Self-Flagellation

In Persepolis there is a part where it shows how part of their religious acts is to hit themselves.  Oddly enough I had never heard of a religion doing this, and then I wondered why they did it.  An article from BBC News had defined it as: Flagellation is the beating or whipping of the skin, most often on the back, and often drawing blood, as a bodily penance to show remorse for sin.  I then asked the beloved M-Dubs, and he said it was also to replicate and feel what Christ had gone through, not only for remorse.

So I was wondering why it is so popular in Iran/many other countries in the middle east and so not popular towards the western hemisphere.  I came upon an article called Why do some Catholics self-flagellate? from BBC News.com.  What surprised me the most when I read it was that it said "It was a widespread practice in some parts of the Catholic ministry up to the 1960s but is uncommon today."  The majority of the Catholic population is located in the West, so why had I never even heard of it?  The rest of the article goes on talking about Pope John Paul II and how he may have done this act of remorse too.  It was pretty interesting to read about here is the link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8375174.stm

 

Golden Train-- Justin Nozuka

Justin Nozuka is probably my favorite musician, and I was listening to one of his songs called Golden Train and it reminded me of Jane and Rochester's story.  Below are the lyrics and the song so you can listen to it also.  In gold I have the part that connects to Jane Eyre.

Don't you wake up yet
Give me some time to watch you asleep
Oh angel of mine
And I
I will be fine
As long as your near me
(Both are happier together; Jane thinks of Rochester when she is away from him.)
Oh angel of mine

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
(Golden Train Resembling Jane's ethical decision she made to leave Rochester)
Would you go or would you stay?  
(Also Jane continually questioning her self to leave or stay at Thornfield)                              
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away      
Would you go or would you stay?

Here in this cozy room just me and you
(The room with the fireplace where Jane and Rochester were alone a lot together)
Oh cuddling and kissing making sweet love shooting star wishing and watch the sun come up
And then we'll sleep all day
Meet in our dreams and live life our way
(Meet in our dreams like the calling Jane heard from Rochester.)
(Live life our way, meaning not caring about the social class.) 
Drop it all off and we'll fly away 
Dip through the stars and wake up slowly

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

One thing I know fore sure                                                   
Is my love for you is deeper then any root or stone mamma told me
(Deeper than any root reminded me of the lightning struck tree that symbolized their love and Rochester himself)
So don't walk the streets alone (x2)
(Don't walk the streets alone, meaning that women should be married in the late 1800's)                                                                                                                                
I said
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

Heey hey
Ooh, oh
Would you go or would you stay?

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you staay.. with me

Big Bertha

So Bertha is a character that I question a lot.  I wonder if she is just a character to spice up the book or if there is a larger meaning to her that Charlotte Bronte wanted preach.  I read a little more about it online from other people's opinions and a lot of what I read said that she is a symbol for wives in the Victorian time era or women in general.  One opinion I read had said that she represented women, because women back then weren't looked at as workers they were looked at as precious objects that shouldn't be able to do anything.  I can definitely see this, because Bertha is locked up in the attic and not allowed to come out.  Another opinion that I read was this:

"For Charlotte Brontë, Bertha seems to become a strange kind of alter ego. Bertha is rejected by the man who was supposed to love her; Charlotte never married and fell in love with an unattainable man. Bertha is kept prisoner in a lonely house on the English moors; Charlotte traveled a little, but spent most of her life shut up in her father’s house in Yorkshire, away from any big-city culture. Bertha is only able to show her powers to the world in what seem like insane, destructive ways; women novelists were common but their works were often considered ridiculous and their abilities inferior to those of men. The parallels are too strong to ignore, and perhaps Bertha does double-duty, both representing the restrictions that Charlotte felt and becoming Charlotte’s wish-fulfillment of breaking through those restrictions to inspire fear and awe."  ---http://www.shmoop.com/jane-eyre/bertha-mason.html

I find this strangely coincidental...

Another thing that I wondered about was when Bertha came into Jane's room and tore apart her wedding veil.  A lot of people had suggested that this was a warning to Jane about Rochester; the liberty that Jane would lose if she married him.

