Response Thirteen (4/25/14)
This week we watched Chocolat, which I found to be a very confusing movie. Today, I found out that Chocolat means “cheating,” which makes sense with all the sexual and racial tension. Because the story did not have a plot like American movies do, it was very hard to find meaning in the movie. When I was watching the whole thing, I kept asking myself, why? I was pretty confused on the significance of the frame narrative. After explanation in class, I do think it has a lot to do with racial issues. During the movie she had no problem with the servants in the house and she was very close to Protee. Even though Protee tried to lead her away from that comfort (by burning her hand on the generator pipe), she still had no problem getting in the car with the black man. Therefore, it shows that her past really does affect how she views people and their circumstances. Another confusing part of the movie was the character Luc. He was said to be a seminarian student but he was described as being different. He traveled with the black people and would only sleep outside and eat with the servants. However, he would take every opportunity to say sarcastic but rude comments about the black people. He especially made racist comments to the doctor. He seemed to still take privileges of being a white man by still asserting his dominance. Additionally, the relationship between Amiee and Protee was very obscure. There seemed to be a lot of sexual tension between the two but yet it doesn’t seem like anything has happened. The father is extremely nice to Protee, whereas Amiee never says please or appreciates what he does. The tension gets to a point where Amiee kicks him out of the house. Overall, the story was very confusing yet engaging. The search for a message was what kept me interested.
Response Twelve (4/18/14)
For my final project I will be working with Evan, Alex, Jeremy, and Nick. Our idea is to make a big board game that encompasses several stories that we have read throughout the humanities sequence. We have thrown several ideas around for how we want to do this. We were thinking that we could make an elaborate board especially with the help of Jeremy. An idea was that we could have the character travel through time periods (where we would have an appropriate story) and end the story in present day. We also want to include cards that the players will draw that instruct the player to do certain actions that reflect the stories we have chosen. We haven’t worked out all the details yet but to explain how the stories fit into the game by including them in the instructions to the game. Like I said, we are just in the beginning stages of our project, but this is the general idea of what we want to do.
As far as Things Fall Apart, I thought it was a neat story. I thought the way that Achebe wrote it in the perspective of the tribe members brought a lot of insight into the story. Although, Okonkwo’s reactions were human as he showed guilt and alarm, his other reactions to situations seemed foreign to us. The most foreign part of the story was the explanation of the evil spirit/baby. One of his wives lost 9 children because of this baby. Therefore, when the daughter gets sick they are all alarmed because they think the baby has returned. Also, the story involved finding and destroying this pebble. Long story short, although this story and a few others in Things Fall Apart seem crazy, we accept them because of the way Achebe describes them. They seem normal to the clan.
Brittni, I like this idea. With five people contributing, you should have a pretty substantial game. Just try to have the game somehow deal with issues or themes from the texts and not just elements of plot or setting. The game should somehow illustrate/explain something about the texts, or put the texts into a new context (by comparing texts). - MH
Response Eleven (4/11/14)
This week we had two presentations that introduced us to modern art, in the form of painting and in writing. Then we had a presentation with Dafna Kaffeman that actually was one of the coolest and impactful things I’ve experienced with art. Normally, I go to art museums with no idea what I am looking at or what the artist had in mind when he or she was creating the piece. I really enjoy hearing the purposes behind things, because the way I look at it, there is always a purpose for everything. So, just the fact that Dafna was from Israel to talk to us about her work was mind-blowing to me.
I thought it was really interesting that almost all of the work had a political purpose behind it, even if that purpose was just to bring light to the situation. She took a very different approach to her work by combining embroidering and glass work. I thought it was very impactful to bring words to art. She had written poetry before so her impact with words and art makes sense. I also thought it was cool to see how attached she is to her work. The story she told with the man committing suicide with fire.
Another aspect of her exhibit that I thought was so neat was the fact that she puts so much thought into the placement of her work. She had two pieces of work that were flexible glass wolves. She said she included these because the message was clear that they symbolized power (without the need for words). In addition, she explained her used of flowers and insects in her work. Just the stories behind all of her work was so incredible to me, especially the potato bugs and the man who committed suicide. I feel like I gained a greater appreciation for art in general.
