Jack Motter Public Feed
The Impact of Fear
Fear is one of the strongest emotions because it can motivate us into doing something we don’t usually do. But sometimes fear will take advantage of us, and control us into doing something we don’t want. In the book ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding, fear is a common topic among the boys and at multiple points of the book, and at some points it even causes the boys something that they might not do in their regular everyday life. In society fear is part of our everyday life and it can even change and make our decisions for us, so when fear is right here with us and pressuring our minds, it will make us do things that we may regret later.
First, Simon’s death can significantly be compared to the Vietnam war. At this point of the book all of the boys except for Simon are having a feast with the meat Jack hunted, and Simon is in the forest talking to the ‘lord of the flies’ about the beast, then Simon went to met with the boys to talk about the ‘beast’. So before Simon met with the other boys, Simon is representing United states, then Jack and the other boys represents North Vietnam. But after the killing, Simon became South Vietnam and Ralph and Piggy became the United States. The Vietnam war was a conflict between the north and south of Vietnam and the United States of America join force with South Vietnam. The reason for the U.S. to join the fight is because they feared that one of their allies, south Vietnam, would be controlled by the communists. Like the United States, Simon was trying to stop the other destroying themselves over the beast. Even with the help of the United States, South Vietnam was still ‘kill’ by north Vietnam, and also like south Vietnam, Simon was killed by Jack and the other children, even though he was trying to help them. Then according to nationlreview.com and history.com Vietnam was an “outright military defeat,” and ‘The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict in Vietnam from 1965-73’ and about 58,200 American men and women was killed or missing in the war. Although in this war with the boys and the ‘beast’ only had one death, it was still a great lose for Ralph, Piggy, and the littluns. After the killing Piggy said that “we was scared!”(156). This shows that the boys made a rash decision because of their fears of the ‘beast’ and they took action against the ‘beast’. In both of the conflicts shown above, fear has taken a big role in each of them and it showed that fear can make people have rash decisions, then later regretting of their choices.
The French Revolution was one of the most horrific events that has ever occured. In this event, fear had a major part and there is many points where fear takes part, especially with events that involved King Louis XVI. First, King Louis was resisting against the people of France or the bourgeoisie, so he moved to Versailles. Then he was being threatened by the people of France, if he doesn’t move back to Paris then they will kill him and his family. Naturally he moved back to Paris because he was afraid of being killed. But later Louis tried to escape France and its problems with his wife because they fear what the people might do to his family if they stayed in France. This was a poor choice made by them because they got caught when crossing the borders and they both was executed for treason. So if King Louis is still alive he would regret his choice as he got killed because of them. Similarities can be found in the end of the book where Ralph and Piggy went to Jack’s camp to get Piggy’s specs back. So both Piggy and Ralph can represent King Louis and Jack with the hunter can represent the people of France. First, Ralph feared that because of Jack’s outrageous action they might not be able to get rescued so then he was resisting against Jack with reason, so Ralph said: “we’d have given you fire if you’d asked for it-”(176) but that did not work and it quickly turned into a fight against Jack. Soon after the fighting started, Piggy got murdered, but the reason for the killing of Piggy is that he stood up against his problems instead of running away from them. Piggy would regret his actions because it caused him to get killed. As these two events showed that fear can very will take control of a person even though they had a legitimate reason for their actions, they still ending up regretting their choice.
No matter who we are, fear is there with us. Even if we are kings or a powerhouse nation or a group of boys, fear is right there pressuring and controlling their choice and decisions. Although fear is a strong emotion, we can still try to overcome it by think over our choice with logic.
System of Adoption
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhFzKdxuG0g
Mother
Mother
(Walks out of a corner store, shocked and sad) This can’t be happening! (starts to cry)He’s my precious child, he’s my love and joy, He’s my Noah. He can’t die, not like this. Please God he’s only 12, please don’t take him. He has so much to live for. Please Noah, we still need to go to Japan, remember? You said you wanted to go. Please Noah, if you come back to me I’ll buy you anything you want and take you wherever you want to go. Please Noah, I was Just in the corner store buying your favorite snacks for you. Please just come back, I’ll do anything to have you back. (go down to her knees)Please Noah, Please, Please(says this a little bit quieter), Please(says it even quieter), Please(murmurs)… (everything goes quiet).
