A collection; a reflection

A collection of things that define my senior year and reflect on who I was and who I am now.

1. " The Kids from Yesterday" 

At the beginning of the school year, we had to vote for the class song, motto, and flower. Pasca and I are both fans of a fantastic and underrated band, My Chemical Romance, and we had decided that their song "The Kids from Yesterday" was the perfect senior anthem and would be a well-deserved class song (listen with the link). And while it didn't win nor make the list of nominations, since punk rock is a trivialized genre that nobody listens to anymore, it was still a song that I held close to my heart throughout my senior year. The lyrics of the first verse go like this:

Well now this could be the last of all the rides we take

So hold on tight and don't look back

We don't care about the message or the rules they make

I'll find you when the sun goes black

This verse represented my view on my senior year as a whole, and my outlook on how I would go about the year. I knew that I would participate in so many 'last's, like my last high school volleyball game, football Friday, and school dance. And while high school was a ride, everything has to end eventually, and I "held on tight and didn't look back" to those moments. I enjoyed them all rather than dwelling on the fact that they would soon come to a close. I was optimistic.

I love the lyric "I'll find you when the sun goes black". One of the most difficult things for me to grasp about high school is that so many of the people that I have relationships with now could be strangers to me in the course of a couple years. I have become accustomed to always seeing the same people, and that change and the inevitability of losing friendships is terrifying to me. With this line, I was comfortable. I thought I knew that when my "sun went black", or when I felt like everything was falling apart, I would always have so many people to lean on. And it turns out, sometimes you're wrong, sometimes you're alone, and sometimes you only have one person that can truly catch you when you fall. And although I found my person and am endlessly grateful for it, I lost many relationships on the way. I was comfortable thinking that certain people would stay close to me forever, but not everything you hope for ends up being your reality. And now, at the end of my senior year, I have realized that a comfortable number of good friends isn't the important part about friendship, it's the ones that stay with you, in the long run, that matter. But I am so incredibly happy about all the wonderful people I had the pleasure of meeting and being friends with, and I will always hold a place in my heart for them, even if they don't for me. 

2. My senior quote fiasco

We had to choose our senior quotes at the beginning of the year, and knowing myself, I was a procrastinator, and although this is an "I was", I still am (and always will be) a procrastinator. I have never been the type of person to have favorites. I never had a favorite color, song, book, movie, or quote. I do in fact have a favorite animal, baby ducks, but that's beside the point. Therefore, picking a quote was difficult, because there isn't one single quote that can encompass everything I want to say in a senior quote. So twenty minutes before the deadline, I picked a random quote by Maya Angelou that I had found a while back, that reads: 

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou

But after submitting it, it always stuck in my head. And now, at the end of senior year, I have realized how much this quote relates to myself and my life. I have been a people-pleaser my entire life. I never really have selfish intentions, and get more upset when bad things happen to other people than when they happen to myself. I always let people take the wins in arguments, whether I agree with them or not, and I am submissive to letting people take control of relationships and situations. I was motivated to do everything I could to help my friends and family, whether or not that meant I was happy. And while I think that is a great way to live my life, it has worn me out to a thread. I get involved in other people's problems just because I feel like it is my duty to resolve it, and I make sacrifices I shouldn't have to make. I have learned to make sure I'm actually taking care of myself like I should be, and while I'm still not great at doing so, the realization is enough for me.

3. Acts 18:9

There is one specific Bible verse that has greatly influenced me, especially in my venture into the IB program. 

"Do not be afraid. Do not be silent. Keep on speaking." Acts 18:9

I was afraid. I grew into someone who is very quiet, conserved, and independent. I would never say what was on my mind and I would never stand up for myself. This was reflected in my minimal involvement in classes, and just isolation in social situations. When entering the IB program, I was really afraid about how these characteristics would affect my success in the program. I thought that I was the wrong fit for the program, but in reality, the program was just the thing I needed. I grew to be comfortable with the people I was surrounded by, and I grew to understand that I shouldn't be afraid to let others in. I can find "comfort in stillness" as my fantastic Physics teacher Mr. Hartman explained in his speech at our honors breakfast just the other day. I have found my strengths and have accepted my weaknesses, and have learned I shouldn't be afraid of using my voice. I keep this quote as my wallpaper as a reminder that I shouldn't be afraid, shouldn't be silent, and that I should say what I need to say when I want to. 