Response Ten (3/28/14)
This week we started a section on the modern self. The ending of the Heart of Darkness was interesting, but I think Freud’s ideas were the biggest highlight of this week. I have studied Freud a little in the past, both in my high school’s psychology and last year in Psychology 100. I remember when studied him when I was younger, I viewed him as a really important person in psychology. Although his ideas were really influential, in reality his claims did not have any facts/statistics to back them up; therefore, they are hard to prove. Especially, as we talked about dreams today, the area for individual interpretation is really broad. However, the general concepts of manifest content and latent content seemed to be constant. One dream that we specifically focused on was the dream about the supper party. The dream consisted of the woman wanting to give a supper but the only food available was smoked salmon...eventually she has to renounce her desire to give a supper. This was the manifest content and the latent content (what the wish is or the dream meant) was that she wished her husband were not attracted to her friend, but to her instead. As Freud explained, there is always some kind of desire or wish that is a part of a dream. Freud’s big thing was that most things that we repress are sexual in nature or anything we find repulsive. In a weird way this relates to the interpretation of the supper party dream. The dream was interpreted as the women not wanting to give the supper party because she doesn’t want her husband to be attracted to her friend. She wants her husband to be sexually attracted to her and no one else. So basically, Freud’s theories are found often in nature and seem to be all true but scientists are yet to find hard facts and the theories just remain theories.
Response Nine (3/21/14)
This week we started to talk about colonialism and imperialism. The Heart of Darkness brought up several points, especially the view of the natives. Themes such as savagery were revealed in this novel. One of the things that stood out to me was the simulation we had in our class presentation this week. Four “colonizers” were chosen at random and the rest of us were the natives. We were forced to separate from our “families” and then had to fight to stay alive (by finding ivory or rubber). Just through this simple activity we got to see how disadvantaged the natives are.
In my history class we just studied imperialism and King Leopold II’s Rubber Terror in the Congo. Put that background knowledge with The Heart of Darkness and this simulation, and I learned some very interesting things this week. I learned in history that imperialism involved many things. First of all, in 1870 Europe only had control of eleven percent of Africa. By 1914, they controlled a little over ninety percent of the continent. The motives for imperial expansion were mainly economic but were also nationalistic as everyone wanted to establish colonial power. The Europeans were set on a “civilizing mission.” The Europeans believed that their own technology and culture was superior. Also, they believed their own race to be superior. Therefore, they wanted to spread their superior nature and let it gain power. Then the rubber terror took off as Leopold ruthlessly exploited his colony. He set a rubber quota and the men that did not meet that quota were severely punished with a loss of a limb. The amount of hurt and pain the colony sky rocketed. The people felt like they had no power and the colonizers did not even enjoy their job. All this background information was essential to know when reading the novel.
Response Eight (3/7/14)
This week we discussed more on feminism! I’m not a strong feminist but I really do like reading about this topic. We even read my most favorite feminist work, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I love how the story was written and the symbolism involved.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a smart and witty woman. She herself went through “the resting cure,” therefore, she had a very important perspective for the story. She had the wit to bring her physicians name into the text indirectly ridiculing him. Because she knew how the treatment felt like, she had the ability to really play up the negative aspects of it. I would say that she partly wrote the story to educate the public and to specifically call out her physician. Gilman shed light on the extreme trapped feeling that the resting cure produces. She wrote a lot on how the narrator did not want to break her roles as a women and the societal expectations. During that time, it was unheard of for a woman to disobey her husband or do something that disrespected his wishes. Therefore, the narrator felt guilty for her need to write (as her husband forbade it) and had to hide it. She could not stand up for herself and clearly express how the treatment was making her feel worse because she felt like she needed to trust her husband. Therefore, she had nowhere to turn and was forced into having an unhealthy obsession over the wallpaper. To a point, the narrator felt like other women (and herself) were trapped behind the wallpaper. This is signifying women’s inferiority and a feeling of being suppressed or trapped. By the end of the story, the narrator has torn off the wallpaper “to free herself and other women.” The story ends with the narrator crawling over her unconscious husband, literally showing the power change. She found a way to be above her husband. This story said a lot about women’s writes and their need for self-expression.
Response Seven (2/28/14)
This week we had two presentations on The Doll’s House by Henry Ibsen (which were both excellent by the way). I had never read this play before, but it was honestly one of my favorites. One of the reasons was it touched a lot on the role of women or feminism. I wouldn’t say that I am a feminist, but I really enjoy studying the topic.
The story took place around the 19th century. Doing this time women were completely inferior to men and often referred as their husbands “possession.” I thought Nora’s husband really put this into perspective by using animal names in reference to Nora. Humans are obviously superior to animals as they can domesticate and control them; therefore, the same mentality was used between husband and wife. The other social norms for women included caring for the house and children. Not many women of this time even dared to challenge these norms out of respect for their husbands and out of fear of a bad reputation in the town. However, this entire play showcased a break in social norms. It started with Mrs. Linde who was an atypical women who was fairly independent. Secondly, women were never in control of the money, and through the whole scheme Nora was in control. It was both illegal and also page 1073 explains that society frowns upon the act: “Why a wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent.” Lastly and ultimately, Nora leaves her husband and her children, which was completely unheard of at the time. The 19th century audience of this play was shocked when the marriage wasn’t restored.
