Author: SelinaR

Martin Luther King’s speech on equality had one of the greatest impacts for the country. His famous words, “I have a dream,” reign on to this day. The protest and crowd Martin spoke for was at peace, which probably made it so memorable. There was no violence, shouting, or disrespect. Martin Luther King is a big inspiration for especially as for others who stand with the rights for equality for everyone. Unfortunately to this day, equality today is not enough. There is still a large amount of racism based on skin color and ethnicity.
This speech left a good impact, however, the wording of this speech and how Luther carried out was incredible. To start off with the main device Luther uses in his speech is his use of rhetorical device. The use of rhetorical device, which is a type of persuading that arouses emotions in the audience. Luther takes much of the past’s hardships, to get the audience to have faith and belief in what the future holds. For instance, in his speech, he includes the past of when Lincoln freed the African American Slaves as one of his examples. By using this example, he leads the audience to believe and have faith that one day, equality will come, and they will no longer suffer. The use of history plays such an important role for everyone in the audience, especially the white people, to understand after all why he is up there giving that speech.
Another remarkable part Luther included in his speech was the fact he made the white people feel what the colored experienced and how much they have gone through. How much pain they have gone through and are still going through. He did this while not insulting them at all but wanted them to understand why they should not be treated differently. One thing to acknowledge about Luther is his determination and positive outlook. As you can see in his speech, he uses the word “Now” quite a lot, and of course, the term, “I have a dream.” These two powerful statements lead the audience to see how important this is. This speech was not for the purpose of fighting against the white people but working with them starting now. Equality varies in many ways, but the biggest part of believing equality is acceptance and knowing everyone is equal instead of believing everyone is equal. Luther is an inspiration and his speech should be remembered forever

The case of whether or not criminals should be in solitary confinement has been on for years. It was one not allowed, but yet it came back. Federal Government’s most secure prison that is known as ADX, and information has been locked away from the rest of the community. This secrecy mostly affects the family members of the prisoners in this prison. However, this is not about ADX and their secrets. We don’t know for sure what is going on in that prison, other than the fact that prisoners are held in that tiny room for 23 hours and let out for one hour in yet again a caged area outside. They are basically locked in like animals.

Now, solitary confinement is a way of torture. There are many disagreements and agreements on how prisoners should be disciplined for their past actions. Let’s take a deep example of someone getting murdered. The murderer is sent to a prison and sentenced to solitary confinement for life. There are mixed feelings on whether solitary confinement is the right punishment. Personally, solitary confinement should not be practiced. As stated, many times in the talk, this way of torture leads to serious effects on mental health. It alters their human mind, leads them to lose the ability to have a social life, and possibly cause them to start losing their minds. For sentences of solitary confinement that are not life sentences, this way of torture is extremely bad for the prisoner. Prison is a place for punishment, but it is also the place where prisoners realize their mistake and become better. It may not be totally true, but for some people, prison has helped them. By sentencing someone to solitary confinement, it could easily strap away their human identity.

Now for some places that agree with solitary confinement, this would probably be because of religion in that certain area. Maybe solitary confinement would let them think and repent for their mistakes, but after a while, people in solitary confinement will not be able to stand being locked up and will act up maybe twice as bad as they were before because of the damage being done to their mental health. Solitary confinement should not be used anywhere because of the terrible effects it has. Afterall, being locked up in solitary confinement is like being an animal in a cage. Prisoners may have done bad things that hopefully they will learn and regret, but they are still humans even though the things they did were terrible. I am not saying what way we should treat prisoners, but solitary confinement is definitely not the way for anyone because it tortures someone to the point of completely damaging one’s mental health.

