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This piece that I had to read for English Lit was interesting. Maddening, actually. I had to actually read it twice before I could write about it. The piece was "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. My thoughts were:

In his piece, A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift decries the poverty of Ireland’s children. He notices them running rampant in the streets, neglected and hungry. Frustrated with a system that caters to rich landlords and devours the poor, he attempts with satire to display the ridiculousness of the attitude of the rich. He proposes that the poor sell their children as food for the rich. Since the rich already take everything the poor own and consume their money, why not allow them also to eat child’s flesh. He targets landlords, the government, and Catholic-hating Protestants for oppressing and taking advantage of the poor. With satire, he shows them that their actions are just as revolting as selling children as food.

I am surprised because I intersect with A Modest Proposal more than I would expect. We live in a country where the problem of child poverty, though still alive, is much dissipated. However, I feel that we have gone to another extreme in our country. We reward laziness with Welfare and our children still suffer from poverty stricken homes. Perhaps the problem lies not with the lack of government involvement in the lives of poor people but with an attitude that poverty itself is inherently bad. Children, both poor and rich, suffer from depravity of the worst sort. Parental attention and love have all but disappeared from many American homes. Children need love, not money. They need consistent rules and boundaries, not more commodities. If a child goes without many “necessities”, ie: more than one pair of jeans, socks without holes, etcetera, and yet grows into a law-abiding, kind, godly person, they have suffered very little in the way of development. However, a child lavished with every nicety known to man who grows up selfish and defiant has suffered much and likely will be more unhappy than the poor person. If a child goes without physical comforts and in addition is allowed to run the streets and govern himself, he likely will grow up rebellious as well. It appears to me that a child who is consistently loved and disciplined grows into a more enjoyable and useful adult than if he is either coddled or emotionally neglected and that economic wellbeing has very little to do with it.

I feel that I should qualify what I’ve said. I do believe that we ought to help the poor if possible, and that the government can be a useful tool in accomplishing this. I believe that if children are well managed, and adults are hard-working, helping those who are underprivileged is a worthy endeavor. However, I do not believe that those who refuse to work should be coddled or ignored, but rather given work to do that they might provide as much as possible for themselves. If we are willing to work for what we need, the extra help from churches or governments is well appreciated. Working in the medical field helps me to see that so many who receive help and are not required to work see the help as “owed to them” and become selfish and demanding. When I see laziness rewarded and selfishness bred, I question whether we have not come to an equally appalling and hurtful extreme as is decried in A Modest Proposal.

What, therefore, do I propose? I propose quite simply to require people to work, even to work hard, for the help that they receive. Idleness produces a plethora of evils, such as drunkenness, substance abuse, sexual crimes, and more. As a society, we have allowed selfishness and laziness to take over. Children ought to be educated properly, fed enough to be full and clothed well enough to be warm. Adults ought to work as hard as they must to provide for their families. If children must work after school to help support themselves, let them work. We speak of “letting children be children”. By this we mean, “don’t let them work or take life too seriously until they are grown.” I argue, however, that a child who learns at an early age to work hard and think seriously has a better chance of succeeding as an adult.

Let us consider the words of the wise man in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and to enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19) This man wisely tells us to work hard and to enjoy what we earn from what we work, be it little or much. I choose to take his advice and work hard and help those in need when able. What will you choose?

Next one.

This paper was an extra credit assignment I did for my English Literature class. We had to watch the movie Dead Poet Society and write a response to it. The following was my response.

Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society opened at the beginning of a semester at Welton Academy, a private school for teenage boys. At the heart of that particular semester was John Keating, a revolutionary English teacher. Rejecting “normal” teaching tactics, Mr. Keating (or “O Captain, My Captain,” as he preferred) endeavored to instill in his class both a love for poetry and the ability to think independently. Among the boys under his tutelage were Neil, Charlie, Todd, and Knox. After discovering that Mr. Keating was once the leader of the “Dead Poets Society,” Neil decided to reconvene the Dead Poets. The new chapter of the Dead Poets held meetings at night in the traditional Dead Poet meeting place, a cave not far from the school. The meetings often grew wild, but some of the boys took Mr. Keating’s messages to heart and strove to think for themselves and “seize the day”. “Carpe diem!” echoed in their minds and they wished for the strength to do so. Neil led the way when he chose to act in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream against his father’s wishes. Others followed. Neil’s story ended tragically the night his father withdrew him from Welton and commanded him to give up acting and focus on his future career as a doctor. Distressed with his plight and his inability to communicate with his father, Neil shot himself. The repercussions at Welton Academy were astronomical. The Dead Poets were disbanded, and Mr. Keating discharged. In a final moment of truth, the shy Todd found his voice. As Mr. Keating prepared to leave, Todd rose to his feet in the presence of the president of the school, stepped onto his desk and “O Captain, My Captain” escaped from his lips. Other boys followed suit. Mr. Keating still left, but he left knowing his mission was accomplished. A classroom of boys knew how to think independently.

Wow. I began watching Dead Poets Society late one night. I was tired and afraid I’d fall asleep. In the beginning, I felt as if I would. I enjoyed the movie but it moved slowly. However at some point, without knowing when, I developed an emotional tie to these characters. I never cried so bitterly during a movie before. Neil’s suicide took me completely by surprise and Todd’s willingness to finally stand up at the end tore at my heartstrings and I sobbed like a child. Many emotions raged through my heart. Anger. Sadness. Determination. This film had affected me in a way few others had ever done. I had learned some powerful lessons.

As the tears coursed down my cheeks, I determined that my new motto would be “Carpe Diem!” Each new day would present new opportunities to be seized, and I would seize them. I knew I was not guaranteed the next day, so I decided that each day would be lived as if it were my last. Each opportunity to do the right thing would be taken and regrets would be forgotten.
Finally, I thought of my future children. Like all people, I hoped for them many things. In my girlish dreams of parenting, I wished them to be intelligent, to be great, perhaps to be doctors, lawyers, preachers. Yet with Dead Poets Society I learned a valuable lesson and I purposed never to pressure my children to be what they did not wish to be. Teach them, yes. Give them opportunity, yes. Mold them, yes, but free thinkers they would be! Free to follow their dreams; free to pursue those free thoughts they would think.

I greatly appreciated the message of Dead Poets Society and willed the powerful emotion never to fade. Yet, I knew it would. That moment was the only moment I was guaranteed. Therefore, lest I forgot the powerful message, I whispered to myself as I drifted off to sleep, “Carpe Diem!”