4. 2:00 am

I know I said I don't have favorites earlier, but I'm going to contradict myself. My all-time favorite TV show is How I Met Your Mother. Ted Mosby once said:

"Kids, your grandma always used to say to me, "Nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m.," and she was right. When 2:00 a.m. rolls around, just go to sleep."

But I have to disagree. Inspiration comes at wild times, and during my Junior year, that was mostly after 2 in the morning when I couldn't sleep because my thoughts were too overwhelming to just let them sit. And one night, I decided that the only way to depict how I was feeling was to paint a picture of someone drowning. It may seem very overdramatic (no, it definitely is overdramatic, really weird actually, don't judge me please), but I think drowning is a pretty accurate representation of how I felt on a daily basis. I was drowning in work, drowning in anxiety, and drowning in stress. I stressed about stress before there was even stress to stress about, and then I stressed about stressing over stress that doesn't need to be stressed about. Stress is a weird word when you say it that many times. But with this post-2am painting, I realized that if I was subconsciously painting pictures of people drowning, something had to change. 
Stressing over little things was not worth it. While I may stress about an essay I procrastinated to write that is due tomorrow or a silly fiasco about which prom group to go with, in the long run, it doesn't even matter and is not worth my (many many) tears. I learned from somebody once, I wish I could remember who or what it was, that when faced with a stressful circumstance or dilemma, think whether your decision will still affect you in 5 years. And if not, then it isn't worth tearing yourself apart. So took from this that while painting a picture of someone drowning after 2 am might have not been a good thing, the realization that came from it was a good thing, and the truth that comes out when you're terribly sleep deprived makes Ted Mosby quite wrong.

5. Song of the Open Road 11

Reading Leaves of Grass by Walk Whitman in class was for me the perfect way to end high school. While I never really found "my line" per say, I think I found a poem that really spoke to me.  It goes like this. 

Song of the Open Road 11

Listen! I will be honest with you, 

I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes, 

These are the days that must happen to you: 

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches, 

You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve, 

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart, 

You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you, 

What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting, 

You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you. 

This poem for me really sums up what I have grown to realize throughout my high school experience. I was always hopeful about my future, and I had never really experienced the despondency that comes with critically thinking about yourself and your position in the world. I was unprepared and inexperienced, and the past two years have been very new. This poem represents my realization that some things are inevitable, and not everything in life will be perfect. Things will happen that are not ideal, and it may rip you apart, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But also, some of the things you may want for yourself aren't always the best things for you and don't always turn out ideally. It is a poem that preaches honesty and reality, things that I think are relevant to me, especially on my journey into the void that is my future. 

6. Some of my favorite people in the world, who have made my high school experience better than I could've ever imagined.

I am incredibly grateful for everything and anything my friends have done for me. Thank you, for helping me through terrible days, making me laugh, supporting my decisions, and being there whenever I needed you. You all mean the world to me, and have defined my high school experience more than any of that crap I wrote above. Thank you so much. 

If you read to the end, you're a true homie. 

Sonjaboy, out. 

Reading, thinking, staring, procrastinating, hating, cataloging, then doing the blog post.

When I first look at the pages of Walt Whitman's journal, I notice that it's really scattered and messy. I immediately think that it was a journal where he could quickly jot down notes and ideas that would appear in his head, very unstructured ideas that he could take inspiration from later. I think that the randomness of the journal really reflects his raw ideas and his true beliefs because it's unedited and not meant for the public eye. Also, there are lots of sections that are crossed out showing that he censored his original and raw ideas. Then later in the journal, there are a couple rough sketches of a man in different ways, a harp, and a skull with a pierced heart. On the first couple pages, I notice the word 'religious' and a couple religious references such as 'Christ', 'virtue', and 'eternal' which can connect to how Whitman uses lots of references to God and the power of God in his poems in Leaves of Grass. On that page, a lot of phrases are crossed out and it seems way more unorganized and messy, possibly reflecting his unorganized thoughts and religious beliefs. Another thing I notice on a later page is his usage of question marks, and later a random list of adjectives, or cataloging, all things he uses in his poems in Leaves of Grass, ending the page with "and you", which relates to how he writes for a future audience in Leaves of Grass.  Additionally, the man that he drew several times has a resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, also someone that he writes about earlier in the journal, maybe reflecting his respect for him. The harp could represent his strive for tranquility and equality that he writes about in his poems as well.

