Dr. Jekyll is a man with two sides to his soul. His good half is Dr. Jekyll, and his evil half is Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll attempts to control his other half, but quickly loses it when Hyde becomes stronger. Vladimir Putin in Russia is a perfect real-life example of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Putin held the Winter Olympics in order to improve face with the world in that others would find him to be kind and enjoyable. However, a week after the Olympics ended, Russia had invaded Crimea. This change of face is exactly how Jekyll and Hyde are. Putin at the Olympics was Dr. Jekyll because of his kind mask, and the harsh dictator that invaded Crimea was Mr. Hyde.
Putin's decision to hide behind a mask was smart on his part, but by taking off the Dr. Jekyll mask ruined his face past redemption. I personally will find it hard to find a reason to forgive him, because, unlike Dr. Jekyll, he had a choice at first on whether or not he would show his evil side. Now he is past the choice stage so now he will be stuck in limbo trying to balance his two faces to proclaim his innocence.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
A Thousand Ways to Raise a Child
Nana and Jalil in A Thousand Splendid Suns both had their appropriate and inappropriate ways of raising Mariam. Nana was more direct with the harshness of the world while Jalil represented the cruelty of the world that hid behind a mask, as Nana would describe. Unfotunately for Mariam, she chose to believe the falsehood of Jalil's love over Nana's harsh wisdom and was cut deep by the truth. However, Mariam did learn valuable lessons from the both of them.
Jalil played with Mariam's emotions, but she always pushed them aside because she thought that he truly cared for her. He would always arrive alone in his expensive car to greet his child who was living in poverty. Mariam ignored this fact and saw Jalil almost as a superhero that brought tales of a thriving outside world. Of course, when she insisted on seeing Jalil at his house, he hid from her to hid the shame of having a ilegitimate child. Mariam then learned the hard truth of reality, especially when she returned to find her mother dead.
Nana did give wise words of wisdom to Mariam, but approached it in the wrong way. Yes, I understand that she was bitter about living away from Jalil, but that does not make her entitled to degrade her child. The degrading did make Mariam stronger towards hate later on in her life, but did not make Nana a strong motherly figure. Nana teaches Mariam the most important lesson of her life, however, to endure. Enduring is what let Mariam last so long with Rasheed and eventually leads to her freedom through death.
I can't really pick who was the better parent, Nana or Jalil, because they both were terrible yet important. Jalil did lie to Mariam and send her away, but he makes up for it in the end with his apologies and gifts. Nana did verbally abuse her daughter and put her down, but she teaches her a valuable lesson. I feel that similar situations are present in our society today. Separated parents can fight with each other over who is the better parent through insults about the other, or trying to show each other up. My brother has a friend with separated parents that insist on both throwing a birthday party for her each year. From what I hear about these parties is that each party is almost a competition between each parent on who can outdo the other. It is extremely silly, but it might teach the girl a lesson in understanding trivial fights, or encourage her to get everything she wants.
Jalil played with Mariam's emotions, but she always pushed them aside because she thought that he truly cared for her. He would always arrive alone in his expensive car to greet his child who was living in poverty. Mariam ignored this fact and saw Jalil almost as a superhero that brought tales of a thriving outside world. Of course, when she insisted on seeing Jalil at his house, he hid from her to hid the shame of having a ilegitimate child. Mariam then learned the hard truth of reality, especially when she returned to find her mother dead.
Nana did give wise words of wisdom to Mariam, but approached it in the wrong way. Yes, I understand that she was bitter about living away from Jalil, but that does not make her entitled to degrade her child. The degrading did make Mariam stronger towards hate later on in her life, but did not make Nana a strong motherly figure. Nana teaches Mariam the most important lesson of her life, however, to endure. Enduring is what let Mariam last so long with Rasheed and eventually leads to her freedom through death.
