Thoughts on The GOP Debate

This week we talked a lot about politics.  Yet another GOP debate occurred this week and our class enjoyed arguing and discussing the candidates and their policy ideas.  For my blog post I am going to dare to post my thoughts on this week’s debate.  I want to clarify from the start that if you disagree with me, that is perfectly fine and I completely respect your opinions.

In our class we have students with opposing ideologies who vehemently disagree with one another, yet they manage to discuss and debate different issues with respect.  The amount of disrespect, and irony during the debate was almost as depressing as the proposed plans to carpet bomb citizens in order to take out Isis and to shoot down Russian planes if they enter a no-fly zone.

At the beginning of the debate, Governor Kasich said that his daughter was uninterested in politics because of all the fighting and yelling.  He called for unity between candidates and the two political parties.  Right after he called for people to start working together and stop yelling at each other, the camera cut to Governor Christie who began saying “America has been betrayed.  We’ve been betrayed by the leadership Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have provided this country”.  This comment seemed so ironic after Governor Kasich had just finished pleading for unity between Democrats and Republicans.  

The main focus of this GOP debate of course was national security after the events in Paris and San Bernardino.  Each candidate had a slightly different plan for keeping Americans safe, but one point all the candidates seemed to agree on was that our military is weak and must be strengthened.  Perhaps I am young and naive, but I do not understand how our military can be so weak when in 2014 the total amount spent on national defense was $613.6 billion.  The projected amount that the government will spend on the military for 2015 is $598.5 billion dollars2.  While the government also spends billions of dollars on other programs, the government still spends the most on the military.  The projected amount spent on the military in 2015 would account for 54% of all federal discretionary spending, and I think this statistic is best illustrated by this pie chart2.

It should also be noted that the amount the United States spends on the military is far greater than many other major countries combined which is also best illustrated by a graph for the year 2014.

The candidates never mentioned statistics or data that backs up their claim that the military is “weak”.  Some candidates talked about military equipment being old and out of date.  If the government truly needs to update military equipment, perhaps the money allotted to military spending could be budgeted better.

While the candidates all attempted to make various points during the debate, most of them were based on this presumption that the military is underfunded, which based on the data, just seems to simply not be the case.

The most important thing, however, that I took away from the debate is that Governor Kasich really enjoys playing Fruit Ninja.  

1http://www.pogo.org/our-work/straus-military-reform-project/defense-budget/2014/total-us-national-security-spending.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

2https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/

My Wish List

Each week for the past few weeks we have had the luxury of being able to write about whatever we want in our blog posts.  Nevertheless, each week I try to relate my posts to something happening in class.  This week I have decided to take this freedom to write about something I want for Christmas.

In A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, all Mary (Woolf’s narrator) wants is money and a room of her own in order to write fiction.  Money is a tangible item that one can obtain, but if one is a woman like Mary in the early 20th century, it is hard to obtain money on one’s own without a husband or a father.  A room of one’s own could possibly be considered a tangible thing.  A physical room with walls is a tangible thing, but the idea of a room of one’s own is not a tangible item.  The desire for privacy is intangible.  It cannot be bought.

As we get closer and closer to Christmas, everyone in my family keeps asking for my Christmas Wish List.  They want to know what to buy me.  As a child my list would go on for pages and pages with items like Chat Nows, Tamagotchis, Webkinz, a digital camera, and a karaoke machine.  This year however I have no list.  There are many things I really want, but none of them are tangible items that can be bought.  It is aggravating when the things one desires no longer can be bought at Target.

The number one item on my Wish List this year is an acceptance letter to one of my top choice colleges.  Even just one acceptance letter to one of my dream colleges would vindicate years of balancing schoolwork, homework, and extracurricular activities.  I care deeply about academic achievement, and I am the type of person who stays up until two in the morning in order to complete all of my homework and study for tests in order to achieve the best possible grades.  For the past four years (and even in middle and elementary school) I have stressed and worried about grades.  I have worked as hard as I can forgoing friends, sleep, and fun just to do well in school.  I have heard over and over that “It doesn’t matter where you go to school.  It matters what you do wherever you go.”  I understand that this is mostly true, and I am sure that no matter where I go, as long as I work hard, I will be able to achieve whatever I want and have a great life.  However, while I have certainly learned a lot by working as hard as possible, getting into just one great school would feel like a reward and recognition of all my efforts.  Unfortunately, an acceptance letter to an amazing college will not be under the tree this year, no matter how badly my parents would like to fulfill my wishes and give it to me.  

