Final Senior Portfolio

By
Mackenzie Brandel

Presented to the Department of English at Alma College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts

March 2020

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 Table of Contents

Intro
English Classes Taken at Alma .....................................................................................................4
Résumé ............................................................................................................................................5
Portfolio Essay................................................................................................................................7
Freshman Year
Fall 2016
Intimate Partner Violence: Harming Women Around the World, One Injury, and Insult at
a Time (FYS 101-03: From Dreams to Memes – Dr. Dora-Laskey)
.…………………………………………………………………………………………………...13
A Rhetorical Analysis of Netflix (ENG-202: Digital Rhetoric - Dr. Cicci)
………………………………………………………………………………………………...….29
Winter 2017
A Rebel Ahead of Her Time: Jane Eyre’s Place in Feminist Literature in the 17th, 18th, 19th,
and 20th Centuries (ENG-220: Reading, Writing, Research – Dr. Dora-Laskey)
…................................................…………………………………………………………………33
Tyrtaeus, Perpetua, and Death (HST-203: Medieval World – Dr. Wasserman)........................43

Sophomore Year
Fall 2017
How to Make Your Elephant Fly (ENG-190: Intro To Creative Writing – Dr. Vivian)
……………………………………...………………………………………………………….…48
Winter 2018
The Awakening: Becoming a New Woman (ENG-120: Literary Analysis – Dr. Vivian)
…………………………………………………………………………………………...……….51
Grief and Death in The Sheltering Sky (ENG-261: Survey of American Literature II – Dr.
Vivian)
………………………………………………...……………………………………………….....58
Spring 2018
The John F. Kennedy Administration’s Space Policy: A Successful Flight Into Orbit or A
Completely Failed Takeoff? (POL-127: Presidential Library Research – Dr. Hulme)
........................................................................................................................................................64

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 Junior Year
Fall 2018
Ben Jonson On Grief and Loss: How Did His Ideas Differ From Other Poets? (ENG-250:
Survey of British Literature I – Dr. Aspinall)
....................................................................................................................................................92
Winter 2019
Much Ado About Nothing: Defying Gender Roles, One Character At a Time (ENG-320:
Critical Theory – Dr. Aspinall)
……………….....................................................................................………………………….98
Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing: A Rebel With A Cause (ENG-354: Shakespeare – Dr.
Aspinall).………………………………………………………………………………………..108

Senior Year
Fall 2019
The Morality of Same-Sex Sex (PHL-126-01: Introduction To Values – Dr. N. Dixon)
……………………………………………………………………………………………….…117
Found Poem: Cows, Murder, and the Mechanics of Love (ENG-290: Cross Genre Workshop
– Dr. Vivian)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..124
Winter 2020
Story Structure Analysis: Grey’s Anatomy: “A Hard Day’s Night” (ENG-280: Screenwriting
I – Mr. Bissell)
………………………………………………………...……………………….......................…126
Silence (ENG-290-01: Poetry Workshop II – Mr. Rybicki)
……………………………………………………………………………………………….….129
TBA Final Senior Seminar Essay (ENG-420: Senior Seminar – Dr. von Wallmenich)
………………………………………………………………………………………………..…130

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 English Classes Taken at Alma College – Fall 2016 – Winter 2020
Fall 2016:
ENG-202-01: Digital Rhetoric – Dr. Matt Cicci
Winter 2017:
ENG-220-02: Reading, Writing, Research – Dr. Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey
Fall 2017:
ENG-190-01: Intro To Creative Writing – Dr. Robert Vivian
Winter 2018:
ENG-120-03: Literary Analysis – Dr. Robert Vivian
ENG-261-01: Survey of American Literature II – Dr. Robert Vivian
Fall 2018:
ENG-250-01: Survey of British Literature I – Dr. Dana Aspinall
Winter 2019:
ENG-320-01: Critical Theory – Dr. Dana Aspinall
ENG-354-01: Shakespeare – Dr. Dana Aspinall
Fall 2019:
ENG-280-01: Cross-Genre Workshop – Dr. Robert Vivian
ENG-368-01: American Indian Literature – Dr. Laura von Wallmenich
Winter 2020:
ENG-280-01: Screenwriting – Mr. Dustin Bissell
ENG-290-01: Poetry Workshop II – Mr. John Rybicki
ENG-420-02: Senior Seminar – Dr. Laura von Wallmenich

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Mackenzie Brandel
3815 Scenic Drive North Muskegon, Michigan 49445 Phone: 231-327-0217

Education
Alma College, Alma, MI
Bachelor of Arts, April 2020
Major: English
Cumulative GPA: 3.254

Experience

Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, MI June 2019 – August 2019

Food Service
 Served three meals to 600 campers daily – accurately gave meal portions and answered any questions about meals
 Prepared meals – set out pitchers, cups, and food on fruit and dessert bars for every meal, restocked fruit, dessert, and
juice as needed
 Cleaned after meals – picked up trays, wiped tables, swept and mopped floors, ran dishwasher

Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association, Whitehall, MI June 2016 – August 2018

Museum Intern
 Researched and cataloged artifacts – measured, entered into online program, consulted outside sources for information
 Ran gift shop – accurately ran cash register and restocked items, answered questions and gave museum information to
guests
 General maintenance – painting, cleaning
Volunteer
 Ran gift shop– accurately ran cash register and restocked items, answered questions and gave museum information to
guests

White Lake Community Library, Whitehall, MI June 2012 – July 2015

Volunteer
 Summer reading program volunteer – stocked items, helped children with prizes, shelved books, helped with
weekly “Family Night” programs

Activities
Alma College, Alma, MI

Sigma Tau Delta English Honorary October 2018 - Present

Whitehall High School, Whitehall, MI

National History Day September 2008 – June 2016

 National Finalist, Qualifier, Alternate, Best in State
 Best Use of Primary Sources, Best Use of Family History and Women’s History, Salute to Freedom Award
 Chosen to display research at Smithsonian National Museum of American History
 Research displayed at National WWII Museum January 2013
Cross Country August 2012 – November 2015
 Most Improved
Marching & Concert Band August 2012 – May 2016
Additional Skills
Technology
 Microsoft Office and Windows
 Past Perfect Museum Software

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  Quickbooks
 Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat
Other
 In-Depth Research: interviews, archival work, museum and historical landmark visits
 MLA bibliographies, annotated
 Creative and Technical Writing
 Editing
 Exhibit Assembly/Creation

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. von Wallmenich

ENG-420: Senior Seminar

10 February 2020

Portfolio Essay: My Time as an English Major

Why did I become an English major? I feel that this should have an obvious answer, but

there is actually so much more to it than is just on the surface. I came into college completely set

on being a history major, as history was what I fell in love with in high school. However, English

was always in the back of my mind as another major, as it had always been what I was the most

successful in throughout my school career. After about a semester of college, I decided that I

wanted to be a history and English double major, as I had loved the classes I had taken in both

departments. This remained the case when I finally declared my major at the end of my

sophomore year. However, as I went into my junior year, I was starting to like my English

classes more and more. I had been fairly successful in all of my English classes, and I just felt

that I connected with the people and professors in the English major more. So, due to my love of

reading and writing, along with my amazing class experiences, I decided to solely devote myself

to the English major and to a writing minor.

Literature is a vital part of a complete society. Through literature, one can learn about all

of the different histories, cultures, and traditions of the world, through people who experienced

those societies. I feel that if we didn’t have literature, we wouldn’t really have any other subjects.

Literature is the basis for all learning about all subjects, and our society would be nowhere

without it. I am extremely happy with the literature that I have been exposed to through this

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major, as I have been able to not only satisfy my love of English, but have also learned more

history than I ever feel that I could learn through a prepared lecture.

My goals for the major were to become a better and more educated reader, writer, and

citizen of the world through the study of literature and writing. I feel that this was accomplished

in a major way. I learned about topics and cultures that I never would have known so much about

otherwise, from the Victorian era feminist politics of Jane Eyre in ENG-220, to the Renaissance

culture of Shakespeare in British Literature, to modern day issues of race and politics in ENG-

261, to the past conflicts of Native Americans in ENG-36_? Literature opens up so many doors

to subjects that nobody would ever learn about otherwise, and I can most definitely contend to

this. That being said, I am very happy with what I accomplished in the major, technically,

creatively, and in terms of the knowledge that I gained for going into the real world.

In terms of challenges and surprises, I think that I was just surprised how much theory

actually goes into the world of literature and writing. I never would have guessed that so many

different ideas had happened over the course of the development of literature, or even why we

still use so many of them today. This was not only my surprise, but also my largest challenge. I

have always considered myself to be good with the reading and writing aspects of English in

general, but theory has never been a strong point for me, no matter what the subject. So, trying to

comprehend ENG-320, with all of the different theories, and trying to learn to read texts based

off of those theories was extremely difficult for me. I had to learn an entire new way to think

about a subject that I thought that I had known well almost my entire life. So, throwing out all

that I knew about the English major and resetting my thinking from that class was definitely one

of the most significant challenges in the major for me.

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 The essays that I chose for this portfolio were the ones that I was the proudest of, for the

most part. I wanted to make sure that I chose essays with a wide variety of subjects, though, so

there are a few in here that I am not too happy with. Saying that, I think that these essays reveal

that my abilities in writing and research go beyond just writing about literature. In an essay for

Dr. Dora-Laskey’s FYS, I wrote a paper tackling the issue of domestic violence and what can be

done to prevent it in the future, which was, I think, one of the first essays that proved to me that I

can write well about things that are well beyond the scope of my major. I’ve also included an

essay that I wrote about the John F. Kennedy Administration’s space policy for Dr. Hulme’s

Presidential Library Research Spring Term, along with one that tackled the issues of Same-Sex

Sex for Dr. Dixon’s Intro To Ethics class. These, along with the wide variety of literary topics

that I have tackled, reveal that I am a multifaceted writer, who can write on a wide variety of

topics with ease. I am proud of the fact that these essays show that I can analyze and go into

depth with many topics, as I slightly mentioned before. I do know that there are things that I

could use some work on, though. Grammar and thesis statements, specifically, are things that I

have always struggled with in my writings. I mean, I am obviously proficient with most grammar

rules, but there are just some that just never managed to stick in my brain. And, my goodness,

thesis statements. Ever since high school, I have been called out on my weak thesis statements

time and time again. Not to say that they haven’t improved or that I haven’t been actively

working on making them better, but my brain has always just been one to want to get right to the

paper without having to make a blatant statement at the beginning about what it is going to be

about.

In terms of progression, I believe that these essays show that I have majorly improved on

my abilities to synthesize and analyze a text or a topic, without needing to be prompted on how

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to do so. Looking back at one of the first major essays that I wrote, for Dr. Dora-Laskey’s

English 220 class during my freshman year, I think that I just took a lot of ideas from what we

had talked about in class and turned those into my essay, without much thought as to what I

could write about otherwise. But, in English 320, during my junior year, we were forced to think

outside of the box and choose a prompt from our own minds. I did so much better at the 320

essay, just because I knew how to think for myself and to trust my own ideas when it came to

writing. Comparing these two essays, I enjoyed the 320 essay more, and I did better on it grade-

wise, as well, proving to myself just how far I have come in terms of reading, synthesizing,

analyzing, and just in terms of my critical abilities in general. I was always told that I was a good

writer when I was in high school, but looking back at that, my writing just didn’t have a lot of

substance to it. It was just a lot of regurgitating and spitting back up what I had learned about and

had been told to write about. But, through my English major, I have progressed beyond that word

vomit stage and now have the knowledge to go beyond just a surface-level analysis of a story or

prompt. In terms of critical approaches, I feel that my writing during my English major has

become quite a bit more feminist than it was before. Gaining a knowledge of what feminism

actually means, beyond just trolls on the internet, has helped me immensely in being able to

write papers that promote the idea of equality for all people. Not just white women, but people

from all different cultures and backgrounds. I have attempted to use this approach in as many

papers as possible, and feel that as my knowledge of feminism has grown in college, so has my

appreciation for those around me, and the equal rights that we all so clearly need and deserve as

part of a modern society.

Looking back at all of my work throughout the major, I believe that the English major at

Alma College is absolutely top-notch, in more aspects than not. I have been taught how to think

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for myself and trust my own ideas, while also developing an approach to reading, writing, and

thinking that will serve me well throughout my entire life. I have learned to be more caring and

compassionate for those around me today and have also gained a much larger appreciation for

those who came before me. My critical thinking skills have improved significantly, and I can

now analyze many different forms of text, even those from cultures I have never learned about. I

have loved how much of a variety the English major has in terms of classes, and also how much

freedom those in the major have to choose their own path based on their own dreams and goals

for the future. That being said, I would have loved to have seen more writing-based classes as

requirements for the English major. I know that there is the writing minor, but I feel that it would

be better for majors if they could have at least one or two classes that focus just on the stylistics

of formal writing. I loved the writing classes that I took, and with how much of a help they were

to me in my own writing, I also think that they would be a huge help to English majors in the

future. In terms of general education and my work in the major, I definitely am not going to say

that I enjoyed all of my general education classes, but I will say that they were helpful in my

work in the major. By having a variety of different professors in different disciplines, I was

exposed to an immensely useful and interesting variety of views that I never could have had if I

had only had to take classes in the major. Learning about history and psychology and

environmental science, for example, all gave me an even greater appreciation for what I was

learning in the major. I know that I wouldn’t have been as successful in the English major if I

hadn’t had to take classes in other disciplines, so, overall, I am thankful for the general education

classes that I had to take, even if I was not too happy to have to take them at the time.

Overall, my time as an English major has been amazing. I have been able to take classes

in my favorite subject, with a variety of different views and topics that I never could have gotten

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if I had chosen a different major. My love for literature and reading and writing have increased

tenfold since I decided to be an English major, and I will be taking that love and knowledge into

everything that I do in the future from this point on. You always hear about how people are so

glad that they switched majors in college, and how they cannot even imagine doing anything but

that major once they went into it, and that is exactly how I feel. I felt that being a history major

was my destiny, and that I was never going to be that stereotypical college student who switched

majors multiple times, but here we are. And I am so, so glad that I switched to the English major,

and I truly cannot imagine my Alma College experience without all of you lovely people. So,

thank you for making this major one of the best experiences of my entire life, and I can’t wait to

see where it takes me in the future.

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey

FYS 101-03: From Dreams to Memes and Beyond

10 December 2016

Intimate Partner Violence: Harming Women Around the World, One Injury, and Insult at a Time

When thinking of domestic violence, it is too easy to just imagine a man, throwing

objects at and hitting his wife. While it does involve that, there is actually a lot more to the

picture. There are so many unanswered questions: Why do people choose to abuse their spouses?

What happens when the spouse tries to leave? What are the effects of the violence on the abused

spouse? And, most importantly, what can be done to prevent future incidents of domestic

violence? Some of these will never have a full answer. But to reach any answers, one needs to go

back and take a deep look into the subject at hand. Only then will the history, causes, and types

of IPV be able fit together. Due to intimate partner violence, millions of women (and men) are

physically and psychologically harmed every year. However, if more people educate themselves

on intimate partner violence and what they can do to help, millions more people won’t have to

suffer the effects of IPV and can live safe, happy lives.

There many different variations on the definition of domestic violence. However, The

United States Department of Justice simply defines domestic violence “as a pattern of abusive

behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control

over another intimate partner” and is intended to“…intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate,

frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.” (Domestic

Violence). It can involve many types of abuse, including physical, emotional/psychological,

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sexual, or financial abuse. Domestic Violence can happen to anyone, no matter what race, age,

sexual orientation, or gender and, as of 2014, been experienced by 38,028,000 women around the

world in their lifetimes (Vagianos, 2014).

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The history of domestic violence goes back almost to the beginning of history itself. Women

have long been seen as the “appropriate victims” of family violence (Gelles and Cornell, 1985).

The first incidents of domestic violence go back to 753 B.C., in Rome, when wife beating,

chastising, divorcing, or killing wives was accepted and condoned by The Laws of Chastisement.

These laws said that the husband had “the absolute rights” to discipline his wife by physical

force. They also permitted him to be able “to beat his wife with a rod or switch as long as its

circumference is no greater than the girth of the base of the man’s right thumb” (History of

Battered Women’s Movement). These laws would stay in practice and would spread throughout

Europe and become part of English Common Law (History of Battered Women’s Movement).

Coming into the modern age, domestic violence has become a much more known and

talked about topic. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a movement entitled the “battered women’s

movement” was coming into shape, largely in part to the women’s liberation movement. The

liberation movement let women share in detail the conditions that they were living in and gave

them the freedom to say that they were “battered.” “We will not be beaten” became a slogan for

women across the United States who were fighting to end domestic violence. By 1993, the issue

had truly become worldwide, as the United Nations passed the Declaration on the Elimination of

Violence against Women, which clearly stated that “violence against women constitutes a

violation of the rights and fundamental freedoms of women and impairs or nullifies their

enjoyment of those rights and freedoms...” (The United Nations, 1993).

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 Today, the fight against domestic violence is still very active. After a video circulated of

NFL player Ray Rice knocking out his wife in an elevator in February 2014, “The NFL put

together the toughest domestic violence policy in professional sports…” (Brennan, 2016). But

not really. Originally, Rice was only suspended for two games, and the NFL even made his wife,

Janay, apologize for her role in the incident, even though they had clearly seen that he had

perpetrated it (Ibrahim, 2016). Rice did end up being indefinitely suspended, but only after

public outrage over the two day suspension (Belson and Pennington, 2016). However, the policy

keeps being ignored, as the NFL continues to hire men who are known domestic abusers.

Football player Josh Brown was arrested for domestic violence in 2015, but was still hired by

John Mara, president, CEO, and owner of the New York Giants, despite that ‘…he knew that

Brown’s then-wife Molly had told police she had suffered ‘more than 20 incidents’ of abuse by

her husband’” (Brennan, 2016). Brown has since been suspended indefinitely, but brings light to

the NFL’s policy on how long a player should be suspended and for how long. Their six game

suspension rule, created after the Ray Rice incidents, has rarely been enforced. Only three out of

ten players who could have been effected by it have actually received a suspension of that full

length. And in the one case where a player was suspended for more than six games, his ten game

suspension was reduced to four (Belson and Pennington, 2016). This is not what I would call a

“tough” domestic violence policy. It seems more like a “let’s keep our image clean and not

report that our players are cruel and abusive” policy, in my opinion.

Even Hollywood is not immune to domestic violence. In May of 2016, Amber Heard, the

wife of actor Johnny Depp, filed for divorce after he was drunk and “began obsessing over

something that wasn’t true… became extremely angry”, and threw a phone at Heard, hitting her

cheek and eye “with extreme force” (Carroll, 2016). Depp’s lawyers have accused Heard of

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trying “secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse,” despite the pictures of Heard

with bruises on her face and smashed wine bottles around her, and a witness account from a

friend, who said “The reports of violence started with a kick on a private plane, then it was

shoves and the occasional punch, until finally, in December, she described an all-out assault and

she woke up with her pillow covered in blood. I know this because I went to their house. I saw

the pillow with my own eyes. I saw the busted lip and the clumps of hair on the floor” (Carroll,

2016). Despite this, Hollywood still sides with Depp, accusing her of “blackmailing” him and

saying “Like many of Johnny Depp’s friends I’m discovering that Amber is a better actress than

I thought.” If these incidents in Hollywood and the NFL don’t tell us anything about domestic

violence in the United States today, nothing will.

