Becoming Writers
Spring 2001
Table of Contents
NATHANIEL COLE (Professor Ghiradella)
To Survive
JOSE A. ILLA (Professor Ghiradella)
A Mother’s Blessing
A Losing Game: based on "The Transformation of
Maria Hernandez"
DOROTHY MULLER (Professor Strachan)
One Little Santa Made a Monster out of Me 7
JAMELIN ROSARIO (Professor Ghiradella)
A Life Cut Short
SYED ZAHID (Professor Ghiradella)
"Old Man Timochenko": My Grandfather
TONY ALTAVILLA (Professor Naturman)
How to Trap a Mouse
HERIBERTO CARDOSO (Professor Lugo)
The Deterioration of a Culture
MON-CHE CHONG (Professor Olson)
Is Asch’s Experiment Valid? Yes, as Long as Everyone
is a Male College Student from the 1950’s
KIMBERLEY RIVERA (Professor Strachan)
Becoming a Sister of Mercy: What an Amazing Sacrifice!
FRANCES GOFF (Professor Wagner)
A Desktop full of "Job"
Analysis: Stories for Children Six to Nine
MILLIE KIM (Professor Wagner)
The Obscurity
DENISE LEIGHT (Professor Zimmerman)
Playing House
FRANCES GOFF (Professor Wagner)
The Anti-‘Rella Rocks!
SUZANNE MASTRONARDO (Professor Nicolai)
Job and our Final Destiny
BRIAN KELLEY (Professor Marshall)
Love and Lust
CAROL LOVALLO (Professor Altruda)
Understanding the River
STEFFANIE PARK (Professor Altruda)
"The Secret" that Changed Lives Forever
SHAWN SHARKEY (Professor Altruda)
Love Your Wife, Not the Ducks
LISA SANSONE (Professor Marshall)
Shakespeare’s Settings: Fantasy vs. Reality
KAY MINDLER (Professor Marshall)
What about "Sebastian"?
A Note from the Editor:
This collection of student writing celebrates the achievements
of our students, who worked hard over the past semester to translate the
insights and responses of full and busy lives into the well-crafted and
thoughtfully imagined essays reprinted here. As writers we know it is never
easy to find the words and form that most accurately communicates what
we know, and the finished piece almost never emerges in the shape we originally
imaginedt. But it is in the struggle to express ourselves that our thoughts
become fully ours, and the battle is always a richly rewarding process.
Putting this edition of Becoming Writers together has been
exciting, and we thank all the student contributors for the hard work they
put into writing, rewriting, revising, and editing their essays. We are
proud of the work we are able to present here, and we congratulate all
of you!
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to the professors listed below, who took the time and trouble
to acknowledge their students’ efforts and submit work for inclusion:
Elisabeth Altruda, Leah Ghiradella, Angela Lugo, Ben Marshall,
Len Naturman, Al Nicolai, Jerry Olson, Laura Strachan,
Dan Zimmerman.
(Unfortunately, due to space and time constraints, not
every piece submitted could be published. Look for the Fall edition of
Becoming
Writers, where we hope to present essays we could not find space for
here.)
Thanks to Leah Ghiradella and Georgiana Planko, without
whose help with typing and production this publication would not have been
possible.
Kathrin Wagner, Student Relations Committee
Lucille Alfieri, Chair, Student Relations Committee
for
The Department of English
April 2001
To Survive
Nathaniel Cole
The sound of a train roaring by startles John out of a
deep sleep. He sits up briefly; then as he rolls over to go back to sleep,
his arm falls off the bed and into the water. He sits up quickly; this
time he is awake and realizes he is on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. John
looks around and realizes the sound of a train is actually made by water
surging through an enormous hole in the hull. "Got to get out, got to survive,"
John thinks.
John jumps out of bed and finds a life jacket. "Got to
get out, got to survive." John puts on the life jacket and fastens it securely
around his waist. He charges up the stairs and out on to the deck. "Got
to get out, got to survive." John jumps into the warm water of the Gulf
and swims slowly away as his boat, the Glorious Maximus, sinks.
Alone and at the mercy of the current, John drifts for
hours until he sees a black dot on the horizon. "Got to get to the ship,
got to survive." The dot moves rapidly closer and is soon recognizable
as a dorsal fin. "Got to get away, got to survive." He turns and begins
swimming rapidly away from the quickly approaching dorsal fin, which is
soon joined by several more. "Got to get away, got to survive." John is
quickly overtaken, though it is several seconds before he realizes he has
been overtaken by a school of dolphins. John stops swimming, and the dolphins
approach him; they swim under and jump over John but find him boring and
soon swim away.
As the dolphins disappear over the horizon, John hears
a grinding noise off to his left; realizing the sound is man-made, he begins
swimming in that direction. "Got to get there, got to survive." After several
minutes of swimming, John is rewarded by the sight of a black dot on the
horizon. He continues swimming toward the black dot and is soon able to
recognize it as an offshore oil-drilling platform. "Got to get there, got
to survive." After another hour of swimming, John is able to wrap his hands
around the cold steel of the platform leg.
"I did it, I survived."
A Mother’s Blessing
Based on Li Young Lee’s poem, "The Gift"
Jose Illa
When I needed to talk, she listened. When I was ill, she
healed me. When I was hungry, she fed me. This frail woman whom I call
my mom was a superwoman while I was growing up. With wisdom, she guided;
with tenderness, she spoke; and with love, she raised me. Although we were
very poor, my mother made it a point always to give me a present on my
birthday.
That shiny blue bike I got for my birthday at the tender
age of ten was my closest friend. But it was a sunny spring day when my
comrade committed its evil treason. My bike had flung me from its metal
frame as if it were a wild bronco and I were a rodeo clown. Over its handles
I went, crashing to the unforgiving earth. It was at that instant that
I realized two things: my pal had betrayed me, and my knee was bleeding
like a butchered pig.
With my body aching and my wounds bleeding, my mother
held me close to her bosom. In her warm cocoon I would disappear, listening
to her hum a melodic tune that would soothe my every pain. I would press
my nose against her rosy cheeks, and with every breath I took, I would
inhale the sweetest air I have ever breathed. My fingers would get lost
in the silky nest of hair atop her head. She worked on my wounds like a
battlefield medic. No ailment was ever too large for her to handle, never
was there a scar or bruise left behind, and always her blessing I would
take with me.
Years after parting from my betraying friend, I often
find myself yearning for those tender moments. I find myself seeking the
wisdom that has gotten me through some of the darkest episodes of my life.
She offers her love, wisdom, and guidance unconditionally, and without
ever passing judgment. Her touch is still tender; her cheeks still glow
like an ocean of ocean; and she still hums the same tune that seems to
bring the heavens and earth together. Till this day, we never part ways
without her giving me her blessing; she remains my superwoman.
Almost two decades after my accident, I am amazed not
at the fact that I have inherited these same gifts that make my mother
unique, these treasures that I now share with my family, but at the fact
that she continues to give me the same love she offered that ten-year old
boy. Whatever troubles I have when I visit her are always lifted by the
time I leave. I never leave her side without asking for a blessing. "La
bendicion, mami," I ask. "Que dios te bendiga, hijo," she replies.
A Losing Game
Based on "The Transformation of Maria Fernandez"
Jose Illa
History tells us that the last war fought on American
soil was the Civil War, But I beg to differ. You see, today in the year
2001 we are fighting the biggest battle of all: the war on drugs. Thousands
of kids in this country die every year from drug overdoses, drug-related
crime, or drug-related diseases. Joe’s story is a testimony to the horror
of drug use in America. It is a wake-up call for the public which chooses
to turn its back on this epidemic that steals our children from us, turns
brother against brother and tears families apart. Perhaps we will start
to realize that this is not a problem only in urban communities, that not
only the poor kids become addicted to drugs, and that this cancer affects
everyone, regardless of race, religion, or social standing.
I have always had a passion for basketball. As a youngster
I spent most of my days hanging around the run-down basketball courts of
Perth Amboy; it was there that I first laid eyes on the boy who, in my
opinion, was the best ballplayer to emerge from that area. Joe was only
a sophomore in high school; but not only was he playing in a men’s summer
league game; he was dominating the game. His hands were lightning fast;
his long-range jumpers and dazzling dunks always whipped the crowd into
a frenzy. He was as strong as a bull yet as graceful as a butterfly, floating
through the air on the first day of spring. Watching him play was like
watching a human highlight film.
I remember the crowds flocking to the hot courts to get
a look at the phenomenon. Coaches from every Division One school in the
country came with scholarship offers for the six-foot, six-inch man-child.
It’s hard to believe that, though the future seemed so bright for Joe,
it was truly dark and empty. This sixteen-year old boy seemed to be carrying
the world on his shoulders. That summer Joe accepted a full scholarship
to attend the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. After an outstanding
freshman season, the pressure grew; everyone expected the freshman sensation
to carry the team into the playoffs. The pressure was not the only thing
growing for Joe; so was his drug habit. The addiction that he had been
able to hide was now slowly taking over his life.
After a stellar four years at UNCC and a short pro-career,
Joe came home. Forced to deal with the realities of life, his addiction
grew out of control. It seemed the cross Joe carried was too heavy for
any mortal man to bear. The one-time hero of the community was now an enemy
of society who resorted to purse- snatching and shoplifting to get his
next fix. The same police officers who had escorted him through the mobs
of fans at the state championship game were now fingerprinting him after
break-ins and armed robberies. The autograph seekers who had flocked to
the courts after every game now clutched their purses and ran the other
way. The kids who had ridden on Joe’s shoulders, as if he were a circus
pony, were now told to stay away, for fear that they might catch his deadly
disease.
Today I still frequent those same run-down courts. I’m
not sure if it’s for the love of the game, or maybe I’m just hoping to
catch a glimpse of the next Joe. At times I can close my eyes and see him
leading the fast break, draining the long-range jumper, or tearing the
rim down with one of his thunderous dunks. The faces on the court change,
but the story remains the same. The war on drugs is no different than a
war between the superpowers: both leave behind casualties. Today, Joe’s
final resting-place is the meadow of Alpine Cemetery; the stone on his
grave reads: "To my friends and family, please forgive me." It’s ironic
that even in death, Joe is still trying to please someone.
One Little Santa Made a Monster Out of Me
Dorothy Muller
I often wonder about myself: why does this obsession of
mine drive me to such an extreme? Why does the right side of my brain surface
in such a manner that even I can’t understand? Is it out of boredom? Or
is it overzealous creativity? What I’m talking about is decorating. Not
just normal decorating (I do that well) but outrageous, full-blown theme
decorating. Using vibrant colors, with a unique style, I express my whimsical
personality. What makes this type of decorating so much fun is that the
more outlandish and obscure it is, the more I am driven to take it to its
fullest potential.
I can’t remember how it all started, but it seems to have
taken on a life of its own. Perhaps the small lawn sculpture shaped like
a cheery Santa triggered the avalanche under which I find myself today.
