Mama's Plant

In the play, A Raising in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama's plant is a subtle but important symbol. The plants is described as "barley surviving" during the beginning of the book, but Mama still nurtures and cares for it. She even dedicates the only window to the plant, as to try to make sure it gets ample sunlight. The plant represents Mama's hope for her family. She hopes her family will be able to come together and be happy and unified. At the beginning of the book, the plant is wilted and flawed, which is a comparison to the way that her family is flawed. Mama describes the plant by mentioning, "If this little old plant don't get more sun than it's been getting, it ain't never going to see spring again" (Hansberry 40). Despite these flaws, Mama still takes pride in the plant and waters it every day, just like her family. She also dedicated much of her efforts to trying to make sure that her family will be able to live a good life together, and much like how she spends a lot of time and thought on the plant, she pays $3,000 for a down payment on a nice house to try to fulfill that dream for her family. One of Mama's favorite things about the new house that they purchased is that it has plenty of windows, and lots of light. This shows how Mama thinks the sunlight will help her family to grow and be happy, similarly to how a plant will with ample light.

Religion in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz

In The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, religion plays a key part in the book. Though it is not blatantly obvious at first, there are many subliminal references and symbols of god and religion, specifically Christianity. John's hometown, Hades, is actually an allusion to hell, named after the Greek god of the underworld. This is a direct contrast the the Washington estate, which is the "garden of eden", a garden of paradise from the bible. Another reference to hell is made in Braddock's dungeon, where one of the men yells, "Come down to hell". Braddock continues to mock them, showing how he thinks of himself as a powerful god who controls who is in eden and who is in hell. There are also references to the fact that Americans have turned away from god, and only chose to worship money. One example is the "twelve fishermen". Fitzgerald describes the village below the mountain, saying , "An immense distance under the sky crouched the village of Fish, minute, dismal, and forgotten" (Fitzgerald 78). The twelve fishermen represent the twelve disciples, and the town represents God's place in America. The village is "minute" and "forgotten", showing how religion has become neglected in this time or materialism and greed. The end of the book, when planes attack Braddock's estate, is supposed to be like judgment day, where God comes back and wreaks havoc for Braddock's greed and his sins. When Braddock tries to offer a diamond as a bribe to God, God shows that the divine is not in the same league as humans, because God is not greedy or corrupt. Braddock, on the other hand, thinks that money and wealth trump everything, so he is unpleasantly surprised when his bribe is turned down. He realizes that he is not the most powerful being as he had previously thought, and god destroys eden to show that Braddock is not, in fact, in control of who is in eden and who is in hell.

Favorite Great Gatsby Passage

Often the most profound and important revelation of a book is at the end. Such is true with F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, where nick sits thinking to himself, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...." (Fitzgerald 180). What Nick is trying to say is that Gatsby was never going to be able to be satisfied with what he'd achieved. Gatsby is supposed to represent all the people trying to achieve the American dream, who think that when the reach their "goal", generally of becoming rich, they will be happy. Though Gatsby is able to become very wealthy, he still isn't happy because he wants Daisy to love him. Then when he finally does get Daisy to love him, he isn't happy because he wants Daisy to tell Tom that she "never loved him". This shows that Even though Gatsby can achieve these goals, the pleasure is temporary, and he is soon anxious about the next thing that he wants. This constant consumption and want for more is unsustainable, and thus is why Gatsby eventually gets shot and dies. Similarly, the greed and constant desire for more eventually leads from the prosper and hope of the 1920s, to the Great Depression, which is the collapse of the American dream. This was similar to the situation Fitzgerald was in, where he was always drinking despite his large amount of wealth that should've satisfied him, and supports my last post about how money doesn't but happiness.

Money and Hapiness

Many people think that the phrase "money doesn't buy happiness" is false. people will think that just because they feel happy when they make a purchase or obtain money that money will make them happy in life. I directly oppose this idea, and agree with the statement that "money doesn't buy happiness". The dream of striking it rich has become almost an obsession with many Americans, as consumerism and greed consume us. Just this black Friday, at least two people have died trying to get a slight discount at malls or stores, showing how dedicated we are to money and material items. Despite this obsession with getting richer and getting more "stuff", studies, such as one from Huffington Post, show that happiness actually begins to decrease with income after about $70,000 a year (In Michigan), even though the median income for Michigan families is around $64,000 a year. This means that in actuality, it isn't the richest of the rich that are happy, but instead, it is the middle class are marginally happier than the rich, and shows that most of us have the potential to be very happy despite how much money we have. In The Great Gatsby, despite him being in a very nice house with lots of money, Tom still seems unhappy, to the point where he even cheats on Daisy with another woman. He also says, "Civilization's going to pieces", showing everyone how pessimistic and upset he is despite his very good financial standings, conveying the concept that happiness is much more complex than just having lots of money (Fitzgerald 12).

