Choose your prompt from the following options. Please write 10-15 sentences--using all four learned phrases at least once--about your experience watching and, hopefully, learning from this episode.
1. With which character do you most sympathize OR empathize? Why?
2. What does life, as a subject, mean to you? What would the theme of your life be?
3. How important is a name? What does your name mean to you, or (do you want it/what would you like it) to mean to future generations?
4. What common traits do all of these "John Smith"s share? Do we all share these traits/characteristics/etc.?
A name is a (semi)-Unique identification. While there are many Sam Scullys, there is only one that is a 17-year-old high school senior in Houston, Texas. A being can share the same name, but each one is unique. Like two identical Source Fours have the same name, but each one is different from the other in their purpose. A life story can identify an individual, just as a focus can identify an instrument. Just as a DMX address identifies only one dimmer from another in that DMX Universe, a name and a story can identify a single person from the billions of others in the world.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize for the older John Smith that lost his child due to aids. I am told, that in life, parents never want to see their daughter or son die in life. I feel like he is depressed and lonely without his son. Peoples brightness come from their children i feel like. When their children are taken away, they lose their brightness and that is what i see in John Smith. I feel sympathy from him because he seems soul less with out his son. I think he is coasting in life now not knowing what to do because he does not have something to live for he feels like. When he and his wife were sitting on the porch they just felt like they are living a worthless life.
ReplyDeleteLife cannot be described in words as what it means to you, but only through actions. This is similar to life cannot be lived through words but only through actions. Life should not be something that can be predicted by the people around you but what you make out of it. It is an interesting viewpoint considering we are about to embark on "life" as we know it, leaving the house from any supervision. It is our generations time to step up to the plate and see how they want to live it. Weather people want to leave a stone unturned or not, life should be lived. Picking a theme for ones life is incredibly difficult to do, but i choose to have "appreciation" of what we have been blessed with. Im not an openly religious person and believe it should be personal, but there is no denial we are blessed. I bitch about EHS every single day, but thats because I think we should chose to be better than we are right now. If life isn't appreciated, what is the point?
ReplyDeletethere was not one character that resembled me but multiple John Smith's had a similar characteristic to me. LIfe as a subject to me does not have a meaning yet... i am to young to understand what life means. Everyday i might learn something that could get me closer to the meaning of life but i still do not know. The theme of my life would be uninteresting or uneventful. My name to me is very important John Mason Strange, John is my dad's family name and mason is my mom's maiden name. I hope my kids and their kids keep John as a family name and mason could start to be a family name passed on for generations. All these John Smiths share struggle. Each one has a problem but they all are different.
ReplyDeletei most sympathize for john smith whose kid died of aids. no parent should ever have to bury their own child so you must sympathize him. life is what separates us from inanimate things. it makes me different than a rock. my life theme would be doing things to the fullest no matter what. a name is all anyone has. my name means a lot to me. i really think for the next generation is nothing besides there name.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with the second oldest John Smith. The fact that he lost his son at such a young age is heartbreaking to me. I would never be able to experience that and deal with it the way he has. His strength is inspiring, and I envy it. Having to lose your son to such an awful disease is definitely a life changing experience. I feel pity and sorrow for him and hope that I will never have to experience the same things he is going through. Having watched this episode, I gained a new look at life. All of these people have been through tough times, I think everyone in life has, but they have all grown from them. Their levels of the toughness they have been through may not be the same, but they have all overcome them in their own way.
ReplyDeleteThe person I feel sympathy for would be the john smith that lost his son, because he and his wife have to live their life knowing that their son is dead before them. I have heard that being alive and your children dead is one of the hardest thing a parent would have to go through. John, working long hours and being the boss of a company, has made him restless when he has to retire. I feel like it would be hard for him to get used to being unused and having no one need him anymore. But now he has a small job that is good for him that way he can get at least the satisfaction of completing something in his day.
ReplyDeleteLS
ReplyDeleteI both sympathize and empathize the very oldest John Smith in the video. When it comes to his life, he barely had anything to live for anymore. He was too old to be active. His body was too weak to walk. I sympathize his lifestyle. It sucks to be dependent on nurses to wheel you around in a wheel chair through your nursing home. It was fortunate that he still had a caring family who would visit him often. He got to eat ThanksGiving dinner with his entire family. He had a chance to see the people he created and the families he started, all together like a big display of his work. I felt empathy for him for that.
I sympathize the most for the John Smith who lost his child. AIDS is an awful disease that takes many lives away annually. Hearing about AIDS makes me very sad, but this sadness does not compare to the pain his family felt after losing him. I remember the first time my grandma told me about AIDS and what it was and what it did and it terrified me. I believe it is one of the worst diseases in the world and am hoping that one day we will have a cure for it. The thing that must have made this experience so awful was the fact that there is nothing anyone can do for a person when they are diagnosed with AIDS. Not being able to take care of your child when they are sick is awful, and watching them die is devastating.
ReplyDeleteLife for me is a bunch of events which help create yourself. But at the same time everyone has similar events in there life. Like how when we were watching the video of all of the different John Smith's there lives were different and yet still so similar. Even though we have different things which are extremely important to us and different socioeconomic issues we still have major events which occur with all of us. Life for me is living it to the fullest. TO have kids and be happy with yourself and to be proud of what you are. TO do what I love and what I want to do not my parents. I feel like that is what kind of tripped up the 23 year old John Smith was because he was rebelling against his parents view and his view.
ReplyDeleteA name may be personal to an individual person, but it does not create the personality, or any other traits of the person. A name is a name, and nothing more. I have sympathy for John Smith, the one who lost his father at a young age. A father, an influence and teacher to his children, plays an important role in a child's life. An overall theme is shown throughout this tape. The name "John Smith" and the John Smith's shown show that all men are influenced by their fathers, and their grandfathers. A father teaches his sons, and his sons work hard to please their fathers. Throughout the tape, I felt the power of influence of these children and their sons. The theme of my life would be family, and the impact they make on my life, along with the impact I make on theirs.
ReplyDelete