I found that the author had a genuine overall dislike of the modern day society. She used examples from a story titles “A Brave New World” and how we are becoming a totalitarian society. The modern world has become more accepting of genetic alteration and also no longer keeps sex a private act, it is all over in the media and on the internet. I personally have never read the story “A Brave New World” but as the author of the article portrays it, the story explains a world with little moral value that seems completely doomed. The author explained some of the “evils” of the modern day clothing that has zippers explaining they allow easy access and even stated they are “the devils lures” (Atwood). I believe that the author was much more trying to put the world in perspective to make people think rather than start an argument about how the world is right or wrong. I agree that there have been lessening amounts of moral values in the modern world as people are becoming more connected with computers/technology rather than other human beings yet we have made great advances at the same time. Overall I do believe the author had good points but it seems like she could have made better connections with more support. 

Videojuegos

In the modern world many children have lost the importance of using their imaginations to have fun at young ages and thrown it into playing video games starting at a very young age. Some parents ignore the rating on games and buy their young child video games with violence and blood much before the child is ready for this kind of game. The modern gaming industry has become a target of people and politicians because people believe that the violence in games have began to cause an overall increase in violence in adolescence.
Video games came into the world to provide an escape to relax and for some to vent their anger in a safe manner. There are many different genres of video games for every kind of person/gamer, however the modern craze is violent games packed full of realism and blood. I personally am a gamer that started playing video games at a very young age and even played my first violent shooter game when I was around the age of 10. I agree that it might not be the best idea for very young children to get their hands on a controller and run around killing people on a video game and it is a very bad idea to let them play online on many of the games like this due to the fact that the game is made for persons of the age of 17 and up. Many people on these games have a very colorful vocabulary and that is something I personally would like to keep my child away from until I deem him/her fit. Video games really started to fly off the shelves around 1995 and the sales quadrupled by 2008, during this time the rate of juvenile murders dropped 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes decreased by 49.3% during these years (“Do Violent”). With such a spike in sales and a drop in violence this alone should be clear that this is not the prime cause of violence in young teens.
Some people who believe that video games should be censored or banned should realize that this will never happen. Many lawsuits have been filed against offensive or overly violent games and in most cases the worst that happens is the rating of the game changes to a higher rating. Many of my friends as well as myself play video games to be able to work together and to just relax, this is what many people would agree with. A 2007 study found that 45% of boys play video games to help get their anger out and another 62% played to help them relax (“Do Violent”). Most of the popular video games have some form of violence or fighting found within the game, including nearly all of the most popular MMO (Massively multiplayer online games) and many of these games have millions of players. I would say that it is something that the modern gamer wants and if others do not like this then do not play them themselves but let others choose this themselves.
I believe that young children should avoid mature rated games until they are ready for such games, it is impossible for a child to buy these games for themselves and once you are able to buy an M rated game you should be of the age that you can tell right from wrong and reality from fantasy. Video games are meant for people to experience thrills, fears, and fantasies from the safety of your own couch, they are not designed to form killers and murderers, this is something someone develops on their own.

Hungry for Opinion

“A Hunger Artist” is a story in which nearly every sentence in the story carries the weight of a symbolic meaning. The main topic of the story is a faster who wishes to be observed by people for his great skill to fast. He starves himself while in a cage to be viewed by people at circus. It seems to be symbolic meaning that he is a prisoner in his own body, being the cage. He wanted to be in the cage for others to admire his great skill yet his hopes did not get met as people were more interested in the animals at the circus.

Later in the story he get replaced in his cage by a lively panther that replaced the lifeless shell of his starving body. This panther is the exact opposition of the hunger artist, the panther is lively and does not care for the recognition of others. However, others seek its attention and it is enjoyed by many. The hunger artist hungered for that sort of attention and recognition.

One of the last main symbolic points in the story is the clock. This clock is representing the draining seconds of the bodily limitations and it makes the hunger artist constantly aware of the fact he will not survive much longer without food and this seems to cause him to realize it once the man at the end of the story tells him to eat. The clock ultimately is mocking the hunger artist in his attempts to fight the need for food. 

Questions 3 The Swimmer

1. The main character, Ned, was a drunkard in the story and constantly asked for drinks as he passed from pool to pool throughout the story. The author constantly adds in refrences to drinking even within the introduction it already mentions that everyone had “drank to much” (Cheever 99). He attempted to get a drink from every house he went to as his life quickly turned into nothing. This story has such an abundent amount of refrences to alchohol so much so that to only name five would be remarkably simple.

2. Ned visits other peoples houses and pool hops all the way back to his own house and I believe this is representing his influince in other peoples lives. He becomes less and less welcome throughout the story until the last house he visits is his Mistresses and she instantly tells him that if he came for money she would not give him any and sent him away. He returned home to go to his own pool only to come the the realization that he lost everything because of his drinking. The storm seems to represent the coming realization that crashes into him at the very end of the story. It is constantly closing in from the very begining of the story and he can not outrun it.

Protection of guns

Concealed carry is a state regulated law that currently most states are accepting. Gun laws do not protect many people because criminals do not follow the laws against carrying a gun so why should people not be allowed to protect themselves with their own guns. I understand some people believe everyone running around with guns could only escalate the amount of violence from people who get into arguments, however there are tests that prevent people who have mental issues. If someone tries to pull out a gun and shoot innocent people that person is much less likely to attempt it knowing that ever other person has the ability to fight back. As stated in the article “Protecting oneself and family is a personal duty and the government should not impede the ability of responsible adults to defend themselves.
Also simply having a concealed firearm can make people feel safer going out at night if they live in the city. I believe that the right to have a concealed weapon would only improve peoples quality of life. An argument against the right is that it could increase the amount of people who would kill themselves with a firearm. This is a ludicrous belief because if someone is over 18 or they have parents who hunt they could easily get a gun to kill themselves anyway.
Quite simply I believe that it should not be an issue to have concealed carry, throughout history people have always carried weapons to defend themselves and now with technology, more precisely guns, criminals or more deadly than ever.

Minimum Wage

Laws for minimum wage have been around to make sure every worker that gives an honest day’s work goes home with an honest pay. The laws for minimum wage allow change to have increases in the amount a business must pay for an hour of work. The hourly wage has been increased every few years since the start of the law in 1938. The current minimum wage for a worker age 16 or higher is 7.25$ per hour. Barack Obama expressed interest in increasing this wage to 9.50$ however he has taken no action to change this.
There are currently employers that pay with cash and often pay under minimum wage, this is often done to younger or out-of-state workers that will take the job because they will most likely not find work in other places. Some employers feel the work done by employees is not worth the minimum wage set forth by the state and government, however I believe any job that requires an employer to hire someone for hour of labor should be worth the set wage. However, if a job gives people the opportunity to often get paid with tips and the average amount they make hourly is over the minimum wage I believe the employer has the right to pay a lower minimum wage as long as the employee is making over the current 7.25$. The current minimum wage has become closer and closer to no longer being able to provide sufficient funds for someone to be over the poverty line of income. Many jobs give few hours to employees making it harder for someone to get enough money to support themselves. I believe Barak Obama should follow through with the claims of increasing minimum wage to allow people to receive proper hourly wages.

Art-icle

The article explained the importance of taking classes that deal with art. It gives examples of grades from both kids who have and kids who have not done well in art classes. The grades reflect the improvements in grades for people who have taken art. I feel there is no direct relation with art and core class grades. If a student understands the concepts of art and excels in art they most likely have an open mind to understand it. I believe art does not allow people to improve core classes simply by taking art. This article had no support other than examples of grades and it repeated the few logical points it made.