Invasion of the Body Snatchers Blog #12

In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, most of the town starts to notice their friends and family start to seem like they aren't themselves. The little boy fears being alone with his mother because he knows something is terribly wrong with her so he had to spend the night with his grandma. Also, there was that one lady where her uncle became very different. Even though these people couldn't find anything out of the ordinary with their actions, they could notice the lack of warmth and emotions that they usually had. I think that they saw this missing and became afraid that they would become the same way. They didn't even know the cause of this madness until the same thing was happening to them. This movie reminded me of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. In both films, the neighbors feared each other because of the presence of the aliens. In both, the aliens made the humans act abnormally and become suspicious of each other. I agree with this film crossing genre boundaries. I think that it could also be considered a suspense and romance movie. In most of the plot we follow the two main characters as they confide in and fall deeper in love with each other. It also is very nerve wracking so it could be considered as a suspense movie.

Blog #11 -- Random Sample &The King of the Beasts

Random Sample was a little confusing to begin with. I think its about a young girl and how her brother and her saw a spaceship land while playing with some ants. I think she was sent to a psychologist because the adults didn't believe that she saw aliens. It shows that they hardly know nothing about the aliens and how all of this unknown information grows fear inside if them. I thought it was weird how the little girl and her brother started to beat the alien up because it wasn't paying attention to him. The alien only seemed to be interested in the wildlife. I think one underlying message in this short story is that us as humans think that we are completely in control of earth and tend to overpower nature when we should be trying to protect it and let it strive. I thought it was creepy in The King of the Beasts how they were growing clones of different species of animals. It makes me wonder what happened to the human race that made it become extinct. I also wonder what the dominant species is if humans aren't in control. It seems like they fear humans in this short story. I question wether they fear us for what we did or for what little knowledge they might have of us.

Blog #10 -- Planet of the Apes

The theme of Xenophobia appears in the film through the apes fear of the humans. This is also the same for the men who land back on Earth. The apes fear the humans because they were brought up to do so. The higher authority told them to fear the humans because they knew of the destruction that they brought upon themselves that ultimately ruined their society. This gave the apes a chance to evolve and become more advanced. This is why the humans were afraid, because when they left earth it wasn't normal for apes to be so advanced.

Planet of the Apes shows us that no matter how different the society, there is always going to be distinctions within it. There is always going to be people who stand for different things in a society. And people are always going to be discriminated because of their differences. I think that apes and humans were created equal but our mindset doesn't let us get over the little differences that we might have.

I think that Planet of the Apes has a message that sometimes it's alright to follow authority. In the apes' case they did find bliss in ignorance. They were protected from the information by the leaders. I think that the apes should be told of the world that came before theirs. If they were to have this knowledge I believe that they would be able to better understand the humans and maybe prevent another end of the world to happen.

Ender's Game #4

It surprised me that the identity of ender’s siblings wasn’t disclosed to the public. But then as the story progressed, I understood why they weren’t revealed. They were crucial to the war that was happening on earth and they were the some of the only ones strong enough to lead the people. People would feel uneasy if their real age was found out because adults naturally think that they should be smarter than children. I agree with Ender when he was with Valentine and he expressed his worries about defeating the buggers when he doesn’t even know anything about them. I think it’s totally unrealistic to conquer something you can’t understand in the most basic form. I don’t know if the people at the battle school don’t know anything about the buggers or if they are simply filtering all of the information they know away from the kids. I still think that it would have benefited them. I didn’t like how they set up Ender and the commanders in the end and lied about their battles being just a game. In my opinion, I think that Ender could have dealt with the pressure. It surprised me how Ender went back to the tactics he learned during Battle School and used them to win the war with the buggers. I thought it was kind of cool how Ender came to understand the buggers. I think that the government should have put in more effort to understand them so they all didn’t have to die due to people’s fear of them. I wonder where Ender ended up putting the cocoon because it implies that he did find a place to put it.

Enders Game #3

It is very apparent in the beginning of chapter 10 that the Colonel and commander are rushing to get Ender ready for battling with the aliens. They think that the war with the aliens is going downhill. Ender provides to be the only hope they have to win the war. I think that they put unnecessary stress on Ender and the children at the school. They don’t have time to be and act like children. It is unfair to treat them like adults even though they have a higher level of thinking than most of them. This shows again how helpless and afraid they feel because of the presence of the aliens. Ender shows a lot of strong leadership qualities in these two chapters. He takes a group of kids who are inexperienced in battle and leads them to victory in every battle. He becomes a strong and respectable character in order to gain the attention and respect of his soldiers. He gives them high expectations and expects nothing less. And the last quality of a leader he has is understanding. He knows the limit of his soldiers and knows what exactly they are going through. I think Ender showed extreme intelligence when he went through his last battles at the school. The teachers rigged the battles to his disadvantage and yet, he always came out victorious.

Blog #9

In The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, the neighbors getr paranoid about each other being aliens. They go after and put blame on eachother in order to put reassurance within themselves. They don't want to live in fear with people who are close to them like their neighbors. We as humans, usually fear the unknown and different and all of the possibilities that come with it. We live in this fear and let it eat us up until it destroys us and the people whom we surround. I thought it was horrible how all of the neighbors went crazy because they were too xenophobic. There wasn any threatening that people were doing. The power went out and this started the whole chain of events. I really enjoyed this video. I thought it was neat how they showed the aliens in the end and how they were purposely going to every Maple Street to see how the people reacted when the power went out. I didn't expect this ending at all.

To be honest, Muse creeped me out. I find it weird how the slug tapped into his thoughts and conversed with him that way. This story reminded me of a book I read called Host. In both stories the main character has an alien that taps into their thoughts. The only difference is that in Host, the alien controls the persons thoughts completely. I cannot decide weather or not the slug in Muse controls his thoughts completely or if he combines his thoughts with the main characters. We cannont tell because the character wouldn't know if he was being controlled or not. I didn't like how the father didn't accept his son's choice to have the slug with him. It shows that we are afraid of being controlled by the unknown.

Ender's Game #2

In chapters 6-9, the presence of the fantasy game proves to be a reflection of Ender's most personal thoughts and feelings. The giant symbolized Ender's obstacles in school that he needed to overcome in order to perform to his fullest potential. The mirror with the image of his brother in it symbolizes how Ender couldn't get over the fact that he was "murderous" like his older brother. In the game and in his personal life, he decides to "kiss the snake" in other words; accept this part of character and use it to his advantage. In these chapters, we see ender grow as a leader. He manages to use his intelligence to win over his peers. For instance, in one of his first battles he figures how to make it so the laser beam only paralyzes his legs so he is able to shoot at the opposing team to prevent his team from taking a loss. He also assembles a group to practice his combat skills with and has many under and higher classmates join in to be trained by him. It really surprised me when the point of view changed to that of Valentine and Peter's. In my opinion, I think that Peter is using Valentine to get the power to rule earth. In the past he was very power-hungry; there is no way that he is willing to share the power with Valentine.