CAUSES OF DOMSESTIC VIOLENCE

So, why does domestic violence happen? One of the main causes that have been studied is abuse

and violence in childhood. According to Dean D. Knudsen and JoAnn Miller in the book Abused

and Battered: Social and Legal Responses to Family Violence, “…in the family, there is a

‘hidden curriculum’ that teaches violence,” which starts with physical punishments in infancy.

Over 90% of parents who took the National Family Violence Survey in 1990 said that they hit

their 3-4-year-old toddler. Over 20% hit an infant, and 33% continue to hit even when children

are aged 15-17. This teaches kids that people who love you hit you, and can also be reversed –

you can hit those you love – it shows kids that it is morally right to hit and to be violent. This

survey also asked people how often they were punished when they were 12 or 13. The more

someone, both man or woman, was physically punished as a child, it was twice as likely – 11%

to 5% - that they would assault their spouse as an adult.

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 Alcohol has also been shown to be prevalent in domestic violence situations. In 1985,

Leonard et al. found rates of abuse in men who had a current alcohol problem (44%) almost three

times greater than in men who didn’t have alcohol problems (15%) or past alcohol problems

(14%). However, the numbers have been disputed on how many cases of domestic violence are

caused by alcohol. In their study, Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Violence Among White,

Black, and Hispanic Couples in the United States, Caetano, Schafer, and Cunradi found “…that

30 to 40 percent of the men … who perpetrated violence against their partners were drinking at

the time of the event.” However, a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical

Association found that “Ninety-two percent of the domestic abuse assailants reported use of

alcohol … on the day of the assault” (Drinking Is Linked to Domestic Abuse, But Is It a Cause?).

Even though many think that alcohol is not a cause of DV, these studies prove quite clearly that

alcohol can and is a factor in many of these cases.

There are also models and theories that have been developed to explain domestic

violence. These models include the Psychiatric Model, the Social – Situational Model, the

Resource Theory, and the Exchange Theory (Gelles and Cornell, 1985). The Psychiatric Model

focuses on the abuser’s personality traits as the main reason for the abuse and says that

personality and character disorders, mental illness, and alcohol and substance abuse lead to

violence. (Family Abuse and Crime - Theoretical Models Of Family Violence). The social-

situational model says that the abuse and violence rise out of two factors – structural stress and

the cultural norm of dealing with force and violence in the home. (Gelles and Cornell, 1985).

The Resource Theory says that the more resources a person has the more power they have.

(Gelles and Cornell, 1985). The Exchange Theory is explained as “People hit family members

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because they can.” Essentially, violence is used against family when “the costs of being violent

do not outweigh the rewards” (Gelles and Cornell, 1985).

Many personality disorders can also lead to people becoming abusive, including

borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic. According to the National Institute for Mental Health,

borderline personality disorder is “a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing

instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning” (Borderline Personality Disorder). It

is estimated that 30 to 60% of domestic violence abusers are suffering from borderline

personality disorder. (Domestic Violence Abuser Behavior Compared to Abusive Borderline

Behavior). Childhood Trauma in Borderline Personality Disorder found that 81% of borderline

subjects had experienced trauma in their childhood, with 71% having experienced physical

abuse, 68% sexual abuse, and 62% serious domestic violence. This again goes to prove that

experiences in childhood can carry over to adulthood and can cause serious problems that can

affect the person’s whole life.

Antisocial personality disorder is defined as “…a mental condition in which a person

consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others.

People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly

or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior” (Antisocial

Personality Disorder – Mayo Clinic). There have been many studies that have shown that when

children show this behavior in childhood, it can carry over to their adult life. The rates,

depending on what study, can vary from 40 to 70%, however, these numbers can become lower

depending on if therapy is implemented, proving how important therapy can be in stopping cases

of domestic violence in the future (Antisocial Personality Disorder – PubMed Health).

“Antisocials often come from very dysfunctional families, suffer childhood abuse, have head

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injuries as children, and their moms are more likely to smoke during pregnancy,” according to

Margarita Tartakovsky, in her article "Surprising Myths & Facts About Antisocial Personality

Disorder." This proves the importance of having a strong, loving, and supportive family in

childhood, as that could prevent the child from becoming an abuser as an adult.

Narcissistic personality disorder is also common in abusers. Mayo Clinic defines this as

“a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need

for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultraconfidence lies a

fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.” Dr. Karyl McBride, in the article,

Narcissism and psychological abuse, says that “The primary traits of narcissism that are

damaging to relationships are the lack of empathy and the inability to emotionally tune in to

others: their partners, their children, their friends … The inability to be accountable; it's not

them, it's always someone else's fault.” One of the main causes has been a lack of empathy in

childhood, along with a failure by parents to recognize, name, and regulate a child’s emotions,

leaves a child with intense effects that can lead to dysfunction. Due to the needs being unmet,

attachment becomes an issue in the child, leading to being attachment-avoidant in adulthood but

also constantly striving for attention and admiration (Dimaggio, 2012).

TYPES OF VIOLENCE

The types of domestic violence can be varied, but generally fall into one of four different

categories: physical, psychological, financial, or sexual. According to “Forms of Abuse,” by the

National Network to End Domestic Violence, “Physical abuse is a powerful way that an abusive

person gets and keeps their partner under control and it instills an environment of constant fear.”

There are many components to physical abuse, including hitting, punching, kicking, slapping,

strangling, smothering, weapon use, shoving, sleep interruption, throwing things, destroying

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property, hurting or killing pets, and denying medical treatment. The National Intimate Partner

and Sexual Violence Survey done in 2011 found that about 1 in 4 women have experienced

severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. Many women

have spoken out about their situation with physical violence: a 27-year-old university graduate

from Thailand stated, “The beating was getting more and more severe... In the beginning it was

confined to the house. Gradually, he stopped caring. He slapped me in front of others and

continued to threaten me... Every time he beat me it was as if he was trying to test my endurance,

to see how much I could take” (WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic

Violence against Women).

Emotional / psychological abuse includes “…constant put downs or criticisms, name

calling, ‘crazy making’, acting superior, minimizing the abuse or blaming you for their behavior,

threatening and making you feel fearful, isolating you from family and friends, excessive

jealously, accusing you of having affairs, and watching where you go and who you talk to”

(Forms of Abuse). Emotional abuse tends to make victims feel responsible for the abuse and

crazy, worthless and hopeless, and hurts so much that victims say that they would rather “be hit”

than have to deal with emotional abuse (Forms of Abuse). In fact, in1990, Folingstad studied

over 200 women who had been physically abused and found that 72% said that psychological

abuse had had more of a severe impact on them than physical abuse. In his book, Why Does He

Do That: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, Lundy Bancroft says “The scars from

mental cruelty can be as deep and long-lasting as wounds from punches or slaps but are often not

as obvious. In fact, even among women who have experienced violence from a partner, half or

more report that the man’s emotional abuse is what is causing them the greatest harm.” A woman

interviewed in Serbia stated, “Emotional abuse is worse. You can become insane when you are

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constantly humiliated and told that you are worthless, that you are nothing” (WHO Multi-country

Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women).

Sexual abuse, or marital rape, is also common in abusive relationships, but not often

discussed when the subject is talked about. The American Psychological Association defines

sexual abuse as “unwanted sexual activity, with perpetrators using force, making threats or

taking advantage of victims not able to give consent. “Forms of Abuse,” by the National

Network to End Domestic Violence says that sexual abuse includes “…physically forcing sex,

making you feel fearful about saying no to sex, forcing sex with other partners, forcing you to

participate in demeaning or degrading sexual acts, violence or name calling during sex, and

denying contraception or protection from sexually transmitted diseases.” A women who was in a

sexually abusive relationship in New Hampshire stated “‘When I forcefully told him no, he just

knocked me down from the edge of the bed where we were sitting, held me down to the floor,

and forcefully had sex with me, even though I was crying telling him to get off and stop … He

did say, 'You are my wife, you can't say no'...” (Rouner, 2015).

Financial abuse is also a common form of domestic violence. According to Jennifer

O’Neill in her article “"Domestic Violence Statistics: The Horrific Reality,” financial abuse is

experienced in 98% of abusive relationships. “The forms of financial abuse may be subtle or

overt but … in general, include tactics to limit the partner’s access to assets or conceal

information and accessibility to the family finances” (About Financial Abuse). This form of

abuse can be especially devastating to survivors. Without money and access to their assets,

survivors cannot stay safe and afford appropriate housing for themselves and their children.

EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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Many effects are felt by the victims of domestic violence. According to a study done by the

Centers for Disease Control, about every three in ten women and one in ten men who experience

abuse had one measurable impact or effect from the abuse (Effects of Domestic Violence).

Depression is the most common effect, with a study done by Gleason in 1993 finding that more

than 80% of abused women met criteria for major depression in the past six months (Riggs,

Caulfield, and Street, 2000). Effects of Domestic Violence says, “A survivor may develop a

negative outlook in which he or she may feel ‘damaged’ or unworthy of a better life. A

perpetrator can chip away at a person’s self-esteem with constant criticism or insults, which can

lead the survivor to question her sense of self in relation to the world. A faulty belief system can

contribute to feeling discouraged and apprehensive about the future. Domestic violence can also

take away a person’s sense of safety and security, influencing his or her ability to trust others.”

(Finkelhor, 1983).

Physical injuries are also a very large effect of domestic violence. Every nine seconds, a

woman in America is assaulted or beaten, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic

Violence. The group also reports that one in three women (and one in four men) have been a

victim of physical violence by their partner. This makes intimate partner violence “the single

greatest cause of injury to women,” according to the Domestic Violence Intervention Program

(O’Neill, 2016). In 2003–12, around 45% of domestic violence resulted in injury, including

bruises, cuts, and more serious injuries such as sexual violence injuries, gunshots, knife wounds,

internal injuries, unconsciousness, and broken bones. (Truman and Morgan, 2014).

Substance abuse has also been linked to victims of domestic violence. The article

Domestic Violence & Substance Abuse states that “Women who have been abused are 15 times

more likely to abuse alcohol and 9 times more likely to abuse drugs than women who have not

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been abused …87% of domestic violence program directors agree that the risk of intimate

partner violence increases when both partners use/abuse alcohol or drugs. Substance use may be

encouraged or forced by an abusive partner as a mechanism of control. Victim’s abstinence and

recovery efforts may be sabotaged.”

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is also very commonly found in victims of domestic

violence. The U.S. National Library of Medicine defines PTSD as “a disorder that develops in

some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.” According to Riggs,

Caulfield, and Street (2000), rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in many studies of

abused women range from 30%–80%. Many PTSD symptoms including nightmares, avoidance,

and hyperarousal were clinical problems for more than 70% of women.

Many people ask abused women “Why don’t you just leave?” Unfortunately, it is not as

simple as just walking out the door and leaving. There could be concerns about the children –

that they will blame or resent her, that their children need a “real family,” or that her ex-partner

could turn the children against her. Fear is one of the largest factors in whether women leave.

Some of the many fears include her ex-partner tracking her down and killing her, kidnapping or

killing the children, or spreading horrible rumors about her. A partner’s isolation could also

present a significant challenge for a woman to leave. (Compelling Reasons Women Stay). These,

along with many other factors, can make it very hard to impossible for women to leave, keeping

them trapped in abusive relationships, while they continue to be beaten, insulted, and tortured

under their abusive partner.

As large as this issue is, there are many ways that both communities and individuals can

help to prevent it in the future. For communities, first, they need to learn to know the signs of

domestic violence, and educate themselves. When more people are educated, more people can

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have an impact and can help to intervene in situations that they feel are unsafe. For individuals,

even something as simple as ringing their bell when a violent situation is happening could make

a huge difference. In addition, being a listening ear or a resource for a friend could make a

monumental difference. Letting victims know that somebody believes them and is willing to

listen and help might let her gain enough courage to tell somebody what is happening and to get

help before it is too late (Nonell, 2016). The issue of funding for DV programs has also arisen in

recent years. Due to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs, the Family Violence

Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) and the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), domestic violence

shelters, law enforcement, courts, and other agencies helping victims have received funding from

the federal government. However, this funding took a huge dip in 2013 due to cuts in the federal

government’s spending. In fact, 69% of the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s

coalitions to help victims of DV experienced a cut in funding. If that wasn’t bad enough, almost

80% of states have recently reported a reduction in funding from their county and city sources,

and about 90% of states have seen a drop in private donations to DV programs. These numbers

are going the wrong way, as the number of victims needing help has only gone up, with 88% of

states reporting an increase in requests from victims into domestic violence programs. In 2014, a

study found that 67, 646 victims received help from these programs in one day, but 10, 871

requests had to go unmet due to lack of resources (Funding and Appropriations). Letting

lawmakers know how much cutting funding for these programs is hurting DV victims could be a

huge step to getting victims the help they need and deserve to be able to recover and live a

healthy life despite the Hell that they experienced.

Domestic violence has always been and is still a tremendous problem around the world. 1

in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime, which

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leads to about 20 people per minute being harassed (Domestic Violence National Statistics).

Many of these people are suffering in silence for fear of what would happen if they spoke out for

help. If more people knew how to prevent these violent actions, and even how to stop them,

many more women could know that they were safe in their own homes, and wouldn’t have to

worry about being physically or emotionally hurt. Isn’t this how it should be in the first place?

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Domestic Violence, 2016. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

"Antisocial Personality Disorder." PubMed Health. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2010.

Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

"Antisocial Personality Disorder." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Bancroft, Lundy. Why Does He Do That: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men. New

York: Putnam's Sons, 2002. Print.

Belson, Ken, and Bill Pennington. "After Unsteady Steps to Punish Domestic Violence, N.F.L.

Faces Scrutiny Again." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2016.

Web. 09 Dec. 2016.

Black, Michele C., Kathleen C. Basile, Matthew J. Breiding, Sharon G. Smith, Mikel L. Walters,

Melissa T. Merrick, Jieru Chen, and Mark R. Stevens. National Intimate Partner and

Page | 25
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Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. PDF.

"Borderline Personality Disorder." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of

Medicine, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Brennan, Christine. "NFL Owners Turn Blind Eye to Domestic Violence." USA Today. Gannett

Satellite Information Network, LLC, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

Caetano, Raul, John Schafer, and Carol B. Cunradi. "Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Violence

Among White, Black, and Hispanic Couples in the United States." U.S National

Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Carroll, Rory. "Amber Heard Settles Domestic Abuse Case against Johnny Depp." The

Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Aug. 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

"Compelling Reasons Women Stay." Domestic Abuse Project. Domestic Abuse Project, 2016.

Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Dimaggio, Giancarlo. "Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Rethinking What We

Know." Psychiatric Times. UBM Medica, LLC., 18 July 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

"Domestic Violence." U.S. Department of Justice. The United States Department of Justice, 31

Oct. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

"Domestic Violence Abuser Behavior Compared to Abusive Borderline Behavior." Boomerang

Love. Lynn Melville, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

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Domestic Violence National Statistics. Denver, CO: National Coalition Against Domestic

Violence, 2015. PDF.

"Domestic Violence & Substance Abuse." NEW BEGINNINGS- Without Violence & Abuse. New

Beginnings, Inc., 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

"Drinking Is Linked to Domestic Abuse, But Is It a Cause?" Verywell. About, Inc., 3 Oct. 2016.

Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

"Effects of Domestic Violence." Joyful Heart Foundation. Joyful Heart Foundation, 2016. Web.

22 Nov. 2016.

"Family Abuse and Crime - Theoretical Models Of Family Violence." Law Library - American

Law and Legal Information Read More: Law Library - American Law and Legal

Information. Net Industries, 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

"Forms of Abuse." National Network to End Domestic Violence. National Network to End

Domestic Violence, 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

"Funding and Appropriations." National Network to End Domestic Violence. National Network

to End Domestic Violence, 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016.

Gelles, Richard J., and Claire Pedrick Cornell. Intimate Violence in Families. Beverly Hills,

California: Sage Publications, 1985. Print.

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Herman, Judith Lewis, J. Christopher Perry, and Bessel A. Van Der Kolk. "Childhood Trauma in

Borderline Personality Disorder." American Journal of Psychiatry 146.4 (1989):

490-95. ResearchGate. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

"History of Battered Women’s Movement." Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Holly, Kellie Jo. "How Did You Brainwash Me? Signs of Abuse | Verbal Abuse in Relationships

- HealthyPlace." HealthyPlace. HealthyPlace.com, Inc., 21 June 2012. Web. 24 Nov.

2016.

Ibrahim, Shamira. "Ray Rice Isn't Being Blackballed by the NFL for Domestic Violence. He's

Just Not Good Anymore." The Root. Univision Communications Inc., 11 Aug. 2016.

Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Knudsen, Dean and JoAnn Miller, editors. Abused and Battered: Social and Legal Responses to

Family Violence. New York: Aldine Transaction, 1991. Print.

"Narcissistic Personality Disorder." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Nonell, Jerica. "16 Ways to Stop Domestic Violence in Your Community." The Pixel Projects 16

For 16 Campaign. The Pixel Project, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

O'Neill, Jennifer. "Domestic Violence Statistics: The Horrific Reality." Good Housekeeping.

Hearst Communications, Inc., 23 Jan. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

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"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of

Medicine, 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Riggs, David S., Marie B. Caulfield, and Amy E. Street. "Risk for Domestic Violence: Factors

Associated with Perpetration and Victimization." Journal of Clinical Psychology

56.10 (2000): 1289-316. Wiley Library. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Rouner, Jef. "4 Shockingly Real Stories Of Marital Rape In America." YourTango. Tango Media

Corporation, 12 May 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

"Sexual Abuse." American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association,

2016. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

"The Relationship Between Gender Equality and Domestic Violence • SJS." Social Justice

Solutions. N.p., 19 July 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. "Surprising Myths & Facts About Antisocial Personality

Disorder." Psych Central. Psych Central, 6 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

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Sexual Violence, 2008. PDF.

Truman, Jennifer L., and Rachel E. Morgan. Nonfatal Domestic Violence, 2003–2012.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Mar. 2014. PDF.

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20 December 1993. Web. 28 October 2016.

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Vagianos, Alanna. "30 Shocking Domestic Violence Statistics That Remind Us It's An

Epidemic." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 01

Nov. 2016.

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Summary Report of Initial Results on Prevalence, Health Outcomes and Women’s

Responses. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2005. PDF.

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Mackenzie Brandel
Dr. Cicci
ENG-202: Digital Rhetoric
10 October 2016
Rhetorical Analysis of Netflix

Netflix is a TV and movie streaming service that people can pay around $8 a month to use. When they
pay that $8, they have unlimited access to thousands of TV shows and movies and exclusives produced
by Netflix. Netflix currently has 83 million subscribers worldwide and 47 million in the United States.
Netflix us always adding or removing from its collection, most likely to keep it fresh and to keep it up to
date with the popular shows and movies of the time.

