Beauty

Recently in class, we have been talking about man versus themselves. There are many situations in both books and movies where characters are constantly contemplating their intentions and their reason for being here. One of the books that we read was called "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In case you don't already know, this book is about a young man named Dorian Gray who basically never wants to grow old because if he grows old, then he will no longer be beautiful. This thought is quite ridiculous, however to Dorian, it is everything to him to always be beautiful. So after Dorian's friend, Basil, paints a portrait of Dorian, which Dorian feels that it is unfair that the picture gets to stay young and ageless while he has to grow old and ugly and wished that it could be the other way around. This wish caused a silent deal with the devil because from that day on, the picture aged while Dorian stayed young. And then at the very end of the novel, Dorian drove himself to insanity because of the portraits constant change and stabbed to painting, which ended up with Dorian killing himself and becoming old and unrecognizable to his servants and the only thing that allowed them to recognize him was the rings that he wire on his fingers. Dorian's wish to remain beautiful is seen in society in some of the biggest ways. For women, we typically seem to be self-conscious about our bodies and will do anything to make them perfect. Women will go through plastic surgery, diets and will do anything to stay young and beautiful. But that is not necessary. Us humans need to understand that no one is perfect, so we need to get that image out of our heads and focus on our future. You don't have to be beautiful to be successful and thinking that we do will affect how you behave. So be confident in who you are and don't let anyone or yourself that you are not perfect or beautiful because you are!

Women in Society

In society, women are seen as someone who is meant to be a specific way in life. They are supposed to be sexy and beautiful to make men feel good about life. However, that is it what should identify a women. In English literature, women are always treated like they are worthless and the on,y thing that they are good for are taking care of the house. Take A Thousand Splendid Suns for example. The women in the novel are treated like they are slaves and only good for keeping the house clean and putting hot food on the table for the husband to eat. This novel was from 1920s to 2005. In today's culture, women are still treated poorly, but not the way it used to be. Today, women are treated like they are below men. Women are not paid the same amount of money for the same job as men are and are not treated the same in the work place. Besides the work place, the images that you see of women on magazines talk about being beautiful and sexy. These magazines can be seen by little girls and this can get into their head and change the way that they think about themselves, which change who they are and who they will become as a person. Women should not be judged by their looks, but by who they are as a person. Women are just as important in society as men are and they should be treated as equals and not as someone who is either above or below one another. Women should not be treated poorly or abused and treated like garbage. Women are better than that and they should be treated like the are important and that they matter, not like they are useless and are not important to society.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

 Recently in English, we read the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns". This book was about two women who live in Afghanistan and how their life's became one. Mariam was 15 years old when her mother died an was forced to marry a man 30 years older than her and was a total stranger to her. At first, their marriage was normal. The. After seven miscarriages, Rasheed, her husband, began to mentally, verbally, and physically abuse her. This made Mariam feel bad about herself and left her wondering what she did that was so wrong to be treated this way. The. There is Laila, who first starts out as an infant, but we saw her growing up. At the age of 16, both of Laila's parents were killed at home caused by a bomb that was deployed and landed on their house. When Rasheed found Laila, he saw a beautiful girl whom he will take care of and make his wife. Laila, having no choice, or so it seemed, married Rasheed. A couple of years later, Rasheed is abusing Laila the way he abuses Mariam. However, there was nothing they could do to stop this because during this time, husbands had the right to beat their wives as long as it was behind closed doors. Seeing what Rasheed did to Mariam and Laila reminded me of a time when the men in America would do the same thing to their wives. But unlike the laws in Afghanistan, there is a law in America that forbids wife-beating I felt so bad when I was reading what was being done to these two ladies because they did not wrong at all, but they just got beat. They may have said somethings that Rasheed didn't like, but that doesn't mean that you should beat your wife! But in the end, the women took back the control that they lost and were able to end their lives happily.

The Awakening

Recently, I read the book The Awakening for class. I enjoyed the book very much, but there was one part that a lot of people in my class had strong feelings about. This was at the very end of the book when Edna committed suicide. Most of my classmates described Edna's suicide was selfish.  For me, I see it has a positive and negative action. Edna felt like she had no control in her life. She was constantly being controlled by her husband and society. By taking small actions, such as going out on Tuesday's instead of staying home and having women come and visit her, she bought the "pigeon-house", and went on her own little adventures. But the ultimate piece of control was when she took her life because she didn't want to be controlled by men and society anymore. However, the part where everyone sees the negative part of her suicide is that Edna left her children and her husband. By killing herself, her children will lost their mother and her husband lost his wife. From my standpoint, Edna had to kill herself. She was in love with another man and three men were trying to win her love and affection in order to have control over her. That's what Edna didn't like. She was only a thing that the men wanted to have so that they could control what she does. That's what I like about Edna. Even though she kills herself in the end and leaves her husband and children, she did one thing that she could control. By taking that swim in the freezing ocean naked, she was able to control how far she swam until she didn't want to go any farther, then she just let go. In that little bit, Edna was able to control how she died and that is all she wanted, control

