Reflect on the themes in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment". Write a comment making an assertion about the most important theme in the story that connects with you. Use at least two pieces of textual evidence which prove your choice of theme is valid and give one example of how the theme influences your thinking about your own life. Conclude with a sentence that ties your thoughts together.
Read the posts of your peers and comment on at least two. Make sure to reply using a supportive, scholarly tone. Extend the thoughts of the original post by adding textual evidence or relevant personal experience.
The most important theme in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is that you cannot go back in the past and redo events; what is done is done and you can not change that. In the story, Dr. Heidegger warns his visitors before they drink to think about all the perils of youth. He says afterward that he does not want to drink the water, even if the spring of the fountain of youth was gushing at his door. This theme makes me think of when I was little and my mom always told me that no matter how many times you apologize, cruel words can never be taken back. This ultimitly shows that if Dr. Heidegger's visitors did go back to their youth, that anything they did would still remain.
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ian
11/2/2012 05:15:31 am
Good thought Ian!
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Beau
11/5/2012 10:10:38 am
I really love your ideas
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Johnny
11/7/2012 03:41:22 am
I completely agree with your ideas that you have to use the time you have.
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Landon
11/7/2012 10:05:04 am
Ian this is wonderful evidence from the book and you used a very good life experience that is very true. The statement you mad about your childhood really brought back times of mine.
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Eric
11/18/2012 08:26:51 pm
Good ideas iam
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Dylan
11/5/2012 05:18:01 am
The theme that I believe is the most important theme in doctor Heideggers experiment is that you can't change the past. When the four friends of the doctor are given the liquid, they instantly are addicted to it. As the grow younger, they feel as though they have a second chance. The fact of the matter is though, a second chance at youth does not mean a second chance at the past. When a kid moves to new school, they think to them selves " hey, I've got a clean slate" because no one knows them or there past. But in reality, there the same person, just acting differently. The second a person from that kids old school comes in, the kid knows its all over. In a week or so, everyone will know that kids was just putting on a show, wearing a mask, etc. It's the same with the fountain of youth, who ever drinks from it will seem to have a new identity or a second chance when in reality they are just hiding from the truth.
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Beau
11/5/2012 10:08:53 am
I like you assertion Dylan very nice.
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Jordan Epstein
11/6/2012 07:54:03 am
I love your example of the new slate because no one knows you in the new area, great example!
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Jerry
11/6/2012 08:59:38 am
Like your thought ,as you say"When the four friends of the doctor are given the liquid, they instantly are addicted to it. " I almost got a image in my brain ,four greedy people can't wait to be young.
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Rachel C
11/6/2012 10:34:54 am
I love your example of a new mask and comparing it to new kids in schools. Great connections!
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Paul
11/7/2012 12:41:10 am
Fantastic example! Yes, we cannot change back, the best way we can do is that go to face the reality, and keep going.
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Kellen
11/7/2012 07:38:13 am
That was a very nice assertion Dylan good job.
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Macy
11/7/2012 08:04:51 am
I love your assertion you did a very good job especially tying the story to the real world.
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Lydia
11/8/2012 11:08:45 am
Great assertion. We cannot change or turn back time and I think that links to my theme because since we can't change back time or redo things why are we wasting opportunities? Great post Dylan!
Dexter
11/27/2012 09:12:54 am
Great, in our life, sometimes we don't want to people know what we look like in past. We want ti show them a best person we are.
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Beau
11/5/2012 10:08:23 am
In "Dr. Hiedegger" the theme is the story is " life is a one time opportunity and there are no second chances." When all of his patients drink the water they do not change, there old life. The story is saying make your life good while you have the chance. Earlier in the story Dr. Hiedeggers fiancé is in the mirror. This is a constant reminder to him that he took her life and she will never live again. The theme of "Dr. Hiedegger" is to live your life fully while you have the chance.
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Isabella
11/6/2012 08:15:42 am
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Isabella
11/6/2012 08:16:37 am
Sorry... I accidentally hit the Submit.
Second chances almost 99% of the time come. Like Beau said, we have to live on our first chance. We do have to live our life great the first time. "Living our lives fully" means that we have to do the good things and avoid the bad in our lives. We never know when our life could end. We need to live ever day as if it was our last.
Steven
11/8/2012 10:27:43 am
I completely agree with you. You should make the most of your young life it while it lasts and move on. They should have accepted that fact that their youth was over in the first place.
Lydia
11/8/2012 11:16:38 am
I agree with you beau. We need to forget the past and keep moving forward. If we dwell in the past then we will never recover from our mistakes. Living your life to the fullest is very important because if you don't you will remember that chance you may have had to be great and you blew it... But why dwell in the past when we could just move forward and not do it again?