Looking into his electric blue eyes I was put into a hypnotic frenzy. I
soon realized this loveable, jolly fellow required companionship on my
front lawn. On my next jaunt to the Christmas shop, I found the most adorable
reindeer to join my Santa. But wait, I couldn’t buy just one; Santa had
8 reindeer. Now they needed a sled to haul, and it had to be big enough
for Santa and all of his packages.
A beautiful holiday display was finally emerging in front
of my house. What a shame that it was only visible during daylight hours.
I needed to illuminate this Yuletide scene with lights, lots of lights!
I found myself back at "Holiday Central" charging 3,000 of the brightest
bulbs General Electric had to offer. I hung blue lights and white lights,
chaser lights, and twinkling lights. There were so many lights my electric
bill tripled during the month of December. I could have caused a power
outage affecting houses and shops within a one-mile radius.
This newborn obsession wasn’t limited to the holiday season.
It seemed to have spilled over like a waterfall into my backyard. A tropical
paradise was materializing before my eyes. I fell in love with those tacky
pink flamingos often sighted in trailer parks or senior communities. These
long-legged birds shade themselves from the searing sun under a pair of
plastic palm trees, and occasionally quench their thirst at the tiki bar.
Mosquitoes are repelled by a dozen bamboo tiki torches blazing like a Hawaiian
luau.
I recognize that I am powerless over this zany obsession,
but once I find a theme worthy of being celebrated with decoration, I succumb
to an all or nothing approach. I can't help the giddy feeling of excitement
I get from this compulsion. One might suggest I seek a 12-step program
to cure me of this expensive habit. If things continue as they are, my
husband will need to find a second job and build an addition to house the
many seasonal accessories I have acquired.
A Life Cut Short
Jamelin Rosario
Melissa’s life was a tragedy waiting to happen. People
often say that one holds the key to one’s own fate. If so, then why did
Melissa live a life of pure misery?
As with other teenagers, Melissa’s life was also filled
with complications. Her parents had a simple life, but as time went on,
their love for each other faded. Melissa’s parents separated when she was
a young girl about to enter adolescence. Her parents’ divorce was the beginning
of the end. Melissa’s father was no longer in her life as she needed him
to be. Her mother found a new man. He was not an ideal boyfriend, nor a
perfect stepfather. He did not work much, but he was an overqualified alcoholic
and drug abuser.
Melissa was a pretty girl. She had skin the color of a
dove and eyes of onyx, which stared at you and felt your soul. She had
brown curly hair that reached a bit below her shoulder. Both her face and
her body were beautiful. She was also a very social person; everyone who
knew her loved her. It was not difficult to imagine that her stepfather
would soon have a sexual interest in her.
Her stepfather started sexually molesting her. I can not
begin to imagine how she felt. Imagine a drunken man putting his disgusting
hands on you while his hot breath consumes all of your oxygen, feeling
his hands around your arms, like blades touching every inch of your body.
Someone told me he had been molesting her for a few years; he had been
touching her, tainting her purity and sanity. I also heard that her mother
had known. But why had she allowed this man to hurt her baby the way he
had? As Melissa grew older, she also grew stronger. She talked to her mother
and convinced her to leave this predator. Her mother finally got a backbone
and made him leave the house.
Although Melissa’s stepfather was not allowed in the house,
he did not stay away for long. Melissa’s mother pressed charges against
him, so he served a couple of years in jail. On one godforsaken day, he
returned to the house. He found it just the way he had left it, only no
one was home.
He decided to wait. What he was plotting there alone in
that cold, dark house is now obvious. Melissa came home around three o’clock
in the morning after being at a club all night. What was waiting inside
for her was not a welcome home. As she entered the house, she must have
felt a forceful rush that overpowered her. Her worst nightmare was now
reality. He grabbed her and began to beat her brutally. I can imagine the
echoes of her scream so powerful inside the house yet unheard on the outside.
He tied her up and raped her again and again. After he was done, he set
the house on fire. She died. Was this Melissa’s fate, to be the victim
of such a grotesque murder? Melissa’s story opened everyone’s eyes in my
small town.
Man of Respect
Syed Zahid
Winds scratch
his hands
and
his sharp bones
deeply
assert
their
lineaments.
He stands
like a
trembling
leaf
on the
branch
of an
evergreen,
and
will not fall.
(Emmanuel di Pasquale, "Old Man Timochenko")
This stanza from Emmanuel di Pasquale’s poem "Old Man
Timochenko" portrays my grandfather well. My grandfather is a man of respect
because he never gave up on life, not even when his friends and family
were burned alive on a train traveling from East Punjab to West Punjab
during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. He immediately understood
that emigration from this Hindu dominant country to a Muslim state was
important for his family’s safety, faith, and future. My grandfather was
nineteen years old when he moved from India’s Punjab to Pakistan’s Punjab;
he was able to escape and obtain border passes from high authorities because
his father was a wealthy landlord.
After three days, he arrived in the city of Lahore with
his mother, three brothers, and one sister, but they were shocked when
they saw small houses overburdened with people like fish in a tuna can.
The biggest misfortune struck when they found out that they were not going
to be fully compensated for all the property they had left behind. During
this entire incident, my grandfather did not shed a single tear because
he knew that this migration was his family’s choice, and they had to pay
a price for a better life. Throughout his life he valued one thing the
most: respect. In fact, he thought of it as a reversible equation; you
give respect and you get respect, and that is what he me throughout his
lifetime.
My grandfather always taught me to respect people regardless
of their religion, status, and color. He said that these are man-made boundaries
and differences, and in order to socialize in this world, one must learn
to accept people in all forms. For example, on the day of Eid-ul-Fitar,
a religious day observed by Muslims, my grandfather would embrace his servants,
wish them a happy and prosperous year ahead, and give them presents. As
a result, this affection not only permitted the servants to continue their
service for a longer duration, it also created a long-lasting bond of loyalty
between them and my grandfather’s family, like a strong bond between the
atoms of a diamond.
According to my grandfather, one of the most important
factors in earning respect is fulfilling a promise. He told me that when
he immigrated to Pakistan, he promised his father that he would build a
primary school in his grandmother’s name in remembrance of her life. This
promise was not written on any paper or in blood, but one he had made it
, he understood that fulfilling the agreement would raise his image in
his father’s eyes. Just as my grandfather was my mentor, his was his father,
and in order to earn his respect, my grandfather built the school in 1963
and named it Khadija Primary School of Lahore. My grandfather waited sixteen
years while he was trying to establish himself in his new homeland, like
a tiger looking for shelter after his home has been burned down by a forest
fire, but he always remembered his promise.
Lying is a defect, which can leave a man’s reputation
vulnerable. My grandfather said that a man can bear any kind of allegation
made against him, but if he is labeled as a liar by society, he can lose
his hard-earned respect and pride in a matter of moments. In order to avoid
that defamation, one must tell the truth at all costs. Specifically, he
said that a liar is like a small boat in a big whirlpool; no matter how
much he tries to cover the truth, it will come to light, and he will hit
the bottom. When my grandfather used to work as a customs officer for the
railways, a man once approached him and requested that he do him a favor
by not checking his luggage. On my grandfather’s refusal, the man offered
him a large sum of money, but that was the last straw on the proverbial
camel’s back. As a result, my grandfather called the police who arrested
the man and recovered fifty kilograms of heroin.
Although my grandfather educated me in many aspects of
life, he valued the notion of respect the most. He used to say that "a
man can overcome the sorrow of any misfortune, but if he loses respect,
his meaning of life ends." It is this momentous lesson which has enabled
me to face the challenges of life.
How to Trap a Mouse
Tony Altavilla
Trapping a mouse is not as easy as one might think. Mice
are very crafty and they have an uncanny ability to steal the bait from
a trap without getting caught. I was shown at a very early age just how
slick these mice can be. Consequently, I was also taught the proper way
to trap a mouse.
It is very important to use the right ingredients when
trapping these pesky critters. This is very important to ensure a good
clean kill. You should use the two-bait method. By using this time-tested
procedure, you will have an approximate success rate of 80% to 100%. The
two ingredients used for this type of trapping are peanut butter and Velveeta
cheese. Why these two particular items? Have you eaten a peanut butter
sandwich at some point in your life, or a piece of Velveeta cheese? If
you have, you know how sticky and chewy they both are. These two facts
are what make them the prime ingredients for luring and trapping mice.
I have tried other methods over the years, but the rodent
has always managed to cheat the jaws of death. He would snatch the bait
and run before the trap even went off. After many futile attempts with
the other ways of trapping, I’d always revert to that time proven method.
My grandfather was the one who devised this two-bait method.
As a child I lived in a two-family home. My family and I lived on the first
floor, along with my grandparents who lived on the second. I spent a lot
of time with my grandfather. You may be wondering why this whole mouse
trapping endeavor came to be. Let me tell you, growing up in an Italian
household there was always plenty of food around, especially bread and
cheese along with fruit and nuts that were left out on the kitchen table.
As you can imagine, this was an open invitation for those pesky rodents.
One afternoon my grandfather and I were out in the yard
when we heard a scream. It was a screech that I had never heard before.
As I looked toward my grandfather to ask whom he thought it was, I noticed
he was already racing toward the house. He instinctively knew who was screaming.
I started running after him. We threw open the front door and ran up the
steps to his apartment. As we reached the landing, we could hear my grandmother
yelling in Italian. At that moment my grandfather started to laugh out
loud. He was a big, barrel-chested man and his laugh was very robust. I
couldn’t understand why he was laughing or why grandma was screaming. As
we opened the door, I found out why. There, perched on top of a chair,
was my grandmother – broom in hand, swatting at the kitchen table. We soon
discovered the cause of all the commotion. She started telling us about
a mouse she had just seen on the table. Apparently she went to put something
on the table and there he sat, snacking on a piece of cheese. It had frightened
her so much, that she couldn’t do anything but scream. After a few minutes
she calmed down and told my grandfather he’d better trap that mouse, or
else!
So my grandfather and I went out and bought a mousetrap
that could catch the intruder. It was the wooden style with a jaw that
pulled over and locked in place, which is then tripped when the mouse tries
to get the bait. That night we sat at the table and loaded the trap with
provolone cheese. I guess Grandpa figured it was an Italian mouse. It was
decided that we would place the trap under the sink because that is where
the mouse would probably be hiding. Now we were ready to trap the mouse.
I went down to my apartment to get ready for bed, knowing that by the next
morning we would have trapped our first mouse.
Was I ever wrong! I went upstairs that morning and looked
under the sink. The trap was untouched and still had the cheese in it.
I looked over to ‘Pop’ to ask him what went wrong but decided not to. He
looked so frustrated; he just couldn’t understand why the mouse didn’t
go for the bait.
That night he decided to do something different. He put
a piece of cheese in the bait holder, set the trap and placed it right
on the kitchen table. He figured that the mouse would return to the scene
of the crime looking for something else to eat. He was right, bit it seemed
that the little beast managed to get the cheese before setting off the
trap. This troubled my grandfather so much that he became a "man on a mission."
