April- Two Sides to Everyone

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the ultimate example of there being two sides to everyone. Although it obviously isn't always as literal as it is in that case, I definitely believe that there are two sides to everyone. It's impossible for people to be happy and wonderful all the time. Even if someone is generally a good and kind person, it is inevitable that they have a mean, angry side. As overused as the saying is, "don't judge a book by its cover", it is obviously true. It's impossible to know what a person is really like based on their outside. Nobody guessed that Dr Jekyll would have really been Mr Hyde, because based on his kind exterior, no one saw the evil inside of him. This could easily be reversed as well tough, even if someone appears mean and angry most of the time, no one knows what they are really like until they take the time to know them. This can be seen in the real world every day, anywhere. In schools, on teams, or at work it's just human nature to judge someone when you see them. People like to say "oh I don't judge" but really everyone does, it's impossible not to. What matters though is that you don't hold on to those judgements and you allow yourself go find out who they really are. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a pretty literal example of there being two sides to everyone and even though it isn't really like that in real life, it is an easy way to understand that people don't always show all of who they are, and people should never make assumptions based off of what's on the surface.

March- The Beauty of Simplicity

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, author, Oscar Wilde, says "all art is quite useless". By this, I definitely don't think Wilde meant that art is pointless, but technically it is useless. The point of art though is whatever use people find for it. Whether it be self expression, or relaxation, the art itself technically has no use but it does serve a purpose. Unfortunately I think that we live in a world where the innocence of something useless that is meant to be pure and beautiful, has been robbed from a lot of things. The world is so competitive that so many people see the need to give a use to something that doesn't need it. For example, if someone was really great at making jewelry or something, the first thing someone else might suggest is that they sell it. Even though the jewelry making was meant to be simply for enjoyment or relaxation, suddenly a use has been assigned to something that didn't really didn't need it, and all of the joyful innocence is taken from it. Everything today is so fast paced that it isn't often people decide to do something solely because they want to or it makes them happy, people try to give everything some kind of use, if not it's a waste of time. I really like Oscar Wilde's statement about art because it really is useless, which is the beauty of it. Art is expressive and fun and therapeutic and it doesn't need to be anything else. A painting isn't going to go out and cure the common cold or discover oil, but that in no way means that it is pointless. I agree with Oscar Wilde and I think that more people in the world need to accept the uselessness of certain things and appreciate the beauty of simplicity.

February- A Misjudged Country

A Thousand Splendid Suns is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read. Reading it made me realize just how uninformed I am about things outside of my own individual world. It feels like I would have to read it about ten more times to be able to fully take in everything that it was saying. To me, both of these are signs of a really incredible book. In America today I believe that we have a pretty distorted view of what life in Afghanistan is really like. It's not that we have no reason for thinking these things with all of the violence that has occurred between the United States and Afghanistan, but A Thousand Splendid Suns has opened my eyes to the fact that the entire country is not like that. Laila and Mariam show that so many innocent people in that country get grouped in with the generalized idea that everyone is Afghanistan is so violent and terrible. While obviously this book is fiction, I would find it hard to believe that it doesn't hold a lot of truth in it. Throughout the novel I think that Hosseini sort of presents the stereotypes that many people have in their mind about Afghanistan and he presents them in comparison to the innocent, good people that he knows exist there. For example Rasheed in comparison to Tariq. Rasheed shows the abusive, misogynistic male that  people believe are all that exist in a country like Afghanistan while Tariq is the innocent, kind man that really does exist there but no one knows about. Through tjis novel, Khaled Hosseini successfully presents and informs about the different, innocent people who live in Afghanistan and have nothing to do with the violence. After reading this, I know that I definitely feel much more informed about life over there and appreciate that he was able to educate so many uninformed people on the truth about a misrepresented country.

January- A Heroic End

In my opinion, suicide in today's society is becoming way too glorified. People think that suicide is so much more tragic than another death or that it is "heroic" but I completely disagree. As seen in The Awakening, the main character Edna kills herself in order to escape from her unhappy life. Edna's actions are often viewed as revolutionary or as the equivalent of her taking flight and showing society that they cannot control her. To me, that is in no way Edna fighting society. To me that is Edna giving in. By killing herself Edna let her world take her down. Not to say that she would have been better off with the life that she was living, but really it was just a lose lose situation. I personally don't admire her really at all for what she did. I do understand that during that time in that kind of a society it would have been very very hard for her to break away and really be successful or independent on her own. However, I feel like if it was meant to be an inspiring story that should've been what happened. Although the actual ending was obviously more realistic. The Awakening I think justifies suicide in a way that I don't ever think is ok. I find this to be more and more common in media today as well which definitely bothers me. I strongly disagree with the common modern views of suicide and the similar one presented by The Awakening.

