OOPS!!! We are clearly enjoying our vacation TOO much!! Sorry for the late post -- new due date is AUGUST 17th!!!
Choose ONE of the following questions and relate it to your second Hawthorne story, Next, discuss how this response might relate to something in your world or our society today. Approximately 300 words.
1. What happens when the values of an individual conflict with the values of the society in which he or she lives?
2. How does society oppress certain groups or people?
3. How much personal responsibility should a person take for his or her role in society?
4. To what extent are our identities shaped by the society around us?
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Question #2
ReplyDeleteSometimes people belonging to a community or society can be oppressed either by the government or people in higher social status’ based on many factors such religion, skin color, political views, economic standings, and many other traits, characteristics, or qualities. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, I get the idea as the reader that Dr. Rappaccini and his daughter Beatrice were oppressed by the other members in the society. Yes, Beatrice was talked about by many of the men in the area as the most beautiful, but there were also many rumors about how you should stay away from the two because of their incredible love for science. When in the streets, Professor Baglioni tells Giovanni that Dr. Rappaccini’s love for so science was so great, it had even exceeded his love for human beings. This theory was proved true when Beatrice was discovered to be living on poison due to her father’s science experiments. Dr. Rappaccini was viewed as a crazy, psychopath scientist and because of that was oppressed and avoided by all of society.
In our world today many people from the Middle Eastern area of the globe are being oppressed by their government. The dictators in charge of countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan and many more are not allowing education for the people. Without education, the people of these countries can’t fight against the government to stop them from all the harm they are causing such as putting the country into poverty. There are other many countries with oppression as a major issue whether it’s from the government or other citizens and also based on different aspects of different people’s lives.
Roger Malvin's Burial
ReplyDeleteQuestion 4 really relates to this story because the society that Reuben Bourne lived in during his early years was at war, and as he got older, he was at war with himself. When Reuben went off to fight in the battle, he said goodbye to his girlfriend, Dorcas, and left with her father, Roger Malvin. After the battle, Reuben and Roger are seriously injured, but Roger is more hurt than Reuben. After a couple days, Roger tells Reuben to go and find their village and marry his daughter, but before Reuben leaves, he props Roger up and leans him against a big, granite rock, that is shaped ironically like a gravestone. As Reuben fulfills Roger’s dying wish, he leaves Roger, and sets out, as best as he can while still injured, and soon he finds a rescue team, and ironically takes him back to the nearest village which happens to be his own. He finds Dorcas and tells her what happened to her father after the battle. After this, the guilt of leaving Roger behind turns Reuben into a bitter man. But Reuben is not all bitter. When he takes his one and only son, who is now 15 years of age, on a hunting trip on the anniversary of the day that Roger died, Reuben gets into a hunting accident and dies accidently, on the spot where his grandfather died. When Dorcas comes because she thought that her son had killed his first deer, she is devastated. Reuben tries to consol her, and he says that her father and her son now lay in the same grave, so whenever she cries, she will be crying on both of them. Had Reuben not gone to fight in the battle, he wouldn’t have had the guilt of leaving his new father-in-law there to die, but he also wouldn’t have had his permission to marry Dorcas. In the end, Reuben did turn bitter to the point but he still had feelings for his wife and he still loved his son.
Roger Malvin’s Burial
ReplyDeleteSociety shapes an individual so much. Humans tend to be followers and only a certain few go out of their way to be different. In Roger Malvin’s Burial, Reuben and his older friend Roger have been fighting in a war against the Indians. During this time, Reuben and Roger become close friends and will do anything for each other. Roger says he can not go on any longer and he tells Reuben to continue home without him. Reuben is reluctant to leave him but makes the journey back, promising to come back and bury Roger when he has regained his strength. Once home. He tells everyone that he did his best to help his friend Roger and they all think he is a hero. Not wanting to look foolish, Reuben never returns to properly bury Roger and through the years becomes angry and depressed from guilt. He was so ashamed of what he had done that he couldn’t even keep his promise to his friend. Society had influenced him by making him believe that he would be shunned if they found out the truth, forcing him to live a lie and act as a hero when in reality he was a coward.
In today’s society, if you grow up in a place where 99 percent of kids shop at a certain store, you will feel obligated to do the same. If everyone talks a certain way, you will pick up the same dialect. If your community follows a certain set of laws, it is necessary that you follow those laws too and you will most likely continue to follow them even if you move elsewhere. Before you could formulate opinions for yourself, others have already started affecting you before you even realize it. From day one your parents chose what toys you played with, what food you ate, and how you dressed. The human mind is easily influenced, and society plays a gigantic part in teaching you their thoughts on right from wrong.
