Dreams

Dreams are a very important part of living; they give you a reason to get out of bed and work towards achieving it. However, your dreams can affect everyone around you and they don't always react the way you'd like them to.






In "A Raisin in the Sun," all the characters have dreams, and they all affect the people around them differently. Mama's dream to own a house with a garden and lots of light leads her to buy a house in an all-white neighborhood, which makes Walter angry and the family nervous. Beneatha's dream to embrace her heritage irritates George, but Asagai wants her to embrace her background too, as he has. Walter's dream to be able to provide for his family creates the biggest issue with the family however; he invests their last $6500 in his friend's liquor store thinking he'll make money, but his friend runs off with the money. His dream of being able to provide for his family is shattered and all their money is gone, leaving everyone angry with him.

My dream is to either own my own pastry shop and become a pastry chef since I love baking, or become a hairstylist. My mom, however, doesn't really like the idea of her child not having a "real job." But, she still supports me and has taught me everything I know about baking.

The Wealthy

Not all, but a lot of wealthy people believe that because they're rich, they don't have to do anything for themselves and they don't care about other "lower-class people." 

In The Great Gatsby, people like Daisy and Tom are rather wealthy and don't care about anyone except themselves. When Daisy hits and kills Myrtle, she doesn't really care and though Myrtle was Tom's lover, all he does when he finds out is try to get Gatsby in trouble. Even when Gatsby dies, none of his friends care enough about anyone but themselves to come to his funeral besides Nick, Gatsby's father and Owl Eyes. In "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," the Washingtons have found a huge diamond and live on the "only 5 acres of unsurveyed land" and don't want to be discovered. Because they don't want to be found and share their wealth, they shoot down any planes that fly overhead and take any passengers prisoner. They also have hundreds of slaves to do everything for them under the impression that The South won The Civil War and that slavery is still legal. 

Even in modern day the wealthier people tend to just pay people to do everything for them rather than do it themselves. For example, Danny Worsnop, lead singer of Asking Alexandria, said in an interview that when he was just starting out, he "knew everything"; when they were playing, what time to be onstage, what time to be back to the bus, every detail. But he says now that they've made it big, they just pay people to do things for them. He says now he doesn't know where they're playing the next day when he's on tour, he doesn't even know how to plug his microphone
in because it's easier to just hire someone to do 
these things for him.

Of course, not all wealthy people are like this; JK Rowling for example has donated so much money to charity that she isn't a billionaire anymore. However, it seems that many people, once they become rich enough to do so, would rather pay people to do everything for them and lose interest in other peoples' lives.

"The Gay Gatsby"

The question of whether or not Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway are gay is very controversial because it is left unanswered and therefore open-ended. I think that Nick is, though he may be unaware, gay and has a major thing for Gatsby.

I read a Lit. Crit. on The Great Gatsby through a "queer lens" as the author puts it; the author of the text very strongly believed that Nick was gay and provides a lot of evidence. Although some of it is a stretch, some of what it said would support my stance. For instance, Nick wipes Mr. McKee's face with a cloth and winds up in his bedroom where McKee is naked...then leaves at four in the morning with no memory of what happened. Tell me that doesn't scream, "I JUST DID NAUGHTY THINGS WITH ANOTHER MAN!" Now of course, this is just my opinion, and just one interpretation. 

 Now there were also rumors that Fitzgerald was gay; Zelda even accused him of having an affair with Hemingway, his best friend. Zelda may have been right however; not only did Fitzgerald cross dress later in his life, but Fitzgerald and Hemingway liked to joke about "pederasty, anal eroticism, and other forms of perversion." (Mayfield 133) I think that Fitzgerald was using his writing as a way to express his homosexual feelings.

The History Teacher

Little children are born innocent, and most parents try to keep that innocence. For example, if a young child's grandfather dies, their parents wouldn't say, "Oh yeah, Grandaddy's dead. You'll never see him again." Their parents would probably say something like, "Grandaddy went to be with Grammy forever, don't worry though, he's happy now and in a better place."

This weekend, we had to read "The History Teacher" by Billy Collins. In the poem, the history teacher is describing historical events by what it sounds like happened in very mild and kind terms. Some people believe that he was flat out lying to the kids, some believe that he was just protecting their innocence. I side with the people that believe he was protecting their innocence because I tend to see the good in people. I think that because his intentions were good, he shouldn't be criticized. He was just trying to keep the kids innocent for as long as possible because its so easy in this day and age to become very cynical or to go down "the wrong path."

However, the history teacher not telling the kids the whole truth is kind of like growing up not knowing about your past or ancestors; what if you didn't know something about your family's history but everyone around you did? What if it was something important, like the fact that the Enola Gay didn't just drop a tiny atom. How freaky would it be if everyone knew something about you that you didn't?

