To me Frederick Douglas was a hero. He did great things but something that was briefly mentioned in the writing was not brought up in class was his action of marrying a white woman when he married the second time. That’s a huge deal! Here a man born a slave, escaped slavery, then later in life marries a white woman! He is an absolute role model to myself. The courage and nerves of steel it would have taken back then to take everyones scorn and criticism just baffle me. 200 years later slavery is abolished, there are anti-discrimination laws, a black man holds the most powerful position in the US, yet there is still strong opposition to interracial couples and marriages. Anyone who says there isn’t opposition just has never experienced it or seen it. Most people will never have to because they will find the love with someone of their own skin color. But those who find love in someone who does not mirror themselves might find that things are not always as they seem. People who are God loving Christians, Catholics, charity givers, loving parents, and the closest of kin can in a blink of an eye turn on their own because of a deep sense of racism that they never knew was even in them. Depending on the people, being an interracial couple today can be a challenging road, but being one in 1884, that is pure bravery, conviction, and love. Frederick Douglass and Helen Pitts Douglass made a great couple because who they were and what they fought for aligned. They were both activists for strong noble causes and when people get united under a banner and are fighting for a just cause it’s hard to break that love. Douglas stood for striving for freedom and what many people do not know, loving without sight of skin color or fear of others criticisms.
Cox Response #2
Walt Whitman's work I had mixed feelings about this week. On one hand he sounded like a white male who has always had what he had needed in life in terms of food, clothing, shelter. and material things, just complaining that society is not as free and tolerant as he wishes. His purpose to write appears superficial to those of Frederick Douglas and Jacobs, but I guess it was not Whitman's fault he didn't suffer immense hardship in his life and had to fight his whole life for his personal freedom and those he loved most. He was simply privileged and so his grievances are real and alive but they seem so petty when compare to Douglas's and Jacob's.
The flip side of his writing was he had a lot of good points about freedom that many people should take into consideration. People often make themselves their own captor by submitting so easily to societal norms and rules. Back in previous times there were laws that could punish those who broke societal norms, laws about: slavery, homosexuality, speaking your mind, interracial marriage and dating, and others. Today our society does not have as many lawful restrictions and the only thing holding people back is their own fear and the judgement of others. He preached tolerance and openness in his writing which is always a good thing. So many people in our day and age feel that because they have a belief they have to make everyone else believe the same thing and treat those people badly.
The Grand Inquisitor was an interesting read and I liked how it reiterated how Jesus made the choice to not do miracles for the pure reason of trying to convince people to follow him and that he didn't want to just seize power over people. He came to free them from their sins and give them the choice to follow him. Choosing to believe in him is so simple but so hard at the same time. I just liked how the text pointed out that he chose not to manipulate the people by taking away part of their freewill.
Cox Response #3
Faust is such an interesting piece to read. When I first read it in Honors 202 with Jason Powell I actually felt eerie because of the interaction Faust was welcoming with the devil. It took me off guard and I had never read a piece of literature quite like it. I found Faust's character interesting as he had pursued a life of study and knowledge and yet still felt incomplete and lacking. That seems to be a common thread of thought in many people and there is a inner struggle for many people to find that piece that is missing in their lives even when they have and know so much. Faust connected with the devil because the devil came to him and offered him this life of adventure and fullness but I think God could have offered the same and Faust could have found fulfillment on that path also. It was not a life of sinful luxury that captivates Faust but a life of adventure and purpose. The event of the devil directly talking to a human being is interesting also. There are various times in history where is it noted God talked to humans or the devil talked to Jesus and tried to tempt him but I had not heard up until this point in literature of the devil talking to a human being on a personal level.
Also I like how Faust is written, its easy, fast, and enjoyable to read. It was interesting the exercise we did in class on Wednesday I think it was on casting the characters, choosing the set, costumes, and props. Thinking about who could convey the characters the best was fun and made me contemplate the work of Faust a little close but I must also add, I don't think I want to do that again in class. I enjoy it more when there are entire class conversations about the text.
Cox Response #4
Wednesday in class a huge discussion point was our lady Gretchen. There was the contemplation of- was she at fault for her misfortunes? Did she gain anything out of her relationship? I spoke about how of course she was to blame. She had a gut feeling that Faust’s friend was not right but she did not turn away from Faust. She gave her mother a sleeping potion given to her by a man who she knew just wanted to have sex with her, very shady. I did think that she did gain something out of her relationship. She got to put her faith of God to the ultimate test of having everything a person loves taken away from them and seeing if they curse God similar to the Bible and the book of Job. Gretchen accidentally kills her mom, causes her dear brother’s death, and then kills her own baby. That’s a lot of tragedy but through it all she held onto her faith in God and at the end of the dungeon scene she is saved.
