Response to "Dangers of a Single Story"

Every single culture has stereotypes. The world tends to believe that all Americans are fat, all Africans are poor, Asians are smart, Europeans smoke, and people from South America live in trees. We have all been subject to these "dangers of a single story", yet, just like Chimamanda Adichie, we have believed some as well.

This past summer I participated in a 3 week course at Yale University. There were 750 high school students on campus, and we were exposed to many people from different ethnicities and nationalities. At the beginning, when we were getting to know each other, many asked me where I was from. When I answered "Colombia", most of them just gave me blank stares, while others asked "That’s in Africa, right?". At first I was surprised and even offended that many people did not know in what hemisphere Colombia was, until I was faced with a similar situation. A foreigner girl asked me where I was from and she identified Colombia straight away. However, when I asked her where she was from and she answered "Bahrain" it was my turn to stare.

We often judge people based on what they don’t know, when, instead, we should focus on everything we have yet to learn.

Good vs. Evil

Ever since we were little we have always been taught that there is a difference between right and wrong. However, what many adults fail to mention is that there are times when this difference isn’t as apparent as one would want it to be. There are times when we do not know whether a thought, an action, or even a person is good or bad, and such is the case with Mr. Kurtz. Even after having finished Heart of Darkness, the reader still has several questions left unanswered, not only about the nature of good vs. evil, but about the nature of human kind as a whole. Do we develop our hatred towards those we consider inferior or are we taught to be this way? Are we born dark and heartless or are we forced to act like this by society?

At the beginning of the story, Kurtz is presented to us a mystery. He represents the unknown, the desired, the incredible. As the story progresses, Marlow (and therefore the reader) hears stories of other white men talking about Mr. Kurtz as a wealthy and powerful man who is one of the greatest ivory traders in the region. However, we can tell that his fellow company employees resent him, and Marlow can't seem to figure out why. The real surprise comes when the reader realizes that the natives defend this intriguing character. How can someone so wealthy and powerful be hated by his equals, yet loved by his inferiors?

Mr. Kurtz defies the reality of the time by associating with the natives, up to the point of having a native lover. He defies the rules society had set and that is why he cannot go back to Europe. He would be judged and excluded because all Europeans had grown up with the idea that the idea of colonizing was to take everything the natives had to offer with little regards to their safety and integrity. They were considered worthless and inferior, and when Kurtz decided to disregard this, he changed his reality.

Ever since we were little we have always been taught that there is a difference between right and wrong, but is there?

Blog Response

After reading Andrea Copello's blog post regarding Part 1 of the novel, I was able to make several connections that had eluded me before. I had not realized that Marlow spoke of the places he would be exploring as being full of light and it is interesting to note the change between that and the way he describes them when he is actually there. What turned those lively and luminous places into the dark, unknown and eerie places they are when Marlow later describes them? The answer is simple: imperialism and the search for power.

Another connection I had failed to make was that between Marlow's descriptions and those made in Dante's Inferno. It is interesting to note the tone Marlow employs when describing these occurrences and settings, and how they bear resemblance to those Dante describes as the setting for condemned souls to suffer and carry the burden of unsatisfied souls.

Although it may seem a bit radical, I agree with this comparison. Life under the British must have felt like Hell to the natives, who turned to look for a God-like figure to save them from their misery, and found one with Mr. Kurtz.

Accidental?

Although it may not seem like it when viewed from a distance, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness bears incredible resemblance to the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Even though the books are completely different in both content and meaning, they have several elements in common, which, when seen with a certain perspective, can help readers further understand these texts. Both Conrad and Kesey use fog as a symbol of uncertainty and create a strong main character that ends up having an incredible influence on the narrators of the stories.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the fog is used as an allusion to the things the Combine is doing to keep the patients blind to their true intentions. It stands for uncertainty, self-doubt, and the confines of social structures. Although its meaning is slightly difference, the fog also makes an appearance in Heart of Darkness. In this case it represents the dangers of the unknown, and it serves as a critique to the "missions" Europeans had when colonizing Africa.

