Human Life: A Cycle?

In individual human lives, as I had stated in class, I believe we do exist in cycles. First of all, we are born unable to walk, then by the time we die we pretty much can't walk anymore since we've deteriorated so much. This is like a cycle with one rotation. But some people don't consider that being a cycle, so I guess an alternative way of explaining it could be that life is like a line with an apex. It reaches its zenith when we're in our twenties, and has been on a slow decline afterwards.
On the daily aspect, yes, we do live in cycles. We wake up, do our daily activities, with meals spaced throughout the day, and then we retire to sleep. That is living out in cycles. We continue this everyday, with slight changes daily that make a (small) impact to the thing as a whole, such as going out to live by ourselves, etc. We continue the cycle daily, until it accumulates to a number that adds up to be 365, then we simply add a tick mark to marking our lives by these dates and then we continue the cycle.
Life is a cycle.

Natural Cycles

I find this cycle quite confrontational. When talking about the aspect of nature, is it the aspect that it is full of lessons to be learned or is it the aspect of cycles? I find the truth to be revealing, because our lives are centered around nature. Mother nature presents us, our properties, facts, etc, in many different forms since we're related to other organisms as well as the fact that we're not the only thing that's alive on this planet. We share many things, many similarities between other creatures but since we have developed so far, strayed so far away from mother nature, we still possess some sort of uniqueness about us (human beings). The aspect of cycles in nature is one that is not new, simply, everything is in a cycle. I believe the most natural shape is probably a circle, (in my opinion... but who's to say and dictate what is the most natural shape and who would be the arbitrator of this decision? but I'll present my reasons... it's the only shape without any corners or anything and the distance from one point to the next is the same and at the same angle, and so many other properties I'm too lazy to name) and a cycle is like a circle. Like in Lion King, the song, The Circle of Life really gives this aspect of nature a true definition. Other things happen in cycles, such as rain, the winds, the earth around the sun, etc etc etc.

A Realistic View of Life

When we grow out of our cocoon and adapt to the realities of life, we realize there are much more things in life such as responsibility than just imaginary things. Believing in things such as Santa Claus and other paranormal explanations for things pretty much says you can't accept what life really is, so you find other ways to cope with it. It's a sign of weakness because if you need something to cope with something that is difficult, and if you cannot deal with it, you are a weakling. It means that if we encounter something we cannot deal with, we imagine ourselves dealing with it as if it was real. As if we really dealt with it, but rather, we hadn't. This is the same case with Santa Claus. It might be propagated by the parental figures, but the children, naive and ignorant, cannot find an explanation for the gifts under the tree. So following what their parents had said, they assume it was a big man with a big beard on a big sled with a big bag over his shoulder that brought the gifts. Quite funny, actually. It's actually also a lesson of obedience, and once we break that belief we realize we must question all things, and all things are worth questioning, because if we don't, people might be lying to us. People might be saying Santa Claus is doing this Santa Claus is doing that, and once we question things we'll realize the realities of life and that people are liars.

Comparing Characters

Wilson's character had realized a new and totally different personality after being shocked back into reality after their regiment's first battle. At first, he thought he was really strong and was really pretentious, but that all changed into him turning to a humble side after experiencing firsthand what war was like. He even helped Henry by taking care of him, letting him take his sleeping gear, etc, after taking on this new role in his regiment. His niche is filled by the most unpredictable of characters: the Loud Soldier. Seemingly, he would be the cold, bragging character who makes sardonic remarks but instead he turns into a nice caregiver of the regiment especially for Henry. I think war can change many aspects of people's personalities, and for Wilson, perhaps it changed all aspects.
Many times over, people say a person can change someone entirely. Perhaps this was to a lesser extent, but I find it true in real life. Many times over people have influenced others from decisions to their whole outlook on life. I can't remember, but there was some sort of effect of how a person in authority will usually influence one who believes that person to be in authority (I think it was proven by Stanley Milgrim) so I find it really interesting that humans in general still follow an archaic hierarchal system deep within our subconscious, anyone with respect we listen to.

Henry's Relationships

Henry's relationships with the characters in the Red Badge of Courage all vary differently. These relationships with his peers as a fellow comrade in the army has shaped his decisions in how he would react to the situations in war. An example would be that his decision to run away was strengthened when Jim Conklin said that he would run away too if others had ran as well. They're good friends and their relationship is a well-nourished one. With the tattered soldier, Henry dislikes his comments because it could debunk the fact that he ran away from the battle, with his repeating comments and haranguing of Henry of how maybe, he's got those "inside wounds". These relationships have been vital to Henry's development in character, explaining some of his actions and shaping the path for his mind to embark on the next time he makes a decision, because he's always looking for acceptance from his peers and being viewed as valorous and honorable.
Many times over, a large portion of our brains demands acceptance socially. In this context, his environment is a warfield, so he demands social acceptance in this zone from the perspective of seeking acceptance of his ideas of war. Although many times over he goes back on his own principles and acts in a sanctimonious manner that invalidates his own beliefs, he still seeks refuge in their social acceptance of his ever-changing metamorphic  ideas.

