One of the key lessons I learned from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is that it is difficult to understand a situation unless you are looking at it from more than one perspective. Gregor’s family fails to do this when they discover his transformation. They just push him aside and hide him instead. When I stumbled upon this website it made me think about perspectives. When you zoom in all the way you get to the sun which humans know about because of its assistance in our survival, but when you zoom out and see first the solar system, then the milky way we are getting further and further away from what we know and treading into the great unknown. It makes one consider their role on Earth, as well as their role in the Universe. While our roles on Earth may seem insignificant at times, when you think of our role in the universe, it shows how much smaller we are than we thought. In order to prevent misfortunes, as happened to Gregor, we must consider our roles in our community, our state, our country, our continent, our Earth, our solar system, and even in our universe.
Images
Spock
Recently I watched the movie “Star Trek: Into the Darkness.” In the movie Spock (pictured in blue) is known for his logical and rational thought processes, whereas Captain Kirk (pictured in yellow) is one who acts on gut feelings and emotions. I’ve drawn a connection between Spock and Sartre’s thinking. Sartre believe that you need to think of mankind as a whole before thinking about yourself, just like Spock rationalizes what is the best option based on rules and regulations. On the other hand, Kirk is the opposite, he acts first thinks later. Both characters have their attributes and flaws. For example, Kirk’s emotional actions lead to saving Spock’s life while also breaking the rules.
Banksy
While stumbling today (using stumbleupon.com) I came across a webpage full of artwork created by Banksy. Looking at his works cause me to think about the effect we have on the world. 
This piece here depicts a photographer photographing a pretty flower. In the process of doing so, he has ripped the flower out of the ground. Unfortunately this is a common occurence and if everyone were to rip up all the flowers we wouldn’t have any left. Because of this, this piece conveys some of Sartre’s views, his view that when we act we must imagine everyone doing same thing. That we must think about the consequences of our actions, as if everyone were doing the same.
Peace after the Storm
Friday after class I had an hour to kill so I decided to take a stroll through the art museum. When perusing the art work there was one piece that stopped me as I passed by. It is titled “Peace after the Storm.” At first sight this painting seems to depict a corpse that has washed up on shore. Being the optimist that I can occasionally be, I imagined that this man is alive, struggling to be, but alive. Sometimes I can imagine myself in a similar state, not literally washed up on shore, but struggling to keep myself above water. To me the moment painted is the man’s success in breaching the water’s surface and surviving. It is a peace in and of itself. Some of the aspects of life that keep us (the human race) struggling to remain afloat are not knowing who we are inside and what we want to do with our lives. The latter is where I stand now, trying to decipher how to obtain my long-term goal (preferably without being thousands of dollars in debt).
Peace after the storm by Ferdinand Schauss
The Nature of Self 