Yet another similarity between these two texts is the fact that they have a strong character, which the narrators soon start to idolize. In Kesey's novel, this character is McMurphy, whose great leadership skills and charisma earn him the respect of the patients until he becomes their symbol of hope. Conrad, on the other hand, presents his strong character in a much more subtle way, and it isn’t until the end of the second chapter that the reader realizes just how important Mr. Kurtz became to Marlow and the influence he has on the area. "He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor…" (pg. 93). Despite his questionable intentions, Mr. Kurtz is undoubtedly a major character in this area of the Congo, and he even had some of the natives rebelling because they wanted him to stay. The "party" the patients had in OFOTCN may help illustrate this point, and further proves the similarities between these two works.

Even though they are extremely different, there are some aspects of Heart of Darkness that remind me of the previous novel we read in class, and I will have to continue reading in order to see if these comparisons are true for the entire book, or if these coincidences are just that, accidental. 

How Much Can be Determined?

People often have the misconception that you need to know every single fact in order to know everything. However, life teaches them otherwise.  Often times the most important things are those that go by unsaid, and such is the case with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. As you embark on the journey of attempting to read and understand this ironic novel, you often start to wonder just what exactly the author means to tell us. As a reader, you are left wondering whom exactly Marlow is, what his views on slavery are and what he is really trying to accomplish. By using irony as the literary device that steers this novel, he persuades his readers to second-guess every action and situation Marlow encounters, allowing them to make reflections upon their own lives.

One of the first surprises one encounters in this intriguing novel is that the original narrator is not the one actually telling the story. He is recounting a story told to him by the real narrator, Marlow. This use of expected vs. actual situation irony makes the reader start to question many elements of the novel. If we are not even aware of who the actual narrator is, what can we be sure of?

Marlow´s attitude towards the natives also raised a lot of questions. It is unclear whether Conrad is being ironic when he talks about the European’s ¨noble task¨ or when he says that the blacks are not all that different. One thing that is clear is that Marlow is shocked by the things he saw in Africa, and that is the reason why the story is being told in the first place. But, where is he going with it? What does he intend to show the others on the boat by retelling his own experiences? What should we, as readers, expect from the book? What are Conrad´s true intentions?

Straightforward Newman

The first example of irony in this song can be observed merely from its title, "Great Nations of Europe." Although it is not evident in the first verse of the song, it soon becomes clear that Newman believes European nations to be anything but great.

                "Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone.

            You never seen anyone so gone."
            soooooooooooooo
            he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
            the great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way."

This, as a clear example of the type of irony where what is said is the opposite of what is meant. After everything the Europeans did in America, their influence is all but gone; it can be observed in almost every aspect of our society.

            "He met some friendly Indians whom the Church told him were gay,

This is yet another example of irony, where Newman emphasizes the feeling of superiority Europeans had and the extreme measures they reached in order to prove this. The ironic part comes from his use of the word "holy," when their actions were anything but that.  

Parts of the song that are not ironic are the first paragraph, when he describes the time period and how Europeans had already colonized most of the eastern hemisphere. It is also true that they first arrived to the Canary Islands and that "Columbus sailed for India [but] found Salvador instead."

Of Change and Miracles

          Sometimes we underestimate the effect one character can have on an entire novel. It may seem unreasonable to think that the mere presence of a single person can completely alter the way of living of an entire group of people. Due to the influence McMurphy has on every single person in the ward, they all end up changing in one way or another, whether they do it consciously or it happens without them noticing.

               

          One of the characters that goes by mostly disregarded until the end of the story is Billy Bibbit. He is a thirty year old man whose mother works at the hospital and is one of Nurse Ratched's close friends. At the beginning of the book  he comes off as being shy, insecure and afraid - a fact that is accentuated by his evident stutter.

                With McMurphy's help, he, as well as just about every other patient in the ward, starts to come out of his shell. He goes from acting like an immature child and tattling other patients' stories by writing them in the log book to a much more confident, outgoing and charming character during the months McMurphy is with him.

