Caleb's Blog

 The more I read about the Bishop the more of a better person he seems. He is constantly putting other people first and traveling around to help guide different villages and districts. It must be pretty tiring having to travel so much, especially with such little possessions. I do like the part at the end of the chapter where it says he is so persuasive and good at what he does because he actually believes it himself. And a big part of why he can believe it is because he travels so much and can actually see the difference between the good and the bad with his own eyes. It's kind of a reminder that if you want to be good at something, you have to the whole job well and not just pick and choose what parts you want to do because they build off each other.

 1. What made M. Myriel completely change his life around and become the Bishop.  2.Why does the Bishop give up so much even though he doesn't have to? 

After reading chapter 2, I was reminded to not assume things about people without talking to them first. I was reminded of this because M. Myriel is clearly a selfless person. First trades his home to a hospital so that they have more room for their patients. Then we find out that he only keeps 1,000 francs out of 15000. That means he gave up a little over 93 percent of his salary! And even after all that people still assumed he was greedy and in it just for himself. However, it doesn't really matter what those people thought because when he the money he asked for, he gave it all away. I think this chapter really shows how important it is to remember that you might not know the full story and to not just assume things about people.

 So, after reading the first chapter I find that I am pretty interested in the book. It was a little difficult at times to understand but that was kind of expected. I do want to know more specifics about what happened to M. Myriel in Italy and why he decided to become a priest. Like we talked about in class, it kind of reminded me of Richard Cory because they both had almost everything, but then tragedy struck. Overall, I'm excited to keep reading the book and see what comes next.

So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of  Les Misérables  cannot fail to be of use.    I take the preface of Les Misérables to mean that there are unfair laws and customs that are inherently evil but is promoted by the people. These laws and customs create extreme hardships for many people in society and they pretend that these hardships are based on things out of our control such as fate. These hardships can be summed up into 3 main

 

1. One symbol that I encounter a lot is my favorite sports teams logo, the Dodgers. Another symbol that I have come across is the bald eagle, which is obviously a symbol for America. The last symbol that I want to mention coming across is the cross, which is a symbol in Christianity. 2.One possible meaning of the green light at the end of Daisy's dock in The Great Gatsby   is that green means go, so he should go for it and try to win Daisy over. It could also represent money, in the sense that he needs money to win Daisy's heart. 3.Some way's people are similar to animals are that we sleep, eat, mate, and die. 4.One major way people are different than animals is that we share ideas with each other. Other animals aren't able to do that in the way that we can. 5.Telling stories and inventing symbols urges people to organize in large meaning by giving them a shared purpose. Take for example, your favorite sports team's symbol. You can go to a sports game and tell whos

 

    We have all herd someone in an argument say, "Well I have the right to my opinion." Heck, even I have used it. However, this saying is actually hindering our learning for not just us, but the next generation of people too. Arguing and giving up the "right" to our  opinions can save our lives, our country, and secure the future for the next generation by helping us recognize any harmful ideas that might be wrong, building unity between the people, and getting to focus our energy on actually making other problems that we are facing.     The first way that giving up the "right" to our opinions can save us as a society is because it gets rid of any ideas that are damaging to us. If we argue with an intent to learn, and give up our right to believe what we want, then it really helps move society along. A huge example of this is inequality. People use to think (and some still do) that based on your gender or race that you were only good for certain things. N

    1. What has been the hardest part of starting school during the pandemic? The most challenging part of starting school during the pandemic is having to sit in front of the computer screen and just listen to the lesson for an hour. Though I don't have to do that for all my classes, I do have a couple where we just listen to the teacher just talk for 50 +minutes. That gets really boring very quickly, especially since their isn't as much group work to break up the time. 2. What have you enjoyed the most about starting school during the pandemic? The most enjoyable part of starting school in a pandemic has been the flexibility. It is really nice to have a day where I can sleep in and work on whatever I want at my own pace. And since most assignments aren't do until the next week I an organize my schedule a lot easier  and plan what I'm gonna work on for the day. 3. What are your goals in this course this year? What do you want to learn or get better at? One of my goals

 My first week of school I learned how to set up a blog and the way to get better at my writing skills is to just write more. The more I write the more comfortable I feel doing it and that would naturally lead to me getting better at it. The experience was pretty different from learning on campus. I find that speaking up in class or volunteering is a little more intimidating than when we were on campus. Also, breakout rooms are kind of awkward because we don't really have time to adjust or warm up to the new groups either. However, it is nice to be able to work and study at my own pace when we don't have zoom meetings. I can spend the day working on the assignments I want and take breaks whenever I want. With all the flexibility though, it can become very easy to procrastinate so that'll be something more challenging for me this year too.