To what extent are our identities shaped by the society around us?
ReplyDeleteIn Roger Malvin’s Burial, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Reuben Bourne, is faced with the mould of society every day. Reuben Bourne is forced to lie to his sweetheart, Dorcas, about her father being buried. If he hadn’t lied to her, then society and, most importantly, she would think less of him because he couldn’t find the time or energy to bury Roger Malvin. Thusly, as a consequence of being with Roger Malvin to the very end, society wants him to marry his daughter, Dorcas. Regardless of whether Bourne wished to marry Dorcas or not, society wished him to, and so he did. As their married life goes on, Reuben inherits Dorcas’s family farm, but he isn’t much of a farmer, so the farm fails. He and his family cannot stay on a farm that is failing, so the unspoken rules of society force him and his family to go find another place of residence. It is this action by society that leads the story to its climax, and eventually, it’s tragic end.
Society today isn’t so different. We still unconsciously conform to the silent axioms that society enforces. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I was homeschooled until ninth grade. From the moment I stepped into the school last September I could feel myself change. Never before had I experienced anything like being in a high school before. Looking back, I myself was molded to fit most of society’s standards, and that made me the person I am today. Heck, I am almost normal now. I’ve come a long way from who I was before. Having our identities shaped by society isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just shouldn’t stop you from being who you are on the inside, and it shouldn’t cause you to do things that your conscience would scream NO! to. It shaped Reuben Bourne, for the worse, but it certainly doesn’t have to do that to you.
Katelyn Parry
ReplyDelete#3
Georgiana is the main character in Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark.” To Georgiana’s husband, Aylmer, she is the most beautiful woman except for one small mark on her cheek in the shape of a tiny hand. Every time Aylmer looks at Georgiana, he can’t look at anything but the mark. She believes that the mark is a charm. Aylmer wants to remove the mark on Georgiana’s face with his knowledge of science. Georgiana doesn’t want to remove it because she thinks it’s lucky. Aylmer only looks at the mark as an imperfection on a beautiful woman’s face. The more Aylmer talks about removing the mark from Georgiana’s face, the more she believes that it is truly ugly and that she wants to get it removed. Because of Aylmer’s disgust with the mark and his negative attention towards it Georgiana starts to believe that the mark is truly a sign of imperfection and that it needs to be removed. I feel that it is Georgiana’s responsibility to believe in herself and her actions and appearance and she is now letting someone else influence the decisions in her life. A person’s self worth should come from the way that person feels about themselves and not what others think about them.
This situation in “The Birthmark” makes me think about our society today. Many people are now prejudice towards others due to their skin color, religion, or even the way they look. Society can place a lot of pressure on people to change the way they look or the way that they are to be able to fit in. Being prejudice towards others can cause people to think badly about themselves due to a factor that they are unable to change to fit into the society that they live in.
The Birthmark
ReplyDeleteBrianna Moore
Question 4: To what extent are our identities shaped by the society around us?
In the short story “The Birthmark” a girl named Georgiana is both beautiful and unique for she has a birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a crimson hand. Her husband Alymer is constantly telling her that the birthmark on her face ruins her beauty and is such an imperfection. Georgiana does not seem to have a problem with her birthmark and neither do the other people around her, but she knows that her husband hates it. When he came up with an idea to get rid of it she agrees but ends up dying once it is removed because the hand is what kept her alive.
Our identities are shaped by the society around us to a moderate extent. In most likely every part of the world a person’s identity has been shaped by society in one way or another whether it is with fads, etc. In the story “The Birthmark”, Georgiana does not mind her birthmark but it is the people around her that do. For them, she is willing to remove the birthmark and in a way change her identity for that unique birthmark is what some people knew her for.
This response relates to the world today because now a-days some people go to extreme extents to change themselves into something that they aren’t just to be “accepted” in society, like getting surgery to change something about them. Procedures like this don’t always end well and sometimes in extreme cases you could possibly die. Unfortunately, Georgiana also tried to change herself to make the people around her happy and to be accepted. As you can see, changing something about her led to her dying when she could’ve easily just accepted the birthmark.
