The Evil Inside Us All

The current topic of our readings and discussions is "Monsters and Ourselves."  This got me thinking about whether or not there is an evil monster inside all of us, and if so, is it there from birth, or does it develop as we grow?  In my opinion, I think that there is an evil monster inside everyone, and that everyone is born with it, and it just grows, or shrinks depending on how we are raised, and the choices that we make.  A perfect example of this is in the novel The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.  In this novel, Dr.Jekyll is a very generous, and kind man.  Although, once he forms a potion that is able to seperate the good and evil sides of him, he begins to get enjoyment out of the things that Hyde does, and therefore Hyde, or the monster inside of him begins to take over.  Jekyll also enjoys the fact that he can do heinous deeds as Hyde, and never have to suffer the consequences as Jekyll.  In the real world, our evil monsters inside can also grow just as Jekyll's did.  One of the things that makes it grow is how we are raised, and taught to view the world.  Earlier this month, a 17 year old boy named Treyvon Martin was shot and killed in a neighborhood in Florida.  The man who shot him was a 28 year old neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman.  Currently, all of the details are not very clear, and the case is still being examined, but one of the suspected reasons that George Zimmerman shot Treyvon Martin is because he was African American.  This distinction, and the stereotyping of races is taught to us because of the society that we are raised in.  This is one of the things that causes the evil monster inside of us to grow.  Therefore, if this is true, then the evil monster inside of George Zimmerman took over that night, when Treyvon Martin was shot and killed. 

The Necessity of the Opposite Sex

In Virginia Woolf's essay, "A Room of One's Own," she describes her thought process on the position of women in society.  For me, one of her ponderings really caught my attention.  It is number 2 in the journaling questions which asks us to discuss the fact that many books are written by men about women, but there are much fewer books written by women about men.  Woolf takes this to mean that women are much more important to men than men are to women.  This got me to thinking, and after a few minutes I realized that Woolf is right.  That there really are many books written by men about women, and I could not even think of one written by a woman about a man.  Which also lead me to think about examples of why this would happen in the real world.  What i came up with is this: men and women define success very differently.  Most men define success as having a stable, well-paying job so that they can not only support themselves, but their families as well.  Women define success purely by the amount of happiness that they have.  They are much more likely to take a job just by the happiness that it brings them, unlike men who mostly base their decisions on the amount of money they will earn.  This is also the same for families.  If a woman does not think that having a family will make her happy, then she is very likely to not have one.  Men on the other hand place a lot of importance on having, and supporting their family, which in turn causes them to place a lot of importance on finding a woman in order to begin that family.  Therefore, I agree with Virginia Woolf in that men place much more importance on women that women do on men.  Even at the high school level, where kids are not really concerned with marriage just yet, I see that guys always want a girlfriend at all times because they get complimented by their friends on how many girls they can get.  With girls, having too many guys will result in them being labeled as sluts, and whores, and it is looked at as negative by their friends, so they tend to be a little more cautious about getting into relationships.  "A Room of One's Own" contains many valid points about women and men, like this one, even though it can be very hard to follow Woolf's train of thought at some points.

The Helpless By-Standers

In Afghanistan, the civilians have been witnesses to many power struggles and changes in their country throughout the past few decades.  They are exposed to excessive violence, and sometimes are unable to leave their own homes, or walk down the street with the confidence that they will make it back home safely.  This is made very clear in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  Hosseini's main point in writing this novel was to display how badly women are treated in Afghanistan, but also how badly civilians are treated as well. Laila's father removes her from school because the streets become too dangerous, and a few days later her best friends are killed by a rocket.  Then, when Laila's mother finally decides to move away from Kabul, Laila's house is hit by a rocket, and ends up injuring her, and killing both of her parents.  These are just two examples from Hosseini's novel that demonstrate the miserable conditions that the Afghanistan people live under.  In addition to violence, the Afghan people also are forced to live under strict rules that are set by the Taliban, and enforced by the murdering of people, and the chopping of limbs.  Don't get me wrong, I think that the treatment of women in Afghanistan is disgusting.  I have no idea how a man can treat a woman like that and no feel the least bit guilty about it.  However, I know that is what most people take from this novel after reading it, so I also want to express my disagreement with the treatment of the Afghan people.  In America today, the media displays a very negative image of the Middle East, and of the Muslim population due to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also 9/11.  I was one of these people until I read this novel, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that not all Middle Eastern people and Muslims are terrorists, or out to hurt other people.  Most of them are victims of the same terrorist groups that we Americans fear.