December- Managing Your Own Future

Many of the novels that we have read throughout the hero unit have all dealt with the idea of fate. From Oedipus, to Hamlet, to Okonkwo, all of these characters were undeniably fated. The events of all of those stories revolved around their fate and their trying to deviate from it, which was proven impossible by the events that followed. However, in Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut went against that norm. I believe that there is a plan for everybody, however, not that there is no way that they can change that. Billy Pilgrim is fated as well but he does not give in to it. In real life, I think people are more fated by their own nature. It may feel like we are following a path but really I think that we are subconsciously determining it for ourselves. Billy stands for himself and doesn't really let life push him around. Billy's own individual nature is what determines the course of his own life. I like this idea so much better than the idea that there is no way that we can change our fate and whatever we are meant to do is set in stone. I just find that idea to be so unrealistic. Reality is never set in stone and the idea of managing your own future as seen in Slaughterhouse Five, seems like a much better one to me.

November- Cultural Relativity

Culture is an extremely relative term that differs from place to place and adapts over time. The two cultures that are presented in Hamlet and Things Fall Apart are so different from each other and from our own society today, that it is almost funny that the same word can be used to define them all. When looking at another culture, it's easy to think that what they do is weird or strange, but customs and traditions are all relative to wherever they come from, so it is impossible for them to be right or wrong. In James Rachels' "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism", he says "the customs of these societies are all that exist. These customs cannot be said to be 'correct' or 'incorrect' for that implies that we have an independent standard of right and wrong by which they may be judged." Basically, since every culture's customs are so different, there is no way for anyone to say what's right or wrong. For example, in the 17th century Danish society in Hamlet, they have Christian morals, and kings and queens, and it is not too far out of the normal to have a sword fight with someone. Whereas in Things Fall Apart, they grow yams and live in huts and it is common for one man to have several wives. Today, in the United Sates in the 21st century, these things sound pretty crazy to us. However, even though we live in the same time period, things that sound normal to someone form the United States may sound completely crazy to someone from Japan. For example, in America, eye contact is considered respectful, especially when speaking to an elder. In Japan on the other hand, that would be extremely disrespectful. It would not be possible to determine which country is wrong or right in this scenario because as James Rachels said "cultural relativism is a theory about the nature of morality." It would not be possible to say who's morals are wrong or right so therefore, it's impossible to say who's cultural norms are wrong or right. From Hamlet to Things Fall Apart to today, no two cultures are exactly the same. What is normal to one person, could be completely insane to someone else, no matter what scale it is looked at on, culture is relative without a doubt, and is constantly adapting and evolving.

October- Good vs. Evil

October 28, 2015 Good vs. "Evil" The classic poem "Beowulf" explores the ideas of good vs evil in a stereotypical way. In the poem we see the traditional archetypes of the hero who is big and strong and saves the day, and the villain who is ugly and hated and an outsider. Because "Beowulf" was written so long ago, the ideas presented are pretty shallow and only present conventional ideas. Back then, society hadn't progressed to what it is now, obviously, and so that must've been the only way they really saw good and evil. Today however, I think that we've experienced so much in society that there are tons of ways something can be perceived as either good or evil. Today we obviously don't have real Grendel like monsters, or heroes like Beowulf, they take the form of very different things. In our world today, something that could be considered evil or a monster may be something like somebody who is extremely racist or discriminative and takes particular actions in order to enforce what they think. The hero in today's world may be someone who takes action against things that are wrong or stands up for what they believe in or for someone else who they see being put down. I think also that many people's perceptions of good and evil have been disturbed. It seems to me that people will look for any way they can to frame something as evil and put a spin on things to make things that are really innocent, into something evil for their own benefit. Also in today's movies and tv shows it is no longer the cliche hero vs villain story, they are often presented as somebody who is seemingly normal. They are not always the typical ugly, outsider or muscular superstar like in Beowulf. For example, Superman is a normal, everyday reporter. From the outside, he doesn't look like a hero at all, and nobody knows that he is the best super hero around. The idea of a hero and a villain is really all subjective. Whether someone sees something as good or evil, is all opinion based. Today, or visions of the typical hero and bad guy have drastically evolved from time of "Beowulf" but as individuals, we will never stop holding people to those titles.