College Applications and A Room of One's Own

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.  This is the thesis of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.  Her essay attempts to make points that prove why a woman needs money and why she needs privacy in order to write fiction.  So far in class, we have read about why a woman needs a room of her own.  Each time Woolf’s narrator, Mary  wants to find a quiet place to think or begins to think, she is interrupted.  Woolf writes in a stream of consciousness, which helps demonstrate the narrator being interrupted in the middle of her thought process.

While I personally have never attempted to write fiction, I have and am currently writing many college essays.  While the entire point of Woolf’s thesis is to discuss the inequities and challenges women attempting to write fiction face, I want to discuss the challenges that high school seniors face when applying to college.  I would argue that her thesis slightly altered applies to the college application process.  My thesis would be that “A (man or woman) must have money and a room of one’s own if he/she is to successfully apply to college”.

A high school student primarily needs money.  In order to apply to college one needs to have SAT or ACT scores.  Most students take these standardized tests two or three times in order to achieve desirable scores.  If one cannot afford to take these tests, the colleges one will be able to apply to will be very limited.  Most students as I said will retake the exams and will take the two different exams to see which one they can score better on.  Again, it costs money to take multiple exams.  It costs $29 to take the ACT.  It costs an additional $14 to take the writing test portion which many schools require.  If you sign up late it costs an additional $19.  The SAT costs $54.50.  If someone cannot access the internet and wants to register by phone, that will cost an additional $15.  If one needs to change the date or location or register late, that will cost an additional $28.  If one wants to apply to an elite university, it is necessary to take at least two or three SAT subject tests.  It costs $26 for the first test and $18 for each other test taken on a single day.  While each individual fee may not seem like a lot, it can add up quickly.  Fee waivers are offered for students who absolutely cannot afford the tests, however; many students who succeed on standardized tests take expensive preparatory classes and buy study materials.  Even if a student is able to have the fee for the actual exam waived, the student may not be able to afford preparatory materials, and their score may be lower than someone of approximately the same academic ability who was able to buy preparatory materials.

In addition to the cost of standardized testing, students must also pay an application fee when applying to a college which often ranges from $50-$80.  As college becomes more and more competitive, many students are applying to more and more colleges to ensure entrance into a university that is a match for them.  If a student wants to apply to even 8 schools, this can cost upwards of $400-$640.  It is necessary to have money in order to be accepted to college.

One also needs a room of one’s own.  As applying to multiple colleges becomes easier and easier with the Common Application, many schools are adding supplemental essays to see if students are truly interested in their universities and to see how well they “fit” the school.  There are also additional essays if one wants to apply to an Honors program or Honors college and additional essays if one wants to apply for scholarship money.  The number of essays one has to complete can become overwhelming quickly.  In order to write so many thoughtful essays, one truly needs a room of one’s own.  Not only is it important to find a quiet place so one’s thoughts are not interrupted as one tries to brainstorm and craft the perfect essay, but it is also important to be alone.  It is vital that these essays are a true reflection of the applicant and are not influenced by friends or family.  One must be truthful and honest and write what one actually thinks, instead of what someone else thinks they should think, or what someone else thinks the college is looking for.  If one is not alone during the writing process, the essays may become tainted by others’ ideas.  Colleges often say that they can tell when someone else has helped the applicant write an essay, and that it is a reason for them to reject an applicant.

Virginia Woolf faced two major struggles as a woman writing fiction, and we as college-bound high school seniors currently face the same two struggles as we apply to college; a need for money and a need to be alone.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and Feminism

Tonight I went to a movie on opening night; something I have never done before.  If you have not seen the latest Hunger Games movie, SPOILER ALERT!  You have been forewarned.

