Final Project

So, Hemingway was a drunk. But he was on to something, which is more than I can say for myself. I think now I’m more confused than ever, which is the problem with asking yourself too many questions.

I thought that this project was a good way to wrap up the semester because we were able to intertwine all of the major ideas, questions, theories, and philosophies that we have studied since January. And yes, that doesn’t mean we found answers, but I’m starting to think maybe that wasn’t the goal. The type of conversations we got to have, I think are important for all high schoolers to engage in before they become “real people” in the “real world”. It doesn’t mean we need to send ourselves into existential crisis’ over whether we are truly human or not. But the texts we examined also didn’t provide any “answers”. It is now our job to decide how to handle the new questions that we have, and make a positive change on the way to finding the answers.

The first day that we started working on the projects, we decided on a game show, and I thought Family Feud would be the best way to ensure that we maintained some semblance of focus. Splitting up into the groups allowed us to concentrate on one theory and not only thoroughly understand it, but design interaction between the different theories. We were forced to step into the mind of Hemingway and using his principles, respond to conflicting viewpoints from the other stories we read. It also was a productive way to look back on readings and videos from earlier in the semester with fresh eyes. Actually, not so much “fresh”. Maybe seasoned is a better word. When I watched Man for the third time, I came to entirely different conclusions and made new observations. It occurred to me that the Man is in isolation for the whole video – all other life forms are destroyed at his hands. We always talk about seeking isolation from others and finding peace that way, but maybe we are already isolated as a species and that is why it’s so difficult for us to cut ourselves off yet again. We feel that there is nothing else out there which will accept us. Even an instance of camping alone: bugs and plants killed off by our insect repellent, fishes choked by the plastic from our water bottles, sunscreen intruding on the most intimate sections of nature.

I wanted to annotate a critique of Hemingway because as any famed author, he is a controversial figure. He has a clear inclination towards men and paints a misogynistic view of nature, sometimes defining it as a place where men can grow and achieve higher levels of manlihood. He is also known for anti-Semitism and racism. So that’s difficult to move past. But focusing on the analysis of his writing style allowed me to understand his work more – the short and abrupt sentences make the reader feel like they have to do all the work, and when annotating the Stoppard critique (a man who knew Hemingway personally), I realized that instead of looking for subtext, it’s more productive to look at his own personal prequel. Hemingway predicted the eternal and irresolvable conflict between technology, progress, and peace, foreseeing that we have passed the point of no return and now find ourselves unable to fully commit to a lifestyle without the daily intrusion of man-made equipment. Even Chris McCandless lost his life in a bus.

My own participation in this project included annotating two in-class texts, one outside source, coming up with our questions for the script, and answering questions from the other groups.