In class I definitely laid hard core blame on Gretchen but as I thought about it I remembered, she was fourteen! She had barely hit puberty at that point, was a child, and may be a little out of her league dealing with some scholarly old fart like Faust with lavish jewelry gifts. Gretchen may not have stood much of a chance against Faust now that I think about it. I disregarded the age detail as I was reading and just kept hearing the name Gretchen and Margaret and kept envisioning a full grown at least twenty year old woman. I think she has significantly less guilt than what I pegged on her in class on Wednesday and I feel really bad for her know. Faust may be wise and scholarly but his interest in fourteen year olds is gross.
Cox Response #5
I am not a huge fan of poetry but I am a huge fan of the ideals of romanticism. The whole nature aspect, the idealized underdog misunderstood heroic figure, the individualized imagination as the critical authority, and the belief that emotions and passion is what ignites us in life. The poems of this week in the book were all good but the poem on page 785-86 I specifically liked the line "All the ghosts within your breast, Dead love, dead pleasure, and dead time." A person who believes in romanticism is always in search of an emotional, passionate, adventure that often aligns with nature. But what occurs so often in pursuit of adventure, love, and understanding is the loss of time, love, and pleasure. Gretchen experienced that with her encounter with Faust. At the end of her life in her jail cell she carried the loss of her mother, her brother, and her baby in pursuit of Faust. She once had sexual pleasure and emotional overflow of love with Faust but now she all the pleasure she once had is dead and she experiences only intense suffering and regret for her actions.
The poem on pages 795-96 caught my attention because of the theme of when a person is young they are happy and naive but as a person gets old and goes through experiences they become jaded and worn out. Gretchen started out pure, young, happy. After her experiences with Faust she learns that love can be devastating and at times will not love you back. The time she lost was devastating but the loss of time that is really significant is her loss of the time with her mother and brother and her lack of desire for future time on earth. When she is in the prison cell at the end and Faust gives her the opportunity to escape and go with him he refuses, giving up her opportunity to live.
Cox Response #6
I really enjoyed reading The Death of Ivan Ilych. It made me contemplate the easy luring trap of living a life of mediocracy or living an average life. Ivan took many steps that people take today, striving for prestige in his career and separating his family from his work. He made a few mistakes that helped him live a life of unhappiness, things such as marrying a woman he did not love and marrying her for her money and his friend's liking of her, and having superficial relationships. What I really got out of the reading was the question- What is considered average?
Is average life equivalent to a marriage with marginal happiness but more out of functionality? Is it a successful career but unsuccessful shallow relationships with friends? Just like each person constructs what they live for, each individual person decides what kind of life they want and if they are ok with just getting by or if they want to do something different. In my Honors 202 with Jason Powell he talked about how to be human is to try and strive. Not saying that means every person is driven to change the world but each person is striving for something. Some to just live each day, others to get good grades, other to obtain a mate, others to get a promotion or award. I think the average person is a striving being. And the difference between those that are happy and unhappy when they reflect on their lives is the success or failure a person had in their efforts to strive. Ivan was unable to cultivate a loving healthy relationship with his wife. He had two main things that occupied his life- his work and his wife. He strived alot in his career and was successful and that did bring him satisfaction but he failed to connect with his wife. Because of his lack of connection with her he had no one to share his career success with. She was happy for him because of his salary but not because of his hard work and achievement and everyone knows from any self help love book that men need to feel respected for relationships to reach their potential. His wife obviously did not respect his work, only his money.
As I look back on this story it makes me aware of how easy it is to live a life that just goes with the flow but I know I would feel like I failed at the end of my life. I once read a mime that said hell is the day you die and you see the person you could have become if you reached your potential. I know no one is perfect and if the mime was true no one would ever mirror the alternate version of themselves. But, if it was true, I would hope to at least be close to the best version of Maggie. I guess that will mean striving like the average person and then striving even more and in different ways, not only working harder, but smarter than the average "striver."
Cox Response #7
A Doll's House was an interesting play and one that makes me as a woman want to be very independent and capable on my own being. Discussing the play in class reminded me of a sermon on a story from the bible. The sermon was focused on a story that seemed very insignificant and like the actions of the characters were common. The pastor went on to point out how society functioned and what people believed at the time and why that made the story so important. A Doll's House was wrote in the same light. A common action of a person up and leaving their significant other and children seems common today. Back in the day, it was unheard of for a woman to do what Nora did. And I did not really grasp that until we talked a little about it in class during the week but I still can't full appreciate the gumption she had even if she did abandon her kids which I did not approve of.