This week in class, we have been reading A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner and analyzing the short story using feminist criticism.  As I watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, I tried to also watch for examples of feminism.  The entire Hunger Games series, especially this final movie, is clearly a part of the Third Wave of Feminism.

The protagonist of the movie is Katniss Everdeen, a young female, living in a dystopian society.  She is a strong female character that holds power in society over not only the rebels but the capitol.  As the “Mockingjay” she represents the movement for change in the corrupted society.  All the rebels hold great respect for Katniss and all she has done in the games and for the fight against the Capitol.  When she walks into a district that is preparing for the war, everyone immediately holds up three fingers as a sign of respect.  The Capitol is the corrupted but powerful government that is controlling and ruining the lives of everyone in the districts.  The Capitol is scared of almost no one, but views Katniss as a serious threat to their totalitarian state, as she has become a symbol of the fight against the Capitol to all of the districts.  Katniss, a woman, is truly empowered as she holds so much influence and power in society.

She also does not need “saving” by a man.  Actually, it is the men in the movie that rely on her and need her help.  Often in stories and movies, it is the female character that is portrayed as the weak one who needs saving by a man but, Peeta, who is one of the male leads is taken in and brainwashed by the Capitol; not Katniss, the female lead.  Katniss throughout the movie is able to help Peeta overcome his trauma as he recovers from being brainwashed.  She is always there for him to help remind him of who he is and help him distinguish between what is real and what is false.  She reminds Peeta for example that his favorite color is orange, but specifically the orange color of a sunset.  

When the leader of Katniss’ unit in the war dies, he entrusts her with the device that finds all the dangerous pods.  Whoever is in charge of this device must lead the group.  He could have turned over the leadership of the group to one of the many men in the unit, but instead gives Katniss, the woman, the responsibility.

The two “love interests “in the movie, Gale and Peeta, both vie for Katniss’ affections.  Instead of both men competing for her love like in a romantic knight’s tale or choosing amongst themselves who will “get” Katniss, they give the power to her.  They both acknowledge that they like Katniss, but decide that Katniss will be the one who gets to choose which of them she wants to be with.  The female protagonist has the power to choose rather than the male characters.

The defining moment for Katniss that truly exudes pure feminist power is at the end of the film.  She is the one who is supposed to kill Snow, the former, corrupt leader of the Capitol.  However, the new President of Panem is already exhibiting behavior that indicates that she is going to become just as ruthless and corrupt as Snow.  When Katniss prepares to shoot Snow as planned, she uses the opportunity to kill the new President which leads to all the former rebels also killing Snow.  This entire event leads to Panem becoming a true democracy with a real election that will ultimately lead to a brighter and less corrupt future for all citizens.  The corrupt and totalitarian world is ultimately overturned as a direct result of Katniss’ actions.  

Katniss is a strong and powerful leader and woman in the dystopian society of Panem.  This last installment of the Hunger Game film series especially showed the power of feminism and the benefits of not having a patriarchal society, but rather a society that values people based on their abilities and personal qualities.

Mary Poppins and Feminist Criticism

Last week I decided to psychoanalyze the musical we are putting on in school, Mary Poppins.  This week in English class we focused on feminism and feminist criticism.  All week I had been trying to think of what I would talk about in relation to feminism, and then I realized that not only can Mary Poppins be analyzed through a psychoanalytic lens, but it can also be analyzed through a feminist lens.  In the musical, Winifred, often referred to as Mrs. Banks, struggles with her role as a woman in her family and in society.