Sources:
Huffington Post
Department of Numbers

Favorite Bluest Eye Passage

My favorite quote in the whole book is, "Wicked people love wickedly, violent people loved violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe" (Morrison 206). I really like this quote because it explains why a lot of the terrible things in this book happen. most people perceive love as nurturing and good, but Morrison introduces the idea that love is only as good as the lover, and that just like people, love can be evil too. While Cholly's actions are seen as disgusting and sinister, Cholly, who has never been able to truly comprehend love, is trying to display his love for Pecola in the only way he knows how. In a similar fashion, Soaphead Church thinks that his molestation of kids is "love". Soaphead is a sinner who thinks of himself as better than god, so his love cannot be good, in accordance to the line previous to the quote, "love is never any better than the lover" (Morrison 206). In addition to that, love can also be destructive, in the sense that people often think that being beautiful equates to being loved. We see throughout the book, examples of the self-destructiveness of beauty standards, and love only heightens the desire to be beautiful. Though we all know love is usually positive, in the entire book there are no relationships in which the participants truly love each other, which would bring one to believe that Morrison is trying to show how negative love can really be

To Pimp a Butterfly

Racism in 20th century America is the main topic of Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. Though the book is able to depict the scene of racism in the 20th century very well, the book was written over 40 years ago. In 2015, 45 years after Morrison wrote her book, Kendrick Lamar released his second studio album "To Pimp a Butterfly", which was incredibly successful. Much like in Morrison's novel, one can coast through the album, listening to the words, but not really thinking about them and trying to figure out what they mean (as I did my first time listening to it). After deeper analysis into both, it is clear that both works are centered around the common theme of racism in America from the perspective of a black person. The idea, of "pimping a butterfly" is that Kendrick was a caterpillar in Compton, as he was looked at as just another ugly, poor, black man, who was able to turn into a butterfly and become a world famous hip-hop artist. Now that he is the butterfly, the industry is trying to "pimp" him, or make it look like he beautiful now that he has money and material things, to satisfy the standard that a black man cannot be appealing unless they have money and success. In the novel, the most detrimental part of racism to young Pecola is the fact that she feels like she is ugly, and can never be beautiful because she is black, "they stayed there because they believed they were ugly", while in Lamar's album, his friends hate themselves because they think that because they don't have money like Kendrick, they are looked down upon by society. (Morrison 38). At the end of the track "u", Kendrick pretends to be one of his friends from back in the ghetto, who is drunk and telling Kendrick how mad he is that he left behind all his friends in Compton to be rich and successful. This album contrasts a new kind of money driven racism, to the old kind of racism in The Bluest Eye.

Mary Jane

In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, Pecola goes to the store with three pennies to buy candy. The name of the candy is "Mary Jane" and it serves as a distraction to Pecola's ugly and violent life at home. The candies, which have a picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl on them, give Pecola a feeling of happiness she has not felt in a while. When humans eat sugar, it causes a rush of dopamine to the brain, a chemical that causes a feeling of euphoria and happiness, and will also cause that person to associate their circumstances with that feeling of happiness. Because Pecola is eating the Mary Janes, she now associates the white, blue eyed girl with happiness, and feels that this is the only way she can be happy. Another reason Morrison may have chosen the candy "Mary Jane", besides the fact that it has a picture of a white girl on the wrapper, is because the phrase "Mary Jane" is often associated with marijuana. Marijuana has the same purpose as the sugar has for Pecola; Marijuana is a drug often used by people to escape their temporary problems or situation, but in the long run, just ends up hurting them. Marijuana also causes the same dopamine influx that sugar causes, which makes the user feel a temporary "high" (sort of like a sugar high). Mary Jane may have also been selected because it even without the picture, the phrase "Mary Jane" invokes the image of a pretty girl. The name Mary Jane has been used to represent feminine and beautiful women many times in the media, from the girlfriend in movies like "Tarzan" or "Spider-man", to the subject of Tom Petty's hit "Last Dance with Mary Jane". All these connotations associated with the simple name "Mary Jane", make a great name for the candy that, while providing a temporary escape from reality, "Three Pennies had bought her nine lovely orgasms with Mary Jane", the happiness is only temporary, because soon, she will go back to hating herself and desiring to have blue eyes (Morrison 50). (Fun fact: orgasms also work by creating a rush of dopamine in your brain, just like the sugar and marijuana)

