Du Bois begins by introducing the characters of Jim and Julia, who come from very different racial backgrounds. By placing them as the last two survivors in a post-apocalyptic scenario, Du Bois uses irony to highlight the absurdity of racial divisions. The fact that a black man and a white woman are the sole survivors, contrary to the racial hierarchies of the time, challenges societal norms and prejudices.

The comet itself serves as a symbol of destruction and rebirth. It signals the end of the old world and the potential for a new, more equitable one. In this sense, the comet is a literary device that ties the story’s events to the broader message of transformation and hope.

The story concludes with ambiguity, leaving the fate of Jim and Julia uncertain. This open-ended conclusion serves as a rhetorical strategy, encouraging readers to consider the possibilities and challenges of a future world where racial prejudices may be reevaluated and redefined.

Rewriting the past allows for a reevaluation of historical narratives from different perspectives. It enables marginalized voices, often excluded from mainstream historical accounts, to be heard. This process helps address historical injustices, correct misrepresentations, and reveal the complexities of the past, especially in the context of race relations in the U.S.

Fiction that rewrites the past or envisions alternative futures can serve as a source of inspiration for real-world activism and social change. It demonstrates that different futures are possible, motivating individuals and communities to work towards a more equitable and just society. In sum, rewriting the past and imagining alternative futures in literature is a valuable tool for addressing historical injustices, challenging existing racial dynamics, and envisioning a more equitable and inclusive society. It serves not only as a means of reflection but also as a catalyst for real-world change and progress in the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the United States and beyond.

The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois was a fascinating read on how in the end there will be nothing. The author emphasized the use of rhetorical strategies and literary devices to a afrofuturism world. Techniques like pathos and imagery are used throughout the story to illustrate the purpose and message to the reader. In the story, a comet is headed to NYC and wipes out everyone except two people. This left a black man and a white woman with no choice but to work together and survive. However, when they soon realized that it was only NYC have been impacted, the woman reverted back to her old ways. She met with other white people and became racist towards him. 


	Du Bois used imagery numerous amount of times throughout the story to demonstrate his purpose that even though there is temporary change some things never change. This is shown in the story because when the woman though it was just them she put her prejudice aside and worked with the black man in order for survival. However, as soon as white people come to let her know that there are other alive she returned back to her prejudice ways by calling him a slur. This can be demonstrated in todays world much frequently. For example, during Covid everyone was unified. We all shared the same goal of survival and helping each other to get back to where we were. On the contrary, when things became normal again there was a rise in discrimination and prejudice towards the very people were all were united with. 

I have read multiple stories about climate change and what the future may hold for the human race. Most of them are bleak, miserable futures, with environments deteriorating in barren wastelands, and society along with it. I quote an example from the short story “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet”:

“In the fourth age we created deserts. Our deserts were of several kinds, but they had one thing in common: nothing grew there. Some were made of cement, some were made of various poisons, some of baked earth. We made these deserts from the desire for more money and from despair at the lack of it. Wars, plagues and famines visited us, but we did not stop in our industrious creation of deserts. At last all wells were poisoned, all rivers ran with filth, all seas were dead; there was no land left to grow food.”

This describes a possible future where the land becomes bone-dry deserts, and the seas becoming poisoned and rotten. And yet, despite all these morbid stories, I don’t feel afraid about the future. The human race is a resilient and adaptable species, and will more than likely live on after the worst of the “global wierding.”

Sure, if the ice caps are lost, then sea levels will rise. Coastal cities will be flooded. Florida will be a thing of the past. Temperatures will swing from sweltering hot summers to freezing winters. Some places of the world will become more productive for plant life, while others will become less productive. Some animal species will become extinct. Others will thrive in new environments.

In the text, the narrator looked into a time capsule that discussed human history, especially around the concept of money and how in a way it became our god. Money since its creation has been something desired by all people. This desire for wanting money would soon lead to the downfall of humanity and leave behind an abandoned planet that’s dried out with no life.

In the text the narrator seems to be someone or something that comes from a different world and or time looking back on human history with an emphasis on how money affected society. The narrator explains that in the second aged people became in awe with money to the point where they said if you had enough of it you could fly. I think this is a very interesting idea because in today’s society we use terms like “trenches” and “mud” when referring to being in a low-income neighborhood or being in a low-income situation yourself. So, when I see that money is being described as something that can make you fly it makes me think about how people in those low-income environments would want to “fly” out of those “trenches”. Money has been used as a symbol to fly out of the bad environment to leave the underground trenches of poverty. Using money as a symbol for flight also expresses how we want to ascend to better things and gain more money for the benefit of a better life. However, this leads to the problem of “flying too high” or greed. In today’s society money being such a symbol of ascension and capability, we grow greedy and only look to have even more and more money. To the point where we can’t even use it in our own lifetime and then get the goal of making the money you earn last generations. In this way we start to fly too high and let the money take control over us and start to use any tactic for money. This is shown in today’s world with corporate greed where many business owners undermine and underpay their employees for the benefit of more money in their pockets. 