4) The Birthmark written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story about a scientist and his attempt to remove his beautiful wife's only imperfection; her birthmark. The story ends sadly however when the scientist, Aylmer, miscalculates his potion and when his wife Georgiana drinks it, she dies. This is an example of how our identities are shaped by the society around us because although many people found Georgiana's birthmark as a beautiful, and unique trait, her husband thought of the birthmark as an imperfection. This led to Georgiana's hatred of her own birthmark and the risk that Aylmer and Georgiana took to remove it which ultimately claimed Georgiana's life. If Georgiana was not as concerned with what her husband thought of her birthmark she may still be living and over time, her husband may have come to appreciate the beauty it represents. This relates to many aspects of our society today as well, especially stereotypes. Stereotypes exist in society because society sees individuals they way that they want to see them. If someone looks at a kid wearing a football jersey they think of them as a jock. If someone looks at a kid wearing black clothing and eyeliner, they often times think of them as goths. However more often than not these people are not entirely what society sees them as. Many of them have aspects that a person of a different stereotype has because in the end all humans are similar one way or another. If society did not stereotype or effect the identity of an individual, people would become more self-aware, more open to different ideas, and succeed in ways that no one thought possible.
ReplyDeleteThe second short story I chose to read was The Birthmark. Question number four relates to this story. In The Birthmark Georgina's perception on herself is completely changed by her husband Aylmer. Georgina thought her birthmark was perceived as a charm to other people she was surrounded by. Aylmer couldn't look at Georgina without shuddering at her birthmark in disgust. She couldn't understand why he would marry her if he couldn't look at her face. Georgina was then convinced she needed a way to remove her birthmark because it wasn't an attractive feature. The extent that our identities are shaped by the society around us are sometimes based on how insecure you are. For Georgina, she wasn't that insecure about her birthmark at first, but as the story progressed, Aylmer made her feel bad about it and found a way to remove it. Little did they know that, that birthmark was her connection to morality and without it she would die, which she did. If Aylmer just accepted Georgina the way she was, she wouldn't have lost her life to a flaw she was born with and surprisingly needed. The extent that societies have to shape our identities today is pretty big. Everyone longs to fit into society and if you're different then someone else they might not accept you into what they think is "normal." If you have a flaw that you accept but someone else doesn't, it can have a negative affect on your self image or identity. You are seen differently by everyone and it's just human nature.
ReplyDeleteThe second short story I read was called "Rappaccini's Daughter." I chose response number four to answer. Our identities are shaped by society because everything you do is always judged. When a person first sees you before even speaking to you they judge you. People are constantly being judged which is a big impact on why people don't get a long and why everyone is always talking behind each others backs. Society influences individuals very negatively. This relates to the short story "Rappaccini's Daughter" because Beatrice is poisonous which in society would not be accepted at all. People would think that's insane or gross, which would effect the way an individual's view of it. We are shaped by society because in most cases if society doesn't accept it, then the individual won't either. We are who society wants us to be because we let society take control. For example, Beatrice is poisonous but instead of leaving her alone and letting her live her life, Giovanni tried to cure her which killed her. If Giovanni didn't mess with an antidote that would apparently cure her, she would have lived. Giovanni should have learned to accept Beatrice the way she was instead of trying to fix her, because society wouldn't accept it so neither did he. Normal is overrated because everyone has a different perspective of what normal is. Everyone has different views on different things and what is normal to someone might be the complete opposite for another. Beatrice would be an example of what is not accepted in society, but really it should not matter to others what is wrong with you thats what makes you stand out. Beatrice stood out because she was poisonous, and thats something that is very unique.
ReplyDeleteThe Birthmark is a short-story about an intelligent scientist married to a woman with an imperfection upon her face. Georgiana has a birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a hand print. Her husband, Aylmer cannot get over the fact that she has this imperfection even though she is beautiful. Georgiana was perfectly okay with her birthmark until Aylmer kept staring at it and giving her scary looks. It would often occupy his mind and make Georgiana uncomfortable. Aylmer thought that if Georgiana didn't have this birthmark she would be perfect. Because Aylmer kept constantly making Georgiana feel uncomfortable, she eventually became self-conscious of her birthmark. Georgiana gave into Aylmer's pleas and let him perform some type of surgery to remove the birthmark. Georgiana died because that birthmark was the key of life for her. Every day we are influenced by the people around us ranging from our clothes to our hair. There are some out there that do their own thing, but eventually people will catch on to their style or something and it will become a trend or a fad. People see celebrities with stick skinny bodies and they automatically think that in order to be accepted, they too will need to be skinny. Things like this can lead to dangerous things like drug or alcohol abuse or eating disorders. I don't think we should ever change for others just because they want us to. For instance, people always told Barbra Streisand that her nose was big. All of the girls in her school had either gotten are were going for nose jobs too and that made it worse. It drove Barbra to the point of considering a nose job. But because it would ruin her career she chose not to and was not influenced by others. The whole moral of this story was that everyone has unique qualities and you shouldn't let other people make you feel bad about them.