I think many of my classmates were right in how Nora should have attempted to give Torvold a chance to change and not spontaneously blindside him and their children. But my one classmate made a good point of it wasn't so spontaneous, she had been waiting for Torvold to treat her like a equal or with respect for eight years. She may have been waiting on him but I do not think she ever gave him cues or told him that she wanted how he treated her to change. In the video clip we watched he seemed so engrossed in his belief that Nora was his property and that she was beneath him and so I felt he might be unable to change his point of view. If that was the case it was good Nora left but I would like to think that she would have been around often to see and still care for her children.
Weekly response #8
This past week there were many texts about women's roles and their seeking of independence from man. There is a huge idea that men require respect from women to feel valued and to be a successful partner in a relationship. But now more than ever after reading A Doll's House, The Revolver, Declaration of Sentiments, the Women's Bible and my own personal observations in life women deserve just as much respect as men if not more. I know not all men can be grouped together just like not all women can be grouped together but from my personal observations and surveys have shown that women are starting to surpass men in academics and ambition levels. Not all, but a large percentage of women. There has been a shift over the years in the genders. I used to see men as these ambitious successful leaders who worked hard and who I would automatically respect. I do not feel that way anymore. I see among many of my male peers(not all) the characteristics of laziness, lack of ambition, complacency, lack of morals, passiveness, lack of physical fitness, and wrongful pridefulness about their lack of accomplishments. It is unreasonable to expect me to respect a husband figure who has these characteristics when I actively work daily on not being those characteristics and striving to learn all I can and become a great individual who can impact the world positively in the days that God has given me. And I am not alone in my thinking. In all of my hard classes I know that the people who get good grades like myself are not so much the guys, but the girls.
Men say they view women equally and most do but there is still a small underlying thought that our lives are not as important as guys. So many times have I had a significant other and not only am I a division 1 athlete like them, taking a harder major, more credit hours, attend church, involved in multiple clubs, a business fraternity, and am president of one club, I am still expected to bend my schedule and plan my time around them. They know we do the same thing and that I do more but still their life and schedule holds more importance in their mind and I should work around them. My sister posted a quote to my facebook message wall saying- A weak man cant love a strong woman because he wont know what to do with her. I think the quote should be a strong woman cant love a weak man because she wont know what do to with him. She can't genuinely respect someone who doesn't even display an equal level of ambition as her or if he has lack luster character. It would be a stretch and unfair to say women are better than men. Although I think I am being reasonable when I say man women deserve more credit and respect than what the get from men and men either need to get out of the woman's way or up their game and find some ambition and work ethic in their lives so as to be better partners for women.
Weekly Response #9
The topic of colonialism is has a bad taste to it as it was very harmful to so many native people in so many areas of the world. The way King Leopold said how he was going to enlighten the natives and show them Christianity started as a noble cause but the good works he talked of doing for native people in the Congo never even started to take place. And not only was there forced labor but the practice of cutting off hands was horrendous and seemed to handicap the native people further even from their starvation limiting their work abilities. I really liked the title of the story because I think it captured some different aspects of the colonialism events. First, it could have been referring to the colonizers hearts that were doing wrong to the natives and just stripping the land of resources. Second, it could have been about the native people who had hearts of darkness because of all the evil and harm being done to them. Third, the title could have been referring to the unexplored and unmapped out land of the Congo as the heart of darkness. As I was reading and it would describe the shoreline I envisioned a thick jungle like vegetation that was colored very dark and was dense and I got am erie scared feeling and thought the steamboat men should not go near the shore. Unfortunately they had to because they needed wood for the steam boat but it still seemed to make them very vulnerable to an attack from natives and without a translator the would have no way to talk it out with natives who approached them. They did have some natives working on the boat but the odds of them knowing some remote tribe's dialect or language was slim. I did not even think that there was a possibility of the steamboat being attacked until it happened and then I figured the whole crew would probably be killed by natives before they could return to posts from where they started.
Weekly Response #10
Learning about Freud this week was interesting and a little disturbing. I along with many people have had terrible dreams where I wake up terrified or crying and when I go crawl in with my parents they say- its just a dream. Well now Freud's got me thinking- yes it is just a dream but it may not be as random as I previously thought. The many dreams that I have had about family members who aren't here anymore who I miss make sense under Freud's theory. It's the nightmares I have had in the past that scares me to think that I may have brought some of my past nightmares upon myself. I did like the idea that when people have nightmares then maybe it was not that people wished that horror in their lives but that they were wishing that the event would not happen. I read Nick's weekly response for this week and I had to agree with him on that maybe Freud is a little over the top in his ideas that people are in constant repression in their unconscious of sexual desires.I think some people may be in that state and all people may have some sexual desires they repress in their unconscious but I doubt it is to the degree Freud was stating. My group and I were talking today and we both thought Freud was a little unscientific in his observations and studies in his closeness with his patients and his findings were based on people's alleged dreams and recounts that seemed more story like then stable observations. I felt like his observations were very convenient for him and they all seemed to be reasoning that he could talk himself into and make it seem logical when really it was just him trying to make connections between things then shouldn't really be connected.