‘Pop’ went through several different bait-and-trap placements
before finding the right combination. It appeared that meat, cheese or
cracker were just too easy for the mouse to get out of the trap. Finally
it came to him – a brainstorm. Why not use peanut butter? It has an appealing
aroma and is very thick, which would make it difficult for the mouse to
remove it from the trap. While in bed, ‘Pop’ heard it go off. He got up
to investigate and found the trap upside down on the table. Still, no mouse
was caught. He discovered that most of the peanut butter was still on the
trap. This told him that he was on the right path toward catching the critter.
However, he still felt something more was needed to trap this crafty varmint.
Still feeling cheese was a key ingredient, Grandpa experimented
with different types. He finally settled on Velveeta. He said that the
pliable texture of that particular cheese combined with the stickiness
of the peanut butter should be what he needed to finally trap this super
mouse. He believed that the two, applied together, would make it virtually
impossible for the mouse to steal the bait without getting trapped. Another
thing he did was investigate where the mouse might be getting into the
house. No holes were found, but mouse droppings were discovered behind
the refrigerator. This was now where he would set up the trap.
So there sat my grandfather, at his kitchen table, meticulously
preparing for the evening’s kill. He had laid out a jar of peanut butter
and a block of Velveeta on the table. He was now ready to bait his trap.
First he out the peanut butter on the bait holder, being careful not to
overload it. This was to insure that the mouse would have to stand on the
trap in order to get at it. Then he took a small cut of cheese and rolled
it between his thumb and pointer finger to form a little ball. He placed
it on the bait holder and pushed down into the peanut butter. This was
to make sure the mouse really had to work to get the cheese out. Next,
he pulled back the spring-loaded jaw and set the lock pin in place. He
picked up the trap and walked toward the refrigerator. Gently, he placed
the trap on the floor and slid it into position.
I went to bed that night feeling very confident, knowing
that was it. ‘Pop’ would finally catch his wife’s tormentor. I awoke the
next morning, and without even asking, just ran upstairs to see if it worked.
As I opened the door to the apartment, there sitting at the table in all
his glory was my grandfather. He was wearing an ear to ear grin that could
have lit up the darkest of nights. He motioned for me to come over to him.
As I got closer to him, he said, "go look behind the icebox." I walked
over to it and with nervous anticipation I peeked behind. Lo and behold,
there he was, the mouse that had caused so much turmoil for my grandfather,
now dead, caught by a persistent old man of many ideas.
Thus started the two-bait method for trapping a mouse.
You must use peanut butter and Velveeta cheese. But not too much of either
because you want the mouse to have to stand on the trap in order to get
at the bait. Then, locate the site of those rude little mouse droppings!
Once you’ve found that, you are ready to "Trap a Mouse!"
THE DETERIORATION OF A CULTURE
Heriberto Cardoso
It is a part of human nature to sometimes lack a sense
of identity and often feel like there is something missing, and it becomes
a need for some people to try to find their true selves. Certain individuals
attempt to become new people by changing their ways, abandoning their old
traditions, customs, and beliefs, and seeking acceptance from a new crowd
or community, and it is not unusual for such individuals to be subjected
to profiling and have to deal with stereotypes that presume disloyalty
to their own people and culture.
Countries and entire civilizations have gone through a
series of political, religious, and cultural changes, and the population
has had the need or has been forced to adapt to new ways of living as well.
A good example is the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which brought Catholicism
as the new religion and Spanish as the language of the New World; and with
the help of some Indian groups and leaders, the Spaniards fulfilled their
goal of conquest of the Mesoamerican peoples. This fact is pointed out
by Harrison: "Cultural imperialism began its conquest of the third world
with the indoctrination of an elite of local collaborators; the missionary
schools sought to produce converts to Christianity who would go out and
proselytize among their own people, helping to eradicate traditional culture"
(69).
The Spaniards found their first ally in a woman named
Malinche, the "Mexican Eve", mother of the new ethnic group "Mestizo",
named for the children of Mexican, Indian, and Spanish parents, characterized
by the absence of a defined cultural identity, and often subjected to discrimination
by both Mexicans and Spaniards. This event also gave birth to the modern
word "malinchista", derived directly from Malinche’s name, used to describe
people who have turned their backs on their culture, a "traitor".
Malinche was born in 1500, the daughter of wealthy parents,
and according to legend, was born a princess, and in time, given her wealthy
status, she was allowed to be educated. In her youth, her father died and
her mother remarried. Becoming an inconvenient and unwanted child, Malinche
was given to strangers by her own mother and was forced to live as a slave,
and it was during this time that she learned several Indian dialects including
Nahuatl and Mayan, and later Spanish. This extraordinary slave was given
to Hernan Cortez in 1519, and, using her education and talents with languages,
Malinche was able to prove her value to the conquistadors as a translator.
She became one of Cortez’s greatest assets and his intimate companion as
well, always standing beside him, translating his words or issuing instructions
of her own. Quite possibly, she was the key to the success of the Spaniards
in convincing Indian nations to join them in the quest to destroy the great
Aztec nation.
Through Malinche, the Mexican Indians of many tribes and
civilizations were led to believe that the Catholic religion and the Spanish
ways were the right path to follow, and she used her wide range of knowledge
of traditional customs and culture to convince allied Indians that the
destruction of their temples and gods was a good idea. The Spaniards and
the Catholic Church had decided that the practice of human sacrifice and
rituals needed to be stopped, and through a series of threats, encouragement,
and flattery, Malinche accomplished her tasks. She was later baptized and
given the name of "Dona Marina", converting to Christianity as a gesture
of respect to the Spanish, who thought that God had been very gracious
to her by freeing her from the worship of idols and allowing her to bear
the children of her master.
To this day, Mexicans connect "malinchismo" with opening
Mexico up to outsiders, to selling out. For others, "la Malinche" is the
symbol of a nation that is still not entirely comfortable with either its
European or its Indian roots. There are many traditions in today’s Mexico
that prove that there is not a pure culture; this can be seen in the way
people express themselves and even in religious celebrations such as the
day of "The Virgin of Guadalupe", the "Indian Mother of Mexico", as she
is referred to by the Catholics. In such celebrations, it might seem like
time has frozen, like the country has stayed in a transitional stage, where
nothing is purely Spanish and nothing is purely Indian; pre-Hispanic dances
and rituals are performed along with a Catholic mass.
The Aztecs, whom Malinche betrayed, were not her own people,
yet all of the Indian nations and cultures of Mexico were eventually conquered
by the invaders she helped support.
Malinchismo is manifested not only in Mexico, but in many
third world countries and their political systems as well. Politicians
betray their people every day by oppressing them, denying the poor masses
their god-given right of living in freedom, depriving them of living with
dignity, giving the wealthy and the powerful even more power, and giving
the needy only the crumbs and the leftovers of the country’s richness,
bringing about as a result the unhappiness and resentment towards the government
that lead to subversion. Guerilla, paramilitary, and rebel groups are typical
among people who have been oppressed for a long time and find violence
the only and last solution.
Do politicians or leaders who betray their fellow man
have a tie to their own culture? It is quite possible that they do not;
it is most probable that they pretend they care, and give their people
just a little of what they need, not giving in excess because then they
will become unnecessary, and not giving too little either because it is
unwise to make people unhappier than they already are. They will organize
a celebration, a fair, and they will throw a party to try and make people
forget, at least for a little while that they are poor and miserable. The
country may not have political or economic stability, but during the celebrations
there is plenty of food, drinks, dance, and music. "Poverty can be measured
by the frequency and luxuriousness of our holidays; wealthy countries have
very few: There is neither the time nor the desire for them"(Paz 51)
We can conclude that as long as there are cultural changes,
people will seek for a way to meet them. As long as there are conquerors,
there will be someone to be conquered and there will be Malinches to witness
the end of an old culture and the birth of another, and they will betray
their race society. "And so there grew up, alongside political and economic
imperialism, that most insidious form of control – cultural imperialism.
It conquered not only the bodies but the soul of its victims, turning them
into willing accomplices" (Harrison 68).
IS ASCH'S EXPERIMENT VALID?
YES, AS LONG AS EVERYONE
IS A MALE COLLEGE STUDENT FROM THE 1950s
Mon-Che Chong
I believe I was in middle school when I first read about
the infamous Jonestown suicides. I found the idea of 913 people committing
mass suicide on the orders of one man outrageous and completely irrational
back then as well as now. That 1978 incident remains the largest instance
of mass suicide in history and is perhaps the most extreme example of total
conformity and blind obedience to authority (Steel). In "Opinions &
Social Pressure," renowned social psychologist Solomon Asch wrote about
the shocking results of his groundbreaking study on those very pitfalls—group
pressure and conformity—and influenced some people to view social pressure
and conformity with caution. Granted, the implications of Asch’s experiments
were far-reaching and continue to inspire psychologists today to investigate
human social factors. However, Asch’s experiment may not be a valid barometer
of social pressure as the original subjects were all young college males
in the early 1950s, certainly not an accurate sampling of the human race.
Conditions such as culture and social environment were not factored in,
and the same experiment conducted in Asian nations such as Taiwan or Korea
could very well have markedly higher results.
Asch claims that there are many troubling reasons for
people to be concerned with understanding how opinions are formed and how
social influences affect their formation. Asch readily admits that groups
definitely influence people but wonders about the extent of the influence.
The early studies of thought formation and social pressure began with investigations
on the effects of hypnosis, later discovered to be applicable to most normal
people. This led to the idea of "suggestibility"—"a normal psychological
process…(using) monotonous reiteration of instructions" (Asch 337) that
could cause people to experience bodily changes. "Suggestibility" became
the new buzzword among sociologists and psychologists, leading to various
theories ranging from the spreading of opinion to how demagogues sway people.
Early experiments in social psychology showed that people would alter previous
beliefs or judgments when confronted with "statistics" showing majorities
or authorities espousing opposing views. Those experiments showed people
to be disturbingly easily convinced, and questions were raised about whether
people were actually that suggestible as well as about aspects that they
failed to incorporate in the studies, such as the variables of independence
and relative immunity to group influences (Asch 337).
Asch’s famous experiment involved seven to nine college
males who were told that they would be participating in a test of visual
judgment in which there were definitive answers. Two cards would be presented
by the experimenter, the first of which had a single vertical line and
the other three such lines, one of which was the same size as the former.
The subjects would be asked to select the matching lines and the first
two trials ensued as expected. However, the unanimous decisions in the
early rounds turned into calculated dissension, as the majority had received
prior instructions to begin choosing incorrect answers at a certain point
(Asch 338). The lone dissenter, completely unaware of the collaboration,
would become disturbed and bewildered and the situation would boil down
to whether or not he trusted his own judgment or that of the unanimous
group of his peers adamantly insisting that their glaringly incorrect answers
were in fact correct (Asch 339). Results showed that in general, in 36.8
percent of instances, the dissenter lost his resolve and embraced the majority’s
wrong answer. The people engaged in the experiments
fell into a large spectrum—from people who remained independent all the
time to those who readily agreed with the majority. Those who remained
free from the pressure were characterized by their
unwavering confidence in their judgments and their ability to bounce back
from the self-doubt inflicted by the group. Bouts of self-doubt and inability
to make firm independent decisions plagued the people who were absorbed
into the fold, some of whom even believed themselves to have some serious
problems due to their inability to see what everyone else saw.