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Eric
11/18/2012 08:25:48 pm
Yes, if you even get a second chance you are going to need to use it wisely but a second chance at life is even more important not to screw up.
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Isabella
11/5/2012 11:50:15 am
The theme of Dr. Heidegger's experiment is that we should not wish to change our lives. What already happened is in the past and we have already lived it. We should not wish to go back and change things. In the story the water from the fountain brings back youth. The people that Dr. Heidegger has consulted for this experiment are his friends. They all wish to try the water. Later, they want more after being satisfied the first time with it. They all wish back their youth. Once they have the water, they want mire so that way they can live in their youth for a while. They all keep drinking it, especially the widow. They don't want to leave their youth the way that it was, they want to relive it and have a second chance. The theme influence me because I should live my life with honesty and courage. I should not want to change past events, but I should want to look at the good things in the future. I conclude that no matter what events may affect you life, you should always do something in a way that you would not look back on it negatively.
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Claire
11/6/2012 05:46:03 am
Isabella!! I really really strongly deeply love your opinion!
Your conclusion is wonderful! I know what i want to write but i was confusing about my conclusion. Your opinion make me feel like i solve all problem that I had. I so agree with your opinion. I am glad that I can read this paragraph.
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Jordan Epstein
11/6/2012 07:57:13 am
Great way of viewing this Isabella, I never thought of this. Your theme made me look at this Story in a different view. Great work. :)
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Rachel C
11/6/2012 10:45:48 am
Good job Isabella! I like how you said we should not wish to change our lives. I completely agree, we should cherish our one life because we will not be able to go back and change our mistakes or become young again.
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Paul
11/7/2012 12:36:50 am
I agree with you. Cherish what you have now and you will feeling happy. We have no chance to regret because we are living in the reality.
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Macy
11/7/2012 08:06:25 am
I love this Isabella especially your conclusion. I completely agree with the fact that it shouldn't affect you negatively.
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Dexter
11/27/2012 09:08:34 am
Great, i love you are idea. We need to make future better than before.
The theme I choose for Dr. Heidegger is you only live once, so don't miss a chance. In this story these people get a second chance at youth. The first time around they all made mistakes that in the long run they regret. All Aware what they did to end up like they are. Given the "fountain of youth" water, they become greedy. Wanting more once seeing the results. They did not follow Dr. Heideggers advice about righting a list that will lead them to not take the same paths as before. These people are in awe, and take advantage, forgetting the purpose in the first place.
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Isabella
11/6/2012 08:21:24 am
If we all got a second chance, we would not live the first well. Like Jordan said, "we all make mistakes." We have to move on after they happen. If we make a mistake, we need to think of a way to make it better. If we got a second chance, we would be greedy for a third. This story teaches us a valuable lesson about our lives. No matter what happens, we have to live through the bad mistakes and hope for the better not a second chance.
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Jerry
11/6/2012 08:58:01 am
Love your thought , your theme give me a different understanding about this story
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Steven
11/8/2012 10:29:44 am
I agree. Like I said in my comment below, you should make the most of your youth while it lasts.
Isabella
11/13/2012 10:09:22 am
When reading stories we need to interpret them in as many ways as possible. This will help us learn new ways to connect things from our life to the story. We will also understand the types of action and the type of story that is happening. When we read, we use connotation and denotation. These can help us a lot in understand how to interpret a story.
Jerry
11/6/2012 08:53:10 am
My opinion of The theme of doctor Heidegger is enjoy the current,and you can't change the past.in the paragraph we got a lot of allusions that told us the dark side of human's thoughts. Dr's friends all did inane things before, seems time didn't absolve them. When they got a chance to back to youth, the first thing they do is not correct their fault. They had a convivial ,but pragmatic thing is they are just being duped. The widow thought the fountain embellish herself. But all the living things must comply the rules that no one can go back to the past. They all retrospect the past and don't think about the future. That's the foible of all human.cryptic water evoke the desire of these people. Dr was right ,he gave them advice. But they just want to go to the fountain and drunk all day, and live in the past.....
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Rachel C
11/6/2012 10:31:34 am
The theme of Dr. Heidegger's Experiment is that your only have one lifetime to live and should never leave the earth knowing you left some regrets behind. All Dr. Heidegger's friends had at least one thing the regret and want to fix. They all want to be young again. Dr. Heidegger is giving them a chance to "feel young" again. When the drink the water from the fountain of youth, the friends are the only ones who can see themselves as young again. They all forget about there regrets because they feel young again. They all begin to become greedy. The friends didn't listen to Dr. Heidegger and forgot the purpose of becoming young again. The friends forget the whole meaning of this experiment and take advantage of it.