Cox Response #11
This was one of my favorite weeks in honors 203. I thought the presentation on art was well done and the presenters were very knowledgeable and I learned about the different styles from their presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed Blake and Huy's presentation on "The Love Song of Alfred Pruock." They had great background information and I could tell were both very passionate about what they presented on. Today meeting in the art museum and observing Dafna Kaffeman's work along with having her talk us through the pieces was really enriching. I am not someone who chooses to go to art museums in their free time or necessarily always value the work of artists as much as I should but today I felt very different about my usual point of view. Dafna Kaffeman as she talked about each of her pieces of work and I could grasp that she wasn't just creating something but trying to say something and many of her messages were substantial about repression of individuals, things from the past that hold in people's memories, political messages, and the struggle within her own country. Each piece was a lot more complex than its face value. Many of the pieces have text aspects that were derived because of their meaning and influence. I admired her embroidery of the insects and words. It was not a kind of art I had seen much of before and I liked its simplicity and domestic touch. The glass figures of flowers, mushrooms, and insects were extraordinary and I am puzzled how she was able to create the praying mantis because of how small and fragile its body parts are. My favorite glass creations were the bugs that ate the potato plant leaves during the second world war. They were orange-red with little black dots on them and the way their bodies had these rolls and bulges in them I was just amazed. Today definitely expanded my mind to the importance of art and that while my passion may be in soccer and accounting, people like Daffna's lie in creating art and projecting messages through their art. That is something I can respect and admire, people with passion are people of great interest and respectability to myself.
Cox Response #12
This week we read "Things Fall Apart." Casey and I presented on Monday which I am happy we did now because it had me reading the story very slowly to understand it and to take it in. I thought the story was great to read because it put the real life situation of colonialism into a story format which is much easier to stay engaged in and enjoy reading as compared to a nonfiction piece with just statements of historical events and facts. I learned a lot about Ibo culture and did see Achebe's objective of displaying how the indigenous African people were "humane" and had a strong community structure and admirable qualities. The story made me feel similar to how the story about Gregor turning into a bug did. I felt a lack of hope and I could not see a feasible solution to the problems the main characters were facing. I could be compared to how Ivan Illych's colleagues felt about his death. They all had a feeling of- better him than me in that situation. I know that sounds harsh but the Ibo people are facing a great obstacle that we know they don't happen to overcome and their ways of their tribe and religion falls apart. I just couldn't see good options for the tribes people to resist the white missionaries and maintain their ways of life. Even though I do not agree with everything in their culture such as the killing of twins, I still tried to put myself in their shoes and felt as if I were apart of tribe then I would not want much to do with the white men and missionaries because they were just so radically different from the people I had known m entire life.
For my final project I think I am going to do the research argumentative paper that would focus on a couple of our characters from various readings who lived their lives with extreme effort and strove to do big things in life. I have Frederick Douglas and Okonkwo in mind as of right now. I could contrast them with Ivan Illych since he was the opposite and lived a life that was very average without lofty ambitions. Honestly at this exact moment I dont have a firm plan defined in my mind but I will be thinking of the paper tomorrow as I am home at the farm and will add more to this weekly response as my ideas become clear to me or I will be emailing you when I feel like I have a solid direction to get your thoughts.
Maggie, this sounds like a good start. Another character who strove to do big things was Faust. Or Nora. Let me know if you would like additional feedback one you start getting more specific ideas. MH
Cox Response #13
I really enjoyed the movie- Chocolat. It provided a very different perspective on colonialism compared to Heart of Darkness and things Fall Apart. It showed a family living in Cameroon that wasn’t as harsh on the natives such as the characters in Heart of Darkness. I loved the relationship between France and Protee. France was so young and did not have as strong of an imprint of social predicate as her parents and so she was close with Protee. I did notice that when she went to retrieve him when he was having a letter written for him she was a little rude to him and treated him like a servant and I was surprised, but it did make her on a similar parallel as her mother. I hated the part when Protee got France to burn her hand but at the same time I felt it was him looking out for her and harming her to protect her in the future. This thought made me ponder and it might be what I write my paper on. I think Protee was a stronger character with so much to him than what is displayed at face value.
The frame for the movie was an intimate touch to the story. There is something special and romantic about when people tell a story from their childhood. The actual events may be a little distorted as they are being remembered from the future and when the events were lived out they were viewed through the eyes of a child who sometimes do not always understand all that is occurring. I got the feeling as France was in the car riding in the present time she had a sense of nostalgic for her childhood and childhood home but it was accompanied with an amount of emotional pain.
