In addition to the philosophy we’ve studied, we’ve read four types of literature which focus on the idea of truth through different lenses—a Vietnam veteran, a poet, a variety of forest animals, and a quirky child. The differences between these views may appear staggering at first glance, but how is each view similar?

O’Brien’s story balances the brutality of war with the beauty of nature; Anderson and Gaiman’s children’s books encourage an individualistic and imaginative approach to understanding the world, and Dickinson’s poems discuss the power and divine nature of truth through imagery, diction, and figurative language. Each of these brief pieces of writing helps us better understand what truth is and how it applies to our lives.

Your job is to figure out what each one says about truth and how we can better understand what truth is by looking carefully at the ideas of these authors.

In "The wolves in the walls" we see that truth can be widely ignored, while on can see the truth, some people may not believe this individual. The parents in this book were ignorant and chose to pretend like they knew what was happening by fill in in the girl's questions with open ended answers that make the imagination wander. In "I know the moon" we see that many prespectives exist to many different people, meaning there doesn't have to be a singular truth, if you believe in something than it is true to you. In "The things they carried" we understand that truth in war stories isn't the sadness, joy,or any of that, it's about what really is truth and whether truth can be accepted by others if they know a different truth than your own.

In Issac Asimov’s “Lecture on Humanity”, given in 1973, he makes many predictions about the 21st century. He says, among other things, we’ll need population control, a shift in our view of education, a change in food production, and we’ll have to realize “we’re a world without war” (10).

Issac's predictions were extremely accurate, and the fact that we have yet to make the necessary changes to prevent most of these problems from accruing is almost appalling. We have only worsened the food distrubution in this country by processing it in unhealthy conditions such as genetically altered meat and chemically enhanced vegetables. This will lead us to nothing but further harm to the already unfit populace. Our population is getting out of control and we have done nothing to stop it or even slow down the increasing and unimaginable numbers that we soon will not be able to provide for. Our education system is corrupt and blind as to the future of the world, the children. Without the well needed education that schools can provide, then we can not learn from past mistakes and prevent them from happening again. The biggest topic that I agree with completely is that we are not of nations and religions, we are people of a planet, of a whole existence. If we wish to survive and further progress, we need to work as a species to keep the only planet and life we have.

"If there is one indisputable fact about the human condition it is that no community can survive if it is persuaded--or even suspects--that its members are leading meaningless lives in a meaningless universe."

--Irving Kristol

This quote is powerful to me, because it's so very true. If people are under the idea that they are living meaningless lives in a meaningless universe, than all hope is gone and therefor productivity is thrown completely out the window. With out a purpose, we will eventually die out because we serve no valid job on this planet and life has a way of removing those unneeded. I understand that this quote is much like the Apology, for it's meaning is to question but not to fall into despair. You need to feel important and needed to want a place in this world without that we would just wither away.