Blog 6: Prison house of Language

                The idea of the Prison-house of Language is when one questions the meaning of the meaning.  It is a debate between the analytical and dialectical understanding.  The meaning of a word can vary, depending on the person and the person’s perception. Let us say that someone in Italy uses the verb “mangiare.” This word means “to eat.” In a different country, it can mean something really different. In Peru, for instance, “mangiare” means to talk bad or gossip about someone. It’s a tough topic to understand, even after reading and rereading books on it. 

Blog 2: response Allegory of the Cave

                The excerpt from the Republic by Plato is a discussion between Socrates and Glaucon.  Socrates shares a story about people who spent their lives chained in a cave. All there life, all they saw were shadows by a light that was cast behind them. A man manages to break free and decides to leave the cave to indulge his curiosity. He wanted to know what was out there.  When he left the cave, his eyes burned since he had never set his eyes on the sun. Outside of the cave there were actual laborers, which ended up being the cause of the shadows. He returns to tell the story, but the people of the cave decided not to believe it. They refused to see the truth and accepted that they were happier living in ignorance. They did not want to get their eyes burned by the sun, nor the truth.  The man who left the cave managed to accept the new reality that he never thought possible, but what I noticed is that he doesn’t seem to notice that there is much more to that. A while back in the cave, his reality along with others, was that the shadows were the only thing that was real.  The people in the cave, on the other hand, refused to accept change. This is simply because change is a scary thing.

The One: Neo and Jesus

The Matrix is an action packed movie combined with massive amounts of symbolism. Although it may not seem clear, there are many allusions from religious history in this movie. The Matrix is an allegory for Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

            Neo has a lot of similarities with Jesus. Morpheus is highly convinced that Neo is the one. He is the one that is supposed to bring salvation to the people who are suffering in the real world: a treacherous world. An important thing to notice about Neo’s name is that Neo is Greek for “New.” This could possibly that he was meant to bring a New World Order. Another thing to notice is that Neo is an anagram for “one.” This would make sense since he is considered to be the one. In the movie, although, he is referred to Neo, his real name is Thomas A. Anderson. His last name is key. “Ander” is Greek for “Man” while “son” still remains as “son.”    This could translate to “Son of Man”, which is something that Jesus was referred to.

            It was prophesized by the oracle that the One would return to save the people by the Oracle. It was also prophesized that the Son of God would return to free the people. The Oracle had told Neo that it seemed like he was waiting for something, like a 2^nd life. This seems to be foreshadowing the fact that Neo gets shot to death but is then resurrected and scares off the Agents. He even took over one of the agent’s body and exploded his insides. This parallels the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a spirit. Jesus didn’t explode any body like Neo, but the fact that Neo was able to enter another entity, whether it be real or not, helps parallel the resurrection.

            Trinity is the symbol for the Holy Trinity. She represents “The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  It is said that one can receive eternal life by the Trinity. This is demonstrated when she declares her love to Neo after he has been shot to death. It was her declaration of love that resurrected him and made him even stronger.  An important symbol to point out is that green is the color of the Holy Trinity. Green is often showed in this movie, especially as the color of the codes for the Matrix.

            Cypher’s character can be easily be compared to Judas. Cypher betrays the Resistance and decides to approach Agent Smith. He decides to sell out the Resistance in exchange for a life of luxury and to continue living in ignorance. Since he found out the truth, he realized and appreciated the fact that some things are better left unsaid. Judas had approached some Priests and traded in Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Some may argue that it also may have been because he thought that Jesus was betraying the country. Even if that was true, it is important to note one thing about both of these: it was destined to happen. Jesus had foreseen the betrayal and if it were not for it, God’s plan would not have been able to play out like it was prophesized. In the Matrix, the Oracle had foreseen that Neo would have to choose between living his life or Morpheus. Were it not for the betrayal, the Oracle’s prophecy would not have been fulfilled and Neo wouldn’t have realized that he was really the one.