New variables such as group size and unanimity were instituted
in the experiments to determine their effects on the group’s persuasive
power. Variations in the size of the majority showed that size was only
a factor up to a certain limit, as nearly maximum levels of incorrect answers
being chosen were achieved with majorities of merely three and did not
noticeably increase after that with increased group size. Providing the
dissenter with a partner drastically took away from the group’s power,
and the percentage of people choosing incorrect answers plummeted to one
fourth of pre-partner levels. Instances in which a second dissenter was
added who agreed with neither the majority nor the original dissenter showed
that increased discord boosted independence and largely prevented blatant
errors with respect to the type of error selected by the second dissenter
(Asch 341). Unexpected defections by partners in dissension showed that
subjects immediately began to experience the same levels of pressure as
completely partner-less ones did while people whose partners were to leave
at a pre-announced time submitted less often (Asch 341). It was also noted
that the power of group pressure varied with the severity of the error,
but unfortunately some people continued to conform in even the most extreme
cases (Asch 341).
While the test shows that many people will submit to the
group in this specific scenario, it creates a host of new questions about
behavior in different situations in which more important matters could
be at stake. Relationships involving independence and other variables such
as cultural and social environments are also left unexplored.
For a society to function the people must be able to reach
a consensus in which everyone applies their views and knowledge in the
process of coming to an agreement. However, when this fails and consensus
mutates into conformity, aspects that previously allowed people to be individuals
are torn away to the degree that even well educated people fall under its
sway, raising questions about our very education and value systems (Asch
342).
However, giving the Asch line test in Asia would almost
definitely result in different findings from the original experiment, as
Asians raised in Asia generally think differently from most Americans,
let alone 1950s college males. Many Asians I know who have arrived in America
relatively late find the attitudes of Asians who have grown up here such
as myself nearly incomprehensible. Similarly, I sometimes cannot understand
their indefatigable attitudes towards work and study as they have grown
up in an alien environment.
Works Cited
Asch, Solomon E. "Opinions and Social Pressure." Writing
and
Reading
Across the Curriculum, 7th ed. Eds. Laurence Behrens &
Leonard J. Rosen. New
York: Longman, 2000. 336-342.
Steel, Fiona. "Jonestown Massacre: A ‘Reason’ to Die."13
Mar.2001.
<http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/4.htm>
BECOMING A SISTER OF MERCY:
WHAT AN AMAZING SACRIFICE!
Kimberly Rivera
I have been working at Mount Saint Mary Academy in Watchung,
New Jersey, for about eight months. But never before have I realized that
there is so much more behind their amazing devotion to the Catholic Church
and God. I must admit that they are beautiful examples of God’s teaching,
and I feel truly blessed to be involved with the Sisters of Mercy. Each
and every one of them has a unique story to tell about her life, but none
is more intriguing than that of Sister Mary Joel Hopkinson. Having only
heard bits and pieces, and not knowing for sure the steps that each of
these women had to take to become who she is today, I asked Sister Mary
Joel to share her story with me.
When she was born into a Protestant family in New England,
no one could have guessed that Sister Joel would end up becoming a Catholic,
let alone a Sister of Mercy. But as it turned out, as Sister Mary Joel
Hopkinson says, "There was no way to deny it; this is what God wanted for
me." Sister Joel has been a Sister of Mercy for almost fifty years. What
is so interesting about her story is that she has been a Catholic for only
fifty years. Only a little more than a year after she converted to Catholicism,
she found herself looking to enter a convent. She explained that all her
life she had had Catholic friends. At one of her jobs, she was the only
non-Catholic in the carpool. The Catholic Church intrigued her, and she
was of a curious nature, but not until years later did she realize that
God was sending her a sign. She puts it rather bluntly when she says, "God
pushed me out of the window and into the convent." Sister Joel was not
always a businesswoman; in fact, she worked in a building in Brooklyn,
New York, cleaning windows on the second floor. It was a rather old building,
and the chains on the windows had been painted over a number of times.
Once, while struggling to pull the window down, she lost her footing and
fell out the window. The reason she says God pushed her is that the only
ambulance on call that day was from St. Catherine’s Hospital. So out the
window, and into a Catholic hospital, Sister Joel lay flat on her back
listening to Catholic talk radio. Because her interest in Catholicism could
be detected, the religious nurses brought her books and information about
the Catholic religion. "The whole experience aroused my curiosity," she
says, " so when I finally returned to work, I asked one of my Catholic
friends for further information on the faith." This landed Sister Joel
in a priest’s office, and she was baptized a Catholic at the age of thirty-two.
She needed to "repay Him for this wonderful gift of faith," and by 1952
she was confirmed.
Less than four months later, in February of 1953, Sister
Joel entered the Sisters of Mercy. Strange as it may seem, she was almost
twice as old as the other girls in her band. (A ‘band’ is a group of girls
who enter the order at the same time.) Many of the girls were straight
out of high school, but Sister Mary Joel was thirty-five years old. Today,
many women enter the Sisters of Mercy Community in their fifties and sixties.
But forty-eight years ago, Sister Mary Joel was unique. She began the first
of five steps toward becoming a Sister of Mercy. This process of becoming
a Sister of Mercy, which Sister Anna Marie Saltzman, of the Incorporation
Team for the Brooklyn, New Jersey, and New York Regional Communities, says
"can take anywhere from seven to ten years", begins just like any other
job. After all, "a religious vocation is a career decision, but it is also
a lifestyle choice grounded in a total commitment to God" (Sisters of Mercy
website). The process begins with a formal written application. At this
stage, which can last up to two years, the applicant is required to meet
with a vocational minister. This person, who is already a Mercy Sister,
is available just as guidance counselor is in high school. The minister
prays with the applicant and answers questions about Catholicism , the
role of the Sisters of Mercy, and faith in general. At the end of the two-year
period, if the applicant decides the Sisterhood is a wise choice, the application
is accepted and the person moves on to the second step. Sister Joel almost
didn’t make it that far because she was so new to the religion that it
seemed she would not last, but she insisted and was allowed to stay.
Sister was then accepted into Candidacy. This, Sister
Anna says, may be the most difficult of the steps because "it is a time
of transition. The person lives with the community and for the first time
has to adjust to living with a group of people." It is a way to get a feel
for the order, before making a final and more serious commitment. A brochure
about becoming a Sister of Mercy explains that "this period allows you
to become active in our day-to-day lives as you reflect more deeply on
where this journey is taking you." This is the time for thinking and making
certain about the choice.
The third phase, when one becomes a Novice, is a time
for learning about the religion and strengthening faith. One studies theology,
scripture, and the history of the Sisters of Mercy. This time is also devoted
to serving local needs and helping others, which is a big part of the Sisters'
mission. The novice can leave after this period has ended; in fact, she
is free to leave whenever she decides this life may not be right for her,
but the deeper she goes into the stages, the more difficult and serious
they become.
Upon completion of the Novitiate, she becomes a Sister
of Mercy. This stage is called Temporary Profession or First Vows. This
is the time when the Sister makes the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience,
and service to the poor, sick, and ignorant. This period can last from
three to six years. This is the time when one is truly considered a Mercy
Sister and begins participating fully in the Mercy way of life. Sister
Joel explained that the ceremony used to require girls to wear a wedding
gown; she borrowed the gown of the very same woman who served as her Godmother
when she converted to Catholicism.
The final step is Perpetual Profession or Final Vows.
This is a sign to the public that the candidate is truly committed, and
in front of family, friends and the Community of the Sisters of Mercy,
she vows to live as God’s servant. In a way, she marries the Church because,
just as in marriage, she vows to live this way of life until God calls
her back to His heavenly kingdom.
This entire process took Sister Joel only five years instead
of the minimum of seven, which is now the requirement. Everything that
she has done with her life has had an amazing story behind it. Not only
were almost all her friends Catholic, but many of them had some acquaintance
with a Mercy Sister. Not only did God spare her life the day she fell from
the second story window, but he sent her a message in doing so. Not only
has she lived as a faithful and loving individual, but she has made the
ultimate sacrifice and a total commitment to the Lord. In my opinion, she
has said more than "thank you" to God for the gift of faith; she has said
thank you and given her gift of life back to the one who, essentially,
gave it to her at birth. She will celebrate her Golden Jubilee, or fifty
years of service, in 2002, and she continues to serve her community as
the treasurer for the Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of New Jersey.
I thank her for sharing her story and for the amazing sacrifices she has
made for the good of those around her. She truly has become a model of
the Mercy Spirit and an inspiration to all those around her.
Works Cited
Allen, John L. Jr., "Mercy Sisters Rethink Vows,
Members."
National Catholic Reporter.
13 Mar. 1998: 13-14.
Hopkinson, Sister Mary Joel. Personal interview. 7 Nov.
2000..
Saltzman, Sister Anna Marie. Personal interview.
8 Nov. 2000..
Sisters of Mercy Website. www.sistersofmercy.org
DESKTOP FULL OF ‘JOB’
by Frances Goff
The concepts of suffering addressed in "The Book of Job"
have no relevance to the ideas of suffering expressed in eastern religions
such as Buddhism and Jainism. In fact, for Buddhists, the cause of suffering
was discovered some 2,500 years ago by a prince from India named Sidhartha
Gautama. This man, who was known as the Buddha, taught that suffering was
caused by the craving for material things; ergo, cessation from suffering
could be attained by detaching oneself from the things of this world (Ianuale).
Had Job been exposed to these strictly eastern concepts of suffering, his
outlook on his vicissitudes would have been quite different indeed.
"The Book of Job" is an epic tale of pious pessimism from
the Old Testament of the Bible about a righteous, God-fearing man named
Job. Job has been blessed with many children, and great material wealth.
But all of that soon comes to an end as Satan and
God begin their debate on whether or not Job would keep his piety in the
face of adversity.
Satan is allowed, by God, to test Job, once by taking
away his family and wealth, and a second time, by afflicting him with sickness
and sores. In the first test, Job holds fast to his conviction and never
blames God for his misfortunes. The second test, however, proves to be
more challenging, and Job curses the day he was born.
In the next section of the story, three of Job’s friends
come to visit him upon hearing of his misfortunes. Each one of them tries,
in separate speeches, to offer Job an explanation as to why such tragedy
has befallen him. They insist that Job must have done something to deserve
his adversity, saying that all men are, in some way, sinners. They do,
however, tell Job to be confident, and have hope, for he is a good man,
and God does not punish the good.
Job argues with each man, never wavering in his insistence
that he is guiltless. This great debate continues until Job becomes tired
of his friends’ ill advice and expresses his desire to argue his case with
God himself. His friends fall silent, knowing that they cannot sway Job
from his self-righteousness. God then appears to Job as a powerful whirlwind
and questions Job, unmercifully, as to whether he could perform the works
of God. It is through this barrage that Job comes to accept, without question,
his lot, and the awesome power of God.
The end of the story has Job restored to his former state,
living a long and prosperous life. As for his friends, they are not so
lucky. God punishes them for misrepresenting Him, and asks that they give
burnt offerings to Him, while Job prays for them.