In the beginning of the musical, Mrs. Banks acts to please her husband and fulfill her role as a stereotypical wife and housekeeper.  Mrs. Banks is an upper class woman with a husband and two children.  She lives in a patriarchal society in England during the time of the first wave of feminism.  She is clearly inferior to her husband who is very misogynistic.  Mr. Banks is the breadwinner and works at the bank, while Mrs. Banks is in charge of the children and other “womanly” things like throwing social parties.  Mr. Banks tells his wife that they need a nanny so she can fulfill her role as wife and “do charity work and entertain”.  When Mrs. Banks tries to complain to her husband that she should have some independence and freedom to invite her true friends, Mr. Banks as the man in charge has the final say.  He will not let her invite her acting friends and even implies that Mrs. Banks should feel ashamed for her old life as an actress.  As an actress, she was a more independent person.  Mr. Banks believes she should feel ashamed of this former life because she was not adhering to the role women are expected to play in society.  Mr. Banks tells Winifred that “It’s your job, to be Mrs. Banks”.  This misogynistic comment shows that Mrs. Banks lives in a patriarchal society where women are defined by their husbands and not by their own roles.  Mr. Banks wants her to be defined by him, rather than by herself.  She is defined essentially not by herself as the actress, but rather as Mr. Bank’s dutiful wife.  Mrs. Banks even sings a song about being defined by her husband, and she sings “I have a name which tells the world; I’m someone else’s wife”.

When Mary Poppins arrives to become the children’s new nanny, Mr. and Mrs. Banks assume stereotypical gender roles.  Mr. Banks tells Mary Poppins that “Nothing domestic has anything to do with me!”.  Women are expected during this time period (around 1910) in England to provide and care for children in society.  Mrs. Banks asks Mr. Banks what his job is, and he furthers his belief in stereotypical gender roles by replying that it is “To pay for everything”.  Essentially, he believes that women take care of the children and that men earn the money for the family.

At the end of the musical however, Mary Poppins and the children help Mrs. Banks become a stronger woman.  Mrs. Banks wants to help George who is in trouble at the bank, but believes that because she is a woman that she cannot go and help him.  The children convince her to go and tell her that Mary Poppins says anything is possible.  When the children say “Anything is Possible” they mean that it is possible for Mrs. Banks to overcome her fear of becoming a stronger woman and not conforming with the typical role of women in society.  Mrs. Banks goes to the bank to help her husband, and she is forced to confront the misogynistic attitude of the chairman of the bank who tells her that they are not finished with business, thus implying that she needs to leave.  Mrs. Banks finally overcomes her stereotypical role as a dutiful wife whose place is at home by staying at the bank and successfully negotiating a better salary for her husband.  Mr. Banks also realizes that he has been acting misogynist throughout the musical and tells her that she no longer needs to be defined by him, and that she can define herself by going back to the stage and becoming an actress again.

Yet again this week, I was surprised to find another layer of depth to a fun and uplifting Disney musical.  This musical seems to have it all; flying kites, spoonfuls of sugar, freudian psychology, and feminist criticism.

Mary Poppins and Freudian Psychology

When we were originally told we could write about anything as long as we analyzed it in depth, I panicked.  This week I have put almost everything aside except homework for rehearsals for Mary Poppins.  It is tech week, and this is probably one of the largest if not the largest musical we as a drama club have ever put on.  Thus, it has been a week full of stress and long hours.  

I figured if I wrote about Mary Poppins, I would have nothing to say.  After all, it is a happy, stereotypical, magical musical.  However, upon further examination, I found many examples of Freudian psychology.

The Banks family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Banks and their two children, Jane and Michael.  Mr. Banks is neglectful of his own children.  He is always busy working at the bank and never spends time with his children.  The children go through nanny after nanny because they are rude and they misbehave all the time.  The reason they are always misbehaving is because of the oedipal complex. While the oedipal complex usually just applies to boys, in this case it also affects the daughter. Freudian psychology explains that due to a lack of a father figure Michael is unable to complete the process where he subconsciously fears castration from his father in order to develop his morals and learned behavior.  Michael, as well as Jane, are unable to complete this process of subconsciously fearing their father, so they cannot develop their superego (their morals), and thus they are always misbehaving.

