Innocence

 Author's Note- This is my essay on Life of Pi for Lang. Arts class.  I tried to work on making my conclusion and introduction strong.  Please comment!

Innocence.  Naiveté, guiltlessness, ingenuity.  Those are qualities of young children living in fantasy land or of people who have never done something unspeakably horrid, something that fills them with heart-wrenching guilt.  Something that you're not proud of, and would take back in a heartbeat.  To lose those qualities is like losing a part of yourself, that part of you that still hopes, still wishes and dreams, still has a positive outlook.  In the award-winning novel, entitled Life of Pi, Pi Patel starts off as an innocent, curious boy, finding his religion.  But at the age of sixteen, Pi loses that part of himself; he loses his soft innocence.

Pi doesn't lose his innocence all at once, or at a set time or date.  A string of events slowly strip the innocence from him, but the last event finalizes it and takes away the very last shreds of hope and ingénue.  The first happens after Richard Parker and Pi are the only ones left on the boat, and Pi starts fishing.  Pi goes from crying hysterically over "the muffled death of a flying fish" to "gleefully bludgeoning a dorado with a  hatchet".  His first bit of innocence is lost there, as he kills the flying fish, then the rainbow-colored dorado.  His actions majorly contradicted his beliefs on murder and vegetarianism. They were his first kills, and once they were gone, it couldn't be undone. 

The second event where Pi lost his innocence was when he killed his first turtle.  He had killed and eaten raw fish before, but killing the turtle was symbolic for Pi. In the Hindu beliefs, turtles are extremely sacred animals, because Hindus believe their shell represents heaven and their underside represents earth.  So basically, a turtle is an animal whose magic unites heaven and earth.  Their religion also has a legend that earth is supported by four elephants standing on a giant turtle.  Another reason turtles are important to Hindus is that they believe turtles are also the second incarnation of the powerful god Vishnu.  So by killing the turtle, he is also symbolically killing his religion and his god.  Another example of how he killed his religion at sea is that in Part II of the book, when he's out at sea, Pi doesn't mention religion nearly as much as he does he does in Part I and III.  This is because he starts to lose faith and hope, and instead of practicing religion, survival instincts take over.

There are a few other parts where Pi's innocence is torn, but the climactic moment, the event that finalized it, was the death of the blind man.  When the blind man dies, Pi describes it as "killing a part of [himself] that will never come back to life."  That part of him was his innocence.  By eating some of the dried strips of his flesh, Pi has lowered himself all the way down to cannibalism.  That is an act that will surely destroy his innocence and greatly harm his beliefs.  Not only is he eating meat, but the meat of his own kind. 

Pi talks about religion throughout Part I, but he loses touch with God and Vishnu in the second, and walks away scarred, but wiser and much more knowledgeable about religion than he ever had been.  He does end up getting his religion back, but on his journey, he lost something he will never get back.  His innocence.

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Skip Bathing This Week

*Author's Note- Yesterday, I was surfing the web, and I came across a website that was just a bunch of top five lists- top ten movies to see this summer, top ten reasons to buy an iPhone, top ten healthy but yummy foods, and so on. So I decided I wanted to make a few of my own top ten lists...except I wanted them to be devil's advocate top ten lists. A devil's advocate is a person arguing about something they don't necessarily agree to, just for the sake of the argument. So, here's my first list.

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Skip Bathing This Week:

1. Showering and bathing take up time.
I know for a fact that most people like to take drawn-out, time-consuming, relaxing showers. Ten, fifteen, even twenty or thirty minute showers! Then another five minutes or so to get dried off and dressed. Depending on the amount of hair the person has, it takes a person anywhere between 1-20 minutes to dry their hair. So, in total, it could take 16-55 minutes to take their shower or bath! That's 16-55 minutes you could've spent sleeping, or practicing your free throw, playing instruments, or memorizing lines for the school play. It's precious time that you could've used up doing that homework assignment due four days ago, watching last night's episode of Glee, or playing Mario Kart on your Wii. You could've even been helping your community by donating food to the local food pantry or volunteering at the animal shelter or soup kitchen. Heck, even if doing something nice like that doesn't give you the satisfying feeling of knowing you've helped someone, it'll look good on your college résumé. So in the long run, not showering can help get you into a better college.

