Blog #11: Random Sample/King of the Beasts

In the story Random Sample, we see a couple of kids who are spoiled and somewhat bratty. As a kid, I always remember the days where I would step on ants in the summertime with my sister. We would also draw on the sidewalk with chalk, and we would get annoyed when the ants got in our way of drawing. In this story however, the kids are very judgemental of the way these new creatures look when they are questioned. Just like the ants, the children treat them badly. I think that the way it ends is very interesting and every ironic as well. As a result of the kids torturing the ants, the kids are then tortured in a very similar way, with a magnifying glass. They describe that the ants must see that sun cover up the entire sky and blaze down on them. They also say that the ants hardly know that you are there until they almost touch your toe. Is the author suggesting the same thing about people through an alien point of veiw? Is it stories like these that makes people more xenophobic.
The story King of the Beasts almost reminded me of Jerasic Park. It takes you back to the biological standpoint of beings and creatures being created from DNA through a testube. The thing that I find interesting is that at first, I thought it wrong to be creating man in this way until I thought, how different are we really from any other animal other than supreme intelect and souls. Animals, like us, crave the same ateention and desire for power among their species. Does the author suggest that the different species of the world have xenophobia toward each other?

Blog #10: Planet of the Apes

 In the movie Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston plays a man that goes on an expedition into outer space. He land on a strange planet ruled by Apes and the planet turns out to be his own, Earth. In his discovery of the Apes, he sees that not only do the Apes despise him and all of the other humans, they are afraid of him because of his ability to speak and to reason. The theme xenophobia is demonstrated in the video because the Apes will not accept him as a being that exceeds what they describe as animals. We later discover that man is dangerous, for at the end of time when Earth collapsed in chaos, it was people that ended up destroying each other in their barbaric ways. Near the end of the movie, it is quoted: “You are afraid of me Doctor. You were afraid of me before and you are afraid of me now. Why”? “Because you’re a man”. This shows xenophobia in the movie during all parts, and the apes never got over it. The apes humiliated man just for their own satisfaction, and the elders of the apes even knew about the Earth once belonging to man, but left the evidence in ruins for the younger generation.

One big problem that I saw in the video that still exists today is the desire for superiority above all others. The apes believed that they were the superior race, created under God as equal. It’s ironic because we think like that, and planet of the apes shows that even in 2,000 years, that attitude will never change.

In their ape society, I don’t believe there is a future. Unlike us, they disgrace those who want to learn, and forbid expanding knowledge. I hope that is not the future of humans as we know it, but I do believe the world will end by people destroying one another.