UNIT 2

UNIT 2 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How do historical events and race influence our indentity?

Historical events and race deeply influence our identity by shaping how we view ourselves and how society perceives us. Major events like colonization, slavery, migration, and civil rights movements leave lasting legacies that affect the memory and cultural heritage of racial groups. These histories influence pride, solidarity, and resistance within communities. Race, as a social construct, also determines how individuals are categorized and treated, impacting their experiences of privilege or oppression. People from marginalized racial backgrounds often develop strong cultural identities as a form of resistance to discrimination, while those from dominant racial groups may not be fully aware of the advantages their race affords. Additionally, race intersects with other factors like gender and class, creating unique experiences of identity. Ultimately, both historical events and racial categorization shape how individuals navigate the world, fostering resilience, solidarity, and sometimes conflict.

SHORT STORIES - MORAL DILEMMA

A Vendetta

"A Vendetta" displays a story where a widow had to suffer the death of her son due to a murder, and she overcomes that by avenging her son through revenge of killing her son's murderer. In my opinion, this was my favourite story, whether it came in terms of atmosphere, moral dilemma or just characterization in general. Although I already grasped the meaning of revenge, avengeness and retribution, I feel like this story let me see the more powerful, in-depth meaning of it when it comes to enhancing characterization and moral dilemmas. But what I truly love most, is that the author did not fully display the widow's inner feelings through her actions, but through her dog's actions - that the dog was the true widow doing actions that expressed her anger, virtue and spitefulness.

The Lottery

The Lottery in my opinion, is a great story that truly shows the powerful meaning of the moral dillemma that people will blindly follow a tradition without belief, and do whatever it takes to keep it. Where although the people in this village acknowledge that this tradition where someone must die every year solely because of a piece of paper, they still continue this tradition believing that it is necessary to community for survival. In my opinion, this story was a great read, because the build-up to the unexpected ending is so good, bringing up feelings of nervousness and tenseness to a great ending that let me understand the willingness that people have for a tradition.

Button, button

The short story 'Button, Button' by Richard Matheson tells the story of a couple, Norma and Arthur Lewis, who receive a mysterious box from a stranger named Mr. Steward. Inside the box is a button, and Mr. Steward explains that if they press the button, they will receive $50,000, but someone they don't know will die. Where the autho displays a story to the readers about the moral dilemma The story's central theme is morality versus personal gain. Norma is tempted by the money, but Arthur is conflicted about the consequences of pushing the button. I personally did not find this story so fun to read but I did find the moral dilemma very meaningful and the build up plus the atmosphere in the story really compliments, contributes the mysteriousness of the button and the lesson.

THE EXPERIMENTS

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment reveals the power of situational factors in influencing behavior. Conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971, it showed how ordinary individuals could become abusive or submissive based on the roles assigned to them in a simulated prison environment. The "guards" became abusive, while the "prisoners" experienced extreme stress and helplessness, highlighting how authority and power dynamics shape behavior. From this experiment, I've learned how easily social roles can distort personal values and lead to harmful actions. It serves as a reminder of the importance of ethical standards and oversight, especially in situations involving power imbalances. Reflecting on it, I recognize the need to be aware of how environments influence our actions and to question harmful systems or authority figures.

The Third Wave Experiment

The Third Wave experiment, conducted by teacher Ron Jones in 1967, demonstrates how easily individuals can be manipulated into conformity and obedience, even when engaging in harmful ideologies. The experiment, intended to teach students about the rise of Nazi Germany, involved creating a fascist-like movement within a classroom. Students adopted authoritarian roles, and the group quickly became aggressive toward outsiders. From this experiment, I've learned how powerful social influence can be, leading individuals to abandon their moral values and follow group norms without questioning them. It also underscores the dangers of unchecked authority and the importance of critical thinking and individual autonomy. Reflecting on it, I realize how susceptible we are to groupthink and the need to resist pressures that compromise ethical decision-making or encourage discrimination.

While researching these experiments, I got to practice with Cornell Notes!

WRITING TASKS

Academic writing task: "How characterization and/or setting drives theme(s)"

"As the story gradually unfolds, the author is able to develop character growth, traits by using the characters widow Saverini, Semillante the dog and Nicolas as well as their actions of insularness, spitefulness, broad - mindness and selfish in order to drive the vivid themes of retribution, vengefulness, and striving for redemption."

