I felt a funeral in my brain: TPCASTT Analysis

TITLE: This poem actually lacks a title, like all of Emily Dickinson's poems. Readers refer to the first line of this poem when giving it a name. The funeral that Dickinson seems to be discussing is her "death"; she is losing herself.
PARAPHRASE: This poem describes Dickinson's downfall. She can feel her initial plunge into darkness and outlines how the "mourners" bring her down past return.
CONNOTATION: As detailed previously, Dickinson refers to the "funeral" as the death of her character. She associates herself with "some strange Race" meaning that she has alienated herself from the rest of society. She talks about the "Plank in Reason" that broke and she fell to her demise; when I think of planks, I think of old wooden boards that aren't very sturdy and are the bridge to one's end once jumped off of.
ATTITUDE: It initially appeared to me that the author was pitying herself and then began losing her mind more and more as the poem continued. The character appeared a bit confused and helpless throughout the transition while as the reader, I was become more and more afraid about what was going to unveil.
SHIFT: A shift occurs during the line that states, "And then I heard them lift a Box..." as before this line, things continued to intensify and this line provided a shift towards her ultimate downfall.
TITLE REVISITED: I now think that the title is referring to the funeral of her sanity. Things in her mind keep escalating beyond her control until she "...Finished knowing..." and the Mourners finished invading her brain.
THEME: The theme of this poem is that your inner demons will consume you if you allow them to. She gave the Mourners the power to tread through her brain, which ultimately caused her downward spiral into insanity.

TOBERMORY EXPLAINED

TONE: The last line of this short story seemed very sarcastic to me, but obviously Clovis felt that it was the truth on some levels. It appeared a very odd way to end the story as everything else was incredibly serious, but this line had a taste of humor. It made me realize how funny it was that I had taken a short story about a cat that spoke bluntly so seriously and it reminded me of the way I should have been feeling during my read.

THEME: In some situations, ignorance is not always bliss. If Appin would have learned the first time that his experiment had essentially failed, he would not have attempted to correct his errors and try again. Eliciting the English language from a cat's mouth was considered a success to him, but he failed to see the big picture. Animals do not have emotions or any cognitive sense like humans do, thus eliminating any type of filter when speaking. The harsh realities exposed through Tobermony's words were too much for the people of his time to handle, thus making his removal necessary. They were satisfied with the discovery of the cat's corpse and did not think twice about empathizing with Appin's later dilemma with the elephant. His failure to recognize his social surroundings resulted in the last line of this short story. He ignored everything that had nothing to do with his attempts at finding another pupil, ultimately causing a death seemingly deserving and accepted by society. 

SEEKING MENTOR

When selecting a mentor, I have a lot of questions because it could be a potential lifetime friendship. I would ask them what kind of connections they had and the amount of experience they had in their area of expertise. It would also be important if they were successful, but have a great personality as well. I would want someone who is caring and invested in my professional growth, but able to give me criticism or a pat on the back when the time comes. I want them to be able to tell me the truth and share a similar value system in both leadership and management. It would be great if they were in the same business area as well as creative, honest, empathetic, and authentic. Business people are very intimidating to me, so approaching one and asking this type of favor and these types of questions kind of scares me. 

Brave New World Essay

Everybody likes to blame society for the cruelness in the world, but the harsh reality is that we are society. Without our opinions and biases, there would be no standard of perfection. The sad part is that all of us crave, on some level, to be accepted by the society we have all created and deeply resent. What's even worse is that people will go to any extent to receive this admission of the societal elites. Brave New World is centered around society and the fact that it is easier to be a part of society and sacrifice your individuality in the pursuit of social acceptance, instead of being labeled as an outcast. Aldous Huxley was very successful in demonstrating this through Bernard Marx's outward conformity while questioning himself inwardly, in order to maintain some of his original characteristics that made him who he was. 

In order to be an outcast, one must first identify the social perfections they should be striving for. The World State has attempted to take the human out of all their citizens, especially their emotions. Bernard Marx actually represented everything that they tried to remove when creating the humans, as seen through his relationship with Lenina as well as his encounters with jealousy and lovesickness. Even though he is an alpha plus, he does not act like one because he was essentially a mistake. As a result of his smaller frame, he is extremely shy and suffers from the fact that he is seen as less than ideal by society simply because of his height. He lacks self-esteem because he cannot get women as easy as the other alphas and their mockery of his failures make him feel like a complete outsider. Bernard was granted a gift through his status as an alpha plus, but his lack of height compared to those with an identical status, paved a path full of obstacles for him. He accepted the fact that he was not created the same as the other alphas, but always seemed to question why. As a result of his individuality, jokes were generated about him and he was socially exiled, making life much more difficult for him.

Fortunately for Bernard, everything changed for him after he visited the Reservation and discovered John. After this, he took advantage of his newly attained status to indulge in the activities previously impossible for him. He publicly criticized things such as sex, but craved them personally, which is apparent after his new found fame. It was easier for him to despise such activities because they were unachievable to him and this view was expected of him because of his outsider status, but he longed for them inwardly. He essentially wanted to be the very thing that he criticized. Hemoltz and John pity him because they know that Bernard is trapped in a body inadequate for their society but reject giving him respect as he refuses to recognize his own errors. It is just more simple for Bernard to go along with the new and perfect lifestyle he now lives than to question his participation in the very activities he once castigated. He plainly exhibits that he is in fact a hypocrite by maintaining his harsh critiques of the World State while being an active participant in its optimal society. Once Bernard was finally accepted by others, his life simplified as he became one of them. His days of being an outsider disappeared, along with his unique identity, but his judgments remained.

Bernard's exclusive position allowed him to both criticize and acknowledge the blemishes of the World State's supposed perfect complexion. He was able to learn that human emotions only allotted space for tragedy in the world he was living in, which is why they tried to suppress them and Bernard was dealt a difficult life because he was able to access them. Growing up as an outcast only made the elitists appear more despicable to Bernard, but when granted an invitation to their lavish lifestyle, he did not refuse because it was the clearest thing to do. While living in their own world, Bernard was able to maintain his negative thoughts about them while engaging in their activities because his originality separated him from the majority and he was not going to risk exile again. Even though Bernard was able to conform to the society he was living in, he still questioned his actions because it was simpler for him to be a part of their world than embrace his individuality if he wished to be granted social acceptance. 

Huxley Interview Essay

According to Aldous Huxley, we are indeed living in the Brave New World. The standard of living in third world countries has slowly been increasing thanks to technological advances, which is causing overpopulation. In Brave New World, they were able to synthetically create 96 humans where only one would have been biologically produced in nature, suggesting a high chance for overpopulation to take place. Another result of technological advances includes "overorganization", which is quite apparent and essential to this book that we are reading. Humans are able to be more efficient in every aspect of their lives because everything is assigned and organized so specifically. We have developed the television, which is as neurologically engaging as staring at a blank wall, and it distracts people too much, according to Huxley.. This could be suggesting that they are distracted from thinking outside of the box since all of the information is given to them without any effort on their part, much like the setting in Huxley's book. Aldous Huxley proclaims that technological devices are our enemies because of all the negative by-products associated with their consumption. He also stated that modern technology is misused since previous technology was neutral and could be used variably. All of these statements voiced by Huxley in his interview strongly suggest that we are in fact, living in the Brave New World as all of these real-life occurrences mirror what happens in his novel.