Arachnophobia: Fear of Arachnids

       Ophildiophobia, the fear of snakes. Acrophobia, the fear of heights. Mysophobia, fear of germs and dirt. Anatidaephobia, the fear of a duck is watching you somewhere and somehow. These are some of the most common phobias that majority of the population have. Most of them got these phobias from past experiences, influences, or cultural values. For example, people with Ophidiophobia are afraid of snakes because of their past experiences from getting attacked by a snake, or they were influenced by their religion or parents that snakes are horrible and sin riddled creatures that should be avoided. Avoided because most snakes bite and are venomous such as the Anacondas or Vipers. My biggest phobia that has always been part of me is Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders and arachnids. I have always had this fear every since I was a young child, even though I don't remember how I got this phobia. All I know is that every time I am near a cobweb or a area where spiders are present, I tend feel uneasy, nervous and anxious; all symptoms of paranoia. Once I see a spider I have mini panic attacks until I calm down or the spider is out of my sight. This phobia is holding me back personally because I cannot get rid of a spider without stepping on it, smashing it or try lighting it on fire. Spiders are harmless creatures and do not attack unless threatened, but because of my phobia I always have a instinct of neutralizing it whenever I see one in my sight. In society, adults or older people are not afraid of such small creatures but for me I am afraid of them and it will make me look weak because of my phobia of being afraid of a spider. However, right now I am slowly overcoming this phobia by facing my fear of spiders and learning about them at the same time. Spiders are wonderful and interesting creatures, but because of my phobia I see them as terrifying and creepy crawlers, which one day I hope to overcome as an obstacle.

The Road Quotes

      In my novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I have encountered several quotes that stands out to me and are important contribution to the novel:

"He's going to die. We can't share what we have or we'll die too" (pg 52)

This quote is significant because during the trip, the Man and the Boy encounters a man slouching on the side of the road; dying after being strucked by lightening. The Boy wanted to help him but the Man said they couldn't because of their limited amount of resources, if they share some then they will have less resources and will die eventually. In this situation it is "every man for themselves", meaning that no matter what happens the Man will try everything he can to make sure both himself and the Boy survives, without helping anyone out so they will have enough resources to make it to the east coast.

'"Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us"' (pg 56)

This is the quote that the Man's wife said before she left him and the Boy to commit suicide. His wife didn't want to go to the east coast with them because she is skeptical that there is nothing there and will get killed before they arrive at the east coast. This is significantly important to the novel because after the apocalyptic disaster, all the resources have ran out and the majority of the population became mindless savages and cannibals.

"Sometimes the child would question him questions about the world that for him was not even a memory" (pg 53)

The Boy was at a very young age when the apocalyptic disaster hit, and he has no memory of the world before the disaster since he was too young to remember the past. He frequently questions the Man about the world before the disaster because he wants to know what it looked like before everything was grey and filled with ashes. This is important because the Man doesn't want to sadden the the Boy by filling him with memories from which the Boy doesn't remember. He wants him to think of the past because there is no past since it is wiped out by the disaster.

Evolution of Computar Language

          Slowly, the computer language and abbreviations are going into formal writings, such as essays, resumes, and memorandums. Words such as "wanna" and "Imma" are used instead of "want to" and I'm a" respectively. Compare Old English to Middle English to Early Modern English, it is different in each period with different pronunciations, dialogues, and new words replacing old words. In the modern Twenty First Century, technologies has been a huge impact on the human civilization. Technologies such as cellphones and computers have major influence on the modern society. It changes our language by making short cuts to words so it can be typed faster on the keyboard. Words like "Asian"and phrases like "I see you" are changed to "azn" and "I C U" respectively. But these abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided in the formal writings because in the world, a lot of people still don't understand or know the meanings of most of the abbreviations and acronyms. Therefore, it leads to misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the jargons being used.  Despite of all the negative changes to the English language, this is more of a natural evolution of the language rather then a degeneration. If you looked at the timeline from very first Old English Period to the current Modern English Period, you can see that it is constantly changing and new words are added and replacing the old words. In terms of the current situation right now, the language is constantly changing and is inevitable and should be embraced instead of prevention. A lot of words are frequently being introduced everyday, but it is more of a meme then a permanent change. Therefore, most words won't last for decades and it will disappear really fast because it's a meme. So prevention and monitoring should not be enforced in society, but instead teach the next generation of how to properly use the language.