ReplyDelete“To what extent are our identities shaped by the society around us?” This question really depends on the person or character. Doctor Rappuccini, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Rappuccini’s Daughter”, is not affected by society’s views at all. Although in normal societies, where it is somewhat frowned upon to experiment with odd poisonous plants on humans, this doesn’t stop Rappuccini from doing his work. He continues to test various poisons on his own kind in exchange for knowledge, which he considers to be very valuable. When Giovanni attends a dinner with Pietro Baglioni, the professor tries to persuade Giovanni from returning to the garden to see Rappuccini’s daughter because it had been believed that Rappuccini was an evil scientist. Rappuccini’s reputation had come about because he had been testing these poisons on his own species, including his very own daughter. It is true, yes, that Rappuccini was a scientist indeed. But society had placed “evil” in front of the doctor’s name, and Rappuccini didn’t believe that what he was doing was evil at all. He just believed he was playing his individual role in society and doing his job. I believe this question ties heavily into people in society today. I personally think that in our world at this moment, high school students’ identities are heavily shaped by stresses in society. In my opinion, girls especially are much more influenced by what society thinks is “beautiful”. For example, society today makes young girls believe that a size zero and pounds of makeup is beauty, which is completely false. Certain pressures in society can be very dangerous to girls and boys of all ages, and any character who lets society’s “rules” truly affect how confident they are in themselves. Sometimes, we should all be like Rappuccini in a way, and not worry as much about society’s cookie-cutter views. We should be satisfied with ourselves and take pride in who we are.
ReplyDeleteGemma Caglioti
Rappaccini's Daughter
ReplyDeleteIn Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Rappaccini's Daughter, a young man
named Giovanni Guasconti goes off to the University of Padua to pursue his
studies in medicine. While attending school, Giovanni stays at Dr. Rappaccini's
mansion where his room overlooks a beautiful garden kept by Dr. Rappaccini's
daughter Beatrice, who later catches his eye with her beauty. Eventually
Giovanni learns that the garden is full of poisonous plants and that Dr.
Rappaccini is a crazed man who is obsessed with science. As a child, Beatrice
was provided with a poison that causes everything, besides the plants in that
garden, to die. Soon enough Giovanni starts visiting Beatrice everyday in the
garden and without knowing it, Beatrice's poison began working its way into
Giovanni's system. Professor Baglioni realizes the poison is starting to take
over Giovanni's system and gives him a antidote. Once
Giovanni realizes what's going on, he confronts Beatrice about the situation
and she confesses to him that she has the poison inside her. Giovanni convinces
her to take the antidote that professor Baglioni gave him earlier before, and
Beatrice ends up dying. Giovanni learns that the poison was the only thing
keeping her alive.
It is proven in the story that Beatrice always had a big responsibility of
taking care of the poisonous garden. Without her there, the garden would die.
Beatrice knew that she had poison inside of her but she never gave up on the
garden and herself. Therefore Beatrice had to take a lot of personal
responsibility in order to accomplish her role in her society. Every person in
our world today should take 100% personal responsibility in order to maintain
balance in our society. Everything a person does has an impact on what's to
happen in our future.
2. How does society oppress certain people?
ReplyDeleteIn Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark", A brilliant and famous scientist named
Aylmer lives with his beautiful wife Georgiana. She is caring, intelligent, and
lovely in many ways. Her only flaw is a small, red, hand-shaped birthmark on her
left cheek. One day Aylmer brings it up to her and she becomes very serious
about it. Much of society, like Georgiana's admirers, love the birthmark and
would die just to kiss it. Many also have told her the birthmark is a charm.
However, some women think it ruins her beauty. Her husband soon obsesses over it
and thinks it symbolizes mortality and sin. Which towers over Georgiana's beauty
to him. Because of this Georgiana wants to, and will do anything to get rid of
it. Aylmer then makes her a potion that "cannot fail" in removing the mark, but
it ends up killing her. You see Aylmer's desire to make his wife perfect kills
her because perfection is in heaven and can't be found on Earth. Aylmer made his
wife an ideal being, so she can no longer exist on this Earth. This shows
society's perception of beauty, and how striving for perfection is foolish, but
is what people still want.
