While reading King Lear I was taken aback with the blatant misogyny in the book. Although in someways society has dismantle some bits of the patriarchy there is still a long way to go. The same concepts in King Lear that women are fragile,inferior, and too emotional are still used today. Like in the book while the Gentleman was describing Cordelia’s reaction when receiving the letter he said,” Her delicate cheek. It seemed she was a queen-Over her passion, who, most rebel-like,-fought to be king o’er her” (Act 4, Scene 3, Lines 14-17). Having emotions and being delicate are human traits that we all have. The interesting observation that I made about how patriarchy/ misogyny works it that it gets internalized by some women so much as if its in their subconscious. While Goneril was talking about Edmund she believes he is a real man she said,”[O, the difference of man and man!]-To thee a woman’s services are due”(Act 4, Scene 2, Lines 33-34). Goneril kinds of insinuates that women owe men something which is not true, women do not owe anybody anything. I see some women actively working to dismantle the patriarchy/ misogyny, while others believe that they are here to be in service for men or that they are weaker gender it gets to the point where they are constantly seeking “male validation” and constantly concerned with how men will perceive them instead of and more importantly how they perceive themselves. The cultural shift that took place in Gen Z (I know cultural shift sounds corny but its true) is amazing I see many women in Gen Z not trying to please men, fit in the gender roles, and not engaging in “pick me” behavior. I think that’s a truly powerful powerful place to be- to march to the beat of your own drum and not be defined by what others/ society says. Like I said before we have a long way to go with dismantling the patriarchy that has been heavily ingrained but ways to make sure that your not apart of problem could be checking your own biases continuously (no matter how progressive you think you are/ how much you fight for women’s issues). Of course men must be participants in dismantling the patriarchy by recognizing their privilege, educating themselves, continuously actively working against the patriarchy.
Author: NAKAYLA M
Ode to the Digital Era
Khalid’s song “Location” is apart of his album American Teen, the song is a ode to the digital era where all communication is done through a phone instead of face to face. I discovered this song in 2017 and I have love Khalid as a artist ever sense. Khalid recites throughout the song that he would rather see his person of interest in person instead of constantly communicating through the phone where the only sign of expression is an emoji. By communicating in person it is easy to see the persons reaction and truly get to know them. Khalid uses repetition of the phrase “Send me your location” to stress the importance of the person he is interested to meet in person and connect.
Send me your location
Let’s focus on communicating
‘Cause I just need the time and place to come through
(Place to come through)
Send me your location
Let’s ride the vibrations
I don’t need nothing else but you
During his verse 1 he ends each stanza with the word “you” giving a clue to the listener that this person is important and he wants to know more than the surface level things from this person. He even alludes to the idea that he wanted something more but circumstances got complicated and communication was already difficult.
At times I wonder why I fool with you
But this is new to me, this is new to you
Initially, I didn’t wanna fall for you
In his verse 2 is where Khalid really makes reference to the digital era and how it has changed the way young people communicate in a relationship. During Khalid trying to start a relationship with the girl all she would do was sub-tweet him and he would favorite it and vise versa. But eventually he got tired of them sub-tweeting each other and wanted the girl to say what she sub-tweeting to him in person which is ultimately why he wanted the girl to send her location to him.
I don’t wanna fall in love off of subtweets, so
Let’s get personal
I got a lot of cool spots that we can go
The Relationship between Nadia and Saeed
When I first started reading the book I really thought that Nadia and Saeed would be married and have a happily ever after. That was before the plot began developing. I think they would of had a chance as a couple but I think that they were trying to survive which put a lot of stress on them as a couple. But as a couple I liked how loyal and caring they were to each other. You could tell that they tried to be there for each other even though they were individually “going through it.” I think that them just staying together and not stepping out on each other helped them get through the rough situation they were in,”and whatever name they gave their bond they each in their own way believed it required them to protect the other, and so neither talked much of drifting apart, not wanting to inflict a fear of abandonment”(203). But toward the end of the book I started seeing that as a couple they would not be the best fit and they started to drift away from each other. I think that them drifting away helped them meet more like minded people. At the end of the book I liked the possibility of them maybe getting back together I thought that gave everyone reading the book a little of a happy ending.
It’s the Lack of a Moral Compass for Me
While reading The Stranger I thought that Meursault was a very problematic character. I did not like how he did not care about too much of anything. I also thought it was quite distasteful how he was able to be friends with Raymond and Salamano who are abusers. Meursault was very aware of how bad of a character that Salamano was, he describes some of Salamano’s action to the reader he states, ¨When the dog wants to urinate, the old man won´t give him enough time and yanks at him…If the dog has an accident in the room, it gets beaten again¨(27). Even after Meursault knew how bad Salamano he made another friend who was is an abuser who name is Raymond. In fact he even went into Raymond’s apartment to eat food. While in the apartment Raymond also admitted to beating his girlfriend(29-32). I am overall sick of Meursault and his lack of being aware of red flags and frankly bad people. He also just kind of goes along with everything Raymond says without correcting him and telling him what he is doing is unacceptable.
“Good Country People” or not so much
I read the story the ” Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor and I thought the story was good but the characters were so weird. For example Mrs.Hopewell was supposed to be this kind women but she was so mean to her daughter. She would say things like ” If you can’t come pleasantly, I don’t want you at all”(2), when she would try to walk with her mom. Mrs.Hopewell also had so many negative thoughts about her daughter and the most shocking one was that she had not come into realization that her daughter only had one leg. Even though the accident was over twenty years ago and you would think that Hulga would not have realized it but it was actually the mom. Also I think Mrs. Hopewell is super fake in a way. Like she not that fond of Mrs. Freedman but she still kept her in the house. Another example of her being fake was her blaming her daughter for not having a bible because she was try to get out of talking to Manley. I just felt like she did not have to lie on her daughter and she could have came up with a better excuse.
How are they trapped in the spiderhead?
While reading the story “Escape from spiderhead” I was truly shocked while reading the story. The whole idea that they were stuck in a science experiment because they were criminals or did wrong in their life was interesting. For example, Jeff was a criminal and he told the story about his crime ” Nearby was a brick. I grabbed it, glanced Mike in the head with it”(77). We also never knew exactly what were all the crimes each person committed. There were a lot of questions about the story that we did not get the answer too. Like how long they would be in this experiment ? Does jail even exist anymore? But having all these unanswered questions made you think about the story more when you were done reading the story. But I love a good ending where all the ties are wrapped together and I get all my questions answered.
Story Power 