The title stuck out to me as I did not understand its meaning at first. Now I understand that Nora considered herself the doll. Her husband wanted to have complete control of her and no matter how they changed she could never stop being the doll while she was in the doll house. Therefore, she thought her only option was to leave the house (and everything in it) to achieve what she wanted.
Response Six (2/21/14)
I enjoyed reading our first novel of the class, The Death of Ivan Ilych. First of all, the way the novel was written caught my attention. The point of view was first written in the eyes of Peter. Peter shows that he is afraid of his own death. In a way he even seems like he is glad it was someone else rather than himself. Therefore, right off the bat we are introduced with many different feelings towards Ivan and death. We get the vibe that no one really cared about Ivan; his “friends” and family just felt obligated to go to the funeral. Also, in this moment we see that there are many attitudes towards death in the room. For instance, Praskovya wants Ivan to die but she wants to keep his salary. Also, later we find out that Gerasim views death as a part of life and even coaches Ivan to his own death. He says that “it’s God’s will that everyone dies someday.”
The perspective of the book was the most interesting aspect. How the story started out with the funeral actually has a lot of meaning. Ivan’s life was considered “terrible.” All he focused on was his work and climbing up the social latter, he hated his wife, several of his children died, and he spent more money than he had. Therefore, Tolstoy knew what he was doing when he decided to show Ivan’s funeral first. At first glance, we would think that it would be to just show that none of the characters actually cared about Ivan. However, at second glance it really had a lot to do with religion. At the end of the story Ivan was “going towards the light” and he found peace in God. If the funeral was to follow this, we would have just thought it was another death. It would have taken away from the end glory.
Response Five (2/7/14)
Between our analysis of music and romantic lyric (poetry), we had an interesting look at the Romantic Era this week. Because I haven’t learned much about Romanticism in high school, I kept in mind that this era was an artistic and cultural movement where emotion and reflection are a large part of the thinking. Knowing this helped me analyze the feelings of the music and romantic lyric.
With our look at the Romantic Era music, we identified four trends of the time period: increased emotional expressions, musical nationalism, glorification of nature, and fascination with the macabre and the gothic and supernatural. I definitely think the most important and most evident trend is the increased emotional expressiveness. I first noticed this when we started out our class on Monday with comparing classical music (Haydn) to romantic music (Brahms). Brahms composition immediately sounded more expressive. Instead of Haydn’s happy melodic composition, Brahms sounded almost like a movie set, like he was telling a story. The dramatic changes in the percussion and how the orchestra got bigger showed a dramatic expression of emotion.
With our look at the Romantic Lyric, we identified that all of the poems had plots and could be divided up into three sections: description of scene (most nature), problem analysis, and a “resolution” to the problem. I clearly saw the poetry as a medium for exploring inner states of feeling or shaping of the philosophical ideal. Looking at “In the Grass,” I was intrigued by the sentences we created for the poem. However, I thought the most interesting poem we looked at was “The Lake.” The lake for me has a lot of memories and special times attached to it, so I understood the “resolution” that the other was getting at. The emotions shown through and he wanted the lake to keep that memory for him. The plot was more of feeling rather than action like it would have been in an earlier era.
Response Four (1/31/14)
This week was one of the more interesting weeks we have had in Honors 203. First of all, the reading for Faust really took a turn that I was not expecting; however, the moral that I drew from the reading turned the story positive for me. So, last week we learned that Faust was not satisfied with his life as he wanted to go out in the world and discover things, rather than sitting around reading about them. This is when Faust meets Mephistopheles (the Devil) and is talked into basically giving himself over to Mephistopheles so he can experience the world (and receive his every desire). The story ended last week with Faust meeting Gretchen. We learned this week that the Devil gets Faust in (although interestingly enough the Devil says he can’t make her be attracted to Faust himself so he provides bribes such as jewels). Anyway, things escalate very quickly and Gretchen is soon found pregnant. More tragically, her brother Valentine is killed by Faust over the issue and Gretchen ends up killing her own child. However, Gretchen is still in love with Faust…blows my mind. This reminds me a lot of a movie I just recently watched titled Spectacular Now. A really sheltered girl is picked up by this boy who (in my opinion) is a really bad influence on her. She ends up getting run over by a car because of his stupidity (to which she survives) and is still madly in love with him. Once again, love blows my mind!
