Omelas Seminar Reflection
Keagan Felker Part 1: Story Continuation The ones who walk away from Omelas are the ones that chose not to conform to the rest of their society. Once they witnessed the pain and sorrow of the young individual in the broom cellar, they could no longer live with the people who put that poor child away. They ended up leaving that perfect place. They walk and walk, all by themselves; but to one destination-where all of the individuals congregate to create their own society where they face their pains and fears instead of stowing them away in a dingy, old, danky cellar to die sorrowfully. The people who walked away did not want to have to put up with their pains and problems-they now have enough strength to face them. Part 2: Reflection Ursula LeGuin’s writing style influences the message and reading of the story by letting the reader be able to use their own imaginations and make their own opinions about the situations, characters, and settings taking place in the story. An example of where she gives the reader a chance to imagine their own lives as part of the story, is on page 2, about half way down the page when she says, “Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all”. So in this sentence, she is giving the reader the chance to better understand how complex their world is-which is, as she refers to as, “no more complex than ours” (page 2, top of page). Following this, she probably wants the message to be whatever we as the readers feel like it should be considering when she gives the readers a chance to incorporate their own lives into the situation to make it more understandable and comprehendable. |
Global Village Seminar Reflection
Keagan Felker When Tatum mentioned basically that someone can copy one’s way of life and culture, but cannot beat the original, at first, I kind of disagreed with this…but once the example of how Japanese people may come to America and try our “authentic Japanese sushi” then they can tell that it may not even be close to the real Japanese sushi. I also found it interesting when someone threw out the thought that it’s becoming cheaper to experience culture. What was meant by this statement was that traveling to other countries and locations to be able to experience their ways of life used to cost a lot more money than most of it does today; Where you’d usually have to spend money on say a plane ticket to get there, money once you’re at your destination, and money to get back. Now we just have to click a button and you can go all over the world with dozens of computer programs, such as Google Earth, Skype, and videos and maps online. The same goes for visiting relatives or friends maybe across the world. You used to have to do the same thing-buy a plane ticket to fly to Tokyo to meet your cousin; now all you need is a laptop and Skype and you can talk to whoever you want from anywhere in the world without leaving your home or local café. I think that this is just because of people being lazy instead of just advancement in technology. I mean-if you have the money and time, I think that you should take the chance and get out and explore the world as much as you can while it’s still diverse and full of different cultures. As an answer to the question; “Can we have a globalized world without losing our unique national and cultural identities?” I would have to say mostly no. I do not feel that we can have a globally united world without losing our own unique national and cultural identities. Mainly because I feel like the world is too connected to the media and merchandise to be able to break free and think about keeping their cultural differences apparent. I also feel that we might be able to have a globalized world while keeping our identities if we were less caught up in whatever we may do that takes us away from our roots. If there were less distractions in this modern world of ours like the ones the author Pico Ayer talks about, such as the “American pop culture” (2), listening to “Madonna’s latest” (2), or having to “wriggle into 501 jeans” (2), we would probably be closer to our roots whether it’s the destination, origin, or whatever brings us back with our cultural identity. A connection I’ve made between what we talked about in the seminar and a historical event that I can connect to would be the immigration boom of Ellis Island and how it was a gateway into America for all other countries around the world when they wanted a taste of America’s freedom. In the seminar, I referred to America as a “melting pot” for the world’s cultures; by this I meant that America is made up of so many different cultures and nationalities that originate from all over the world. This merging of cultures is mainly due to Ellis Island and the general immigration to America by Europeans in the early 1600’s. This immigration of Europeans to the Americas was one of the beginning merges of culture that started all the rest. |