Tiffany Pan, Period 2, 2/5/2021, Day A

Tiffany Pan

Period 2

2/5/2021

Day A

Literacy & Learning

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

For our Egyptian mythology unit, we had to watch this National Geographic Film on the Book of the Dead. It was quite a long watch, around 40 minutes of content to consume. I decided to separate the video in half: 20 minutes for each time I sat down and watched. The first half of the video was mind-boggling to say the least. I couldn’t for the life of me understand how an entire population and further generations could place that much emphasis on death and then therefore have so little regard for life itself. The protagonist was dedicating his entire life and savings into preparing for his death, which might’ve not come for years. That means he was choosing to life more frugally during his actual lifetime, but with the security of the knowledge that he was going to have a good afterlife. It seemed completely absurd to me that people could prioritize the afterlife over death. After I shut the video down and went to sleep, I gave it much more thought. 

As a kid, I had been “deathly” (pun intended) afraid of death itself but over time, I’ve learned to accept that it’s a part of life and will come eventually. With this thought in mind, I could slightly see the perspective of preparing for death. It’s a practically unknown idea: no one knows what it’s like. With this idea in mind, I decided to finish the second half of the video the next day. The motives of the Egyptians cleared up more for me. Since there was no saying what actually happened after death, they were left up to their own culture and values to decide what they thought would happen. Hence, Egyptian culture placed a lot of emphasis on the afterlife and it had been that way for generations, starting with the importance of Anubis, the god of the afterlife. It made sense for them to heavily prepare for the unknown: they were driven by both fear and respect for the afterlife. 

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

Through both National Geographic videos on the Book of the Dead and the Egyptian Secrets of the Afterlife, I’ve learned quite a lot regarding how high of a pedestal the Egyptians placed the afterlife on. In my response to the previous question, I mentioned the fact that I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around their culture and the significant amount of resources and time dedicated into preparing for the afterlife. However, after considering the topic more and giving it more thought, I was able to better understand their perspectives and why the afterlife was so big to them. From this development, I realized that it’s important to keep an open mind and understand other points of view when it comes to all types of topics, whether or not their ideals clash or agree with my own. With this same mindset, I’m able to better critically perceive other topics or events happening around me since I’ll be much more open-minded about topics that I would typically at first find as confusing and hard to justify. This way, I’ll be able to consider the critical thoughts that actually matter, rather than forming opinions based on my own beliefs first. 

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Although we’ve mostly explored fiction texts with the exception of a few non-fiction texts, I’m still able to apply what I learn in this class within the world around me. Very recently, we dove into Norse mythology and I learned about these fearless beings who didn’t back down from any challenges. They were the embodiment of heroism and taking the strong winds and cold waters head-on. I’m sure they were aware of the risks of their adventures but decided to pursue that type of lifestyle regardless. That type of heroism and confidence when tackling challenges is one that the world definitely needs right now. As we’re sucked into more and more chaos, it gets harder to stand up and speak for what we believe in. For the Northern people, they believed in heroism and fighting till their last breath, so that was what they did. For us, although it’s not to the same degree, I definitely believe that we can all do more and act more on what we believe in, and what we learn within English class undoubtedly encourages those actions.