Dr. Faustus

In our discussion in class today about Dr. Faustus' quest for knowledge, I found it interesting how certain things paralleled with the Bible.  For instance, Caleb brought up a good point about how Faustus was tempted by Satan to take the knowledge that Satan could offer, just like Eve was tempted by Satan to take the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  And I think it is really important to recognize that Faustus, as well as Eve, made the choice to do what they did.  Satan did not force them to do anything and neither did God.  Satan's tempting was very sly, in my opinion, because he made the Seven Deadly Sins look funny and not horrible, and he offered Faustus all this power that came along with the knowledge; but he did not show Faustus how miserable Hell would be for him.  Therefore, as Caleb and Pat said, Faustus looked like a fool at the end because he thought he was gaining all of this knowledge and yet he did not even search for the knowledge of the consequences for selling his soul to the devil.  I do feel as if knowledge can be very very dangerous, but ignorance can be just as dangerous I suppose - like in Faustus' case.  Then again, if he hadn't been in such a dire need to obtain more knowledge, his ignorance would not have been dangerous and led to his damnation.  I am sure that Faustus took time to figure out how to get the knowledge that he wanted, but I do not believe he took enough time to think through the consequences of his action.  So I believe this can relate to our human nature in that when we desperately want something and we see an opportunity to finally get it, we rush into it without thinking it through.  If we think it through, we may realize that it is something we do not really want.  I also found it interesting how some people in class sympathized with Faustus, which I have a hard time doing since he chose to give his soul to the devil.  If the devil had forced him into doing it, I would have probably pitied him more.  I think I had trouble sympathizing with him partly because last night I read in 1 John 2 about the antichrist.  The antichrist can be anyone who denies Jesus Christ.  Therefore, as Faustus sold his soul to the devil, I believe this was him denying God and becoming an antichrist.  Due to that, I have a hard time seeing him as a victim even though that probably isn't how it should be.  Then again, Faustus isn't a real person...

The Fat Fish

"...the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating" is said in Viriginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own."  This quote has been floating around in my head since we read it in class, and I have been thinking about it.  What if that fish is a thought? And I am the fisherman.  As I am sitting on the side of my pond with a fishing pole in hand, I pull out a tiny fish. It is little, new, a baby fish.  My options are to keep it and mess with it so that it eventually dies, let it go so that it can grow up and grow fatter to one day be worth eating, or I could let it go and forget about it all together.  If that fish is a thought, then those options apply to our thoughts as well.  Many people would have that thought and just mess with it too soon, over think it, and then it will not be worth anything anymore.  Or the person may let it go because it is assumed that the thought will never become anything and then it will soon be forgotten.  But the people who let it go, they will nourish it and allow that thought to grow and become perfect for eating, or perfect to act out.  Then one day, when the time is right, they will go back to the pond, catch that fish, and have a filling dinner - come back to that thought that has grown into more and have this idea that will work out for the best.  My concern is for those who just let that fish go, not to allow it to grow, but to forget it because they think it won't become anything.  For whatever reason, I connect this with Albert Einstein.  What if he had had all of his genius thoughts and just forgot about them?  Where would our science and math be now?  What would have happened as a result?  Instead though, he let his thoughts grow, he developed his thoughts.  Now, we have E =mc^2 and more because he did not let it go and just forget about it!  The society we live in plays it safe.  When someone has a big dream, we think he is crazy.  We say, "He will never be able to do that."  Why do we tear down the dreams before they have the time to grow?  Why do we not encourage the person?  We can help that "fish" grow!  We can nourish it, contribute to its growth, and then one day, it will make a wonderful "dinner."  Our society needs to be more encouraging, push the growth of that one fish that may look so tiny, and allow it to become just right for eating instead of killing it as soon as it is pulled out of the pond.