Mr. Banks had the same problem when he was a child.  He had a cruel nanny when he was young, and he did not see his parents more than once a week.  Since he never saw his father and mother, he could not go through the oedipal conflict which has lead to neurotic behavior as an adult.  He uses various defense mechanisms throughout the play.  One defense mechanism that he employs is intellectualization.  His nanny was so harsh and cruel to him as a child that now as an adult he concentrates on the intellectual components of situations and does not feel emotions.  When his children ask him who hugged him goodnight as a child, he responds that they did not have time for “hugs and kisses and all that sloppy nonsense”.  He believes because of his experiences as a child that emotions are bad and a waste of time.  As a result, he shows no love and emotion to his children.  He also struggles to use his emotions when trying to make a deal with Mr. Norfolk.  Mr. Norfolk begs for a loan and says it will help people who are just trying to make a decent living, but Mr. Banks is just focused on the monetary outcome of the deal.  Another defense mechanism that Mr. Banks employs is displacement.  He displaces the anger and anxiety he has for his job onto his wife and children.  He yells at his wife, telling her that she needs to do better at “being his wife”, when in reality what he is angry about is his own job and problems.

While on the surface Mary Poppins seems like a silly musical with talking statues, depth-less purses, and flying kites, much of the plot and the story lines are based around Freudian psychology.  As opening night approaches, and the stress of balancing school and the show rises, I will have to try to remember to use mature defense mechanisms like mindfulness, humor, and gratitude!  

The Sophisticated Thing

We finally did it.  We finished reading Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson today.  I am honestly just surprised no one died in the last chapter of the book.  In all seriousness, though, the book ended on a much happier and optimistic note than I thought it would.

The story before the final story Departure, is entitled Sophisticated and is actually an uplifting and beautiful story that I could go on and on about.  I really related to this story because it is about teenagers transitioning from childhood to adulthood.

As George talks about leaving the small suburban town he has lived in his whole life to begin a new chapter in his life, it was hard not to relate since we seniors will be leaving our hometowns we have known our whole lives to start our new lives as young adults.  “Ambitions and regrets awake within” George, just as all of us seniors who are applying to college have ambitions to succeed in majors of our choice and one day find a great job, but also have regrets about our past choices (234).  I know personally that if I could go back in time, I would make different decisions in school that I believe would have influenced where I end up spending the next four years of my life growing and learning.  George feels like he hears “the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life” just as we seniors, while having aspirations, also fear our limitations (234).  We fear the limits of our abilities, our financial limits, and the limits of our potential in this world.  George goes “From being quite sure of himself and his future” to “not at all sure” (234).  I feel the same way about my future.  One moment I feel confident of my abilities and my academic plans for the future and the next minute I’m doubting myself and stressing I will not get into the colleges or programs that I want to be in.

The story continues to talk about George’s, as well as Helen’s, transition to manhood/womanhood.  The story is called sophistication because the “little animal struggles”, the id impulses, that were in conflict with the “the thing that reflects and remember [...] the more sophisticated thing”, the superego, have finally died down (240).  The “more sophisticated thing had possession of George Willard” meaning that his childhood is ending and his superego is now fully developed.  As a teenager, I also relate as I am at the point in my life where I am starting to form a fully developed superego and possession of the “sophisticated thing”.  As we teenagers mature, our id impulses slowly die down and our superego continues to develop to allow us to function maturely in society.

The story however is not just about the importance of the superego and maturity.  Rather, it is about as people mature, it is important and healthy to sometimes use the defense mechanism of regression and regress momentarily back to a time of childhood innocence.  George and Helen are excited to show each other their new mature natures, but feel somewhat awkward once they meet.  When they finally stop feeling embarrassed and start embracing their youth, they have a great time just laughing and rolling down a hill.  As we seniors start to feel the pressure to act like proper, mature adults, it is important to also occasionally embrace the innocence of childhood whether that is laughing about a silly joke or dressing up for spirit week.  It is important like George and Helen to take “hold of the thing that makes the mature life of men and women in the modern world possible” (243).  

Together in Isolation

As we continue to read more and more short stories from Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, it seems clear that no matter the story, there is at least one character that faces isolation and/or loneliness.