A Child's Mind

Once upon a time, teenagers listened to what their parents told them to do. As crazy as this thought seems, it actually has some truth. Very often, teenagers and children will follow and believe whoever they think has authority and experience in a particular area, generally their parents. While teens are stereotyped as "rebellious", stats shows that "7 in 10 teens (71%) say their social and political ideology is about the same as mom and dad's." (Lyons). The idea that kids and young teens are easily influenced by authoritative figures and are more susceptible to bandwagon is a generally accepted truth by just about everyone, and in this day and age, using rhetoric to convince children to buy a certain product or follow a certain political party is commonplace. Children have been sought out by countless people: Businessmen, Politicians, and even Jesus. Today, it seems like the world is a sort of war to gain the support of children between battling corporations and politicians, as after all, in the words of Nelson Mandela, "[Children] are our future". Great Britain believes this has gotten so out of hand, that they have placed tight restrictions on advertising to kids; they outlaw product placement in children's TV shows and programs altogether. "Our Barbies, Ourselves", by Emily Prager, highlights the destructive effects of letting kids play with toys that promote an unrealistic idea of beauty, because the kids could grow up "brainwashed" by impossible beauty standards. Prager jokes at the fact that she, "never married, simply because [she couldn't] find a man who looks as good in clam diggers as Ken, " A funny statement that is actually rooted in truth (Prager 354). Because she spent a large part of her childhood playing with Barbies, she became convinced that the ideal man must look like Ken, and is now unable to find anyone who she considers attractive because her standards have been set so high that finding someone attractive is harder to find than pink elephants.

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Past and Present Linking Techniques

In the graphic novel "Maus", by Art Spiegelman, Art uses lots of different techniques to convey the way that the past and present are linked together through memory. One reoccurring motif linking the past and present is the idea of spinning. There is the obvious exercise bike, which Vladek starts pedaling on as he beings his journey into the past, almost as if to signify the metaphorical "turning of gears" that is associated with remember distant events. Another less blatant instance of spinning is when Vladek begins spinning into a circle to show how he was inspected by the guards, and suddenly he is in the past. He says "He glanced and said 'Face left!'. They looked to see it if was sores or pimples on the body. Then again:'Face left!'" (Spiegelman 58). As he faces left the second time, the scene switches back to Auschwitz, almost as if Vladek is turning back into the past. Another thing that Spiegelmen does to link the past and present, is that most of the time he returns to the present from the past, the first picture has no border (examples of this on volume 2 pages 54, 48, 28, ect). He does this to show a return from the concrete and "set in stone" stories from the past to a more abstract and free period of time, where the characters can now change their stories. Because the characters are now in the present, the have free will and therefore control over what happens during this period.

True Fear

Often the fear of pain and loss can be much worse than the actual pain. In many instances in my life, I have been scared of a punishment or maybe a test result that ended up not being too bad at all, and I can think of times where the anticipation of pain has been worse then the actual pain, like getting shots or ripping off a bandage. Throughout the Holocaust, Jewish prisoners were subjected to incredible amounts of pain and torture, but another terrible part of what they felt was their fear that they would die in these concentration camps. While they tried to stay strong, sometimes this fear ended up breaking them, like when Felix found out he would likely die, and "All night he cried and screamed" (Spiegelman 59). I'm not trying to make the point that the fear of death or miserable torture is unreasonable, but rather that if I can feel so scared of something so trivial, it is impossible to imagine the fear and despair that the prisoners in Auschwitz felt during this time. From my perspective, this seems to explain why the horror of the Holocaust cannot truly be shown by words or pictures. While people can imagine the pain of the victims, and sympathize with them, in the end they're just reading another story, and can put it down whenever they like. We cannot really understand the suffering because we cannot experience this constant fear that today may be our last day, and that we will never see our family or loved ones again.