Things are very similar in today's world. Many people strive for perfection
because of what society thinks is beautiful. It's why people develop eating
disorders or get plastic surgery because society has shaped a picture in our
head of what is perfect and we want that. Like Aylmer in "The Birthmark" his
wife's one imperfection became all he thought about and ruined him because he no
longer saw the good in Georgiana only her flaw. Society has taught us to focus
in on only the bad and not our true beauty.
The human race does not realize how much society shapes the people that we are. In Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader is introduced to how character’s identities are shaped by society. The main character, Giovanni Guasconti is heavily affected by society, which is visible in his maturity and knowledge. A man of science, he has overcome the road-bumps of society which has influenced the scientist and person that he is. On the other hand, his love interest, Beatrice, has not experienced the world or been influenced by society. The daughter of renowned potion-maker and garden keeper Rappaccini has lived her whole life inside the walls of their humble abode. She is heavily influenced by her father’s work and hasn’t experienced society as deep as Giovanni. When they fall in love, she has that bitter taste of the “outside world” and wants to discover more about it. Unfortunately, that dream takes a toll when her death occurs at the end of the story.
ReplyDeletePersonally, today’s modern society has shaped me to the person that I am today. I believe that society plays a very important role in the human race. Society is rapidly changing, discovering new things, and sprouting up with new ideas. It effects people differently and defines and influences one person more strongly than others. The way my parents raised me and their beliefs really has shaped me more so than the influence of society. The two tie together. When society throws a curveball, everything I have learned from my parents I take and handle the situation in the most efficient and positive way I can. It is different for everyone, affecting the ways that humans go about their daily lives. With today’s economy plummeting, wars and crime rates climbing , and political disputes, society has really changed the way people think, act, and live. The extent to which society shapes our identities is different for everyone.
Rappacini’s Daughter
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: When the values of an individual conflict with the values of the society in which he or she lives, such as the confliction between the values of Rappacini and society, it can affect all of society that comes into contact with the person in question. In this specific case, Rappacini’s values result in his poisoning of his own daughter, and through that her death and the poisoning of Giovanni Guasconti. His ideals have allowed him to progress further with his research than many others, but also introduced many new poisons into the world, giving society new weapons. It gave him a huge advantage over other scientists who were held back by their moral restrictions, but at the cost of many lives of those affected by his poisons. In modern society, this can relate to a huge amount of things, even as small as robbers and thieves. Their lack of the morals that most of society accepts allows them to often become rich off of others, often hurting people in the process. Another effect of their robberies, if they get caught and put in jail is an increase in taxes for the rest of Americans who have to pay for their stay in prison. Furthermore, most crimes such as these result in a butterfly effect, affecting not only those that are directly associated with the instance, but anyone associated with them. In any case, the actions of those with different values from the rest of society affect the rest of society, sometimes in a positive or sometimes in a negative way.
I think the short story "The Birthmark" is a good example of how society can oppress a group or an individual based on the things the society sees as "right" or as "beautiful". In the story many people criticize the wife's birthmark as something to be ashamed of and a very fatal flaw and in turn many will also reject her but in reality they are jealous. However even her husband soon finds himself staring and groaning to hate the mark of hers and even starts to make faces of disgust when he sees the mark she bears. This shows how affected the husband is by the usual meaning of "beauty" society has imbued us with and continues to teach us to this day and soon after his wife soon starts to submit to the constant mockery of others and decides to tell her husband to remove the mark at all costs and make her what socity ideally would call beautiful. This is a good example of what I would call making people conform to your societies ideals or to be shunned by everyone even those closest to you, of course this has been seen to happen to not only individuals but whole groups as well and is something I would not be able to get behind, to oppress and shun others simply because of the rules that traditional society has laid down for us and to be like shown in this story so obsessed about external beauty to the point of shunning the one you love simply because they refuse to conform to societies ideals for perfect beauty. As shown in this short story I think the message is conveyed that you should not try to fix something that does not need to be fixed something and as shown in the book there were major consequences for doing so. An in the end I believe that doing so is something completely wrong and you should not be so concerned and hostile if someone's beliefs do not match with yours or if they refuse to comepletely conform to your ideals and lastly I can get behind the moral I drew from the story that you should not fix that which isn't broken.