Teachers have one of the most influential jobs on kids and teens. The way the teacher elaborates on his or her lessons could impact the way kids learn and take on education. Let’s take Roger, having a more relaxed and lenient teacher was not the best option for Roger personally. As we see in the story, Roger was terrible in spelling and not the best at learning educationally. When asked to spell flower and castle, he struggled tremendously. This was mainly because he never took the time to improve in spelling, he barely did homework, and mostly focused on having fun.
So, when Miss Orville arrives, her aura brings hate from most of the class, including Roger, because they were so used to being independent that the strictness and expectations were too much for them. Throughout the week, Roger has worked the hardest during this duration than any other week. On the last day, when the class pulls a triggering prank on Miss Orville, Roger has not only learned that he should not judge someone based on the way they act before getting to know them, but he also learned how education is so important. From then on, Roger probably gained an important factor of life, which is pushing yourself to learn instead of focusing on having fun. Roger develops this way of thinking not because he pushed himself, but because Miss Orville pushed him to the next level.
Roger’s development throughout this story illustrates such a good reason on why and how teachers play such an important role. By the way they teach, some push us to be better and some teach us to be independent. However, the main point I am trying to come across is that no matter who the teacher is and how they teach us, we should take each of teaching as an advantage and make the most out of it whether the class is more relaxed or more stressed, we should build upon that class to do better.

The story, “A Sound of Thunder,” portrays the actuality of making decisions. Everyone at some point makes an important decision, whether it is minor or major. Whether it is choosing an activity to do, what to cook, eat, and even to the point of choosing a future and college possibly. The decision you make is possibly the way your future is going to be, from who you will have a future with, what your job will be, and how exactly your life would be. Many people, including me, make decisions without much thought of it. We go with the flow because we don’t think our actions and decisions could possibly affect us in the future and forget that there is reality facing us wherever we go. The main problem is that we can’t necessarily control every part of our future and there will to be a specific decision that will lead us to becoming a certain way permanently.
Eckels, the protagonist, has a character trait that follows and is present in many. Like Eckels, he does not think before making an action. He does not feel the need to think before doing something which is such a common mistake. As humans, we all want the best for ourselves and we want life to be perfect which is part of the human greed. We neglect reality and “go with the flow.” We do not think our decisions could really affect the future, just like Eckels, however, when he killed the butterfly it completely changed history and altered the results with a different winner for the elections. From there, history onwards and events could be changed drastically.
This story is great at highlighting the importance of thinking before you act and that the little things matter. No matter how small of a task or decision it is, or how small you think it could affect your life, there is reality that can come crashing in at any moment of your life. We may not think about the consequences now or if they ever will come back at us, but one thing for sure is that we stay vigilant in our decisions and learn from the mistakes instead of pushing them away.

The story, “The lady or the tiger,” leaves an unsettling ending. It leaves on a cliffhanger that lets the readers anxious to know what the fate of the commoner would be. There could be many conclusions to what the fate of the commoner would be, but in every single way, the commoner would never get the chance to be with the princess due to his wealth status and her overbearing father.
First of all, I think the princess would have chosen to kill her love rather than give him up to another woman. Feelings like jealousy, anger, and hatred probably aroused in the princess, so letting her lover go to another woman was probably the last choice she had on her mind. Envy makes people do appalling things and things to the extent to achieve what one wants. In one line in the story, the princess herself said that it would be as if her soul burned in agony. The choice of sadly killing her lover would most likely be the conclusion of this story for the sole reason of jealousy and what the princess wants. To put it in simpler terms, if she can’t get him, no one can get him, especially the beautiful lady that stands behind the door. Of course, killing her lover would be so painful, but it would not be as painful as for the princess seeing her ex-lover living off a life with the beautiful woman without her. She would have to live through her life knowing that she would never get the chance to be with him. Consequently, if she chose to kill her lover, she would remember him forever, but also experience that pain of losing him and not having a future with him. However, the pain would not be as unpleasant as the pain of witnessing her love move on without her.
In the end, whether or not the choice of the princess is to kill her own lover, I think jealousy would overpower one’s choices. Surely anyone in the princess’s spot would also crack under jealousy. In this situation, would most people give up their own happiness, or be selfish and do what they want? In the end, we can’t technically blame the princess for feeling jealousy if her lover will have a future with someone else. Of course, my judgement out of the limited information may be way out of line, however, there are no wrong answers. The author himself wanted the readers to make the conclusion and take it upon ourselves to imagine the end of the story line. So, given the circumstances, the princess would probably not have sacrificed her happiness for his life, even though it would lead to killing him in the end sadly.