Guilt

Everyone has felt guilty at some point in their life; whether it was sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar or hurting a friend , everyone has felt the horrible feeling of guilt.

 In The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale commit adultery together and each have their own punishment and guilt. Hester's punishment is more public than Dimmesdale's and is just to wear a scarlet "A" on all of her clothes, though her guilt is more towards Dimmesdale's self-punishment. Dimmesdale feels immense guilt and internally punishes himself for his crime. Because he hasn't told anyone and doesn't feel absolved for his sins, Dimmesdale beings to die inside and later his own mark appears on his chest; Dimmesdale eventually dies because he hasn't told anyone about his sins.


** In the Harry Potter series, Regulus Arcturus Black (Sirius' brother) half-heartedly joins the Death Eaters and lets Voldemort use his house elf and friend Kreacher as a guinea pig for his hidden horcrux. Kreacher is put through hell testing out how well Voldemort's horcrux is hidden and how the defenses affect people. Once he returns, Kreacher tells Black all about it and Regulus feels extremely guilty for joining the Death Eaters and letting Kreacher be tortured. Because he is so guilty, Black goes to the cave where the horcrux is hidden, knowing he is going to die, and drinks the poisonous potion himself; steals the horcrux; and has Kreacher go back without him and destroy it while he is left to die. Guilt really can eat away at your soul, and really can cause people to die.


**In case you don't know, I love Harry Potter and can relate almost anything to it. So I apologize if you don't like Harry Potter or don't get the reference. If you don't get it and haven't read the books or seen the movies, either ask me about it or go read/watch it. Seriously. Best series ever. [:

Men vs. Women

Almost no matter where you go, there is going to be a difference in the way men and women are treated. Whether it's just assuming dinner was cooked by the woman and the computer fixed by the man, or the woman getting a lesser pay for the same job a man does, men and women are not treated equally. 

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has committed adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale, and though no one knows that he was involved, they would be treated differently if he was revealed as the adulterer. Hester is a woman, a poor, cheating woman, and Dimmesdale is a priest and a respected man; although they would both be punished for their crime, Hester's punishment would most likely be harsher, and Dimmesdale would probably be let off easier than Hester. Because of gender as well as social standings, Hester would continue to be shunned whereas Dimmesdale would be removed from the church and would lose some respect, but would be forgiven MUCH sooner than Hester.

We see this inequality in today's society in the extremely common stereotype of how women should stay in the kitchen, cook, clean and take care of the kids while men are being taken care of or at work making money. Another example of unequal treatment is that a man and woman can have the exact same level of education and exact same job, but the woman would make up to 30% less than the man. Men and women should be treated the same, as they are the same; men and women are both human beings.

Transcendentalism

When most people hear the word "transcendentalism," they think "ew, that's a long word. It sounds boring." But when I hear "transcendentalism" I think of trees, flowers and forests and how transcendentalists believed nature was true beauty. They were also strong supporters of the whole "carpe diem" theme and believed that everyone should be their own unique individual and live every day like it is their last.


In class this week, I had to read Steve Jobs' commencement speech and relate it to transcendentalism. In his speech, he was basically telling people to go do what they love and be unique and be your own person and live every day like you won't have another, and all of that relates back to transcendentalism. 

However Transcendentalists also believe that death is inevitable so you should live life fully because death will catch up, so embrace it, and don't fear it, as well as that nothing you do is permanent but nature stays constant and continues. In "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls," the poem has a lot of repetition and parallelism to symbolize nature's consistency.


 Transcendentalism also makes me think of the movie "Avatar;" how the Na'vi are so nature-oriented and how they pretty much worship nature which similar to transcendentalists' views of nature  only one step farther.

Persuasion

Arguments are a natural part of life; almost no one sees everything exactly the same so they disagree, and argue their point. Some of the most important things in an argument are the persuading techniques. 

In The Crisis, Thomas Paine uses a mixture of emotional, and ethical appeals, as well as appeals to authority and association to prove his point and try to convince Americans to join the war cause. He succeeds in doing so because his persuasion techniques were so effective; for example he wrote, "There are persons too who see not the full extent of the evil that threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if they succeed with be merciful." which is an emotional appeal of fear. He persuades his audience in the same way Jonathan Edwards did in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by using fear to make people think they have to do something.

Using fear to persuade someone is still widely used today. For example, when little kids do something wrong their parents would say something like, "I'm going to count to three, and then you're going to be in BIG trouble missy!" or "You better come here now, or else!" The child, of course, doesn't want to find out what "BIG trouble" is or what "or else" means, so they come running back to their parents. 

Mass Hysteria Feeds on Fear

 Mass hysteria is when a group of people have  hysterical behaviors like anxiety or fear and it can spread extremely fast.

