Compare and Contrast: The Meaning of Life

All people compare and contrast to weigh the pros and cons of a situation and to see the similarities and differences between anything in their lives. In Robert Cohen's essay, "The Meaning of Life," Cohen questions the quality of life for two rhesus monkeys. Canto is 27 years old and Owen is 29 years old. Cohen compares the dietary habits of these two monkeys by showing that Canto has a restricted diet with 30 percent fewer calories than usual and letting Owen eat whatever he wants.

In Cohen’s essay there is more of a focus on the differences between the two monkeys because Owen looks much happier and healthier than Canto, meanwhile Canto is the monkey on a "restricted diet. Cohen explains why this is. The argument of the essay is that even though scientists say, "caloric restriction slows aging in a primate species," the primates who have the caloric restrictions are not happy which results in not having any desire to live. Experiments on monkeys, such as this one, are done so that scientists can compare the monkeys to humans since humans are genetically similar. 

I agree with Cohen’s argument because in order to be happy in life you must live the way you want to. If living a happy life includes eating a cheeseburgers instead of apples then so be it. If a person restricts themselves to only eating certain foods that they don't necessarily like the person will become unhappy. This will not only put a mental toll on a person’s health but also a physical toll. As shown in the essay, Owen, "is a happy camper with a wry smile, every inch the laid-back simian, plump, eyes twinkling, full mouth relaxed, skin glowing, exuding wisdom as if he's just read Kierkegaard and concluded that "Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward." Whereas Canto, "looks drawn, weary, ashen and miserable in his thinness, mouth slightly agape, features pinched, eyes blank, his expression screaming, "Please, no, not another plateful of seeds!" Owen clearly is filled with much more life than Canto. Cohen argues that doing what you want in life will give you a longer life span. Being depressed, like Cohen’s mother was when she passed away, will only shorten your life. I feel that this essay can be summed up into a very popular motto: Live life to the fullest. Everyone only has a short amount of time on this earth so why not live your life the way you want to!

Web of Lies

Stephanie Ericsson categorizes the lies humans tell properly. I think it is human nature to tell lies. We tell them for a number of reasons in which Ericsson listed for her readers. This essay makes you more aware of the lies that we consider very small and insignificant, to lies that are rather quite big, and even to the lies that we trick ourselves into believing.

            Two other types of lies that Ericsson does not mention in her essay are broken promises and plagiarism. A broken promise is when you tell someone you are going to do something when you have no intention of actually doing it. An example of a broken promise would be if I didn't go to a show that my friend is in even though I told her I would be there. I had no intention of actually going to the show, but I just told her I would so she wouldn't feel bad.

Plagiarism is another type of lie. Whenever someone copies another person’s exact words and ideas it is plagiarism. An example of this would be if Suzy decided to copy and paste a paragraph that she got offline into her essay without citing the source. By not citing the paragraph, Suzy is lying that it was all her work.

Ericsson wrote this essay to explain the different types of lies that people of all ages tell in their everyday lives. This essay was published because it makes people think about the lies that they have told all throughout their lives. It also makes them think how they can stop saying those types of lies in the future.

I liked that she gave examples in her essay when describing the different types of lies. The examples she gave in her essay were very relatable. She gave readers’ a better understanding of what each particular category of lies means. I also liked that before each of her explanations, Ericsson quoted a scholar who discussed that type of lie. This gave readers an even better ability to grasp the meaning of the lie.

I disliked that Ericsson did not explain in her essay why people lie in the first place. Ericsson gave many examples of people who have lied. Even though these examples were very helpful in understanding the meaning of the type of lie, it never explained why these people decided to lie and be deceitful from the very beginning. If Ericsson explained this in her essay it would have made it much stronger.  

How in the World Do You Get a Goose Untangled from Tree Vines?

Connors’ essay is titled with a question because throughout the personal narrative, Connors tries to figure out that exact problem. The title grabs the readers’ attention and makes them think how they would get the skunk out of the bottle themselves. Personally, before I read this narrative I didn’t think it was going to actually be about getting a skunk out of a bottle. I thought the title was either a metaphor I had never heard of or was symbolic of an event in the narrative. I was very surprised when the narrative was about getting a skunk out of a bottle. This is definitely a situation that I will probably never have the opportunity to encounter.

Connors writes a process analysis essay about completing such an unlikely task because this is a situation that actually occurred during his life. Sure, people may never encounter a skunk in a bottle, but maybe they will encounter plastic from a pack of soda cans wrapped around a bird’s neck or maybe a boy in the park who’s crying because he lost his mother. Whether it is a person or an animal, readers’ should learn from Connors’ essay to try their best to help others out when they’re in a dangerous situation.

I actually was in a similar type of situation as Robert Connors. I was about thirteen years old and was with two of my friends at Wolfs Pond Park. We were walking around when we saw a goose entangled in vines from a tree. The goose was struggling to get out but he couldn’t get unstuck. We all knew that it would be dangerous as kids to try and get the goose out ourselves so two of us stayed with the goose and the other girl went to get an employee who works for the parks department. The parks department employee called Animal Control to get the goose free. Shortly after, Animal Control came to rescue the goose and was quickly untangled from the vines.

Even though, we did not untangle the goose from the vines ourselves, we still helped the goose get unraveled by getting the parks department employee and Animal Control. People in our society need to look out for each other and help everyone out, including animals. This will make people feel safer if they are in dangerous situations and make the world a better place for all living things.