When you first log onto Netflix, you get the options to get onto your profile, one for “kids,” the ability to
“watch together,” or to add a new profile. This gives Netflix a wide appeal to almost anyone, and lets
adults watch what they want, while not having to worry about the kids seeing what they were watching.
This choice will make adults more likely to want to use Netflix and pay for Netflix, since there is a kid
friendly option. When you go to the “kids” section, the screen instantly becomes white, with much
brighter colors than on the normal Netflix screen. These colors draw kids in and make them want to look
at the pretty colors, while also being reminded of the TV show and movie characters that they love. All of
the options are family friendly, which means that adults don’t have to worry about their kids choosing
something with vulgar language, sex scenes, or nudity, for example.

The option to “watch together” brings you to a screen of movies and TV shows that you might like, and
lets you choose three. It then brings you to a screen that looks very similar to your normal screen on your
regular profile. However, it now knows more TV shows and movies that you are likely to watch, and
recommends to you to watch those three that you just picked. Picking those three puts them into your
mind and makes you remember that you liked them, making it more likely for you to watch them soon.
When somebody goes to their normal profile, the first thing they see is how many TV shows and movies
were added in the last week, and shows some of those options. This is likely to make the audience look
around the site and stay on the site longer, to discover everything that was added. By having a “play” and
“add to my list” options under a banner of one of the shows that was added, it makes the audience watch
the show, either right then or later, again keeping them on the site longer. Below that advertisement, the
user has an option to “continue watching for (username).” This option reminds the person of what they
were watching, and even conveniently keeps the show or movie in the same spot as when somebody
stopped watching it. Netflix knows that many people won’t remember where they left off, so they make it
easier by remembering for them, which makes the user more likely to continue watching. The option of
“my list” below the continue watching option also serves this purpose of ease as well. Netflix also caters
to what that specific user likes as well. They use a sort of “filter bubble” in their “Top picks for
(username)” section by choosing only shows and movies that you would like, based on what you have
watched . For example, because I watched “Bob’s Burgers,” Netflix now recommends that I should

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watch “American Dad,” which is a similar animated show, produced by the same network. If Netflix
recommended that I watch a documentary on World War II because I watched Bob’s Burgers, it would
make no sense, and nobody would be able to take Netflix seriously. This organization and the filter
bubble that Netflix puts on makes the audience want to continue watching and willing to continue paying
the $8 a month to continue to have access to their favorite shows and movies.

The aim of Netflix is to get people to pay to be able to watch many TV shows and movies. In essence,
their aim is to make money, as is in many other companies. Netflix also wants to keep their audience
entertained and to get them to stay on the site for as long as possible. A great example of this is when
somebody is watching a TV show, and when they are finished, they have an option to immediately go to
the next episode of that show, or watch a movie similar to the one they just watched. This is a great
example of logos, as if somebody likes a show, what reason is there for them not to want to watch another
episode of that show? If somebody likes a show or a movie, this option could keep them on the site all
day by making it easy for them to continue watching. I have heard of many people who have been
watching a TV show for most of the day because of this option.

Their audience is people who like to watch TV and movies, especially adults and teenagers, as seen in the
shows and movies first shown when one logs into their normal Netflix profile. Shows such as “American
Horror Story” and “Criminal Minds,” which Netflix says are popular picks, are very mature and wouldn’t
be appropriate for children, however, they are very popular with many teenagers and adults today.
However, the audience does have an option to choose what they want to watch, based on genre. So, the
audience could be in love with animated shows one day, but when they are sick of them the next day, they
can watch a dramatic movie. Netflix appeals to almost all types of audiences by having many, many
different genres of TV show and movie, so everyone can find something that they like and would be
willing to watch.

People can look at Netflix and be immediately intrigued, due to the vast amount of movies and TV shows
available. However, some people might be put off by the many shows and movies that Netflix doesn’t
have or removes, which could push some people away from using Netflix and could have a negative
effect. The overall affect, however, is that many people watch more TV and movies than they would
otherwise, and spend time they could be using doing something else watching these things because they
are so easily and readily available. Because people are willing to pay to watch these things, Netflix makes
money, which was their whole goal in the first place. So, Netflix has a positive affect for both consumers
and producers. Consumers pay and watch whatever they want, and Netflix gets the money, to do whatever
they want. It is a win-win situation for everyone.

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Mackenzie Brandel
Dr. Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey
ENG 220: Reading, Writing, Research
15 April 2017

A Rebel Ahead of Her Time: Jane Eyre’s Place in Feminist Literature in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and
20th Centuries
Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of

the sexes” (Feminism). When Jane Eyre was first published, in 1847, many people found that

Jane matched this definition, and embodies what they thought a woman in modern society should

be like. Before Jane Eyre was written, many forms of literature included ideas about feminism,

proving to women that they could be strong and independent people. However, Jane in Jane Eyre

is the first woman in literature to be truly rebellious by refusing to marry, rebelling against

authority figures, wanting to be educated, and showing the idea of feminist orientalism, which all

went against the Victorian womanhood ideals of the time. Due to her rebelliousness, I believe

that Jane was a trailblazer in feminist literature and paved the way for many more feminist ideas

in the future, where women could not only be feminine, but strong, educated, and brilliant.

Women first started to appear in literature in 17th century English dramas, as “amazons,”

which were defined as “a huntress, warrior, duelist, or signal athlete” (Bamber, 1983). The fate

of these women usually ended up being death while on a battlefield or a submission to the

patriarchal rules. It was these women who were some of the first to be seen as a “threat to the

social order,” however. In the Elizabethan period, they were seen as “chaste and exotic,” but by

the time the 17th century came around, they were seen as “lecherous and insubordinate,” and a

threat to their social order. (Bamber, 1983) One of the best examples of a woman breaking this

social order was a woman named Victoria in a play entitled Bell in Campo in 1662. Victoria was

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a victorious female general who accompanied her husband into war, raised a female army, won

battles against male soldiers, and left her spoils of war to the men after they apologized for their

distrust of her prowess and fighting skills. This play went completely against social ideals by

showing that women were “better warriors and strategians than men.” However, plays that

portrayed women in this light were very few and far between. In Conquest of China by the

Tartars, in 1676, the female patriotic heroine is in love with the enemy prince, and even though

she heroically fights to defend her country, she loses the single battle with the prince to decide

the outcome of the war. A more obvious example is in The Women’s Conquest, in 1670, where

the queen, who is a warrior, strategian, and merciful ruler, is, in the end, suddenly in love with a

man who she had never paid attention to before. (Bamber, 1983)

“And Women, here divest

Your selves of Arms with me. […]
And let your conquests henceforth be to love,
And give Men sole supremacy […]” (Howard, 1671).
The Amazons were also portrayed as “foolish, quarrelsome and lecherous” (Bamber, 1983). In

The Lady Errant, in 1651, a satire on female self-government was portrayed, where a “man-

hating” woman was trying to go against traditional female roles. The heroine is “absurd” and

takes on the role of the hero trying to rescue her man in distress, while the only semi-decent

female character goes against the “feminist utopia of empowerment and self-government” by

convincing the absurd heroine to help only the men, not the women, since the men are obviously

the ones in distress. This play ends with the feminist schemes discredited and power going back

into male hands (Bamber, 1983). Luckily, by the eighteenth century, these plays were fading out

and made way for more realistic and feminist literature, such as Jane Eyre. When looking at the

women who were portrayed in the 17th century, compared to Jane Eyre, it is easy to see that there

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was a change in how women were seen from one century to the next. These women were

portrayed as helpless and only good for falling in love, while Jane is portrayed as a strong

woman who resists falling into the trap of being helpless under a man, proving that the view of

women in society was slowly changing from century to century.

In the eighteenth century, women were expected to be to conform to conform to the

ideals of their society and “to appear unnaturally humble and emotionally docile.” Women were

taught not to be assertive and that if she tried to be assertive, she would be ousted by society. She

would be gain the designation of social “monster,” and would metaphorically cease to exist in

the eyes of society. “… the eighteenth century woman was required … to .. embody the social

ideal of modesty, reserve, virtue, piety, charity, and meekness, as envisioned by the male”

(Miller, 6). As a result of these ideals that were presented to women by society, many women

internalized these social norms and accepted the oppression that was happening to them by

society.

The eighteenth and earth nineteenth centuries brought about two types of writing in

British literature and drama: restoration comedies in the first half of the century, and sentimental

comedies in the later half of the century. (Miller, 2) The ideas of females and femininity

represent the shift in this style the most, as the restoration comedies had very independent

heroines who engaged in sexually explicit affairs, while the sentimental comedies had cautious,

dependent, and chaste heroines who engaged in very few self-serving activities. (Miller, 2) One

of the main feminist novels during this time was Jane Austen, who, in her novels, was able to

create heroines who conformed to the social norm but also create heroines who went against the

social norm. Austen’s novel Mansfield Park initially presents the image of the ideal woman of

the time in its heroine Fanny Price. Price is “exceedingly timid and shy … shrinking from

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notice” into the background at Mansfield. (Miller, 9) Fanny internalizes the ideals of her society

in feeling that women are not able to express feelings such as anger, and because of this

rationalization she places the blame on herself and lets her feelings go unexpressed. However,

Fanny goes against these ideals when she refuses Henry Crawford’s marriage proposal, much to

the disappointment of her uncle and guardian Sir Berthram. Despite that Berthram finds this

behavior “disgusting” and “offensive,” the fact that Fanny shows that she “can and will decide

for [her]self,” is completely against the ideals for women of the time and proves that women can

think and decide things without the help of a man. (Miller, 9)

Jane Eyre was first written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847, in one of the first decades of the

Victorian Era. During this era, society was still very man-dominated, and women’s voices were

still overpowered by men’s. It was virtually impossible for women who were lower-class to

have a good life or a good marriage, as social structures determined almost everything in society.

Jane Eyre had a great influence on society at the time and was one of the first novels to truly be

seen as feminist. “Jane Eyre is the first, also the most powerful and popular novel to represent

the modern view of women’s position on society” (Gao, 926). Despite being a member of a

lower class and being looked down upon by society, Jane never surrenders to the snobbish

people and instead spends her life looking for esteem which she felt was deserved by everyone,

not just the rich. In realizing this and seeking equality, Jane puts herself into the image of a

feminist.

The beginning of the novel starts with the reader finding Jane reading a book and trying

to escape the abusiveness of the Reeds, through reading. Right away, this proves to the reader

that Jane is trying to be educated and to improve herself, unlike many women of the time felt that

they should do. Later in the novel, when Mrs. Reed tried to call Jane out for telling a lie, Jane

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retorted, saying “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love

you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed; and this book about the

liar, you may give to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I” (Bronte, 63). In

this statement, Jane proves that she will not be the emotionless little doll that Mrs. Reed wants

her to be, but an independent, rebellious, bright young woman. Jane again retorts against Mrs.

Reed, when talking about her experience in the Red Room; “How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare

I? Because it is the truth. You think I had no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or

kindness, but I can’t live so, and you have no pity. I shall remember how you push me back-

roughly and violently pushed me back into the red room, and locked me up there-to my dying

day. Though I was in pain, though I cried out, have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!” (Bronte,

p.64). These sentiments represent the feminist consciousness of Jane in the fact that she wants

esteem from other people and wants to be seen as a decent, respectable person.

One of Jane’s main areas of rebellion is choosing not to be a married woman. Women at

this time became essentially the property and had to be controlled by what their husbands said to

do, and Jane didn’t want to be controlled in this puppet-like way. However, following her

betrothal to Mr. Rochester, Jane finds herself under his control, which is exactly where she did

not want to end up. Before their wedding, Jane is “obliged” to go with Mr. Rochester to a silk

warehouse, where she is “ordered to choose half a dozen dresses.” Although it is clear that Jane

hates this, she cannot free herself from it, and barely even manages is a reduction the number of

dresses that she has to order. (Zonana, 592) Even after the ordeal at the silk warehouse is done,

Rochester forces Jane to a jeweler’s, “the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a

sense of annoyance and degradation” (Bronte, 296). This shopping trip proves that Rochester is

in complete power over Jane; he commands her to do something, and she is “obliged” to obey,

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even though it goes against her wishes. At this time in the novel, Jane is not yet aware that

Rochester is already married to Bertha. However, because Jane was plenty aware that he was

trying to dress her “like a doll,” it is obvious that she can tell that he is trying to take control of

her and have power over her and that feminist orientalism is clearly on her mind. (Zonana, 592)

On the way back from their trip into town, Jane says "He smiled; and I thought his smile was

such as a sultan might, in a blissful and fond moment, bestow on a slave his gold and gems had

enriched” (Bronte, 297). By calling Rochester a sultan and herself a slave, Jane is giving both

herself and the reader a culturally acceptable way to understand the power element that many

men had over women at the time, therefore letting us understand why feminism was so

important; because of feminism and the fight for women’s rights, women today do not have the

oppressive social structure that was evident in Jane’s time and held down many women from

doing and being who they wanted to be. (Zonana, 593)

Many other authors of the 19th century also echoed the idea of feminist orientalism in

their novels, which is defined as “a special case of the literary strategy of using the Orient as a

means for what one writer has called Western ‘selfredemption’: … Specifically, feminist

orientalism is a rhetorical strategy (and a form of thought) by which a speaker or writer

neutralizes the threat inherent in feminist demands and makes them palatable to an audience that

wishes to affirm its occidental superiority” (Zonana, 594). One of the most prominent and well-

known authors echoing this idea was Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein. In Frankenstein,

Shelley creates a female character who insists on being more than just a face in the background.

“The young girl [Safie] spoke in high and enthusiastic terms of her mother … She instructed her

daughter in the tenets of the religion, and taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and

an independence of spirit, forbidden to the female followers of Mahomet. This lady died; but her

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lessons were indelibly impressed on the mind of Safie, who sickened at the prospect of again

returning to Asia, and the being immured within the walls of a haram, allowed only to occupy

herself with puerile amusements, ill-suited to the temper of her soul, now accustomed to grand

ideas and a noble emulation for virtue” (Shelley, 119). Safie is very smart and educated, which

was not common for girls of the time, and has aspirations to do and try things in a world beyond

her own, which was not encouraged for women at the time, therefore going against the image of

the ideal woman of the time.

The late 19th century and early 20th century, however, brought a new spin to the idea of

feminist literature. In Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman’s The Revolt of Mother, after being

married to and showing obedience to her husband for forty years, the main character, Sarah

Penn, finally makes the decision that she wants a new house instead of a barn that her husband is

constructing, and rebels against her husband, and therefore against society and its rules for how

women should behave. (Nilsen, 27) In 1896, Jewett also wrote a short story collection entitled

The Country of the Pointed Firs. In this collection, all of the protagonists were strong and

powerful females, a still very uncommon notion for the literature of the time. “The Country of

the Pointed Firs emphasizes the knowledge, authority, and capacity for friendship among women

and their creation of a network that functions as an alternative to society, so to speak” (Nilsen,

28). In The House of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton in 1905, Wharton alternates between a

full blown attack on society for how it was restricting women’s options, and the inclination to

give her main character, Lily, too much blame for her own downfall. Wharton thought that Lily

was going too far in her feminist approach, and tried to calm it down for the sake of the integrity

of the character. (Nilsen, 26) Both Freeman and Wharton’s stories observe female characters

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beginning to express their own feelings and needs despite the patriarchal society that they were

growing up in.

In the time of Jane Eyre, the actions taken by the characters portrayed in the late 19th and

20th centuries would not have been accepted. Women in the 18th century would have been

chastised and ousted by society for rebelling against her husband, as women were seen as the

property of their husbands in the 1800s. However, by the late 19th and 20th centuries, it was

beginning to be accepted that women, if they no longer loved their husbands, could rebel and

leave them if it made their lives better. Jane Eyre is quite similar to The House of Mirth as well,

as Charlotte Bronte is quietly attacking society for restricting the opinions of women by having

Jane be rebellious, educated, and unmarried for most of the novel. The House of Mirth goes quite

a bit further and is more obvious on its attack on society, having Lily resist “the temptation to be

a beautiful object…” (Feminism in the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton) Lily realizes that she

needs to marry a man to have financial stability, but that if she was to be married, she would be

dependent on a man, similar to Jane, as she also realizes that she will lose her dependence if she

is married and resists marriage for most of the novel.

Certain novels of the time also showed women trying to break away from their sex roles

spiritually and erotically. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, written in 1899 is a prime example of

this type of feminist literature. In the novel, the heroine, Edna Pontellier, falls in love with a

young man and leaves behind her husband and family to be with this man. However, when this

young man deserts her, Edna succumbs to her emotions and ends up committing suicide.

Because of society’s harsh restrictions on women’s choices, they developed an excessive

dependence on men and romantic love and became very emotionally vulnerable due to this. Edna

attempts to establish her existence independently, but finds herself very isolated and receives no

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support from her community. (Nilsen, 28) While trying to live independently, Edna ends up

rebelling against her role as mother and housekeeper that society said that she should be filling,

proving that the idea of feminism was alive and well in literature at this time, and wasn’t going

to be slowing down anytime soon.

The idea of feminism in literature has existed since the 17th century, in English dramas

entitled “amazons.” A few of these dramas portrayed women as powerful and strong leaders, but

most gave out the image that women were poor leaders who were just good for falling in love

with men and fulfilling the needs of men. The image of women and feminism slightly improved

in the 18th century, with Jane Austen and her writing of Mansfield Park, where her main

character, Fanny, refuses a marriage proposal from a man, which was not acceptable to the idea

of what women should have been like at that time. In the 19th century, Charlotte Bronte’s writing

of Jane Eyre proved to be what society saw as the first “feminist” novel. In rebelling against her

elders, trying to be educated, and refusing to be held down by a man in marriage, Jane was a

truly rebellious character in the way she spoke and the way she acted. By the 20th century, novels

like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman’s The Revolt of Mother, and

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening all continued to present the idea of rebellion and women

becoming more independent and going against society’s idea that a man should be in control of a

woman’s life. Today, feminist novels have become more common and see women in a better

light today than they did around 400 years ago, thanks to the rebellion and writing of these many

women, who have grown feminist literature to what it is today.

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 Works Cited

Bamber, Linda. “Amazons and Warrior Women: Varieties of Feminism in Seventeenth-

Century Drama. Simon Shepherd.” Renaissance Quarterly 36.1 (1983): 143-45. Web. 25 Mar.

2017.

“Feminism.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2017. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

“Feminism in the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.” Pitlane Magazine. Pitlane

Magazine, 2017. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.

Gao, Haiyan. “Reflection on Feminism in Jane Eyre.” Theory and Practice in Language

Studies 3.6 (2013): 926-31. Academy Publication. Web. 3 Apr. 2017.

Howard, Edward. The Womens Conquest. 1671. Play.