I also wanted to point out how it was interesting to compare the two Romantic style poems to Faust. Taking pieces of these poems to make a new poem helped me draw connections between Romanticism characteristics. I especially saw the characteristics of desire, confliction, passion, and despair to be main focal points in all three of our readings this week.
Response Three (1/24/14)
This week, I was excited to see that we are still talking about freedom because I think the topic is interesting! The beginning of Faust was a lot different than I would have guessed. At first, I really didn’t understand Goethe’s story and what the main plot was going to be. All I understood was that the Devil (Mephistopheles) was trying to tempt God where they made a contest out of seeing which side Faust would join. This tempting reminded me of last Friday’s read of The Great Inquisitor. However, this time Jesus was not a character in the story. The other connection that was made is that Goethe’s story is that of Job’s where a bet was made with the Devil and God. Both men here think that Faust will choose the “right way” no matter what.
In the section of the Night, we first see Faust’s struggles to understand life and himself. In another sense, Faust is trying to discover his own personal freedom or what he thinks is right. He says an interesting point while he is looking out the window: “if he could only be free, as the moon is, to wander over all of nature then ne might expel the smoke of learning and be drenched to wholeness of your dew.” Therefore, we see his want for life answers, his quest for knowledge. Here was the first place that I saw how the Devil could really take hold of Faust’s insecurities. And the devil could have won if it was not for the choir of angels which stopped Faust’s suicide (poisoning). I see the interjection of the angels to be God’s work. Therefore, we see the challenge playing out. I am interested to see where the story goes from here and how Faust will discover his freedom.
Response Two (1/17/14)
I have really enjoyed this unit on freedom and security. In grade school, I always found interest in learning about the lives of slaves and their escape stories. I specifically thought Harriet A. Jacobs’ autobiography was the most interesting this week.
First of all, I instantly started comparing her experiences to Frederick Douglass’s experiences. The fact that she is a women, made the story very different. Harriet had an unusual slave childhood as she didn’t even know she was a slave until she was six years old. As the story went from her girlhood to her adulthood, she suffered many tribulations and worked to find a loophole in the slave system to find her freedom. I believe Harriet was an extremely strong willed person. Through enduring sexual abuse, bearing children with another man, and staying in hiding for seven years where she couldn’t interact with her children, Harriet endured much for her freedom.
In class, we discussed the cult of true womenhood which included piety, purity, submission, and domesticity. I believe Harriet broke each one of these characteristics. She doubted that God even existed as she was going through all the sexual and emotional abuse with her second master, breaking the characteristic of piety. Harriet obviously broke the characteristic of purity by giving into her master’s requests. In addition, she intentionally slept with another man to have children and stop the abuse. Lastly, the whole role of being a slave interfered with the traditional sense of domesticity. Harriet could not raise her children and provide for her family.
Response One (1/10/14) Hellooo!! As far as introductions, my name is Brittni Beerman (spelled oddly, I know, but I love it! And honestly, it makes sense pronunciation wise)! I am a sophomore Speech-Language Pathology major, which does not mean I can pronounce everything correctly; it’s a common common common misconception!! I am from Waterloo, Indiana where our only attraction is the Amtrak train station that goes to Chicago. Oddly, I love anything that has to do with water: water balloons, squirt guns, swimming, waterskiing…! My family competitively waterski’s in the summers; and therefore, through high school I could say that I played year round sports (volleyball, basketball, track, and swimming). Anywayyyy, enough about me.
This week’s reading was a great way to start Honors 203!! I enjoyed reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography; it was very insightful. First of all, the fact that he wrote it himself was quite impressive to me. He put many things into perspective that were interesting first-hand, especially in the first few pages. Right away, Frederick writes about how he doesn’t even know his age let alone his real name. Both of these things are one of the most simple and basic pieces of information for a white child, yet a black child is stripped of even this. Also, something that can be noticed early on in the reading is how he refers to other humans. He describes them by their degree of skin darkness. Lastly, written in the first few pages is a description of the Great House Farm. Just the fact that this is the only place where the slaves can earn a wage, yet the white people still hold such authority over them.
One more interesting fact about Frederick was his desire. It all stemmed out of his learning of the ABCs. However, at some point Frederick believed that literacy was also a torture because it didn’t provide solutions to solve anything. When he finally achieved freedom, it actually took him quite awhile to actually be free. Obviously, we know today that freedom takes work to achieve and was fought for the way we have today. However, I think for a slave, freedom just started with the super tiny things that we don’t even think about: like the right to a name, an age, and a known family.
