New vs True Womanhood

Women's submission and men's overarching control was deeply ingrained in many parts of society, and required a gradual process to change the public opinion of what womanhood was.  In the so called 'Cult of True Womanhood', "women were imprisoned in the home or private sphere, a servant tending to the needs of the family" and "religious piety and submission...[were both] borne of and a part of the ideology."  This idea of female submissive extended to both the home and religion, which were almost the entirety of daily life for women in that era.  The doctor and husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" 'reflects men's disparaging attitudes.  His Rest cure calls for complete rest, coerced feeding and isolation."  Additionally, he did not let her write, causing her to only write in secret when he was not present, akin to "Gilman's struggle to throw off the constraints of patriarchal society in order to be able to write.'  Gilman's story was one of many that challenged patriarchal ideologies and helped redefine what Womanhood meant, changing it from dependence on men to freedom and independence.

Hester Prynne's Appearance and Character

In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the outer appearances to tell the reader about the inner character of certain figures in the book.  Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as "tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.  She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes" (Hawthorne 31, 32).  Because Hester is described as the standard for beauty, (i.e tall, long black hair, symmetrical face) Hawthorne is keying the reader in that she is also the standard for morality.  She is also described as "more ladylike, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison" (Hawthorne 32).  Hester is beautiful and keeps her high moral standard despite the conditions that she was in for many months.  Hawthorne shows through his physical descriptions of her how even though the Puritan society marks Hester as impure and sinful, she has a high moral standard.

Group Stigmatization

When I was a freshman I took AP AB Calculus, which is a higher level than typical for high school freshman.  Many of the people I befriended at Sage were high-achieving students, some of whom wished that they were in calc instead of Accel Algebra II or Accel Pre-Calc.  When people learned about what class I was taking I became "That kid who is in calculus."  People would start bringing it up all the time, and I started getting pretty uncomfortable mentioning it.  It got to the point where I would start telling people I took math rather than calculus because it felt too much like bragging.  I think the label affected me in a slightly negative way; it made me feel like I had done something wrong by taking an advanced class that interested and engaged me.

Self-Reliance

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till" (Emerson 1).  

I think that this passage is significant because it really summarizes what life is about; relying on others before you is not good for self improvement.  If you focus on what others do, you lose focus on what you can do.  The phrase 'envy is ignorance' it signifies that coveting what others have is a way to keep yourself from learning your potential.   He uses the metaphor of working the soil for food as improving your own position through work and reaping the rewards like one would reap crops.  I like this passage because it summarizes the main point of his essay and provides a good philosophy for life.

Ben Franklin's Values

I think that Moderation is the easiest value to follow.  Ben Franklin defines Moderation as not holding grudges/resenting injuries and avoiding the extremes of emotion.  It is similar to Temperance of the mind.  I don't hold grudges or really hate anyone.  The strongest negative feelings I have towards others is annoyance and even then, I don't lash out at anyone for annoyance.  When someone does something bad to me I try not to let it affect other parts of my life and generally brush it off or confront the person if it is bothering me a lot.  On the other side of the extreme, I don't develop strong positive feelings for anyone very quickly and I don't have a lot of relationships that are based off really strong feelings.  Only my family and close friends get that kind of affection, and that has been built up over a long period of time.  Overall, avoiding the extremes of emotions seems very easy to me and I have good emotional control, so Moderation is easy.

I think Industry is the hardest value to follow.  Ben Franklin defines Industry as working efficiently and not wasting any time, losing all unnecessary actions.  I struggle with this in a lot of different ways, the foremost being school work.  Oftentimes while working I'll get distracted or I'll not finish something I need to do.  Instead of working, I'll browse social media or talk to my friends.  In addition to not working efficiently on work I'll lose focus when listening to lectures or presentations, and my note taking often becomes less and less detailed as class goes on.  I also have some problems keeping up my focus in workouts and giving my all till the end of it.  All in all the virtue of Industry gives me a lot of problems.

Foreign Dinners in China

I have traveled to China quite a few times because I have many relatives and friends of my mother's that lives there.  We usually end up having one or two dinners with many friends and family of my mother, and as things are, they all speak Chinese at the dinner table.  During these scenarios I feel quite out of place, not understanding the conversation and why everyone is laughing and connecting with relatives is very hard to do.  These dinners also feature many foreign foods, most of which I am not completely comfortable with (I'm a picky eater) so I end up not eating a lot and not talking a lot either.  It makes me feel rude and disrespectful, but it seems like the least awkward way to pass the dinner.