Miller, Nicole. “A Study of Women through 18th-Century Literature: as Reflected by the

Works of Jane Austen, Or, a Re-visioning.” Thesis. Bridgewater State University, 2013. BSU

Honors Program Theses and Projects. Bridgewater State University, 2013. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

Nilsen, Helge Normann. “American Women's Literature in the Twentieth Century: A

Survey of Some Feminist Trends.” American Studies in Scandinavia 22 (1990): 25-

37. Copenhagen Business School Library. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

Zonana, Joyce. “The Sultan and the Slave: Feminist Orientalism and the Structure of

‘Jane Eyre’.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 18.3 (1993): 592-617. Web. 20

Mar. 2017.

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Daniel Wasserman

HST 203: Medieval World

18 April 2017

Tyrtaeus, Perpetua, and Death

Tyrtaeus, a Spartan Poet, once said “Beautiful-and-honorable it is for a brave warrior to

die, fallen among the foremost fighters … let us fight with all our hearts for this land and die for

children, no longer hesitating to risk our lives”.1 Many other authors echoed this idea, including

Socrates in The Trial and Death of Socrates. One of Socrates’ main arguments is that somebody

should not fear death, because it is not bad, and if they do, they are making a mistake. As he sees

it, “The fear of death amounts to simply thinking one is wise when one is not” so the error from

his point of view is believing that someone knows something that they know nothing about.2

He continues to go in depth about the goodness of death, saying, “And let us also reflect

upon how good a reason there is to hope that death is a good thing,” trying to convince his reader

once again not to fear death and what it entails.3 Socrates thinks of two ways death can be: “a

state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness or a change and migration of the soul from this

world to another”.4 He says that “Now if there is, in fact, no awareness in death, but it is like

sleep - the kind in which the sleeper does not even dream at all - then death would seem to be a

1
Tyrtaeus, “Exhortation to the Young Hoplite,” in Tyrtaeus, Solon, Theognis, vol. 1 of University of Chicago
Readings in Western Civilization, ed. John Boyer and Julius Kirshner (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986),
23.
2
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates (New York: Dover, 1992), 35.
3
Plato, Trial and Death of Socrates, 35.
4
Plato, Trial and Death of Socrates, 40.

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marvelous gain”. 5 Socrates says that he would like this, as he does not like having dreams and

thinks that it would only be like a night.

As for death involving something happening to the soul, Socrates says that he would also

like it, as “But if death is a journey to another place, and the common belief be true, that there

are all who have died, what good could be greater than this, my judges?”6 If there is only a single

place where souls can go, his soul and the souls of other people would be in the same place, and

he would like to meet those souls: “…what would you not give to converse with Orpheus and

Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? I am willing to die many times, if this be true. … I should have

a wonderful interest in meeting there Palamedes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and the other

men of old who have died through an unjust judgment, and in comparing my experiences with

theirs. That I think would be no small pleasure. And, above all, I could spend my time in

examining those who are there, as I examine men here, and in finding out which of them is wise,

and which of them thinks him- self wise, when he is not wise. What would we not give, my

judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great expedition against Troy, or Odysseus, or

Sisyphus…? It would be an infinite happiness to converse with them, and to live with them, and

to examine them.”7 Socrates essentially wants to die because it will lead him to meet more great

people, to hear more truths, and to finally learn what true wisdom is, making death something

very appealing to him.

5
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates (New York: Dover, 1992), 35.
6
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates (New York: Dover, 1992), 36.
7
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates (New York: Dover, 1992), 42

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 One of the later examples of somebody who didn’t fear death was St. Perpetua. Perpetua

was a martyr, who was one who would suffer prosecution and death if they advocated and

proclaimed their love of God. Her father does everything that he can to discourage Perpetua from

being a Christian, despite her saying, "Father do you see this vase here?" she replied. "Could it

be called by any other name than what it is?" "No," he replied. "Well, neither can I be called

anything other than what I am, a Christian." He immediately reacts negatively, saying, “Lay

aside your pride, do not ruin all of us, for none of us will ever speak freely again, if anything

happen to you!”8 Her father can clearly see that Perpetua will do anything, including dying, for

God, but his words end up having no avail, as Perpetua later says “’It shall happen on that

platform as God shall choose; for know well that we lie not in our own power but in the power of

God.’”9 Perpetua is essentially leaving what happens in her life up to God, even death, proving

that she does not fear death, but will embrace it because it is coming from God. And, when going

down to the prison, which she knows could result in her death, she says “Then he passed the

sentence on the whole of us, and condemned us to the beasts; and in great joy we went down to

the prison.”10 Many Christians didn’t fear times like these, as they knew that God was with them

and would protect them at every step, and, if they died, they would go to Heaven and would be

with God.

Perpetua knows what she believes in is not accepted in her society, and is obvious about

it when she writes about her dream concerning going into the arena to fight, saying “… because I

knew that I was condemned to the beasts, I marvelled that there were no beasts let loose on

8
“The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua,” in The Church in the Roman Empire, ed. Karl F. Morrison, vol. 3 of University
of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, ed. John Boyer and Julius Kirshner (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1986), 53.
9
“The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua,” 55.
10
“The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua,” 56.

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me.”11 In the end, Perpetua ends up dying due to her being a Christian, in a very bloody battle

that ends up with her being slain by a sword. It is obvious in reading this text, however, that

Perpetua was expecting to end up dying because of her beliefs, and that just because they might

cost her her life, she wasn’t going to stop believing. Perpetua sees death as something that

shouldn’t be feared and should be embraced in the name of God, similar to the ideas of Tyrtaeus

and Socrates, making her someone to remember today for her braveness and sacrifice of her life

for God.

While the ideas of Tyrtaeus, Socrates, and Perpetua are different, they are similar in that

they all see death as something not to be feared and to be embraced. Tyrtaeus says that if

somebody dies honorably, they are a warrior, keeping their family name in high regards in

society. Socrates sees death as a good thing as he could meet the souls of others such as Orpheus

and Homer, who he very much admired. He could learn from them and gain more knowledge

about what true wisdom really is. Perpetua dies for her beliefs, which she sees as good because it

was in the name of God, who she devoted her entire life to. Even though all three of these people

have very different ideas about why death is good, they all are similar in that they believe that

something good will come out of dying and that it is essentially a good thing.

I, personally, don’t see a lot of good in dying. To me, your life is over, you can’t do

anything else, so what good is that? The inevitability of death is something that I think about

sometimes, and it does scare me. How will I die? When will I die? What dreams will I not have

fulfilled? I can see how these three people could be positive about it, as they all believe in

something after death that makes the idea of death so wonderful. I just don’t see how Socrates

11
“The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua,” 57.

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can know that he will meet those people, for instance. If I knew that I was going to meet these

wonderful people after death, I might think that it was a good thing. But since I don’t, I really

don’t see death as a good thing, at least not for me.

Works Cited

Boyer, John W., and Julius Kirshner. University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986. Print.

Plato. Trial and Death of Socrates. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.

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Mackenzie Brandel

How to Make Your Elephant Fly

Making your elephant fly is quite simple. First of all, you need to get its permission. It

needs to smile at you, and if it doesn’t, then it isn’t ready to fly. If you want to cheat and make it

fly without it smiling at you, you can seduce it with some fruit, twigs, or roots, so it won’t know

what’s going on. Second of all, you need to buy about 200,000 balloons. Go to Party City and get

these balloons and enjoy the benefit of the strange and annoyed looks from the employees as

they blow up your 200,000 balloons. Thirdly, try to get all of these balloons in your car. If it

doesn’t work, call your friends and request their help. Don’t tell them what you’re doing, just say

that you need help transporting a “few” balloons. When your friends show up and see that you

have 200,000 balloons and faint because of the shock of how many balloons you need

transported, bring them to the hospital and call some different friends (hopefully these friends

won’t faint on you…). If the next set of friends does the same thing, just repeat the last

instruction until you find some friends that won’t faint at the shock of these balloons. And sorry

to say, if all of your friends faint, you are out of luck and won’t be able to continue with this

process.

If you are able to get past that last step and are able to get the balloons home, be proud of

yourself. Not many people get past that step! The fourth step is to find something that your

elephant can sit in that can also be tied to all of the balloons. This might also be tricky, as even

the smallest elephants weigh about 6,000 pounds. I would recommend buying or making a

device out of very strong wood or metal. Maybe a boat would work? The next step is to tie that

device to your 200,000 balloons. I should add that this might want to be done outside so the

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device and elephant don’t damage your house. Also make sure that it is a nice sunny day so you

can get great pictures and record this once in a lifetime event.

Once you’ve found a nice place outside, the next step is to get your elephant into the

transportation device. Make sure that your elephant is still happy with you doing this. Again, you

need to see it smile (or you need to seduce it) before you attempt this! If your elephant breaks

your transportation device when attempting to get in it, go back to the beginning of step four and

try again. If you have successfully gotten your elephant into the device, then congrats! You are

already more successful than 98% of people who try this experiment. If your elephant doesn’t

fly, you probably need more balloons. Go back to Party City and request 200,000 more balloons

and see if they permanently ban you from the store because you have annoyed them so much by

asking for so many balloons. If you get banned from the store, just ask your friend (after they get

out of the hospital and over the shock of so many balloons), to buy these balloons for you. The

seventh step is to, once you finally have the right amount of balloons, let your elephant fly! Let

go of the device and watch your elephant soar up into the sky. I should also mention that you

might want to have a way to get your elephant down so it doesn’t get lost in the clouds and

disappear into the blue abyss of the sky. This leads us to our eighth and final step, getting your

elephant down. If you forgot to configure a way to get your elephant down, then I’m sorry, there

is no way to do this step, and your elephant is going to crash into the sun and burn into ash and

dust. But if you have a way to get your elephant down, then this step shouldn’t be too hard. Just

find a few (and by a few I mean many) friends, and pull as hard as you can. If your elephant

doesn’t come down right away, then it means that you are probably weak and need to gain some

arm muscles, or that you need more friends. It is usually a mix of the two. Once your elephant is

finally down, congrats! You have successfully made your elephant fly! I don’t know what you

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can do with all of the balloons. Maybe throw a huge party? Anyway, I hope that you had fun

making your elephant fly! Join us next time for instructions on how to make a giraffe dance!

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Robert Vivian

ENG-120: Literary Analysis

10 April 2018

The Awakening: Becoming a New Woman

In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier seems like a respectable, happy

Victorian woman. She acts how Victorian women are supposed to, as the supportive, responsible

wife and mother who never questions why or how, but just does as she is told. But Edna has

always been a bit different in a way. She has always been a romantic, as she was in love with a

cavalry officer when she was young, in love with a man who visited a neighboring plantation

when she was a teenager and was entirely head over heels for a tragedian a few years later.

However, her marriage to Léonce forces Edna to settle down into the traditional Victorian

womanhood and forces her into a life of responsibility that she never really seemed to want. Her

marriage does not entirely rid Edna of the romantic inside of her, as, shown in her relationships

with Madame Ratignolle and Adele, which awaken Edna to the fact that she cannot live a life

without sex and love, despite how much she is craving solitude and independence during her

awakening. Adele also helps to lead to Edna’s downfall, as through the birth of Adele’s child,

Edna realizes that she has given up her independence by being a mother and that she will never

have a completely independent life because her children will always be dependent on her.

Society will always expect her to be a mother and to conform to its ideas of what women and

mothers will be, and Edna, being the awakened woman that she is, cannot handle this pressure

from society, and commits suicide, finally becoming free at last. In this novel, which acts as a

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form of gender criticism, Edna proves that the expectations placed on women in the 19th century

put tremendous pressure on them to act a certain way, and that if women didn’t act this way, they

would be ousted from society, living a life of loneliness and internal unhappiness because they

couldn’t find a place in society which would give them acceptance.

In comparing Edna and Adele, their characters could not be any more different. Adele is

described as the “mother-woman:” “[The mother-women] were women who idolized their

children, worshipped their husbands and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as

individuals and grow wings as ministering angels” (Chopin 10). For example, Adele is a very

talented pianist, but doesn’t play for the sake of herself, but only for her children: “She was

keeping up her music on account of the children, she said; because she and her husband both

considered it a means of brightening the home and making it attractive” (Chopin 27). Adele

seems to be very proud of being a mother and isn’t afraid to make that fact known. However, that

is the complete opposite of Edna’s feelings, which find the life of the mother-woman to be very

unsatisfying and unfulfilling and unsuited for her. “It was not a condition of life which fitted her,

and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of

commiseration for Madame Ratignolle” (Chopin 63). Edna even goes so far later as to say “I

would give my money, I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give myself”

(Chopin 53). Through this sentence alone, Edna proves her complete dedication to doing what is

best for her life and demonstrates to the reader that she finds no pleasure in being a mother, and

seems to imply that Edna is only a mother because society wanted her to, not because she

actually wanted to.

Edna, instead of finding happiness in raising children, learns to find joy in other, more

freeing pursuits, such as painting, despite being discouraged by Madame Ratignolle. According

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to Ratignolle, “The artist must possess the courageous soul, the soul that dares and defies”

(Chopin 71). Madame Ratignolle seems to feel that Edna could only be a true artist if Enda lived

a life of solitude and disregarded all expectations society had for her. Edna follows her advice,

but, due to the lack of sexuality, finds the artist lifestyle lonely. However, due to her relationship

with Adele, Edna experiences her first real awakening, in the form of sexuality. “There may have

been . . . influences, both subtle and apparent, working in their several ways to induce [Edna] to

[loosen a little her mantle of reserve]; but the most obvious was the influence of Adele

Ratignolle” (Chopin 16). Through her interaction with Adele, Edna realizes that the way to her

individuality is not through asexuality, as Madame Ratignolle’s is, but through sex and intimate

touch. Despite wanting to be a completely independent woman, Edna realizes that she has to

have someone else to give her the love that every human craves, but this, in turn, leads Edna to

her downfall and emerges as one of her tragic flaws. There was no way that Edna could be

completely independent, yet have that kind of love in her life that she craved, yet also keep up

with the demands that society placed on her. Yes, Edna did have Robert for a short while, but

even he seemed to realize that Edna’s want for independence was not compatible with the love

that she craved. Through Robert’s fleeing and inability to reject societal norms as Edna does, it is

proved to Edna that her role in society is not meant to be as an independent woman, but as the

loving and dedicated mother and wife, and that is what everybody in society expects.

As she rejects Mademoiselle Reisz as her role model, Edna tries to find self-definition in

other ways, including trying to act like a man. Men didn’t have to stay home and raise children

and be perfect creatures all of the time, so why did women? When Léonce goes to New York and

Edna doesn’t have to take care of Raoul and Etienne, she realizes how nice it is not to have to

take care of them, and finally is allowed to have some rare peace. This realization of how freeing

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independence is is a massive step in Edna’s awakening, in realizing how much easier her life

would be if she was a man and didn’t always have to be responsible for her children. “A radiant

peace settled upon her when she at last found herself alone. Even the children were gone”

(Chopin 80). Edna also embraces the man’s lifestyle by trying to sell her paintings, entering the

male-dominated world of capitalism. This entering of the world of capitalism seemed to be one

of the first massive departures from the nineteenth-century woman for Edna, as by generating her

own income, she could finally rent her own house and have independence from her children and

her husband, which most nineteenth-century women didn’t have the luxury of being able to do.

However, no matter how much she tries to do to escape it, the nature and society of the

nineteenth century won’t quite let Edna leave her position as a mother, which certainly puts this

book in the form of realism, as there had to be real women in the 19th century who were also in

Edna’s position of only being a mother because they were expected to, not because they wanted

to. For example, despite the peace that Edna gained when her children were gone, she still

“talked intimately to [the doggie] about Etienne and Raoul” (Chopin 81). And even after she

moves out into the pigeon house, she wants to see her children so badly that she travels to

Iberville to see them, despite that she seems to regret this decision later: “All along the journey

homeward, their presence lingered with her like the memory of a delicious song. But by the time

she had regained the city the song no longer echoed in her soul” (Chopin 105). But one of the

main moments of inescapable motherhood pull comes when Edna is called to keep Adele

company during the birth of her child. One of the main realizations Edna makes is that her body,

as a female, was made for childbirth, and by having children, she committed herself to this

purpose and to becoming a mother. She seems to realize that, despite how much she wants to act

like a man, she will always be a woman, and that that fact is inescapable, despite her seeming

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mindset that children are only good to keep the world populated. This realization, along with the

societal expectations for her, leads Edna to commit suicide. Becoming a part of something

besides her individual self, which she has committed herself to doing by becoming a mother,

goes against everything Edna believes in. Raoul and Etienne will always be a part of her life, and

because she is their mother, she can’t escape them, which Edna just cannot live with. “The

children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and

sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days” (Chopin 127). By committing

suicide, Edna is allowed to be free from her past and to fully immerse herself in death, making it

truly the only thing that could free Edna from the confines the world and society played on her.

Edna, in my opinion, is a fascinating character. By rejecting nineteenth-century ideals for

women, Edna seems to isolate herself from the rest of society, and kind of causes her demise in a

way. She wants to live a life that society won’t let her live, and can’t get it out of her head and

her mind that this is the life that she has to live. Edna seems to have a significant conflict

between what society expects of her and what will make society happy, and what she wants of

herself and what will make her feels that she has a fulfilling life. But because she didn’t accept

her role, she was ousted from the main part of society, leading to unhappiness because who she

wanted to be wasn’t allowed by society. This ousting from society seems to happen more often

than not though. If somebody is different from exactly what society wants them to be, society

won’t accept them, which could lead to drastic measures such as committing suicide, like Edna,

because they won’t fit in and never will. But more often than not, those who don’t fit in are those

who end up making the most significant impacts on society. “Well-behaved women seldom

make history” is a sentiment that truly reflects what Edna could have done if she hadn’t killed

herself, in my opinion. Edna was a strong woman, with strong views on society and motherhood,

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and those views could have made her society better if she had spoken out and been vocal about

changing how society saw women and their roles.

Reading this novel made me think about awakenings that have led to changes that have

profoundly shaped my life. I think that one of my first awakenings happened around third grade.

From kindergarten to second grade, I always was one to try to do anything to fit in. I tried to be

cool and hang out with the so-called “popular” clique and would do things that went against who

I was just to try to be “cool.” Pretty cliché story, I know. And it continues to be cliché, as when I

got into third grade, I finally realized that I didn’t need a lot of friends and didn’t need to fit into

the “popular” group and that that was alright. I awakened to the fact that I wasn’t ever likely

going to fit in because I didn’t want to do the things that they were doing. I didn’t want to wear

makeup, I didn’t want to wear revealing clothing, and I didn’t want to be in a relationship. And

those things made me different. They always have and always will. I’ve still never worn makeup,

I still have never been in a romantic relationship, and I’ve never really found the appeal of

wearing revealing clothing. But by doing these things, I hope that I am showing society that girls

and women can live a perfectly good and happy life without having to give into everything that

society expects them to do and be.

