Lord Byron

After reading many poems from the poet Lord Byron, I noticed some common themes. Byron likes to use terms relating to the christian religion. Byron also likes talking about things that are bigger than humans are and will ever be. He likes to include the universe, stars and the sky as central ideas. When he uses these terms there is usually a change in emotion throughout the poem. The poem generally changes into a darker and more depressing poem where hope seems to transition into despair. Here is an Example, it is titled "Darkness."

Darkness

By George Gordon, Lord Byron

"I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day, And men forgot their passions in the dread Of this their desolation; and all hearts Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light: And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones, The palaces of crowned kings--the huts, The habitations of all things which dwell, Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd, And men were gather'd round their blazing homes To look once more into each other's face; Happy were those who dwelt within the eye Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch: A fearful hope was all the world contain'd; Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was black. The brows of men by the despairing light Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits The flashes fell upon them; some lay down And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd; And others hurried to and fro, and fed Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up With mad disquietude on the dull sky, The pall of a past world; and then again With curses cast them down upon the dust, And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd And twin'd themselves among the multitude, Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food. And War, which for a moment was no more, Did glut himself again: a meal was bought With blood, and each sate sullenly apart Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left; All earth was but one thought--and that was death Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails--men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The meagre by the meagre were devour'd, Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one, And he was faithful to a corse, and kept The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, But with a piteous and perpetual moan, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answer'd not with a caress--he died. The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two Of an enormous city did survive, And they were enemies: they met beside The dying embers of an altar-place Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things For an unholy usage; they rak'd up, And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame Which was a mockery; then they lifted up Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died-- Even of their mutual hideousness they died, Unknowing who he was upon whose brow Famine had written Fiend. The world was void, The populous and the powerful was a lump, Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-- A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay. The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still, And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths; Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd They slept on the abyss without a surge-- The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before; The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need Of aid from them--She was the Universe."

In contrast with this, Byron also has poems that are very succinct and happy. Such as this one.

She Walks in Beauty

By Lord Byron (George Gordon)

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

   Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

   Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

   But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

   A heart whose love is innocent!

Who Chris McCandless Really Was

            After searching for videos on YouTube about Chris McCandless, I learned new untold stories about Chris which changed my views on him. The many YouTube videos told me about his childhood and other information pertaining to his family and personality.

            Chris grew up in a supposedly, “well to do” family, although his house was a normally sized middle class house for that time. He went to high school and received impressive grades and was also quite the athlete, we know that. Chris did cross country and is still remembered by his school for his elite performance and drive to do the best that he could. His drive was something that not many other people his age had. His mental toughness showed through with everything that he did. No matter what the obstacle was, he was going to persevere through. But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t like to have fun. His coach for cross country described him as a normal, fun, corky teenage guy. It wasn’t until college when he suddenly had weird personality issues.

            Chris attended college at Emory, where he took a philosophy class that brought out another unseen side to him. His freshman year roommate said that Chris would take pages of notes for the duration of a single class period. His roommate went on to say that Chris never verbally participated, but would always dive deep into thought by taking notes. Chris’s unseen personality was brought out when he was caught extremely drunk in his dorm room. Chris wanted to go out to another bar for another drink, but then realized that everything was closed. He then went on by saying that he wanted to rob a liquor store. Chris, who always seemed like a caring person, wanted to cause harm to society by robbing a liquor store. This completely contrasted with his former high school personality traits, as being a corky and fun teenager who aspired to be the best that he could be. Having the intent to rob a liquor store was not the person that Chris had worked so hard to become. He was also described as a person that was always awkward while interacting in social situations, which is a reason why his roommate believes he wanted to venture out into the wild.

            The video that stood out to me the most was titled, “Things you may not know about Chris McCandless.” It was of course about the unknown knowledge about Chris, but more importantly, the unknown details about his death that recently surfaced. Apparently, when the law enforcement found Chris’s body, they were not able to spot his back pack that was in the bus with him. In his back pack was identification and 300 dollars, which was more than you needed to survive in the wilderness. This new evidence showed that Chris had indeed planned on coming back from the wild and had not given up by burning all of his identification and money. Authorities had traced Chris’s movements back to a cabin, which had been ransacked  along the trail leading to the bus that he eventually resided within. McCandless needed supplies in order to survive, and he was not afraid to do what was necessary in order to live to see another day.

            Chris’s life, from birth to death, seemed like he hadn’t quite found who he really was. That is why he did cross country in his early years, to challenge his mind, body, soul, and to learn who he was going to be for the rest of his life, which is also why he was so engrossed in his philosophy class and why he abruptly changed when he was drunk. Chris thought that by going away from civilization, and journeying on a great trek, that he would become the ideal person that he always dreamed of becoming. Although it didn’t come to a happy ending, Chris found the person that he had always tried to learn to be and was ready to return to civilization to share with everyone who he had finally become. 