Cox Response #1
To me Frederick Douglas was a hero. He did great things but something that was briefly mentioned in the writing was not brought up in class was his action of marrying a white woman when he married the second time. That’s a huge deal! Here a man born a slave, escaped slavery, then later in life marries a white woman! He is an absolute role model to myself. The courage and nerves of steel it would have taken back then to take everyones scorn and criticism just baffle me. 200 years later slavery is abolished, there are anti-discrimination laws, a black man holds the most powerful position in the US, yet there is still strong opposition to interracial couples and marriages. Anyone who says there isn’t opposition just has never experienced it or seen it. Most people will never have to because they will find the love with someone of their own skin color. But those who find love in someone who does not mirror themselves might find that things are not always as they seem. People who are God loving Christians, Catholics, charity givers, loving parents, and the closest of kin can in a blink of an eye turn on their own because of a deep sense of racism that they never knew was even in them. Depending on the people, being an interracial couple today can be a challenging road, but being one in 1884, that is pure bravery, conviction, and love. Frederick Douglass and Helen Pitts Douglass made a great couple because who they were and what they fought for aligned. They were both activists for strong noble causes and when people get united under a banner and are fighting for a just cause it’s hard to break that love. Douglas stood for striving for freedom and what many people do not know, loving without sight of skin color or fear of others criticisms.
Cox Response #2
Walt Whitman's work I had mixed feelings about this week. On one hand he sounded like a white male who has always had what he had needed in life in terms of food, clothing, shelter. and material things, just complaining that society is not as free and tolerant as he wishes. His purpose to write appears superficial to those of Frederick Douglas and Jacobs, but I guess it was not Whitman's fault he didn't suffer immense hardship in his life and had to fight his whole life for his personal freedom and those he loved most. He was simply privileged and so his grievances are real and alive but they seem so petty when compare to Douglas's and Jacob's.
The flip side of his writing was he had a lot of good points about freedom that many people should take into consideration. People often make themselves their own captor by submitting so easily to societal norms and rules. Back in previous times there were laws that could punish those who broke societal norms, laws about: slavery, homosexuality, speaking your mind, interracial marriage and dating, and others. Today our society does not have as many lawful restrictions and the only thing holding people back is their own fear and the judgement of others. He preached tolerance and openness in his writing which is always a good thing. So many people in our day and age feel that because they have a belief they have to make everyone else believe the same thing and treat those people badly.
The Grand Inquisitor was an interesting read and I liked how it reiterated how Jesus made the choice to not do miracles for the pure reason of trying to convince people to follow him and that he didn't want to just seize power over people. He came to free them from their sins and give them the choice to follow him. Choosing to believe in him is so simple but so hard at the same time. I just liked how the text pointed out that he chose not to manipulate the people by taking away part of their freewill.
Cox Response #3
Faust is such an interesting piece to read. When I first read it in Honors 202 with Jason Powell I actually felt eerie because of the interaction Faust was welcoming with the devil. It took me off guard and I had never read a piece of literature quite like it. I found Faust's character interesting as he had pursued a life of study and knowledge and yet still felt incomplete and lacking. That seems to be a common thread of thought in many people and there is a inner struggle for many people to find that piece that is missing in their lives even when they have and know so much. Faust connected with the devil because the devil came to him and offered him this life of adventure and fullness but I think God could have offered the same and Faust could have found fulfillment on that path also. It was not a life of sinful luxury that captivates Faust but a life of adventure and purpose. The event of the devil directly talking to a human being is interesting also. There are various times in history where is it noted God talked to humans or the devil talked to Jesus and tried to tempt him but I had not heard up until this point in literature of the devil talking to a human being on a personal level.
Also I like how Faust is written, its easy, fast, and enjoyable to read. It was interesting the exercise we did in class on Wednesday I think it was on casting the characters, choosing the set, costumes, and props. Thinking about who could convey the characters the best was fun and made me contemplate the work of Faust a little close but I must also add, I don't think I want to do that again in class. I enjoy it more when there are entire class conversations about the text.
Cox Response #4
Wednesday in class a huge discussion point was our lady Gretchen. There was the contemplation of- was she at fault for her misfortunes? Did she gain anything out of her relationship? I spoke about how of course she was to blame. She had a gut feeling that Faust’s friend was not right but she did not turn away from Faust. She gave her mother a sleeping potion given to her by a man who she knew just wanted to have sex with her, very shady. I did think that she did gain something out of her relationship. She got to put her faith of God to the ultimate test of having everything a person loves taken away from them and seeing if they curse God similar to the Bible and the book of Job. Gretchen accidentally kills her mom, causes her dear brother’s death, and then kills her own baby. That’s a lot of tragedy but through it all she held onto her faith in God and at the end of the dungeon scene she is saved.