The Awakening brings to light some of the issues of 19th-century society, and,

specifically, the problems that women had when trying to get out of those roles and be their own

person. Edna, in her awakening, attempts to remove herself from all of her expected roles,

especially the role of motherhood, in an attempt to be independent and live the life that she has

always dreamed of. But in her realization that she could never escape the confines of

motherhood, Edna seemed to be trapped, as she could never be independent with two children

depending on her life to survive. By taking her own life at the end of the novel, Edna finally

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becomes a free woman, no longer bound by the restrictions of society, her husband, or her

children. And that, I feel, is Edna’s true awakening, as she realizes that killing herself is one of

the only choices she can truly make on her own in the society that she lives in and that death will

give her the freedom that she has always wanted and needed in society that demanded so much

of her both mentally and physically.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Wisehouse Classics, 2017.

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Robert Vivian

ENG-261: Survey of American Literature II

8 April 2018

Grief and Death in The Sheltering Sky

Death and grief: two things that nobody ever wants to experience, yet every single one of

us will. In The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, the ideas of time, the fleetingness of life, and the

inevitability of grief and death are all explored are all explored, and are experienced first-hand by

Kit when dealing with the death of Port. Kit didn’t see Port’s death coming, yet when it did, she

wasn’t expecting it. She expected those little fleeting moments with Port and their life together to

last forever, seeming to forget that there is a limit on everybody’s life and that nobody will live

forever. In one of the most famous passages in the book, Bowles writes that “Death is always on

the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the

finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we

get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times,

and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of

your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive

of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times

will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless” (Bowles, 238).

Throughout the story and through her grief, Kit comes to realize this notion of the fact that she,

nor anybody she loves, is going to live forever, and is transformed through her knowledge of this

notion, making a new life for herself out of her grief.

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 Port’s death due to typhoid completely blindsided Kit and left her whole world in ruins,

and her fragile identity of who she was completely shattered and broken with grief. Kit is forced

to face something that she never wanted to have to deal with: existence with no meaning and no

more “sheltering” from the sky that had always protected her. Kit loses control over her actions

and seems to go crazy in her grief in a sense, as shown in the passages “Once in the garden she

found herself pulling off her clothes” (Bowles 240), “She only did the things she found herself

already doing” (Bowles, 270) and “She let him pull her along through the market” (Bowles,

296). Port was always Kit’s guide and was in control of both of their lives, but with his death, Kit

is lost and doesn’t know how to go on. His death leaves her empty and lonely, as shown in the

passage “And yet, deeper than the empty region that was her consciousness…” (Bowles, 232).

Due to this loss of sheltering from her “sky,” which was, in a sense, Port, Kit is confronted with

something that has always hated: existence with no meaning. Due to her absolute and complete

hatred of this notion, Kit, with no reason whatsoever, just leaves. She packs up, puts on Port’s

jacket, closes the door, and never looks back, heading off into a new life, free of all of the

bounds and chains that were put on her before. Kit was now a completely free woman, and she

was going to do what she wanted, with no reason but to make her and herself only, happy and

who she wanted to be.

However, instead of being transformed in a good way, the grief leads Kit to become a

human with only the capability to take care of her basic needs, such as hunger and keeping

herself safe, and this limited level of ability continues throughout the story, proving just how

much Port’s death really did effect Kit. For example, even after joining the caravan and starting

her new life, this is evidenced by “When she was hungry, she rose, picked up her bag, and

walked among the rocks…” (Bowles, 294) and “‘I must get out,’ she thought…” (Bowles, 288).

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Kit can tell that Belqassim is doing more harm than good to her life, and is causing her danger,

so she knows that she needs to get out, but, in essence, she is doing this only to save her

existence, which is the only thing that seems to matter to Kit at this point in the story. Kit even

rejects some of the most basic human activities, such as language, which eventually even lead

her to reject thoughts as evidenced in the passages “It was so long since she had canalized her

thoughts by speaking aloud, and she had grown accustomed to acting without the consciousness

of being in the act” (Bowles, 270) and “The words were coming back, and inside the wrappings

of the words, there would be thoughts lying there” (Bowles, 296). Port was so controlling of

Kit’s emotions and conscious thoughts at the beginning of the novel, such as “And she had

accompanied him without reiterating her complaints too often or too bitterly” (Bowles, 6) and

“Against her will she forced herself to admit that she still belonged to Port...” (Bowles, 37).

When Port died, so did Kit’s will to live a fulfilling life and to think beyond her basic needs,

making the transformation Kit goes through after his death more harmful than helpful.

The fleetingness of life is something that I tend to think about often, as is evidenced in

how many of my papers have brought up the subject. I have been quite lucky in the sense that I

haven’t yet had to deal with grief and death when it has come to my closest family members.

Nevertheless, I know that I’ll inevitably have to deal with those feelings sometime soon, as my

grandparents are all in their seventies and eighties and seem to have more health problems every

time I see them. But I have experienced a few close calls with this notion of death and grief that

have forced me to see how fragile life is and how it could be taken away from us at any time.

One of the closest brushes with death in my family came when I was in sixth grade, and I think

about it constantly. My sister had gone out to the local renaissance festival with one of her

friends on a rainy, nasty day, which we didn’t think much of when they left. But later, the phone

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rang, and I answered, and my dad was frantically on the other end of the line, saying “Natasha

(my sister) and Meghan were in a car accident and are going to the hospital.” What I found out

later was that because the rain had caused a power outage, the stop lights were glitching, which

led to confusion on the part of my sister’s friend, who thought that she had a green light.

However, the driver coming from the other street also thought that he had a green light, and went

at the same time that my sister and her friend were going, t-boning their car on my sister’s side.

I’ll spare the rest of the details, but I’m glad that I wasn’t at the scene, as her injuries were so

severe that she was knocked out, and apparently looked like she could have been dead, according

to the friend. My sister did end up recovering from her injuries sustained in the accident, but I

always think about the fact that I could have lost her that day, and how quickly death can come

into our lives when we least expect it, just as it did for Kit with the death of Port.

But the other idea that Kit struggles with, that I also struggle with in a sense, is wanting

to add meaning to life, and not to live a life with absolutely no purpose. For Kit, she never seems

to find a concrete meaning to her life after Port dies, instead subjecting herself to being

Belqassim’s sex slave and making the meaning of her life as only to satisfy his lustful desires.

But for me, that is not the route that I intend to go with in my life. I’ve found that the times when

my life has the most meaning have been when I’ve made someone smile or have done something

to make their lives a little bit better. For example, the cross country history books that I’ve

mentioned time and time again. By making those books, I not only felt that I was having an

impact on my coach’s life but also on the future of a program that was my lifeblood in high

school. Knowing that I made a positive impact on a person and a program that I loved made me

feel that I had meaning and that my life had meaning, truly cementing in one of the purposes of

life for me. And it’s been the little things like that that have given my life that meaning that feels

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so wonderful. It’s the putting together surprise birthday celebrations for my roommates, surprise

birthday packages for my friends back home, or just supporting somebody who’s having a bad

day. Those little things truly add meaning to my life and make me feel like my life has a purpose,

which is, in my opinion, is one of the best feelings to have.

In The Sheltering Sky, the ideas of death, grief, and the fleetingness of life are all

explored, mainly by Kit after the death of her husband and guide, Port. After Port’s death, Kit is

devastated, and her life ends up losing all meaning. In an effort to give her life meaning, Kit

leaves her old life behind and joins a caravan, where she ends up being a forced sex slave to

Belqassim, who uses her purely for his desires for lust. However, during this time, Kit resorts

only to the necessary actions needed for survival, such as eating and escaping danger, which

does lead her to flee from Belqassim later. Because Port was so controlling of the actions of Kit

and was such a guide to her on how to live her life, when he dies, so does all of the will of Kit to

live a meaningful life, which was entirely the opposite of how she wanted to live.

Kit’s transformation after Port’s death proves how transformative grief can be to a person

and how it can affect every aspect of their life, despite their best efforts to avoid that

transformation. Although I have never experienced grief, I have been very close to that point,

and it has made me rethink my own life and how anybody I love could die, at any second, for

any reason, and it scares me. Seeing how Kit reacted and transformed after Port’s death made me

think about how I will act when the time comes for me to experience grief, and showed me the

way that I definitely don’t want to go during that time. But overall, The Sheltering Sky made me

think about how short life is, and I honestly think about life, death, and grief differently because

of reading this book. I realized how we should treasure every moment with those we love

because we never know when their supply of seemingly infinite moments is going to run out and

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leave us wishing we had more time. Because as much as we want to, we can’t change the past

and will have to live with only the memories of those we have lost. We might as well make the

best memories as possible, while we still can, so as not to live a life of regrets, but a fulfilled life

of happiness, joy, and amazing adventures, because otherwise, is life really worth living?

Works Cited

Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. John Lehmann Limited, 1949.

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 The John F. Kennedy Administration’s Space Policy:
A Successful Flight Into Orbit or A Completely Failed Takeoff?

Mackenzie Brandel
POL 127: Presidential Library Research
Dr. Derick Hulme
May 24, 2018
Words: 8,017

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 “…if we are to win the battle that is now going on … between freedom and tyranny, the
dramatic achievements in space … should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in
1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting
to make a determination of which road they should take. … it is time to take longer
strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly
leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on
earth.” 12
Those words, spoken by President John F. Kennedy, a mere four months after taking office, sum
up the best-known policy on space - the need to get to space and beat the Soviets, which would
gain the U.S. great national prestige and retain their place as the leader of the free world. Prestige
had been the goal ever since the Soviet launching of Sputnik in 1957, which woke Americans up
to the fact that their lack of science and technology education was putting them dramatically
behind the Soviet Union. However, while foreign policy reasons were commonly cited regarding
the Kennedy Administration’s space policy, there were also other reasons that were brought up
in the course of Kennedy’s about 1000 days in office. James E. Webb, NASA Administrator, had
the idea of teaming up with schools and putting science back in the forefront of American society
to help Americans get to the moon quicker. The administration also worked towards a policy of
peace and collaboration with the Soviets, in the hope of being able to reach space goals quicker
and to hopefully avoid getting into an actual war with the Soviets. When looking at these
reasons, it is evident that the Kennedy Administration had more than just political goals in mind
regarding their space policy, but also had goals of keeping national security and of making the
country a more educated and scientifically smarter place, for the better. These achievements
would benefit not only the Kennedy Administration but the United States, for generations to
come.

While the policies put into place by the Kennedy Administration were not successful in
terms of political propaganda, they were successful in setting the basis for the next decade of
space exploration. This decade would not only see the first American in space, but would also
see the first man on the moon, an accomplishment of immense prestige and glory for the United
States, and one that Kennedy had his eyes on throughout his entire presidency. Considering how
much of an important goal this was for Kennedy, and considering that the U.S. was able to
accomplish this goal in the timeframe that Kennedy himself set, it seems as though Kennedy

John F. Kennedy, “Special message to Congress on urgent national needs, 25 May 1961” (speech,
12

Washington D.C., May 25, 1961).

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would definitely have deemed his space policies a success, as they all came together, in the end,
to bring the country the prestige and honor, and put the United States ahead of the Soviets in
space, giving the U.S. a permanent spot in the history books which could never be erased.

Soviet Space Policy

Prestige. Not only was that a goal for the United States in winning the “space race,” but it
was also a clearly outlined goal for the Soviet Union. In the book Military Strategy by Marshal
Sokolovsky, a Soviet Military Commander, he clearly felt that the country that controlled space
controlled earth, and states that the Soviet Union could not allow the U.S. to be superior in space
“in any way.” He also said that the Soviet Union needed to oppose the U.S. with “more effective
means and methods by the use of space for defensive purposes.”13 For the first part of the 1960s,
and during the Kennedy Administration, the Soviets were achieving this goal of superiority in
space. The Soviets had a head start on the United States, launching their space program in 1953,
compared to the United States, where NASA was not established until 1958.14 The Soviets also
launched the first artificial earth satellite, SPUTNIK I, in October 1957, alerting the United
States that they were falling behind in space and science, leading to the launch of NASA.15

The Soviet goals for space, at least from the U.S. perspective, included “manned lunar
landings and interplanetary flights,” “the study of problems and the development of systems
related to prolonged space flights,” and appeared “more respective to the needs of a space station
than to landing a man on the moon.”16 From another viewpoint, The United States Information
Agency, under Edward R. Murrow, seemed to be of the opinion that the Soviets were using the
space race for propaganda, making it seem like the Soviets were ahead. In the Agency’s opinion,
the Soviets were not actually ahead, saying, “Soviet propaganda appears determined to exploit its

13
William J. Coughlin, “An Appeal to the President,” Missiles and Rockets, (March 18, 1963): 46 at 46,
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307 Space
activities: General, vol. I-III, 1963: January-May. Available at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
14
Charles S. Sheldon, II, United States and Soviet Union Space Comparisons (Washington, D.C., October
1963), pg. #4, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box
308, Space activities: General, 1963: October-November and undated. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum.
15
Dean Rusk to Roger Hilsman – “Correlation of Soviet Space Spectaculars with Political Events,” August
23, 1962. Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 – Subjects. Box 307a,
Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1962: August-September. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
16
The Central Intelligence Agency, A Brief Look at the Soviet Space Program (McLean, VA, 1963), pg.
#2, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 308, Space
activities: General, 1963: October-November and undated. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Page | 66
present lead to deepen belief that the USSR is permanently and decisively ahead. … Western
concern over impact on the uncommitted seems to bulk larger than belief that the USSR is ahead
in science generally or in total strength.” 17 The Soviet propaganda was proven to be effective,
as, in the United States, there was a constant feeling that the Soviets were ahead in space, no
matter what policies or actions were taken. In essence, this propaganda always made it look like
the Soviets were one step ahead of the U.S., while also making it seem like the U.S. was falling
further and further behind.

U.S. military leaders also feared that the Soviets could use this advantage for military
purposes and to potentially harm the United States, saying,

“…it is clear that the Soviets have the technical capabilities to develop a serious military
space threat to this Nation. … A lag in U.S. capabilities, highlighted by the launching of
SPUTNIK I, affected the Nation’s prestige, and, correspondingly, the cold war situation.
A similar lag in terms of military space capabilities could endanger the Nation’s
survival.”18
However, the Soviets seemed to have a different view of their goals in space. In their
view, their space program as one that was for good, which would advance the mission of
peaceful space endeavors. However, the Soviets had a completely different view on the United
States’ space program, as they felt that the U.S. program was one which was being used to cause
harm by bringing in military power and war:

“…the Soviet government… declared ‘we shall gladly place’ all the accomplishments of
the U.S.S.R. in space ‘at the service of all nations, for the progress, happiness and good
of all people on earth… not at the service of war, but at the service of peace and the
security of the nations.’ … the United States … said that the establishment of the
National Aeronautics and Space Agency was intended ‘to assure that the full advantage is
taken of the military potential of space.’ … It turns out that any purely military use of
space which does not as such represent an attack on, or a threat to, the integrity or
independence of another state … is regarded as ‘peaceful activity.’”19

17
Memorandum from Donald Wilson, Deputy Director, USIA to McGeorge Bundy, April 21, 1961 with
attached report Initial World Reaction to Soviet Man in Space, Report R , April 21, Quoted material is on V.
National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1961: April-June. John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
18
U.S. Air Force, Air Force Space Plan (Baltimore, Maryland, September 1961), pg. #s 8 & 9, Papers of
John F. Kennedy. Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box
307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1961: July-December. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
19
Yevgeny A. Korovin, “Peaceful Co-Operation in Space,” International Affairs, (June 1962): 61-63 at 61
& 62, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space
activities: General, vol. I-III, 1962: January-March. Available at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Page | 67
The United States was very much aware of the Soviet propaganda machine, however:

“Moscow held that millions of Americans approve the space competition in the name of
peace and progress, but criticized ‘certain U.S. circles’ for exploiting the feat in order to
accelerate the American military program. … In many quotations from U.S. politicians
and scientific leaders who acknowledged a Soviet lead, Moscow repeatedly made its
point of Soviet superiority over the U.S. space program.”20
Yes, the United States did have talks of using military weapons in space, but they were mainly
talked about for use if the Soviet Union became a threat, which was a very real possibility. These
weapons were not intended for unjust use, however. “The defense aspects of this aerospace
technology provide the opportunity ... to ensure against the possibility that the infinitely
promising new dimension which human ingenuity has opened could be used for economic or
military aggression against the free world.”21 The more satellites and space technology that the
Soviets developed, the more likely it was that they were also developing weapons that could be
used to threaten other countries, at least in the eyes of Kennedy’s Administration. In essence, the
Soviets were accusing the United States of trying to develop weapons that could be used against
other countries, but the United States was developing those weapons to ensure that the Soviet
Union could not hurt other countries.

The Beginnings of U.S. Space Policy

They were the beeps heard ‘round the world. On October 4, 1957, 7:28 PM, an object the
size of a beach ball changed everything. This was Sputnik, and with those little short beeps,
Americans knew that the Soviet Union had won, at least in space. This small object put the
United States in a state of shock and disbelief. How could they lose? They had always been
ahead in science and the technology! But not anymore. The Soviets’ launching of Sputnik as the
first satellite to orbit the earth made Americans realize that they were behind in science like
never before and that if they wanted to get ahead of the Soviets, they had some major catching
up to do. “While we devote our industrial and technological power to producing new model

20
United States Information Agency, Initial World Reaction to Soviet “Man-In-Space” (Washington D.C.,
April 21, 1961), pg. #18, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 -
Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1961: April-June. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum.
21
John F. Kennedy, Report to Congress from the President of the United States – “United States
Aeronautics and Space Activities 1961” (Washington D.C., January 31, 1962), pg. #1, Papers of John F. Kennedy.
Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III,
1962: January-March. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

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automobiles … the Soviet Union is conquering space. ... It is Russia, not the United States, who
has had the imagination to hitch its wagon to the stars and the skill to reach for the moon and all
but grasp it. America is worried. It should be.”22 This awareness spread to the government,
where the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
chaired by then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson started six weeks of hearings on the
“missile gap,” from November 1957 to January 1958.23 After these hearings, Legislative
Reference Service analyst, Eilene Galloway, said that “We changed the perception of the
problem from one that was originally only national defense to one that also had beneficial uses
from space and meant that we could hope for peace.”24 After these meetings, the Senate then put
together a Special Committee to look into the setting up of NASA, with the House setting up a
similar Select Committee for the same purpose.25 After these committees were set up, legislation
and appropriations went through quickly to get the NASA Act passed, with NASA coming into
existence on July 29, 1958.26 This quick turn of events seems to show how urgent the
government saw that it was to get into space and to stay ahead of the Soviets, and proved that
they were willing to put in the effort to make sure that those things happened.