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Claire
11/8/2012 08:20:54 am
I agree with you, Rachel. I really like your opinion. Like you just said, we should never make regrets. Also I like your textual evidence, your evidence is nice! I think your thought is great.
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Runqiu,ma
11/7/2012 12:14:23 am
'Dr. Heidegger's experience makes me think about our lives. The most important theme to me is that although someone has the chance come back to past, he still can change nothing. Before the guests drink the water, doctor warns them that do not make the same mistake they have been made before. But the guest they did, that was doltish. It remained me something my mom told me. Every time I failed, she will tell me:“ let it go, u can't change what happened in the past, they will always be there.”
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Paul
11/7/2012 12:31:25 am
Dr. Heidegger represents the innocent and curious character in the gothic literature, he learns from his experiment about the insanity of challenging the future, and specifically about the asinine, greedy, vain, impetuous and prideful ordinary humans. As his friends, they raised the glasses to their lips, look as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was, and drink it. Three men return to the behavior they all did which made them fail in their youth, they try to get the woman who is very beautiful, and even begin fight, breaking the magical water vase losing the chance at immorality. All of his friends plan to go to the Florida, and drink the fountain forever. Dr. Heidegger said even though the watcher of youth is all lavished on the ground, he would never drinking it. Unlike his subject, Dr. Heidegger is more innocent and realistic.
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Johnny
11/7/2012 03:42:07 am
I like your ideas and see where you are coming from.
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Johnny
11/7/2012 03:39:30 am
I think that the theme in Dr. Hiedegger's experiment is to enjoy the youth that you have because you cannot get it back.
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Ian
11/8/2012 03:02:34 am
That is a very good point Johnny. You had a very nice post and it was short and sweet.
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John
11/8/2012 08:23:00 am
Good theme Johnny because I think this applies to everyone.
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Isabella
11/13/2012 10:14:02 am
We have to live out our youth and make the most of it. When we grow old, we will wish that we should have done something when we were younger. The only way that we can avoid this is by living our lives to their fullest. We don't want to have regrets when we are older. Live your life so that you will never wish for more or regret what happened.
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Macy
11/7/2012 08:02:21 am
In Dr. Heidegger's Experiment the theme is that regretting your past and wanting to redo it isn't worth anything. I believe that the things you do that you regret help build the person you are now and that is what happened to the four friends, but they didn't realize that I helped build them as a person. You should not regret the past or else you will never grow and will live in fear of repeating the same thing that you regret, but if you learn and grow from it you won't repeat it. The four friends lived in fear of repeating the same events so they never grew and feared the past. They didn't realize they had to grow until the end of story. Regretting the past and wanting to redo will never help you grow as a person and I believe that is the main theme in Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
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Kellen
11/7/2012 08:06:27 am
That a really nice theme Macy you shouldn't wait to redo what you did in the past just focus on the present.
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Ian
11/8/2012 02:59:53 am
Good thought, I think that thought really relates to life in general and applies to everyone.
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Kellen
11/7/2012 08:05:09 am
In "Dr. Heidegger" the theme of the story is that you only live once and you can't turn back time to change what you have already done. You learn this in his four good friends wanting to go back and change what they did in their youth. When you talk to the elderly thay always say I wish I had my youth back. That's what Heidegger's friends want to do. Dr. Heidegger sayed he doesn't want to go back Toni's youth he likes what's happened to him. When I ask elderly people would you go back and fix something and have a second chance. They usually say "no I'm happy for what I've done in my life." Or thay say" mistakes happen for a reason without mistakes what are us. Mistakes makeup a human being." This theme influences my life by teaching me that when I make mistakes I know that something good always comes out of them. Dr. Heidegger teaches me that I'm only young for so long and it goes by quick. We shouldn't wast our you we should live it do things now that we may never do again. It's opened my eyes to see that as long as I don't dwell on the past and look to the future I will be okay. I should learn from my mistakes not dwell on them.
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Landon
11/7/2012 10:07:27 am
Kellen I love the ideas you are giving and the textual evidence you gave out just helps me understand the story even more!
