Today is New Years Eve and it will be 2016. New years is the beginning of a new year. It indicates the start of a new year and we are moving into a new time. In Slaughterhouse Five, the main character Billy goes through these phases of time. Billy has no control over time and can travel to the past and future. Time is very important to us since we have such a short time to live and we do not have the option to travel through time. However the Tralfamadorians do not care about time and time is not very important to them.
Billy finds comfort in knowing that that time is predetermined and unchangeable and there is no freewill. The tralfamadorian faith tries to make Billy feel like everything he has gone through, no matter how awful could not of changed. I wish we could change time and determine what happens to our lives. But I also like not knowing what is going to happen. Everything happens for a reason and that is how the world goes on and that is how everyone has lived for over the years.

November Monthly Blog

Where do these traditions come from in different cultures? Who decides that the society as a whole will do these things they are told to do? Most of the abnormal traditions began when they were passed down by word of mouth, so they could of been changed as they have been passed down. Normally these traditions are passed down from parents to children and so on. Or a higher power tells their people that they must do this from now on. For example, the Callatians ate their dead fathers. What did they gain by doing that? A higher power must of told them that they will gain something spiritually if they did. But then the Greeks began the tradition of cremation which is still going on today. Nobody eats their dead fathers that I know of. As a society we are forced to believe and act out these traditions we are told.Another example is the shape of the earth. Some societies believe the earth is flat, however our society and other societies believe it is round. Our society knows it is round because we have have seen it when people went to space. The people that believe the earth is flat might not be able to go to space so they are going off from what they were told and what they know. If I was not told that the earth was round I would think it is flat because the ground is flat. Our society has more advantages than other societies. Societies should not judge other societies on their beliefs, weather they are good or bad. This is what they were taught and they don't know any better. They could think what our society is doing is wrong. I feel this argument is a contradiction because Hitler obviously did not like Jews since he killed 6 million of them. He learned from somewhere that Jews were bad people and believed that. Now we can't say Hitler is a bad person if that is his belief of is it different because the Nazis are not a society? I think that there should be a line drawn on what is cultural and what is personal.

In the poem Beowulf, there is the main conflict good v. evil. Readers ask what is good? Or what is evil? I think everyone is good and everyone has good intentions but does that make them a hero? Holding the door open for someone is a good deed but you are not a hero. People are not born evil but something inside of them turns them evil or society provokes them. In Beowulf, Beowulf has this super strength and is a good fighter and is able to defeat predators that try to harm his people. Beowulf is viewed as a hero by his people because he defeated Grendel who is viewed as evil. But does Beowulf have the characteristics of a hero? In Spiderman, Spiderman is a hero because he saves everyone from crimes in the city.  Peter Parker is viewed as a nerd and most people will not expect him to be a hero. When Peter got his powers he wanted to help the city after seeing his uncle die. Peter did not do it for himself. I think Beowulf fought these battles because he liked the glory and attention. Those are not good characteristics of a hero.
However, Grendel is described as a "fiend out of hell" but only because he eats people. But everyone has to eat, I eat chicken and cheeseburgers so does that make me evil to chickens and cows? I do not think we can call someone evil based on their lifestyle. When we read Grendel in class I felt sorry for Grendel because Grendel wanted to be friends with everyone but all they saw was a monster and did not accept him for who he is. People who make their main goal in life to hurt people are evil. For example, Hitler was an evil person and it's scary that someone has those intentions and hated a religion that much. But one of the issues in the world right now is shootings at colleges. The shooters are not evil but they were good people that might have a mental issue or were corrupted by society and had enough. Evil is a strong word to describe someone as but I think society is evil. Society has so many expectations that it's hard for everyone to fit in and that makes them go crazy. There is still good and there is evil and I think there is a little in all of us.