In class I definitely laid hard core blame on Gretchen but as I thought about it I remembered, she was fourteen! She had barely hit puberty at that point, was a child, and may be a little out of her league dealing with some scholarly old fart like Faust with lavish jewelry gifts. Gretchen may not have stood much of a chance against Faust now that I think about it. I disregarded the age detail as I was reading and just kept hearing the name Gretchen and Margaret and kept envisioning a full grown at least twenty year old woman. I think she has significantly less guilt than what I pegged on her in class on Wednesday and I feel really bad for her know. Faust may be wise and scholarly but his interest in fourteen year olds is gross.
Cox Response #5
I am not a huge fan of poetry but I am a huge fan of the ideals of romanticism. The whole nature aspect, the idealized underdog misunderstood heroic figure, the individualized imagination as the critical authority, and the belief that emotions and passion is what ignites us in life. The poems of this week in the book were all good but the poem on page 785-86 I specifically liked the line "All the ghosts within your breast, Dead love, dead pleasure, and dead time." A person who believes in romanticism is always in search of an emotional, passionate, adventure that often aligns with nature. But what occurs so often in pursuit of adventure, love, and understanding is the loss of time, love, and pleasure. Gretchen experienced that with her encounter with Faust. At the end of her life in her jail cell she carried the loss of her mother, her brother, and her baby in pursuit of Faust. She once had sexual pleasure and emotional overflow of love with Faust but now she all the pleasure she once had is dead and she experiences only intense suffering and regret for her actions.
The poem on pages 795-96 caught my attention because of the theme of when a person is young they are happy and naive but as a person gets old and goes through experiences they become jaded and worn out. Gretchen started out pure, young, happy. After her experiences with Faust she learns that love can be devastating and at times will not love you back. The time she lost was devastating but the loss of time that is really significant is her loss of the time with her mother and brother and her lack of desire for future time on earth. When she is in the prison cell at the end and Faust gives her the opportunity to escape and go with him he refuses, giving up her opportunity to live.
Cox Response #6
I really enjoyed reading The Death of Ivan Ilych. It made me contemplate the easy luring trap of living a life of mediocracy or living an average life. Ivan took many steps that people take today, striving for prestige in his career and separating his family from his work. He made a few mistakes that helped him live a life of unhappiness, things such as marrying a woman he did not love and marrying her for her money and his friend's liking of her, and having superficial relationships. What I really got out of the reading was the question- What is considered average?
Is average life equivalent to a marriage with marginal happiness but more out of functionality? Is it a successful career but unsuccessful shallow relationships with friends? Just like each person constructs what they live for, each individual person decides what kind of life they want and if they are ok with just getting by or if they want to do something different. In my Honors 202 with Jason Powell he talked about how to be human is to try and strive. Not saying that means every person is driven to change the world but each person is striving for something. Some to just live each day, others to get good grades, other to obtain a mate, others to get a promotion or award. I think the average person is a striving being. And the difference between those that are happy and unhappy when they reflect on their lives is the success or failure a person had in their efforts to strive. Ivan was unable to cultivate a loving healthy relationship with his wife. He had two main things that occupied his life- his work and his wife. He strived alot in his career and was successful and that did bring him satisfaction but he failed to connect with his wife. Because of his lack of connection with her he had no one to share his career success with. She was happy for him because of his salary but not because of his hard work and achievement and everyone knows from any self help love book that men need to feel respected for relationships to reach their potential. His wife obviously did not respect his work, only his money.
As I look back on this story it makes me aware of how easy it is to live a life that just goes with the flow but I know I would feel like I failed at the end of my life. I once read a mime that said hell is the day you die and you see the person you could have become if you reached your potential. I know no one is perfect and if the mime was true no one would ever mirror the alternate version of themselves. But, if it was true, I would hope to at least be close to the best version of Maggie. I guess that will mean striving like the average person and then striving even more and in different ways, not only working harder, but smarter than the average "striver."
Cox Response #7
A Doll's House was an interesting play and one that makes me as a woman want to be very independent and capable on my own being. Discussing the play in class reminded me of a sermon on a story from the bible. The sermon was focused on a story that seemed very insignificant and like the actions of the characters were common. The pastor went on to point out how society functioned and what people believed at the time and why that made the story so important. A Doll's House was wrote in the same light. A common action of a person up and leaving their significant other and children seems common today. Back in the day, it was unheard of for a woman to do what Nora did. And I did not really grasp that until we talked a little about it in class during the week but I still can't full appreciate the gumption she had even if she did abandon her kids which I did not approve of.
