Pride and Prejudice (but no zombies, unfortunately.)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - JANE AUSTEN

For the Bennet sisters, marriage is more than just finding the right person to spend their lives with. It also determines the future security, wealth, and happiness of the entire family. Due to having all daughters, Mr. Bennet's property will be inherited by their Rich cousin. Meanwhile, the rich Mr. Bingley rents a house in the country for the summer, bringing along his arrogant friend, Mr. Darcy, who takes pride in his wealth (for he is even more rich than Bingely himself). Jane, one of the Bennet daughters, recieves an invitation to visit Bingely's residence from his sister, Caroline. She becomes very ill and must stay there until she is well enough to go home. During this time, the infamous Mr. Darcy becomes more and more interested in Elizabeth, Jane's sister, who frequently comes to visit her. Although she is beginning to fall for him, Elizabeth is ashamed because Darcy is immensely disliked by everyone in town, and therefore she convinces herself that she loathes him. Caroline begins to notice the relationship building, and becomes jealous; for she was hoping to gain Mr. Darcy's affections (and therefore his wealth by marriage). Mr. Collins, the future owner of the Longbourn Estate, comes to make mends with the Bennet family over an earlier argument. After a ball (and many times afterwards), Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, only to be denied. Instead he proposes to Elizabeth's friend, Charlotte Lucas, who happily accepts. After all of the excitement, Bingely, his sister, and Mr. Darcy take off to London, where Caroline writes to Jane, who has become quite fond of Bingely after he allowed her to recover in his home, telling her that the Bingely family is encouraging him to marry to Mr. Darcy's younger sister, and that he will not be returning to Netherfield any time soon. Jane and Elizabeth take a trip to London to visit with their aunt and uncle. While staying there, Mr. Bingely makes no effort to contact Jane whatsoever, even though his sister makes a clear effort to be rude to her. Later on, while visiting Charlotte (who is now married to Mr. Collins), Elizabeth again runs into Mr. Darcy, who is accompanied by his friend, Colonel Fitzwilliam. After Elizabeth begins spending more time with Darcy, Fitzwilliam tells her a false story, making Elizabeth believe that Darcy is a horrible person. Fitzwilliam also convinces Elizabeth that Darcy talked Mr. Bingely out of proposing to her sister, Jane. Elizabeth does not go to dinner that night in order to avoid Darcy in her state of anger. Still, Darcy manages to find her, and tells her that he has fallen in love with her (despite her family's low connections). He then proposes, to which Elizabeth declines in rage, questioning how he could be so inconsiderate to propose to her in such a manner, especially after he had talked Mr. Bingely out of marrying Jane. The next morning, Darcy hands Elizabeth a letter wordlessly, and walks away. The letter explains in detail the explanation behind his actions, and Elizabeth feels remorse for yelling at him. She and Jane return home temporarily, until she leaves once again on vacation. During this time, she visits Darcy's estate, only agreeing to accompany the Gardiners because he is out on business. He returns early, however, and seems overjoyed by the visitors, and then introduces Elizabeth to his sister. During this meeting, Mr. Bingely is present, and still shows obvious signs of attachment to Jane. One morning Elizabeth recieves a letter and must return home due to a family crisis. Meanwhile, Darcy is again off on business. When he and Mr. Bingely return once more, the ball is in their feild. Will the Bennet sisters be married? Or will they be rejected due to their low social class?

1. Elizabeth at first rejects her feelings for Mr. Darcy because he made a bad first impression. Do you think that one should be judged based on their first impression?

2. Mr. Darcy is often arrogant because of his wealth, and is therefore strongly disliked. Elizabeth, on the other hand, intrigues many people, even those higher in class. Do you believe that a person's social nature is significant than their social class? Why or why not?

I, Robot by Issac Asimov is a short story anthology that tells the stories of robots in a future where they are common household items. I, Robot was published in 1950 and it revolutionized the science fiction genre. I, Robot is one of few science fiction novels that has had a major impact on popular culture Before I, Robot people were not very interested in robots as a subject of literature because they were bland, authors were not sure how to treat their intelligence or their obedience to humans. Asimov changed this with the introduction what he called The Three Laws of Robotics. Asimov’s three laws are as follows

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

Through the use of these three laws governing the robots in his fiction Asimov was able to make the subject of Robots interesting to the public and they remain a staple of popular culture to this day (Transformers anyone?).