202 Responses, Fall 2013
Response Thirteen (4/25/14)This week we watched Chocolat, which I found to be a very confusing movie. Today, I found out that Chocolat means “cheating,” which makes sense with all the sexual and racial tension. Because the story did not have a plot like American movies do, it was very hard to find meaning in the movie. When I was watching the whole thing, I kept asking myself, why? I was pretty confused on the significance of the frame narrative. After explanation in class, I do think it has a lot to do with racial issues. During the movie she had no problem with the servants in the house and she was very close to Protee. Even though Protee tried to lead her away from that comfort (by burning her hand on the generator pipe), she still had no problem getting in the car with the black man. Therefore, it shows that her past really does affect how she views people and their circumstances. Another confusing part of the movie was the character Luc. He was said to be a seminarian student but he was described as being different. He traveled with the black people and would only sleep outside and eat with the servants. However, he would take every opportunity to say sarcastic but rude comments about the black people. He especially made racist comments to the doctor. He seemed to still take privileges of being a white man by still asserting his dominance. Additionally, the relationship between Amiee and Protee was very obscure. There seemed to be a lot of sexual tension between the two but yet it doesn’t seem like anything has happened. The father is extremely nice to Protee, whereas Amiee never says please or appreciates what he does. The tension gets to a point where Amiee kicks him out of the house. Overall, the story was very confusing yet engaging. The search for a message was what kept me interested.
Response Twelve (4/18/14)
For my final project I will be working with Evan, Alex, Jeremy, and Nick. Our idea is to make a big board game that encompasses several stories that we have read throughout the humanities sequence. We have thrown several ideas around for how we want to do this. We were thinking that we could make an elaborate board especially with the help of Jeremy. An idea was that we could have the character travel through time periods (where we would have an appropriate story) and end the story in present day. We also want to include cards that the players will draw that instruct the player to do certain actions that reflect the stories we have chosen. We haven’t worked out all the details yet but to explain how the stories fit into the game by including them in the instructions to the game. Like I said, we are just in the beginning stages of our project, but this is the general idea of what we want to do.
As far as Things Fall Apart, I thought it was a neat story. I thought the way that Achebe wrote it in the perspective of the tribe members brought a lot of insight into the story. Although, Okonkwo’s reactions were human as he showed guilt and alarm, his other reactions to situations seemed foreign to us. The most foreign part of the story was the explanation of the evil spirit/baby. One of his wives lost 9 children because of this baby. Therefore, when the daughter gets sick they are all alarmed because they think the baby has returned. Also, the story involved finding and destroying this pebble. Long story short, although this story and a few others in Things Fall Apart seem crazy, we accept them because of the way Achebe describes them. They seem normal to the clan.
Brittni, I like this idea. With five people contributing, you should have a pretty substantial game. Just try to have the game somehow deal with issues or themes from the texts and not just elements of plot or setting. The game should somehow illustrate/explain something about the texts, or put the texts into a new context (by comparing texts). - MH
Response Eleven (4/11/14)
This week we had two presentations that introduced us to modern art, in the form of painting and in writing. Then we had a presentation with Dafna Kaffeman that actually was one of the coolest and impactful things I’ve experienced with art. Normally, I go to art museums with no idea what I am looking at or what the artist had in mind when he or she was creating the piece. I really enjoy hearing the purposes behind things, because the way I look at it, there is always a purpose for everything. So, just the fact that Dafna was from Israel to talk to us about her work was mind-blowing to me.
I thought it was really interesting that almost all of the work had a political purpose behind it, even if that purpose was just to bring light to the situation. She took a very different approach to her work by combining embroidering and glass work. I thought it was very impactful to bring words to art. She had written poetry before so her impact with words and art makes sense. I also thought it was cool to see how attached she is to her work. The story she told with the man committing suicide with fire.
Another aspect of her exhibit that I thought was so neat was the fact that she puts so much thought into the placement of her work. She had two pieces of work that were flexible glass wolves. She said she included these because the message was clear that they symbolized power (without the need for words). In addition, she explained her used of flowers and insects in her work. Just the stories behind all of her work was so incredible to me, especially the potato bugs and the man who committed suicide. I feel like I gained a greater appreciation for art in general.