I think many of my classmates were right in how Nora should have attempted to give Torvold a chance to change and not spontaneously blindside him and their children. But my one classmate made a good point of it wasn't so spontaneous, she had been waiting for Torvold to treat her like a equal or with respect for eight years. She may have been waiting on him but I do not think she ever gave him cues or told him that she wanted how he treated her to change. In the video clip we watched he seemed so engrossed in his belief that Nora was his property and that she was beneath him and so I felt he might be unable to change his point of view. If that was the case it was good Nora left but I would like to think that she would have been around often to see and still care for her children.
Weekly response #8
This past week there were many texts about women's roles and their seeking of independence from man. There is a huge idea that men require respect from women to feel valued and to be a successful partner in a relationship. But now more than ever after reading A Doll's House, The Revolver, Declaration of Sentiments, the Women's Bible and my own personal observations in life women deserve just as much respect as men if not more. I know not all men can be grouped together just like not all women can be grouped together but from my personal observations and surveys have shown that women are starting to surpass men in academics and ambition levels. Not all, but a large percentage of women. There has been a shift over the years in the genders. I used to see men as these ambitious successful leaders who worked hard and who I would automatically respect. I do not feel that way anymore. I see among many of my male peers(not all) the characteristics of laziness, lack of ambition, complacency, lack of morals, passiveness, lack of physical fitness, and wrongful pridefulness about their lack of accomplishments. It is unreasonable to expect me to respect a husband figure who has these characteristics when I actively work daily on not being those characteristics and striving to learn all I can and become a great individual who can impact the world positively in the days that God has given me. And I am not alone in my thinking. In all of my hard classes I know that the people who get good grades like myself are not so much the guys, but the girls.
Men say they view women equally and most do but there is still a small underlying thought that our lives are not as important as guys. So many times have I had a significant other and not only am I a division 1 athlete like them, taking a harder major, more credit hours, attend church, involved in multiple clubs, a business fraternity, and am president of one club, I am still expected to bend my schedule and plan my time around them. They know we do the same thing and that I do more but still their life and schedule holds more importance in their mind and I should work around them. My sister posted a quote to my facebook message wall saying- A weak man cant love a strong woman because he wont know what to do with her. I think the quote should be a strong woman cant love a weak man because she wont know what do to with him. She can't genuinely respect someone who doesn't even display an equal level of ambition as her or if he has lack luster character. It would be a stretch and unfair to say women are better than men. Although I think I am being reasonable when I say man women deserve more credit and respect than what the get from men and men either need to get out of the woman's way or up their game and find some ambition and work ethic in their lives so as to be better partners for women.
Weekly Response #9
The topic of colonialism is has a bad taste to it as it was very harmful to so many native people in so many areas of the world. The way King Leopold said how he was going to enlighten the natives and show them Christianity started as a noble cause but the good works he talked of doing for native people in the Congo never even started to take place. And not only was there forced labor but the practice of cutting off hands was horrendous and seemed to handicap the native people further even from their starvation limiting their work abilities. I really liked the title of the story because I think it captured some different aspects of the colonialism events. First, it could have been referring to the colonizers hearts that were doing wrong to the natives and just stripping the land of resources. Second, it could have been about the native people who had hearts of darkness because of all the evil and harm being done to them. Third, the title could have been referring to the unexplored and unmapped out land of the Congo as the heart of darkness. As I was reading and it would describe the shoreline I envisioned a thick jungle like vegetation that was colored very dark and was dense and I got am erie scared feeling and thought the steamboat men should not go near the shore. Unfortunately they had to because they needed wood for the steam boat but it still seemed to make them very vulnerable to an attack from natives and without a translator the would have no way to talk it out with natives who approached them. They did have some natives working on the boat but the odds of them knowing some remote tribe's dialect or language was slim. I did not even think that there was a possibility of the steamboat being attacked until it happened and then I figured the whole crew would probably be killed by natives before they could return to posts from where they started.
Weekly Response #10
Learning about Freud this week was interesting and a little disturbing. I along with many people have had terrible dreams where I wake up terrified or crying and when I go crawl in with my parents they say- its just a dream. Well now Freud's got me thinking- yes it is just a dream but it may not be as random as I previously thought. The many dreams that I have had about family members who aren't here anymore who I miss make sense under Freud's theory. It's the nightmares I have had in the past that scares me to think that I may have brought some of my past nightmares upon myself. I did like the idea that when people have nightmares then maybe it was not that people wished that horror in their lives but that they were wishing that the event would not happen. I read Nick's weekly response for this week and I had to agree with him on that maybe Freud is a little over the top in his ideas that people are in constant repression in their unconscious of sexual desires.I think some people may be in that state and all people may have some sexual desires they repress in their unconscious but I doubt it is to the degree Freud was stating. My group and I were talking today and we both thought Freud was a little unscientific in his observations and studies in his closeness with his patients and his findings were based on people's alleged dreams and recounts that seemed more story like then stable observations. I felt like his observations were very convenient for him and they all seemed to be reasoning that he could talk himself into and make it seem logical when really it was just him trying to make connections between things then shouldn't really be connected.
