The Valley of Ashes

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the valley of ashes as a symbol to remind us that even though our story takes place within the rich East and West Eggs, that there is without a doubt a lower class that suffers at the expense of 1920's commerce and modernism. With descriptions such as "grotesque gardens" and "crumbling" men, it is without a doubt that this is a bleak and melancholy environment ignored and left to rot. With consumerism and greed leaving a trail of poverty, the citizens of the valley of ashes are the products of this world. Outcasts who do not fit into the societal norm of lavish living are left in a ditch with no way to get out- perpetually sinking further down.
This can be applied to our current lives as well. Having lived in wealthy suburbs of large cities such as Plano and Troy, it was hard to see past the blinds of prosperity created by the infrastructure, safety, and community. However, it was frequently brought to my attention that even in such places, there are those who are struggling to get by. For example, many kids still need free lunch since they don't have the finances to afford it themselves. Unfortunately, this gap and inequality will never be resolved, as the gap between rich and poor will continue to increase as more generations are conceived. I believe that it is important to keep these things in mind. After all, Thanksgiving has just passed and is a perfect time to reflect on all of the blessings we have in life to be able to be born into such social and financial statuses. I believe that Fitzgerald did this to not simply build onto the character of the world in which Gatsby lives in, but to also allow the reader to reflect on his or her own life and world.

Pecola and Pecola

I can't tell you how surprised and happy I was when I turned to the last chapter of The Bluest Eye and realized that it was dialogue. While I was reading it, I thought that it actually was one of her friends. For example, it would totally be plausible that two friends would say "You’re just jealous." and "I am not." It wasn't until we were in the seminar and someone pointed out that she was talking to an imaginary friend that it was imaginary.
This spurred me to wonder why people would have imaginary friends in the first place or how people could have the cognitive and imaginative power to create entities that have their own thoughts and wills. After some research, it became that imaginary friends aren't something to be scoffed at. Statistically, 37% of children have imaginary friends, and, unsurprisingly, is largely due to trying to cope with traumatic experiences and fear. This can explain why Morrison would create such a friend for Pecola in the last chapter. Having given up everything in her life to achieve blue eyes, Pecola has found herself in a lonesome and unfulfilled life where her end goal of getting blue eyes has left her with nothing but more concern and obsession. To cope with this, she strives for confirmation with an imaginary friend to make sure that she has made the right choice in her life, but in reality, it's to comfort her. The use of an imaginary friend has allowed Morrison to translate these same connotations and meanings to the reader without having to full out say it.

Are prostitutes bad?

Similar to how our views on beauty are subjective to society, our views on prostitution have been one of negative connotation due to social norms, but have you ever wondered why?

While reading The Bluest Eye, I noticed many references to the prostitutes China, Poland, and Maginot Line. Specifically, there was a remark made by the narrator in that they "had no word for innocence" yet had no "hearts of gold." Morrison means to suggest that they are not to be pitied on as products of a bad society yet they aren't complete disgraces to society. 

I agree with Morrison since I believe that prostitutes are nothing more than ordinary people trying their best to make a living and provide for themselves or even a family. It just so happens that they are taking part in an "unorthodox" profession. And what's the harm of having them? Are they really harming society in the fact that they simply exist? I feel as if one of the main reasons people dislike prostitutes is that they encourage the degrading and objectification of women. However, I don't agree with this since it is not done without consent. It's not as if this is sexual assault done against the woman's will. Another argument is that the prostitutes themselves are being mistreated and are being exploited for their bodies. Although there are some instances where they are being forced by a pimp to continue their work, it is either because they have no other option to sustain themselves or in Morrison's words "looked back on their own youth as a period of ignorance, and regretted that they had not made more of it." In life, there are many paths and choices to make. Prostitutes have simply made poor life choices and should not be a subject of sympathy. This being said, I am not saying that they should be discriminated against, but merely left to their own spiritual demise.

What's appropriate?

An even bigger controversy than whether race is socially constructed or not, schools across the world debate on the appropriateness of explicit and higher level text.

There lies two sides to this debate. The first is that children should not be exposed and would be harmed given that they are introduced to sketchy and controversial topics. On the contrary, the other opinion is that with the exposure to these subjects, kids are empowered with education to have a more realistic outlook on the world. In addition to this, the ability to deeply analyze carry on to all facets of life far beyond the classroom.

Personally, I believe that the cause of this problem in a nutshell is over sensitivity and fear. These two go hand in hand and cannon exist without the other. Over sensitivity stems from the fear that the reaction to such things would result in negative and damaging effects and vice versa. However, if the world was to realize that this was essential to the development of intellectual independence, things would change. I strive for the change of biased thought and societal influence on the way we perceive things. I realize that this is literally an impossible task given the fact that everything, even history, has sprinkles of bias since to recount something such as history must come with bias. However, the less filter that the government has on our lives, the better.

On a less serious way of looking at it, I enjoy it when we read these kinds of books since they aren't the conventional story books that we would read in middle school. In fact, I look forward to these kinds of classes in that I know that they will push the boundaries of what's socially right and wrong. I respect Valentino in that she challenges the status quo and would give us a book such as The Bluest Eye. Nobel prize winning authors shouldn't be judged based on against lines such as "young girls in whores' clothing," but rather their themes and messages.