Response Ten (3/28/14)
This week we started a section on the modern self. The ending of the Heart of Darkness was interesting, but I think Freud’s ideas were the biggest highlight of this week. I have studied Freud a little in the past, both in my high school’s psychology and last year in Psychology 100. I remember when studied him when I was younger, I viewed him as a really important person in psychology. Although his ideas were really influential, in reality his claims did not have any facts/statistics to back them up; therefore, they are hard to prove. Especially, as we talked about dreams today, the area for individual interpretation is really broad. However, the general concepts of manifest content and latent content seemed to be constant. One dream that we specifically focused on was the dream about the supper party. The dream consisted of the woman wanting to give a supper but the only food available was smoked salmon...eventually she has to renounce her desire to give a supper. This was the manifest content and the latent content (what the wish is or the dream meant) was that she wished her husband were not attracted to her friend, but to her instead. As Freud explained, there is always some kind of desire or wish that is a part of a dream. Freud’s big thing was that most things that we repress are sexual in nature or anything we find repulsive. In a weird way this relates to the interpretation of the supper party dream. The dream was interpreted as the women not wanting to give the supper party because she doesn’t want her husband to be attracted to her friend. She wants her husband to be sexually attracted to her and no one else. So basically, Freud’s theories are found often in nature and seem to be all true but scientists are yet to find hard facts and the theories just remain theories.
Response Nine (3/21/14)
This week we started to talk about colonialism and imperialism. The Heart of Darkness brought up several points, especially the view of the natives. Themes such as savagery were revealed in this novel. One of the things that stood out to me was the simulation we had in our class presentation this week. Four “colonizers” were chosen at random and the rest of us were the natives. We were forced to separate from our “families” and then had to fight to stay alive (by finding ivory or rubber). Just through this simple activity we got to see how disadvantaged the natives are.
In my history class we just studied imperialism and King Leopold II’s Rubber Terror in the Congo. Put that background knowledge with The Heart of Darkness and this simulation, and I learned some very interesting things this week. I learned in history that imperialism involved many things. First of all, in 1870 Europe only had control of eleven percent of Africa. By 1914, they controlled a little over ninety percent of the continent. The motives for imperial expansion were mainly economic but were also nationalistic as everyone wanted to establish colonial power. The Europeans were set on a “civilizing mission.” The Europeans believed that their own technology and culture was superior. Also, they believed their own race to be superior. Therefore, they wanted to spread their superior nature and let it gain power. Then the rubber terror took off as Leopold ruthlessly exploited his colony. He set a rubber quota and the men that did not meet that quota were severely punished with a loss of a limb. The amount of hurt and pain the colony sky rocketed. The people felt like they had no power and the colonizers did not even enjoy their job. All this background information was essential to know when reading the novel.
Response Eight (3/7/14)
This week we discussed more on feminism! I’m not a strong feminist but I really do like reading about this topic. We even read my most favorite feminist work, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I love how the story was written and the symbolism involved.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a smart and witty woman. She herself went through “the resting cure,” therefore, she had a very important perspective for the story. She had the wit to bring her physicians name into the text indirectly ridiculing him. Because she knew how the treatment felt like, she had the ability to really play up the negative aspects of it. I would say that she partly wrote the story to educate the public and to specifically call out her physician. Gilman shed light on the extreme trapped feeling that the resting cure produces. She wrote a lot on how the narrator did not want to break her roles as a women and the societal expectations. During that time, it was unheard of for a woman to disobey her husband or do something that disrespected his wishes. Therefore, the narrator felt guilty for her need to write (as her husband forbade it) and had to hide it. She could not stand up for herself and clearly express how the treatment was making her feel worse because she felt like she needed to trust her husband. Therefore, she had nowhere to turn and was forced into having an unhealthy obsession over the wallpaper. To a point, the narrator felt like other women (and herself) were trapped behind the wallpaper. This is signifying women’s inferiority and a feeling of being suppressed or trapped. By the end of the story, the narrator has torn off the wallpaper “to free herself and other women.” The story ends with the narrator crawling over her unconscious husband, literally showing the power change. She found a way to be above her husband. This story said a lot about women’s writes and their need for self-expression.
Response Seven (2/28/14)
This week we had two presentations on The Doll’s House by Henry Ibsen (which were both excellent by the way). I had never read this play before, but it was honestly one of my favorites. One of the reasons was it touched a lot on the role of women or feminism. I wouldn’t say that I am a feminist, but I really enjoy studying the topic.
The story took place around the 19th century. Doing this time women were completely inferior to men and often referred as their husbands “possession.” I thought Nora’s husband really put this into perspective by using animal names in reference to Nora. Humans are obviously superior to animals as they can domesticate and control them; therefore, the same mentality was used between husband and wife. The other social norms for women included caring for the house and children. Not many women of this time even dared to challenge these norms out of respect for their husbands and out of fear of a bad reputation in the town. However, this entire play showcased a break in social norms. It started with Mrs. Linde who was an atypical women who was fairly independent. Secondly, women were never in control of the money, and through the whole scheme Nora was in control. It was both illegal and also page 1073 explains that society frowns upon the act: “Why a wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent.” Lastly and ultimately, Nora leaves her husband and her children, which was completely unheard of at the time. The 19th century audience of this play was shocked when the marriage wasn’t restored.
