16th September 2010
ONE'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND REGRETS FROM THE PAST SHAPE THE PERSON YOU ARE TODAY.
Luella Bates Washington Jones wasn’t always an empathetic, forgiving person. In fact, her past was filled with dark regrets that she was ashamed to even say out loud. Later on in her life, she changed for the better. Not only did she get an honest job at a hotel beauty shop, she also became more empathetic to people who did the things she used to do and helped them to become better people. This extreme change of character was due to the shame of her past and the realisation that it’s always better to do things the honest way. She herself describes her disgraceful past and says “... ‘I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son- neither tell God, if he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat’...”. In the above quote, Luella describes her past where she had done bad things to get what she wanted and, though she never actually mentioned what exactly she did, you can tell that she regretted it deeply and had most definitely wished she could make better choices, however, though her past was a bad one, it helped her in the present. Not only did it help her to realise she could make a difference and forgive others for what they have done, it helped her become a kinder, more trusting and empathetic person. As Roger is about to leave, Luella states “ ‘... because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet...
... I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in...’ ”. Luella’s own, personal experiences have taught her to look out for others, even if they are total strangers. It seems as though her personal connection with Roger is that she also used to do bad things to get what she wanted and she understands that he is not a bad person in the inside, he just wanted things; just like she did. But she changed, as she hopes he would. She hoped he would realise what she realised, that doing bad things to get what you want is bad. Luella’s dark past was not completely a bad thing, in fact, it served a greater purpose in helping Luella become a better person,a more empathetic, caring and forgiving person.
Miss Thompson, from the Make A Difference Movie, was just a normal 5th grade teacher of reading, writing and arithmetic, that is, until she met Teddy Stalard. When Miss Thompson met Teddy, she didn’t like him. She found that he didn’t play well with others, his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. It came to a time where she took pleasure in marking his work wrong and writing big F’s at the top of his papers, little did she know that the reason behind his anti-social appearance, his messiness and his constant need of a bath was that his mother had died and his father cared very little about him. It turned out that he had actually had a pleasant personality in the 1st and 2nd grades but after his mother’s death in the third grade, he changed, not for the better. After finding this out, she changed, not for the worse- for the better. She decided she would stop teaching reading, writing and arithmetic and that she would instead teach children. She became a better teacher and nurtured each of her students, especially Teddy, to do the best they could. Miss Thompson regretted being so harsh and judgmental with Teddy when she found out the cause for his behavior that she promised to change into who she is today; a wonderful teacher. After reading through Teddy Stalard’s file, Miss Thompson realized what she had done and how cruel and judgemental she had been. ”... On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead she began to teach children...”. The previous quote shows how she changed from being just an ordinary teacher to being a inspirational teacher because of how guilty she felt about Teddy. She had been an ordinary teacher, teaching students just to read, write and do arithmetic, however, after her experience with Teddy, she changed into a wonderful teacher who inspired her students to want to learn on their own, especially Teddy. She had felt so regretful of her past actions that she wanted to ensure that it would never happen again and that she would make it up to Teddy by teaching him really well, and this was exactly what she did. In fact, she taught Teddy so well that he wrote letters to her exclaiming how she was the best teacher he ever had and that he had stuck with college and had become a doctor, he also mentioned that he had met this girl and was going to be married. He asked her if she would sit where his mother would have sat in the wedding. She said yes and when she got there she whispered to Teddy “...’Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach before I met you.’ ...”. In this quote, she explained how she had changed because of him and how she had been a bad teacher before she met him. She had been judgemental and a simple teacher who taught nothing more than reading, writing and arithmetic but after meeting him, she became a inspirational teacher. If she hadn’t had this experience with Teddy and hadn’t felt the regret and guilt that she felt about Teddy, she may never have become the inspirational teacher that she is today.
