I-Search Questions

Question: Should designer babies be allowed?

Sub-questions: Is it ethical?

Would designer babies "improve", or better our society? 

Would this concept be disrupting natural birth and genetics?

How does genetic engineering work?

Will this option be open to everyone?

Why use the designer baby method?

Who started this concept?

 Should everyone be allowed to use this concept?

possible sources:

http://prospect.org/article/praise-designer-babies

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57606098/

http://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ethics-designer-babies

I-Search Research Paper Topic

I would like to do my paper on "designer babies," which is the term used to define the act of selecting  a child's physical qualities through genetic engineering. This topic is really amazing to me because I am very interested in genetics and how it works and the fact that a couple could choose how they would like their baby to look is absolutely incredible. I think this topic is very controversial in that some people agree that it's a great idea, but others are completely against it. My question would revolve around whether or not designer babies should be allowed.

Why Mice?

Art Spiegelman chose to draw Jews as mice when he first worked on a comic with fellow comic-writers called, "Funny Animals." I think this is where he learned that animals could be used to convey strong messages, just as well as drawing humans, or perhaps, animals do a better job of it. He read, "The External Jew," while doing research for his book and found that it portrayed Jews in a ghetto, and compared it to a picture of mice/rats in a sewer, with the caption, "Jews are rats." Here, Spiegelman decided that he really liked the use of mice as a metaphor because of how dehumanizing the thought is, just like what Jews really went through during the Holocaust. He also chose mice because they are gassed with the same chemical that Jews were in gas chambers. Additionally, he chose to draw Nazis as cats because of the obvious cats-chasing-mice scenario. He originally planned to make the cats very large in comparison the small mice, but decided against it for it would bring up another metaphor for discussion, of mice, or Jews, being weak and defenseless. He wanted to equalize them biologically, but not through power.

Maus Prologue

What is going on in that short Prologue? Why include that at the beginning of this book? 

A short prologue is included the beginning of Maus, which describes a scene where a younger Art is running with his friends, but falls. His friends don't wait up for him, even though he calls after them. Art runs to Vladek and tells him what happened, but Vladek only responds by saying, "Friends? Your friends? If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week... then you could see what it is, friends!" This scene clearly demonstrates the weak father/son relationship that Vladek and Art have. Art looked to his father for condolence and sympathy, but all he got was a little lesson on something Vladek learned in the Holocaust. This shows how deeply Vladek was affected by this horrible event and how it impacted how Vladek treats his son. This was included to introduce Vladek and Art, and how they act together, as well as to show how the Holocaust influenced the Spiegelman family.

Prisoner on the Hell Planet

"Prisoner on the Hell Planet," is a little bit more intense than Maus. Both Maus and "Prisoner on the Hell Planet,"are dark and disturbing, but "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," has a way of cutting down to the most personal, heartbreaking reality of Art's life. He writes about when he was released from a mental hospital, only to hear that his mother had slit her wrists and OD'd on pills. Art's father, Vladek, had found her. The doctors told Art his mother had committed suicide. Art recalls the last time he saw Anja She came into Art's room and asked if he still loved her, to which he replied, "Sure." Art was affected by this so deeply, feeling that he would always have to live with the guilt of being part of the reason his mother had taken her own life. He says at the end of the comic, "You murdered me mommy, and you left me here to take the rap." This line is so powerful. It gives the reader a stronger sense of Anja and Art's relationship.

"Prisoner on the Hell Planet," and Maus are also different in that Art draws characters in Maus as mice, but in "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," as people.

Single Stories

1. Do you have single story? Discuss why or why not. 

I believe that it may appear that I have a single story, just like anyone else. On a first impression, people will learn that I'm Lexi. I'm fifteen years old, a sophomore at Lake Forest Academy. I have a big family of six brothers, two parents, and a dog named Moose. I have lots of freckles. I love to play field hockey. I have blondish hair and greenish eyes. I have lots of scars and I like sarcasm and laughing a lot too. This may be the single story someone takes of me the first time they meet me. That's fair enough, because how are you supposed to know someone in depth, know all their stories, after being with them for less than an hour. Hearing that I live in Lake Bluff, and that I attend LFA, may allow people to believe that I'm a snobby, rich kid. Learning that I'm fifteen may allow people to think that I'm an immature teenager who only cares about herself. But those things are not true, because I do have more than one story. I have many, many stories. People will always judge you the first time they meet you, that's human nature. They will find out something about you, and store it in their brain as a memory of you. They will look at you, find stereotypes and ways to remember you, to decide whether or not they like you. They will look at you and see one story. But I don't believe that anyone has one single story. People come from all different places, have all different families and all different names. My name is Alexandra; Lexi is just a nickname. I'm not just a snobby, rich kid because I actually have an appreciation of the things I've been blessed with, and snobby is not in my nature. I can be immature at times, but I know when it's time to be serious and when it's okay not to be. I am more than stereotypes, and I have more than one, single story.

2. Does America have a single story? Discuss why or why not.
 Just like I am judged as a teenage girl, America is judged as a country. American stereotypes can include materialism, obesity, arrogance, racialism, oblivion, and many more. But not all of America is like that. Some may be, but America is built out of many stories. It can sometimes be easier to claim one thing about an entire country, rather than look at all the individual pieces. America has many, many, many, many stories, but other countries may see America as one story, due to stereotypes. 

Civil Peace

The title of the story, Civil Peace was chosen by the author in order to make a statement about what life is like after a Civil War, which reflects the story in itself. According to merriamwebster.com, civil means "of relating to citizens." Peace is what technically should come after a war. The fight is over, now there can be peace again. But, that has proven to never be the case. There is often a very slow climb until peace is reached once again. So civil peace should really mean, peace of the citizens. This statement is fairly ironic because there is not really peace among all the citizens in the story (note the thieves at the end who take Jonathan's money.) Although Jonathan's friends who greet him by saying, "happy survival," seem to be at peace with one another, there is still not total civil peace in the whole country. I believe this title was selected to make a point about peace after war.

The Great Gatspy & And Then There Were None

I truly enjoyed these two stories, The Great Gatsby and And Then There Were None because I do not pick my favorite novels based on genres like "horror," or "comedy," or "romance." But books become my favorite because of the material that they contain that sticks with me. Basically, if a story has a message that I will remember for the rest of my life, it goes to the top of my list. Or, if it simply contains a quote that I love and think about from time to time, it's probably because that line was so special to me, I couldn't possibly forget it. That is what these books have given me. In The Great Gatsby, "I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool," will forever be attached to me. That quote, said by Daisy (pg. 17) left a big impact on me, and affects all girls very strongly. To be a girl in the 20s, Daisy is saying it was better to live a socially, uncomplicated life, to be simplistic and almost superficial. It was easier that way, than to be an intelligent girl. Daisy almost uses simplicity to avoid the truth in that she loved Gatsby, not her husband. In And Then There Were None, the poem is the part that I will probably remember for a very long time, as its creepy, yet lyrical elegance is one that cannot be forgotten. I think the whole idea of being surrounded by people who have never met before, all there in a game, with one person who stands a part from the others in that he/she is not a victim, is seriously disturbing and that alone will never leave my mind.

The Great Gatsby #1

This book is so magical. That description sounds very unoriginal and played out, but magic is all I can think of when I think of The Great Gatsby. Not that magic is literally used, but love plays a huge role in this story, and I find love to be very magical. So "magical" it is. The language Mr. Fitzgerald uses to describe every detail is just incredible. I love how he introduces characters, like Daisy and her friend Miss Baker in the beginning of the book, compared to how he describes characters such as Tom Buchanan. Daisy and Miss Baker are given images of laughter, simpleness and lovely female charms, while Tom is seen as much more serious, darker and stronger. It truly gives readers a sense of the time period, of human behavior in the twenties. My favorite part of this book was the descriptions. The descriptions of people, like Mr. Gatsby, of places, such as the valley of ashes and of the thoughts like those of Nick Carraway, the narrator. I love Mr. Gatsby's smile, described as "...one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself,"(p. 48) That explanation of a smile is absolutely gold. It makes Mr. Gatsby seems like a person I would kill to just have a simple conversation with. Perhaps, one who I would invite to dinner, if the infamous "If you could invite ten people to dinner, living or dead, who would you invite?" question was ever actually posed upon me. The Great Gatspy has descriptions that I could paint in pictures, if I wanted to. They are all so perfectly constructed, and I loved that about this story.

And Then There Were None #1

Initially, I picked And Then There Were None because I was intrigued by the enticing mystery of it. And it turns out, I was right about the enticing mystery! I read this book while on a community service trip in Costa Rica and Belize through a camp program called Moondance; reading this book on the trip certainly didn't make sleeping somewhere foreign any easier. I'd like to thank Agatha Christie for the nightmares.  The best part of this book, the part that truly wrapped the story into an exciting, yet somewhat predictable one, was the poem that went with it. The poem, originally written back in the late 60's by a man named Frank Green, has a seriously dark and twisted scheme to it. The poem goes like this:


Ten Little Soldier Boys Went Out To Dine
One Choked His Little Self And Then There Were Nine

Nine Little Soldier Boys Sat Up Very Late
One Overslept Himself And Then There Were Eight

Eight Little Soldier Boys Traveling In Devon
One Said He'd Stay There And Then There Were Seven

Seven Little Soldier Boys Chopping Up Sticks
One Chopped Himself In Halves And Then There Were Six

Six Little Soldier Playing With A Hive
A Bumblebee Stung One And Then There Were Five

Five Little Soldier Boys Going In For Law
One Got In Chancery And Then There Were Four

Four Little Soldier Boys Going Out To Sea
A Red Herring Swallowed One And Then There Were Three

Three Little Soldier Boys Walking In The Zoo
A Big Bear Hugged One And Then There Were Two

Two Little Soldier Boys Sitting In The Sun
One Got Frizzled Up And Then There Were One

One Little Soldier Boy Left All Alone
He Went And Hanged Himself And Then There Were None

Each murder that happened in the story, went right along with the poem, starting with the death of Anthony Marston who was poisoned and "choked" on his wine at dinner. Next came Mrs. Rogers, who was also poisoned and died in her sleep, another way to say she "overslept" herself. After Mrs. Rogers was the death of General Macarthur, then Mr. Rogers, and so on and so forth. I loved that each death followed that of a soldier boy in the Mr. Green's poem. And all though each death was anticipated, the author did a great job of creatively putting a twist on each murder. For example, the line, "Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo, a big bear hugged one and then there were two," corresponds with the death of William Blore, when a grandfather clock shaped like a bear was pushed out of the window and down onto Blore, but a literal bear did not kill him. I thought that the plot of the story was well done and I overall enjoyed the story.

IRP Contract

IRP Contract

Choices

1. And Then There Were None

2. Sum

3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

5. A Clockwork Orange

6. The Great Gatsby

7. The Devil in the White City

8. The Scarlet Letter

My 2013-2014 Summer Reading text will Include:

1. The Great Gatsby

Rationale: I picked The Great Gatsby because it's become very popular this year, with the movie coming out, and all of my friends who have seen the movie and read the book have absolutely LOVED it, which has made me very interested to see what The Great Gatsby is all about.

2. And Then There Were None

Rationale: I picked And Then There Were None because I love mysteries and I think this mystery sounds very intriguing. Reviews on this book have all said that the book has an amazing plot, so I am looking forward to see how this story plays out.

My Current Class: English 9

My Current Teacher: Murphy