Alas, poor Job is left to ponder why such misfortunes
were heaped upon him, for God never really answers this question. Moreover,
throughout history, people have been pondering the very same question.
Many books and essays have been written on "The Book of Job" in an attempt
to try to explain the cause of suffering, but the theories that have been
extracted have had primarily western theological overtones.
In "God Has Need of Man", Archibald MacLeish dives head-first
into the question of suffering. MacLeish finds that the meaning of suffering
lies in the idea that God needs the love of man to exist. Therefore the
challenges that Satan set up for Job were allowed by God in order to solidify
man’s love for God, "because God believes it will be demonstrated that
Job loves and fears God because He is God and not because Job is prosperous
– [this proves] that Job will still love God and fear Him in adversity,
in misfortune, in the worst of misfortunes, in spite of everything" (479).
MacLeish’s idea that God allowed Satan to punish Job for His own benefit
is clearly a monotheistic, western interpretation.
In another essay on "The Book of Job", Diane Bergant tells
of the importance of revising the traditions of the past to fit the present
time. These traditions of which she speaks are also purely western in nature.
Bergant finds that although it is Job’s belief in his own integrity that
leads to the breakdown of his traditional belief system, eventually it
is the revising of these beliefs that lead to his newly acquired spiritual
growth. The author tries to prove that "The Book of Job" "…clearly illustrates
the serious error of an inflexible theory of [divine] retribution [because]
misfortune can indeed befall the righteous, [and] suffering is not the
sure sign of alienation from God" (472). Although Bergant’s points are
quite interesting, her essay has no relevance to eastern religious beliefs.
Another of the many critical essays written on "The Book
of Job", "Job and his "doctors": bedside wisdom in the book of Job", discusses
the effects of the belief in God on patients, in times of illness. The
author, Hans Kutz, writes: "The assumed presence of a deity can provide
coherence out of confusion for modern patients, believers and non-believers
alike, and help them through the adaptation process, just as it did for
Job" (Kutz 1613). This modern day, medical interpretation of Job’s lament
provides another monotheistic view, again giving God the blame for the
suffering of mankind.
These essays, although eloquently written, and often persuasive,
have no relevance outside of very narrow religious beliefs. The strictly
western notion of God’s responsibility for man’s suffering is not found
in eastern religious belief systems such as Buddhism and Jainism.
In Theraveda Buddhism, one sect of Buddhism that has developed
from the teachings of Sidhartha Gautama, the concept of human suffering
is addressed quite eloquently; "By ourselves, evil is done, By ourselves
we pain endure, By ourselves become we pure, No one saves us but ourselves"
(Smith 121). It is believed there is no supreme deity directing the misfortunes
of one’s life. There is, however, a way for an individual to extricate
himself from the sufferings of this world, and that is through the understanding
of the cause of pain. It is important to add that most eastern religions
believe in reincarnation, and Buddhism is no exception.
Since the ultimate goal of Buddhism is nirvana, the extinction
of the desire or thirst for rebirth, enlightenment, or understanding of
the pathway to nirvana, is the core of Buddhist beliefs. Buddhists believe
that one is the cause of one’s own suffering, and that one alone has the
power to eliminate this suffering by following a certain path called The
Middle Way (Ianuale).
There are Four Noble Truths that make up The Middle Way.
The first, The Noble Truth of Pain, explains human existence itself as
the very cause of suffering: that all life in this world is impermanent,
and every pleasure is transitory. The second, The Noble Truth of the Cause
of Pain, reminds the believer that it is the ignorance of one’s impermanence
and the craving for the things of this world that are at the heart of human
suffering. The Noble Truth of the Secession of Pain involves the renunciation
of, and detachment from, the things of this world; this is what ultimately
will end suffering. Finally, The Noble Truth of The Way consists of a set
of ethical standards that lay out the path for the believer to follow on
her way to enlightenment ( Ianuale).
The first steps in the path to enlightenment are the acceptance
of suffering as the lot of human existence, the elimination of that suffering
through detachment from material things, and living a life dedicated to
obtaining nirvana. Also, avoiding slander and profanity, and practicing
ahimsa,
or non-injury to any living thing, will bring one closer to the ultimate
goal. One must not pass judgments and must be constantly aware that craving
is pointless. Once these ethical standards are established, and one has
attained soul serenity through meditation, enlightenment is attained. It
is through this enlightenment that suffering ceases, and the soul is absorbed
back into nirvana (Ianuale).
In another eastern religion, Jainism, we see, at times,
suffering itself portrayed as the path to enlightenment. Although Jainist
beliefs are similar to the beliefs of Buddhists, the ultimate goal of the
Jainist is to become an ascetic, or monk. In the Jainist monastic order,
the path to nirvana can consist of self-torture and self-denial, and it
is not uncommon to see ritual suicide through starvation (Ianuale).
Because of the vast differences in the religious belief
systems of the east and the west, it can be seen, quite clearly, that "The
Book of Job" has far less relevance to the concept of suffering than non-western,
pantheistic religions such as Buddhism and Jainism have. It is the words
of the Buddha himself that illuminate these differences:
Sufferings are to be known; then, there will be no
more suffering to be known. The sources of sufferings are to be abandoned;
then, there will be no more sources to be abandoned. The cessations of
suffering are to be actualized; then, there will be no more cessations
to be actualized. The paths are to be cultivated; then, there will be no
more paths to be cultivated. (Dalai Lama 23)
WORKS CITED
Bergant, Dianne. "Job: Implications for Today." Writing
and
Reading Across the Curriculum.
7th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens,
Leonard J. Rosen. New York:
Addison Wesley Longman, 2000:
469-473.
Dalai Lama. The Buddhism of Tibet. Trans., Ed Jeffrey
Hopkins, Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1975.
Ianuale, Vincent. "History of Major World Religions"
Oral Lecture,
5 December 2000. Middlesex County
College. Edison, NJ.
"Job." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum.
7th ed. Ed.
Laurence Behrens, Leonard
J. Rosen. New York: Addison
Wesley Longman, 2000:407-433.
Kutz, Ilan. "Job and His ‘Doctors’; Bedside Wisdom in
The Book
of Job." BMJ
321. December 23-30, 2000; 1613-1615. PA
RESEARCH II. ProQuest
Direct. Middlesex County College
Library, Edison. 4 February
2001. 2000.
http://www.proquest.umi.com.
MacLeish, Archibald. "God Has Need of Man." Writing
and
Reading Across
the Curriculum. 7th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens,
Leonard J. Rosen. New
York: Addison Wesley Longman,
2000; 474-480.
Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions. San Francisco: Harper, 1958.
STORIES FOR CHILDREN SIX TO NINE
Frances Goff
People love to tell stories to their children. For thousands
of years, oral and written stories have been passed along from generation
to generation, both to inform and to entertain. Within the hearts of most
children’s stories, there are moral lessons to be learned, and stories
geared toward the six to nine-year-old generally contain similar themes:
friendship, love, compassion and understanding.
Are these recurrent themes coincidence, or are there reasons
why these topics keep cropping up for the pre-pubescent child? According
to noted psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of personality development,
children between the ages of six and nine are developing increasing social
skills, and they are becoming much more receptive to other’s feelings.
By the age of six, Erikson states, children enter a stage in which "the
challenge of learning to function socially is extended… to the broader
social realm of the neighborhood an school" (Weiten 320). Erikson also
suggests that "[c]hildren who are able to function effectively in this
less than nurturant social sphere where productivity is highly valued should
develop a sense of competence" (Weiten 320). It can be theorized that the
underlying themes and moral lessons in stories written for children within
the six to nine-year-old age group reflect the need for these children
to develop functional social skills, as Erikson suggests.
In Russell Hoban’s story, Best Friends for Frances,
children learn, through the main character’s trials and tribulations, how
to successfully navigate the world outside their own family. The interactions
between the characters in this story help to teach the six to nine-year-old
that selfishness can be hurtful to others, and that friendship, compassion,
and sharing are strong assets in this sometimes confusing world.
In another story of friendship, The Giving Tree,
Shel Silverstein offers children a lesson in give and take. This story
allows children within the six to nine age group to witness the consequences
of taking without giving in return, and to learn that there is a point
at which one may have nothing left to give. The touching sadness of this
tale reaches the hearts of children and adults alike, leaving a lasting
impression of the value of friendship and love.
Compassion for all living creatures, both human and animal,
is the theme of a new book by Keith Graves called Pet Boy. This
modern, twenty-first-century story allows children to see that animals
need friendship, loyalty, and respect, just as people do. Although showing
compassion and respect for animals may not be exactly what Erikson meant
by functioning socially, this story may be a stepping stone for the child
who is just beginning to understand these concepts as they relate to the
people around him or her.
All of these stories also have an underlying theme in
common: the experience of unconditional love. Margery Williams, author
of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit, brilliantly illuminates
this experience for her readers. Through her characters, playthings in
a child’s nursery, the author gives young readers an understanding of what
it means to be ‘real’. Williams writes:
When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you ecome Real. It doesn’t happen
all at once. You become. It takes a long time. Generally, by thetime you
are Real most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and
you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But all these things don’t
matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people
who don’t understand (5).
The reason these stories are loved and cherished by children
in the six to nine age group may be that the themes and moral lessons presented
are familiar and refer to real life experiences. Such stories may also
help children in this stage of life cope with an ever-increasing demand
for functional social skills. But whatever the reason, these books continue
to fly off the shelves, and people continue to read them, over and over
again, to their children. It may be safe to say that they always will.
"NO, IT’S MINE!": THE STORY OF ANGELINA BEAR
by Frances Goff
It was a warm spring morning and Angelina Bear was off
to school with her big sister AnnMarie Bear. She was carrying a brown bag.
Inside the bag was her favorite toy, a small stuffed bear that looked just
like her. "What’s in the bag?" asked Ann Marie. "Nothing, it’s mine! replied
Angelina. AnnMarie rolled her eyes. Angelina always hid her favorite things
from AnnMarie.
"If you have to know," said Angelina, "today
is sharing day at school. Every Friday we can bring in our favorite things
to share with the class, and I have my bear, MeMe." Angelina clutched the
bag closed as her sister tried to peer in. "No, it’s mine!" she snapped
at AnnMarie.
Later that day, at sharing time, Angelina was excited.
This was her first sharing day, and she could not wait to show her friends
her MeMe bear. Mother Bear had wrapped the toy in a blue blanket and placed
it in the brown bag for Angelina to bring to school. When it was Angelina’s
turn to share, she carefully unwrapped her treasure to show the class.
"This is my favorite toy bear, MeMe. I call her that because
she looks like me!" All of the other bear cubs oohed and ahhed because
the toy really did look like Angelina Bear. Angelina’s teacher,
Mrs. Kodiak,, asked her some questions about her toy, and she was more
than happy to answer them. But, when one of Angelina’s friends reached
out to touch MeMe, Angelina shrieked "No, it’s mine!", and snatched the
toy away. She carefully wrapped the toy bear in the blanket and placed
it back in the bag, just as Mother Bear had done. When the other bear cubs
asked Angelina why they could not play with her toy, she made an ugly face
and said, "Because it’s mine!"