            The events in the Matrix parallel the story of Jesus Christ. Besides the points mentioned above, there are little hints here and there. For instance Zion, the hidden city which contained the last free humans, is another name for Jerusalem. The names and actions displayed by each character portray a very modernized version of the messiah.

http://www.matrix-explained.com/symbolism_in_the_matrix.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot

Blog#5: Summary of Allegory of the Cave (The Republic)

     According to the excerpt from The Republic by Plato, knowledge may come with consequences and people would rather be ignorant by sticking with what they know. Plato also states that the idea of good is always last. In this excerpt, Socrates tells a story to Glaucon about men chained in caves. These men were not able to look left or right, only straight. By looking straight ahead, all they were able to see were shadows cast by a fire.

      A man decides to leave the cave and he realizes that the fire was not actually fire, but it was the sun. His eyes were in pain for looking at the sun and became weak. This would be referring to the consequence. Now because of this, the men in the cave will pass on stories as to why no one should ever leave the cave because when they return, they will have lost their eyes. Here the men are now stating that nothing good can come from leaving the cave.

Blog #4: Buying Indulgences was an illusion

            There was a time in history in which the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church had so much power that they were feared by many. People followed the ways of the church in fear that if they didn't, they would burn and suffer in hell. The people would be exposed to painting and carvings of people descending in to hell, in which demons would be pulling them down and the angels would be denying their entrance to heaven.
           For years, the church took advantage of the people to benefit them. The priests would sell indulgences to people. Basically, anyone who wanted to be forgiven by God as quickly as possible would buy their forgiveness. This was an illusion to the people because they were already forgiven to begin with. When a person confesses their sins, they are supposed to be forgiven and they would be to pray A LOT. Priests would say something along the lines of "pray 6 'Our Fathers' and 4 Hail Mary's'," and include a minor punishment for their actions.
           Martin Luther complained about this on a posting of the 95 Thesis, which was a list of complaints against the Catholic Church. He posted it on the doors of a castle church in Germany. He said that the sale of indulgences was more like a financial transition rather than actual penance. A murderer, a thief, or an adulterer should not be able to buy their way out of hell. For all we know, they could do it again and buy their way out AGAIN.
           The church believed in the Treasury of Merit. The belief was that the priests should be rewarded in merits for doing good work. They decided that it was o.k to be rewarded in cash. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, an indulgence is supposed to be a punishment that the sinner owes to God, not to the priest. Priests took advantage of people to solve their financial matters and tainted the meaning of indulgence. Martin Luther asked :
"Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"

          The horrible thing is that people actually believed in buying indulgences. After Martin Luther posted the 95 Thesis, many followed his ways and protested against the catholic church with him. He was excommunicated by the Pope and was condemned an outlaw by the emperor.  By 1526, he started the Protestant Reformation. People converted into the Lutheran Religion, named after Martin Luther himself. He avoided extreme change to the new church to avoid confusing people, but kept the fairness and all other 94 complaints out of the picture.

Info from:
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
http://www.catholic.com/library/Myths_About_Indulgences.asp
http://www.mycatholictradition.com/apologetics-indulgences.html

Blog #3: List of What I Used to Believe In

This is a rather difficult task for me because i still believe in a lot of things from my childhood.

1. I used to think that there were two Michael Jacksons: a black one and a white one. I was watching a documentary about the life of Michael Jackson and it showed his transition. I was really confused and asked my brother about it. He clarified it all for me.

2. I used to think that all of my sister's porcelain dolls and barbie dolls would try to kill me in my sleep. Thank Chuckie for that. I stopped believing this when my sister and I got rid of all her dolls.

3. I though I was 100% peruvian and I found out that I was also part Italian from my father's side. I found out when when I was around 12 years old. My mom was telling my sister and I how she met my father and how she met his relatives. They told her all about the family in Peru and how they were originally from Italy.

4. I didn't know people had fathers until i was 5. My mother and my brothers raised me. It was when I started to go to school that I saw kids being carried by older looking men. I thought that they were siblings as well, but it didn't make sense to me. Why were they all older than my brother? Then I started watching Full House and I noticed that the children only had a Dad, not a mother.