For any years, many scientists have been studying planets, particularly mars, hoping to find another planet where humans could possibly live and thrive in aside from earth. As of now, they are looking into Mars. Mars is basically a backup planet if something suddenly goes wrong such as possible asteroids hitting us and possibly wiping out the whole human population or even explosions and other natural causes that can significantly be detrimental to the point where everyone would have to navigate to a whole different planet.
Although they are looking to possible changing the atmospheres and maneuvering other things to make it possible for life to happen in Mars. Right now, as the future moves on, the atmosphere and pollution problems had improved mostly because of the shelter in place due to the pandemic, however, what happens when we are out of this. Things would continue moving as it did before, with millions of people driving. Even if humans have caused an increase in pollution and global warming, it will always be with better than Mars. Adding on to the debate whether or not it is ethical, it would be ethical if the whole population was in danger and moving to mars would save everyone’s lives, but we are not fully sure when or how much impact the asteroid or future disasters could bring. I am not saying to not be worried, because what scientist are doing is preparing us if disaster strikes. However, all I am saying is that we should not give our full trust into possibly having actual life in Mars. The worst of earth could possibly be better than the best of mars.
Maybe moving to mars would actually happen if scientists and other experts find a way to permanently change the atmosphere or get it to the conditions like earth sow would be able to live comfortable, but in the mean time we should get earth back to the way it was before or at least try to by reducing pollution and stop doing things that increases global warming. We could also limit plastic use. All these ways could improve earth little by little.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty conveys such a relatable topic that many teenagers to mid aged people go through. In life, we often feel was if we are not enough, but our imaginations and mind takes us to another place. This story has so much to teach, and the biggest factor that plays in this story is the fear of doing something better.
To dig deeper in this message of fear that is symbolized in story, we are often hidden away from the beauty of life. Some have great confidence which I wish I had, but some like me lack confidence from the way we view live and the ways we strive to do things in life. For me personally, I tend to be the type to stay on the safe side instead of being bold and brave. Maybe instead of achieving my dream job, I strive to get a safe job that makes fair amount of money instead of doing something I am passionate about all because I am scared of failing. I often imagine myself doing great things which I would not have the confidence to do in reality. The fear I have that is related to the fear of Walter is the fear of doing something new compared to the life we have now. Fear is by far the biggest motivation out there right now, and this story does this message justice. Instead of dreaming of what we would be or do if we were different, try to make that difference. The fear I have now could possibly help me achieve my goal.
We should not be afraid to do things, because fear not only hides the beauty of life, but also prevents us from doing amazing things that we would regret not doing in the late future. Instead of dreaming, we should start preparing at doing better at something or gaining confidence because as we practice and bloom into someone better, we see the beauty of life we did not see before.