2. Water is a precious natural resource we must preserve.
Already, our planet is running out of water. 1 of every 6 people in the world (about one billion people) don't have clean, drinkable water, or even remotely clean water to bathe in. If we keep it up this way, with everybody showering and bathing every day for half an hour, the numbers of people with clean water will keep dwindling, until only the richest in the world have drinkable water. Are we really going to be this selfish, and take away the lives of the poor thirsty children in Africa when they run out of water, all to accommodate our own petty relaxation and cleanliness needs?

3. Being clean is an act of conformity.
Many people only shower because it is required of them to be clean to be accepted by a clique, or a girlfriend/boyfriend, or even family. Because they think that nobody would want to be friends with them if their dirty and stinky all the time. But shouldn't true friends and family not judge you by how you smell or look, but by your personality? Shouldn't they care about you even if your hair is greasy or your feet stink, or you smell like a garbage can just threw up on you? Real friends should stick with you no matter how bad you reek.

4. Showers can be very dangerous places.
Most people don't realize this, but if you think about it, showers and bathtubs are two places where there are many different ways to become injured or, in worse case scenarios, die. Think about it. When you're bathing or showering after a long, stressful or physically demanding day, hot water and steam can be very therapeutic and relaxing, and could potentially make a person extremely drowsy. If one were to fall asleep in the shower, they would slip and fall, possibly knocking their head and passing out. If one were to fall asleep in the bathtub, they could easily drown. It's happened many times before, especially if the tub is full and children in it are unsupervised. Also, you could get cut by a razor if someone left it on the floor of the shower or accidentally dropped it into a full bathtub. If you pour in too much bubble bath, the bubbles could multiply until they filled the bathroom, and you can't find the way out. While shampooing or conditioning, you could get soap in your eye and be unable to see where you are going, and run into something and fall, or at least stub your toe. There are endless possibilities to get injured or killed while bathing or showering.

5. The Psycho Shower Scene...

I'm sure you've heard of the movie Psycho, filmed in the 1960's. One of the main scenes in the movie is where one of the characters, whose name is Marion, is violently stabbed to death in the shower. After seeing this movie, many people avoided showering and bathing for weeks, months even, because the scene terrified them. The actress that played the victim now only showers when absolutely necessary, and locks all the doors and windows in her house every time she does. Although the movie is fiction, if you think about it, a shower is possibly one of the best places to murder someone (though I would highly advise against murder). The person is completely vulnerable. First off, they're naked. They have no armor or clothing even to protect themselves. Second, they can barely see the rest of the bathroom, if at all! There's steam everywhere, and most people have an opaque shower curtain, so you couldn't see someone sneaking up even if you were looking. Third, unless you're a really, really paranoid person that keeps weapons in the shower, the only item you have for self defense is a bar of soap. Pretty reassuring, right? Also, the floor would be slippery and wet, making it hard to stand your ground or escape. So, although it is highly unlikely you will ever be attacked in the shower, that's one of the places you'll be the most vulnerable.

6. Energy cannot be taken for granted.
Energy needs to be conserved, not wasted. Every time we take a hot, steamy shower, we're using up priceless energy to keep our water warm, and burning fossil fuels that emit deadly toxins into the air. We're trashing our earth and polluting our atmosphere. Fossil fuels are non-renewable sources, because they take millions of years to form, and they're being used up much faster than they're being made. If people use them up on material things like showers, there won't be much left. And even if you don't care about your environment, another reason for conserving energy is its cost. Energy bills are getting higher and higher these days, so when you take showers, you're not just wasting energy, but money as well.