When reading “The Comet”, the author, Du Bois, chooses to immediately introduce the audience with the context, the setting, the main character Jim, as well as the eventual foreshadowing of current events. Jim is a poor black man, an outcast, someone who is not viewed equally as other “valuable men” due to the presence of racism embedded into the social hierarchy of their society. He is often pushed aside, as a person of no importance or significance and the way Du Bois demonstrates it is through the use of pronouns instead of his actual given name. He was told to stay within the proximity of the basement while “valuable men” like the President and other important figures headed further into the Earth’s surface to their bunkers which Du Bois implicitly hints towards the categorization and description of wealthy White men. The author chooses to tell his futuristic fiction novel through the use of third person narration, imagery, as well as dialogue amongst the characters to give the audience an clear image of what is being depicted. This rhetorical artifact brings up many connections to the world we live in today. Many times we take changes, especially racial changes for granted despite, people of marginalized groups risking their life to fight for their rights as both equals but also as a human being. Such divisions in society would only further divide citizens of a country, whether it is social, economical, political or racial conflicts.

It wasn’t until “The Comet” that supposedly rained down on Earth that nearly wiped out all of humanity except Jim and Julia, that racial barriers were broken. Jim himself, was petrified that everyone around him were dead silent due to the toxic gas that was excreted out of the comet but it wasn’t just that, it was coincidentally that all of those who are dead around him are whites. I think this sort of creates a contrast about the aftermath of racism in comparison to the society that was fundamentally built on systemic racism. Unlike Jim, Julia, the only other survivor, a rich white girl came to see Jim differently than others as a human being now that they were the only ones that survived such a devastating event. But then the question arrives, would Julia have done the same if “The Comet” incident never took place? What if it briefly nearly touched a speck of the Earth’s atmosphere? I would think that the existing racism would be more likely to persist rather than change. It becomes apparent that our ignorance and prejudice have to take such measures and length to achieve equality for minorities. 

I think a lot of the issues can be said about the society that America has become over the course of its history and such issues are still enduring today. For example, the controversy of Florida banning the teachings of African American history and LGBTQ sensitive psychology just to name a few. Another conflict that was brought up implicitly by Du Bois was money. Although it is true that money is useful for all sorts of stuff but mainly for the convenience of exchange and trade, there are also consequences of such conventions. Money has caused people to feel greed, the idea of not feeling satisfied with the amount of money that they are making as well as envy, the idea of wishing, fantasizing, and wanting to possess the amount of wealth that they themselves can’t require. The same can be applied to the world today, since the industrial age and pre modern times, many immigrants from all over the world to chase and fly in hopes of achieving the so called “American Dream” alternatively known as “The Land of Opportunities.”

P.S. I’m eager to hear, what are your thoughts of “The Comet” by Du Bois? :3

The more worth we have gradually placed on money, the more power it possesses. You need money to be healthy and able to survive. We utilize it in our daily lives and it has become indispensable.

As Margaret Atwood discusses in her article, she provides us a timeline from the beginning of the world to the end of a “now” dead planet. Known for one of her famous books “The Handmaids Tale” she often likes to create fake realities, dystopian worlds, of what the future could become.

Both this article and the novel deal extensively with money. Specifically in the article she particularly enjoys talking about how money has two sides; while it can be useful and aid in survival, it can also breed greed and a create a money hungry person.

When is enough money enough, then? When may we declare that we have enough money? It’s the belief that one can never have too much money. A person’s desire to buy and their level of spending both increase with wealth. As a result, the money cycle never stops because of the importance and power that society places on money, leading us to believe that the more money we own, the more power we actually possess.

Margaret Atwood uses a connective insight in telling her story. She first demonstrates how the first age started with the creation of gods. Whether it was a cruel god/goddess, or one that gave us rain and sunshine, the different gods depict how we believed humanity was run. By Atwood’s use of metaphors, we could understand that gods were powerful and were in control. 

