Is It In Our Nature?

The way we judge people relies mostly on looks. We automatically assume that the pretty girl/boy is very nice and will be friends with mostly anyone. Or if we view an odd looking person and automatically assume that they are geeky, a loser or even a loner. It's in our human nature to assume that looks means everything. Well look at celebrities, they are beautiful, and we assume that they are good actors, kind to their fans, and genuinely good people.  But we do not know for sure.  Why do we always assume that nice-looking people are essentially ‘nice’?

 

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is a perfect example of the human nature of judging based on looks.  The main character Dorian Gray is evil in the way he deceives everyone around him by putting on a sweet and innocent face, but will stab his friends in the back.  I believe that believing that people who are beautiful are also nice because we want to deny that anyone could be evil or mean.  We want to have a perfect world where everyone gets along, and everyone is beautiful and compassionate.  Dorian Gray believes that by looking youthful and beautiful, then that is the only way he will get far in life.

 

Judging based on looks is like high school.  We have the ‘in-crowd’ who has all of the coolest clothes, throws the best parties, has the most friends, and thinks that everyone adores them.  People forget that there is something far more important than outer beauty….inner beauty is all that matters.  Just because someone is beautiful on the outside does not mean that they are also beautiful on the inside, and vice-versa.  Humans should try to change their nature of judging based on looks because not only is it hurtful to those they are judging harshly, but also to themselves.

Freedoms of Women....Gone

In America women have the freedom to vote, hold public office, participate in the workforce, marry whomever they want, they have the freedom to be themselves and not feel pressure from stereotypes.  Americans do not realize that we take these freedoms for granted, and this is made very clear in Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.  This novel reveals the trails, failures, and triumphs of two Afghan women and how their freedom is taken away by them first from their husband, and then from their government. 

Afghanistan, before the Taliban invasion, women were allowed to work in courts, offices, allowed to be lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, they were even allowed to wear 'short' skirts.  Women had freedom just like any other democratic government.  However, this all changed when the Taliban cam into power after Russia had left Afghanistan.  Women were forced out of school, out of their jobs, if they were doctors or nurses they were 'allowed' to work in a woman's hospital.  Women were forced to stay home, watch the family, they wore burqas, and veils to cover all but their eyes.  Women were treated like animals, as men were free to beat their wives as they deemed fit.  Why have we traveled backwards instead of going forward?

Women are forced into arranged marriages, and if they protest to the arrangement they can and mostly likely will be thrown into prison.  Women are seen as inferior and nothing but an object that can be easily replaced.  Who gives the right to men or a government to treat women like this?  This novel by Hosseini has opened my eyes because I have always thought that women in the Middle East were always treated like that, and they never had freedom, but that is far from the truth.  Women, governments, and men should fight for the freedoms of women in 'third-world' countries because no one, no one deserves to be treated like this.

What is a Woman's Role in Society?

During the early centuries up to the Victorian Era a woman's place was not in a workplace, or recieving and education, but instead it was at home caring for the household and family.  A woman would be ridiculed, maybe even disowned by her family, for leaving society's role.  Men saw women as inferior, weak, unable to handle the stresses of life.  But I believe that this is far from the truth, because women ran the household, cared for the children, made sure there was food on the table, and they also made sure that their family's reputation would not be scarred.  The female gender, I believe, is the strongest gender because they make sure everything appears perfect even when it's not, but they do not complain about it.

I am not saying that men are to be considered inferior, it's just that men and women each have different strengths and weaknesses.  In A Doll's House, Nora sees that there is trouble in how she is portrayed in both society and in her marriage.  She is seen as a 'stupid' woman who should not involve herself in men's business.  But she starts to see that she was seen as a 'doll' or a person who will bend to society by both her father, and her husband.  She realizes that this is not what she wants and she is willing to leave her husband, and children to find out who she really is.  Nora does not want to be the stereotypical housewife in the upper-middle class, but seen as a thoughtful human being.

I believe that it is amazing to hear and find out that some men in the United States and in different parts of the world still believe that a woman's place is at home.  More and more women are controlling business', companies, more are recieving higher levels of education besides just a Bachelor's Degree.  Women are becoming powerful, but not powerful enough to overpower the amount of men also in those high positions.  I believe that in the future women will control most of the government, businesses, companies, and making executive decisions.  Women will no longer be thought of as inferior to the male gender.

Is There A Superior Culture? And Is There An Inferior Culture?

This question has been around in world for thousands of years. The answer according to James Rachels in The Challenge of Cultural Relativism is “Different cultures have different moral codes.” And I completely agree with this statement.  How can a custom of a different culture be considered “incorrect” when “…every standard is culture-bound?”  William Graham Sumner wrote,” The ‘right’ way is the way which the ancestors used and which has been handed down.”  There should be no superior culture but the thinking that people had two hundred years ago, still has not changed.

When the first English settlers came over in 1607 they set out not only to find the Northwest Passage, but also to Europeanize the Native Americans.  They felt that their European culture was the greatest culture, and the Natives were considered “savages.”  The Natives believed in different Gods, instead of the one God, had different ways of healing, ceremonial dances, and more.  Even today we still do not understand, or for the most part, nor want to understand a different culture within our own borders.  There is a term used towards people or cultures that we do not fully understand, prejudice.  When will we understand that there is no “universal truth?”

What is an inferior culture? It’s a culture that we do not know all the facts and make a general conclusion about and how we compare it to our culture.  Each culture is different and believes that their customs are correct.  It is about where you come from and the traditions you are brought up by.  Each culture is one of many that believe they are superior. All cultures are equal, we just have to learn about and fro them to fully understand them.