Most people feel alone at certain points in their lives but constant loneliness is unhealthy and can lead to many of the behaviors seen exhibited by the characters in the town of Winesburg.  In Adventure, Alice engages in the defense mechanism denial as she waits for a man that she loves, Ned Currie, to return to Winesburg.  He of course never returns and she feels isolated and lonely.  Not only does the man she love find himself a new life without her, her mother finds a new husband after Alice’s father dies.  Alice even says that “‘I want to avoid being so much alone’” and she attempts to spend time with a drug clerk (118).  Between losing the man she loves, her father, and her mother to another man, Alice has no one close to her in her life to love her.  Alice’s isolation makes her so upset that she has a psychotic break and runs naked through the rain.  

In The Thinker, Seth Richmond feels isolated because he feels that he does not belong in the town.  Seth says that, “‘George belongs to this town’” and that “‘I don’t belong’” because George is outgoing and talkative(137).  Seth believes because he is not talkative, but rather a quiet “thinker” that he does not fit in.  He struggles to relate and interact with others in his small town which causes him to want to leave so he can escape the feeling of loneliness and isolation.

In Mother, Elizabeth Willard, the mother of George Willard becomes isolated and lonely.  Her husband sucks the vitality out of Elizabeth who is described as ghostly, and he takes control of everything Elizabeth has, including the hotel she owns that is named for her husband (the “New WIllard House”).  Elizabeth has nothing and she certainly has no loving husband.  She is extremely jealous of her husband’s relationship with her son and even wants to kill Tom.  This oedipal conflict in reverse (Elizabeth views Tom, her husband, as a revival that must be eliminated) leads to further loneliness as she feel distant from her son.  Eventually, however, Elizabeth lets go of her desires to keep her son for herself and tells George that ,“‘I think you had better go out among the boys’”(48).  Once Elizabeth gives up the struggle to keep her son, she truly has no one and is lonely and isolated from her family.

The theme of isolation and loneliness can be found in every short story we have read so far in Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.  Each of the main characters in each story have different personalities, family backgrounds, and lives, but all of them live together in isolation.

Mental Health, Summer Reading, and John Oliver

My favorite television show (in the whole world) is Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  While it is technically a comedy show, each week the host, John Oliver, picks one topic to do a “deep dive” story on that can range from 11-30 minutes.  These deep dives are not just hilarious but informative.  It just so happened that this week he picked the topic of “Mental Health”.  He discussed the treatment of people with mental illnesses as well as what role mental health actually plays in gun violence in this country.  He also discussed the history of mental health care in the United States.  He brought up that patients used to be put in horrid asylums and that now many mentally ill people either receive no help or end up in prison.  

Since the start of the year, psychoanalysis and mental illnesses have been focal points in our discussion of literature.  We have discussed many characters who have exhibited various mental illnesses.  While this week we focused on defense mechanisms and how they are used in Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, I wanted to take one last look at our summer reading as it directly relates to this week’s main story on Last Week Tonight.  As John Oliver talked this week, I could not help but think back to our summer reading again, and I began to reflect on the different ways the mentally ill characters in our summer reading were treated.

In Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nicole goes to a mental hospital to receive help.  This story takes place in the 1920s, and I could not help thinking that Nicole seems to get better treatment than many mentally ill people today.  Nicole is carefully attended to by intelligent psychiatrists who are doing the best they can to help her recover from the traumatic sexual abuse she suffered at a young age.  While the type of “mental hospital” she stayed in is obviously outdated, she is never thrown in prison or targeted by violence for her condition.  Dick Diver wants to do everything he can to help her.  He writes her letters and visits her.  While Dick’s behavior becomes unhealthy as he falls in love with her, he and the other psychiatrists who thought that Dick writing to her would be helpful, are trying to do what they think is best for Nicole.  Of course, Nicole is rich, and her family can afford for her to go to one of the best mental hospitals.  Nicole’s experience is most likely atypical for a mental patient in the 1920s.

