Carrot

Looking back, I think Carrot is a lot like Sumire. The night Sumire disappeared, Miu found her in her room, "stupefied, not hearing anything, not seeing anything" (112). This is the same way that Carrot is acting after he is caught shoplifting, "strangely emotionless, eyes out of focus" (186). Perhaps Carrot, who had always been considered the good, quiet kid, had the same revelation as Sumire. They both had to stop being "like a spineless little barber digging a hole in his backyard...and slowly but surely fade away" (140). Sumire did this by revealing her love to Miu, while Carrot shoplifted. It was what they did to keep from becoming nothing in this world.

Cats

Cats seem to carry an important symbolism in this play. There are multiple stories that are told amongst K, Sumire, and Miu about cats; such as the story of the cannibal cats who started to eat their owner after she died, the need to lack sympathy for the cat when deserted on an island, and of Sumire's cat from her childhood that just disappeared one night (pg. 101-106). Although each of these stories appear insignificant and just taking up time in the conversation, they all end up showing up again later in the text in some other context related to K, Sumire, and Miu. At one point, K talks of how the real him dies and the cats come to eat his remains, metaphorically of course (172). Also, Sumire's sudden disappearance is much like the sudden disappearance of her cat so many years prior, she also talks of this cat as the first and last cat she would ever had, just as it appears that Sumire is the first and last love of K's life.

You know, that person at that place over there somewhere...

Throughout all of Sputnik Sweetheart, just about every detail of the story seems to remain a little fuzzy and we never get the full story. It's never said what island they are on in Greece, or what really happens to Sumire during her disappearances, or provide an explanation for Miu's two bodied experience. These were just a few of the vague issues in the book that bothered me while reading about them. But then I read one of the lines from Document 1, where Sumire says, "That's gotta be one of the principles behind reality. Accepting things that are hard to comprehend, and leaving them that way" (pg. 136). It made me realize that ultimately, there's a reason we are not told every little detail, sometimes things happen and we need to learn to just accept it. Although this is not always the case and there are plenty of times at which we should put out an effort to gain more information ourselves, there are also times in which the best thing to do is just accept the unknown.

What If...

It's sad to hear about the difficulties Adrienne Rich went through due to her father's intolerance in accepting and following the Jewish faith and tradition. His reasoning is understandable though, with the nonacceptance of Jews by people at this time, especially the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. It makes me wonder, what if people had been more accepting? Right now, I'm taking a class on diversity in the classroom and how this should be dealt with; before now, I never completely realized how much of an effect this really has on people. Human beings tend to not be very accepting of those different than themselves, if we could learn to throw out the stereotypes though and be accepting of others, no matter what their background, imagine what kind of effect this could have in society. If we had learned how to not judge those different than ourselves, imagine how differently Adrienne Rich's story would have turned out.

Women=Men? Apparently Not

The assumptions we have made based on gender are controlled by society. I was just looking through an article, Politically Incorrect Ads of Yesteryear, and it's shocking to see some of these ads and their inferior view of women! There were ads that bluntly said it was the wife's role to clean, cook, etc, and ads that insinuated how the woman is the weaker gender. Although these are horribly insulting ads, it is at least somewhat reassuring in knowing that advertisement companies could never get away with these ads now. Even though there is still gender inequality today, it is at least making a slow improvement towards equality.

The Necessity of Violence

What good comes from this violent end of Othello? Roderigo doesn't get Desdemona, Desdemona and Othello won't live long happy lives together, Emilia was betrayed by her husband, and Iago will definitely not be getting promoted to that position he was hoping for. Although it may seem like it, violence does not always result in a negative outcome; in my sociology class, we discussed how almost all instances of progression are accompanied with violence and war. For example, the Renaissance didn't take place until after Italy was ravaged, while Switzerland remains a neutral country but is known for its cuckoo-coo clock. So perhaps, there could have been more to this story, resulting with a better outcome. Even if there wasn't, there would have been no story to write about with out the violence that ends it.

Who's To Blame?

So many deaths and no one to take the blame for them. People tend to pass on the responsibilities for their actions all the time. In Othello, the initial cause and responsibility of Desdemona's death seems to be passed around. It is her husband who kills her; but only because of her supposed cheating on him, he seems to believe he has the right to murder her. We could go past those two and blame Iago for her death, since he is the one who tricked Othello into believing the legitimacy of her affair with Cassio. However, Iago is taking his revenge on Othello since Cassio received the military position that he was hoping to receive from Othello. It ends up being a stupid case with no one having a legitimate case on their hands, so in the end, who's to blame?

In the Name of Love

It's crazy what people do for love...and horrible how people will take advantage of that. This is the relationship that Iago and Roderigo seem to have. Iago acknowledges Roderigo to himself as "my sick fool Roderigo, Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out" (ll. 47-48). Rather than having sympathy for poor Roderigo, Iago just uses it towards his own capital gain, seems like a characteristic of Social Darwinism is being exemplified even by Shakespeare!

Andrew Hamm

I really enjoyed Monday's class, it was interesting to hear from Andrew Hamm and his insight on how to perceive Shakespeare's plays and reassurance in not being able to understand all of it. It is so true that Shakespeare is a difficult read for anyone, whether you are from the time it was written or now, or a high school student or professional Shakespearian actor. I'm glad we had the opportunity to get to hear from him and receive some of his own insight from the past few years!