The first story is entitled Robbie. This story is about a robot named, you guessed it, Robbie and how he affects the life of the child he takes care of, a girl named Gloria. Gloria’s mother bought Robbie when it was “cool” to own a robot servant. Gloria and Robbie become very good friends. Gloria spends more time with Robbie then she does with any other people. However, when it becomes “uncool” to own a robot Gloria’s mother sends Robbie back to the factory that he came from. Gloria then descends into a deep depression. Gloria’s mom tries everything she can think of to try and get Gloria to let Robbie go but it doesn’t work. As a last resort Gloria’s mom decides that Gloria needs to be in a different place to forget. It doesn’t work and this is when her dad has a thought. He says that Gloria needs to stop thinking of Robbie as a person and think of him as a machine and then she will get better. They decide to go to the robot factory. Robbie is at the factory and Gloria runs to him, in the process almost getting run over by a forklift. Robbie saves her life. It turns out the father planned Gloria’s reunion with Robbie of this. Gloria’s mom finally admits that Robbie might not be a monster like society has made robots out to be.

1. Do you think discrimination against an artificial intelligence, Robbie, could be looked at in the same way as racism is today?

The second story is entitled Runaround as deals with a paradox created by the juxtaposition of the Second and Third law. A robot named Speedy and a scientist are sent to Mercury to repair a mining station that has run out of selenium fuel. Once on Mercury the scientist sends Speedy to go get selenium out of a nearby selenium pool. After several hours the scientist becomes concerned and goes out to investigate. It turns out that Speedy is caught in a feedback loop between the Second Law (obey human orders) and the Third Law (protect it’s own existence). It is having this conflict because the scientist never emphasized the importance of this order to get the selenium and therefore the Second Law is not over ruling the Third Law. Eventually the scientists puts himself in danger so the First Law will over rule the other two laws and end the feedback loop. His plan works and they accomplish the mission.

2. What do you think about this situation? Can you think of any other situations where conflicts could arise between these laws?

The third short story is called Reason and it follows 2 humans on a space station with an AI that has a high capacity for reason. The station’s job is to provide energy via microwave beams to the planet below. The AI and other robots aim the beams. The humans encounter a problem when the AI decides that everything outside of the station does not exist. It develops its own religion where it serves the power source of the ship, who it calls “The Master.” The other robots become disciples of the AI and refuse to obey human orders (the Second Law has been compromised). Interestingly, the AI still performs its job perfectly but not for the humans on the planet (because it thinks they don’t exist) but for “The Master.” The humans decide to leave it alone and tell no one as it is still doing its job.

3. Did the humans do the right thing by leaving the AI alone because it’s still doing its job even though it has created its own religion?

The fourth story is titled Liar! This is the story of a robot that through a manufacturing defect has telepathic abilities. The corporation U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men attempt to figure out what went wrong and the robot starts telling the investigators what people are thinking, but it is also still obeying the First Law so to not hurt anyone’s feelings it lies in gigantic amounts. One of the characters then tells the robot that when it lies to avoid hurting humans that it is hurting them anyway. The robot then experiences a logical conflict and becomes useless. This story is where the phrase “Does not compute” originated.

4. Do you think humans will ever be able to create a robot that can evaluate psychological data? What might this mean if it happens?

There are five more stories in the anthology that I will not ruin for people who want to read the book. They deal with similar themes of Asimov’s writing such as how do you tell a humanoid robot from a moral upstanding citizen (think the Three Laws, it gets interesting), and various instances of logical paths that lead robots to be able to twist the First Law.

Asimov’s I, Robot was the first book to deal with “Robot Psychology,” the first where robots were fallible and what they said not always true (this had been a tradition among sci-f authors), and the first to give robots well thought out defining rules to what governed their actions.

Slaughterhouse Five

This classic novel by the acclaimed Kurt Vonnegut is a mixture of science fiction and historical fiction.


Vonnegut tells the story of a soldier during the WWII era. Billy Pilgrim is a pathetic dental student from Ilium, New York who is drafted into the war in between his transition from college to dental school. Billy hates his life. He has a hard time finding joy in anything he does.

Vonnegut tells the story of how Billy Pilgram travels through time in his dreams, and during the daytime, when he is at war and in class back in New York. The science fiction aspect of this novel comes when Billy is abducted by aliens. No one believes Billy's story and thinks he's crazy.

Vonnegut's unique literary technique shows throughout this novel. Since there is a large amount of human death in this book, he uses the phrase "So it goes." after every mention of death. Why do you think he does this?

Billy Pilgrim is a timid, shy man who most people cannot take seriously. How would you feel if you were trying to convey a point (such as Billy did when telling people he was abducted by aliens) and no one would listen to you and they thought you were crazy? How would you react?

