Dorian Gray is the Devil

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go." -Oscar Wilde, several weeks before his death. The obsession with beauty and beautiful things has always been evident in humankind. We like pretty things. We like objects and images which we find "aesthetically pleasing." In class we discussed how Dorian Gray's painting becomes hideous because ugliness is what we associate with evil, or immoral activity. In reality, evil is very rarely so obvious. People might get frown lines because they don't smile, but they could have just had a rough life. I think mankind has an obsession with characterizing good and evil. We see children, dogs, flowers, sunlight, the 19th century Impressionism movement as "good." We see savage tribes, sharks, darkness, or selfish intentions as "bad." When something does not fit into either category, it makes man uncomfortable. Dorian Gray had a terrible soul but he was the most beautiful man of his time. I said this in class, but I hate how a lot of literature and art depict the Devil as someone who is revolting, horrific, and fearsome. The Devil was an angel, and accorsing to Scripture angels are supposed to have about 9 wings and hundreds of eyes covering their body. That's not something I personally find aesthetically pleasing, but in my opinion Lucifer should look just as beautiful as Michael or Gabriel. If you paint Gabriel looking like he's walking the red carpet, Lucifer should be right there with him. Historically, people portayed the Devil with dark skin and dark features as a way of establishing a dominant white race. Look at how retouched the magazine covers are in society. Darker skinned people have their features lightened, women are often subject to sudden waist-shrinkage, and every imperfection is calulated out of the equation. This is something we are surrounding ourselves with every day. Through every media outlet we are taught what to find beautiful. People believed Dorian Gray was beautiful because he was young, because his outer shell did not display causes from his inner soul. Dorian Gray was like Lucifer, he loved music, he fell from his pedastal of being "God's" (Basil) favorite and he was beautiful.

Marie Antoinette Did Not Deserve That, France.

So when I first read The Awakening I was not really super into it because I don't tend to like characters that are presented without flaws or appear to be upheld toma high standard by everyone else. In previous literature, this was the case in The Power of One, in which I found Peekay's constant praise annoying. In The Awakening however, Edna Pontellier has flaws that extend beyond the basic formation of her character. Her flaw is her society, as fatal as Acheilles' Heel and even more debilitating on both emotional and physical levels. After class discussion of the novel and analyzing the work itself, I now have a very strong respect for Edna Pontellier and Kate Chopin. I think that this nature of judging women for being too perfect, or "promiscuous", or "ugly" is a nurtured critical perspective people are often taught to have when encountering anybody. In Edna's society, she cannot do anything because she is a women and therefore must uphold all qualities and chacteristics of the feminine lifestyle. In our society, we tell women they will be tested on intelligence and judged by beauty. When I look at women in today's media who are forced to live under certain archetypes created for them by the media, I think of Taylor Swift being criticized for obsessing over love and boys, remarks in social media condemning the way in which Rihanna presents herself, or Secretary of State Hilary Clinton having to maintain the image of a powerful women. People don't want to talk about Taylor Swift writing a song about her family, or they use the same scornful words to criticize Rihanna wearing sweatpants, or how nobody is asking Hilary Clinton the same questions they are asking Martha Stewart. Edna was expected to behave a certain way to appear perfect to the outside world. The role she played was not a role she wanted to play, so she "exited stage right". The expectation of women is still unchanged in that society expects them to behave exactly as we wish. When they don't, we criticize. When they do, we criticize. This week, for International Women's Day, I came across a quote "In some countries it is more dangerous to be a women than to be a soldier." When you compare the freedom of a women in 1890 to a women in 2015, the difference is striking. However, Edna still exists in every women that is told she cannot dress a certain way, say a specific thing, or learn a certain skill.

How We Destroyed Them

Native Americans have experienced a long, brutal history involving many of humanities worst violations against human rights. The list of abuses includes, but is not limited to: genocide, disease, rape, militarization, concentration, social isolation, appropriation of culture, and political inequality. Throughout history we have often seen, and are pleased at the outcome of, the underdog winning against oppression. It becomes very hard for the average American to admit that what Hitler did to six million people is being reflected here, crudely, in the modern day United States. In an excerpt we analyzed from The Toughest Indian, there was a young Native American who had trouble adjusting from his native culture to American assimilation. His native culture has been washed out by an all-American ideal of conforming. The Native people are not allowed to wear their grass skirts, although there is no law forbidding it there is a very negative social taboo invoked with traditional Native American culture. Roman Fury was a symbol of tradition, of respect for history, and the American  invasion into Native culture. He had the greatest potential, leadership qualities, and intelligence beyond his years; however this is also on top of the fact that he has grown up a poor orphan who lives isolated on an Indian reservation with his grandmother. His Native culture is misunderstood by American citizens, specifically Mr. Williams, a figurehead at Roman's school.

While it can be true that Americans were not the ones who settled here, we were the ones who continued to push and poke Native tribes farther west over the course of almost three centuries. We gave them smallpox blankets to further ease our troubles and justified the immorality through the American belief in Manifest Destiny. What we did was wrong, and what we are doing today is wrong. We have isolated the last of a once great and powerful population onto small reservations in which the United States government establishes, oversees, and controls. Reservations are extremely depressing, full of alcoholics and gamblers, the people who once dominated the continent have been reduced to hollow shells. I do love reading the pro-feminism books but I wish we read more about Native Americans in school. Until very recently in my education was I actually taught in a classroom setting how the American people destroyed the Native lifestyle. It's just very sad to me.

(Pictured below: Native American land claims throughout history) source

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

I feel like we always read about these guys who are so in love with some glamorous, out-of-their-league woman. J. Alfred Prufrock is Gatsby, only older, and Poe, only more sane. It's a literary trope that's worn out it's welcome to me, only one notch above the more common dead horse writers love to  beat, the love-triangle. Madame recommended a book to me called, The Cult of the Saints which is basically the in-depth analysis of the culture of Virgin Mary and the world's fascination with saintly, virginal women. Even before the birth of Christ, women who stayed on a more devout, modest path were often held above women that engaged in scandalous behavior. All female saints prior to the fourteenth/fifteenth century were considered devout women because they abstained from sex. That was the way to solidify their sainthood. Saint Joan of Arc was a French martyr who saved France at 18 years old, but the people of her time appreciated her because she preached Christianity and abstained from romantic relationships. Would she have been canonized if she had been a prostitute before leading the French army to war? She probably would never have been given the chance to lead the French army to war. This woman who captivates Prufrock, although never described, has basically driven him to live his life alone and drowned in anxiety. She has to be beautiful, or at least in some way remarkably above the "average" woman. I think that even though people try to say that our modern world has moved away from that unattainable Virgin Mary image, we haven't. There's criticism for women who dress promiscuously, dress-codes in place to prevent the sighting of an exposed shoulder, and, the most horrific, is that there are cultures where a woman who has lost her virginity (by force or choice) is no longer allowed to live within her home community. There was a news story a couple of years ago about a girl in some Middle Eastern country who looked upon a boy and her father killed her on the spot. Why? Women are always compared to saints. They always will be.