Our introductory unit explored the history that came just before the use of writing, through the change, and into a new time where written language was now the norm. David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous informed us of the tradition of oral language. Abram talked us through the change of oral language dealing with a specific place to written language using a general space. The animals were forgotten and lost their importance with the indigenous people. This tied into Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth. This dealt with how early humans treated myth, and what they used it for. This article gave insight on why humans created myth as well. John Bowker tied this introductory chapter up with his God: A Brief History. This text tied in many characteristics that societies shared across the world, these included: symbolism, art, ritual, myth, and music. John Bowker showed how alike early humans truly were. This chapter showed the connection that all humans have with each other and the characteristics that we all share.
Our second chapter dealt with nature, human beings, and sacred space. This chapter included information about the simultaneous evolution of humans as well as the importance of nature in different societies. Nigel Spivey's "The Day Pictures Were Born" showed the progression of art from its earliest stages to modern day art. It showed that cultures across the world had made the leap from simple drawings in sand and things of the sort, to actual masterpieces created inside caves. It also dealt with the sacred space's that these caves were seen to be, which is a perfect segue to the research we did on the Australian Aborigines. We watched National Geographic's Australian Aborigines, this showed us the importance of the dreamtime, a state of mind that helps connect with the gods, to this culture. It also showed the value of sacred space to these people, which Nigel Spivey paralleled perfectly in "Second Nature". This text showed the importance that nature has with different cultures, and how it is almost always considered some type of sacred space. This chapter showed that art was something that humans were drawn to do and helped us reenact pictures stuck in our head. It also showed how important nature is to human beings and the impact it has had on us.
Chapter three was about love, beauty, and art. All three are extremely important to humans with allowing our emotions to stream freely. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde showed us the difference between inner beauty and outer beauty. Although Dorian was beautiful, he had a wicked inside and that eventually began to show on the painting. This book also showed how easily corruptible humans are. All the Mornings of the World directed by Alain Corneau dealt with how love and music have a very strong effect with, which almost all humans can relate to. Possibly the most shocking film of the semester, The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute, showed the lengths that an artist would go to make something they considered meaningful. This movie also dealt with the concept of fake love, and how damaging it can be to people. This chapter talked about the importance of art, and if it was as pointless as Plato really thought. Art is such a big part of human's lives that it is no wonder the emotion that comes with it. All three topics were woven very well throughout the chapter, as they are in real life.
The next chapter was about ethics, law, and human frailty. This chapter was a little more dense than others and involved many different moral codes. We compared "The Ten Commandments" and "The Holiness Code" to see how religions across the world dealt with moral codes. This tied into our watching of Crimes and Misdemeanors by Woody Allen. This movie dealt with serious moral issues, including murder and adultery. We read the extremely interesting book The Stranger by Camus. It showed the existential problems that all humans face and the extremely common problems that arise around death. This chapter dealt with societal issues and how moral and ethical codes aim to deal with them.
Our final chapter was on the inner journey and human frailty. It was a chapter that dealt with more of the psychological side of humanities. It was a chapter about opening up ones mind to certain ideals and trying to figure out what they might mean to human existence. Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" showed the hardships that enlightened ones might go through. It was an allegory that inferred that everything we might be certain of could be wrong. This connected well with our hero's journey. The Epic of Gilgamesh displayed the sacrifices that heroes must go through to find enlightenment. This journey is not limited to heroes. In I [Heart] Huckabees the main character's are regular people, but that does not stop them from trying to figure out certain idiosyncrasies of life and to find enlightenment. This chapter was a perfect ending to the year because it made our class want to strive for something more. This chapter was about each of us leading our own hero's journey.
A humanities class is valuable to every single person in that class because we are all humans, and learning about what we are and what we came from is always an interesting experience. I thought I would regret this class due to the workload, but the lessons and information I learned more than made up for it. Each human is unique, but still we are so similar to each other. This class taught me that although humans have evolved and changed, the things that make us human have stayed the same.
Our final chapter was on the inner journey and human frailty. It was a chapter that dealt with more of the psychological side of humanities. It was a chapter about opening up ones mind to certain ideals and trying to figure out what they might mean to human existence. Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" showed the hardships that enlightened ones might go through. It was an allegory that inferred that everything we might be certain of could be wrong. This connected well with our hero's journey. The Epic of Gilgamesh displayed the sacrifices that heroes must go through to find enlightenment. This journey is not limited to heroes. In I [Heart] Huckabees the main character's are regular people, but that does not stop them from trying to figure out certain idiosyncrasies of life and to find enlightenment. This chapter was a perfect ending to the year because it made our class want to strive for something more. This chapter was about each of us leading our own hero's journey.
A humanities class is valuable to every single person in that class because we are all humans, and learning about what we are and what we came from is always an interesting experience. I thought I would regret this class due to the workload, but the lessons and information I learned more than made up for it. Each human is unique, but still we are so similar to each other. This class taught me that although humans have evolved and changed, the things that make us human have stayed the same.
This is a pretty strong essay. In the beginning, you do a great job of tying each paragraph to your thesis but towards the end, you begin to just explain what each topic was about, lacking the synthesis of the first couple of paragraphs. You do get straight to the point, though, which I adamantly believe is a good trait in essay writing. Your analyzation is good and you use appropriate texts that tie together well in each paragraph. You definitely have an understanding of the texts and how they relate to being human. Your introduction and conclusion are well written and also do a good job of tying the essay together. I could not find any mistakes so I believe you have written a grammatically sound essay here man.
ReplyDeleteGabe,
ReplyDeleteYour topic sentence, though it could have been phrased a bit differently, did a good job of preparing the reader for the rest of the paper. You did well in describing how each of the pieces of each unit were connected to those within the unit. The concluding sentence of each of the body paragraphs, though they again could have been a bit more interestingly phrased, did an undeniably satisfactory job of explaining exactly what role each unit played in describing what it means to be human. Your final concluding sentence is striking in the fact that, to me, it seems very true, that despite technological advances and cultural evolution, the nature of humans is still very much the same. From this perspective, I think that adding some measure of left and right brain, and the physical basics of humans in your description of the introductory unit would have fit in quite nicely. Describing a bit more of the why of matters, why people do what they do, could have added a bit more depth to the post, but again, the way you showed how the pieces of each unit tied into one another was very good; this is the last blog post I plan to comment on in this class, and I am glad that you made it worthwhile for me. Thank you.
(Best of luck, Gabe!)