the literature and investigate its dichotomies: apathy and compassion and life and death. At the same time, readers must be aware that while authors generally have experiences or beliefs that influence their writing, the impressionistic style of fiction writing allows readers “to form his or her own ideas as to what the writer is trying to convey as opposed to the writer telling outright how he or she sees and feels about a subject.” (Thompson) As such, readers analyze the above two dichotomies to argue the existence of hope for humanity, and come to realize that Conrad does not attempt to prescribe his view, but instead, he stimulates the…
I’m extremely annoyed with the general apathy my generation expresses. None of our days are guaranteed; time is a gift. Each day we experience holds a weight and our daily decisions reflect how we regard this weight. Too many people are content with letting their days go to waste with the assumption that their future holds something greater than the present. However, if you don’t make use of the present, you should not expect much to change in the future. Yet, it seems like people are more…
Jeannette: “How old do you think?” Robbie: “About seventeen”. The dialogue introduces the way in which Robbie treats Jeannette throughout the bar scene, as more of a helpless plaything than an individual with the ability to make her own decisions. This is exemplified here, from the very beginning of their conversation, when Robbie decides Jeannette’s age as whatever best suits his needs instead of waiting for a real answer. Rex’s continued disinterest throughout the scene only adds to the…
According to Merriam-Webster, apathy is the feeling of not having much emotion or interest. People in general tend to have a lot of emotions ranging from joy, sadness, anger, and fear. These emotions are on a constant view to the world around them with facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Although, love is one of the strongest emotions felt by any human on this planet, with its passion everyone craves to just have a glimpse of the euphoric feeling of being in love. Though, some…
Apathy has been a contributing factor impacting the economics of disasters. According to Dr. Aud der Heide to understand apathy in relation to disasters one needs know how it can influence, circumvented and the limitations it imposes (Aud der Heide, 1989). While apathy was part of human nature, to understand apathy emergency professionals would use the knowledge to help identify reasons behind apathy and minimize the impact upon their mitigation and disaster preparedness goals. To expect…
How Can Literature Change the World? Moral apathy refers to the lack of interest, feeling, concern and the total indifference towards doing what is right. Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is a deeply poignant and candid account of an autobiographical nature regarding his survival during the Holocaust. Rachael Carson’s “Silent Spring” exposed the hazardous effects of DDT, a commonly used pesticide on the natural world. Her work sparked a lot of debate and resulted in a modern environmental movement. Her…
Imagine sitting on a train. An individual typically would conjure up a variety of images, a cozy cabin with a cushioned booth and a table to eat the lavish meal the gracious waters served, or possibly less upscale but still comfortable, each person receiving his or her own seat, separate and spacious. Now with this image in mind, imagine a child starting to cry. The typical person would consider the child’s parents; they should comfort him or her. The crying continues and no one aids the lost…
People are altruistic when helping is profitable. In chapter 3: “Unbelievable Stories About Apathy and Altruism” of their book SuperFreakonomics (2009), Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner state that people are not pure altruistic. (125) Furthermore, people are altruistic when there are beneficial incentives for them. On my high school’s Hallowmas back in China, some students have booths for selling things. One friend who wanted to sell lottery tickets asked me for help because he didn’t have…
Apathy It is claimed by some biologists that a frog can be placed in lukewarm water in a shallow open container, leaving it the option of easily jumping out, and the water can be slowly heated until the frog is cooked to death. It will not jump out to save its life because the gradual process lulls the frog into a state of deadly apathy until it’s too late. To the frog, the warm water felt good. It didn’t seem to be a threat. But as time unfolded, it brought death. In the same way, many people…
In the current education system only 40% of high schoolers actually feel engaged in school(Institute of Play). This leads to cases of apathy within students as they progress throughout their day at school, and possibly into their jobs as seen in another statistic that only 30% of adults feel engaged in their workplace; however, organizations such as the Institute of Play and Quest to Learn are hard at work to solve the problem of the “crisis of disengagement”. Apathy in the education system…