World Wildlife Fund Advertisement

This ad is sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund. Their goal is to work on the conservation and restoration of the environment. This organization wants to stop the destruction of our environment and improve upon it. The World Wildlife Fund focuses mainly on conserving oceans, coasts, forests, and freshwater ecosystems. They also focus on endangered species, pollution, and climate change.

In this ad, the World Wildlife Fund centers its interest on the forest. The trees of the forest are shaped like human lungs. The picture shows that the lungs are being destroyed, which means that the trees are being burnt down. On the bottom of the ad it says, “Before it’s too late.” This ad is trying to explain to its viewers that they should stop the destruction of the forest before it is too late and there are no longer any forests or animals in our ecosystem. If people continue to destroy the forest it will eventually die along with the animals in the forest, just like a human will die if its lungs are severely damaged.   

This is another example to consider when thinking about how advertising affects us because they are comparing the life of the natural habitat to the life of a human being. It is stating not only to protect the life of the forest but also stating that the life of the forest is equally as important as the life of a human. Even though this is not a product ad, it has a very important statement. Everyone must protect the environment and help the World Wildlife Fund either by donating money or even becoming part of their conservation group. This ad is meant to pull at the heart strings and inspire people to support their cause.

College Students Dealing With Depression

            Steiners thesis states that college students must know what depression is, what causes it, and how they can be helped if they feel as though they have depression. Depression is very serious in today's world more than ever. College students all over the world are stressed from balancing their pressuring academic lives with their social lives, which can be just as stressful. She states that there was a five percent increase in college students who suffer from depression between 2000 and 2005. Steiner feels that with the right knowledge about what depression really is and what you can do to get help that people can approach their depression in a much healthier way rather than suicide.
             Steiner supports her thesis by giving examples of college students who have gone through serious cases of depression which resulted in suicide. She starts off her argument by talking about a college student named Nima Shaterian. Nima seemed like an all around nice and educated boy who did not seem to have any problem to the outside world until he committed suicide. Nima was a college student at the time who attended UC Davis. Nima is unfortunately one of eleven college students who attended UC Davis who committed suicide from 2000 to 2006.  She wants readers' to realize that if they can understand what depression is and what symptoms arise from it that they can help friends and family  who they feel are depressed.
              Steiner then goes onto talk about a sophomore in college at MIT named Elizabeth Shin. Elizabeth was a popular, busy, self-motivated and lively student but unfortunately had suicidal thoughts. She discussed these problems with her friends, roommates, and counselors at the MIT counseling center but no one took serious actions to help her with her depression. Elizabeth committed suicide as well by setting herself on fire. Steiner argues that if she had the proper help from her friends and counselors that this suicide could have been prevented. Steiner tied this issue into her essay by talking about Diana Hill who is a doctoral intern at the UC Davis Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). Hill explains that depression for college students starts in the very beginning. This is because of what I stated earlier on that college students have to juggle all their priorities and usually do not have much help when handling them. Unfortunately, Hill explains that even with the CAPS program it is very hard to reach out to students about the program and to have enough counselors for this program due to their lack of funding. Steiner believes that funding for programs that can help college students with depression must be made into a major priority.
                I believe that Steiner is making very valid points. College students should be aware of what depression is, what causes depression, and how to help people with it. I don't believe that talking to friends is enough when it comes to this issue. College students who do suffer from depression must talk to loved ones and a counselor. Personally, I used to have a friend who suffered from depression. She was a very nice, smart, and kind girl who cared about others. Her parents getting a divorce caused her to go down hill physically and mentally. She gained an outrageous amount of weight, did poorly in school, and broke off ties with many people, including myself. She didn't rely on many people besides those who were very close to her. Her family forced her to go see a psychiatrist and she is now doing much better.
                With the right help anything is possible! Funding for programs like CAPS should be given to every college so that students have an outlet to release their problems and people to turn to when they are in need of serious help. College students need to know that suicide is not the answer. There are people out there who can help them. If college students don't feel comfortable talking to a counselor or a psychiatrist, maybe they would feel better if there was a support group for them to talk about their problems with other students who feel the same way.

Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts

Gerald Graff argues in his article, Hidden Intellectualism, that people in today’s world are better off with street smarts than book smarts because people with street smarts are interested in what is going on in their communities and in the nation rather than just studying on an academic level. Gerald’s thesis states, “…that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are nonintellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and unreal.” Gerald stresses the idea that there is a hidden intellect in all of us whether it is in school or in our community.  Unfortunately, schools do not care about street smarts but only about how smart you are academically. He argues that students would be better writers if they were allowed to write about nonacademic topics that they were interested in.

Gerald Graff supports his argument well by talking about his personal experiences. He tells readers’ that growing up he hated reading books but enjoyed reading sports articles. He then realized that when he was reading sports books and magazines and talking to his friends about sports that he was being an intellectual. He was making arguments, weighing different kinds of evidence, moving between particulars and generalizations, summarizing the views of other, and entering a conversation about ideas. He was able to do this easily because he was interested in what he was discussing. If teachers gave more leeway to what students were allowed to write about then they would become better writers.

I agree with Graff’s argument because we all have hidden talents whether they are academic or outside of school. These talents can open our world to many new experiences that may not involve academics at all. People that have stronger street smarts should be given a chance to get into good schools and programs because in today’s world it can be better to have street smarts than book smarts. I also agree that it is easier to write about a topic you are passionate about than a topic that is uninteresting. When I write about something I am interested in I don’t feel as though writing is a task. It becomes something I enjoy doing rather than something that is unexciting to me. I like the fact that in this writing class, we are all given an opportunity to write about personal experiences and topics that we find fascinating.