Big+Thinker

Sarah D: Big thinker (May 8)
So I was thinking about the name Invisible Man, and I came across the idea that I could connect it to the media. The name "Invisible Man" is very similar to the situation that the people of America have been put in. We are blinded by the amount media that is thrown at us every day. It comes from everywhere, youtube, the news, iphones, smart phones, internet, TV, etc. We have slowly allowed ourselves to become so saturated with information that we become blind to much of what happens outside of our lives, in this way we are like Invisible Man. For example, until someone decided to take charge and bring people into awareness of the issue of invisible children. No one knew about it until it was brought to us. We are blind to the world around us.

Noah J-P: Big Thinker - Obama and Invisible Man
Noah found this article on The Daily Beast and led a discussion that attempted to answer this (and many other) questions: WHAT did Obama find in INVISIBLE MAN that helped him form his own identity?

**Eddie Orazem: Big Thinker - (May 7-11) - Human Empathy -** http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125382470366238705.html
This week in class we have spent a lot of time discussing how certain people in our lives are invisible, in connection with our reading of Invisible Man. I was thinking about how even though janitors and cashiers are people too, so many of us barely think of them as such. I was interested in learning more about the science behind human empathy, and I found a really interesting and informative [|article] about it in the Wall Street Journal. I learned a lot. The biggest thing that jumped out to me was that emotions are contagious, like yawns. People feel sad when they are around sad people and happy around happy people, almost regardless of what is going on with them. My question is if we as humans are so empathetic, how can we be so indifferent to so many people?


 * Reilly McDonnell: Big Thinker - May 17 - Blindness**

Through out the novel IM seeks for more and more people like him who are accepting and realize that there is more to people than just the color of his skin. He considers people have a sense of blindness, hence his invisiblity, because the truth about everyone is fogged by the color of his skin. This idea led to the civil rights movement. Not necessarily Ellison sparked the movement but more and more people were expressing this idea of equality.The human rights struggle was so powerful all of the people came together to fight the worst crimes against humanity. In Koney more and more people are showing some form of slacktivism empathy rather than getting hands on in the situation. For example, after watching the video Koney is in your mind for the mere time after watching and then gone the next day. It shows that if the issue is not real and you can see the violence, the crimes, acts against humanity, nothing will be done. We are blind in the sense that Koney is doing harmful things because it doesn't affect our lives.