In both “Thank you Ma’am” and the “Make a Difference Movie”, there seems to be an inspirational protagonist who has gone through a change in their personalities due to a regret in their previous actions. Both the changes, Luella’s change from a criminal to a forgiving woman and Miss Thompson’s change from a normal teacher to a wonderful inspirational teacher, were changes that made the person better and lead to the protagonist making a significant imprint on another person’s life, whether it was giving someone another chance, or just inspiring them to strive for the best, these protagonists helped people.
Image link: http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/WeR1Family/blog/makeadifference.png
... I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in...’ ”. Luella’s own, personal experiences have taught her to look out for others, even if they are total strangers. It seems as though her personal connection with Roger is that she also used to do bad things to get what she wanted and she understands that he is not a bad person in the inside, he just wanted things; just like she did. But she changed, as she hopes he would. She hoped he would realise what she realised, that doing bad things to get what you want is bad. Luella’s dark past was not completely a bad thing, in fact, it served a greater purpose in helping Luella become a better person,a more empathetic, caring and forgiving person.
Miss Thompson, from the Make A Difference Movie, was just a normal 5th grade teacher of reading, writing and arithmetic, that is, until she met Teddy Stalard. When Miss Thompson met Teddy, she didn’t like him. She found that he didn’t play well with others, his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. It came to a time where she took pleasure in marking his work wrong and writing big F’s at the top of his papers, little did she know that the reason behind his anti-social appearance, his messiness and his constant need of a bath was that his mother had died and his father cared very little about him. It turned out that he had actually had a pleasant personality in the 1st and 2nd grades but after his mother’s death in the third grade, he changed, not for the better. After finding this out, she changed, not for the worse- for the better. She decided she would stop teaching reading, writing and arithmetic and that she would instead teach children. She became a better teacher and nurtured each of her students, especially Teddy, to do the best they could. Miss Thompson regretted being so harsh and judgmental with Teddy when she found out the cause for his behavior that she promised to change into who she is today; a wonderful teacher. After reading through Teddy Stalard’s file, Miss Thompson realized what she had done and how cruel and judgemental she had been. ”... On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead she began to teach children...”. The previous quote shows how she changed from being just an ordinary teacher to being a inspirational teacher because of how guilty she felt about Teddy. She had been an ordinary teacher, teaching students just to read, write and do arithmetic, however, after her experience with Teddy, she changed into a wonderful teacher who inspired her students to want to learn on their own, especially Teddy. She had felt so regretful of her past actions that she wanted to ensure that it would never happen again and that she would make it up to Teddy by teaching him really well, and this was exactly what she did. In fact, she taught Teddy so well that he wrote letters to her exclaiming how she was the best teacher he ever had and that he had stuck with college and had become a doctor, he also mentioned that he had met this girl and was going to be married. He asked her if she would sit where his mother would have sat in the wedding. She said yes and when she got there she whispered to Teddy “...’Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach before I met you.’ ...”. In this quote, she explained how she had changed because of him and how she had been a bad teacher before she met him. She had been judgemental and a simple teacher who taught nothing more than reading, writing and arithmetic but after meeting him, she became a inspirational teacher. If she hadn’t had this experience with Teddy and hadn’t felt the regret and guilt that she felt about Teddy, she may never have become the inspirational teacher that she is today.
In both “Thank you Ma’am” and the “Make a Difference Movie”, there seems to be an inspirational protagonist who has gone through a change in their personalities due to a regret in their previous actions. Both the changes, Luella’s change from a criminal to a forgiving woman and Miss Thompson’s change from a normal teacher to a wonderful inspirational teacher, were changes that made the person better and lead to the protagonist making a significant imprint on another person’s life, whether it was giving someone another chance, or just inspiring them to strive for the best, these protagonists helped people.
Image link: http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/WeR1Family/blog/makeadifference.png
16th August 2010.