One of the first things I notice when reading the notes is how he was planning an imaginary dialogue with Abraham Lincoln. He had never met him or spoken to him, Whitman first saw Lincoln when the president-elect visited New York on his way to the White House, and somewhat stalked him as he often went to his summer cottage. He quite possibly had his journal on these days, and the writing of his dialogue commenced. Another thing I noticed was the importance of religion to him. Whitman’s effort in these notebook pages to reconcile “two religions – platforms” are said to also reflect his thoughts on the political and philosophical divide that was splitting apart his beloved nation supposedly to be based on equality. Beginning on the next page, Whitman turns directly to the disaster confronting the Union, addressing this fragmentary poem to “Libertad.” Whitman wanted to make clear that the ideal of freedom was not limited to the borders of his own nation. Then, the "and you" that I noticed, hang as an uncompleted thought. Was Whitman speaking to “Libertad”? Or to Lincoln himself? Who knows! Whitman also spent much of his time riding on omnibuses and ferryboats, striking up friendships with strangers. “He was burnt out, and drinking a lot,” says the historian and poet Daniel Mark Epstein. I think this could reflect his usage of question marks and cataloging because he needed a fresh start from his normal and tiring routine.

There are so many other things to notice and explore from these journal pages, but its late and I'm finished with this blog post.

Just kidding, I'm extra so I'm going to keep going.

A few pages later, the writing turns into sketches of a man and a harp. I predicted that the doodles were by Whitman himself, but that is very unlikely: according to Alice Birney, who curates the poet’s papers in the manuscript division at the Library of Congress, he never drew or even doodled. Scholars believe that these sketches may have been drawn by one of Whitman’s drinking buddies at Pfaff’s, the famous beer cellar and bohemian haunt on Broadway, just above Bleecker Street.

And now that I look at, it looks nearly exactly like Whitman. As we go on, there is a harp, the emblem of poetry, and then an image of a skull. This may be the most mysterious page in the notebook. The sketch shows a bizarre, grotesque figure with a skull as its head and a heart, pierced by a rapier, as its body. It wears a hat, possibly a colonial-style tricorn, and holds out its hands in a plaintive shrug. Behind it is a vast, flat sea with a rising/setting sun. This could be an allegory of America itself, poised in a strange halfway state, suspended between day and night, life and death. Deep. I know. Oh Whitman, what a guy. 

The American Dream

'The American Dream' immediately makes me think of a little suburban house with a white picket fence, a father with a lousy job that pays the bills, a beautiful wife with three children and a perfect little dog, but it means much more than just that. The American Dream is rooted within the Declaration of Independence, with "all men are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". The Founding Fathers introduced the revolutionary idea that each person's desire to pursue their idea of happiness was not self-indulgence, but a necessary driver of a prosperous society. The essence of 'The American Dream' implies an opportunity for all Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work. No matter your background, social status, wealth, or ethnicity, you can arise and attain your greatest hopes and dreams.

It is a common expression to say that 'money can't buy happiness', while American society is essentially based on the fact that it can. To me, happiness is determined by a focus on more of what really matters, such as creating a meaningful life, contributing to community and society, valuing nature, and spending time with family and friends. But with the romanticization of the 'American Dream', the definition of happiness began to change. Happiness was driven by a greed for wealth, determined by the acquisition of material things, seen clearly in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. American society has essentially romanticized the idea of wealth, and completely flipped the concept of the 'American Dream' put in place by our Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence.

In American society, happiness is completely reliant on wealth. People in poverty are looked down upon, and people with wealth are deemed successful. Success is dependent on how much money you make, what house you can afford to live in, what car you can afford to drive. And that is the 'American Dream'. Having a nice house with a white picket fence, a well-cared for family, a lousy job that pays the bills, and a lovely wife and children with a perfect little dog is living the American Dream, living with ultimate happiness, and that is all reliant on having the amount of wealth to uphold it.