Conscience

Conscience is the thing inside ourselves that drives us towards what we do. When we stray off that path, this "conscience" will attempt to rectify us by making us feel guilty. It's an uncomfortable feeling. Henry's eagerness to be a war hero is constantly calling out to him, and haunting him after acts and acts of cowardice. His conscience is telling him to do what's right. It can also be described as what's morally right and wrong. Henry feels a cognitive dissonance, a feeling that occurs when one's thoughts collides with one's actions, therefore they'll try to adjust their thoughts to their action. In Henry's case, his conscience fully ignored, he adjusts his thoughts by thinking of excuses to please the dissonance in between his running away and wish of heroism. Cognitive, meaning thought, and dissonance, meaning incongruity. In the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale's conscience is what's right, and basically it's driving him to want to say and speak out of his own sins, yet he could not bring his conscience forward and admit the truth.

The Dark Side

The Dark Romantics were a group of romantics who went against the social norm of their little group romantics that lived in their own little world and decided to dabble into darker matters, (matters that did not even come to close to being slightly morbid, or anything of the sort) but things such as insanity, madness, and the human self and its darker side. I would consider them neutral romantics. They didn't do anything that could've earned them the "dark" title, yet, they're only dark because of this highly elevated sense of romanticism. It doesn't really make sense, because the dark side basically just explored NORMAL human traits that only seemed dark because of how buttered up the world had been and icing-topped with sugary sweets by the "normal" romantics. It's quite strange of how someone could dictate what something else is based on a comparison of one thing to the other while never fully understanding the other. I'm sure that people understand what these "dark" romantics are saying, yet, they shouldn't have just simply branded them as dark.

The Transcendentalists

The Transcendentalists were a group of Romantic people that followed traditional romantic beliefs and created art that depicted their principles. (Romantic principles) They usually wrote books with romantic ideas such as youth over wisdom, intuition over thinking, etc. They were a response to the rapid growth of Rationalists and thinkers in Europe during the Enlightment. Perhaps they were bored with all that thinking because logic is very restrictive, as it forces you to follow down one, correct path - as opposed to feelings, which is sporadic and is directionless, therefore these people could do whatever they wanted and not have to be logical. If someone asks, "why are you doing that?" thinking they're crazy, they can easily say that they're a transcendentalist and be excused from the act.
I personally believe that these people, albeit having published great works of literature, are a waste of time because they would rather follow feelings over reasoning.

Romantic Values

Some values during the romantic era in America were valuing youth over the old, intuition over reasoning, love over logic, and the such. Spontaneous reactions to something usually lead to the person following their spontaneity, as opposed to logical reasoning. People today perhaps are emotional because of this, because our logic and thinking's evolution had been halted in our social organic structure that we do not continuously develop these aspects anymore We find that sometimes people recommend we follow our intuition over reasoning. This is the cause of America's great lack of mathematical skills (on average) and science (on average) as opposed to other cultures that value logic and reason above love and emotion. We also notice that Western culture values love more greatly, places more emphasis on monogamy and devotion to "romantic" love compared to cultures of other societies. This is what the Romantic era has done to us, it had halted our evolutionary path biologically and socially: a great, tragic blow to humanity.

The American Romantic Hero

The American Romantic Hero, as described in the book, is a natural being that has a pure mind and the a courage of a thousand lions. Today, our heroes still have traces of these elements except in modernized form.

Freedom and Equality

These two words are almost synonymous with the name America today, or to be even more specific, the United States of America. This is because of our national pride, we flaunt our spin-doctored heroic past (whilst covering perhaps some of the most dreadful wrongdoings in the world) to the world that today our country was fought because of the longing for freedom and equality, to be relinquished from the grips of British colonial rule.
(some of these wrongdoings are: slavery, the unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans, its favoritism of European immigrants over Chinese immigrants, etc)
I believe many Americans today take our hard-earned freedom and equality for granted. This is because many of us take many things for granted. We're so used to living luxuriously we forget about how hard freedom and equality is to find in this world, and how much people in certain parts of the world long for it. People under the thumb of dictatorial regimes and territories marked by terror, they crave freedom and equality more than anything else. Maybe if we removed our rights for a day people will start to appreciate them. Almost everyone is too concerned with the material world that we take our most basic of rights for granted.
Most people are ignorant.

The American Ideal

The quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects the American Ideal to the finest degree. This is because Americans are all over individuality, uniqueness, and independence. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a prominent American author, and had obviously pioneered perhaps minute portions of our culture today - he would of course have traces of the primitive form of the American Ideal within him. He is one of the progenitors of our culture today. I would say he was a very independent man and had his own ideas, his own values, etc, his own, his own individuality, uniqueness and the such. Our American Ideal was shaped by these early citizens of our great nation and the path that they have embarked upon had sealed our fate - as the American Ideal is everywhere.

What I like about this class

What a like about this class: plenty of things, but mostly the class's upbeat atmosphere at all times. Mr McCool's humor always brings smiles to peoples' faces, especially Howard Tai. I also like this class because of Ben Lee. He sits across from me and I can see his funny faces when he writes his journals. Next, Daniel Shieh. He's always acting like Percy and is always fun to laugh at. Melissa Lee, because her mouth is always open when she's focused on something. Tiffany Lin, because she looks confused all the time. Chim Chen, because he's got big calves and he shows me his calves his class. Alyson Tseng, because she's always reading. Christine Hsu, because she plays basketball. Howard Tai, because he looks funny. James Chiu, because he sits next to me. Danny Shue because he's a funny guy.
Most important of all, what I like most about this class is:
me.