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Landon
11/7/2012 10:15:14 am
In "Dr. Heidegger" the theme of the story is you only live once so once you do something positive or negative it can't be mad up either way. In the story the four elderly people really wanted the water from the fountain of youth but Dr. Heidegger didn't want to go back to the days when he was younger because he believed you shouldn't have regrets in your first go around and need to fix them a second time around. When I was a younger boy my parents told me that once you make a decision it can't be made up so make the good decision the first time and you won't have regrets
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John
11/8/2012 08:20:54 am
Landon I liked your theme "You only live once"
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Claire
11/7/2012 07:46:19 pm
In Dr.Heidegger's experiment, there is fountain of water bring us back to their youth. All his friends want to drink. Dr. Heidegger warn his four friends before they drink magic water to make sure that think about perils of youth. I think a lot of people regret and complain about their past. Also they usually think that they can do much better than what they did before if they have one more chance. But actually they aren't. Even though they have more chance to do it again, they can't because no matter they are in past or present, they are both same one person. If they didn't do it before, then they can't do it either even if they go back. Also if they can change past when they go back, then why don't they just make future wonderfully? If they can change past, then they can change future, too. So I think what we should do and what this story want to telling about is do not complain or regret what you did before. Accept the past and learn from that to make wonderful future.
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John
11/8/2012 08:19:02 am
The theme of Dr. Heidegger is "you can't change the past". This is because when his four guests visit and then drink from thier cups they do not stay young for long. Plus you can't change the past because people will remember your old past and judge you how you then. As they say " you only get one first impression". This relates to me because when I was younger I would draw on the walls with marker and I could hide them for a while but sooner or later my parents would take the sheets down from the wall and see them. This relates to his four guests because they were young to cover up their old age but in the inside they were still the same.
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Steven
11/8/2012 10:14:57 am
Dr. Heidegger's experiment is that you should be happy with what you have. This is the theme because if they were not so anxious to be young again and to be with a young women again, this would have never gotten out of hand. This also applies to Dr. Heidegger himself because if he wasn't so curious to know more, he would have never made his friends go through this.
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Steven
11/8/2012 10:22:22 am
Sorry... This continues on with my 1st comment:
The feeling of being young made them go crazy over Widow Whicherly. They got jealous of each other and just about got in a brawl. This situation reminds me of when I get something new such as a new video game, I become obsessed over it at first and if it gets taken away I am no longer happy with what I have. If I had never got the game in the first place I wouldn't be so upset to not have it. For these reasons you should always be happy with what you have.
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Lydia
11/8/2012 11:04:42 am
I think that the theme of Dr. Heidegger is that you should not take advantage of or waste the opportunities that are given to you. In the story all of the characters have something that they regret. They all took advantage of or wasted their youth. Dr. Heidegger gave them a chance to redo it... We are not all that lucky. When you leave the earth you want to leave without regrets. If you waste an opportunity, when you look back on it you wish you had not done what you did. I wish that there were things we could go back and do over... But in reality there are no actual second chances. So live your life to the fullest and don't let laziness take away the opportunities you get given to you.
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JJ Burns
11/14/2012 09:09:38 am
Lydia I totally agree with you, everyone should take advantage of the opportunities they get because you may not get them again.
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Isabella
11/13/2012 10:20:36 am
I feel that these people are living in a state of regret. They wish that they lived their lives differently. They know that the only way they can change it is through drinking the water. Once they start drinking it, their lives can go back to where they regretted something. It is almost like a second chance. These second chances change their lives. When they come back to reality, they learn the difference of time. Time is a key factor that contributes to their wishes. Time makes them want to change events that happened in the past so that their life in the future will help them benefit. I feel that without time, everything would be perfect and we would never feel regret. Sometimes we have to face the bad to get to the good.
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JJ Burns
11/14/2012 09:01:43 am
I think the most important theme is that you get 1 chance in life. If you get a second chance then you are the luckiest person in the world. In that 1 life you need to live your best and the best way you can. Youth is the most important, you don't want to mess your youth up because that's where some of your best memories come from. For ex: the widow Wycherley's beauty was best at the youth times and teens. So you got to love life while you can. Main deal is that you don't always get 2nd chances at life, so live life well.
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Eric
11/18/2012 10:47:23 am
The most important theme is that you you only get one chance in life and that one chance you need to use wisely and should only be abl,e to live it once
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Dexter
11/27/2012 09:00:07 am
The most important theme in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is you cannot change back, if you did something wrong before you cannot to fix that. When i was young my mom always tell me, you need do everything be careful and do best, because you cannot change. Just like snag, you put in the wood, you can pull out but still have trace on the wood.
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dexter
11/27/2012 09:02:22 am
we don't need to look back what things we doing wrong, we need to make future better. Try our best .
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Dexter
11/27/2012 09:10:01 am
I like this sentence Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. —Albert Einstein
You seem to know a lot about this, like you created the distribution in it or something.Read the posts of your peers and comment on at least two. Make sure to reply using a supportive, scholarly tone.
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Mrs. Soueidan loves literature, loves Walsingham Academy, and particularly enjoys 9th graders who fill her room with new ideas every day.