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller is a satirical war novel that takes place in World War Two. The main character is Yossarian; a pilot stationed on an island near the coast of Italy. Yossarian and his friends in his squad are sent on suicidal tasks by the higher ranked officers. The officers use Yossarian and his friends as they please. They tell Yossarian and his squad that it is more important for them to take good photographs of when the bombs hit rather than to hit the actual targets. The high ranking officers use the photographs to boost their popularity and rank in the army, without regard for the lives that they are risking. The officers keep raising the number of flights that the squad has to make before they can go home so that they're in the high ranking officer's control forever, or basically until they are dead. Yossarian is the only one that says that there is a war going on; everyone thinks that he is crazy and disregards his opinions. Yossarian is scared by the war and fakes illness many times to escape having to do another bombing raid. His paranoia has his hiding under his bed sheets. Yossarian is haunted by the memory of his beloved friend dying in his arms when he refused to fight in the war. He becomes more insane as all of his friends in his squad either die of disappear and the high ranking officials volunteering to send his squad into more and more bombings for their own personal glory. Yossarian is so traumatized by the war that he finds out that you could be discharged from the army if you were declared insane. Yossarian had taken too much of the war and declared himself insane, only to realize that only a sane person would declare them-self insane and an insane person would deny facts and call them-self sane. Tricked by this loop-hole, Yossarian becomes even more crazy. Many sub-stories evolve around the main one of Yossarian and his friend dies. Yossarian loses his mind and leaves the army base to walk around Rome where he witnesses death, rape, disease, any every horror in the world. Yossarian is arrested for not having a passport and his officers find him. They give him the option of being tried in court, or returning home with an honorable discharge. However, to be discharged, he must say that he approves of the good job his officers do and that would require the next squads to fly 80 missions. Yossarian, having always taken the easy way out, decides to be tried for deserting the army and to save the lives of others.

1. Would you have said that the officers were good people in order to return home honorably and try to forget all of the horrors that have happened to you? If so, would the lie and the knowledge of other lives being lost to unfair treatment bother you when you returned home?

2. Would you continue to fight orders given by your superiors alone, would you try to contact someone in higher power than your officers, or would you just give in and accept your orders even though you knew that they were wrong. How would your choice affect your thoughts throughout life and what might you be constantly thinking about? Would your choice be worth it, or is there not really a right answer?

Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller

The play "Death of A Salesman" was written by the world renowned playwright Arthur Miller. Miller discusses the american dream within this play, through the perspecitve of a family of four. This family consists of Willy the father, Biff and Happy the sons, and Linda the mother. Early within the play it becomes very clear that Willy is quite unhappy with Biff's failures in life. He critisizes his son, accusing him of being lazy. Through a daydream, it comes to fruition that Biff is only following in his father's footsteps. Trying to be more liked by peers rather than academically successful, Biff is careless in school. Willy allows himself to be put out of touch with reality, turning a blind eye to peoples real opinions and his actual economic situation. Subconciously, Willy realizes his shortcomings and in turn, takes his failures out on those around him such as Linda. Subsequently, Willy's failures slowly derail both his internal and external emotions. He begins to talk to himself, living in a state of delirium, along with his wife who transfers her anger to her kids. Sadly, amongst this turmoil, Willy gets fired from his job. From lying to his family to cheating on his wife, Willy makes mistake after mistake, destroying both his life and outlook on the American Dream. These same mistakes also drag his entire family down with him, bringing about much anger and lying amongst them. Overall, this play really shows how the American Dream way of life is not given, but rather earned with honesty and hard work. By breaking the play down and analyzing sections, it becomes clear that the play discusses the important and honorable values one must follow to be successful both in the work force and at home with their families. Upon the novel's conclusion, Willy's failures provoke him to take his own life.

Questions:

1) How hard is it for kids to get out of their parents mold and become their own person? Within this play we see that Biff and Happy act similarly to their father, even though they realize it is wrong. Can kids ever truly break this mold and change how they act?

2) The "American Dream" means something a little different to everyone. To Willy it means to be both economically set, while still being very popular. What does it mean to you?

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel written in 3rd person taking place after a sort of horrible event that destroyed civilization occured. A small family, two parents and a son must make a dangerous journey to safety. However, the mom commits suicide, the circumstances being too much for her to handle. They must evade other survivors, who has resorted to hunting and eating humans. They continue on South along the highway. Food is very scarce. They have a gun for protection but suffer through many instances of attack. They repeatedly speak about how they are the "good guys" and are simply doing their duty by attempting to carry on civilization. Sadly, the father falls ill and knowing his time is near, speaks to the son about how he an always talk to him in his mind, so he is never truely alone. The make their way to the coast and find camps of human's being kept like chickens in a pen as a food supply for the cannibal groups. Almost immediately after reaching the sea, the dad dies. Luckily, the boy meets another family of "good guys" who agree to take him in and protect him. The novel ends with a sense of hope for the future.

1 If you were put into a situation where your future was dismal, would you take the easy way out like the mother and commit suicide?

2 If you survived a horrible disaster like the family, how would you force yourself to journey to perceived safety and not give up?