For this essay, I was assigned to write an essay on one of the three short stories - where I had to analyse the story "A Vendetta" by using characterization and themes. Throughout the analysis, I discussed about the traits of Widow Saverini, Semiliante the dog, and Nicholas. After the essay, realized how powerful characterization truly is, and although I thought I had a great grasp on the themes and moral dilemma on the story, understanding the traits of each character really does affect and contribute to these elements - where a character's characteristics may make themes sound more meaningful and relatable to each reader's life. That this essay truly got me more interested into similar moral dilemmas like this and I felt that writing this essay got me to reflect on my own actions, beliefs on how powerful revenge can truly be. In general, with the little amount of time I had for this assigment, I believe I did quite well organizing each idea and connecting that to the overall themes of retribution, revenge and character development, and coming to a strong conclusion on my perception of the story. I'm not sure what I could improve in this essay, but I feel as if I could have got more in depth on the meaning of the story and furthermore connect the themes to personal anecdotes, other than that, I should be more careful in the future since I completely forgot to add a title, deducting a point (29/30).

Overview

Transactional writing task: Persuasive speech writing on morality.

"I urge all of you to consider the evidences to support my view, and join me in the belief that we are born with a clean state, with inherently good intentions and it is our environment, our moral desires and our experiences the mold this evil behaviour."

For this essay/speech, my job was to write a speech on the general topic "What makes good people do bad things" along with the subtopic "Are humans born morally good or evil?", including examples from short stories learnt, experiments and anecdotes from my personal life that could contribute to my main claim. Personally, it was my first time writing a academic speech, especially in a free - form structure, I was a bit befuddled with what to do, organize and add, therefore it was a long, thoughtful process on deciding what specifically to add in this assigment. Especially in the end, when I had to present my speech, sadly, since it was my first time and that I was afraid of crowds, I ended up crying a few times and postponing my speech to do it in a more private environment, but I'm glad that in the end, I ended up doing quite well. From my perspective, my speech highlighted my strengths within public speech - my loud, proud, confident voice, how I can change between slow and fast rythms, and especially stopping at certain sentences to get my audience's attention. Other than my delivery, I belive the information in my essay was very persuasive and that I was able to use many persuasive techniques. To improve, although I had a rough start to this speech, after finally doing it, I feel like I gained more confidence and experience, so therefore I think I could do just as well as this time, or maybe even being more persuasive, and trying to not rush myself so much due to nervousness. Other than that, I noticed because my friends were watching, I ended up laughing between some moments, so therefore, next time I will try my best to focus on only my speech and deliver my best performance.

Overview

GROUP WORKS, CLASS DISCUSSIONS, WORK

Genuinely, throughout this Unit, groupwork did not go out so well. This Unit, we all got mixed up into random groups along with group leaders. Although I was glad that I got to cooperate and talk to new members, I feel like my group members did not really cooperate with me - as they only talked Vietnamese and kept on talking about other topics. Of course, as the group leader, my job is to lead the group and make sure we all do work, but honestly, I did get carried away at times and I was mostly doing work myself. I will definitely not blame any of them for this but I can truly say that I could have tried better to cooperate with them and get them to do work as well. To improve our discussions, it would be best if I came up with questions about the topic in the lesson and ask each member for their opinions and personal ideas and along with that, giving them feedback and reflecting on it with my own ideas. Improving group work skills and attitude involves a combination of self-awareness, effective communication, and fostering a collaborative mindset. By developing these skills and adopting a cooperative attitude, I can significantly improve both me personal contribution to group work and the overall success of the team. In conclusion, it was a great experience to form my own lesson on group work and in the future, I hope I get to work with newer, more different people.

Taught, Inherited Altruism

Practice for Viper Questions

Planning for Informal Speeh

GENERAL UNIT 2 REFLECTION

Unit 2 went well for me overall. I really enjoyed learning about morality and how ethical dilemmas shape human behavior. The short stories were engaging as they brought the moral concepts to life, making abstract ideas more relatable. Researching the experiments was fascinating, especially understanding the psychology behind moral decisions, like in the Stanford prison and Milgram’s obedience studies. Writing the essay allowed me to dive deeper into moral theories, and I felt confident in my ability to organize and present my ideas clearly. Performing the speech was a bit challenging, but it was rewarding to express my thoughts publicly and work on my communication skills. What went well was my ability to balance the different assignments and keep up with deadlines. I also gained valuable insights from the research and used them effectively in my writing. Other than that I really enjoyed all the things I've learnt in this Unit - that I achieved a better grasp on humans, society and myself. To improve in Unit 3, I could work on time management, especially in the research phase, to ensure I have enough time to refine my ideas. I’d also like more opportunities for practical application of moral theories in real-life scenarios. For success, I need clear instructions and timely feedback to help me refine my work. Regular practice in public speaking would also boost my confidence.

Contact me at parveen.jahangir.18228@wellspringsaigon.edu.vn

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