Cox Response #11
This was one of my favorite weeks in honors 203. I thought the presentation on art was well done and the presenters were very knowledgeable and I learned about the different styles from their presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed Blake and Huy's presentation on "The Love Song of Alfred Pruock." They had great background information and I could tell were both very passionate about what they presented on. Today meeting in the art museum and observing Dafna Kaffeman's work along with having her talk us through the pieces was really enriching. I am not someone who chooses to go to art museums in their free time or necessarily always value the work of artists as much as I should but today I felt very different about my usual point of view. Dafna Kaffeman as she talked about each of her pieces of work and I could grasp that she wasn't just creating something but trying to say something and many of her messages were substantial about repression of individuals, things from the past that hold in people's memories, political messages, and the struggle within her own country. Each piece was a lot more complex than its face value. Many of the pieces have text aspects that were derived because of their meaning and influence. I admired her embroidery of the insects and words. It was not a kind of art I had seen much of before and I liked its simplicity and domestic touch. The glass figures of flowers, mushrooms, and insects were extraordinary and I am puzzled how she was able to create the praying mantis because of how small and fragile its body parts are. My favorite glass creations were the bugs that ate the potato plant leaves during the second world war. They were orange-red with little black dots on them and the way their bodies had these rolls and bulges in them I was just amazed. Today definitely expanded my mind to the importance of art and that while my passion may be in soccer and accounting, people like Daffna's lie in creating art and projecting messages through their art. That is something I can respect and admire, people with passion are people of great interest and respectability to myself.
Cox Response #12
This week we read "Things Fall Apart." Casey and I presented on Monday which I am happy we did now because it had me reading the story very slowly to understand it and to take it in. I thought the story was great to read because it put the real life situation of colonialism into a story format which is much easier to stay engaged in and enjoy reading as compared to a nonfiction piece with just statements of historical events and facts. I learned a lot about Ibo culture and did see Achebe's objective of displaying how the indigenous African people were "humane" and had a strong community structure and admirable qualities. The story made me feel similar to how the story about Gregor turning into a bug did. I felt a lack of hope and I could not see a feasible solution to the problems the main characters were facing. I could be compared to how Ivan Illych's colleagues felt about his death. They all had a feeling of- better him than me in that situation. I know that sounds harsh but the Ibo people are facing a great obstacle that we know they don't happen to overcome and their ways of their tribe and religion falls apart. I just couldn't see good options for the tribes people to resist the white missionaries and maintain their ways of life. Even though I do not agree with everything in their culture such as the killing of twins, I still tried to put myself in their shoes and felt as if I were apart of tribe then I would not want much to do with the white men and missionaries because they were just so radically different from the people I had known m entire life.
For my final project I think I am going to do the research argumentative paper that would focus on a couple of our characters from various readings who lived their lives with extreme effort and strove to do big things in life. I have Frederick Douglas and Okonkwo in mind as of right now. I could contrast them with Ivan Illych since he was the opposite and lived a life that was very average without lofty ambitions. Honestly at this exact moment I dont have a firm plan defined in my mind but I will be thinking of the paper tomorrow as I am home at the farm and will add more to this weekly response as my ideas become clear to me or I will be emailing you when I feel like I have a solid direction to get your thoughts.
Maggie, this sounds like a good start. Another character who strove to do big things was Faust. Or Nora. Let me know if you would like additional feedback one you start getting more specific ideas. MH
Cox Response #13
I really enjoyed the movie- Chocolat. It provided a very different perspective on colonialism compared to Heart of Darkness and things Fall Apart. It showed a family living in Cameroon that wasn’t as harsh on the natives such as the characters in Heart of Darkness. I loved the relationship between France and Protee. France was so young and did not have as strong of an imprint of social predicate as her parents and so she was close with Protee. I did notice that when she went to retrieve him when he was having a letter written for him she was a little rude to him and treated him like a servant and I was surprised, but it did make her on a similar parallel as her mother. I hated the part when Protee got France to burn her hand but at the same time I felt it was him looking out for her and harming her to protect her in the future. This thought made me ponder and it might be what I write my paper on. I think Protee was a stronger character with so much to him than what is displayed at face value.
The frame for the movie was an intimate touch to the story. There is something special and romantic about when people tell a story from their childhood. The actual events may be a little distorted as they are being remembered from the future and when the events were lived out they were viewed through the eyes of a child who sometimes do not always understand all that is occurring. I got the feeling as France was in the car riding in the present time she had a sense of nostalgic for her childhood and childhood home but it was accompanied with an amount of emotional pain.