The title stuck out to me as I did not understand its meaning at first. Now I understand that Nora considered herself the doll. Her husband wanted to have complete control of her and no matter how they changed she could never stop being the doll while she was in the doll house. Therefore, she thought her only option was to leave the house (and everything in it) to achieve what she wanted.
Response Six (2/21/14)
I enjoyed reading our first novel of the class, The Death of Ivan Ilych. First of all, the way the novel was written caught my attention. The point of view was first written in the eyes of Peter. Peter shows that he is afraid of his own death. In a way he even seems like he is glad it was someone else rather than himself. Therefore, right off the bat we are introduced with many different feelings towards Ivan and death. We get the vibe that no one really cared about Ivan; his “friends” and family just felt obligated to go to the funeral. Also, in this moment we see that there are many attitudes towards death in the room. For instance, Praskovya wants Ivan to die but she wants to keep his salary. Also, later we find out that Gerasim views death as a part of life and even coaches Ivan to his own death. He says that “it’s God’s will that everyone dies someday.”
The perspective of the book was the most interesting aspect. How the story started out with the funeral actually has a lot of meaning. Ivan’s life was considered “terrible.” All he focused on was his work and climbing up the social latter, he hated his wife, several of his children died, and he spent more money than he had. Therefore, Tolstoy knew what he was doing when he decided to show Ivan’s funeral first. At first glance, we would think that it would be to just show that none of the characters actually cared about Ivan. However, at second glance it really had a lot to do with religion. At the end of the story Ivan was “going towards the light” and he found peace in God. If the funeral was to follow this, we would have just thought it was another death. It would have taken away from the end glory.
Response Five (2/7/14)
Between our analysis of music and romantic lyric (poetry), we had an interesting look at the Romantic Era this week. Because I haven’t learned much about Romanticism in high school, I kept in mind that this era was an artistic and cultural movement where emotion and reflection are a large part of the thinking. Knowing this helped me analyze the feelings of the music and romantic lyric.
With our look at the Romantic Era music, we identified four trends of the time period: increased emotional expressions, musical nationalism, glorification of nature, and fascination with the macabre and the gothic and supernatural. I definitely think the most important and most evident trend is the increased emotional expressiveness. I first noticed this when we started out our class on Monday with comparing classical music (Haydn) to romantic music (Brahms). Brahms composition immediately sounded more expressive. Instead of Haydn’s happy melodic composition, Brahms sounded almost like a movie set, like he was telling a story. The dramatic changes in the percussion and how the orchestra got bigger showed a dramatic expression of emotion.
With our look at the Romantic Lyric, we identified that all of the poems had plots and could be divided up into three sections: description of scene (most nature), problem analysis, and a “resolution” to the problem. I clearly saw the poetry as a medium for exploring inner states of feeling or shaping of the philosophical ideal. Looking at “In the Grass,” I was intrigued by the sentences we created for the poem. However, I thought the most interesting poem we looked at was “The Lake.” The lake for me has a lot of memories and special times attached to it, so I understood the “resolution” that the other was getting at. The emotions shown through and he wanted the lake to keep that memory for him. The plot was more of feeling rather than action like it would have been in an earlier era.
Response Four (1/31/14)
This week was one of the more interesting weeks we have had in Honors 203. First of all, the reading for Faust really took a turn that I was not expecting; however, the moral that I drew from the reading turned the story positive for me. So, last week we learned that Faust was not satisfied with his life as he wanted to go out in the world and discover things, rather than sitting around reading about them. This is when Faust meets Mephistopheles (the Devil) and is talked into basically giving himself over to Mephistopheles so he can experience the world (and receive his every desire). The story ended last week with Faust meeting Gretchen. We learned this week that the Devil gets Faust in (although interestingly enough the Devil says he can’t make her be attracted to Faust himself so he provides bribes such as jewels). Anyway, things escalate very quickly and Gretchen is soon found pregnant. More tragically, her brother Valentine is killed by Faust over the issue and Gretchen ends up killing her own child. However, Gretchen is still in love with Faust…blows my mind. This reminds me a lot of a movie I just recently watched titled Spectacular Now. A really sheltered girl is picked up by this boy who (in my opinion) is a really bad influence on her. She ends up getting run over by a car because of his stupidity (to which she survives) and is still madly in love with him. Once again, love blows my mind!