Cultural Differences

Many disagreements between individuals, and groups of people are started over differences in their beliefs, or morals.  The article The Challenge of Cultural Relativism states how different cultures have different moral codes, how there is not one universal code of ethics because different cultures have their own codes, and how despite many differences, all cultures are bound to have some characteristics in common.  I agree with this article in that people's morals and beliefs change according to their culture, and that there is not just one universal code of ethics, but many different codes depending on an individuals culture.  This is also evident to me in the book Things Fall Apart.  In this novel, Christian missionaries arrive in Africa, and begin trying to convert the Africans from their tribal culture to a more Western one.  This created a lot of turmoil in those African regions, and ultimately led to violence.  This also happens a lot in the real world.  In the Middle East, Muslim cultures believe that the woman is inferior, and they do not allow her to show any of her hair, or most of her body for that matter.  If a woman is seen showing these things, she is beaten, and sometimes even killed.  I view these things as morally wrong, but that is because I am a part of a different culture, where women are allowed to show their hair in public, and are treated with more respect, and kindness than the women in the Middle East.  This is just one example of a difference between our culture, and that of the Muslims, and could also be why there is so much tension between the two.  In my opinion, people should focus more on the similar values between their cultures rather than the differences.  As stated in The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, all cultures have some values in common, such as valuing their children.  The world would be a much better, and more peaceful place if people of various cultures thought to focus on the similarities, rather than the differences in between cultures.

Tragedy Reveals True Character

Most people develop a general idea of who they are throughout their lives based on how they react to certain situations. Often times these perceptions that people have of themselves are comforting to think about because their perceptions are that they are good people, and have quality personality traits.  In Arthur Miller's Definition of Tragedy, he brings up the interesting topic of a "terror and fear" that is associated with tragedy, and is still relevant in today's society.  I completely agree with Arthur Miller, and the "terror and fear" that he discusses in his article.  Character is tested when a person is faced with a tragic situation, and it is very interesting to see how people react during these situations.  The "terror and fear" that is present in tragedies is due to a person's fear that they will be torn away from the chosen image, or perception that they have created for themselves in this world.  More often than not, when a person is faced with a tragedy in their lifetime, their reaction is very drastic, and unfitting towards their normal personality.  For example, after discovering that he married his mother, and killed his father, Oedipus decides to gouge his eyes out in order to punish himself.  Also, in the play Hamlet, after learning of his father's murder, Hamlet decides to seek revenge on those responsible instead of just forgiving them, and letting it go.  As for the real world, a tragedy has recently presented itself at Penn State.  As many people know, it has just been discovered that a former football coach had sexually abused many children on and around the Penn State campus.  It is no secret that this is a huge tragedy for not only the families of the victims, but also the University and its reputation as well. However, it is most interesting to learn of how certain people reacted to this tragedy, specifically Joe Paterno.  Joe Paterno is a legendary football coach, and a very generous man who played a huge part in making Penn State the University it is today, both academically and athletically.  Although, when he was told of this tragedy, he only told the people above him, and never went to the police.  This is a real life example that tragedy indeed does reveal true character because while Joe Paterno had always done the right thing his entire life, and was always a very generous man, when he was faced with this tragedy he did not do the right thing, and clearly did not have the victims and their families in mind when he didn't go to the police right away.  In my opinion, he didn't go to the authorities because he was trying to protect the reputation of the university as well as the football program at Penn State.  In other words, it was his fear that his image, and the image of the football program would be torn away, and replaced with one of less respect, and dignity. 