A reflection: who I am now and who I wish to become.
While I could say that I believe money can't buy happiness, you may not believe me. I live in a relatively wealthy family, with three nice cars, three lovely children, and two loving parents in a nice neighborhood, and while I lack the white picket fence, I would say that we live the 'American Dream'. My parents have great jobs and have worked hard to acquire the amount of wealth that they have, and they represent the notion that all Americans can achieve prosperity through hard work. But, that doesn't determine our happiness. I can tell you right now that I am not the happiest person on Earth, and my family isn't either. I hope that the 'American Dream' I am supposedly living in is not the 'American Dream' that means reaching ultimate happiness. Because I still have so much to learn, so many people to meet, so many places to see, and so many things to realize about myself. And that's what determines happiness, not the number in my bank account.

I couldn't chair less about this blog post

Since it is common in current literature for meaning to get blurred and fraudulent interpretations to take flight, how could it not happen even further after the process of translation? So much significant and valuable meaning can be lost in the process of translation. In my Latin class, we majorly analyze this, and we often find that there is meaning behind things like the word structure of lines in Latin that adds another layer of importance to the message, and is completely lost in the process of translation.

In Franz Kafka's German novella Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes to find himself transformed into a large insect. Kafka's work represented a description of the absurd condition, but Kafka failed as an absurd writer because his characters and his work maintain a sense of hope. Each translation offers a different interpretation on his transformation and greatly represents how meaning can be easily lost in translation. 

#1: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

This translation, first of all, has a very contained and neutral tone, with somewhat calm diction such as "awoke one morning' and 'uneasy dreams'. His dreams are 'uneasy' as opposed to horrific or disturbing, words that would make his transformation seem more intense. Additionally, it creates more imagery with the inclusion of the 'bed' for setting and the word 'gigantic' to show his size. The sentence has no pauses and builds suspense to the very end, showing what he transformed into. This sentence blatantly says the actions and the plot but does not show anything about the main character and his feelings about the transformation, and it has a very neutral tone, making me unsure about whether this was very surprising or not at all. This translation also makes the action seem more current and makes the reader feel in the story, with the usage of "As Gregor Samsa awoke... he found...".

#2: Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.

This translation is short, sweet, and quickly gets to the point. It uses the same diction with the 'uneasy dreams' as the first translation, but toward the end, the light diction used in 'changed into a giant bug' makes the transformation seem very underexaggerated. The word 'changed' as opposed to 'transformed' makes it seem like a usual occurrence for him to be 'changing' into this bug. Additionally, 'giant bug' while shows the size of him, has less of an effect on the reader as opposed to 'gigantic insect' in translation 1. The diction is therefore very subdued. Also, the translator does not include the detail that he woke in his bed, leaving less room for imagery, as the setting is not really emphasized. This translation also seems more written and more of a story being told with the usage of the narrative writing. 

#3: When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

This translation has stronger diction than translation 1 and 2, shown by the usage of 'troubled dreams' and 'enormous bug'. I think that the usage of 'troubled' specifies his emotions more strongly, and 'enormous' is a much stronger word to describe his size and makes the situation seem more transformative. The structure is very similar to translation one, as it arranges the words in the same manner, including the topic of transformation at the end, as the other translations do, and including the detail of being in bed. This translation, like translation 2, is written more narratively with lots of past tense, and makes it seem more like a story being told, shown by "When Gregor Samsa awoke... he found he had been...".

#4: One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

Finally, this translation has much stronger diction than the other three, with words like 'agitated dreams' and 'monstrous vermin'. It makes the transformation seem abrupt, unexpected, and horrific. It makes imagery for the reader, with the words 'monstrous vermin' disgusting and making the reader uneasy. Additionally, the sentence has lots of commas and pauses, building suspense for the end of the sentence revealing what had happened. 

Original: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

How does the word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery shift in each affect meaning? Is one more effective than another? Why? What does this exercise bring up about the difficulty of reading translated texts? How do different translations effect the tone of the sentence? 

