Society's obsession over outer beauty

In the Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray is obsessed with his outer appearance.  He is so unnaturally obsessive over his appearance, he uses the portrait given to him to cover up his actual self.  The portrait shows an old man, not beautiful, according to Dorian.  This relates to society, because many people believe that today's society obsesses over appearance.  The media uses magazines, television shows, and movies to elaborate on outer appearance.  So many television advertisements show young adults modeling beautiful clothing, and most of the time it is showing a picture of a person who is a bit unrealistic.  Another example is that of the models on billboards.  They are photo shopped and changed to create an image that is unrecognizable to the people that they are close with.  It is interesting that society has turned appearance into a game of "who is prettier".  It is most definitely present in schools too.  Look around a high school, the popular kids are the ones with the brand name clothes and expensive cars.  Society is glamorizing a piece of humanity that really isn't as important as others, such as intelligence and personality. 

Women VS. Society

The society that we live in today has brainwashed many minds to believe in things that don't really make any sense.  For example, why are women constantly being put down compared to men?  Even if it is in a sport that girls and boys both play separately, like soccer, girls soccer isn't taken as seriously as boys soccer.  Where are the FIFA games for girls soccer? To me, it shows how unreasonable our society can be.  During this unit, we read A Thousand Splendid Suns, which focused on several women in Afghanistan, and the troubles they went through in every day life.  For example, they couldn't show any parts of their body in public and they had to be accompanied by a man where ever they went.  Not to mention the punishments if a woman committed a crime were much worse than a man's.  Even though the "punishments" for being a woman aren't as bad as they once were, our society today still has problems accepting the fact that men and woman ARE actually equal.  For example, in business it is much more rare to find a CEO of a business to be a woman than a man.  Why is this? Who knows, since women are going to college and gaining an education just like men are.  I have a personal experience with this "segregation", if you will.  I am a region secretary in FBLA.  I am part of a team of officers that over see 14 schools in the area.  This entire officer team is male besides me.  It can be hard being the only girl in a position like this, because some people believe that I just ran for the position for the "looks".  Believe it or not, I actually to care about FBLA and am proud to be able to have the opportunity to run for office.  I wrote the speech for the election, and I stood up in front of the entire region and won them over, and won the vote.  I'm proud of that.  For people to say that I just want to be an officer for the "looks", I get offended.  I think it is time for woman to break out of this barrier that many people still don't see.  This is 2013.  Our world is so technologically advanced, and yet some how, women are still seen to be more "weak" than men.  I think it is an unfair judgement made by many just assuming that because we are women, that we can't achieve something.  This needs to change soon, before we miss out and stay like this for too long!

Is the Right Way Actually Right?

We all have different opinions, but whose is right?  Does a "right" opinion actually exist?  Many people may believe that their opinion is higher then others, but does that really matter?  The study of cultural  relativism has changed the opinions of many people on this topic.  "Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits", was what Ruth Benedict had believed.  It is seen in many places, in reality and literature.  Cultures clash, and people are left to answer who is right.  One part of a culture may seem barbaric to another's culture, but should everyone see it as a bad thing?  In my eyes, people have different opinions, and that is what fuels cultural relativism.  It also goes into the questioning of ethics and morals.  But doesn't a person's ethics depend on how they were brought up?  In other words, the culture decides how the person lives. 

This is seen many times in the novel Things Fall Apart.  When the Christian missionaries came to the tribe, two very different cultures collided. The people of these two cultures got a taste of eachother's morals.  The Christians saw the tribe as barbaric, thinking that twins caused evil, and some children were born with a demon inside of them.  If this was thought, the tribe would kill the young child, sparking the Christians to question if they actually valued the children at all.  If they would have asked the tribe this question, the answer would have been "yes", they do value them.  The children were an important part of daily life for the members of the tribe, contributing to the family by helping the wives with meals and learning to become an important part of society.  They were the future of the tribe.  Also, the fact that if you had many wives in the tribe, it meant that you were a high part of society, scared the Christians.  This differed greatly from the Christian belief that God only wanted a person to have one wife, and to raise a "normal" family by his teachings.

I experienced this "culture shock", if you will, in a smaller degree.  I actually felt this way on a trip I took with my family to Brigantine, New Jersey.  A small island filled with locals spending their days on the beach, surfing, or running their small local business.  When visiting this town, I almost feel out of place.  Even in the middle of summer, at home, I feel that I always need to be doing something, whether it is working or school work, I'm always busy.  Somehow everytime I drive over the bridge to this little town, everything changes.  The days get longer and my way of life changes. One might say this is because of the "vacation" factor, but in reality it is more like a second home to me.  It has more in things in common to my actual hometown in appearance, except for the fact that it is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, then any vacation spots.  The morals of the island people, are to savor every day that was given to them.  I feel that in every day life, people rush around, and waste time on small trivial things rather then stepping back, and looking at the big picture.  When the two cultures crash, it is a big "wake up call" to the people who seem to have been rushing through their lives.  This experience is not as big as the one in Things Fall Apart, but it reminds me of this time.

To me, Cultural Relativism is just someones opinion.  Is one group actually right? One may never know.

Things Fall Apart: "Good or Bad?"