Heroism

In my opinion, one of the most important characteristics a hero can posses is complete selflessness.  The hero has to commit acts of heroism for the sole purpose of helping others, and for no personal gain whatsoever.  In the poem Beowulf, Beowulf is presented as the hero, and his heroic actions and deeds are described.  The poem tells of how Beowulf came to the rescue of the many people in Hrothgar's kingdom, and saved them from the evil monster Grendel.  Then, it tells of how Beowulf tracked Grendel's mother to her underwater cave, and also defeated her there.  Finally, in Beowulf's final battle, he chooses to fight the dragon alone in an attempt to save his own kingdom.  The poem portrays Beowulf as a hero because of his "heroic" deeds where he always came to the rescue of helpless people and used his incredible strength to prevail.  Now, in question 14 of the socratic seminar questions, it asks what the poem teaches about the qualities of a hero, and a villian.  The poem teaches that the qualities of a villian are simply to oppose the hero.  Also, a villian has to be causing some harm against humans.  I completely agree with the poem's version of a villian.  However, I do not agree with what the poem teaches about heroes.  In the poem, a hero is portrayed as someone who does heroic acts, and saves others, as well as recieves the benefits of fame, and fortune afterwards.  This is shown by the fact that news of Beowulf's deeds travel from kingdom to kingdom, and when Hrothgar gives him the gifts after defeating Grendel.  This leads me to believe that Beowulf may have had the intention to save others, as well as the desire to gain fame, and fortune for himself, which makes him not completely selfless, like a hero should be.  In the real world, the closest to a hero that I have ever seen anyone get is the firefighters that went into the twin towers on 9/11.  Those men went into burning towers, and risked their lives for the people that were trapt in them.  Their only intention was to save those trapt people, and that to me makes them completely selfless, and heroic.

Prison Brutality

As I went over the socratic seminar questions, number 33 in The Power of One questions caught my eye.  It was one we didn't get the chance to talk about in class, but still a very significant topic.  The question asked about Lieutenant Borman, and his hatred toward the prisoners.  The root of the Lieutenant's hatred lies in the fact that the prisoners are African, and therefore a different skin color than him.  Being white, Lieutenant Borman believes that he is above the prisoners, and that the prisoners should not be treated as equals, but rather like slaves, or animals.  This also leads to why Borman dislikes Peekay and Doc.  Peekay and Doc help the prisoners write letters home to their families, and then sneak their families responses back in the prison to them.  Therefore, Doc and Peekay are very well liked throughout the prison, and this causes Doc and Peekay to treat the African prisoners as equals, which Lieutenant Borman does not believe in.  Now, even though all the warders were very abusive of the prisoners, especially Geel Piet, Lieutenant Borman was the worst.  Eventually, in an attempt to get Geel Piet to confess that Peekay and Doc were sneaking letters in and out of the prison, Lieutenant Borman beats him so bad that he actually kills him.  This brings about the discussion of prison brutality in America's prisons today.  Some people think prison brutality is okay because everyone in prisons is a dirty criminal, and probably deserves it.  I'm here to say that this is not always the case.   Some prisoners are beaten, or even killed and are acutally innocent.  The most recent demonstration of this is with the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia.  Almost everyone believed that Troy Davis was innocent, and yet he was still put to death.  Even the people who testified against Troy in his original trial recently spoke out and said that he is innocent, and that they were almost forced by law enforcement to testify against him.  Even with this, and the fact that Troy and others have been insisting that he is innocent since 1989, Troy Davis, most likely an innocent man, was still executed.  Many people claim that the execution of Troy was due to racism. 
Hundreds of event like this occur all the time all over the United States, and must be stopped.  Whether criminals, or innocent people, they are still human beings, and still should be treated that way.  The fact that prisoners are being beaten so harshly that they are killed is a huge problem in the American prison system.  It also shows that something like what happened to Geel Piet is very much a reality in America, and something should be done to stop it.