ReplyDeleteTo what extent are our identities shaped by the world around us? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, The Birthmark, a woman named Georgiana was born with a small handprint-shaped marking on the right side of her face. At first her husband, Aylmer finds beauty in, much like all of the men in the town do. They see it as the touch of a little fairy or an angel. However, his opinion wavers when the women of the town, jealous of her overall beauty and the attention of their men, start seeing the birthmark as an ugly curse and a monstrosity. This negative environment shaped Georgiana into a shy and fearful girl, which she wouldn’t have been if society had just seen the marking as something unusual, but not necessarily unattractive. This makes her husband wish to get rid of it with science. Georgiana makes it clear that she wants to either have the mark removed or die trying, for she loathes the sight of it and is sick of looking at in in the mirror. However, when she drinks the potion that makes her birthmark disappear, she also dies with it in the Aylmer’s laboratory.
ReplyDeleteThis could relate to something in society today just because young people’s identities are constantly being changed from the day they first start thinking on their own. Children see people and things that they want to be like and automatically develop an opinion in their subconscious. However, if one of their friends or an adult that they look up to says differently, the child’s opinion could change in an instant. This carries on into adulthood and it almost always happens to everyone. And if you think about it, our identities could easily be based on all of the opinions swimming around in our brains. Now, when all the ladies in town gang up on a girl with a natural birthmark and call it ugly, would you suddenly think it so?
n
ReplyDeletePOST 1 OF 4
ReplyDeleteIn “The Birthmark,” the two main characters, Georgiana and Alymer, have values and standards that are a bit different. For instance, the emphasis Alymer placed on his wife’s “defect” (birthmark) showed how much he valued perfection in beauty. Georgiana, on the other hand, didn’t mind her birthmark, and thought it was nothing but a charm. Since the value Alymer and Georgiana placed on perfection was different – Georgiana ended up changing the way she thought. She wanted her birthmark removed, showing how she also ended up valuing the perfection her husband wanted.
POST 2 OF 4
ReplyDeleteAnother example of differing values could be the value Alymer and Georgiana placed on each other. It seemed as though Georgiana thoroughly cherished the love she had for her marriage and for her husband. Although Alymer definitely loved his wife – he also held science just as close to his heart. In this case, Alymer didn’t change his values or completely forget about science. He kept the science in his life and it didn’t turn out so well, seeing that Georgiana died after being part of her husband’s grand experiment.
POST 3 OF 4
ReplyDeleteAlso, the idea of “matching” the values or standards of others around you could easily be applied to today’s world, especially in high school. For instance, if a student that valued his grades and performance in school was constantly surrounded by a group of friends that placed the importance elsewhere – many times the student in question would change his way of thinking, not only to fit in, but also so he would be able to please his “friends.” (That’s exactly what Georgiana did in her situation.)
POST 4 OF 4
ReplyDeleteOther times though, instead of changing his own standards, he may keep them even if they’re different. As a result, he could be teased or even be “kicked out” of his circle of so-called friends, oftentimes left to find other people whose values coincide with his own.
q
ReplyDeleteThe Birthmark
ReplyDeleteQuestion 4
Some parts of our identities are shaped by society. For example, how people look and act in public. Also, what the image of beauty is. In the story The Birthmark, Georgiana had a birthmark on her cheek. For that time, the image of beauty was completely perfect and this one blemish ruined her beauty. People would identify her by her birthmark. The women of Georgiana’s town, jealous of her beauty, would identify her as imperfect. Georgiana’s lovers, eager for her affection, would identify it as a blessing from a fairy. Not only does it shape your identity as your reputation but also your character. Because the birthmark was not the ideal form of beauty, Aylmer hated it and made him obsessed with its removal. His disgust of it caused Georgiana to become miserable and she let him experiment on her because she would rather be dead than have to see him disapprove of her so much. This is reflected in our society today. Society creates a look and people who don’t follow are usually scorned for it. Magazines create the ideal look for people to be skinny. But the skinny portrayed is usually unnatural and unobtainable. These make people, usually girls, feel bad about themselves and creates eating disorders. Just like Georgiana who let her husband experiment on her, this is unhealthy. Georgiana couldn’t live without that birthmark and people usually can’t live without half their healthy body weight. If Aylmer could live with the way Georgiana is she would be alive just like how if magazines stopped promoting unnatural models more people would be healthier.