A week had come and gone for Angelina Bear. Before she
knew it, it was Friday again. Mother Bear packed Angelina’s favorite book,
The
Kitten in the Honey Tree, in the brown bag for Angelina to bring to
school. Angelina was excited as she walked out the door with AnnMarie.
"What are you going to share today?" asked AnnMarie.
"I’m sharing my book today, and don’t even think about
looking at it because it’s mine!"
AnnMarie shook her head and continued walking. "I could’ve
guessed that!" she mumbled. The two cubs walked, without talking to each
other, all the way to school.
"Okay, children, It’s sharing time!" said Mrs. Kodiak
with a big smile. "let’s take out our favorite things and sit in a circle."
Angelina squirmed around in her spot on the floor, holding her bag with
the book in it tightly. When it was her turn to share, she took out her
book and held it up for the class. "This is my favorite book! It is a story
about a kitten, and I love kittens! The book is called The Kitten in
the Honey Tree."
When she was finished, Angelina quickly put the book back
in the brown bag. One of the other cubs asked Angelina Bear if she would
show the class the pictures inside the book. But Angelina quickly sat down
on the book and said, "No, it’s mine!" Another classmate asked if the teacher
could read the story out loud to the class, but Angelina again replied,
"No, it’s mine!"
On the next sharing day, Angelina decided to bring her
pet frog, Jezebel, to class. Mother Bear placed Jezebel in a jar that had
holes in the lid for air. Angelina carried the jar tightly in her arms
so that AnnMarie could not see what she was holding. "I know, I know, it’s
yours," said AnnMarie, as she went on ahead to walk by herself.
Where are you going?" cried Angelina.
"I don’t want to walk with you on Fridays anymore because
you always hide your things from me. You need to learn how to share." With
that, AnnMarie ran ahead.
"I know how to share!" Angelina shouted. "I do
know how to share," she said to herself as she walked into the school.
Angelina went into her classroom clutching Jezebel’s jar.
All of the other bear cubs crowded around her to see what she had brought.
"Stop it! Get away! It’s mine!" she yelled, as she yanked the jar away
from the curious paws of the other cubs. Angelina pulled so hard that the
jar flew out of her paws and shattered on the floor. Jezebel hopped away.
Angelina cried "Catch her, quick, before she gets away!" But the other
cubs just watched the frog jump out through the open door into the grass.
"Oh please, please help me catch her! Angelina pleaded. But her friends
replied, "No, it’s yours!"
Angelina Bear sat down on the floor and cried. She thought
about what AnnMarie had said to her, how her friends were treating her,
and her missing frog. "I guess I didn’t know how to share after all!" she
mumbled to herself. "I wish I had let my friends see Jezebel, then she
would be here right now!" And she sobbed out loud. Just then, one of her
classmates tapped her on the shoulder and asked, "Is this your frog?" "Jezebel!"
Angelina shouted happily. "You found her!" "Yes," said the cub. "She hopped
back in the doorway while you were crying and I grabbed her."
"Thank you so much!" said Angelina. "You can play with
her if you like, she seems to like you. Actually, you all can play with
her, because I know how to share!"
From that day on, Angelina Bear always shared her favorite
things with her friends at school. She even shared with her sister AnnMarie.
Comment
The story of Angelina Bear teaches children in the six to nine age group
an important lesson about sharing; through it, children can see, as Angelina
Bear did, that there are consequences to their actions. To a child in this
age group., the world outside the immediate family can be confusing and
difficult to understand. This story helps to ease a child’s transition
from life solely within the family to a social life filled with interactions
outside of the family and in society. The values communicated in this story,
a well as the stories discussed in my introductory analysis section, are
compassion, love, friendship, unselfishness and understanding.
Works Consulted
Behrens, Laurence,
and Leonard J. Rosen, eds. Writing and Reading
Across the Curriculum. 7th ed. New York: Addison Wesley
, 2000.
Festival Fairy Tales: Collection One. U.K.: Peter
Haddock. (no other
information given)
Graves, Keith. Pet Boy. Sand Francisco: Chronicle,
2000.
Hoban, Russell. Best Friends for Frances.
New York: Harper and
Row, 1969.
Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. New
York: HarperCollins, 1964.
Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes and Variations.
4th ed.
Albany: Wadsworth, 2000.
Williams, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit. New York:
Doubleday,
1922.
THE OBSCURITY
Millie Kim
"The Book of Job," written over 2,500 years ago, continues
to give people in contemporary culture hope and a sense of meaning in life,
even though it does not give us any conclusive answers. This ancient text
has remained relevant for thousands of years. Although Job is a sacred
text, philosophers, poets, and other non-religious figures have given it
equal attention. The reason everyone is intrigued by this text is that
it taps into the universality of human experience. Suffering and injustice
are two main themes that run through "The Book of Job." We often wonder
why innocent people have to suffer and why the world is unjust. In the
year 2001, people are still trying to find meaning in life in a time of
dire need.
This generation needs a model for a meaningful life. "The
Book of Job" is about a man who is guiltless and honest and who fears God.
He is prosperous; he has ten children, thousands of animals, and many servants.
Nevertheless, Satan gets God’s permission to put Job through a test and
take away all his possessions, including his animals, servants, and children.
But, after all the disaster, Job is still true to God. Satan approaches
the Lord once more and says that his servant Job would not be faithful
if they took away his health. So God gives Satan permission to afflict
him with horrid sores from head to toe. But despite all that happens, Job
still does not sin or curse God. However, he does not understand God’s
reasoning. Job is angry that he has to suffer although he has committed
no wrong. He wonders what the point of life is. Job asks, "Why is light
given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul" (413).
He wants an answer from God, but he does not receive a clear-cut response.
Instead, God overwhelms him with the realization of the power and mystery
in life. Job accepts the Lord’s response, and his faith ultimately brings
him reward.
Harold S. Kushner’s interpretation of the text is that
God is not all-powerful. Kushner believes that He has no control over bad
things happening to good people. A Rabbi of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts,
Kushner suffered the loss of his son to progeria, a rare childhood
disease. During this devastating time, he questioned the Lord and himself.
Needing an answer as to why innocent people suffer, Kushner concluded that
God is good but not all-powerful. If He were Almighty, He would have the
power to be just and fair, "so that the good prosper and the wicked are
punished" (458).
Michael Dorris, on the other hand, feels that life is
not fair. He thinks that justice is a myth that makes life tolerable. According
to Dorris, there is no such thing as blind justice. People do not get what
they deserve. But because humans crave order, they construct their own
meanings to comfort themselves in the face of chaos. Chaos makes people
anxious, while they are calmed by predictability. Dorris believes that
even the media encourages this concept that justice prevails, and that
things are supposed to be this way or that way. People insist on and long
for happy endings, and when things do not work out, they are often surprised.
Dorris believes that our faith in justice is a false hope (464-468).
Thomas F. Dailey has a different interpretation of "Job."
He argues that Generation X can use Job as a model in its painful quest
for a meaningful life. The angst-ridden generation is in desperate need
of spirituality and faith. The problem is worsening for the younger generations.
It is "characterized as spiritually passive, radically alone, and increasingly
alienated from institutional churches" (277).
These critics believe that the world is unjust and that
good people do suffer. This is something on which everyone can agree. However,
Kushner’s argument is not persuasive. It is true that innocent people suffer,
but his answer that God is not all-powerful is not an accurate interpretation
of "The Book of Job." Kushner describes God’s battle with the sea serpent,
Levi’athan, in chapter 41 thus:
With great effort, God is able to catch him in a net and pin
him with fishhooks, but it is not easy. If the sea serpent is a
symbol of chaos and evil, of all the uncontrollable things in the
world (as it traditionally is in ancient mythology), the author
may be saying there too that even God has a hard time
keeping chaos in check and limiting the damage that evil can
do. (461)
Kushner describes the hunt as if God needs to make a great
effort to catch Levi’athan. In his words, "it is not easy" (461). In actuality,
God is almost mocking Job for questioning him, the All-powerful, when he,
Job, could hardly stand up to Levi’athan. Thus, Kushner’s argument is not
valid.
Agreeing on the fact that the world is unjust, Dorris
and Dailey have similar arguments despite two different extremes in tone.
They both find it unnecessary to make false meanings out of the mysteries
of life. On the one hand, Dorris is cynical. He claims that there is no
point in making meaning out of something meaningless, and he rejects the
concept of justice and the reality of the sense of order and sanity that
humans crave. He concludes by suggesting that we nevertheless hold on to
illusion and pretend faith in God if we have no real belief in Him:
Be like Pascal and choose to behave as if we’re sure
in our convictions, betting that if, God forbid, we’re wrong, we’ll never
have to find out. Like the ground beneath the circling trickster, we’ll
never know what hit us. (Dorris 468)
We could follow this suggestion, but if there were a God,
would he not know that we had doubt and send us straight to hell?
When I was a child, I went to church on Sundays with my
family. It did not matter whether we were truly religious or not, as long
as we went and pretended. Church was boring for me. The idea of God was
something I could not grasp. It was something I could not believe in, or
maybe I just never had a good enough reason to believe in it. I could not
touch God, see God, or head God. For all I knew, He could have been another
Santa Claus, some figure that would give me hope until I found out that
He was a made-up person. Then, I would be lost!
So I decided I needed proof. But it would never be given
to me. I was waiting for the thunderous voice of God to speak to me, or
to see a great, bright light shining down from heaven. Too much television?
It is not that I did not want to believe. I really did, but blind faith
was not something I could adopt.
I never completely trashed the whole idea of God; I still
have the fear that He does exist. What if He does? I would go to hell,
if there were one, because I do not believe in God one hundred percent.
But how can I believe without the answers? How can anyone? Where does their
faith come from? I wish I could just believe without question. Being like
Pascal would not be satisfying for me.
Unlike Dorris, Dailey is more optimistic in his belief
that we should not fabricate meanings for the mystery of life. Dailey says
that life has been given to us, and instead of questioning it, we should
appreciate the mystery. According to Dailey, this generation needs spirituality.
He describes Job’s encounter with God thus:
In his encounter with the voice from the whirlwind, he discovers that
only God can give a worthwhile answer to his existential queries. What
this suggests is our need for contemplation, our need to revel in the awesome
wonder of life as we know it in this world. (Dailey 289)
This is more relevant to us today and accurate in its paraphrase of "The
Book of Job." People yearn for contentment. Whether they admit it or not,
they do not want to be pessimistic like Dorris.
Whether we are believers in God or not, Job presents a
way for all of us to cope with life, even without understanding. In "The
Book of Job," God never answers the question of why good people suffer.
Life is full of ups and downs, but if we have faith and spirituality and
love for life, we will have lasting happiness. Maybe this sounds too idealistic.
Of course we will still have times of suffering, but would we appreciate
the beauty of it all if there were only happiness? It would be rather boring,
and there would be a lack of passion.
What if we are immortal? We all fear death, just as we
fear everything that is mysterious and unknown. The beauty is that we do
not know all the answers! There might be no afterlife. However, if this
is true, we must not waste our lifetime worrying about something that we
cannot control. We must appreciate the life that has been given to us.