However, this change of perception did not seem to do a lot for space policy, as the
United States kept falling further and further behind the Soviets, widening the “space gap”
between the two countries.27According to a speech by then-Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960,
after the launching of Sputnik, a Gallup poll that asked people in 10 countries whom they
thought would be ahead scientifically and militarily in 1970 showed that a majority of people
thought that the Russians would be ahead. These results seemed to show how much Sputnik had
diminished the American view of their science programs. However, this did not deter Senator

22
Samuel Crompton, Sputnik/Explorer I: The Race to Conquer Space. (New York: Chelsea House
Publications, 2007) p. 4.
23
Mark Garcia, “60 years ago: The U.S. Response to Sputnik,” NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space
Association, November 16, 2017, https://www.nasa.gov/feature/60-years-ago-the-us-response-to-sputnik. (Accessed
May 9, 2018).
24
Mark Garcia, “60 years ago: The U.S. Response to Sputnik,” NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space
Association, November 16, 2017, https://www.nasa.gov/feature/60-years-ago-the-us-response-to-sputnik. (Accessed
May 9, 2018).
25
Eilene Galloway, interview by Sandra Johnson. NASA, September 14, 2000,
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/NASA_HQ/Herstory/GallowayE/EG_9-14-00.pdf.
26
Eilene Galloway, interview by Sandra Johnson. NASA, September 14, 2000,
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/NASA_HQ/Herstory/GallowayE/EG_9-14-00.pdf.
27
William B. Breuer, Race to the Moon: America’s Duel with the Soviets. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger,
1993) p. 2.

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Kennedy, who gave an early preview of what his space policy would be while as President: “I
want it said in 1970 that we are first, scientifically and militarily, educationally, economically.
We should be first because we represent the greatest system of government ever devised.”28 This
wanting to be number one and to be the greatest nation in the world would continue into
Kennedy’s presidency, where foreign affairs would be at the forefront of his administration’s
goals of why the United States needed to get into space.

In 1961, when Kennedy came into office, these concerns about the Soviets and space
became an extraordinarily high priority in the United States government, especially after the
Soviet launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, on April 12, 1961. In fact, the launch of
Gagarin into space is likely what caused Kennedy’s very vocal and avid support of the space
program. Jerome Wiesner, Kennedy’s space advisor, even said: “If Kennedy could have opted
out of a big space program without hurting the country in his judgment, he would have.”29 And
this could be attributed to Kennedy’s personal lack of interest and knowledge in space. Even
when Kennedy was a Senator, this lack of interest was quite obvious, as he even “ridiculed” a
pitch for space exploration, as he, along with his brother, Robert “could not be convinced that all
rockets were not a waste of money and space navigation even worse.”30 And this attitude
continued into Kennedy’s Presidency. According to White House Advisor Hugh Sidey, space
exploration was “Kennedy's weakest area during his first few months in office. The new
president understood less about that field… than about any other issue he’d been confronted with
when assuming office.”31 Moreover, according to space advisor Jerome Wiesner, when it came
to space, Kennedy “hadn't thought much about it.”32 Kennedy even admitted his apathy towards
space, when talking with James Webb about the NASA budget, saying that unless beating the
Soviets was the top priority of the space program, “…we shouldn’t be spending this kind of

28
John F. Kennedy, “Picnic, Muskegon, Michigan, 5 September 1960” (speech, Muskegon, MI, September
5, 1960).
29
John M. Logsdon, The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest.
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970) p. 111.
30
Megan Garber, “Kennedy, Before Choosing the Moon: ‘I'm Not That Interested in Space,’” The Atlantic,
September 12, 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/kennedy-before-choosing-the-moon-
im-not-that-interested-in-space/262287/ (accessed May 18, 2018).
31
Megan Garber, “Kennedy, Before Choosing the Moon: ‘I'm Not That Interested in Space,’” The Atlantic,
September 12, 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/kennedy-before-choosing-the-moon-
im-not-that-interested-in-space/262287/ (accessed May 18, 2018).
32
Megan Garber, “Kennedy, Before Choosing the Moon: ‘I'm Not That Interested in Space,’” The Atlantic,
September 12, 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/kennedy-before-choosing-the-moon-
im-not-that-interested-in-space/262287/ (accessed May 18, 2018).

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money, because I am not that interested in space. I think it’s good. I think we ought to know
about it. But we’re talking about fantastic expenditures. We’ve wrecked our budget, and all these
other domestic programs, and the only justification for it, in my opinion, is to do it in the time
element I am asking.”33 This quote seems to prove again that Kennedy’s only concern when it
came to the space program was maintaining the U.S.’s political power and prestige. Due to this
statement, the other goals and aspects of the space program seem like they were talked about for
the sake of maintaining Kennedy’s image as a man concerned with more than just political
power, despite that entirely the opposite was true.

However, in light of the potential humiliation and ridicule Americans could face in the
eyes of the world if they lost the race to the Soviets, Kennedy put aside any personal indifference
towards space, and made it an extreme focus of his administration. According to former NASA
Administrator Mike Griffin, “Kennedy fully and completely understood that whether he paid any
attention to it or not, the rest of the world was paying attention to it. And if the rest of the world
was paying attention to it, then … he was going to win,”34 with Kennedy proving this statement
by saying “The Soviet Union has made this a test of the system … So that’s why we're doing it,”
about the space program.35 After the Gagarin flight, Kennedy was so concerned that he even
wrote a memo to Vice-President and Chairman of the Space Council Lyndon Johnson asking
“Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets … Is there any … space program which promises
dramatic results in which we could win?”36 This memo seemed to light a rocket under the
Kennedy Administration, as it indicated some of Kennedy’s first real concern when it came to
space and how much the country would be affected if they were to fall behind the Soviets on an
even more significant level.

In response, Johnson’s Memorandum for Kennedy on the “Evaluation of the Space

Program” reported many issues related to space that would become prominent in Kennedy’s

33
Meetings: Tape 63. Space program budget, plans and priorities, 21 November 1962. Series 13.1 -
Presidential Recordings: Meetings. Box: MTG, Folder: Meetings: Tape 63. Space program budget, plans and
priorities, 21 November 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
34
William Harwood, “JFK legacy: Setting America on course for the moon,” CBS News. CBS Interactive
Inc., November 21, 2013, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jfk-legacy-setting-america-on-course-for-the-moon/.
(Accessed May 10, 2018).
35
Meetings: Tape 63. Space program budget, plans and priorities, 21 November 1962. Series 13.1 -
Presidential Recordings: Meetings. Box: MTG, Folder: Meetings: Tape 63. Space program budget, plans and
priorities, 21 November 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
36
John F. Kennedy to Lyndon B. Johnson, April 20, 1961.

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policy. First of all, Johnson reported that “… the Soviets are ahead of the United States in world
prestige attained through impressive technological accomplishments in space,”37 which would
turn Kennedy onto one of his largest goals with space: to get ahead and stay ahead of the Soviets
so the United States could have great international prestige. Similarly, Johnson said that
“Dramatic accomplishments in space are being increasingly identified as a major indicator of
world leadership,”38 which gave Kennedy another incentive to make not only the United States
look good, but also to make his leadership look top-notch as well. Johnson also told Kennedy
that “More resources and more effort need to be put into our space program as soon as
possible,”39 indicating the lack of knowledge, education, money, and ambition towards science in
the United States. This lack would need to be remedied if Americas were going to beat the
Soviets to the moon. Johnson concluded his memo by saying, quite frankly, “We are neither
making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of
leadership.”40 It can be assumed, since Kennedy was the one who requested these answers, that
this document brought the full light of the issue of space to Kennedy’s eyes and alerted him that
he needed to do something dramatic in space if he wanted to be seen as a good leader and if the
United States wanted to have any prestige in the world. The country was falling behind and was
falling behind quickly.

In public response to the Soviet space problem, it was decided by Kennedy and his
advisors that the most prestigious accomplishment relating to space would be the landing of a
man on the moon. In his Special Address to Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy famously laid
out this goal, saying “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before
this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single
space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long
range exploration of space.”41 What could be better looking for the United States and Kennedy
than landing a man on the moon?

37
Lyndon B. Johnson to John F. Kennedy: “Evaluation of Space Program,” April 28, 1961.
38
Lyndon B. Johnson to John F. Kennedy: “Evaluation of Space Program,” April 28, 1961.
39
Lyndon B. Johnson to John F. Kennedy: “Evaluation of Space Program,” April 28, 1961.
40
Lyndon B. Johnson to John F. Kennedy: “Evaluation of Space Program,” April 28, 1961.
41
John F. Kennedy, “Special message to Congress on urgent national needs, 25 May 1961” (speech,
Washington D.C., May 25, 1961).

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 The budget for space also reflects Kennedy’s heightened awareness of the need to get to
the moon, dramatically. In a document titled “Recommendations for our National Space
Program: Changes, Policies, Goals,” it seems like the budget increases tenfold from the years of
the Eisenhower Administration to the Kennedy Administration, with Eisenhower even reducing
the 1962 budget requested by NASA from the 1.35 billion requested, to a mere $235 million. In
the words of James Webb, this “guarantees that the Russians will, for the next five to ten years,
beat us to every spectacular exploratory flight.”42 However, Kennedy seemed to realize this
problem, and brought dramatic increases to the budget. From the 1962 NASA budget, which
Kennedy increased to 1.786.3 billion, Kennedy increased the 1963 budget even further, up to
3.732.9 billion, with an increase in the total space budget from 3.105.4 billion in 1962 to 5.492.4
billion in 1963.43 This was an increase from about 0.7 of the Federal Budget to about 2.7% of the
budget.44 These budget increases show that the space program was a significant priority for
Kennedy’s Administration, along with proving that the Administration clearly knew that if the
U.S. wanted to beat the Soviets to the moon, they needed to give the space program a good cut of
the budget.

Goal #1: Prestige

Even before Kennedy was entirely on board, his Administration was already trying to
upgrade the gears of the space program. In the Report of the Air Force Space Study Committee
from March 20, 1961, two months after Kennedy came into office, goals were clearly laid out for
the space program, with one of them being “Prestige:”

“Achievements in space have provided a new international index of a nation’s position in

world leadership. …The USSR clearly recognizes this fact. Using a vigorous program of
space activities as a dramatic backdrop, the USSR seeks to demonstrate to the world that
their political and economic system is superior to ours; that their military capability is

42
James E. Webb, “Administrator’s Presentation to the President, March 21, 1961,” Papers of John F.
Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files. Series 07 - Departments and Agencies. Box 082, National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1961: January-March. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum.
43
John F. Kennedy, Report to Congress from the President of the United States – “United States
Aeronautics and Space Activities 1961” (Washington D.C., January 31, 1962), pg. #107, Papers of John F. Kennedy.
Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III,
1962: January-March. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
44
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 173, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).

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 superior to ours; that their methods of energizing and utilizing the capabilities of their
people are superior to ours; that their society responds to new challenges more vigorously
and more surely than ours; that the power and vitality of the Communist state is superior
to ours, and that these divergences will increase. The total reaction of our society to the
challenge and opportunity of space in the three and one-half years since SPUTNIK I have
been a repetitious story of too little, too late. We have achieved some scientific and
military progress but not enough to prevent great damage to our image of world
leadership. Unless we meet the Soviet challenge with a dramatically invigorated space
program, our international prestige will be further damaged.”45
Going into space and landing on the moon was a goal known worldwide. The U.S. would
gain major prestige in the eyes of the world if they were able to achieve the moon landing but
would lose that same honor and power if the Soviets were able to achieve the moon landing first.
“Current opinion is that this SPUTNIK series is aimed at successfully launching a man into
space … development of spacecraft … and manned lunar exploration. Each of these goals …
will have serious military as well as national prestige implications.”46 This goal became more
well-known as Kennedy himself became acquainted with the idea and the fact that if the United
States was able to accomplish this goal, not only would they be able to look good to other
nations, but they have an opportunity to lead those nations as well. In his speech at Rice
University in 1962, Kennedy states that “The exploration of space will go ahead… and it is one
of the great adventures of all time… no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can
expect to stay behind in the race for space,”47 proving that the message of prestige was then at
the forefront of his mind when it came to space policy.

This goal of achieving prestige continued throughout the entire Kennedy administration,
coming to the forefront of the Long-Range plan for NASA in 1962, which said,

“The National objectives in space exploration … may be broadly stated as: … To lead the
world into the space age … to derive benefits for all mankind. … [and to] maintain
scientific and technological eminence among the nations of the world. The National
Space Program is believed to have a ‘spearhead’ role in this effort.”48

45
U.S. Air Force, Report of the Air Force Space Study Committee (Baltimore, Maryland, March 20, 1961),
6.
46
U.S. Air Force, Report of the Air Force Space Study Committee (Baltimore, Maryland, March 20, 1961),
2.
47
John F. Kennedy, “Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962” (speech, Houston,
Texas, September 12, 1962).
48
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Long Range Plan National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (Washington D.C., January 1962), pg. #2, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers.

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 This point was again made clear in the President’s Policy for Outer Space, that same
year, where one objective was stated as “A vigorous and continuing national space program is
basic to this country’s world leadership responsibilities, to its security and its economic,
scientific, and cultural growth… the United States must explore and use outer space to further
national progress, security, and well-being…”49 And Kennedy made it extremely clear that the
goals of prestige needed to be at the top of the goal list of the United States, again, in his
conversation with James E. Webb, in which he said “Everything that we do should be tied into
getting on to the Moon ahead of the Russians. We ought to get it really clear that the policy
ought to be that this is the top priority program of the agency and one … of the top priorities of
the United States government.”50 However, even though Kennedy’s plans sounded good, his
whole political goal seems like it was the United States’ version of the Soviet propaganda,
getting everyone excited that something extraordinary could happen, but it never actually did, at
least during the Kennedy Administration. Hearing something like “I would say for most to the
sixties, we had a sense of being behind,”51 even seems to give an idea that Kennedy’s
propaganda was not much of a success, and left the nation more in the dark than anything else.
So, despite his best efforts, Kennedy’s propaganda and political goals seemed to be more of a
failure than anything else.

Goal #2: Education

After the launch of Sputnik, Americans were scared. Yes, they were frightened because
of the imminent Communist threat. However, they were also scared for another reason. The
launch of Sputnik proved to them one of their worst nightmares: American education was falling
behind, quickly, especially in the sciences. This launch and the stigma of falling behind caught
the attention of Congress, which passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958. This

National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: Long Range Plans of NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration), vol. I-IV, 3 May 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
49
John F. Kennedy, The President’s Policy Statement on Outer Space (Washington D.C., June 14, 1962),
pg. #1, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307,
Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1962: June-July. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
50
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy, 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 172, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).
51
The Sixties, “The Space Race,” TV Episode, Produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Santa
Monica, CA, The Playtone Company, for Cable News Network, Atlanta, GA, July 24, 2014).

Page | 75
legislation assisted schools in teaching the sciences. Teachers and schools around the United
States were startled as well. According to one student, after the launch of Sputnik, “We stopped
having throwaway science and started having real science… everybody was talking about it, and
science was above the fold in the newspaper, and my teachers went to institutes and really got us
all engaged. It was just a time of incredible intensity and attention to science.”52 But what was
the Kennedy Administration going to do once they inherited this problem in 1961?

Kennedy’s NASA Administrator, James E. Webb, wanted to do a great deal when it came
to education and made that clear from the very beginning of his tenure in 1961. Webb knew that
there was a problem with American education, and if it was not fixed, the United States would
not be even going into space, much less catching up to and beating the Soviets.

“In connection with my … testimony … after the Soviet launching … I started by …

comparing the launch dates of Soviet space vehicles and our own which clearly indicates
that we started late and did not make the major national effort necessary to compete on a
point-by-point basis with the Russians.”53
So, what was Webb going to do to combat this late start by the United States? In many
letters, Webb clearly stated that “… I have been thinking of this program as one in which we will
spend … 35 billion dollars… to advance science and technology at the most rapid rate possible,
and… feed it back into our national economy … the fabric of our national life and…into … the
development of the free world.”54 By proposing the notion of spending 35 billion dollars on
science and technology, Webb made it obvious that he felt that advancing American society in
those fields was perhaps the main and only way that the U.S. would be able to get to the moon,
beat the Soviets, and win the all-important “space race.”

Webb also seemed to differ on his opinion about the “space race” from many others at the
time: “… we must so conduct this program that through the development of science and
technology… we will get more than our money’s worth even if we never make the lunar landing
or make it after the Russians.”55 Many other people at the time were completely concerned with
beating the Soviets and seemed to make that their only motivation for really doing anything,

52
Cornelia Dean, “When Science Suddenly Mattered, in Space and in Class,” The New York Times. The
New York Times, September 25, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/science/space/25educ.html. (Accessed
May 12, 2018).
53
James E. Webb to Kenneth O’Donnell, April 21, 1961.
54
James E. Webb to Dr. Lee DuBridge, August 29, 1961.
55
James E. Webb to Dr. Lee DuBridge, August 29, 1961.

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especially when it concerned space, including President “We will not be second in space”
Kennedy.56 However, Webb seemed to hold an opposite view. If science and technology could
develop and make the country a better, more educated place, it did not seem to matter to Webb
whether the U.S. beat the Soviets or not. If the U.S. did beat the Soviets, great, but even if the
U.S. could not achieve that goal, it was not the end of the world, and the U.S. would still be a
better country in the end because they would still have the education and knowledge gained from
the experience. Webb makes it clear that if Americans passed up this opportunity, they would not
only be hurting themselves educationally, but also economically, socially, and politically: “We
simply can’t afford to pass up the opportunity … of pushing the science and technology of these
times and utilizing it to its full advantage…”57

Although Kennedy was not as vocal on the issue of education when it came to space, he
still seemed to be aware that the United States was falling behind and was determined that the
U.S. would catch up. In his 1961 State of the Union, he stated “We lack the scientists, the
engineers and the teachers our world obligations require. We have neglected … the basic
research that lies at the root of all progress. Federal grants for both higher and public school
education can no longer be delayed.”58 The United States lacking these scientists and engineers
to develop new space technologies was one of the reasons why they seemed to be falling behind
the Soviet Union. This lack was also why the Soviet Union was able to get into space first.
However, by 1963, Kennedy seemed to think that the U.S. had caught up in education, which
could have partially been thanks to the constant pushing by James Webb. On the topic of space,
in his undelivered Dallas Trade Mart speech, Kennedy wrote “This effort is expensive, but it
pays its own way … There is no longer any doubt about the strength and skill of American
science … [and] … education … our national space effort represents a great gain in, and a great
resource of, our national strength…”59

56
John F. Kennedy, “Undelivered remarks for Democratic State Committee, Municipal Auditorium,
Austin, Texas, 22 November 1963” (speech, Austin, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963).
57
James E. Webb to Mr. Edward L. Gaylord, August 24, 1961.
58
John F. Kennedy, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington
D.C., January 30, 1961).
59
John F. Kennedy, “Undelivered remarks for Dallas Citizens Council, Trade Mart, Dallas, Texas, 22
November 1963” (speech, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963).

