The Monster Inside

During this unit we talked alot about the monster living inside of us. I believe that this is still a problem today. Every day people struggle with their monsters inside. Criminals choose the monster side and end with sometimes horrible consequences. Most people choose against their monster and live very normal lives. This relates to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll was the normal person who chose against his monster, while Mr. Hyde was the monster. It was very complex the relatiomship between those too. Yet that is how society is today. Sometimes we let our monsters out of the cage and walk around. Most times we don't but crimes happen because of these uncaged monsters. We all have a monster but if we and when we uncage that monster makes a huge difference. My monster comes out during sports while someone elses could come out and cause murders. Either way everyone has monster inside and it does cause problems.

The rest cure?

The rest cure was all the rage back during the time of Virginia Woolf. I don't think the rest cure is used anymore since people are sent to mental hospitals now, yet this was still a pertient issue in the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper is all about a woman who goes crazy while on the rest cure. As we discuussed in class the rest cure was actually the complete opposite thing a crazy person should have done. The society back then probably paid no attention to the people going crazy because it was not at the forefront of the medical problems. Even now going crazy is not at the forefront. It is an after thought really and the yellow wallpaper challenged that because it showed that the rest cure was wrong and going insane was a real problem. The yellow wallpaper helped bring attention to a real problem that needed an answer.

The Frailty of Women?

The women in literature has been hard for me to connect with. As a man I don't have to go through the struggles and hardships of a woman. What I have noticed in the unit was the men were very constricting of women and made the women in thier lives seem inferior and frail. For example in The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator is seen by her husband as frail and can't handle stress. The rest cure was basically designed for women who "couldn't handle stress". In society today this isn't seen as much as it used to. Before the feminist and equal rights movements women were seen in a bad light. They were seen as inferior to men in all capacities and could barely think for themselves. Going back to The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator was held back by her husband and was claimed by insanity. She was ok before the       great rest cure but it made her go insane. The cure that was made for women was making their condition even worse. If everyone knew that women could handle stress and they just needed something to occupy their time with like men then the world would've been a more accepting place. Even today some people think women as frail and inferior. I have had the great honor of growing up in a house full of strong women who would laugh at being called inferior or frail. The way women are portrayed and treated in the novels as inferior or frail is unfair but in the end they are shown to be the strong individuals that they are. This connection might be weak but again it is hard to write about issues that don't really pertain to myself.

Cultural Relativism

Cultural relativism is understanding and accepting the cultural practices of different societies. Not many people do accept the different cultural practices so there is conflict. In Things Fall Apart this is a big deal. The missionaries try to change the cultural practices of the native people. They do not accept the society and their cultural practices because it is not what the missionaries thought was right. So they changed the society. This also happens alot in the world today. People fight over cultural differences all the time. They just can't accept that a different way of doing something could be right. I find this very sad. People can't get along and learn from each other so there is war. If everyone could work together the world would be a much better place.

Nature vs Nurture

A prevalent issue in the psychology community is nature vs nurture. Nature vs nurture is the debate whether someone's nature will shine through or what they were taught. In Wuthering Heights Heathcliff is a perfect subject for nature vs nurture. He has a good nature but he was neglected as a child and became very violent. In this instance nurture came through because Heathcliff was neglected so much. The reason nature vs nurture is such a big deal is because psychologists want to know if killers are born that way or they are taught these behaviors. Heathcliff may not be a killer but he acts as strangely and as erratically as one. In my opinion, in nature vs nurture, nurture will win most of time. I think this because you might be against something at first but after being exposed to certain behaviors for such a prolonged perioed of time, as Heathcliff was, your nature can be stomped out and replacec with the behavior that you exposed to.

Boasts coming back?

Boasting is something that most people don't do. Most people don't talk about everything that they have done that is worth celebrating. Lately though many celebrities have started to boast. Rappers talk about all the money and cars they have. Also they take pictures and put them all over the internet. People are boasting more than in years past and it seems to be making a comeback. One literature that this relates to is Beowulf. Beowulf boasted about everything like these celebrities. Even though it wasn't making a comeback like it is today, he still boasted like they do. Many young people are beginning to boast like these celebrities. They post things and pictures of their cars and spouses and it seems like we are going back in time to Beowulf. Where it was th culture to boast. Personally I beleive that boasting should be left in the past. People don't need to know everything that someone has ever done. It isn't important and there are more important things to do. We could solve cancer or end world hunger if people didn't boast as much and cared more for others than themselves.

Finding your place in society

Finding your place in society

I felt that Invisible Man dealt with the issue of characters finding out their place in society. In Invisible Man the narrator struggled trying to find his place in society. He gets kicked out of college and doesn't know where to go. Eventually he gets recruited by a group  called the brotherhood, that uses him to get what they want. While working for the group the narrator discovers that he has more success working for the group than working alone. When the narrator learns of the brotherhood's deceit he plans to take it down. Things spiral into chaos and the narrator decides that he belongs in a hole, removed from society. Throughout the book the narrator tries to fit into a society that he wasn't made for and in the end removes himself finding his place in society. This happens alot in real life. People don't fit into society no matter how hard they try and eventually they remove themselves or conform to what the society wants them to be. This happens in high school. People try to be part of a group and when they don't fit in they either leave the group or conform. My personal opinion is that we should not conform or just leave society. We should keep trying to find where we fit in society. No one should have to conform or leave the society. Everyone should be allowed to be themselves.