Addicted to Addiction

When reading "Jekyll and Hyde" I was very appalled that Jekyll allowed the potion to take over. The thrill and satisfaction he felt from his time as Hyde started to rule his life. I could not believe the anyone could knowingly fall as far as to let themselves become dependent on such horrible feelings. Then when I was reflecting on our Socratic seminar of the book, I remembered something I myself had said. I compared Jekyll to an alcoholic. At the time I was using the smilie to support my viewpoint on whether or not Jekyll should be punished for the crimes that Hyde committed. Having had time to think about the situation a little more, I began to see parallels to a few of my friends lives. One of them got mixed up with drugs and alcohol at work. He knew what he was doing was wrong but he continued to do it regardless. I do not know if he started out of curiosity or for want of an escape from reality, but I know he was not bad person. Just as Jekyll did, over time, my friend became addicted. He started doing other things that were really hurting his family and he tried to stop, as Jekyll attempted to do after Hyde killed a man. Unfortunately my friends story ended the same as Jekyll's did. He overdosed one night and his mom found him in the morning in the most sorry looking state. I am sad to say that my friends story is not the only one of its kind, the government reports that at least 19,000 deaths occur each year from chronic drug use and drug addiction. Despite that fact and having someone close to me go thought a similar mindset as Jekyll, I still cannot understand. There is a choice that we all have to make, I guess some of us give in too easily.

huMANity

In class lately we have been talking about how the view of women and what their place is in the home. This has cause me to be more aware of the little comments I find I normally world have over looked as "playful". What really got to me occurred after we had received the Thoughts on Women- A Timeline. I was talking with a few friends in AP about some of the quotes on the paper and we decided to share them with another friend that is not in the same english as we are. I was shocked when I found out that some of my guy friends actually thought there was some validity in what the quotes were saying. The one quoth that they seemed to particularly like was from 1483- 1546 Martin Luther "Girls begin to talk and stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops." when I first read that quote I just passed it off as one of those comments that men say to make themselves feel better about the fact that girls develop faster than boys do, but when they brought up this quote in our discussion I listened a little more closely to see what they thought of it. I then found myself being attackes. One of the boys used to quote to enforce a point he had been trying to make in telling me I was wrong in my thinking about an argument from the day before. All of the other boys agreed with him and gave examples of their own struggles with trying to get the "weed" to understand their correct point. This caused me to feel very defensive of my gender. We ended the conversation but the feeling it gave me did not die off as easily. I looked at some of the other quotes on the paper and wondered which other ones my guy friends agreed with. The quotes from the Senate in the early 1900's seemed to be reflected in my friends as well. In stage crew this year, the manager was a female. All of the boys could not stand that they had to take orders from a girl about how to build and use power tools. They kept saying that she was to nice to get anything done and she knew nothing about what she was doing. The boys actually went as far as saying that none of the other girls in stage crew could touch the power tools because they would screw the projects up. They were generalizing horribly with this thinking. There was one girl who could not figure out how to do the builgin aspect of the projects and they roped the rest of the girls in with her and would not let them touch anything. They thought that because a girl was in power that everything would fall apart. I wonder if this is what society is afraid of when it comes to leading our government. If you look back on our presidential history you will find that not once have we had a women president. And not until the most recent election had the people even considered getting a womans name on the ballot. Even though we made that huge jump, we still ended up with a male president. We may be a very advanced country but restricting ourselves to men will get us nowhere. We have trusted the country to me for so long and look what good that did us. Maybe the perspective of a woman is exactly what we need to try and get fully back to the wonderful place we once were, and possibly even go beyond that.