I can't really pick who was the better parent, Nana or Jalil, because they both were terrible yet important. Jalil did lie to Mariam and send her away, but he makes up for it in the end with his apologies and gifts. Nana did verbally abuse her daughter and put her down, but she teaches her a valuable lesson. I feel that similar situations are present in our society today. Separated parents can fight with each other over who is the better parent through insults about the other, or trying to show each other up. My brother has a friend with separated parents that insist on both throwing a birthday party for her each year. From what I hear about these parties is that each party is almost a competition between each parent on who can outdo the other. It is extremely silly, but it might teach the girl a lesson in understanding trivial fights, or encourage her to get everything she wants.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Women's Struggles Between Cultures
Women of all shapes, sizes, and colors have had to or still fight for their equality in society. In the stories of A Doll's House, The Awakening, and what I have read so far in A Thousand Splendid Suns, the women find themselves treated unfairly and wish for a call to action. One of the most interesting parts of analyzing these works are the differences between the women's approach towards equality depending on the author.
Henrik Ibsen, the author of A Doll's House, was one of the first to introduce an independent woman character. Nora, the protagonist, believes in her independence and leaves her household, believing that she will be able to start a new life on her own. The male author believed that if a woman was not happy in her relationship, she could simply leave and begin her life anew, which was not possible considering the society at the time. The book was published in 1879, a time where women were not readily accepted into high-paying jobs, if any at all. Henrik saw hope in the women's push for equality, which was not the same view as the female authors on the same subject.
Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in the very late 1800s, just like Ibsen did with A Doll's House, but she had a very different approach. Edna realizes her state of identity and wishes for change to become a woman with a purpose that wasn't as a wife or a mother. As the novel comes to a close, however, Edna loses hope and drowns herself in the ocean. Chopin found that there was a spark of a revolution for women equality, but the society that they were living in showed little hope in accepting this drastic change in the male-dominant world.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini begins with the story of a young Afghan girl by the name of Mariam. Mariam is told by her mother that men were not to be trusted and that women were only meant to endure. Mariam ignored her mother's requests to stay away from Jalil, but Mariam longed to spend time with her father. She discovered that he did not care to be seen in public with her and Mariam began to believe in her mother's words. Later, Mariam wed a much older man and began to love him due to what seems to be Stockholm Syndrome. Hosseini proves that we as a society believe that we are more modern in our belief of equality, so we find that other cultures with a hierarchy between men and women to be barbaric, but we are not completely "modern" oursleves.
I personally feel that we as a society have made a lot of progress since the time of Ibsen and Chopin, but we still have our issues. Women are still underpaid to the man's dollar and still objectified in all forms of media. If we want to achieve Ibsen's idea of women's independence, we as women have to fight for our equality and not give up until it is achieved.
Henrik Ibsen, the author of A Doll's House, was one of the first to introduce an independent woman character. Nora, the protagonist, believes in her independence and leaves her household, believing that she will be able to start a new life on her own. The male author believed that if a woman was not happy in her relationship, she could simply leave and begin her life anew, which was not possible considering the society at the time. The book was published in 1879, a time where women were not readily accepted into high-paying jobs, if any at all. Henrik saw hope in the women's push for equality, which was not the same view as the female authors on the same subject.
Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in the very late 1800s, just like Ibsen did with A Doll's House, but she had a very different approach. Edna realizes her state of identity and wishes for change to become a woman with a purpose that wasn't as a wife or a mother. As the novel comes to a close, however, Edna loses hope and drowns herself in the ocean. Chopin found that there was a spark of a revolution for women equality, but the society that they were living in showed little hope in accepting this drastic change in the male-dominant world.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini begins with the story of a young Afghan girl by the name of Mariam. Mariam is told by her mother that men were not to be trusted and that women were only meant to endure. Mariam ignored her mother's requests to stay away from Jalil, but Mariam longed to spend time with her father. She discovered that he did not care to be seen in public with her and Mariam began to believe in her mother's words. Later, Mariam wed a much older man and began to love him due to what seems to be Stockholm Syndrome. Hosseini proves that we as a society believe that we are more modern in our belief of equality, so we find that other cultures with a hierarchy between men and women to be barbaric, but we are not completely "modern" oursleves.
I personally feel that we as a society have made a lot of progress since the time of Ibsen and Chopin, but we still have our issues. Women are still underpaid to the man's dollar and still objectified in all forms of media. If we want to achieve Ibsen's idea of women's independence, we as women have to fight for our equality and not give up until it is achieved.
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