As Atwood shifts to discussing the second age, our next creation is on money. I believe that in each age Atwood talks about, what is valued most at the time is what is deemed most powerful. So similarly how in the first age gods were what controlled humanity, by the second age, wealth in money/currency became our primary focus. Interestingly enough, she connects gods and money and we see how each age follows a similar pattern for the next. 

This is represented by the third age as money became a god. The increasing value that we put on money can either make or break us. Once you get your hands on it, you can’t stop the greed that you have for more. Humanity becomes more money minded and has this everlasting hunger to get their hands on more. 

Highlighting on human’s greed shows how by the fourth age, the world sees nothing new. We create “deserts” or enter this age where there isn’t a new theme that the world focuses on. The world is so caught up on having more money and encouraging industrialization which will inevitably end up damaging the planet. 

No amount of money would be able to change the world. The effects of consumerism will only lead to negative environmental changes and social divides. Atwood is trying to warn us about how there was a time where money was viewed as, “If you have enough of it, it was said, you would be able to fly.” However, she ends by stating, “Pray for us, who once too, thought we could fly.” This is a creative strategy Atwood uses to emphasize how money can’t solve everything. As we let money fall into the wrong hands, our world is at risk to deteriorate. 

Money… We all love money of course. A green paper that has an important figure in the “front” and the “back” with an important building/people/or a symbol or a sliver or copper coin. Family, friends, and relationships are corrupt maybe or mainly because of money. You could disagree or agree, but money breaks up bonds. But we never see the other side, money is destroying nature…

Margaret Atwood started off with the article where god was created and when Earth was all clean, green, and very optimistic imagery. However, as she proceeds throughout the four creations by humans, the realization of the non-realization begins to emerge. Money, the powerful tool we have created has destroyed the planet we are currently living in.

Money is so powerful, yet we can’t combat climate change in this world. It’s crazy what money is capable of and what the upper class have in mind to spend their money on. But for now, the Earth is not what we first started off and climate change is probably not going to go away any time soon.

This could be the movie we are watching in real time; on live.

Well, wasn’t that interesting to read… Nothing in the article that was said was un true. Wow I actually enjoyed this article. Anyway, as we ALL may know, everything revolves around money. Even in times where there wasn’t a small green slip made out of paper with a considered GOD stamped on it, there was always something that gave people power. Today, whoever has money, they can fly meaning they have great power over anyone. Currently according to the author, we are in stage 3 which I refer to as “Time of Regret.”

“Short and simple” plays big in attracting anyone to read anything. SO many events have happened in history but Atwood managed to narrow it down to four stages. FOUR. To add on, from her mood to her diction, she emphasizes that us, as humans, are stupid. Having to describe money as “god” shows that money is powerful. GOD, “powerful” would be an understatement. “It FEAST on famines, songs of joy, lamentations.” This is to show how powerful money can be. SO powerful it consumes what humans need.

(Image from https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/dead-planet)

To move on to stage 4, she doesn’t describe the planet as “dead.” She describes the series of events that now the planet is just a large patch of sand that surrounds what used to be nature. “we did not stop in our industrious creation of deserts.” The planet did not just “die.” We KILLED it. And thats our path as human society…

REPORTING DEAD FROM THE DESERT, I AM HUMAN, BACK TO YOU…

In his book, James Gee discusses how meaning is connected to goals and intentions in communication. Gee says meaning isn’t a fixed concept; it’s influenced by the context in which it’s situated. This means that the importance of a word, phrase, or message can experience modifications based on the individual situation in which it’s employed. For instance, the word ‘work’ in Physics versus its use in everyday language. The term ‘work’ has multiple meanings making it a homophone. Physics defines ‘work’ as the force over a distance, which clearly connects to the force formula. We also use the word ‘work’ to describe the things we do at our work place or at home on a daily basis. Physics and our lifestyle have different purposes and intentions, so even a simple word can have multiple meanings. Though there is some connection to gaming here in the sense that gamers also use various words depending on the game itself, there is still a wider application to this idea. For example, in coding, we have lots of unique phrases and words that sound extremely weird to those who don’t code. Words like “tools,” “control structures,” and “algorithm” have specific meanings in computer programming. The difference between a function and a variable is that a function is a block of code with a specific purpose. These terms have distinct meanings in the programming context, which differ from their everyday language usage. It’s one of the reasons why only .5% of the world’s population knows how to code. It’s easy to not do something difficult and put it off for a later time. As someone who is learning the basics, I often feel challenged learning about these abstract concepts like syntax rules. Nevertheless, we are dealing with something that has only recently become an integral part of society and academia, which makes programming a complex area of interest.