Who Should Get Revenge? Hamlet or Laertes?

In William Shakespeare's play of Hamlet, the characters Hamlet and Laertes both experience the deaths of their fathers, but Laertes also experiences the death of his sister, Ophelia. Hamlet learns about how his father was murdered by his uncle, the new king, Claudius, through his father's ghost. Hamlet never liked his uncle and now his father wants Hamlet to avenge his death on his uncle. I felt that Hamlet was trying to do the right thing, but he went about it in the wrong way. First he completely crushed Ophelia's dreams of possibly marrying her. Hamlet takes his time to plot against the king, but on one occasion when he is talking to his mother, he impulsively kills Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia's father. This brings Ophelia to complete madness. Hamlet does avenge his father's death but shortly after he dies as well. Laertes had a greater reason for getting revenge on Hamlet. Hamlet killed his father, and Laertes blamed Hamlet for the cause of his sister's madness as well as for her death. Laertes, I felt, had a more grounded reason for wanting to kill Hamlet. Laertes went about it in a better way, by allying with the King, but in the end he realized that this was nonsense to want revenge like this. Laertes gave up to Hamlet that it was the King who poisoned his mother, Gertrude, and the duel to have Hamlet killed was also the King's idea.

In today's world, this happens, though we do not see it, we know that it is still there. People believe that they should get revenge on those who ruined their lives or people in their lives. For example, the ABC series Revenge is about a woman who is determined to get revenge on those who ruined her father’s life as well as hers. She ends up in situations where people die at her beckoning, or by people she is affiliated with, but she has little remorse over that fact. I do not believe in going about that way. Yes, one can be upset about a tragic event that happened in their life, but getting revenge on someone who may have been the cause of that is never the right way about going about things. I felt when I heard Laertes give up the King’s doing her realized that the way he went about getting revenge on Hamlet was not worth it. I do not believe that Hamlet ever realized this until his last breath, when he realized that he too was poisoned by the blade. In the case about Laertes vs. Hamlet over who had a right to get revenge, I felt that neither one should have been so caught up in the situation. Their struggle for their honor and revenge for their fathers, ultimately led to their downfall in the end.

What Is A Hero?

What is a hero that we read, heard, or even watched about as children? While we were young children and we movies about the princess or damsel in distress and the hero was the strong, handsome prince who comes in to save the day. But what is a true hero? A hero in everyday life for us is a firefighter, police officer, a part of the military, or someone who just does a good deed at the right time. In Beowulf, Beowulf is the hero in the story. Now this story has been passed down through many generations, and has different variations, but one thing that remained constant was Beowulf defeated Grendel and Grendel's mother. Beowulf boasted about how he could best anything that came his way. To be a hero and to be immortal in Beowulf's time, one must boast about their accomplishments, and make sure they are talked about in generations to come.

Beowulf to me did not seem to fit the hero character I had always pictured. I know that a hero is not a handsome man (though it is an added plus) who comes in on a horse to wisk me away into the sunset. But a hero is also not one to boast about their accomplishments, instead they should be humble about it, and try to switch to a different topic. I did not respect Beowulf as a person or as a literary hero because he just seemed far too cocky. But I did remember that Beowulf is set in a different time where Beowulf was their ideal hero. It is difficult to think without a twenty-first century mind, and instead switch it to a medieval time set. As time changes the ideal hero also changes, as well as each culture has a different hero. For our time and place, a hero is an everyday person, while in another part of the world our everyday hero could the antagonist whereas what we might think of as an antagonist is their hero. Heroes vary with each passing day, but it's our idea of having someone to admire for their talents that we keep them close to our hearts.

Brutality In Prisons

"Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" has been the basis for our legal/prison system in the United States. However in The Power of One, a person may go to prison just for being in the wrong part of town because of racism. Many of the prisoners in the Barberton Prison were in there because of the power of racism ruling South Africa at the time. I do not understand why people must hate because someone else is different? The prison guards will punch/beat a prisoner until they draw blood. Then make the prisoner take responsibilitiy for this action, and the prisoner would have to clean up the mess. This happens to many prisoners in the novel and Peekay takes note on this brutality that this influences him for the remainder of the novel. Also the violence that drives Lieutenant Borman to murder Geel Piet, causes Peekay to fight for what is right, and defeat the wrongdoing in the prison.
In today's media, we are told about violence in prisons, when it is caught. Such as the death of Frank Valdez, who attempted to free his friend from Death Row in Florida. Valdez killed a Prison Guard, in the attempt freeing of his friend, however fate took a turn, and Valdez died "under suspicious circumstances." Nine guards were suspended on administrative leave (with pay), and pending the outcome of the investigation. Also, California state has had "the shooting deaths of thirty-nine inmates, the wounding of two-hundred more over the last ten years in the state's thirty-three prisons." and yet no attorney has ever prosectued any corrupt guards for police brutality. There was also a report of a prisoner who reportedly raped 'problem' prisoners in exchange for extra food and other perks, all under the direction of prison staff.
I am appalled by the brutality shown in prisons, not only around the world, but in the United States. I thought that we are all treated equal and that we all must be treated with respect. It is clear that this does not exist except in a perfect/Utopia society. I am upset that someone may think that they hold power of those who did wrong, but they have no right to treat them in a barbaric manner. I hope that newsreports can shed some light on the subject and maybe society will change for the greater good. But as of now all we can do is hope and pray that this will improve over the years.