7. Frequent showers and baths can strip your skin of its natural oils and dry it out.
Every time you take a shower, you're rinsing away your skin's natural oils that keep your skin nice and moisturized. And not just your skin, your hair as well. Your only supposed to wash your hair every other day or it can get very dull and dry. If you shower all the time, every day, your skin is going to start looking like my dad's old wallet, all wrinkly and scaly. You'll get itchy and your skin may even form red bumps. Skin doctors even say you shouldn't shower as often. This is even more common in the winter, when the cold, dry weather wicks away any moisture your body has. Keep your skin healthy and avoid the showers!

8. Chlorine in your shower is very dangerous.
Chlorine is a chemical used to purify drinking water to make sure it's clean. It's also used for bathing water. But a recent study has shown how dangerous that is. When you shower or bathe, chemicals in the water vaporize, releasing poisonous gas. Until you can get a shower filter, you better avoid showering.

"Chlorine is used almost universally in the treatment of public drinking water because of its toxic effects on harmful bacteria and other waterborne, disease-caring organisms. But there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that chlorine in drinking water may actually pose greater long term dangers than those for which it was used to eliminate.

These effects of chlorine may result in either ingestion or absorption through the skin. Scientific studies have linked chlorine and chlorination by-products to cancer of the bladder, liver, stomach, rectum, and colon, as well as heart disease, The presence of chlorine in water may also contribute to the formation of chloramines in the water, which can cause taste and odor problems. “Since chlorine is required by public health regulations to be present in all public drinking water supplies, it is up to the individual to remove it at the point-of-use in the home.”

-Dr. J. M. Prince, M.D.

9. Sweat can be a natural bug repellent.
Sweat and dirt can actually be natural bug repellents if the odor becomes strong enough. In fact, the longer you go without a shower, the more effective the stench is. Bug spray is expensive as well, and taking a jog or doing a few sit-ups then avoiding the shower is free! So by not showering, your improving your physical fitness by doing whatever you want to break a sweat, saving money on insect repellent, and getting mosquito-bite free skin! What a deal!

10. Wet hair can cause sickness and deprive self esteem.
When you shower, you're hair gets wet, obviously. And if you shower before school or work, sometimes you just don't have time to dry it all out! Then you go to school with wet hair, and it gets all frizzy. Then you might get teased and bullied, which just ruins your self esteem. And if it's cold outside, (and in Wisconsin, we only have about six weeks when it isn't) you could get very sick if you leave the house with wet hair. You could get a cold, or a virus and then miss out on homework, and have to race to catch up. If you just don't shower, you'll avoid all that, and get to sleep in later.

Homework: Helpful or Harmful?

Author's Note- This is a piece I wrote for my District Writing Assessment on the harmful affects of homework, and why students shouldn't be given so much of it.

To most students, homework is a part of everyday life.  I know it is for me.  Most students have anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours of it almost every night, especially once they reach middle school and high school.  I want to introduce some points about homework I've found through some research I did and my own personal opinion on it so you can see that although homework has its positives, too much homework is harmful, and can affect our education in a negative way, instead of helping students.

Something that really aggravates me is that even though there are many negative effects of homework that are well known, such as frustration and exhaustion, eyestrain, insomnia, and even loss of desire to learn, many schools and teachers still assign boatloads of worksheets, essays, projects, and fact sheets without giving us time at school to get it done.  Now, I know most of the teachers at ACMS don't do that, but some do, and many more around the country.  So by assigning tons of homework with little work time when they know the affects of it, teachers are setting their pupils up for all of the aforementioned effects, and leading them to failure.

Another thing that bothers me is the lack of free time homework gives me for relaxation, extracurricular activities, and just going outside and shooting hoops or kicking around my soccer ball.  I get home, usually grab a snack, and head up to my room in my little corner to work on my homework.  I'll start doing my homework, but I'll get about halfway through it and then I have to go to my babysitting job, or my soccer practice.  Soccer practice takes up about 3 hours and 15 minutes of my day because its so far away, and when I get home, I have to eat dinner and shower.  By the time I'm done with that, it's late, and I'm still only halfway done with my assignments.  On those days, which is almost every day, I get really stressed out, stay up late doing homework, and don't get enough sleep.  I know that's how a lot of other student's afternoons are, as well.  I honestly don't think I've been outside to just play around and get active on my own time since school started. 