Rappacini’s Daughter
ReplyDelete1. When the values of an individual come into conflict with the values of society, rumors and closed minds erupt. For example, Dr. Rappacini is a scientist. However, his experiments are not of the ordinary. He likes to experiment with plants and their poisons. He just happened to experiment on his daughter and turned her into something different. Now, society finds human genetic engineering a monstrous and unthinkable. Dr. Rappacini’s value is taking science and applying it to something that makes human’s skin crawl. His values and society clash together and make a horrible conflict, the result, people fear him and will not open their mind long enough to see what his true intensions and ideas are.
#4: Events and the views of society can really affect the people in it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” Georgiana feels compelled to get rid of the crimson hand birthmark on her cheek based on the opinion of her husband, Aylmer, and her image of beauty. Georgiana is willing to risk her life with an experiment in order to rid herself of this one impurity on her face. This is an example of how people would do whatever they can to be “perfect” as society views it. Without the influence of society, people wouldn’t have to feel like they had to change because of a supposed “flaw.” In the end of the story, Georgiana dies because she let society’s views get the best of her. All of that may have changed if Aylmer had just accepted Georgiana with the birthmark on her face.
ReplyDeletePerfection is a major view of today’s society. People today are going through exactly what Georgiana did. I believe that society works in a domino effect. The definition of the word perfect may have been created because of a person who didn’t have the flaws of another person. Today, the definition of perfect in society’s eyes seems to be tan, skinny, perfect skin and perfect teeth. That idea may have started all because of one person who had all of those traits and another person changing to look exactly the same, therefore creating a domino effect. That one image of perfection has blocked out the other traits that aren’t seen as perfect in other people’s eyes. If you look around, you can see how much society is affecting people. You see people with new spray tans or people going on diets to reach that one idea of perfection. Society’s view has also proven to be very dangerous. Some people have stopped eating and developed eating disorders to reach a “society approved” weight. Other people will lie out in sun for hours to reach that “perfect tan” but really all you are doing is ruining your skin although it may not seem like it. As you can see, society today has really affected people in one way or another and then next time you see a “perfect” person, think again about what the word perfect really is.
Roger Malvin's Burial
ReplyDelete1. When the values of an individual conflict with the values of society in which he or she lives, problems arise around us and within us. Rueben Bourne was faced with a decision, to fuffill a dying man's wish, or to maintain his reputation. Roger Malvin died a tragic death on the journey home from the battle known Lovell's Fight. He gave Reuben the blessing to marry his daughter, Dorcas. But he also made Reuben promise that when he is healthy again, to come back to the rock where he was dying, and properly bury him. This is the one promise Reuben doesn't keep. But the reason he doesn't keep this promise is because society told him he was a brave man and he did all the right things, but he knew leaving a mean to die was a cowardly thing, yet he did not want anyone to know that was what happened. So due to the pressures of society, he never returned to Roger to give him his proper burial. This slowly made him a depressed man, he slowly lost the meaning for life, other than the glimpse he gets from his son. Reuben finally gives in to the need to go back to the forest and find Roger's deathbed, he finally does what he thinks is right. In the end, the death of Cyrus is the way of nature paying him back for an unkept promise, and a need to please society, and not himself.
Question: To what extent are our identities shaped by the society around us?
ReplyDeleteIn the story, Rappacini's Daughter, Giovanni moved to a new mansion in Padua next door to the Rappacinis. He was constantly surrounded by the poisonous flowers and perfumes that came from the flowers. He would sit and talk to Beatrice for long periods of time in the hazardous and toxic garden with her deadly breath near him the entire time. All of this poison changed who he was physically and turned him into a poisonous monster, but it also changed his character and who he was. He used to be a very kind and gentle man who fell in love with Beatrice. Now, he was a very angry and mean man who wouldn't stop blaming everyone else for his problems instead of trying to think of a solution. While Beatrice didn't let the poison effect her heart, Giovanni did and would be changed. Giovanni changed because of the people and things that he was around in his society. Today in our society, people are constantly being changed by differences in their societies as well and in many different ways. If something is becoming popular in society like a certain type of clothing, everyone feels like they need to have that clothing to be popular as well. It may not even be something that they like or would even wear but they still feel like they need it just because everyone else does. Another example might be if you are around a certain group of people all the time, you tend to act just like they do. If they talk in a certain way, the people who didn't talk like that before may start to just because they are influenced by the people around them. This can be a good thing (maybe academically if they are around studious people) or not so great (if they are around people who make bad decisions) but people in general have a tendency to become greatly influenced and changed by the people and the society around them.