Marriage is not a Fairytale

My viewpoint of arranged marriages has changed vastly over the years. When I was younger I loved the idea of finding your "prince" and falling in love and getting married, the whole cliche approach. As I began going to school I started hearing about divorce and not being able to pay bills due to lack of income because of poor choices in a life partner. This shattered my idealistic view of marriage. I then stumbled upon the the idea of arranged marriages. At first they seemed cruel and I was against them, but after digging a little deeper I found that I did not think it was such a horrible concept. You are paired with someone who will be able to support you financially, has a background relatively close to yours which will ward off conflicts of interest, and your parents will automatically approve. As I began to advance through the school system, I read countless books that addressed the idea of arranged marriages or contained examples of them. My perspective began to change. One of the most influential books that changed my opinion of this concept was A Thousand Splendid Suns. Mariam had become an inconvenience socially to Jalil when her mother committed suicide. His solution to this "problem" was to marry her off. This is when Rasheed comes into play. The two of them, Mariam and Rasheed, may have been married but they could not have been more discontented with their lives together. Mariam goes into the marriage with an open mind, she is not happy with her predicament but she is willing to make the best of it and convinces herself that she will learn to love Rasheed. Rasheed is not that bad in the beginning of their marriage, but after her first miscarriage its all downhill from there. She finds him to be abusive, cold, and only concerned with himself. This does not a happy healthy marriage make. This may be a work of fiction, but in other countries this happens all the time. We have the privilege of being able to marry for love and not for convenience or necessity. My feelings toward arranged marriages has gone downhill just as Mariam and Rasheed's marriage did. Although this may not be true of all arranged marriages, it is now and forever in my mind a staple example. I thank God to be blessed enough to be able to make this decision for myself.

Details

There is something to be said for an author who can give a novel more depth with the details of the setting.  Most books, or novels, have the setting contribute mildly to the development of the plot and characters, or they try too hard and the book becomes boring.  One of the rare occurrences of great detail that compliments the other element of the book is Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. 

The descriptions of the two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and the moors in between are fantastic.  They are very vivid to the point where when you read about Wuthering Heights, you actually start to feel hopelessness.  The Characters of each house go along perfectly with the elements of each house as well.  Heathcliff is angry, has wild passions, and is primal.  The description of how Wuthering Heights is on the top of a hill so it is exposed to all of the harsh elements reinforces his character. 

Edgar, on the other hand, is very proper and respectful.  This is reinforced by description of how Thrushcross Grange is protected in the valley, and how it is said to have music drifting out of it.  The moors are a sort of safe zone.  This is reinforced when at the end of the novel it is said that a couple can be seen roaming the moors at night.  This is thought to be Heathcliff and Cathrine who are finally at peace with each other.  The details of this novel take it to a whole new level.

I Wonder

I would like to see into the mind of Oedipus right after he found out his beloved wife was his mother.  I wonder what he would be feeling as a result of this.  Would he feel like a failure because he could not escape the oracle.  Or would he feel foolish that he did not recognize his own mother, and went as far as to marry her and have children with her with out seeing their primary relation.  I also wonder if he felt remorse for killing his father, and if so what was the motives behind his remorse.  Did he feel bad that he killed someone as biologically close to him as his father, or did he feel bad because of what the murder represents.  Does Oedipus feel bad for his children because of their newfound lowered status or because of the emotional pain he caused them with his actions.  I wonder, I think most of all, if he would admit to the true answers of these questions, or would he tell everyone what he thinks they would want to hear.

Keep Thinking

During our Socratic Seminar, we did not get a chance to look at a few of the questions that I wanted to.  One of them was how in the Power Of One, Peekay claims at Hoppie's fight that he "learned the most important rule in winning-- keep thinking."  Peekay demonstrates that he has already learned this in his time at boarding school.  Peekay knew at the boarding school how smart he was.  He also quickly learned that that intelligence was going to get him in a lot of trouble if those around him saw it.  So Peekay learned to hide how smart he was and use it to his advantage.  He called this act his "camouflage," and he learned to use it well.  This also goes along with Hoppie's saying "First with the head, then with the heart."  That is a perfect way to sum up what Peekay had been doing in boarding school, and continues to live by for the rest of his life.
This is also something I have seen in my friends lives.  One of my friends is very smart, but their friends are not.  When they first became friends it was really hard for them to mesh together well because his friends could never understand his advanced vocabulary.  This caused him to tone down his smarts when with them so he didn't make them feel stupid.  He had to use his brain to hide his brain.  So in the end he is always thinking.
I believe that It is very important to be able to think in every situation.  You should be able to understand whats going on even if those around you do not. But I don't think you should have to hide who you are.  If you are smart then you should hang out with people who are smart as well and not limit yourself for comfort.  always accept the challenge of keeping up with your intelligent friends with open arms so that you can "keep thinking."