                One of the defining moments this character has is when they go out boating. McMurphy invites one of his "friends", Candy, to join them and out of all the patients, Billy takes a special liking to her and starts flirting with her in his own, timid way. He starts to act out when they get to the gas station following McMurphy's example, however, when the loafers outside the bait shop start attacking Candy, he keeps his mouth shut. This proves that although McMurphy helped him start forming an identity, he is still extremely afraid of those that have some kind of power over him, such as the Big Nurse, his mother, and most importantly the Combine and those in the outside world.

                McMurphy is an idol to these inmates. He came in and from the beginning started challenging authority, making himself heard and attempting to change the things he didn’t agree with. The patients started seeing him as their savior, the one that could give them back the voices they had lost many years ago. If he was there, they felt that they became almost invincible, but when he wasn’t no one stepped up to take his place.

                The fact that Billy accepted McMurphy's arranged date with Candy shows how much he had changed since the beginning of the novel, but it still wasn’t enough to save him. The day of Billy's death, the Big Nurse appeared and popped his blissful bubble, the one all the inmates that participated in the night's events found themselves in, and it was too much for him. Reality came crashing down, as well as all the social pressures he had been under before McMurphy's arrival. He couldn't handle taking responsibility for his actions and thus, when left alone, he ended his own life.

                Change occurs around us every single day. We may not notice it but it is always there. However, as much as we would like to believe, sometimes even change isn’t enough, especially when it comes to building character. You either have it or you don’t. You can try working on it in order to make it stronger but when it comes down to it, not even McMurphy could make miracles.

Power is determined by the size of your…bra

One of the biggest influences we can see throughout the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the power women hold over men. Although most of the characters are male, they are always being dominated by female figures.

The clearest example of this is nurse Ratched, and the matriarchal society she runs inside the ward. Even though Doctor Spivey is the expert, he is not exempt from the nurse's power, and he still looks up to her and consults with her every decision he makes regarding the patients. The same can be said about the other workers at the hospital, including the black boys. Although their status of aides does mean that they are below the nurses, Kesey still makes it clear that they report to the Big Nurse, as can be seen in the following passage: "'Mr. Washington!... Come down here!' He puts his hands in his pockets and starts shuffling down the hall to her. He never walks very fast and I can see how if he don’t get a move in she might freeze him and shatter him all to hell by just looking." (pg. 87).

At this point in the novel, the only one bold enough to stand up to the nurse is McMurphy, and although he manipulated some of his ward mates to act up alongside him, even he was forced to back down. Everyone in the ward is scared of the Big Nurse, and although she clearly holds the most power over all the characters in the book, she is not the only one that does so. 

Another important female character that has made several appearances so far is Harding's wife. In this case, they also make reference to her attractive female qualities as a sign of a certain power that she is able to hold upon men. "He has also stated that his wife's ample bosom at times gives him a feeling of inferiority. So. Does anyone care to touch upon this subject further?" (pg. 39). This is a clear example of how the men in the ward are influenced by women's attributes, and how the size of a woman's breast is a sign of her superiority over them.

Questioning Insanity

What does it feel like to be crazy? Do insane people know that there is something wrong with them or do they simply find out based on the way society reacts to them? These were some of the burning questions that I had as I read the first pages of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

As I continued to read, I started to question every single thing the narrator, Chief Bromden, told us. It becomes pretty clear early on in the story that Chief Broom tends to exaggerate and blow things out of proportion. This is why, when I reached the part of the story when he starts to talk about the fog, I didn’t really know what to make of it. Does the fog represent the moment when he is given medications in order to calm him down? Is it some sort of technique they use in the mental institute to confuse and control them?

But on the other hand, one has to step back and look at the book as a whole. It is a strong critique towards society, mankind and values. If we look at it through this perspective, is it possible that the fog represents something even bigger? The fog might stand for uncertainty, self-doubt, the confines of social structure, judgment or even insanity itself. 

Right or Wrong. Wrong or Right. Does it Matter?

There are people that say that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Generally, I would agree, but in the  case of Waiting for Godot, I wouldn't be so sure. After having watched the film, I am now forced to look at the play through someone else's eyes. I see things the way the director imagined them, and this alienates me from the play, and from what I felt and saw as I was reading it. The fact that it is a play means that Beckett wanted this to happen. He wanted the actors to interpret the emotions and actions of the characters a certain way and try their best to portray that, but at the same time leaving a large grey area so that the audience can replay the entire thing in their heads and have it come out completely different.

