Learning from a Child

“All right, then, I'll go to hell.” 
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1835605-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn

Huck Finn is not a reliable narrator in the slightest bit. He has many holes in his story, and his morals are still developing. Yet, when we hear about attempts people have made to try and civilize him, they have failed. He believes that no prayer will be answered from him due to all of his past actions. You can take away that in the south, many morals are skewed in society. It seems to be very different from northern morals. So when he is faced with a decision to save Jim or to run away, he saves Jim because they are friends and he would not want to let him down. This makes Huck believe he will go to Hell. When you help anybody in dire need, it is praised in society today. As the reader, you learn about the morals Huck has forced upon him in society. He teaches an important lesson about not conforming to social norms and breaking away from popular beliefs to do what is right in human nature.

Huck knows that he did the right thing when Jim thanks him and he feels good about saving his friend, he ignores to social norms around him and does the action he believes is correct. You need to break out of social norms to make a change. At first, people will not accept that you did this action, but as time goes by, it will become the new social norm. The first step into making a change is by going against what others believe, and Huck makes this change in his "adventure" with Jim. Although he may believe it was wrong at first, it was the beginning of something bigger to come.

America in Rock Music

Many bands in America have an album or a couple of songs that have some reference or lyrics that talk about America. For instance "Eye of the Beholder" by Metallica talks about freedom of speech and freedom of choice. The pre-chorus says, "Doesn't matter what you see, Or into it what you read, You can do it your own way, If it's done just how I say". It brings up the question of how much freedom and liberty we have, and how the two are defined. "But as the expanding use of ''freedom'' makes every policy and program a part of the national mission, ''liberty'' has receded from the patriotic vocabulary." (Nunberg). Although the song is around 15 years older than the article mentioned, it still puts into question how liberty and freedom are taken away for certain situations of national security. "One" is another song in the album, it does not mention liberty or freedom, but rather a song that relates to "Johnny Got His Gun", a movie about a soldier injured in World War I. The song talks about Joe Bonham, an amputee that has lost all of his limbs and sight and is left trapped inside his mind. It shows the horrors of war, and the question of fighting for freedom and liberty can be brought up again. To what extent does fighting go too far, and how does it damage everybody that tries and participate in it to help a country with unclear and fading beliefs? Our liberty and freedom are changing with the new age in technology, how much of it will stay and be defined, and how much of it will be gotten rid of to try and "protect" the people of the nation?

Rage Against the Machine was a band that had very political lyrics about the government, and police brutality. They have strong lyrics that show "rage" against the "the Machine", or government and police forces. "Killing in the Name of" by Rage Against the Machine is one of their most popular songs, and their chorus is "Those who died are justified, For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites, You justify those that died, By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites" this talks about police brutality, and how it is unfair and unjustifiable. System of a down is another political rock ban that has many great hits. In their song "Toxicity" the chorus is "You!, What do you own the world, How do you own disorder, disorder" talking about how some countries think the world is theirs, and they can do whatever they want. American sometimes fits into this role, and it shows how our freedom can lead to becoming overconfident.

These bands either mainly focus on politics are have other songs/albums that talk about America. All of these songs have interesting points on how the government works, and it is a good way to start a protest and try and help the government become better.

Sources
https://genius.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/weekinreview/nation-freedom-vs-liberty-more-than-just-another-word-for-nothing-left-lose.html

The Horrors of False Confession

People can break like a pencil. Too much pressure and they will break in half. So when someone is being tortured verbally for something they did not do, they might confess to doing that action. People break under pressure and will try to get away from the source of pressure. It is a basic human response.  Psychological scientist and lead researcher Julia Shaw of the University of Bedfordshire in the UK did a study on interrogations and she said, "Our findings show that false memories of committing crime with police contact can be surprisingly easy to generate, and can have all the same kinds of complex details as real memories,". So when under intense interrogation, someone might confess to doing the action they were accused of. Why? Because it is a basic human action of "Fight or Flight", and they chose "Flight", or confessing falsely due to the interrogation techniques they might have used in this situation.

In "The Crucible", you can see examples of people falsely confessing in being apart of the witch situation that is occurring in Salem. The people in the town of Salem are scared of the situation, and when any blame is put on them, they try to push it off to someone else. So when Hale comes in to help solve the situation, his interrogation techniques make the people of Salem sometimes falsely confess. It can be a scary thing because your livelihood and your life itself are at stake. But some will crack under the pressure, and they will hope that with God they can be pure again, even though they did nothing wrong and their faith is still strong. It is a scary thing, and all of this fear is spreading throughout Salem and its people. It makes all the people question, "Do I have a part in this?". This situation can be serious in today's world too. That's why there are many horrors in false confessions and can be a very big problem in bringing justice to those that are actually guilty.

Source: https://americanvision.org/14201/study-on-false-confessions-shocker-why-the-innocent-should-not-talk-to-police/

"UP" with Exploration and Down with Columbus

If you have not seen the Disney Pixar movie "UP", I feel bad for you. If you have played the video game and fought a monster that wasn't even in the movie, I feel for you, but that is not what this is about. Every Pixar movie has some meaning or lesson behind all the lines of the script and scenes that were so carefully animated. There is still something inside us that wants to explore the unknown or find new things that have not been seen before. Christopher Columbus in the late 1400's did this type of exploration and helped other to give them the strength to go and explore too. Hence, why Columbus day is still partially celebrated today. In elementary school, we were taught that he found America first, and he persevered through the rough times of trying to get a ship and funding to do his exploration. We were taught that he was a good man who tried and helps the people around him when he first came to land. But no, that is not how it really goes, now that we are older we can now be taught that he really wasn't a good person. People still cannot believe that "Somehow, the 15th-century Italian explorer still got his own national holiday. But more cities and states are scrapping Columbus Day to honor the people who were here first -- and who suffered greatly after Columbus' arrival." (Yan 3-5). But through all the bad, there is still a base argument that Columbus day is still good. If we don't explore, we will only perceive what is in front of us at that time. People thought polio would cripple America, but someone explored medicine and found a way to vaccinate it. Exploration allows us to create new things and learn how things work. Without exploration, where would we be now? Going back to "UP", the message behind the movie is "Adventure is out there!" spoken by Charles Muntz in the movie. When Carl goes on this adventure with Russell, he finds a part of him that he lost long ago, and came back with a lesson that he had forgotten long ago. Exploration in the real world helps us better ourselves. Exploration is a very important day, and I feel that Columbus day should be about exploration, and not Columbus himself. Because when you think of it, when was the last time you tried to do something and it didn't work. Did you give up, or explore new ways to find a solution to your problem?

Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/08/us/columbus-day-vs-indigenous-peoples-day/index.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/quotes