Each translation is different in their own ways, but all present different interpretations of the story. Translation 1 makes the transformation very non-dramatic with no punctuation and neutral diction which creates less imagery. It presents the transformation as less significant and more a usual occurrence. Translation 2 is similar, as it is simple and gets straight to the point. The casual diction and the short syntax makes the transformation seem even less significant than translation 1 does, and it is a very simple translation, adding no effect to the story and having no effect on the reader. Translation 3 is also similar to translation 1, except the diction is a little more enhanced and makes the transformation seem more enticing and significant to the story. I think translation 4 did a good job of enticing the reader and making the writing fit the context of the occasion. It uses very dramatic diction, creates imagery galore, and uses lots of punctuation to slow down the sentence and add suspense. All of this makes the transformation seem like a large and important occasion, contrasting from the other translations. But personally, I like translation 2 the most because it creates the absurdist idea that life is meaningless and that the transformation to a bug had no great importance to his life. It intrigues me in a different way because the simplicity of the sentence containing such a large concept is interesting. 

I think this brings about the difficulty of reading translated texts because the emotion and the deeper meaning of texts are lost in the process of translating, and these translations perfectly present that idea. The context of the sentence is clearly a dramatic concept, and some sort of emotion must be connected to the transformation of a man to an insect. I think that in the process of translation, the emotion tied to a text may be lost, and in some circumstances, such as this one, emotion may be incredibly important to the context of the story. As we can see, different translations can create a totally different interpretation of a story, and while some can make a transformation to a bug seem like a normal thing, others can make it seem incredibly abnormal just with the usage of things like diction and syntax. We, as the audience of a translated story, don't know if the author meant to make the sentence take an absurdist route or express much drama and emotion over the transformation. Therefore translated texts leave much up to interpretation to the reader, and bring into question whether translated texts can be analyzed if the work doesn't and can't fully encompass the author's intention. 

freebie

Never judge a book by its cover...

I've always been told to never judge a book by its cover.... but let's admit it, we all do it. Judging a book by its cover is inevitable; we are predominately visual creatures. The same way we millennials click on YouTube videos because of the "click-bait" caption, readers get "click-bait"-ed by book covers. A book cover is the entirety of a book's first impression. Different book covers can portray a single book in so many different ways that can create different meanings on the same ideas and can influence different groups of readers to read the same book. Yet, a book cover can make or break a book's success.

Never Let Me Go is a dystopian novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that delves into the human complex behind cloning. The different published book covers for the novel portray the novel in completely different ways, all accurate in their own ways.



One of the first things I notice about each cover is the coloring used. The first cover has very bright colors, and the yellow and blue creates a strong contrast. The second has lots of colors, but they are very subtle, not as strong as the previous one. They compare because of the coloring and maybe insinuate the vibrancy of the story and the main character. This can also be shown by the fact that they both have a large image of the main character, emphasized by the contrasting color of their clothes. These two covers infer a very vibrant and positive story. The other two covers are quite the opposite, they incorporate nothing about a character, and have one very dull color, without anything to create contrast. They create a more negative and derogatory view on the story. The third one especially creates a very alienated mood, and the fourth creates a negative mood on the story.

These two covers are very contrasting in the messages they create and the way they create them.

The first cover portrays a young blonde girl, as the focal point of the image, in a very green area. She has a bright red shirt on, which dramatically contrasts from the completely green background. The contrasting of her clothes shows that she is misplaced in this specific area, and she doesn't belong there. I immediately think of the words "hidden" and "alone" when I see this image. The girl is sitting in a very tense way and is looking to the ground, signifying her loneliness and her deep thought. She seems alienated in a place that is hidden in greenery and forestry. I would believe she is alone in this place, and the image is not from a specific viewpoint.

From this, the surface interpretation of this cover would be that the story would have to do with a girl that escaped from civilization, a civilization quite similar to current day society, by the look of her clothes and her overall presentation. But this doesn't infer anything about the technical aspect of the story, including the cloning and the organ donations. The title, "Never Let Me Go" infers a romantic aspect to the story, and would probably attract readers with interests in more sweet and romantic novels.