One could say that the problems that the characters of Things Fall Apart endure were heartbreaking.  These problems make me wonder, "Was this actually how life was in this time?".   My questions include the life of women and how the people were forcibly changed.  The life that the women led in this book worried me greatly.  They didn't have rights.  I expected this, becuase many women didn't have rights in this time period, but the fact that the men would be married to many different women, and would live with them all, was quite interesting. I honestly don't think any kind of country could get away with those kinds of actions in this time period, even if they were in a very rural area. I feel that someone would just come and try to make them like everyone else, which is what the Christian people did when they came to the village.
When the Christian people came to take away the tribes culture, I felt terrible.  I was so upset that these people had to go through this, and all the heartbreak that it must have caused. I feel that those missionarys just wanted to make life better for the tribe, although many people didn't think that was what it was about.  The fact that this even happened upsets me.  Although it caused so much pain, it may have brought good to the tribe.  It has been said, that the missionarys helped the village with the newest technology.  Even if this doesn't mean iPhones or iPads, like we have today, it did mean running water and a monetary system.
Even though life was changed greatly back in the time period of Things Fall Apart, I still question if the change was for good or bad.  To me, I see it as an opinion, but for those people, it is their history.

A look at Hamlet...

When reading William Shakespeare's, Hamlet, the reader is often faced with a very common question, "Has Hamlet lost his mind?" This question is brought up when the young prince is brought home from school, after the death of his father, the king of Denmark. When he returns, he finds that his mother has married his uncle, his dead father's brother, right after his father's funeral. Now, his uncle is the king of Denmark, and Hamlet resents this. When a guard tells him that he has seen the ghost of the king's spirit one night, Hamlet gets curious and decides to investigate for himself. When he meets the ghost, it tells him that Hamlet's uncle, plotted and murdered him, and stole his throne. Hamlet becomes enraged, but decides to find out for himself if this actually happened, thinking that this spirit might be the devil. As the story continues, Hamlet's character seems to lose more and more of his mind. Many readers would say that he is just acting, to scare the queen and his uncle into telling him the truth about his father's death. On the other hand, readers will say that when he killed Polonious, he didn't even skip a beat, meaning that he wasn't in the right state of mind to panic when he killed him. Also, after Hamlet killed Polonious, he stayed to talk to his mother, and told her that the ghost was in the room, but she couldn't see it. This makes the audience think that maybe Hamlet is just seeing things, and the revenge of his uncle taking the throne was going to his head. There are many situations through out the story that might make a reader lean to either side of the argument, but by the end of the story, it is never really known whether or not Hamlet has lost his mind. The story lets the audience decide whether or not the prince of Denmark had lost his mind over the death of his father, or that he was just waiting for the right time for his uncle to speak the truth.

What Makes a Hero?

In many different legends the main character of a story is a hero. Whether they are fighting dragons, or saving a princess, many people just generalize, by calling them a hero. But what really does make up a hero? Is it their strength? What about their physical looks? When analyzing the story Beowulf, it was easy to see why Beowulf was a hero. He had it all, the fame, the glory, and the treasures. He even became king by the end of the tale. But does this really make him a hero?
A hero is often catagorized as a person who will lay down their life for another. Whether with their strength, like Beowulf, or with their wit. In the story Beowulf, the hero risks his life to save another kingdom from the evil Grendel. When his own king offers him the throne after he dies because of his great deed, Beowulf modestly declines the offer, instead becomes an advisor to the king's son. A hero is someone who forgets the direct reward for what they do, which means the fame and the money, and does what they do for the good of others around them. In my opinion, a good example of a hero in today's time period, would be some fighting for their country in the armed services. They are risking their lives, to save people, most of whom they don't even know. A person like this exemplifies the true meaning of a hero.

PRISON- A look at the inside

In the Power of One, young Peekay finds himself training with a prison boxing squad. While he believes that he has the world's best boxing coach, Geel Piet, the officials in the prison think quite the opposite. Geel Piet was a African American prisoner who had been in jail more than he had been free in his life. Although this was true, he was a great boxing coach to Peekay, and taught Peekay many things. During his time in prison, Geel Piet was treated very badly; and was eventually murdered by a prison guard. This case may have been in England, but this happens in prisons around the world, even in the United States. Prison brutality is unfortunately common in prisons in the United States, which includes rapes and murders. In California, one inmate was made to work to contain a wildfire, and fell off a 150 feet cliff while working. Many prisoners in California are made to work to contain natural disasters, but is this fair? It is a dangerous job for a trained professional, let alone someone who isn't in that profession. In Florida, there is controversy over a prisoner's death, who was on death row for killing a prison guard while attempting to free a friend from prison. After the suspicious killing, nine prison guards were suspended with pay, waiting for the outcome of the investigation. While these cases are extreme, it may take many people back to the Power of One, when Geel Piet was murdered, because he was an African American prisoner. He didn't kill anyone, or hurt anyone in the prison, he was actually helping the prison boxing team to win, more than it had ever done before.

The racism found in this book, is incredibly sad, and seen many times in the prison. Geel Piet was ridiculed and beaten because of his race. Now, it seems like that in prisons throughout the United States a lot of prisoners are being treated poorly, regardless of their race. I believe that this is incredibly unfair to treat a person like that. The prisoner is being punished already by being in jail, serving out their sentence, why do they need to be beaten on top of that? The people who torture these criminals are no better than the criminal themselves. My opinion may be not be what everyone thinks, but to see people be hurt, while they are already being punished, is something that is hard to stand by.