(wiping her tears)He’s not coming back. My baby boy Noah has died from a stupid heart diseases that was suppose to be cured by now.You know what? I am going to text the doctor that was suppose to save my boy. (stands up and pulls out her phone) you f***ing liar! You told me that his heart would’ve been cured by now, then why has he died. This is all your fault. And send. (Phone dings)Oh it’s him. (shock)
(reading the text message)WHAT! He would’ve been cured by now, but Noah didn’t take his medication?! Why didn’t he take his medication? Does he hate me? Please Noah tell me what have I done. Please, why did you stop taking your medication? You were so close to having a normal life again. Why did you give up on life? (everything goes quiet again). You know what, Noah deserves to die. That’s what you get for not taking your medication. And all you are a little punk. (angrily)Even before you got your heart disease all you were was a needy little brat that didn’t appreciate anything. (throws the snacks on the ground)For example you always just stand there and ask questions or distract me when I’m working and so I don’t get my work done. And my boss almost fired me because I keep handing in important work in late. Also when I bring food to the table all you would do is complain because you don’t want to eat it or you don’t like it. Also that time at Disneyland you yelled at me for not buying you an ice cream cone. And the same thing happened at the beach. I don’t even know why I spent money on your ungrateful little punk ass. (yells)I wish I never had you. (everything go quiet once again) (shock)
Oh God, what I have I done. How could I say those things. How could I call myself a mother after all those terrible things that I said. (goes down to her knees again and picks up the snacks on the ground) (starts to cry) I am sorry. I hope you could find forgiveness in you heart to forgive this terrible mother. Noah I am sorry.
Benchmark Project-Jack Motter
My Adoption and Friends
Before I found out out about my adoption, I never thought about being adopted and never cared. There was a time that someone asked me if I wanted to be adopted, it was when I was about 7 or 8 years old. Most of the kids living at the orphanage in Beijing, including myself were on a field trip or something like a vacation one day. On the trip I was invited to a room where the walls were decorated with trees and bamboo. Inside were at 2 people. One of the person were chinese, and the other was a foreigner. I sat on one of the two benches in the room, and then they asked me to draw a person, so I drew. When I was finished, they commented on the way that I drew the person.
“ Look he even drew the neck,” one of them said to the other in amazement. After that they asked me if I wanted to be adopted and I said no to them, so then I went back with the other children. I was happy with my life and didn’t want to leave all of my friends.
I waited about three years, so when I was about 9 or 10 before I considered the idea of adoption when my close friends were being adopted. I waited a month before I got introduced to my new found parents.
That same day someone at the orphanage took me into a room where I was introduced to two foreigners sitting and signing a paper. As I walked into the room they looked up and smiled at me, someone then told me to hug them, I was scared to do so but I still did it anyway. I went up to my mother first and hugged her and said “I love you” in English and I did this because I wanted to show appreciation to them, then I went to what is now my ex-father and did the same thing to him. As we were leaving the orphanage I was holding my tears back. What would happen to my friends still at the orphanage? Would I ever be able to see them again?
Later at Hong Kong we stayed at the airport and waited a couple of hours for our plane to America. On the plane we watched a movie and played video games for most of the ride. Then I went to sleep for a little bit and woke up to the darkness of the Philadelphia Airport. Then we saw my family waiting by a van to pick us up.
On my first day in Philadelphia I was introduced to my mother’s family. I remember that I was very nervous to meet them. But I got through that part very easily, the difficult part is next. When the family started to ask questions I couldn’t understand anything and all I did was sitting there and staring them.
A couple of day later my mom told me about my friends and how they were also being adopted. I wanted to talk to them, so I asked.
“Can I speak to my friends?” I said.
“I’ll see what I can do,” my mom said.
Then the next day she put one of my friend on Skype and told to talk to them. Whenever I saw her I got very happy, because she was a very good friend and her name is Alexis. We were talking in Chinese when we talked, but I was embarrassed because my mom was listening. Then I asked Alexis about my best friend Andy.
“Do you know Andy’s Skype?” I said.
“No,” she said.
At that moment I was disappointed, but then I turned to my mom and asked her the same question.
“Yes,” she said.
After that I kept talking to Alexis, and we told each other what happened in our adoptions. She told me what happened to my friends at the orphanage,
“Some of them were also adopted and some are still there” she said
Then after I finished talking to Alexis I called Andy. I was overly excited to see him. When he picked up I started to speak.
“Hi, how are you?” I said.
“Good, how about you?” Andy answered.
“Amazing!”
Then we just went back and forth asking each other question for a couple of hours. I told him everything that happened, EVERYTHING. Then we had to depart from each other, but I was still very happy. For the next couple of months Alexis, Andy, and myself called each other every week.
For me adoption meant a new life and new opportunities. This experience help me understand that life could be great if we choose to help others, as my parents helped me to be happy. I hope I get to help someone to be happy like I was then and now. With my friends I am happy that I get to see some of them again but to I still miss Beijing, which still have some of my close friends within it.