How can I know what you see? How can I know what you feel? Every single person experiences things in unique ways, so there is no way of knowing whether what the author intended you to feel is actually what you are experiencing.

If we take Lucky's speech from the play, there are a thousand different ways that an actor can choose to interpret it. I had imagined Lucky as a worn down, shaky, small old man that would just start to ramble on and on about nothing, with occasional lapses in judgment. However, the way it is presented in the movie, Lucky talks with passion and conviction. He makes pauses, and when he reaches the middle he starts to get really into it.

Whether you are like me, and imagine a life-less Lucky babbling about inconsequential things, or whether you agree with the impersonation he was given in the movie, no one can tell who is right and who is wrong because there is no right or wrong.  

Breakeven

As I finished reading Waiting for Godot, I couldn't help thinking about how pathetic the lives of these two characters were. Their actions, their thoughts, their words - are all completely pointless. They had spent their entire lives waiting for someone that would never come, and hoping against hope that he would make it.

"Vladimir: Say, I am happy

Estragon: I am happy.

Vladimir: So am I.

Estragon: So am I.

Vladimir: We are happy.

Estragon: We are happy. (Silence) What do we do now, now that we are happy?" (pg. 66)

Vladimir and Estragon convince themselves that they are happy, much in the same way we do quite often. We claim that we are happy with our lives, with our society and our way of life, but is this all just some kind of artificial happiness? People say that once you settle down, get your own place, get married and have children, you will truly know what happiness means, but do we feel this way because we are supposed to or is it what really makes us happy? is there a difference?

I was able to connect the ending of this play with the song Breakeven by The Script. O'Donoghue sings "just praying to a god that I don't believe in". Isn't this what Vladimir and Estragon are doing? they are waiting for someone that they don't even know exists. the same thing happens with us and our concept of God. We believe that he will someday make his appearance and solve all of the issues of humanity, but where is the proof? Haven't we waited enough already?

Like Pieces of a Puzzle

What is the point of our existence? Why are we here? Who sent us and what is the purpose of our existence here on earth? We were forced to ask ourselves these questions as we started the unit on existentialism, but what we didn't expect was having to question the answers we gave to these queries while reading The Stranger.

Through a character as complex in his simple view on life, Camus makes us take on a new perspective, whether we choose to agree with it or not. We all lead the lives we claim we want to because we all believe in "free will". However, after reading this existentialist novel I realized that even if we fight as hard as we can in order to break free from the ties of society and humankind, we will eventually have t give up and accept the conditions society sets upon us.

Mersault led a relatively calm life, and in the eyes of a passerby he might just have gone by undetected. The things that make him so different to us are the way he thinks and the way he leads his life, focusing merely on the present, paying no attention to the past and not worrying about the future. This type of carefree lifestyle led him to commit murder for the simple fact that he had no reason not to do it, and this act landed him in jail.

Once in jail, Mersault's way of thinking changes completely, and he finally starts sharing personal details about his past and worrying about his oncoming execution. He is a perfect example of a man who tried to fight the constraints of society, but was held back and ended up being just another insignificant piece in the puzzle of humanity.

Room for Imagination

               In order to be able to read this book and have a better understanding of it, one must start to understand how Mersault thinks. For him, there is no future, there is no past. He lives his life day to day, living a life completely void of memories or dreams. For him, everything simply is what it is. He doesn't need any reason to motivate his actions, and he prefers to just go with whatever is happening because in his eyes, tomorrow, none of the things you did today will matter.

                 When I got to the part where he killed the Arab, at first I didn't understand what had happened. why had he decided to pull the trigger? Did some past experience set off his impulse and encouraged his finger to squeeze? After some consideration, I realized that this was not the case. Mersault had no underlying reasons as to why he did it. He pulled the trigger because he had no reason not to. However, after coming to this realization I realized that there is actually very little the reader knows about Mersault, or any of the characters for that matter. All Camus gives us are small scenes of their lives at random intervals, what we make of them is entirely up to us.