Human Needs Changed By Technology

This is my Triptych 

These videos may seem very odd and may not make any sense, but they all contain the same theme. The central theme in this triptych is making fun of how the basic human needs, food, entertainment and communication, are dramatically morphed by today’s world by the ever-changing advancements in technology. The first vine pokes at how easily attainable food is now compared to how it was hundreds of years ago. Today you need to be mentally fit to acquire the means to live. Before the world was globalized, you needed to be physically fit to get a smaller amount of food from a selective food group.  Today you just need some paper and transportation which makes living much easier. The second video shows how humans have gone from telling stories over a fire, to telling extremely complicated and dynamic stories through television. I tried to show this by picking a tv show that was notorious for its action and supernatural plot twists. In the third video, I compare face to face communication vs. communication via texting. My generation has been addicted to staring at screens, trying to come up with a witty tweet or text and will suffer from this because of our lack of face to face interactions. My parents always tell me about how they never had that ability to communicate over a large distance in such a short period of time, making me feel like I am privileged to have this power. 

We Are What We Choose To Be

                After reading Ishmael I felt that I had learned hardly anything new. I instead viewed what I already knew in a different light. I knew that humans were destroying the planet, I knew that religions aren't exactly accurate, and I knew that in order to teach someone a new idea that is so ridiculously out there, you have to let them have their own experiences with that idea and let them ponder it for a while. I knew all of that; Ishmael just changed some of my viewpoints on those issues. The one thing the book did teach me to do was to question what I have been taught and to open my eyes to what is happening with our current situation on the planet.

                A perfect example of what I have learned can be compared to the movie “Oblivion.” In this movie, humans are a nearly extinct species after a nuclear war that they had supposedly won against an alien species looking to suck the water from earth. Even though they had won the war, half of the planet had been destroyed. The aliens can be compared to the takers from Ishmael because of their impact on the planet, and the humans can be compared to the leavers because of their little influence on the planet’s resources. Oblivion is also a perfect example of the death of a society idea from what Ishmael said. The way that I interpreted this concept was that when humans are forced to restart civilization, to rebuild and repopulate, they do this as a leaver society. As time goes on and things become more advanced, humans slowly turn into a taker society. This is a repeating cycle that I believe will happen forever just like when it happened when we were cave men. This cycle happened towards the end of the movie WALL-E when the grotesque humans came back to earth to restart and rebuild. The movie Oblivion not only provides an example of this cycle but also tricks you into believing that the humans are actually the aliens and the aliens are the humans. This is done not only as a plot twist but also because it seems realistic that humans would end up destroying the planet. You should always question what you have been taught.

Further exploring my point on takers and leavers, I think that a society will, for the most part, start out as a leaver society and will eventually turn into a taker society when things get to big. We see this today with earth’s exponential growth of the human population. There is a certain point in civilization where we get so advanced that we don’t fully understand what we are actually doing. Nature wasn't made to hold the unreal amount of bodies on this planet. It just doesn't seem natural. We think we know what we are getting into but actually we don’t. This applies to the rapid increase of advancements in technology. Although it may be used for a greater purpose, there is always a negative effect such as cancer or global warming. As civilized people, we think that our society is “different” so we won’t fall like other societies have before us. The truth is it’s only a matter of time until we all hit the ground.

Is Technology Killing Us?

I think of myself as an athlete, but can the rest of people on earth say the same? According to the world health organization, 1.4 billion people are overweight in the world we live in today. That’s one fifth of earth’s population. Now, what could possibly be the cause of this absurd statistic? Technology.

As technology has advanced, humans have gotten lazier. It’s not like we stopped working hard, it’s that we shifted our skill set to a more intellectual way of life. We go to school, do homework, and the process repeats itself over and over again. 1000 years ago, there were no cars or an
y means of transportation that are as efficient as in today’s world. Therefore we spent less time sitting down doing nothing and spent more time actually physically working to continue to live to see tomorrow. This way of life continually challenged our bodies to the point where only the very elite of people were overweight.

The movie WALL-E clearly illustrated that as technology advanced, humans were ultimately left to sit in floating chairs with 100% body fat. But are we truly headed into this direction of being subhuman? The answer is, maybe. The point of advancing technology is to make things easier or more efficient. And if humans continue to create technology to make things easier in life, then humans will continue to suffer from physical issues such as obesity.

 

You’re probably thinking that there seems to be little to no hope for humanity, but technology has a few benefits. Besides the risky surgeries and overrated diets, there is a wrist band to help stimulate your sense of being healthy. This fitness tracking band is called fitbit. Besides telling the time, this piece of technology helps you sleep better, eat better, which in turn makes you healthier and gets you active in a new, fun, and exciting way. Although it is a good source of motivation and may help some people live a healthy life, it will not help people if they are not ready to change their life or are too far from being helped. It is not a miracle bracelet.

Whether you have positive or negative views on how technology is hurting the human body, the truth is revealed in the statistics that are increasing each year. The threat of technology destroying our humanity is out there. If we don’t do anything to stop it from changing us, then were doomed to be just like the oversized behemoths from WALL-E.