I also wanted to point out how it was interesting to compare the two Romantic style poems to Faust. Taking pieces of these poems to make a new poem helped me draw connections between Romanticism characteristics. I especially saw the characteristics of desire, confliction, passion, and despair to be main focal points in all three of our readings this week.
Response Three (1/24/14)
This week, I was excited to see that we are still talking about freedom because I think the topic is interesting! The beginning of Faust was a lot different than I would have guessed. At first, I really didn’t understand Goethe’s story and what the main plot was going to be. All I understood was that the Devil (Mephistopheles) was trying to tempt God where they made a contest out of seeing which side Faust would join. This tempting reminded me of last Friday’s read of The Great Inquisitor. However, this time Jesus was not a character in the story. The other connection that was made is that Goethe’s story is that of Job’s where a bet was made with the Devil and God. Both men here think that Faust will choose the “right way” no matter what.
In the section of the Night, we first see Faust’s struggles to understand life and himself. In another sense, Faust is trying to discover his own personal freedom or what he thinks is right. He says an interesting point while he is looking out the window: “if he could only be free, as the moon is, to wander over all of nature then ne might expel the smoke of learning and be drenched to wholeness of your dew.” Therefore, we see his want for life answers, his quest for knowledge. Here was the first place that I saw how the Devil could really take hold of Faust’s insecurities. And the devil could have won if it was not for the choir of angels which stopped Faust’s suicide (poisoning). I see the interjection of the angels to be God’s work. Therefore, we see the challenge playing out. I am interested to see where the story goes from here and how Faust will discover his freedom.
Response Two (1/17/14)
I have really enjoyed this unit on freedom and security. In grade school, I always found interest in learning about the lives of slaves and their escape stories. I specifically thought Harriet A. Jacobs’ autobiography was the most interesting this week.
First of all, I instantly started comparing her experiences to Frederick Douglass’s experiences. The fact that she is a women, made the story very different. Harriet had an unusual slave childhood as she didn’t even know she was a slave until she was six years old. As the story went from her girlhood to her adulthood, she suffered many tribulations and worked to find a loophole in the slave system to find her freedom. I believe Harriet was an extremely strong willed person. Through enduring sexual abuse, bearing children with another man, and staying in hiding for seven years where she couldn’t interact with her children, Harriet endured much for her freedom.
In class, we discussed the cult of true womenhood which included piety, purity, submission, and domesticity. I believe Harriet broke each one of these characteristics. She doubted that God even existed as she was going through all the sexual and emotional abuse with her second master, breaking the characteristic of piety. Harriet obviously broke the characteristic of purity by giving into her master’s requests. In addition, she intentionally slept with another man to have children and stop the abuse. Lastly, the whole role of being a slave interfered with the traditional sense of domesticity. Harriet could not raise her children and provide for her family.
Response One (1/10/14)
Hellooo!! As far as introductions, my name is Brittni Beerman (spelled oddly, I know, but I love it! And honestly, it makes sense pronunciation wise)! I am a sophomore Speech-Language Pathology major, which does not mean I can pronounce everything correctly; it’s a common common common misconception!! I am from Waterloo, Indiana where our only attraction is the Amtrak train station that goes to Chicago. Oddly, I love anything that has to do with water: water balloons, squirt guns, swimming, waterskiing…! My family competitively waterski’s in the summers; and therefore, through high school I could say that I played year round sports (volleyball, basketball, track, and swimming). Anywayyyy, enough about me.
This week’s reading was a great way to start Honors 203!! I enjoyed reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography; it was very insightful. First of all, the fact that he wrote it himself was quite impressive to me. He put many things into perspective that were interesting first-hand, especially in the first few pages. Right away, Frederick writes about how he doesn’t even know his age let alone his real name. Both of these things are one of the most simple and basic pieces of information for a white child, yet a black child is stripped of even this. Also, something that can be noticed early on in the reading is how he refers to other humans. He describes them by their degree of skin darkness. Lastly, written in the first few pages is a description of the Great House Farm. Just the fact that this is the only place where the slaves can earn a wage, yet the white people still hold such authority over them.
One more interesting fact about Frederick was his desire. It all stemmed out of his learning of the ABCs. However, at some point Frederick believed that literacy was also a torture because it didn’t provide solutions to solve anything. When he finally achieved freedom, it actually took him quite awhile to actually be free. Obviously, we know today that freedom takes work to achieve and was fought for the way we have today. However, I think for a slave, freedom just started with the super tiny things that we don’t even think about: like the right to a name, an age, and a known family.