The second short story I chose to read by Nathaniel Hawthorne was Roger Malvin's Burial. Reuben Bourne was a man who did not take full responsibility for his actions made or his role in society. When he left Roger Malvin to die near the large rock and murky pine trees, he returned home but never didn't return back to Roger for 18 years. He avoided taking responsibility for the vow he had made. Once home, he married Dorcas and had a little boy, Cyrus. He did not take on the role of a loving and caring husband/father. As a farmer, he did not do his job. He was not able for his farm to cherish and grow products to sell and to feed his family with. He was a very selfish man and as long as he was okay, he didn't care about the wellbeing of his family or his society. Society oppresses certain groups of people by not paying attention to them. In Roger Malvin's Burial, Rueben's civilization knew all about Roger Malvin dying in the woods all alone. Nobody went out to look for him and give him a proper burial, not even his own daughter. This mistreatment in society is terrible and upsetting and comes from just not putting in the effort.
ReplyDeleteIn today's society, many people do not take responsibility for their actions. Like Rueben, they make a decision with about being completely sure if it is the right decision. Once they make it, they act like it never happened and don't even try to fix it. Guilty follows them for a long time. Unlike Rueben, people today normally to do not try to "right their wrongs" like Rueben did, even if it took him 18 years. Oppression in our society today has become based on race. Each race has it's own culture and acts like it's own civilization and has its own oppressions. The mistreatment from one race to another is new in society since Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote this short story. It is something I am not proud of in this world today.
Sarah Culver
Roger Malvin’s Burial
ReplyDeleteI think that our identities are affected greatly by our society around us. This is the case for Reuben. He really hates where he lives and he can’t be a happy person there. He doesn’t like the farm. All the things around him remind him of the war he fought in. Also, he can’t stop thinking about Roger Malvin and how he left him there to die. Being married to Dorcas, and living with her, just makes it worse for him. Her presence reminds him of his guilt and how he hasn’t fulfilled what he vowed to do. Also, he is treated like a hero because people don’t understand what actually happened. Being treated that way makes him feel even guiltier. All of this turns Reuben into a sad and selfish man. In his younger days he was much more cheerful but his society shaped him into the man he was at the end of the story.
Today, I believe that our identities are shaped by our society as well. Almost everyone has access to phones, computers, and the Internet and it makes them more dependable on that stuff. I think that people who grow up in different societies have different opportunities to be certain people. For example, someone who grows up poor is more likely to be people who value everything they have to the fullest extent. Whereas rich people are more likely to take everything that they have for granted. People who grow up rich also have more potential to be successful because they have all the resources available that they need. As you can see, I think that societies play a major factor towards the identity of people, whether it is in today’s world or in the story “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The story I read was “Roger Malvin’s Burial” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this book, the values of Reuben Bourne conflict with the values of the society he lives in. After fighting in “Lovell’s Fight,” Reuben begins his long journey home with a companion named Roger Malvin. Both survivors were wounded and Roger was too weak to go on. He asks Reuben to leave him to die in the wilderness and after much refusal; Reuben leaves him to die, causing a negative effect on Reuben’s future. This event changed Reuben’s values throughout the rest of the story. He no longer values his life and lives the rest of his days in misery and feels as if he’s a failure. Reuben vowed to Roger that he would return to bury him, but he never kept that promise. This caused Reuben to not be at peace with himself. Reuben can no longer comprehend or value the truth because he is living within a lie of his own. Reuben cannot let go of his tall tale, the false story that he stayed with Roger until his death. He also has no value for his marriage to Roger’s daughter Dorcas because he feels uneasy about leaving Dorcas’ father to die. This also causes distance between he and his wife. In conclusion, Reuben has little to no values and it affects his relationships with those that do have values. The events from Reuben’s past caused conflicting values between Reuben and society, making Reuben unfit in normal society.
ReplyDeleteThis story relates to something in our world today because many soldiers are not the same person after fighting in war. Many soldiers have seen or done things that have changed them and their values completely. Soldiers are often injured which can change the way in which they live the rest of their life. Other soldiers return to their homes and experience mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder that affects them and the way that they can function in society. In conclusion, Reuben and soldiers today may express common traits because war or a life changing event can change a person forever.