ONE'S IDENTITY IS FORMED BY SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS
In Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the slaughter”, a typical housewife of the 1960’s is told that her husband, the father of her unborn child, is leaving her. The housewife, Mary Maloney, had an identity that was very much formed by the expectations that society had made for housewives. A main expectation how housewives should dedicate their life to their husband and spend the whole day preparing the house for them is definitely a part of Mary Maloney’s life. As Mary Maloney awaited her husband’s return from work, it was as if she had a schedule which consisted of looking after him and making sure that her husband was pleased. However, as mentioned before, she was not unlike many other housewives of her time. Society expected women to stay at home all day, looking after the house and looking after the husband. This societal expectation led Mary Maloney to become a little obsessed with perfection. In her eyes, her identity as a housewife personified the perfection of her life. So, understandably, when her husband announced he was leaving her, she reacted very strongly. Her ‘perfect’ world had been shattered to pieces and she felt desperate. Infact, she was so devastated at the loss of her perfect world, which she had spent many years of her life, she murdered her husband. This reaction was due to the fact that her ‘perfect’ world had been shattered to pieces and she felt desperate enough to murder the person who had caused this destruction. This instance in the story shows how the societal expectation, perfectionism, very much formed Mary Maloney’s identity in that she only murdered her husband because of the fact that she was worried that her life would be far from perfect and she may be outcast from society. Infact, she would rather become a widow than a divorcee, as becoming a divorcee was a lot more frowned upon than being a widow.
Another example in the same theme is Henrik Ibsen’s play “A doll’s house”. Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian writer from 1860-70’s and is well known worldwide. In the play, which was published in 1879, a housewife, Nora Helmer, tries to conceal a secret that would threaten her family’s position in society should it be exposed and consequently her thoughts are haunted by this nightmare. As she desperately struggles to keep the secret from her husband, she begins to question her marriage and life in general. However, in order to maintain her status, Nora puts on a show for guests and visitors, playing the role of a perfect housewife, solely dedicated to her wife and children. And, even though she has maids, she would help out and check that the house was completely spick and span. This was because her identity had everything to do with her family and how it was viewed by the society, a trait shaped by societal expectations. Many other housewives also had this trait, due to the fact that the way society viewed people was very important to people of that time, and, seeing as her family was the main element of her life, she wanted it to be spick and span. Unfortunately for her the secret is unravelled and as expected, her husband’s angry reaction confirmed her worse fears and she leaves him, leaving her perfect family behind. What they were in the eyes of society was important to him and to her. His reaction to finding out about the scandal that Nora committed was and angry one, only because he viewed his identity as the perfect man and his identity was being threatened. He had the best job, manager of a bank, he had a beautiful wife, three children and in the view of society he seemed, well, perfect. He had formed his identity by societal expectations. In fact, should Nora’s secret be exploited, his position and image in society would be completely gone. His wife would be perceived as a criminal, his children would be the children of a criminal and he may even lose his job. After all, they had worked their whole life for it. In his reaction to finding out, Nora’s husband mentioned that she would still remain in the house; however, she would be unable to see the children and even though they would still seem perfect, in reality they would just be like roommates, yet married. This is because Nora’s husband didn’t want a divorce, as this was frowned upon by society and for him, this would be socially unacceptable and he would lose everything he worked hard for and be stripped of all his dignity. Later on, however, he calms down and regrets all he said and begs Nora to forgive him however she does not and he gets the opposite of what he wanted, he gets a divorce.
Both stories, “Lamb to the slaughter”, and “A doll’s house”, share the common theme of character’s identity being formed by societal expectations and consequences of it when things go wrong. In “Lamb to the slaughter”, it is obvious that Mary Maloney had taken the role society gave her as a housewife to heart. However she was not recognised by her husband and after him telling her he is leaving her, she consequently became disillusioned and angry, later causing her to murder him because he had destroyed her ‘perfect’ world. In “A doll’s house”, Nora Helmer was expected to look after her family and keep everything spick and span. Importantly she was not to shame her family. However, she later ended up with a scandal that could shame her family, should it be exposed. Her husband reacted with great anger to the scandal and became blind with fear for his reputation, threatening to separate her from her children. Despite her efforts she miserably failed and in the end leaves her family claiming her marriage and home were not real, merely ‘a doll’s house’ that was being played with.
"Doll's House, A." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 22 Aug. 2010
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Better World Books. Web. 23 Aug. 2010.