A Rose for Emily, ironically there was no actual rose, which is a flower that is used to show love and affections or romance. This story incorporates the rose in different ways based on its message it is trying to convey to us readers. One, Emily, the protagonist was never able to love or be loved, which is why she took to the extent to kill Homer, because she was scared of losing him after the death of her father. However, in my perspective, I think this story mainly introduces the idea of the rose being a wall of color that blocks the citizen’s view on the reality of Miss Emily and her life.
Rose is why being a color is not transparent, which is why it is a perfect symbolism. The society is living in this light or time that has never quite healed. Although if this story was real in today’s generation, many would have called her crazy, but in the story, she was regarded as not crazy and just in a grieving state. When my family member had passed away, I understood Emily’s pain. It is not easy to just move on, it takes time. However, Emily became mentally unstable and developed an unhealthy relationship with the society and the past. The society is behind a rose wall, where their view is different because they can’t move on. They did not want to respond to the bad part of their life and chose to seek the good part of their life and how they view their life because they could not get over the massive loss after the civil war had taken place. They even went to the extent to believe Emily would soon be able to find love and enjoy life, instead of trying to seek and help her or getting her the treatment and support she needed mentally.
I believe that the author wants us to accept reality as it is and that nothing will be perfect. You will go through ups and downs and be stuck, but there will always be a part of your life to heal, and that in order to heal, you have to accept the truth and not be behind rose glasses. When I encounter the bad parts of life, sometimes it is so tempting to ignore and move on, but to do better you have to accept reality and your problems to fix it and move on gradually, instead of handling her loss like Emily had did, or the way the town ignored the problems by putting up that rose wall barrier to view life differently, which is the main reason why it was so difficult for the South to heal.

For me, like many others, I often have people who I look up to with admiration. I want to motivate myself to be better than them. I end up comparing myself to who I see on the internet or in real life and try to use that as a motivation to do better or to keep practicing until I am better.
However, this way may not be the best way for motivation, preferably for me in many cases. As I try to do better than my classmates or a person I know, sometimes it does push me into practicing hard. Let’s take basketball as an example. The point guard who has been playing basketball for many years is who I want to take as a motivation to get better, so I use her skills and compare them with mine. I practiced hard for months and maybe two years, but I am still not better than her. That is the problem. Maybe my goal of actually being better than her was way too ambitious. I should not use someone as a motivation to be better than them, but a motivation to be better than I am now.
You will never be the best at anything because there are almost eight billion people to compete against. The most important part of motivating yourself is not only receiving the reward, but the progress itself is the reward. For example, you have never tried weight lifting or doing cardio, and have recently started. In the beginning you want to give up but push hard to achieve your body goal. Not only is that final look the reward, but the progress of becoming stronger and being able to do something you were never able to do before itself is a huge reward. I don’t think the final outcome is the main focus, but rather the progress and your journey to what you have accomplished

Being a gen Z myself, this ted talk was relatable to me in my life personally, and there are so many things generations before do not understand. We are considered spoiled because of all the new technologies we are given and the better life we have and are constantly rebuked for every tiny mistake.
These tiny mistakes and yelling may not relate to everyone, but it does for my friends and I. Growing up, my parents have always expected the best, which was doing amazing at a sports game, getting perfect grades, and doing better than the rest. When I got a grade, my mom would constantly ask what other people got, and tell me to do better when my score was lower than someone else’s. This also happened to many of my friends, where their parents would constantly compare them with me, and my parents would constantly compare me with them. If I fail at something or make a mistake, I would feel embarrassed immediately and apologize. In this generation, we are often looked down upon. As the ted talk mentioned, how do grown-ups expect us to act like an adult, when they are the ones that are not treating us like one and expect us to be one. We are spoiled and not as hard working because we have not been through traumas like they have such as war, but even without war, that does not mean everyone is living the life.
As a gen Z, we might not have been through war, but we are fighting our own war in our own way that many just don’t get. In some cases, when I fail and my parents bring me down or get disappointed and blame it on me or even try helping me, it is hard to tell them to let me figure this out on my own. During these cases they help me when I really need it in their perspective, but when I personally need their help, they say I am old enough and capable of doing it myself. We are able to be independent and can do things ourselves, but parents treat many of us like children. However, when we struggle and crave for help, we are then treated like grown-ups who should know what to do. Gen Z is constantly treated as one stereotype, which is being lazy, spoiled brats who skip classes and do rebellious acts. Yes, there may be teenagers out there like that, but this stereotype does not define all of us, and parents treat us as if we are this stereotype. Parents should try to understand that we don’t want to always be in conflict with them, but be with them on the same side. However, this won’t happen if all they do is hurt and treat us like this.