Beliefs

Not too long ago, I read a book Things Fall Apart. I enjoyed this book very much because you can see a lot of things going on in a different culture than my own. This novel is based on a tribe in Africa. The people there are very strict on their culture. The elders are always respected, the men are judged on their character and not the character of their father. The women don't do much besides cook and clean. The members of the tribe that the novel focuses on is surrounded by many strong men. However, unlike my religion, the members of the tribes believe that many things are bad luck, such has having twins for example. If a woman has twins, the babies are immediately thrown into the Evil Forest, where all the other evil spirits are kept. The members of the tribe also believe that the men should be in charge and that they should protect the women. In my opinion, I feel that this is all wrong. We are at that day in age when women are able to protect themselves and work to get things done. During the time that the novel was based on,the men did all the work and some men still feel that way today. But women have come a long way. We are strong ad wise, we are able to get things done, and we can do anything a man can do. Women are surgeons and pilots and fighting for our country. Men are nurses and dancers and stay-at-home parents. Depending on ones culture will determine how they feel about the subject, but it is my belief that we can keep some of the old habits, like respect our elders is obvious, and allowing some changes to be made. And some of the tribes beliefs were just plain ridiculous. Throwing a pair of twins into an 'Evil Forest' seems cruel because they are ending a life before it even begins. But I can see where they come from, that they believe that it is a sign of evil, but in today's society. I don't know if this would still happen, I am hoping that it would not, but you never really know until it happens.

Cultures and traditions in a Family

There are many different cultural beliefs among families. There are families that pass down heirlooms from their ancestors, which is really cool because that is something from along time ago and if its still in good condition can be worth a lot of money. Other families have family traditions that they do every year. For my family, I have many different traditions. For example, every year, me and my mom make the Christmas cookies for our household. On Good Friday, i make Easter pies all day long with my mom-mom, three aunts and my cousin. A lot of traditions can be fun for the whole family or just for one family member. My favorite part about family traditions is that you can always continue them when you get married and have your own family. Like when I have kids, I will still make Christmas cookies with my mom, but I will also be including my kids so that there are more hands. My mom's favorite tradition is when we go to pick out our Christmas tree. Personal, this is not my favorite time because my mom takes forever to pick out the perfect tree, but she has her reasons for this. She wants a tree that is strong, does not shed much, full, not dead in any spots, and is the perfect height so that it not only fits in our house, but also able to have the angel on top. Then there is the tree decorating, which is my favorite part because we always listen to Christmas music and if there is a Christmas movie on, then we will listen to that instead. One book that kind of shows different cultures is the book Slaughterhouse 5 because in some cultures, the age of becoming a man is different than others. When there are 14 year old boys fighting in a war, it is most likely do to their culture and the traditions within that culture. So culture and traditions can go a long way, depending on the person.

Names Can Give Someone Power

Last week in English, we read this play called The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This play was hilarious because to me, it was about being someone else. This also relates to what a lot of people do in society today, minus the double life part. For example, in the play your name can mean a lot of things. It could mean power, wealth, and describes the kind of person you are. In today's society, we have the first two, power and wealth. Now people don't have to be famous to have a powerful name. Let's take my hometown for example. We have the Hostetter's, the Chamber's, the Canaday's, etc. On a completely different scale, we have the Kardashian's, the Jenner's, Miley Cyrus, Prince William, Duchess Kate, etc. and these people have power from name and wealth. Personally, I find people who lie about who they are to be terrible people because then you can never trust them. But if you read this play already, then you know what's ironic about this play! If you haven't read this play, then I don't want to spoil anything for you because this is a really good play! But what I can tell you about the play is that there is this thing called Bunburying, which is when you have another life outside your own. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, do this. Jack does this once, and the name is Ernest Worthing. Algernon does this twice, one with a name of Bunbury and the second name is also Ernest Worthing. They both change their name to be someone that they are not because they want to get away from where they live and be someone they are not and not have to worry about it. People today do this too, even I did once. I remember moving to where I live now and having to make new friends. I was a t a young age so it was okay, but I still wanted to be someone different. When I got to high school, that when I started to act different and called myself Rebecca, which was my alter ego. She didn’t last long because I realized that it made my life complicated. Anyway, in today’s society and in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, you can see exactly what I mean by name equals power and/or wealth.