Unforeseen Consequences

This week in English, we read a passage called "Rethinking the Nature of Work", which focused on how the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s, though generally thought of as a positive and progressive, did create issues by giving white women working for "liberation", jobs previously employed by black and other lower class people, who depended on these jobs to support their families and to survive. "[Lower class women] were threatened because they knew that new jobs would not be created for those masses of white women seeking to enter the workforce, and they feared that they and men of their classes would lose jobs" (Hooks 98). This got me thinking about modern examples of movements that are generally deemed "positive" by some people that could have unforeseen repercussions. One example is both of the current political candidates, (I'll try to remain unbiased here). Though both sides argue that they would advance America to a far more prosperous state, and both sides truly believe they are the ones America needs, they both also have critical flaws that could have seriously negative impacts on our country. Clinton supporters argue that their candidate is the "positive" one, and that Hillary would make America a much better place than if Trump was elected, but Clinton has some major issues. One point critics make is that that Clinton is corrupt, and some even think that she cheated her way to the candidacy. Meanwhile, Trump supporters think that Trump will save America, create jobs, and boost the economy, but Trump obvious has many issues as well. First of all, critics of Trump say he is far too volatile to be the president, as well as that he is racist and bigoted. Though there are both people who think positively of Trump and Clinton, either one of these candidates could have serious repercussions if they are elected.

Laws vs. Morals

Many people often have concrete opinions on how the world should work, but do not want to inconvenience themselves by living according to these truths that they believe in. We spent the week disusing how morals and laws relate to each other, and most of us generally agreed that just because something was against the law, didn't necessarily make it immoral or wrong. Thoreau explains in "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" that ,"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right" (Thoreau 1017). He is trying to say that it is more important to follow your morals than the law, because morals are subjective, varying from person to person, place to place, and from time to time. In history, there have been many examples of laws that are unjust, and by today's societies standards, very wrong. One of the best known examples of this was in early America, not even one hundred years ago, when people of color were not allowed basic rights as a citizen, including the right to vote and the right to use the same facilities as white people. Though these laws seemed reasonable and moral at the time they were made, in the modern day these laws are looked at with disgust and reprehension. If we had never had people willing to break the law in a peaceful manor, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, it would have taken much longer to make crucial steps towards equality and a better nation.

Tough Point to Defend

During the week, we talked about many documents that dealt with how unfair America can be towards minorities and groups of people like Native Americans. Many of the people that were being discriminated against attacked documents like the Declaration of Independence. While I see their point of view, I believe that the anger directed at the declaration of independence is not at the right target. Though The Declaration of Independence says "All men are created with certain unalienable rights", not giving any specific equality to women or minorities, it is not meant to limit freedom. The Declaration of Independence's purpose was to create a new precedent of Independence from the state, which it did accomplish. At that time in world history, many of the ideas of freedom had never been seen before, much less put into practice. When it was made, the Declaration of Independence was a huge step in the direction of freedom and equality. Though some of the groups being oppressed by America blamed the declaration for their troubles, the problems lie in deep rooted biases that have been around much longer than the declaration. I strongly believe that the Declaration of Independence only helped bring equality and freedom to a very biased and bigoted world. The first sentence of "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" does a very good job at explaining the way the Declaration of Independence is not meant to be a limiting document. "The signers of the Declaration of Independece were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age" (Douglass).

American Freedom

Though America has been called "the land of the free" since its creation, many people believe that we are still not truly free. In the novel The Things They Carried, one could argue that the soldiers were not free because they were forced into fighting a war, even if they did not agree with it. O'Brien is very much against the war, but he either has to fight in the war, or escape to Canada and never come back to the united states. Another instance of America not being truly free is when the people of the country are not treated equally because they are thought to be less important because of a physical difference (i.e. gender, race, etc). We see examples of this in both Huckleberry Finn, and The Declaration of Sentiments. Though America was established on the Declaration of Independence, stating that all "men" are created equal, it fails to establish equality for minorities and women, a concept which is mocked by the Declaration of Sentiments. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal" (Stanton). Because these groups were not equal, not everyone was able to choose their leaders, own property, or receive an education, making them not free. These two examples show that even though when it was established, it was one of the freest nations in the world, we have come a long way since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and we are still becoming more free every day.