5. I thought I had 5 siblings and it turns out I had a half sister in Peru. I found out when I was 14. My mom thought she had told us but apparently not. At the time, we were planning on visiting Peru and my mom said that we should meet my sister, grandparents, and uncles.

6. I thought that were only 3 episodes of Barney, but it turned out that my brother recorded those episodes so we can watch it on the VCR in our room, which didn't have an antenna. He didn't want my sister and I to watch t.v in the living room so he could watch Baywatch. I actually don't remember how I found out.

7. I thought I could get hypnotized by listening to the Freddie Kreuger's song: "one, two Freddies coming for you." My sister kept telling me that all the kids in the movie singing that song were possessed  by him. I realized that this wasn't true after I consistently tried to get hypnotized.

8. I thought that the song "It's The End of The World" by R.E.M was actually a prophecy or something and that the world was going to end really soon. I did research on the song when I discovered the internet and saw that the song was from the 80's. I've been a fan ever since.

9. I thought that all the music I listened to as a kid was current music. Little did i know i was stuck in the 60's, 70's, 80's, and Nirvana. Every one was else was listening to things i never heard before. I started listening to the radio when I was 9.

Blog 1

There aren’t really many differences when it comes to my private and public self. I don’t tend to get out much to begin with. It’s not because I’m afraid to be accepted or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve never really had friends growing up and I liked it that way. I always noticed how more friends’ means more problems and drama.

            When I’m alone, I just tend to talk out loud to myself just so I can clear my head out. Don’t worry, I don’t talk like what one would consider a maniac nor do I huddle in a corner saying in a hoarse voice “my precious.” I just feel like it’s a good way to let things out of my system. I mostly just rant. These are rants best kept to myself.  And when I feel like I’ve had enough listening to myself talk, I just crank up some music and clean. I like to believe it’s therapeutic. Finally, I like to read. Rousseau once said, “I hate books. It teaches things we know nothing about,” but I like to think that when it comes to books, I don’t feel as alone as I really am. It kills time at least. Another thing I like to do is run around. I run around the house chasing my cat and he chases me back and scratches the life out of me. I enjoy the chasing, not so much the scratching.

            Now, in terms of my public self, people have told me that they believe I’m “with it,” that I’m normally up for anything. I find this to be true because I really am. It’s nice to get out of the house once in a while and breathe the fresh polluted air of my neighborhood.  When I’m with my friends, I say the same things to them that I would say to myself if I were alone. I normally just point out anything that I observe. Sometimes nobody get’s it, but most times people think I’m funny. That’s always a self-esteem booster. I guess the only difference would be is that there are certain things that I observe that I would never reveal. It would be pointless because no one would really understand them, not the people I hang out with anyways. I sometimes think way too maturely for my age. I’ve had the mind of a 36 year old since I was 11. That’s why I guess there are a lot of things I keep to myself.  I think that this one difference prevents problems for me. It’s anything but problematic. If I tell people certain things, then I think people will only get mad because I think too realistically.

            People can sometimes find me pessimistic but if I keep my mouth shut to my friends, then it’ll save people the time from calling me bitchy. Now, one might think then are these people worth being friends with. Well, for now they are. People come and go and that’s something I accepted a long time ago. There is only one person outside of my family that has ever understood me and that is the only person I will ever share my rants with. He’s the one friend that I hold dear to my heart because I know he will laugh when he thinks I’m crazy and then agree. He’s the only friend that has deserved to see my private self. Other than that, I do love my friends, but I know when someone is going to stick with me or not and unfortunately, people only look after him or herself. I understand this but I just wish once in a while people could be altruistic.

Draft for Blog 1

My name is Magaly and this is the draft to my 1st blog. These are just a few lines about myself. I tend to be a little neurotic every now and then, but i tend to manage. I can handle things well under pressure.
What else is there to say about me? I'm one out of 5 siblings, I have a cat, i like cookies and movies.
Sometimes both at the same time if the occasion calls for it.