My Name

My name is Calvin.  The name itself has very little significance to my parents (my dad picked it because he like Calvin & Hobbes).  I don't think my name has had too much impact on me as a person; its not too common but its common enough.  There is a comic series, a fashion line, a singer and a president all with my name, but not much else. I think my name fits me fine.  I think Gogol finds his name such a hindrance because its so unique that he doesn't feel like he can connect with anyone, which is not a problem for those who have common names (in his mind).  Even though I've met very few Calvin's, I haven't had that problem before.

Heritage

I am half-Asian, half-Caucasian.  My mother is Chinese and a first generation immigrant to the United States while my father can trace his heritage back to the Mayflower.  Both sides of my family are extremely different.  My mother has one brother, grew up at an elite boarding school, and immigrated to the U.S. for college.  My dad has many siblings, I believe 3 fully related and about 6 half siblings, he grew up in Alabama and went to Georgia Tech for college, where my parents met.

Growing up in California I was never really around my extended family, and my parents both dislike the culture of where they came from, so I don't have any stereotypical southern or Chinese traditions.  I also don't identify as either Chinese or white; The schools I went to growing up were about 50-50 white and Asian.  I don't really identify with any heritage, and there is no specific food or tradition that is culturally significant to me.  For example, I love wantons, which are are a Chinese tradition, but I love them because my mom has made it for me since I was young, not because they connect me to any Chinese heritage.  I don't speak Chinese nor do I have a southern accent (I can't even fake one).  I guess I don't have much in the way of heritage.

Life on the Edge

I think that we are defined by our most rational moments because even though we might feel the most alive and ourselves during our irrational moments the majority of the time we are acting rationally.  Therefore, because the majority of our time is spent acting rationally we are defined by that.  I think that even though sometimes I irrationally stay up late I don't think that those moments define me, rather my rational acts of going to bed at the correct time every other night that defines me.

Contradictions

I think one of my major contradictions is my expectation for other people's work versus the work I do.  While I like to think that my work is good, I often procrastinate which can be infuriating for other members of my group project.  Contrary, my expectations for other people is to finish their work quickly but I don't necessarily expect it to be good.  I think that I have this contradiction because in the past, I've always been doing a lot of the work in group projects, so I would just ask the people in my group to quickly finish whatever work they get done so I get look over the whole project, edit everything, and then do my part.  One of my other contradictions, a little related, is that I procrastinate on a lot of assignments even though I know that its easier to do my work well before its due.

The Therapist is In

Petruchio and Katharina came in to see me due to the problems that they were having with their marriage.  Petruchio complained that Kate was being too loud and wasn't respecting him as a husband.  Kate complained that Petruchio wasn't feeding her or providing for her, and that he was flirting with other women in front of her. 

To help them get through their problems, I tried some role playing, with each of them playing the other.  Petruchio made a mockery of the session and acted overly subservient while Kate just kept yelling.  After a brief recess to cool down I told them to take it more seriously, and we got a little more progress.  Petruchio started to undertand how ridiculous some of his requests were and Kate well... she kind of stayed the same way.  But good on Petruchio for at the very least recognizing that, in his own words, "I see how a small number of my requests, could be perceived as barely ridiculous."  Then Kate responded with sharp sarcasm, and Petruchio completely lost his temper.  But you know, baby steps.

I think that the visit today was a good stepping stone and a way to improve their relationship.  In the short term I think that they should try to identify the problems they have with each other and just talk through it.  The biggest problem is communication.  In the long term they should reach a point where they understand each other's problems and continue communication and display their gratitude and affection for each other.

Maiden Names

How important is the last name of a person? It represents one on forms and documents. and is what you pass on to your children.  It seems a little too important to just say, oh women should take the last name of their husbands.  However, there does not seem to be a elegant solution present.  Men taking their wive's last names presents the same problem.  Hyphenating seems to be a balanced solution, but that gets old pretty quickly.  No one wants a last name with 4 (or even 8) different components in it.    Choosing a new last name after marriage solves these problems, but it estranges relatives and will make tracing ancestry even harder, and also is an odd choice.  I think that whatever the spouses wish should be whatever happens, and its just a matter of personal preference.

Feminism

I think that Feminism is a great ideal, and I do consider myself a feminist is the sense that women and men should be equal and treated as such by society.  However, I think that a big problem that many people face in identifying as a feminist or not is that feminism has been such a loaded word in recent history.  Because its an ideal rather than an organization, there is no governing body that decides what is or is not feminism.  Everyone interprets how to be a feminist differently, so there are a lot of differing views on subjects within the feminist community.  For example, many feminists believe that women should be sexually promiscuous to show that they own their own sexuality while others believe that women should have sex less to be taken more seriously by men and the society.  Because feminists have differing views on so many important issues, its really hard to say what makes you a feminist or not.  If you believe women and men should be equal you should be a feminist, but what if you disagree on the meaning of equal or the best way to achieve that equality with the modern feminist movement.  What are you then?