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.