Something else I'd like to point out is that I've heard so many different people talking about how overweight Americans are getting.  I personally think homework is one of the causes of obesity.  When all we have time to do is homework, there's no time to go out and get active and play.  Also, many people eat when they're upset.  To many students, homework is upsetting!  It confuses them and frustrates them, gives them headaches and fatigue.  Many people would turn to comfort food when it gets that stressful.

One of the main things I can't stand about homework is when we get meaningless assignments, though.  It's one of my pet peeves, actually.  How exactly does coloring a worksheet improve my education?  What does cutting up magazines and gluing pictures on a piece of paper have to do with science class?  When I do this fact sheet, am I really thinking about the definition of a peninsula, or mindlessly following directions?  Seriously, what's the point of doing worksheet after worksheet when there's no real content in them, or opportunity to think for myself? 

Another issue with the amount of homework students get is that when they are given more homework than they can handle in the given amount of time, whether it be a class period, a day, or even a week, they rush through their assignments.  They'll just try to finish it as fast as they can so they can move on to the next paper due, or textbook assignment that needs to be finished.  I know this not only from my friends, but from my own experiences.  I have to speed through my science homework, not giving quality answers, just the fastest one I can think of off the top of my head.  Then I'll start my math homework and if I get a weird decimal answer, then all I can say is oh, well, not enough time to fix it, I'll figure it out tomorrow.

Homework can, in some situations, be a show of teacher incompetence as well.  If we just spent a whole hour and ten minutes focusing on a lesson, then the teacher decides to give us homework, it could be their way of saying that they didn't think we understood the lesson or learned it enough, so here's extra practice that we have to finish and turn in.  And if we spend eight hours a day at school already, we shouldn't have to spend another two relearning what we already learned.

Teens need good night's rest as well.  Many people blame the fact that we're so tired on Facebook or texting.  I don't have a Facebook, and I never text past 9PM, and I'm still bone-tired every morning.  It's not from Facebook.  Usually it's from homework that I stayed up until 10:30PM doing.

In my research, I learned something that shocked me at first, but later I realized that it's not all that surprising.  This is an excerpt from a book written by specialists about the negative effects of homework:

"…most parents (as well as many teachers) would be surprised to learn that there's very little proof that homework helps elementary school pupils learn more or have greater academic success.  In fact, as this book will explain, when children are asked to do too much nightly work, just the opposite is found.  And study after study shows that homework is not much more beneficial in middle school, either."

-The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It by Sarah Bennett and Nancy Kalish

Once I thought about it, I realized that in many cases, whenever I did my homework, I never learned anything, just repeated what I was already taught.  That's not really helping me in academic success.  Most homework doesn't help me at all, in fact.

Homework also interferes with family bonding time.  Families all around the country are complaining about how they never get to spend time with their kids, because whenever they aren't working, their kids are holed up in their room studying.  Some people may argue that when parents help with homework, they are bonding by getting involved in their child's education.  In truth, when parents try to help with homework, often times the way they were taught is completely different than what the student was taught, and everyone ends up to confused and frustrated.

Homework not only has negative effects on students and parents, but the environment as well.  We waste more and more energy with every light bulb we have to keep burning and laptop we charge.  We have to chop down our trees for textbooks, pencils, and paper.  We are killing our earth one worksheet at a time. 

All the assignments we've had to do are hard on the students, parents, and environment.  We shouldn't have to go through this on a daily basis.  Homework can be good in moderation, when it's homework that has some real, actual content, but when we are given a ton of worksheets where there's no thought process involved, it just wastes our time.  I hope now you can see that the cons of homework in most cases outweigh the pros, and that homework can be very harmful if we're given too much.