Outer Beauty Vs. Inner Beauty

In Jane Eyre there are ideas repeated over and over again.  One of them is outer beauty, and the importance it played on people in the 1840's.  So in class we discussed if it is as important to be beautiful on the outside in today's society then it was back then.  I had brought up how "super" models tend to have a flaw about them, that not only makes them different, but also beautiful.  For example, recently I have noticed that a lot of models I see in adds for big designers have a gap in there teeth.  The need to look flawless in the modeling business, I feel, isn't as important as it used to be.

But obviously there is still the want of needing to be perfect.  I think everybody has heard of Heidi Pratt.  Supposedly she had around 10 plastic surgeries, and if you have seen the before and after pictures it's pretty obvious that the tabloids weren't lying on this story.  Below is a video for a Covergirl makeup commercial.  Now I'm not sure if this is just advertising for the makeup company, or if this is still the idea of the people in our society.

What do you guys think?  Are we getting away from the idea of "outer beauty is everything" or is it getting worse??

Reflections on Jane Eyre

1. Honestly if I would be in love with a man to the extent that Jane loves Rochester, I don't think I would be able to leave.  The stubbornness of Jane astounds me, because Rochester tells Jane the story about his wife and it's not his fault.  I feel like if it was a different situation like if 1) he wasn't tricked into marrying her and 2) the wife is some hyena like creature... so how could he continue a marriage like that.  I can see where Jane could be mad at Rochester, because he didn't tell her he was married.  But would Jane have even considered him them?????  Who knows...

2. I really want to finish the book and I have enjoyed reading Jane Eyre.  I like the old english style of writing and even though Charlotte Bronte uses a ton of detail in her writing and with that she includes a ton of motifs as well.  I like how the motifs aren't easily known, you really have to think about it critically in order to get more out of the text.

3.  I think that this book should be taught in college lit. cause it's totally opposite from Catcher in the Rye.  Mr. Kunkle said that in college we are going to have to learn to read all types of text and I think Jane Eyre in particular is a challenging one with different themes.  I also think that it corresponds with the theme of the class of "coming of age" well too. 

Black Vs. White

In Jane Eyre we pointed out how she only mentions three colors repeatedly through the book.  Black, white, and red are mentioned so much that there has to be a more thoughtful meaning to them.  One thing I have noticed is that whenever she is describing something as "white" she usually is uncomfortable in the scene, or something is bad.  For example, when Mr. R has guests staying at the house Jane mentions all of the women in white that end up being very unpleasant towards her (like Miss Ingram and others...).  Also when she goes back to see her dying Aunt Reed she describes many things as being white. 

Now the things she describes as being black she is usually in a comfortable position and I would say the word "nice" is a good word to put with that color.  The women at the party that arn't harsh towards her she descibes in a black dresses.  When she goes back to see her Aunt Reed she describes Georgeiana's dress as being black.  This could be maybe because she is in a familiar place, where she isn't scared being in that home anymore.  However, to refute this she descibes the whole house using the color white so I don't know then about that hypothesis...  Also when she descibes Mr. R's eyes and I think Mrs. Fairfax's eyes too as being black.  These are people she likes, and she mentions when she is drawing a picture of Mr. R that the eyes are the most important part of the entire portrait.

I also find it odd that she uses the colors in the oppsite ways most authors do.  When using a word like white, they usually are describing something as pure, clean, luminesce, bright, holly, angle(esque)...  And I feel like she uses those words for the color black.

American Teen

In class we watched a documentary of four teenagers going through high school in Indiana.  At first I thought it was going to be dumb, not really realistic I guess.  However as the movie went on I could totally relate McFarland to the high school.  There is definetly the social group aspect.  There were also a lot of awkward moments (that were hilarious), and I think that made the movie relatable too, because high school can be very awkward at times.  All of the drama I thought was a little over the top, but high school drama can be over the top too.  I liked how each high schooler had a specific problem that they were going through, and all of them were different.   The popular girl went through the pressure of getting into Notre Dame like the rest of her family, and that can be so stressful.  The band geek was going through, I would say a self-esteem problem, especially after he figured out his girlfriend was cheating on him.  There was a girl that wasn't really in one of the social groups and she was going through self-iussues and also trying to figure out how she was going to be successful in the future.  The basketball star was going through the pressures of getting recruited, which I could relate to a ton.  His story kind of hit home to me, because there is so much pressure in sports alone, and then when you have to preform knowing that someone is watching...whewwphh it's a lot to go through.  So far I like the documentary.