Metacognition: Jane Eyre Mash-Up Project

The first day Mr. Allen introduced the idea of having a "mash-up" based assignment to test our understanding of Jane Eyre, I was confused. What's a mash-up? How can that show our understanding of a book? Questions flooded into my head as to how this would actually end up working out, especially since I was quite unfamiliar with the concept of a "mash-up". As Mr. Allen explained it further though, the idea began to grow on me. It seemed kinda cool...and different. The idea of creatively putting together a bunch of seemingly random sources and creating this unique, binding result sounded different from anything I had ever done. And not having to actually write anything of your own seemed like a relief- but also a challenge.

As Nour and I got started on our project [our topic being "Love"], the whole "mash up" concept really became appealing to me. The whole concept of linking together the ideas and insights we gained from Jane Eyre with a plethora of other sources was effective for my understanding of Jane Eyre, and was fun too. Instead of just having to stick inside the text and be trapped in the confines of ONLY Jane Eyre, I was able to broaden my thinking and take it to a whole new level. The linking process forced my brain to constantly search for connections. This enabled me to remember many useful concepts I had learned from previous years in different classes and in everyday life- stuff that was really worth remembering, but was hidden in my brain, waiting to be re-looked at. I was able to connect Jane Eyre to things that I couldn't believe I even remembered...it was just really cool to see how much a theme from a classical book could resonate and mesh with sources from all over.

Additionally, this mash-up project opened the doors for great collaboration. It was really interesting and entertaining working with Nour, thinking out loud together to try to work out possible sources for the mash-up as well as the "line-up" for the project. Putting our background knowledge together, we were really able to come up with great results for the mash-up project!

Though I thought that I would face a fair amount of obstacles with this project- both mentally and time-wise- there were very few. There were, certainly, moments where Nour and I had trouble putting the puzzle pieces together and really figuring out what we wanted the mash-up to signify and how we wanted it to be put together, but the rest came easily. Finding sources was relatively painless- with all of our background knowledge, it wasn't too hard coming up with connections to "love". And overall, I'm very happy with our result and with the whole "mash-up" technique. I found it to be a very unique and effective way to challenge my brain and make meaningful and lasting conclusions about Jane Eyre.

360 Degrees: "The Son of Man"

This painting, "The Son of Man" was painted by Rene Magritte in 1964. At first glance, many would think this painting is purely simplistic- one of those "random" paintings that has unexplainable qualities. Just a painting you look at and then forget about.

But if you take a look at this long enough, there is actually plenty to be examined and thought about. Yes, many of these aspects will most likely be left unanswered, but I definitely would say that this painting should not be overlooked!

Magritte used a very interesting technique behind this, I think. She uses simple concepts and presents them somewhat clearly in the painting itself. Not every aspect will pop out at you, but if you look close enough, they're right there in front of you. The peculiar thing though, is that these concepts don't have a specific meaning or purpose. Many of these aspects will make you think "Why is this here? What is the significance?" That is why I love this painting. It's composed of little details that really make the painting the way it is. It looks simple, but once you examine it, every little aspect of the painting gives it's own, unique insight on the poem.

Right off the bat, I notice several things. Most clearly placed is the apple in the middle of this man's face. This is quite bizarre. Why is that apple there? Why is the apple green [not red]? Is it floating there? Or is the man biting on it? Why is the man's eye peeking out? Why is he staring blankly? Does he not see the apple?

Also, I notice that this man is standing very rigidly. His hands are right at his sides, his hat is perfectly centered, and his tie is centered and tightly tied. But if you look closely at his jacket [unfortunately it is almost impossible to see on this photograph I posted], you will see that only two of his suit jacket buttons have been buttoned. One button is unbuttoned. If he is so rigid and proper, why hasn't he buttoned all of the buttons?

Then, I took a look at the background. I would think that the background would be the most overlooked, since the man is really the most obvious subject. There is a lot to be seen in the background though. For example, we see that he is standing by an ocean. He is separated by a stone threshold. What kind of body of water is it? An ocean? A pond? And look at the sky. Is there a storm brewing? Do these things connect to how this man is feeling?

Those are just some questions/observations that come to mind when I look at this painting. What I love though, is that those are not the only ones. This painting, though seemingly simple, is actually jam-packed with twists, insights, and hidden details!

360 Degrees: Vegetarianism

Should I be eating meat or should I not? That is a question that has been on my mind lately. I've struggled through the guilt of eating meat for several years now, trying to figure out if it's better to just...give it up.

For me personally, meat has never been something I've loved. Sure there are some things that contain meat that I would say I like, but for the most part, I really don't like it that much. I've given up meat several times throughout my life, many of those times being for Lent [or events/reasons like that]. Not eating meat was great in the short run- I never felt guilty about supporting the killing of animals and I actually physically felt better. But I was never really able to stick with it.

On this last Late Arrival Day morning, I turned on the TV and ran into a special Oprah was doing about slaughterhouses and the methods [many labeled by these slaughterhouses as 'humane'] used to kill these animals for consumption. At one point, Oprah's TV crew went into an actual slaughterhouse and filmed parts of process. They were not able to film the actual killing of the animals because that was too graphic but they showed much of the rest of the process: the cows being led through tight, winding conveyor belts, essentially, to their deaths, handling the bloody animals, etc. Additionally, the crew interviewed the workers at the slaughterhouse, who described how the cows were killed: essentially, they shot a metal rod into the cow's head, which dislocated it from the body. Then, the body gets reeled over to be handled by the workers.

Honestly, I don't think anyone who would have watched this episode would leave feeling good about eating meat. For me personally, I started to think about where the meat I was eating came from. Was it from a slaughterhouse like this? Did the animal die unhappy? What were the conditions in which it was raised in? All of these questions started flooding into my mind and I figured that I had most certainly eaten meat [many times, at that] from animals mistreated as badly as I saw in Oprah's show.

So why do people eat meat? We obviously know why vegetarians don't eat meat: no guilt of killing an animal, not enjoying the taste of it, to be pushed to eat healthy fruits and vegetables, etc. But there are so many more meat-eaters than vegetarians out there. So what is it? Well first off- meat is convenient. It's easy protein and it's everywhere. Also, you can do so much with it [cooking-wise, that it]. Even further, though it is not necessarily healthy, meat does possess certain health qualities that you can't obtain through vegetables or meat substitutes. As we can see, there are benefits to eating meat...and that's why so many people eat it!

Do the pros outweigh the cons, though? Should we keep slaughtering animals like this? Is it justifiable? I don't know the answer to those questions. I feel like it depends on the person. Some say that eating meat is natural- that we're just part of the food chain and there's nothing wrong with it. I mean, I know animals die, that's inevitable. But is it necessarily to kill so many animals to eat them? Personally, I don't think so. I'm convinced that if I would give up meat, I could live a healthy life and have a good diet that doesn't lack any important nutrients. I'm just not sure if I can look at a piece of meat the same way again and feel good about eating it.

That said, the question of whether or not it's good to eat meat is rather complex. As we've seen, there are pros and cons to both. And I suppose it's up to the person to decide what is more important to them. I don't think the world will ever become a place where humans don't eat meat- it's too popular and too convenient. But I also think many people don't know the actual horrors of how the meat they eat is produced. I feel like if people had watched what I had watched, they would not be able to eat meat without feeling guilty or disgusted. For me, I'm going to learn how I can live a healthy life without eating meat and hopefully, once I've got a good understanding about it, I will be able to become a vegetarian for good.