The World of Differing Women

Women are treated differently depending on the culture of the area.  In some places, they are equal where as in others they are considered property.  Although US people struggle a lot with pride, especially when men think they can do a job better than women, we are fairly good at keeping men and women on equal terms.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, it is seen that this is not necessarily true everywhere.  Women are treated as property in Afghanistan.  They have little choice in who they marry, that is their parents decision.  Their purpose in this society is to cook dinner, clean, give their husbands children, and do whatever their husband commands.  They cannot have a job and cannot show their faces in public because it is their husband's property.  Because of this, Mariam starts to depend on her husband for her happiness.  If he praises her, she has a good day.  If he is in a bad mood, she is too.  All she wants to do is please her husband, but as time goes by and she does not produce any children, it gets harder and harder for her to do.  Therefore, they both are miserable.  I believe this is probably still true in the Middle East countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.  From the pictures that I see, the women are always covered up.  This hints that they are still considered their husband's property.  They also cannot have an education like that offered to women in the US.  Since they are considered property, most of them are abused and mistreated.  That is not fair to these women.  The men of the Middle East are underestimating their potential and their power.  The women could help contribute to their countries in ways that could give them a step up and possibly compete with the other countries of the world.  Despite this, the men won't give them a chance.  Plus if the women wanted to try to advance in the world, they would be abused and/or killed.  If the woman gets sick of being abused and tries to escape, she will definitely be killed if her husband catches her.  This is not right or fair.  I believe women have just as much right as men do to an education, jobs, and happiness.  According to Plato's Cave though, if a woman from the Middle East were to go to the US to get an education and realized the potential of women, she would most likely try to bring it back to her people.  However, they would not accept it and would reject her from their society either by abusing or shunning her.  The women would be too scared to fight for it, even if they thought what the educated woman said was true, because the men have had power for so long that they can't imagine a change.  Plus the change is illegal over there.  So now the woman, if still alive, does not belong in the Middle East because she is educated and doesn't quite fit in with the Americans because we are judgemental towards the Middle East.  This would discourage anyone from trying to gain an education and/or freedom.  It should not be like that.

Cultures Collide

As a whole, humans are very arrogant creatures.  We believe that our way is always the best way.  However, when we view life this way, it causes conflicts among those around us.  As read in "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism," different cultures have different morals, so no one has the right to judge those people with a different culture.  The Eskimos, for example, marry, but the men marry more than one wife.  They also share their wives with guests, and the dominant males can have any other men's wife as he pleases.  The women can leave their husband for a new partner, as well.  In the United States' culture, this is viewed as crazy.  We believe that you should marry one person at a time, and sharing is considered cheating.  Eskimos also believe that killing infants is okay too.  One woman gave birth to twenty children but killed ten at birth.  This is viewed as absurd in our culture as well, especially since we have so many couples struggling just to have one child.  However, it is not our place to tell the Eskimos that they are wrong because their culture is different from ours.  If we did try to tell them that they are wrong and then try to change them, there would probably be some conflicts between us and the Eskimos too.  That is why we should respect differences among each other.  Cultural differences is also shown in Things Fall Apart.  When the missionaries come to Okonkwo's village, they work at changing the ways of the African people.  They build a school, push Christianity on the people, and start "righting" some of the African people's ways.  For example, Okonkwo's people believed that having twins was bad, so they would leave then babies out in the forest to die.  The missionaries disagreed with this and started saving the babies and brought in the mothers if they wanted to join them too.  This was considered evil to Okonkwo's village.  As time went on, the missionaries pushed their ways onto the people more and more making many of them angry.  Because the missionaries were pushing the "right" ways, conflict arose.  However, if the missionaries had just shared their faith with the people of the village instead of pushing their culture onto them, they may have brought more people to Christ and gotten along better with the Africans.  So as it is seen, if people would have respect for the different cultures around them instead of forcing cultures onto others, we would have more peace... and we would probably make some new friends in the process. :)

The Truth of Man

In today's society, men are expected to act macho and unbreakable.  They should never cry, and they should never express too much emotion.  If they do, they are considered womanly or gay.  This is shown in Things Fall Apart as well.  Okonkwo thinks men should be war-like, hard-working, and controlling.  When the missionaries start to settle in and he returns to his people letting the missionaries do what they please, he declares the men have become cowardly and more like women.  After the missionaries and their followers have abused six of the village's men, he realizes that his village is not going to step up like men and fight, so he hangs himself (which I believe to be just as cowardly).  Okonkwo is so ashamed of how his village is acting that he resorts to killing himself.  I believe that our society today is somewhat similar.  Guys are ashamed if they cry because they have been taught that men don't cry, only women cry.  So when they do, they hide it from others.  If others hear about it or see it, the guys tease him and the girls think it is weird.  I do not think this is how it should be.  People have different fears, and we all need to express it.  Okonkwo was wrong in judging his village for how they acted.  They were scared.  And as a society, we are wrong when we judge guys for crying or showing emotion.  I have a friend who has recently been struggling with all the things that are taking place in his life.  Whether it is the change in his friends or what may happen in the future, he is struggling with how to handle it.  Sometimes he just cries, and he feels ashamed to tell me or anyone about it because men are not supposed to do that [cry].  My friend told me that he has been girly lately because he has been crying, and he is happy one moment and then mad or sad the next.  Guys should not feel that way, but our society is doing that to them.  It is just adding to everything else they have to worry about.  That is not fair to them.  Therefore, I believe we should take a stand against our society's views of how a man should act.  Okonkwo took a stand, probably the wrong stand though.  I believe we should take the right stand and be there for the men our lives to show that we support them and are always there for them, even when they just need to cry.  The truth is men are people just like women are, and as people, we all have emotions.  We should not have to hide that.

