13, how Mildred had taken a whole bottle of sleeping pills in one night and was now dead. Then, Bradbury goes on to talk about how Montag feels so sad and stunned by the event. This is not being an active and engaged citizen, because if you kill yourself, you don’t just hurt yourself you also hurt the people in your community who knew and cared about you.
The fourth of these five books is the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In The Book Thief, we learn about probably the most controversial life rule of this time period, discrimination. In able to be an active and engaged citizen, it is important to not discriminate against others in your community. This is essential to being an active and engaged citizen because, if you discriminate against someone in your community, it creates stress between different groups of the community and therefore makes it more difficult to collaborate for the better of everyone. We see this in many times in The Book Thief due to the fact that it takes place during the Holocaust in Europe. One example would be when Hitler and the Nazi’s prosecute the Jewish people for things they did not do because they were Jewish. We see this life rule applied in this quote because the Nazi’s are discriminating against the Jewish people. Therefore, this rule is completely necessary to being an active and engaged citizen.
The final book that we learned the last life rule needed to be an active and engaged citizen, was in the play Romeo and Juliet. The life rule that we learn in Romeo and Juliet, is that love over powers hate, the reason that this is an essential life rule is because in the event of hate in your community, you can fix it with love. In fact, the whole play of Romeo and Juliet revolves around this idea. We see this through-out the entire play, in fact it starts in the first scene of the first act, and doesn’t end until the last sentence. It starts with the long on-going feud between two families, the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. These families are sworn enemies and hate each other with a passion. However, there is an un-foreseen love erupts between an offspring of the two opposing families. Unfortunately, for these two lovers their love ends with the death of both of them. We see the after-effects of this tragedy when both sides find out and when Capulet says “O brother Montague, give me thy hand- This is my daughter's jointure, for no more- Can I demand.” (5.3). In this quote we see how the love of these two kinsmen of the families have overruled the extreme hate between them, this quote/book is truly touching. Since the hate was now gone between these families, there was no more senseless killing between them.
In conclusion, to be an active and engaged citizen, you need to have many traits and there are many life rules you must follow to do so. If you ever find yourself in a situation in which you don’t know what to do in your community the answer, can often be found in books. After all, that is where all of the life rules above have come from, all you must do is read and interpret.