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 Was Webb successful in this push for increasing the American interest in science? Many
scholars seem to think not. According to Peter Barker, Professor of the History of Science at the
University of Oklahoma and Peter Galison, Professor of the History of Science and Physics at
Harvard University, “science has lost credibility or public support over the years since the
sixties.”60 And experts seem to think that it was actions taken by the Kennedy Administration
which caused this loss of credibility. Peter Barker, author and science history scholar, stated that
science is obviously “less credible” than it was in the 60s, as the “Cuban missile crisis, the
development and deployment of ICBMs … by the US and USSR, and the negotiation of an
atmospheric test ban treaty, all aspects of the Cold War, made people aware of the dangers of
nuclear weapons…”61 The space race also could have had something to do with this loss of
support. As mentioned before, during his campaign, Kennedy used many “scare tactics,” such as
exploiting the non-existent “missile gap,” to capture the public’s attention and which could make
him look good as President when he “solved” this non-existent problem. However, by alerting
the American public to this problem, Kennedy made the public aware of how much weapons
power the Soviet Union had and how easy it would be for the Soviet Union to use this power
against the United States. By instilling this fear in the hearts of Americans, Kennedy, in turn,
made them fearful of science and what science could do and how it could affect their lives,
causing the public support for science to go down, in fear of what new military tactics science
could be used for next. So, while his scare tactics did get Kennedy elected, they, overall, had an
adverse effect on the American public and Americans’ view of science, which would last for
decades, even up to 2006. This effect essentially canceled out all of the work that Webb did to
improve education and the overall American view of science, making the education part of the
Administration’s space policy greatly unsuccessful. However, taking into account Webb’s main
goal of increasing science knowledge to help the United States get to the moon before the
Soviets, the United States was able to achieve this goal. So, in retrospect, Webb’s pushing for the

60
Samuel Skalak, “Science and Its Credibility, The 1960s vs. Today,” The Science Creative Quarterly. The
University of British Columbia, September 14, 2006, https://www.scq.ubc.ca/science-and-its-credibility-the-1960s-
vs-today/. (Accessed May 22, 2018).
61
Samuel Skalak, “Science and Its Credibility, The 1960s vs. Today,” The Science Creative Quarterly. The
University of British Columbia, September 14, 2006, https://www.scq.ubc.ca/science-and-its-credibility-the-1960s-
vs-today/. (Accessed May 22, 2018).

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increase in science education was successful, in a way, despite the overall lack of support for
science programs since Webb first started implementing his policy.

Goal #3: Peace

However, there was one other component to the race to the moon that was often
mentioned in Kennedy’s Administration: peace and cooperation with the Soviets in outer space.
Even from his inaugural address, Kennedy was extremely focused on this measure, saying “Let
both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the
stars.” 62 A week later, Kennedy expanded on this notion, saying “…Both nations would help
themselves … by removing these endeavors from the bitter … competition of the Cold War. The
United States would be willing to join … the Soviet Union … in a greater effort to make … this
new knowledge available to all…”63In essence, Kennedy seemed to feel that the Cold War
tensions and competition were getting both countries nowhere, but if the United States and the
Soviet Union could join together in projects such as getting into space, progress could be made
for both countries and the world could be a better place because of the knowledge gained and
shared.

This need for peace was also seen in a context of fearing what the Soviets could do with
their space power and what effects their power could have on the United States and the world.

“A triumph for the USSR … would have many repercussions in the cold war. … The
Soviet feat … [has] increased … the Soviet lead in space, and … [has] increase[d] Soviet
military, political, and propaganda leverage. Many observers indicated uneasiness about
how the USSR will use its ‘advantage,’ and emphasized the need to strengthen efforts for
peace and disarmament.”64
The need for peace was also an apparent protection against the nuclear and military
power of the Soviets, as “…the country with the rockets to put that [Sputnik] into space had the
capability to deliver nuclear warheads into the heart of America.”65 This notion of fear was also

62
John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy” (speech, Washington, D.C., January
20, 1961).
63
John F. Kennedy, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington
D.C., January 30, 1961).
64
United States Information Agency, Initial World Reaction to Soviet “Man-In-Space” (Washington D.C.,
April 21, 1961), pg. # i, Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 -
Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1961: April-June. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum.
65
Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power. (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1993) p. 37.

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something that Kennedy took advantage of during his campaign, as not only did Kennedy feel
that the Soviets had more nuclear capability than the United States, but now, as a result of
Sputnik, Kennedy also felt that they had more missile capability. Despite that this “missile gap”
was proved to be something that Kennedy thoroughly exploited for the sake of his campaign, it
still put fear into the hearts of many Americans and made the need for peace something vital that
Kennedy needed to address during his Presidency. Looking at this idea, it seems obvious why
Kennedy put the concept of peace and cooperation into his inaugural speech. Kennedy’s
campaign tactic was part of the reason why Americans were so scared in the first place. By
scaring them, he now had something to address during his presidency, which would make him
look good when it was accomplished.

In 1961, the United States officially recognized that peace needed to be a part of their
official space policy, as mentioned in Kennedy’s report to Congress in January 1962 relating to
space activities: “This national space program…was firmly based upon the awareness that space
competence is as essential for national security as it is for national growth. Progress to help keep
the peace … is a basic feature.”66 Wanting to keep the peace in space was nothing new to the
United States, however. In December 1958, the United States was one of the founding members
on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which recognized “the
common interest of mankind in outer space” and “that it is the common aim that outer space be
used for peaceful purposes only,” along with the fact that it was of “great importance” for
international cooperation in outer space, as “co-operation will promote mutual understanding and
the strengthening of friendly relations among peoples.”67 This position was taken by President
Kennedy, who, in 1962, said “… the eyes of the world now look into space…we have vowed
that we shall not see it governed by … hostile … conquest, but by … freedom and peace. … not
… with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.”68
Kennedy repeated this message, over and over again. In his 1962 State of the Union Address:

66
John F. Kennedy, Report to Congress from the President of the United States – “United States
Aeronautics and Space Activities 1961” (Washington D.C., January 31, 1962), pg. #1, Papers of John F. Kennedy.
Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 - Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III,
1962: January-March. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
67
General Assembly resolution 1348(XIII), Question of the peaceful use of outer space, A/RES/1348(XIII),
(13 December 1958), available from http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/1348(XIII).
68
John F. Kennedy, “Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962” (speech, Houston,
Texas, September 12, 1962).

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“Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon … our objective … is to develop in a new frontier
of science, commerce and cooperation, the position of the United States and the Free World.”69
And in his Address Before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations:

“… in the field of space--there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts … I
include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. … Why should the
United States and the Soviet Union…become involved in immense duplications of
research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists
and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the
conquest of space, sending some day in this decade to the moon not the representatives of
a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.”70
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union refused to cooperate with the United States on most
fronts relating to space, there was one proposal that was accepted, much to the surprise of the
United States. In 1962, President Kennedy proposed cooperation on the “establishment of an
early weather satellite system ‘to provide global weather data for prompt use by any nation’” and
“establishing of radio tracking stations by the United States and the Soviet Union in each other’s
territory.”71 In his receptive response, accepting the notion of cooperation, Nikita Khrushchev,
Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, seemed to be on the same page as
Kennedy regarding peace in space, saying that the exploration and peaceful uses of space
“imperatively demand an extensive pooling of scientific, technical and material opportunities and
resources by the states.”72 Khrushchev also seemed to imply in his letter that the only reason that
the United States and the Soviet Union had not yet reached any cooperation agreements was
because neither nation had agreed to any form of disarmament yet: “… it appears … that … our
cooperation in the peaceful conquest of space…is … related to … the disarmament problem.
Until an agreement on … disarmament is achieved, both our countries will… be limited in their

69
John F. Kennedy, “Annual message to the Congress on the State of the Union, 11 January 1962” (speech,
Washington D.C., January 11, 1962).
70
John F. Kennedy, “Address Before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations” (speech, New
York, September 20, 1963).
71
Marjorie Hunter, “President Bids Soviet Join In 5-Point Space Program,” The New York Times. The New
York Times, March 17, 1962,
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/03/18/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives
&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article. (Accessed May 9, 2018).
72
Seymour Topping and John W. Finney, “Khrushchev Accepts Bid For Cooperation in Space,” The New
York Times. The New York Times, March 22, 1962,
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/03/22/90157855.html?pageNumber=1. (Accessed May 7,
2018).

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abilities to cooperate in the … peaceful use of outer space.”73 This deal seems interesting when
looking back at the Soviets and their almost non-stop propaganda related to their achievements in
space. Accepting a widely publicized deal with the United States would make the Soviet Union
honorable in the eyes of the world, and would make their claims that they were aiming for peace
in space more feasible.

It seems, based on past Soviet motives, that this cooperation deal with the United States
was only for publicity purposes and to make the Soviet Union look respectable, not because the
Soviet Union actually wanted to cooperate with the U.S. This could have been part of the reason
why Kennedy proposed this cooperation agreement for the U.S., also. With his laser-sharp focus
on making the United States look good and gaining prestige, Kennedy wanted the world to know
that the United States were the “good guys” and only wanted to go into space for peaceful
reasons, not out of any military motives. In essence, this agreement seemed to be a publicity
stunt for both countries, making them both look good in their respective ways, and gaining world
respect, which seemed to be an enormous motive for both countries in this “space race.”

Public Opinion

So, how was the public responding to these policies? First of all, they did not seem to be
too favorable to cooperation with the Soviet Union, as, in a public opinion poll taken in 1963,
only about 32% of people favored cooperation, while about 52% opposed cooperation.74 On the
other hand, about 60% of people approved of the Apollo Program, while about 35% approved of
the cost, and only about 32% of people thought that too much money was being used for space.75
But the numbers do prove that Kennedy’s propaganda and inspiration about going to the moon
did not really work, as, in 1961, about 42% of people favored the moon mission, while by 1965,
this number went down to 40%, while the number opposed to the moon mission went up from

73
Nikita Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy, March 22, 1962.
74
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy, 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 172, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).
75
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy, 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 168, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).

Page | 82
about 45% to about 52%.76Consistently, throughout the rest of the decade, about 45-60% of
Americans felt that too much was being spent on the space program, proving that Kennedy did
not have the public support that he seemed to think that he had behind the space program.77
Overall, looking at the numbers, it seems like public opinion agreed more with Kennedy’s
private views relating to space, with not a lot of interest, rather than his public persona, which
was entirely all-in for the space effort. These low numbers make it obvious why Kennedy
mentioned the space effort so many times in his speeches. If he had more of the public on his
side, and the made the program sound appealing, the better he would look to the American public
when he made the massive budget increases or used a dramatic amount of government resources
to help the U.S. get to the moon.

Success?

The Kennedy Administration did have success in the realm of space. On May 5, 1961,
Alan Shepard became the first American in space and also became part of the first human-piloted
spaceflight. This flight did represent a bit of a disappointment to the U.S. though. If NASA Chief
Wernher von Braun had not been so cautious relating to this flight, the United States likely could
have beat the Soviets into space, as the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, only
mere weeks before the flight of Shepard. According to space historian Asif Siddiqi, the United
States easily could have had the prestige of having the first man in space: “Certainly that launch
could've happened before April 12. There's no reason it couldn't have happened. Everything was
ready.”78 Although Shepard’s flight was successful, it was not the history-making one it could
have been and seemed to do little more than just pave a little bit of progress for the United States
in terms of getting into space. “The Gagarin flight was a 10. Al Shepard's flight was a one or a

76
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy, 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 167, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).
77
Roger D. Launius, “Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight,” Space Policy, 19, no.
3 (August 2003): 163-175 at 163, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-s2.0-S0265964603000390-
main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
d8c559b1cc61&acdnat=1526735434_e911f8e19d6ddabe7e2dd876947400bc. (accessed May 19, 2018).
78
Mike Wall, “Space Race: Could the U.S. Have Beaten the Soviets Into Space?” Space.com. The Purch
Group, April 8, 2011, https://www.space.com/11336-space-race-united-states-soviets-spaceflight-50years.html.
(accessed May 11, 2018).

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two… in terms of the capability that it demonstrated. So, the Russians clearly were ahead of
us.”79

However, Alan Shepard did help pave the way to success for the United States in space.
On February 20, 1962, John Glenn circled the Earth three times in less than five hours aboard the
Friendship 7, in a flight that was described as a “national catharsis unparalleled.”80 It gave
“Americans back their self-respect, and … it seemed Americans dared again to hope.”81
Moreover, President Kennedy also recognized the prestige and educational gains that were made
and could continue to be made because of this flight. “It is increasingly clear that the impact of
Col. Glenn’s magnificent achievement yesterday goes far beyond our own time and our own
country. The success of this flight, the new knowledge that it will give us, and the new steps
which can now be undertaken, will affect life on this planet for many years to come.”82 Because
of this flight, Glenn progressed the United States immensely on one of the main goals that the
Kennedy Administration had set out, of prestige. As the first American in orbit, Glenn’s flight
finally let the United States match the Soviet flight of Yuri Gagarin made almost a year earlier
and gained Americans ground on the race with the Soviets. “To us, that was a huge deal because
now we had an American hero who could at least stand up to Yuri Gagarin.”83

A Conclusion?

Throughout the Kennedy Administration, many different perspectives emerged on what

way would be the best to win the “space race.” The path of worldwide prestige and beating the
Soviets to the moon seemed to be the most publicized and known way, along with the way that
had the most backing by President John F. Kennedy. In many speeches, he made it clear that the
U.S. would not be second to the Soviets in space, and would get to the moon before the end of

79
The Sixties, “The Space Race,” TV Episode, Produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Santa
Monica, CA, The Playtone Company, for Cable News Network, Atlanta, GA, July 24, 2014).
80
John Noble Wilford, “John Glenn, American Hero of the Space Age, Dies at 95,” The New York Times.
The New York Times, December 8, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/john-glenn-dies.html?_r=0.
(accessed May 11, 2018).
81
John Noble Wilford, “John Glenn, American Hero of the Space Age, Dies at 95,” The New York Times.
The New York Times, December 8, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/john-glenn-dies.html?_r=0.
(accessed May 11, 2018).
82
John F. Kennedy, “President John F. Kennedy’s News Conference #25” (speech, Washington D.C.,
February 21, 1962).
83
The Sixties, “The Space Race,” TV Episode, Produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Santa
Monica, CA, The Playtone Company, for Cable News Network, Atlanta, GA, July 24, 2014).

Page | 84
the decade. These accomplishments would give both Kennedy and the United States very high
marks in both prestige and honor. Kennedy’s NASA Administrator, James E. Webb, seemed to
think that education and getting the nation up to date in science would do the trick, as those more
educated people could then come up with bigger, better, and grander ideas of how the U.S. could
beat the Soviets and win the race to the moon. Another very prominent space policy came in the
form of peace and cooperation. If the United States and the Soviet Union could work together,
there would be less chance of actual war starting and a path to the moon could be forged quicker,
gaining information to help advance the world’s scientific knowledge and letting the U.S. and the
Soviet Union both be able to claim prestige towards getting to the moon.

So, which way worked the best for the U.S. and the Kennedy administration? The idea of
peace seemed to be minimally effective when looking at the goals and results of all of the
policies. Despite even the best attempts by Kennedy and the United Nations Council on the
Peaceful Uses for Outer Space, the Soviet Union refused to cooperate on most fronts, wanting to
keep the majority of the prestige for themselves. The Soviet Union even went so far as to try to
make the United States look bad through propaganda by saying that the Soviet program was
based on peace and that the U.S.’s program was just for military and war purposes.

Regarding educational and political purposes, Kennedy’s policies seemed to be even less
successful, however. Despite the push for improving education and getting Americans interested
in space and science, the percent of people who were supportive of sending a man to the moon
actually dropped during the Administration, proving that Kennedy’s “We will get to the moon by
the end of the decade” propaganda actually had the complete opposite effect than Kennedy was
hoping for. Consistently throughout his Administration, over half of Americans were not in favor
of cooperation with the Soviets, along with around 60% of Americans feeling that too much was
being spent on space, again proving the minimal effectiveness of Kennedy’s political propaganda
on the American people. Looking at education and increasing American interest in science, there
seemed not to be not much success on that front, either. Many scholars are of the view that since
the 1960s and Kennedy’s Administration, American interest and credibility in science have
decreased, essentially making all of the work that Webb put in to make sure that this exact thing
did not happen, virtually useless.

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 In terms of gaining prestige by beating the Soviets into space, Kennedy’s space policies
seemed to be all talk and not much action. He gave many speeches where he emphasized that the
U.S. needed to be ahead of the Soviets, and wouldn’t be second in space. However, in reality,
during his Presidency, the United States was behind the Soviets in space. The one chance to get
ahead, with the Shepard flight, wasn’t taken advantage of. Despite that the Glenn flight was
historical and brought hope back to the country, it merely matched what the Soviets had done a
year earlier, and didn’t let the United States “get ahead” of the Soviets in any way.

In the end, taking all of the policies and space programs into consideration, despite that
Kennedy seemed to have honorable motives when it came to space, the space program during his
administration was not as successful as Kennedy seemed to imply that it would be, especially
when it came to one-upping the Soviets. However, Kennedy’s space policies did set the stage for
the moon landing in 1969, which in no way could have happened without his dramatic goals and
wishes for the space program. Since the moon landing was the overall goal of Kennedy’s space
policies, and it was achieved by the end of the decade like Kennedy set out, his policies, overall,
were most definitely a success, despite their individual shortfalls, and truly made the United
States a country to be admired around the world. What more could Kennedy or Americans want?

References
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22 November 1963.” Speech, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963. Papers of John F.
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Auditorium, Austin, Texas, 22 November 1963.” Speech, Austin, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963.
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Letter, Dean Rusk to Roger Hilsman, “Correlation of Soviet Space Spectaculars with Political
Events,” August 23, 1962. Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National
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Letter, James E. Webb to Edward L. Gaylord, August 24, 1961. Papers of John F. Kennedy.
Presidential Papers. James E. Webb Personal Papers. Series 1 - Chronological File, 1961-
1963. Box 001, August 1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
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1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
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1963. Box 001, August 1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
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“Johnson, Lyndon B., 1961: January-May.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
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Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): Subjects: Khrushchev Correspondence: Vol. I-A,
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Papers of President Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files. Series 2 -
Special Correspondence. Box 30, Folder: “Johnson, Lyndon B., 1961: January-May”.
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Sound Recordings:
Sound Recording, Meetings, Tape 63. Space program budget, plans and priorities, 21 November
1962. Papers of President Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files. Series
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program budget, plans and priorities, 21 November 1962”. John F. Kennedy Presidential
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Journal Articles:
Coughlin, William J. “An Appeal to the President,” Missiles and Rockets, (March 18, 1963): 46.
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 -
Subjects. Box 307 Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1963: January-May. Available at
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Korovin, Yevgeny A. “Peaceful Co-Operation in Space,” International Affairs (June 1962): 61-
63. Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files. Series 05 -
Subjects. Box 307, Space activities: General, vol. I-III, 1962: January-March. John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

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Articles:
Hunter, Marjorie. “President Bids Soviet Join In 5-Point Space Program.” The New York Times,
March 17, 1962,
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/03/18/issue.html?action=click&co
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cle. (Accessed May 9, 2018).
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Skalak, Samuel. “Science and Its Credibility, The 1960s vs. Today,” The Science Creative
Quarterly. The University of British Columbia, September 14, 2006.
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soviets-spaceflight-50years.html. (Accessed May 11, 2018).
Wilford, John Noble. “John Glenn, American Hero of the Space Age, Dies at 95.” The New
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Policy, 19, no. 3 (August 2003): 163-175, https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0265964603000390/1-
s2.0-S0265964603000390-main.pdf?_tid=d786f5bf-9fa5-4ae5-9178-
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July 24, 2014.