"Nevertheless I answered that I had pretty much lost the habit of analyzing myself and that it was hard for me to tell him what he wanted to know. I probably did love Maman, but that didn't mean anything." (pg. 65)

                In this passage Mersault says he "lost the habit" of considering his actions, which implies that he did so at one point. What is Mersault's history? What events in his life led him to this existentialist lifestyle? I questioned similar things in my last entry but as the book progresses, we don't seem to be getting any closer to finding these answers. In the same way as Mersault lives, Camus tells us only what he wants us to know, leaving much room for imagination. We as readers are forced to infer what was really going on in his life, and what will happen to him because although he doesn't care what tomorrow may bring, we do. 

What is the point of life?

If we cannot define ourselves, if we cannot define the purpose of life, what, then, is the point of living? We are born to live, yet we live to die. Somewhere in between that we have to find ourselves and try to make the most out of what we have, before it is all taken away.

Most people are in constant search for meaning, for a reason to continue living. Many find this through religion, or mainly the belief in God. By placing their hopes, dreams, and pleas upon the hands of this supernatural being, they are, in a way, passing out some of the responsibility of their lives. They would not be able to bear the thought of them failing, and then having to take the entire blame for it. By placing this responsibility upon God, they see it as if they no longer have to worry about the result, because it is no longer in their hands.

We often find ourselves so wrapped up in our daily activities that we, for a moment, lose focus of what is really important to us. It is during these moments where we really stop what we are doing and begin to reflect upon life, society, and often, existence as a whole. Our minds fill with unanswered questions and endless possibilities, but after a while we snap out of our trance and go back to our routines.

However, this is not the case of M. Mersault, who is done with the questions. We have yet to find out whether it is because he detached himself from them because he could not tolerate not knowing any longer or because this was simply not the case with him, he is completely uninterested.

"It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed." (pg. 24)

M. Mersault no longer cares about the past or the future, the only thing that concerns him is the present. He talks about his mother's death as if it were something completely ordinary and there would not be a reason as to why his life should change because of it.

"I tried my best to please Raymond because I didn’t have any reason not to please him." (pg. 32)

Raymond asked Mersault to write a strong letter to a woman he thought was cheating on him, and Mersault complied. However, he didn't do it because he wanted to be a good friend or because he particularly agreed with Raymond's claims, he did it because there was nothing to tell him he shouldn't. The simple fact that Raymond had been nice to him was enough to convince him to do something that would most probably bring grave consequences in the future, but Mersault could not be bothered.

Although I have some ideals that somewhat resemble those an existentialist might have, I am by no means anything like Mersault. I would not be able to have nothing to look forward to, no hopes or dreams simply because the meaning of life is nothing. We might not know why we are here but the point is that we are, so we might as well make the most out of what we have because even though it is not important to the rest of the world, my life is important to me. 

Blue, Hopes and Dreams

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (pg. 180)

Although it is not one of the major colors that makes an appearance throughout the book, blue does come up a number of times, especially in regards to Gatsby and Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. In this case, blue signifies the great vastness of the sky, which was reflected upon Gatsby's enormous lawn, upon which he held his grand parties. Signifying dreams and illusions, this color reflected everything Gatsby envisioned his life would become: materialistic and fake. Often times referred to as blue, these lawns were witnesses to the artificial and meaningless lifestyle held by many of the nouveaux riches that lived during the time the novel takes place.

Even though it symbolizes hopes and aspirations, blue can also represent sadness, especially once you look at the world through the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. This allusion to God got to see the Valley of Ashes, how poorly the people there had to live, and how they had to struggle to get from one day to another. The billboard also witnessed how the rich would drive by this horrible place without giving it as much as a second look, or stopping to reflect on how those poor people had to live and how they were spending their money in completely unnecessary material things. In this case, the blue not only represents the sadness felt by Gatsby after Daisy rejected not only him but everything he had worked for his entire life; but also the sadness that God must have felt upon seeing what the world had become.