In "The Crucible," the people of Salem go kind of crazy and their fear fuels the mass hysteria affecting the city. Abigail and her "witchcraft" as well as all of her accusations are making everyone in the town afraid that there are witches in Salem. Because they have a Theocracy, witchcraft is a crime because it is against the Bible. So when people started randomly accusing anybody, they would get scared because they didn't want to go to jail or be hanged. This fear kept spreading until eventually most people in the town were afraid, and thus, mass hysteria was created. The mass hysteria only grew bigger as their fear increased and affected more people.

A similar event happened during the "Red Scare" when America was so afraid of Communists taking over. A man named  Joseph McCarthy started accusing people of being Communists, except he had no proof and was just picking people like in "The Crucible." Americans were terrified of Communism taking over the country so also like in the play, their fear spread and created mass hysteria.

Basically it happens like this; something happens that affects people, a couple people become afraid, their fear spreads to more people, and then whole towns become taken over by mass hysteria. 

How Much Power Do People Really Have?

Most people don't realize how much power and influence they can have over their town, community or even the world. However, sometimes people do, and have to choose to use their influence for good or bad.


 
In The Crucible, one of the main characters, Abigail Williams, realizes how much power she has over people, and uses it selfishly. Abigail comes up with a huge master plan to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch just to get to her ex-lover John Proctor, who doesn't even want her anymore. Abigail enlists Proctor's servant, Mary, and has her plant a voodoo doll in the Proctors' house and frame Elizabeth as being a witch. While Abigail is accusing people of witchcraft, the townspeople are becoming more and more nervous and end up accusing random people and wrongfully pointing their fingers. This is exposing the fact that Abigail has the power to control people even when she isn't around them, and she can indirectly make anything happen. 



Just like Abigail, Lord Voldemort, from the  Harry Potter series, has such an influence and great power over people and chooses to use it selfishly. He has a large group of followers who end up inflicting horror and mass hysteria on the whole magical world. Voldemort also has one of his followers, Peter Pettigrew, frame Sirius Black just to get to the Potters as Abigail does with Mary and Elizabeth.

Stereotypes in Modern Day

Stereotyping has been prevalent for centuries, and is still very common in society today. Even though they are very hurtful, people continue to judge anyone who isn't just like them, or who doesn't "fit the mold." 

In "The General History of Virginia," by John Smith, Native Americans are automatically regarded as "savages" just because they live differently than the European settlers. It didn't matter to the whites that they could help them or were just different but still human, because they weren't the same they were deemed "stern barbarians," and below them. In William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation," Native Americans are treated the same way. Although they help the settlers, they are still just thought to be savages.

This week the students of Troy High had an assembly where Mykee Fowlin, a public speaker against bullying and stereotyping, gave his "speech" and talked about how it affects people. Mykee was very good at voices, so he used props and changed his voice to turn into different types of people to show how hurtful stereotypes can really be. One of his examples was an African American boy in high school, on the football team, but had a thing for his best bud. Now, most people wouldn't expect him to be gay; most people would think, "Oh, he's black and tough and on the football team, he must have had tons of hot girlfriends!" Really most people would expect anything but him being gay. This just goes to show how different people are then what stereotypes say, no matter what gender, age or race they are. 

Native Americans in a Pickle

Throughout America's history, Native Americans have been treated unfairly and marginalized. They haven't had the same educational opportunities, they're extremely stereotyped and thus, are in a pickle. 

One example of a Native American that has been through a lot of stereotyping and has faced a lot of unequal treatment is Sherman Alexie. In "Indian Education," he tells the reader how he was stereotyped during his school years. For example, Alexie says in second grade his teacher "gave me a test designed for junior high students. When I spelled all the words right, she crumpled up the paper and made me eat it." Even in second grade Alexie was being treated unfairly, even by teachers. Another example is another story by Alexie, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." In this story, Alexie tells the reader about one of the many times he was the victim of stereotyping. One night Alexie walks to a 7-11 and when he walks in, he can see the cashier as he eyes him suspiciously, watching him, afraid he'll shoot or rob him. Alexie recognizes this look and realizes that because of his dark skin and long hair, he fits the stereotype and decides to have a little fun. He walks through the store, looking down the aisles, and doesn't answer the clerk's questions right away just to make him nervous. When he gets to the counter, the clerk turns his back and asks him to clarify which size Slurpee he wanted and Alexie plays with his mind but the cashier notices. Alexie then jokes with him and reveals that he was just playing off of the stereotype. Just because he had dark skin and long hair didn't mean that he was "bad news" or going to shoot the cashier.

Another example of unequal treatment and marginalization of people from history is how African Americans were treated and regarded as lower than white people. To explain, African Americans definitely did not have all of the same opportunities that white people had, such as colleges or careers. They were also marginalized in that they were discriminated against just because of their skin color and weren't getting paid the same amount as white people were for the same jobs, and they could only use bathrooms and schools that were "black only." 

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