In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther, unlike the Divers, refers to the places where she receives treatment as asylums.  While she seemed to have stayed in similar sorts of places as Nicole, this difference in terms is key.  Nicole, a rich, nice, beautiful, privileged girl, who is just getting “treatment at a mental hospital” while Esther, an average middle class girl who seems somewhat aware of her poor mental state, is getting treated in an “asylum”.  Esther, unlike Nicole, receives electroconvulsive therapy which was a fairly new treatment in the 1950s.  While ECT is very controversial, it can actually be a useful and successful way to help patients with severe depression and suicidal thoughts.  In the novel, when the shocks are delivered properly by Dr. Nolan , Esther’s depression lessens.  In general, Esther seems to receive great care.  Breakfast is brought to her and the other patients each morning and Dr. Nolan seems intent on comforting Esther throughout her stay.  Many of the patients as they get better are also allowed time to leave the asylum.  Essentially, Esther and the others are being rehabilitated so they will be able to re-enter society.  

Both Esther and Nicole receive what is proper treatment in regards to the technology and information available at the time.  It seems sad that Esther and Nicole in the 1920s and 1950s receive better treatment than some mentally ill people in the year 2015.  Not only has this country let so many mentally ill patients down due to a lack of comprehensive and organized systems for treatment, but it has allowed many mentally ill to end up in prison instead of receiving any care at all.  People are unfairly blaming the mentally ill for gun violence when there are statistics that show that the majority of the mentally ill are non-violent and that the majority of gun violence is committed by non-mentally ill people.  In fact, mentally-ill people are more likely to be the victims of violence.

  

Psychoanalytic Criticism and Summer Reading

Psychoanalytic criticism has been the focus of this week’s class.  Using psychology to analyze characters and text is very new to me.  As we discussed different defense mechanisms, it became clear that many of the characters in the summer reading books exhibited these defense mechanisms.

In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther becomes so depressed that the only way she feels she can deal with her depression is through self-harm and attempts at suicide.  Others, like Jay Cee, contribute to Esther’s depression.  She asks what Esther’s plans for her life after college are, but Esther is unsure.  It is this pressure from others that contributes to Esther’s depression.  She ends up cutting herself with razor blades to make herself bleed, attempting to drown in the ocean, and overdosing on medication to kill herself.  When people’s negative feelings towards others turns inward unto themselves leading to self-harm, they exhibit the defense mechanism known as somatization.  Esther displays this immature defense mechanism leading to the need for psychological help.

In Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nicole clearly has a mental illness.  When she was very young her father sexually abused her leaving her mentally ill.  Nicole seems to exhibit the repression defense mechanism.  Repression is when one subconsciously shoves a traumatic memory to the subconscious so it does not affect one’s conscious.  Nicole never mentions in Dick’s recollection when she was 16 or at the present time what occurred to her as a child.  It seems that she has repressed this memory to her subconscious and that is has had devastating consequences.  Repression can lead to “illogical, self-destructive, or anti-social” behavior1 .  While Nicole tries to seem normal and sociable, she actually is somewhat anti-social.  During Nicole’s own party, Mrs. McKisco finds Nicole having a panic attack on the bathroom floor.  Nicole also exhibits illogical behavior such as when she is running away from Dick (and her children) for no reason when they visit a fair.

While it is simple to read these novels and just notice that some of the main characters have mental illnesses, it is much more interesting to analyze their mental conditions in depth.  Using psychoanalytic criticism, the reasons for the characters’ mental illnesses as well as the defense mechanisms they employ can be explored in depth.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_repression

Modernist Literature, Time, and Inception

The most confusing and at the same time fascinating aspect of modernist literature is that time is subjective.  Most stories follow a logical progression, of time.  Usually, the amount of time that is passed as the story progresses is clear and relevant to the plot of the story.  In modernist literature, time is no longer linear.  Time rather reflects a person’s perspective and how long it feels it has been to a character.