And, by the way, we do live after death. Whether we become renowned poets
or social workers, whatever we do will leave a mark on future generations.
We will live. Look how long the story of Job has lived.
We should not take "The Book of Job" literally. It was
written thousands of years ago, but it will continue to give people in
contemporary culture hope and a sense of meaning in life, and we will appreciate
the mystery and the beauty, without needing to arrive at any conclusive
answers.
WORKS CITED
Dailey, Thomas F. "The Wisdom of Irreverence: Job as
an Icon for
Postmodern
Spirituality." Interpretation 53 (1999): 276-289. PA
RESEARCH II.
ProQuest Direct. Middlesex County College Library,
Edison. 14
Feb. 2001. http://www.proquest.umi.com.
Dorris, Michael. "The Myth of Justice." Writing and Reading
Across the Curriculum.
7th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and
Leonard J. Rosen. New York:
Addison Wesley Longman, 2000: 464-468.
Kushner, Harold S. "When Bad Things Happen to Good People."
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum.
7th ed. Ed. Laurence
Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen.
New York: Addison Wesley
Longman, 2000: 452-462.
"The Book of Job." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum.
7th ed.
Ed. Laurence
Behrens and Loneard J. Rosen. New York: Addison
Wesley Longman,
2000: 411-433.
PLAYING HOUSE
Denise Leight
More and more couples today live together or "play house"
before taking the matrimonial plunge. Living together before marriage has
become so popular that approximately half the couples in America participate
in this activity (Gorrell 16). Some couples choose to live together to
test their compatibility and possibly avoid an unsuccessful marriage. With
the number of marriages ending in divorce these days, it sounds reasonable
that many couples want to give marriage a trial run before making any formal
commitment. But do the chances of a successful marriage actually improve
by cohabiting?
"Cohabitation isn’t marriage," says sociology professor
Linda Waite of the University of Chicago (qtd. in Jabusch 14). Married
and cohabiting couples do not have the same characteristics. According
to Professor Waite, cohabiting couples lack both specialization and commitment
in their relationships (Jabusch 14). Unwed cohabitants generally live more
financially and emotionally independent of one another to allow themselves
the freedom to leave. This often results in less monogamous, short-term
relationships.
Married couples specialize—while partner might take over
the cooking, the other might specialize in cleaning. They pool their money,
time, and other resources, creating a higher quality lifestyle. Unmarried
couples find it much harder to trust each other financially without the
legal bond and, therefore, do not move quickly to pool those resources.
While marriage does not ensure monogamy, married couples have more invested
in their relationship and think longer before acting on their impulses
and stepping outside of the relationship. Unmarried couples do not operate
as a partnership, says Waite: "they are being two separate people—it is
trading off freedom and low levels of commitment for fewer benefits than
you get from commitment" (qtd. Jabusch 15).
Many singles believe that by practicing marriage they
will receive the commitment they desire. With this in mind, they move in
together intending to tie the knot eventually. Time passes and the couple
rarely talks seriously about finalizing the commitment. And so, they often
end up cohabiting for a few years until eventually someone gets tired of
waiting and leaves. Cohabitation can suppress the development of a higher
level of commitment. Sometimes, one or both of the people involved become
complacent in the relationship, and without any pressure to move forward,
they won’t. As social psychologist Dr. Julia Hare puts it, "Why would you
go to the store to buy some milk with the cow standing in the living room?"
(qtd. "Why…Marriage?" 53). Certainly, to call a marriage successful, it
must actually take place.
A study conducted by an assistant professor of human development
and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, Catherine Cohan, Ph.D.,
found that those who had lived together before marriage "displayed more
negative and fewer positive problem solving and support behaviors than
couples that had not cohabitated prior to marriage" (Gorrell 16). For example,
if one partner of a cohabiting couple diagnosed a particular topic as a
problem, the other would express more negative behaviors such as forcefulness
and attempts to control. Women who had lived with their partners before
marriage generally exhibited more verbal aggressiveness than those in the
couples without premarital cohabitation.
One cannot ignore the possibility that cohabitants as
a group may have certain distinguishable characteristics that make them
more likely to divorce. The type of people who would choose to cohabit
before marriage may simply be less willing to put the full amount of effort
required into a relationship. However, a recent study determined that "the
cohabitor selectivity reflected in four sociodemographic variables—parental
divorce, marital status homogamy, age homogamy, and stepchildren—is unable
to materially account for the cohabitation effect" (Hall and Zhao 424).
In other words, the study did not show that these predisposing factors
contributed greatly to the marriage dissolution of cohabiting couples.
Cohabiting does not necessarily equal the tragic end of
a relationship, but couples who do marry after living together have higher
rates of separation and divorce (Gorrell 16). The lack of commitment in
such a relationship plays a large role in this scenario. If a couple wishes
to have a successful marriage, they should show their commitment to each
other from the beginning. If they trust each other enough not not cohabit
before marriage, their marriage already has a higher probability of success.
WORKS CITED
"Why Are So Many Couples Living Together Before
Marriage?"
Jet. 3 Aug. 1998: 52-55.
Gorrell, Carin. "Live-in and Learn." Psychology Today.
Nov.
2000:
16.
Hall, David R. and John Z. Zhao. "Cohabitation and Divorce
in
Canada: Testing the Selectivity Hypothesis." Journal of
Marriage & the Family 57.2 (1995): 421-427.
Jabusch, Willard F. "The Myth of Cohabitation." America
7
Oct.
2000: 14-16.
THE ANTI-‘RELLA ROCKS!
by Frances Goff
"When the Clock Strikes", a modern day version of "Cinderella"
by Tanith Lee, is a well-thought-out, innovative interpretation of the
classic children’s fairy tale. This is the version that I found most appealing
(of the nine in our reader) because it appears to be the opposite of most
other versions of this story, presenting our traditional heroine as a villainess
bent on revenge.
It is in this contrast that my interests lie, for this
Cinderella does not have the same aspirations as the Cinderellas of the
past. This modern anti-heroine does not dream of marriage and a guarantee
of ‘happily ever after’; she wants nothing more than to fulfill her dead
mother’s vendetta. Lee’s heroine/villain, Ashella, is not forced into servitude,
as in versions past; she willingly places herself there, and it is by her
own volition that she rises from the ashes to carry out her vengeful plot.
Lee uses all the ingredients of the traditional tale in
this adaptation and brilliantly leaves no detail untouched. For example,
she incorporates the clock’s stroke of midnight into Ashella’s devious
plan as the beginning of the end for her intended victim, the prince, and
not as marking the end of the ball, as in the more popular versions of
the story.
There is a message of strength and fortitude that shines
through this somewhat morbid tale. Although the story is primarily about
black magic and witchery, I found that this version is much more responsive
to the values of our modern culture: that woman can do or be anything that
she desires.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lee, Tanith. "When the Clock Strikes". Writing and
Reading Across
the Curriculum. 7th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J.
Rosen.
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 2000: 607-619.
Job and Our Final Destiny
Suzanne Mastronardo
Life is difficult. "Suffering…is not an exception to the
human condition, it is the human condition" (Gomes 405). The question
of why life can be unjustly cruel is asked today and has been asked since
the beginning of time.
And where is God in the midst of hardship? Is He non-existent,
as the pagan statement, "It’s Chance alone that moves and rules our lives"
implies (Neiman 442). Or is God only partially in control of situations,
as Harold Kushner concludes, writing, "there are some things God does not
control" (462). Is all suffering a direct result of our own actions, as
David Neiman offers ("He who is suffering and believes in a God of justice,
must also blame himself for his state of being"" (438). Moses Maimonides
prefers to view the question by focusing not on the external life that
surrounds us, but on the internal condition of the heart. He argues that
good and evil have their own reward and punishments within the spiritual
realm and outward appearances are inconsequential (Behrens and Rosen 434).
For those who believe in a God who is living and active
and who believe in the sanctity of the scriptures, the question of God’s
justice in the Bible does seem a contradiction at times. As Neiman observed,
The
Book of Proverbs presents a formula for life, promising blessings
to the man who lives a moral life (436). But is The Book of Proverbs
a collection of promises or is it the wise man’s observations of probabilities?
One can see the unpleasant consequences of poor choices, as well as the
good fortunes of those who have lived a "clean" life, but sometimes this
moral law breaks down. As Neiman states, "experience has led men to realize
that life does not always offer proper recompense to a man for his actions"
(437).
The Book of Job brings these questions to life
in a human drama which took place thousands of years ago. Job, a righteous
man devastated beyond imagination, cries out to God in a way many can identify
with. He expresses his anger toward God (10:8), feels separated from God
(13:24), and demands an answer form God (10:2). However, the reader can
observe Job’s struggle with his righteousness. He claims his innocence
and even presents to God specific deeds he has done throughout his life
(29:1-25). But then he constantly comes back to the same question: "But
how can a man be just before God?" (9:2). This profound question is crucial
to our understanding of our relationship to God and our acceptance of His
will. As good as Job is, when he sees himself in the light of God’s perfection,
he realizes that he is just as wretched as the next guy. God owes him nothing.
God’s very first words to Job, "Who is this that darkens
counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2) speak clearly to all people.
"The problem of man’s existence is that he does not know what is going
on in the universe beyond the veil of mystery, and is unaware of the workings
of God" (Neiman 443). God has a perfect understanding of justice, an omniscience
that we cannot fathom, and, as Biblical history has shown, God has perhaps
used people "unfairly" to accomplish his will. For believing Christians,
God performed the most "unfair" act of all by allowing Christ, His son,
to be mocked, tortured, and killed, although completely innocent. As for
creature comforts, Jesus had no wife, children, home, indeed, "no place
to lay his head: (Matt. 8:20). Who is deserving, if not God incarnate?
Would we have our sense of fairness imposed upon God? Our society can barely
agree on how to punish criminal acts, much less judge who has led a life
deserving of wealth, health, and few hardships.
The very fact that God did not answer Job’s accusations
directly, but instead reminded Job of His omnipotence, is a clear message
to people today. Archibald MacLeish writes that God’s purpose in letting
Job suffer was to allow Job the opportunity to prove that he loved God,
"for the love’s sake, for God’s sake, in spite of everything – in spite
even of injustice, even God’s injustice" (479). King Solomon, the author
of Ecclesiastes, saw unfairness in the world and summed it up with,
"Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man"
(Ecc. 12:13). It is futile to attempt to understand why bad things happen.
God wants us to stop worrying about the injustice of the world around us
and to start looking at our own final destiny.
God simply desires for us to love him for who He is –
Creator, Giver of life, Lover of all men – not for what He can do and can’t
do. Kushner refers to "an ancient sage who rejoiced at the world’s injustice,
saying, ‘Now I can do God’s will out of love for Him and not out of self-interest’"
(460). Love is not self-seeking. Love is illustrated by a mother who cares
for her newborn baby and expects nothing in return. She continues to love
and nurture, until the child is an adult, in anticipation of the beautiful
person the child will be. God wants us to anticipate the day when we will
be made perfect, and trust His ways, like a child trusting its mother.
Works Cited
Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen, eds. Writing
and Reading
Across the Curriculum.