Honor and Truth

Oedipus, a man with a complicated life, did not back down from the truth.  When he heard that the plague was caused by the dead king's murderer still being alive, Oedipus said that he would find this man and rid the land of him to save his people.  He asked everyone that may have had a piece about what led to the king's murder to lead him to the killer.  When the killer turned out to be him, he did not believe it at first and wanted further proof.  The proof proved that Oedipus killed the king, who also happened to be his father.  As a result of the truth, Oedipus followed through with what he promised to do by ridding the land of the killer.  Oedipus exiled himself, after gouging out his own eyes.  Today, it is very common for someone to back down from the truth and then make a misguided decision instead of doing what they know is right.  Whether it is a world leader realizing that the truth of the matter is his troops are abusing prisoners in jails and not punishing them accordingly or a thief knowing that stealing is wrong yet not admitting to it even when asked, people all over the world struggle with it.  One specific example is that one of my friends is dating a guy who does not trust her and accuses her of being a slut even through she has always been faithful to him in the three years that they have been dating.  They have been fighting a lot lately, and the truth that she has realized is that he is going to make her miserable if he keeps accusing her of things and not trusting her.  She keeps saying that she is just going to break up with him because she knows things will be better that way even if it is hard to do.  However, it has been a month since she has declared to do this and keeps pushing it off in the hopes that things between them will improve.  I realize this is not like Oedipus' situation, but I believe that it is very common for people to back down from the truth and what they should do about the truth.  Oedipus honored his word about what he would do once the truth was realized, and I find that admirable.  Despite following through probably being hard, he did it because that is what he said he would do.  He did not back down from the truth.  I believe that too many people these days back down though, and it shows how weak we have become.  I want to be a woman who faces the truth, and whether it is difficult or not, I want to be a woman that keeps my word after realizing the truth.  I want to be a woman of honor and truth.

For the Love of Marriage

Girls and women all over dream of finding Prince Charming and living happily ever after.  We dream of the big, white weddings and all the focus on how beautiful we look on that day.  We look at it as our day.  Television shows, movies, and books always have to throw at least one "romantic" moment in there, if it isn't focused on love completely.  This just enforces our desires to have a man in our life to always love us and make us happy, but some girls become too focused on this one desire.  They plan their wedding in advance with no man.  They imagine themselves ten years down the road with kids playing in the backyard with their husband, but they yet to have even a fiance.  How is this healthy?  Especially when it leads to the woman becoming desperate once she hits the mid-twenties and there is no man in her life, so she takes the first man that shows the slightest bit of interest even if he is a jerk and does not deserve someone as wonderful and beautiful as the woman who just wants to find happiness with a man.  The woman settles.  Then instead of living happily ever after, it becomes living miserably ever after because she feels that there is no man who will love her.  As women, we feel the need to be loved, and we want a man to love us and dote on us.  However, the fact of the matter is that some of us are meant for celibacy while others find the love of their lives at 62 years old while others meet that special someone in middle school.  We do not know what God has planned for us, but I can tell you that because of the emphasis our culture puts on relationships, women and men settle for just anyone and do not think through the decisions they are making.  For example, my mother has a friend who was just married last April.  She is in her late thirties and felt her biological clock ticking.  She met a man who had already been married twice and divorced for different reasons, but she still gave him a chance.  It was soon realized that he was mean and cruel to my mom's friend emotionally.  Yet the woman would not end things because she believed no other men would come around to love her.  My mom's friend was scared of being alone for the rest of her life.  She wanted to grow old with someone, which is completely understandable, so she settled.  But sometimes it pays to be patient instead of rushing into a bad marriage like so many women do these days.  So when Wilde mocked marriage in The Importance of being Earnest, I really enjoyed it.  Yes, he was writing for a different time period where marriage was based on financial gain and social status, but the people of today need to step back and look at how much importance we have put on marriage.  I believe marrige is important, but it is not important enough for someone to give up their own happiness and dreams.  The people of that time were not marrying for love, and the people of today, in some cases, are just marrying to be married.  It should not be like that.  In the play, the characters were more focused on marrying someone based on their name and not about what kind of person their "love" interest was on the inside.  Today, people jump into relationships because of how someone appears, whether it is physically or socially, instead of whether he or she is caring, kind, trustworthy, and respectful.  And these relationships can occasionally turn into a quick proposal and marriage before the two people really get to know each other.  In this way, The Importance of Being Earnest can relate to our culture today.