As we watched the movie Inception, the amount of time that was actually passing was hard to follow.  Throughout the movie the amount of time that seemed to pass while the characters were dreaming never matched up with the amount of time actually passing in reality.  At the end of the movie, when all the characters are trying to plant an idea in Fischer’s mind, there are multiple “dream levels” or rather, dreams within dreams.  Time on the first dream level while the characters are in the van seems to pass extremely slow.  Yusuf, the man driving the van, is awake while the others are dreaming in that dream.  Time passing in this scene is based on Yusuf’s perspective since it is his dream.  It makes sense that time is perceived as moving slowly.  When one dreams in real life, one dreams for hours and hours, so if the man driving is awake, it makes sense that he perceives time moving slowly.

When Fischer sees his father at the end of the movie in the third dream level, Fisher's perspective of time differs from the other characters.  While the van seems to be falling very slowly to Yusuf, time seems to be moving too fast for Cobb. Cobb is under a time crunch as he tries to complete his mission of inception.  Time for Fischer, however; seems to move faster than it is for Yusuf, but slower than it is for Cobb and the others who are in a rush to make sure they do not miss the kick to wake up from their dreams.  Fischer is having an intimate moment with his father in the dream so it makes sense that time does not feel to be moving too fast since he is not in a rush like the others.  It also makes sense it is not moving in slow motion, because he is having a heartfelt, yet fairly regular conversation with his dying dad while Yusuf is just waiting for everyone to be done dreaming.

How time feels is more important than how much actual time passes.  Cobb explains to Ariadne that when he and Mal are in Limbo it feels like 50 years have passed.  When one is in limbo one is stuck in the level of a dream that is far down into the person’s subconscious.  Cobb and Mal feel as though they are living and creating a perfect reality or rather “their dream” and they perceive time moving faster than it is in reality.  They perceive that they have been in limbo for years and years growing old together, since they are literally living out their dream together.

There is no clear, linear progression of time.  It is hard to tell how much actual time is passing, but far more important to the story and the character development is how much time seems to be passing depending on the perspective of the character while they are in a particular dream or in reality.

Beauty vs Mind (and Sanity)

In Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dick Diver starts out as a well-respected, intellectual, and well mannered doctor (a psychiatrist).  Yet, even he seems to be more interested in women’s beauty and youth rather than their personality or mental stability.  The younger and the more beautiful, the more attractive he finds women.  If someone intelligent and seemingly well-meaning cares more about being with someone with a superior appearance rather than a superior mind or even mental stability, it seems clear that Fitzgerald is saying that women’s beauty and youth in the 1920s was the most valuable attribute.

Dick Diver is working as a psychiatrist when he meets Nicole, a mental patient who is about 16 years old.  Besides knowing that her father sexually abused her when she was very young, all he really knows about Nicole is from what she has written in a few letters to Dick.  As the story of how they met progresses, it becomes evident Dick is attracted by her youth and beauty.  When asked about the patient he responds “‘I like her.  She’s attractive” (138).  She is a patient in a hospital because she is mentally ill, so he seems to mostly be in love with her outer beauty.  Later when he meets up with Nicole, it says that her face “had a promise Dick had never seen before” and that she is “a creature whose life did not promise to be only a projection of youth upon a grayer screen, but instead, a true growing; the face would be handsome in middle life; it would be handsome in old age” (141).  It seems very important to Dick that she has lasting beauty and youthfulness rather than that she is mentally ready to have a serious relationship.  Once they marry it becomes clear that she is still not completely, mentally stable.  Dick Diver pays the price to marry someone who is so beautiful yet mentally unsound.  She has mental breakdowns, sometimes in front of friends and other times in public.  

When Dick Diver meets Rosemary, the brand new American movie star, he is again attracted to her as she is very young and beautiful.  He has just met Rosemary but he is already enchanted by her youth and beauty.  Since he is married he tries to not give in to the temptation to love her but he struggles as he is “remembering too vividly the youth and freshness of her lips” (65).  He is not constantly thinking about how talented she is as an actress, but rather how youthful and beautiful she appears.   

Dick Diver is supposed to be a great man in the 1920s, yet even he seems more interested in women’s beauty and youth than their mental capacities or skills.  Ultimately, his desire for beauty leads to the poor choices causing him to end up unhappy and alone.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night seems to be a critique and warning for men who overlook everything for outer beauty.