7th ed. NewYork: Longman, 2000.
-Gomes, Peter. "The Bible and Suffering." 400-405.
- Kushner, Harold S. "When Bad Things Happen to Good
People." 452-462.
- MacLeisch, Archibald. "God Has Need of Man."
474-480.
- Neiman, David. "An Introduction to Job 435-444.
The Bible. Revised Standard Version. 2nd
ed. Dallas: Melton, 1971.
LOVE AND LUST
Brian Kelly
Lust is an incredibly strong feeling that can prove to be
almost uncontrollable, leading it to commonly be mistaken for love. Due
to the relative closeness of these emotions, both are often confused, and
even when one is in love he or she does not recognize it. Many think that
love just comes knocking on one’s door and one will know when it does,
but they don’t realize that for love to occur a relationship has must be
worked out. Love is described by some as fireworks, tingles, and butterflies
in the stomach; but it is lust that can cause these things to happen, and
it is these that mark only the beginning of a relationship. After a while,
these feelings die out, and this is when the honeymoon period is over;
it is from this point on that the relationship will either end or get stronger
and eventually lead to true love.
Lust is the main idea behind the poem "Play-By-Play" by
Joan Murray. The tale being told is of older women well past their sixties
admiring much younger men playing softball from up on a terrace over-looking
the field. The women are gawking at
the flex of a batter’s hips
before his missed swing, the wide-spread stride
of a man picked off his base, the intensity
on the new man’s face
as he waits on deck and fans the air. (Murray 837)
The poem goes on to tell of the women, who "…haven’t put
aside desire/ but sit at ease and in pleasure,/ watching the young men"
(Murray 837). This work obviously shows how the women lust after the attractive
young men, and clearly are not in love; any one of these men could have
been replaced with another attractive man and would have made no difference
to the women.
Much like "Play-By-Play", Sharon Olds gives the same feeling
of lust in "Sex without Love." The narrator of the story lusts to be one
of the people who can freely have sex with another person and most importantly
carry no emotional attachments. At first, one might see the work as condemning
people who have sex without being in love; but after further review, one
can see how Olds really portrays these people. She describes them as being
"…Beautiful as dancers,/ gliding over each other like ice skaters" (Olds
838); also they are considered very religious, and in-tune with their bodies
much like great runners are. The characters in the poem are depicted as
athletes, agile and ready to compete, much like how the narrator, who talks
so highly of them, wants to be. However, once again, only the emotion of
lust is present in this piece, and there is no confusion between love and
lust.
So many people fall victim to lust, believing that it
is something more than what it is. In the poem "Junior Year Abroad," the
lead character reveals lust for a man in her homeland, an emotion that
quickly fades away after meeting someone during her stay in Paris. The
poem begins with an introduction to her situation and reveals that he will
come to Paris at Christmas to be with her. "The shelf life of my promise
expired" (Rebecca 839), is how she refers to her lover’s upcoming visit,
explaining how quickly her lust for him has gone away. This poem gives
specific examples of how lust can be there one minute, then fade the next.
On the night of arrival, the speaker describes herself as acting "pert
and perky as a circus pony" (Rebecca 839) to hide the fact that her lust
has diminished. The clincher of this work is line eleven, in which she
states, "I didn’t love him anymore" (Rebecca 839). Love? How could she
call this love? This is an incredibly loose usage of the term. Love doesn’t
fade away over the span of a few months; although she might have met a
new man in Paris, there is no way that she couldn’t love the first man
anymore. When alone in Paris for a few months, meeting somebody would be
out of the question, even if she were in love; but once she laid eyes on
her man, a spark of familiarity should have been there immediately, and
she would have realized the mistake she had made. In this poem the main
character is lustful of both the new man she has met in Paris as well as
the man she left behind her homeland, although she was under the false
perception that it was love.
The often confused words ‘love’ and ‘lust’ are becoming
used interchangeably more and more every day. Indeed, many definitions
are being loosened up and many words are used improperly. When people use
the words ‘love’ and ‘lust’, they should be more careful which word it
is that they mean to say.
WORKS CITED
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About
Literature.
Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.
-
Joan Murray, "Play-By-Play". Meyer. 837-838.
-
Sharon Olds, "Sex Without Love". Meyer. 838.
-
Barbara Rebecca, "Junior Year Abroad". Meyer. 839.
UNDERSTANDING THE RIVER
Carol Lovallo
Confusion, embarrassment, and guilt can all be found throughout
João Guimarães Rosa’s short story "The Third Bank of the
River." Rosa forces the reader to analyze his words and delve deeply into
the hidden meanings behind them. Upon first glance, a story unfolds of
a father who seemingly abandons his family and chooses to live out the
remainder of his life rowing a small boat back and forth along a river.
There are circumstances leading up to this behavior, which new insight
to the author's psychological meaning.
The story develops through the narration of one of the
children in the family. His recollection of the days which lead to his
father’s absence brings a clear image of the family structure he knew when
he was a child. The narrator describes his father as "dutiful, orderly,"
and "straightforward"(200). He is quick to point out, however, who has
the final say in the household: "It was mother, not father, who ruled the
house" (200). When the father decides to order a boat, made specifically
for him, the mother "carriedon plenty about it" (200). When the boat arrives,
the father says goodbye to all, and the children expect their mother to
carry on about this, but her reaction is mixed. The effectiveness of her
orders to her husband, "If you go away, stay away. Don’t ever come back,"
is weakened as she bites her lip and turns very pale. Her authority is
reduced further when her son follows his father to the river, feeling "bold
and exhilarated" because he risks the wrath of his mother and wins (200).
The child feels so vindicated by his rebellious actions that he asks to
accompany his father in the boat. However, his father gestures to him to
return, and rows away, alone.
While the father remains adrift, conflict occurs within
the family. Although not setting foot on land, the father does not disappear.
He continually rows his small boat back and forth along the expanse of
the river. At times, he is not within view, but he appears eventually.
Never does he cease to exist; only his contact with the family does. This
causes much commotion among the family and neighbors, and in turn, "mother
was ashamed," proclaimes the narrator (200). Although the father is not
in direct contact with his family, he has found a way to weaken his wife’s
authority. Her steadfast rule and dominance over her family are now in
question.
It is possible that Rosa meant to place the father in
a position by which he could regain power over his wife. When the father
resides at home, the family regards him simply as another member, and they
know he is susceptible to his wife’s wrath. He holds a lowly position.
When he rows onto the water, he is able to change his position within the
family. The river is a source of renewal for him. His actions are so abrupt
that he is able to control his family without contact. The son acknowledges
his never-ending presence, "My father always away and his absence always
with me," a statement that reveals his inability to forget his father (202).
When the father existed in the household, family knew very little about
him. In fact, the son’s description of him is vague. Once the father enters
the water, however, he becomes the center of attention not only among his
family, but also among neighbors and authorities.
Although the mother is embarrassed by her husband’s actions,
she secretly wants him to return. On more than one occasion, she attempts
to relay that desire to her mate. At first, she and her family make fires
on the shore and pray, in hopes he will return. She then approaches the
subject from another angle. She has a priest go to the shore and try to
exorcise the demons from within her husband. When this fails, she "arranged
to have two soldiers come and try to frighten him" (201). The father never
responds to her actions. The question remains, however, what are her motives?
Many of the household duties, which her husband has left behind, require
attention. The wife eventually needs her brother’s assistance to "help
on the farm" and handle "business matters" (201). The reader may be led
to believe the wife’s attempts to retrieve her husband are based on necessity.
Perhaps, that is the reason for her "embarrassment;" she is admitting,
in a sense, that she cannot maintain her home without her husband. A second
possibility is the question of the emotional feelings the wife might hold
for her husband. Does she care deeply about her spouse and desire his return
because of love?
The narrator hints towards the illusion of a caring, loving
wife, by uncovering her role in providing a constant food supply for her
treasonous husband. Her son is unaware that, as he pilfers supplies to
leave on the riverbank as gifts for his father, his mother knows of his
actions: she "left food around" so that he could "easily steal it" (201).
Yet another reason for encouraging his return may have been that she wished
to regain the family order that once existed. She cannot hold complete
authority as long as her husband continues to command so much attention
on the river.
The narrator, a son of the man, seems to possess the greatest
sense of responsibility for his father’s situation. "I was deeply distressed
and felt a need to do something more," explains the attitude that causes
the son to leave daily rations of food along the waterside for his father
(201). With the passage of time, the rest of the family abandons all hope
of the father’s return. The mother and her two other children, now grown,
journey away from the river to pursue lives elsewhere. The narrator remaines,
however, seemingly imprisoned by his obligations to his father. He confesses
his reasons for staying there "with the impedimenta of my life. Father,
wandering alone and forlorn on the river, needed me. I knew he needed me"
(202). As the son’s hair begins to gray (so many years go by), he worries
more and more about his father’s condition. He ponders more and more the
reasons behind his father's conduct, and he is finally struck by an idea
which is kept from the reader. He seems to realize what his father wants.
He goes to the water and beckons to his father. He shouts out loudly and
clearly to his father: "Father, you have been out there long enough. You
are old…Come back, you don’t have to do it anymore…Come back, and I’ll
go instead. Right now, if you want. I’ll get in the boat. I’ll take your
place" (203). This causes the father to do something he has not done since
he first set himself afloat on the river: he reacts. The father accepts
his offer and begins to row towards the shore. The son, however, is suddenly
struck with complete fear because to him, his father "seemed to come from
another world" (203). What is it that his father wants? What was it that
his son’s statement’s announces to the father? Perhaps, it is the simple
act of an invitation to come home. In all of the family’s endeavors, not
once is there the mention of someone's simply inviting the father to come
home and be part of the family again. The mother has attempted to force
him to return through the priest and the soldiers, but never has she called
out to her husband and told him that she understands him and wants him
to come home. Never does anyone in the family consider the father his or
her equal. When the son offers to take his place on the river, he is saying
that he and his father are equals and interchangeable, and this may be
the reason the father is finally able to come home.
Upon realization of commitment, the son flees, breaking
his covenant with his father. He cannot make such a final commitment. His
faith and loyalty, when truly challenged, are not strong enough. His realization
causes overwhelming guilt, which is heightened by the disappearance of
the father forever. He is never seen or heard of again. Without the son,
the father is nothing, and without the father, the son is nothing.
A riverbank can be found where two worlds, earth and water,
connect. Any river will have two banks, one on either side of the water.
Rosa has created a character who has found a "third bank on the river,"
a third way to separate land from the sea. This bank belongs to an entirely
different world. Rosa has found a way for the father to exist, yet not
exist, within the family. He is connected to his family and weighs heavily
upon their minds even though he is a part of an entirely different world.
He has discovered this link by establishing a "third bank of the river."
Work Cited
Rosa, João Gumarães. "The Third Bank of
the River." Trans. William
Grossman. Angles of Vision. Ed. Arthur W. Biddle and Toby
Fulwiler. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992. 200-203.
"THE SECRET" THAT CHANGED LIVES FOREVER
Steffanie Park
It is often considered a great feat when an author is
successful in capturing the reader’s attention through a charact |