The second cover is my personal favorite, I was immediately attracted to this one just because of aesthetic reasons. It has the outline of a body and it's organs created with barbed wire, and a very unevenly sized and placed title, "Never Let Me Go". It has very dark and dull colors and creates a very fatalistic mood. I immediately think of Tim Burton and his eccentric, quirky, and deathly style. The background is a black and white image of a forest, which compares to the previous cover, but it creates a very Harry Potter "Forbidden Forest" vibe, while the previous cover is very calm, bright and beautiful. It also does not have a specific character portrayed, as the simplistic portrayal of the human anatomy applies to humanity as a whole.

While this is a cover for the same book, it creates a completely different feel. It incorporates more of the technical context of the book, including the outline of the organs, inferring a theme that has to do with humans and the anatomy and/or creation of them. The inclusion of the barbed wire, it shows the isolationism theme with the book, and also creates a very dangerous and mysterious mood. A reader who had just picked up this book would likely assume the book had a very negative story about human flaws, which would be pretty accurate.

Overall, don't judge a book by its cover, because the cover, while possibly relating largely to the story, can also be completely irrelevant.

Sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket

Malcom Gladwell: The unheard story of David and Goliath

Malcom Gladwell explores the ancient Biblical story of a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. It is a classic story brought down from generations to generations through the Bible, and it's validity has not often been questioned until quite recently. It has always just been inferred that David was the hero and Goliath the antagonist. Gladwell discusses just the opposite.

Gladwell begins by exploring the story in itself: the motives of each character, their actions and their outcomes. David was just a shepherd who had been protecting his flock from wolves and bears with a sling shot, as many other shepherd's did. Sling-shots were a very common weapon at this time; the speed at which a rock could be projected from a sling-shot is just as fast, if not faster, than a .45 caliber handgun. Crazy stuff. People who handled sling-shots concurrently had fantastic aim, making it a very deadly weapon. Gladwell, in describing the nature of this weapon, shows the inevitability that David would have been able to kill Goliath with the sling-shot. So he questions, why do we call David the underdog?

When exploring the nature of Goliath, Gladwell found that there has been much speculation within the medical community about whether there is something fundamentally wrong with him. His actions and his words imply many things that seem out of the ordinary for a normal human, besides the fact that he is overly tall. In this investigation, it was discovered that it is widely believed that Goliath had a condition called acromegaly, a form of giantism, caused by a tumor on your pituitary gland that causes an overproduction of human growth hormones.

"Why does he move so slowly and have to be escorted down into the valley floor by an attendant? Because he can't make his way on his own. Why is he so strangely oblivious to David that he doesn't understand that David's not going to fight him until the very last moment? Because he can't see him. When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," the phrase "come to me" is a hint also of his vulnerability. Come to me because I can't see you. And then there's, "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" He sees two sticks when David has only one."

Gladwell enhances his credibility and uses ethos and logos by citing many other medical officials that used knowledge of his symptoms to diagnose Goliath with a real condition that would explain all of the factors of the story that caused Goliath to be presented as a monster and an antagonist. In reality, he was simply a normal guy that was unable to fit into the rest of society because of his large figure, and a guy who was physically incapable to act as a normal human could because of a condition he couldn't have prevented. He appeals to his emotional audience using his pathos by presenting this innocence of Goliath, and I've gotta say, he really got me. (I feel so bad for Goliath, poor guy)

The story of David and Goliath is one of the first stories I remember learning being raised in a Catholic family. The thing about Catholicism is that they present these stories to you with complete certainty, and therefore I was taught to believe exactly what I was told. I have always wondered about the certainty of stories like this, and how many things must be inaccurate after being passed down for 3,000 years. The way Gladwell approaches it, is with so much logic about the nitty gritty details of the story, and he presents it in a very persuasive way that doesn't make me question his motives. For example, he describes the specific geographical map of the place in which the story took place and where each person did each action and how it affected the overall story. And he broke down the phrases and actions of Goliath and created theories on them, backed up with logical facts.

Gladwell became obsessed with this story, because its a story he thought he understood so well when in reality he didn't understand it at all. He was so passionate about the idea that knowledge is flexible and what you think you know, may not be right at all. In his conclusion, he says something that I think encompasses his purpose; he states, "Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket."