Five Steps To Being the Best Student

1. Get to class late in order to make a good impression.
2. Put a needle on your teachers chair so he congradulates you for being an outstanding student.
3. Bye yourself absolutely nothing of the materials required for the class.
4. Occasionally skip class and go to the snack shop.
5. Don't study for the test and sit next to a lazy classmate so you can copy from him!

If you follow these few steps, you'll surely be at the top of your class!

Hyprocritical Beings

My first impression of section 26 of the Handbook of Epictetus was that he's pretty much describing and telling us why we as humans are hypocrites in so many different situations in our daily lives. In other words, he illustrates how we as humans react differently when our friend is in the situation agianst when we ourselves are put in that position. He goes about exemplifying it with this instance, "When someone else's little slave boy breaks his cup we are ready to say, 'It's one of those things that just happen.' Certaintly, then, when our own cup is broken you should be just the way you were when the other person's was broken" (26). This example shows us how we act differently when the jokes on us or when the jokes on our friend. And many of us dont even realize when were doing it because we've become so blind to it that we dont even catch ourselves doing it.

If you keep reading the same section another example comes that better illustrates the hypocrocy, "Someone else's child is dead, or his wife...'It's the lot of a human being.' But when one's own dies, immediatly it is, 'Alas! Poor me!" (26) This is a perfect example of someone who is being a hypocrite because when his friends childrena and wife die he says, "Oh it was their destiny to die, dont worry." But when your own family members die its, "Oh my Lord! Why me!"

I think that this is what Epictetus is trying to convey to us readers, that we sometimes judge way too quickly without thinking about what that person is goeing through, “Never criticize a man until you have walked a thousand miles in his moccasins."

Be The Best You

Something that I thought about when I was reading Epictetus was I hate it when people try to be something their not. For example many people like to take the best classes in school because their good students, but those students never really identify what their strenghts or weaknesses might be. In my opinion one should choose the classes that they feel fit. I am in accord with Epictetus when he descbribes it in this manner, " How will you be a nobody everywhere, if you need to be a somebody only in the things are up to you--in which it is open to you to be of the greatest worth?" (24) I completely agree with this statement because its absolutely true, I'd rather be important in one or two things than to be another person in all things. Like the saying goes, "You should rather be the head of the rat then the tail of the lion" because its more important to be accomplished in what you love and have passion for than another piece of something bigger. Another example in which we find Epictetus talking about this is, "If it ever happens that you turn outward to want to please another person,certaintly you have lost your plan of life.Be content therefore in everything to be a philosopher" (23) As we read Epictetus we find out that he is actually a believer in free will to those who have the money and the advantages of having those self-indulgant opportunities.

"Wich do you want more, money or a self-respecting and trustworthy friend?"(24)

I think that this question opened up many new ideas that I had not yet thought of before. The entire manual up until now has been a dialogue between Epectitus to another man, and all along they've talked about luxories and talks about slaves and their wife and children, "Did your child die?" one example, "Did your wife die?" second example, "My land was taken" (11). All of these illustrating the frustrations that any rich white man could have had many years ago.

I Have Given It Back...So It Goes?

As we all know, in Kurt Vonneguts, Slaughterhouse-Five Billy Prilgrim is abducted by Tralfamadores and they teach him that everything happens because it does and there is no need to emotionally attach yourself to those situations. They tell him that whenever someone dies there is no need to mourn because that person is just dead at that particular time in life. We are shown how Billy transform because he says whenever he heres about someones death all he says is "So it goes."

The Handbook of Epictetus also has a way of dealing with unfortunate experiences. Although both of these two didactic pieces of writings have completely different principles and different paths in which each one wants to take the reader, they have a diverse look on the same topic. As I was reading Epictetus I came across a very noteworthy suggestion, "Never say about anything, 'I have lost it,' but instead, 'I have given it back'"(Section 11) Although both of these are not implying the same connotation of when some one dies, because in Slaughterhouse-Five when they say "So it goes" it means that it doesnt effect them much, and in the Handbook of Epicectus when an unfortunate event occurs they are told to say, "I have given it back" which in reality has some meaning to it. If we think about it, "given it back" makes a lot more sense then the Tralfamadore outlook on these happenings because they just shrug and dont appreciate that person, in Epictetus they are noting the death of that person but are saying that gave him back to the person who gave me it in the first place. He then goes on to clarify that we dont need to care about how the "giver" (Section 11) asked for it back. We need to act like it wasn't ours to keep in the first place and that we should use the example of "travelers at an inn" (Section 11) they are staying in that room, but they need to keep in mind that the room isn't theirs and they need to respect the rightful owner.

In my opinion, I agree more with the Handbook of Epictetus because when they say this phrase may seem harsh and depressive they are actually acknowledging the truth behind what really happens when we as Christian die which is we are given back to God.

Always Consult Nature

As I began to read the first few sections of the Handbook of Epictetus I realized that aside from the fact that this is a handbook,to begin with, which means a book of instruction or guidance, as for an occupation; manual. We already know that its contradicting its title because from the very first line its telling us how we need to act to live a tranquil and not so miserable life, "you will not do a single thing unwillingly, you will have no enemies, and no one will harm you, because you will not be harmed at all" (Section 1). I performed a brief close reading on this quotation and the first thing that caught my attention was, that he begins each statement with a “will not” and will not is a very imperative way of addressing someone. Perhaps we could have misinterpreted the whole meaning of the title and and therefore the actual manual itself from the beginning and could have in fact been what it originally was, a handbok if it said may not or might not.

As I was reading Epictetus I stumbled across a rather odd notion. He begins by stating that before you engage in any sort of action be aware of what that action is before you do it. He says most people already have an idea of how they want to participate in this action and are usually disappointed that their goal wasn't accomplished in the manner desired. He uses the example of when we are going to take a bath,have clear in your mind what kind of bath your craving for, some people "splash" and there are some who "jostle" (Section 4). He continues and goes about describing to us how we should approach these situations so that we aren't disheartened if what we had planned isn't fullfilled, "And you will undertake the action more securely if from the start you say of it, 'I want to take a bath and to keep my choices in accord with nature'" (Section 4). I found this philosophy of life quite awkward and some can say dissatisfying because if we from childhood are taught this mentality of having an excuse for your failures well then there isn't much sense for pursuing our goals is there? If you continue reading along a bit further you would then understand my point in the previous sentences, (Section 8). In doing this, I am in complete disagreement with Epicetus because I believe in striving for an outcome, I believe that all of us should want something in life that should seem attainable and we should always be allowed the natural right of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Migretticizing Slaughterhouse-Five

A prayer that I found necessary to discuss in one of my blogs because it illustrated the meaning of Billy's weakness and might as well be recognized by all of us before we have a moment of anagnorisis of our past mistakes was:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the thing I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."(S.F. page 60)

This may or may not have impacted the reader when they read it, but if you were actually paying attention to the reading, then you would know that this prayer signifies the "disease" that Billy witholds.

But if we actually begin to realize Slaughterhouse-Five is sending an allegorical or subminal message to all of us that our destiny is impervious to any sort of alteration that any of us may or may not want to implicate on it. For example if we one day decide to drastically change our future by killing somebody, your actually fullfilling your destiny because thats ultimately what your destiny beheld. In other words, any sort of modification that you might try to instill on your destiny is actually performing and executing that destiny that your trying to avoid. And I implore you to do otherwise and begin realizing that each one of us has his or her destiny planned out.

We may start coming to hasty assumptions that Billy is a senile man because he, as Kurt Vonnegut describes it "could not change were the past, the present, and the future."(S.F. page 60) We need to stop being so hardheaded and realize that we ourselves are "lab rats" in Vonneguts philosophy.

Enclosed In The Past

We are introduced to very "senile" man in chapter two of SlaughterHouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut describes this man in the most peculiar way, "Billy has gone to sleep in a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day. He has walked through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941." My best guess is that, this strategy of describing a protagonist is very interesting because, were used to reading a brief summary of the protagonist life. Vonnegut tries to confuse us, by portraying this very strange man. He then proceeds to express to us the meaning behind the first paragraph. If you read the chapter, then youll know that "Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next." (page 23) We then are introduced to the idea of Billy have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings, Tralmafadores, and was took to their home land Tralmafadore. He feels priveledged to have had that experience because he said, "the creatures were friendly" and they could see in four demensions. They pitied and saw above the Earthlings because they were ignorant to the fourth dimension.

I found this anecdote quite flabbergasting, "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die." Its "silly" for people to mourn their peers death. I wanted to comment on this because I found it ironic that Billy actually encouraged this ideal "when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug." (pg. 27) In my opinion, Vonnegut is trying to illustrate how the Tralmafafores try to dehumanize humans by exempting the "right" to mourn a loved one.

I might have found a glimpse of Billy having a moment of agnorisis, when he realizes what being unstuck meant, "He first came unstuck in time in 1944...The Tralmafadores didn't have anything to do with his coming unstuck. They were simply able to give me insights into what was really going on." Evidently, Billy was ambigious to what was really occuring before he met the Tralmafaorians, and they englightened him on what was really happening everytime he was transported from one event to the other.