For Different Reasons

At one point in the story, both David and Hella want to be married to each other, but for different reasons. In the beginning of the book, David tells the reader that "nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom. I suppose this was why I asked her to marry me: to give myself something to be moored to" (5). Hella had a bit different thought process when deciding to marry David though. During a conversation between the two, she tells David, "I began to realize it in Spain-that I wasn't free, that I couldn't be free until I was attached-no, committed-to someone" (126). Interesting how David and Hella want the same thing, marriage, to obtain opposite results, one doesn't want the unbearable freedom while the other wants to be freed.

"Oh," said Giovanni, "nobody likes to travel, especially not women."

I would have to disagree with Giovanni and his belief here. It seems like any time the mention of traveling abroad comes up, almost everyone here at Richmond lists off all the places they have been to already. I think I'm right to assume that at least part of the reason we go on these trips is because of the enjoyment we get from going to see more of the world than what we grew up around, as well as seeing the places we have only heard of before. It's a completely different learning experience between reading about something like the Colosseum and actually walking around inside of it. This is also why Richmond seems to push studying abroad for its students at some point during our four years here. Travel is a great way to enrich our education and get a different and better perspective on many things, why wouldn't someone like to travel?

Restructuring the Building

I went to the lecture tonight by Ellen Bravo, expecting to be bored and not able to understand the speaker like all the other lectures I've been to this semester. However, she ended up having some very good points and kept the entire lecture interesting and somewhat entertaining! Although I've heard a lot of the feminist stuff before, she presented it all in a different way, rather than saying poor women are being beaten up by all the horrible men, she showed the change that is needed as a way to improve society for everyone. What really got me was that, out of the 167 countries in the world, there are only four that do not incorporate paid leave at most if not all jobs, one of these four is America. Supposedly America is such a great country, the land of opportunities, but people from other countries feel sorry for Americans that have to bring their children up in a society that doesn't allow for both family time and a good job. In class, we have been discussing the racial inequalities that affect our society, and while that is an important issue that needs to be solved, we need to realize that is not the only inequality taking place in our society.

True Identity

"I wanted to find myself. This is an interesting phrase...which certainly does not mean what is says but betrays a nagging suspicion that something has been misplaced" (pg. 21).

To find ourselves. It is a phrase we have all heard many times and never really given much thought to. For my last paper I wrote about how, while it may appear that our identities have changed, our true identities never change, it just takes time for us to find it. Baldwin is right when he says that it is not something we have lost or misplaced as is inferred, it something that has always been there and always will be there. It is just a matter or whether or not you discover this true identity sometime in life or not.

The Glass Ceiling's Creation

"The work of civilization has become increasingly the business of men, it confronts them with ever more difficult tasks and compels them to carry out instinctual sublimations of which women are little capable." (59)

This statement really stuck out to me, especially after taking a sociology class last semester and the discussion we had in class earlier this semester on a few of the issues that women still deal with because of the gender inequality in our society. In this statement, Freud appears to be sexist with his view of women as being little capable. Although he appears to be a bit biased on this issue, he does still mention that this view of women that society now has was not always so, but created by civilization. The first part of this sentence brings up how civilization is increasingly the business of men, not that men were always better than women in society. The inequality that exists in today's society was not always part of society, and maybe one day it will once again not be an issue in society.

The Id in the Hat

Someone told me an interesting view of "The Cat in the Hat" really just being a story about Freud's theory of the id, ego, and superego. The cat is the id, telling the kids all these things they could do while thier mother is out. The children are the ego, they are the ones who make the actual decisions. Finally, the fish represents the superego, being the only one concerned with not doing these things that would never happen while mother was about. Also, the id is the only part of these three that remains completely unconscious and cat is the only one unknown to mother.

Freedom Isn't Free

"Perhaps freedom is always and only what is unimaginable." (164)

At the beginning of the war in Iraq there was a saying I always heard, "freedom isn't free." It reminds me of what Mrs. Curren is saying in the book that no matter what, freedom can never be fully obtained. In order to obtain and keep our rights, others such as our soldiers and Bheki and John must sacrifice their lives. But even with these sacrifices, it is still impossible to reach complete freedom, we are all slaves in some way, whether it is by political, emotional, or physical bonds and this will never change.