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Mackenzie Brandel

ENG-250: Survey of British Literature I

17 November 2018

Ben Jonson On Grief and Loss: How Did His Ideas Differ From Other Poets?

What do we think of when we think of someone going through a loss? Is it them, dressing

in black and mourning for days? Or is it just a quiet acceptance that things will never be quite the

same again? Poet Ben Jonson, through his writings, seemed to lean more towards the second

scenario rather than the first. Jonson lost both a daughter and a son at very young ages to a

horrible plague, but instead of going into deep mourning, he used Christian imagery and ideas to

rationalize these losses. By using this Christian imagery, Jonson presents a view of grief and loss

much different than was typical of the day, as most people would be extremely emotional, which

would likely show in their writings. However, Jonson takes a more passive view and tries to

avoid his emotions as much as possible, a stark contrast to this normalized idea of emotional

mourning and grief that was and is still very commonplace in our society.

Jonson first shows this prohibition of mourning in his poem, “On My First Daughter,”

which he wrote when his daughter Mary died at six months old. This poem mentions that Jonson

and his wife are experiencing “ruth” (grief), but that because his daughter is returning to heaven,

Jonson has no regret. He seems to imply that things would be better and safer for her up in

Heaven, rather than experiencing the cruelties of the world, saying “At six months’ end, she

parted hence/ With safety of her innocence.” To get over his grief, Jonson is rationalizing that his

daughter’s loss was all right, despite that she is not with him anymore. He seems to imply that if

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he mourned his daughter, he would be less of a person, saying “It makes the father less to rue.”

However, by doing this, Jonson seems to make himself look more rational than his wife, as he

mentions “her mother’s tears,” yet never mentions his own, seeming to imply his lack of

mourning. At the end of the poem, Jonson again turns to external sources to help him lessen his

mourning, saying “This grave partakes the fleshly birth; Which cover lightly, gentle earth!”

Jonson seems to be comforted, again, by the fact that the earth will take care of his daughter and

that she will be protected by the earth, without showing much of any grief whatsoever, despite

that his daughter died at only six months old. By prohibiting himself from mourning and taking

such a passive stance on Mary’s death, Jonson gives the reader the impression that he wasn’t

very close to his daughter and he didn’t care too much about her life on Earth. However, as

mentioned previously, Jonson does mention his grief at the beginning of the epitaph, so he seems

to be wanting to mourn the loss of his daughter, but because he’s a man, and he has to be strong,

and won’t let himself show his emotions, he has to at least try to pretend like he doesn’t care, just

to look good to the outside world. Moreover, by saying that because Mary is up in Heaven and is

being taken care of by the Earth, everything is alright, he has the perfect cover for his grief.

Because Jonson is a Christian, nobody will question his seeming lack of grief, but will just be

accepting that he has taken comfort in knowing that Mary is in a better place.

There is a stark contrast between the previously mentioned poem for this daughter and

the epitaph written for his son, Benjamin, “On My First Son.” In this couplet, Jonson takes a

much more personal and mournful view of his son’s death, even making it sound like Jonson

himself was responsible for the creation and birth of his son, saying “thou child of my right

hand” and that his son was “his best piece of poetrie.” Jonson even goes as far as to take

responsibility for his son’s death, saying that “My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy,

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Seven years tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay.” Jonson seems to say that because he sinned and

because of his wrongdoings, he was punished by losing his son, seemingly his most prized

possession. Near the middle of the poem, we see Jonson again wrestling with his emotions and

the prohibition of mourning that he put on himself, saying, “O, could I lose all father, now! For

why / Will man lament the state he should envy?” To avoid his emotions of grief and loss,

Jonson wishes to get rid of all of his feelings and emotions, yet he also wants to express these

feelings, to get them out in the open and off of his chest, similar to the epitaph for his daughter,

in a way. The elegy for his daughter gives the impression that there was grief there, but that

Jonson didn’t want to express it, for fear of being “weak.” This elegy clearly shows Jonson not

wanting to have those grieving feelings, and wanting to banish them for good, despite that

expressing those emotions would likely be helpful in his mourning process. These emotions

seem to cause a dilemma in his life, as he can express his emotions truthfully and be seen as

weak, or he can keep his emotions to himself and be seen as strong, even when he is heartbroken

inside. However, in this elegy, by saying that he will never love anybody or anything else too

much, he does let his emotions get the best of him, proving that, despite our best wishes to keep

our emotions hidden, they will always come out in some form or another.

Looking at the elegies Jonson wrote for his son and daughter, there is a noticeable difference

in the way that Jonson deals with their two deaths, as for his daughter, he seemed to be able to

accept that she would be comforted by Heaven and Earth, and that was that. There was some grief,

but because she would now be in a better place, Jonson could accept his life without her. However,

with his son, what will Jonson do without him? The way that Jonson deals with his son’s death

seems more like a typical parent would deal with a child’s death; The emotional mourning, the not

knowing how to go on without them, and the sense of grief knowing that the child will never be

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coming back, are all expressed in this Jonson’s elegy. However, Jonson’s stance at the end, saying

“For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such/ As what he loves may never like too much,” is

again Jonson trying not to give into these painful emotions that the death of his son has left him

with. Instead, Jonson gives up, essentially, and says that he will make sure that he does not love

anything like his son again so that he will not feel the pain that he is feeling because of his son’s

loss. This expression of love appears as a stark contrast to his feelings about his daughter, where,

yes, grief was mentioned, but nothing was expressed in terms of emotions beyond that. Was it that

his daughter only lived for six months, whereas his son lived for seven years, so he grew closer to

his son? Or was Jonson’s son more valuable to him, simply because he was a man? Either way,

these poems bring to light that Jonson experienced very complicated emotions when it came to the

deaths of both his son and his daughter, but that to be seen in the light that Jonson wanted to be

seen, he had to cover up these emotions and put on a strong face, despite how much he was hurting

inside.

Looking at other poems, such as an epitaph by Elizabeth Egerton, other 17th century poets

had quite a different reaction to child loss than Jonson. Her poem “On my Boy Henry” expresses

grief very explicitly and outright: “Here lyes a Boy ye finest child from me/ Which makes my

Heart & Soule sigh for to see/ Nor can I think of any thought, but greeve, For joy or pleasure

could me not releeve.” Egerton clearly admits her unhappy emotions and that she is in a period

of grieving, unlike Jonson. However, it was and is still accepted that women are the more

emotional sex, so it was likely that Egerton’s expression of grief would be more accepted in

society than a man like Jonson’s would. However, Egerton does employ a similar tactic to

Jonson, in taking solace that her child is now in a better place by being in Heaven: “But thou art

happy, Sweet'st on High, I mourne not for thy Birth, nor Cry. ” Looking at Egerton’s epitaph,

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along with Jonson’s, it becomes evident that in the 17th-century, it was acceptable for women to

express their emotions when it came to grief and sadness, while it was less acceptable for men to

do the same, a trend that has, unfortunately, continued into the modern day.

Poets coming into the 19th century continued the more modern version of mourning set

by Egerton. “On the Death of Anne Brontë” by Charlotte Brontë clearly expresses sadness and

mourning. Bronte starts by saying “There’s little joy in life for me, And little terror in the grave;

I’ve lived the parting hour to see Of one I would have died to save,” making clear her grief.

However, in saying “The cloud, the stillness that must part The darling of my life from me; And

then to thank God from my heart, To thank Him well and fervently;” Bronte expresses a notion

similar to Jonson as well, in using her religion to comfort her in her time of loss, continuing a

centuries-long trend. However, Bronte admits her grief and emotions to the world and isn’t afraid

to let the world see her mourning, more similar to the epitaph of Elizabeth Egerton than the

epitaphs of Ben Jonson. However, as mentioned before, there is the societal expectation that

women will be more emotional than men, so Egerton and Bronte knew that they had the freedom

to let their emotions show, while Jonson most definitely did not have that freedom, which could

easily be a factor in why their poetry seems so much more emotional than Jonson’s.

Overall, the poetry by Jonson seems to represent a view on death not completely taken by

other poets in his century or later centuries. Jonson’s epitaph to his daughter represented a

seemingly passive view on death, where Jonson took comfort in the fact that his daughter was in

Heaven and would be taken care of by God. With his son, Jonson seems to be more emotional,

but still doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him, with him implying that he will never attach

himself to anything ever again so that he will not ever feel pain and loss as intensely as he did

with the death of his son. Other poets in the 17th century, including Elizabeth Egerton, also

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experienced and wrote about pain and loss, taking a much less passive view than Jonson.

However, they also used their religion to take comfort during their time of mourning, similar to

what Jonson did. Poets in the 19th century continued this trend, proving that even if one took

comfort in religion during the time of mourning, it was also alright to admit the pain and grief

that came about due to this pain and loss. Later poets, such as Elizabeth Egerton and Charlotte

Bronte, admitted that these emotions did not make you weak but made you strong, to be able to

put yourself out into the world and admit that you were hurting from your loss. Despite that

Jonson did not seem to think that admitting these feelings outright would have helped him, it

seems that the feelings would have made his mourning process much easier to deal with, along

with making his life much, much easier, emotionally. However, it was that he could show those

emotions and be shunned, or he could keep them in and be a well-respected man of society,

unfortunately. Jonson obviously wanted to be respected, so he chose to go with the flow of

society, leading his poetry to seem emotionless and uncaring towards his children, and depriving

the reader of Jonson’s true emotions, which could have made his poetry much deeper, emotional,

and interesting to read.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. “On the Death of Anne Brontë.” Poetry Foundation,

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43710/on-the-death-of-anne-bronte.

Egerton, Elizabeth. “On My Boy Henry.” PoetryNook, https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/my-

boy-henry.

Jonson, Benjamin. “On My First Daughter.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature,

Volume B, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, p. 1428.

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---. “On My First Son.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B, edited by

Stephen Greenblatt, W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, p. 1430.

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Dana Aspinall

ENG-320: Critical Theory

11 April 2019

Much Ado About Nothing: Defying Gender Roles, One Character At a Time

In William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, gender roles are defied over and

over again. According to Richard A. Levin, as quoted by Celestino Deleyto, the key to much of

the plot in Much Ado is the fact that “the time to marry has come in Messina” (Deleyto, 3).

Looking at many characters’ resistance to what society is telling them that they need to do, in the

act of marriage, we see complete defiance of gender roles, for both the men and the women.

According to Barbara Everett, as quoted by Carol Cook,

the play concerns itself with what can only be called the most mundane or ‘local’ fact in

that world of love, in all its forms, that the comedies create: that is, that men and women

have a notably different character, different mode of thinking, different system of

loyalties, and, particularly, different social place and function. … this is the first play, …

which the clash of these two worlds is treated with a degree of seriousness, and in which

the woman's world dominates (186).

For most of the story, the women’s resistance to marriage, along with their use of masculine

tactics, such as wit, give them unprecedented power in society. Due to this gain of power, the

men do everything possible to keep their traditional positions, with Don John even going so far

as to humiliate Hero and ruin her wedding. However, despite the women’s best efforts, both of

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the main women in power, Beatrice and Margaret, are eventually forced to give up their hard-

earned power, proving how prevalent the idea that men should be in power still was.

One of the main ways we see defiance of gender roles play out is in the men’s desire not

to marry and to stay in their little “male bonding” groups (Deleyto, 3). The men clearly show

their anxieties about branching out beyond these groups many times in the play, starting right off

in the first scene, where Benedick is talking about why he wishes not to marry:

That a woman conceiv'd me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most

humble thanks; but that I will have a rechate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in

an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong

to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is (for which I may

go the finer), I will live a bachelor (238-46).

To submit to a woman by marrying her was primarily seen by these men as humiliation. The

men would have to submit to the feminine power and would essentially be “emasculated” if they

were to commit to marriage, according to Cook (187). Benedick again proves these fears,

continuing with “Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get again with drinking,

pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen and hang me up at the door of a brothel-house for

the sign of blind Cupid” (2.1.245-149). Essentially, Benedick would rather be mutilated than

subject himself to a woman’s power, proving just how far men were willing to reach not to have

their power taken away from them.

Another primary example Carol Cook uses when looking at these gender differences is

“cuckoldry.” The lines “Her mother hath many times told me so” (1.1.103) when Leonato is

asking if Hero is his daughter, along with Benedick’s advice to Don Pedro to “get thee a wife,

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get thee a wife! There is no staff more reverent than one tipped with horn” (5.4.126-28) are

extremely revealing of men’s anxieties in the play. According to Cook,

Leonato's casual remark about Hero's mother is a witty circumlocution of the sort that

dominates the sophisticated small talk of Messina … the comment points to a larger

cultural picture in which men share a sense of vulnerability because they have only a

woman's word for the paternity of their children (187).

In other words, by only having the woman’s word to know that they are the fathers of

their children scares the men and again proves that the men feel that giving any power to women

is disgraceful and humiliating.

Looking more specifically at the character of Don John proves these men’s tendencies

towards needing to keep their power even more. Many readers see Don John as a source of evil

in the play, as seen through his plan of destruction in wanting to ruin the marriage between Hero

and Claudio. Don John wants to make it seem as though Hero has been cheating on Claudio by

bringing Claudio under Hero’s window the night before their wedding and having Margaret,

Hero’s serving woman, dress up in Hero’s clothing, making out with Borachio. However,

according to Jean E. Howard, “…a characterological focus on Don John as origin of evil can

obscure the extent to which the assumptions about women upon which his trick depends are

shared by other men in the play” (174). His trick at the window “silently assumes and further

circulates the idea that women are universally prone to deception and impersonation… Don John

depends on the currency of this construction of women in Messina…” (Howard, 175) In other

words, Don John lies about Hero, but because the image of the woman as weak and unfaithful is

so powerful in Messina, people believe the lie, giving Messina even more of a masculine power.

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 As we read further into the play, however, we see how women can overcome these roles

and thrive in a masculine society, mainly looking at the character of Beatrice. During this time,

women’s independence and power were strictly limited. However, Beatrice defines these

constricting norms. Nadine Page says,

She is not one of Shakespeare’s ‘romantic dreams,’ but a character well developed

according to the Renaissance details of the ‘free’ woman: she is not inhibitive; her talk is

frequent and Elizabethan in nature; she knows the kind of a husband she does not want;

and she answers her own proposals of marriage (498).

In other words, Beatrice seeks to satisfy her own needs rather than the needs of those around her.

She is so strong willed that she is even willing to do this for others, as she does for Hero. When

Antonio says, “Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled by your father” (2.1. 50-51), Beatrice

replies, saying “Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please

you.’ But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and

say, ‘Father as it please me’” (2.1.52-56). Beatrice clearly realizes that women can think for

themselves and can have their own power despite how masculine society is. According to John

Crick, as quoted by Carol Cook, Beatrice's “feminine charity triumphs . . . Benedick becomes

acceptable to her when he symbolically joins his masculine qualities to her feminine principles

by taking up, however reluctantly, her attitude to Claudio” (186). Beatrice knows what she wants

from Benedick and will exercise her power over him to get what she wants, again proving just

how strong Beatrice’s power truly was at this point in the play.

However, one of Beatrice’s main outstanding qualities is her power of wit. Even from the

beginning of the play and her first “skirmish of wit” with Benedick, it is clear that wit is

something that Beatrice excels at and excels at well (1.1.61). Moreover, Benedick realizes this,

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saying “I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards,

and every word stabs” (2.1. 242-245). Here, wit is described metaphorically as a weapon.

Similarly, wit is also metaphorically tied to a weapon when Benedick says, “It is in my scabbard.

Shall I draw it?” to Claudio’s asking that Benedick show off his wit (5.1.138). According to

Michael Freidman, “Through its association with penetrating blades, wit is specified as a

uniquely masculine weapon which Beatrice has no business brandishing” (353). In other words,

by using her wit and making it such a substantial part of her character, Beatrice is going against

the ordinary feminine qualities and is embracing the masculinity that was such a dominant force

in society at the time. Benedick realizes the masculine qualities of wit, as shown in this exchange

with Margaret:

Benedick: And so I pray thee call Beatrice; I give thee the bucklers.

Margaret: Give us the swords, we have bucklers of our own.

Benedick: If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a vice, and they

are dangerous weapons for maids. (5.2.16-21)

Carol Cook sums this up nicely, by saying that for the majority of the first half of the play, vocal

“Beatrice refuses the subjection of femininity . . . by placing herself among the men and wielding

phallic wit as aggressively as they” (190). Since wit is so obviously a masculine trait in Messina,

by using her wit so powerfully, Beatrice again defies what society expects from her, and,

therefore, defies gender roles once again.

However, Beatrice’s marriage to Benedick does bring down her power. In the first half of

the play, we see that Beatrice resists marriage. However, this could be “based in part on her

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knowledge of the unequal balance of power between the genders which prevails within it”

(Friedman, 354).

Leonato: Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

Beatrice: Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a

woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust, to make an account of

her life to a clod of wayward marl? (2.1.57-62)

According to Carol Thomas Neely, as quoted by Friedman, this comment by Beatrice shows her

“apprehensiveness about the sexual and social submission demanded of women in marriage.”

Beatrice is aware of how the gender roles function in her society and does not want to subject

herself to her feminine role, which will no doubt happen if she is to marry (Friedman, 354).

As expected, when she does marry Benedick, Beatrice’s outspoken wit is toned down,

therefore ridding her of that masculine identity which defined her character so much in the first

half of the play. “And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee, / Taming my wild heart to thy

loving hand” (3.1. 117-118) shows that Beatrice is willing to give up that power for love,

proving that she has succumbed to the feminine ideals of her society. We see how toned-down

Beatrice’s wit has become in the following passage:

Benedick: Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?

Beatrice: Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.

Benedick: O, stay but till then!

Beatrice: 'Then' is spoken; fare you well now. (5.2.42-46)

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Beatrice’s sharp, piercing wit is now just some playful words and nothing more, proving how

much love and marriage tamed down her power and the masculine qualities that were defining of

her character for most of the play.

After Beatrice is forced to be rid of her wit, wit does not exit the stage, however. This

role of the witty, almost masculine, commentator passes onto her cousin, Margaret, who takes it

up with ease. On the morning of Beatrice’s wedding, the torch is already being passed.

Beatrice: I am stuffed, cousin. I cannot smell.

Margaret: A maid, and stuffed! There's goodly catching of cold.

Beatrice: O, God help me, God help me, how long have you professed apprehension?

Margaret: Ever since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely? (3.4.62-68)

Moreover, as Beatrice was in the first half of the play, Margaret is not afraid to use her wit. At

the end of Act 3, Scene 4, Margaret even uses her wit against Beatrice, who seems to be,

surprisingly, quite shocked at the matter.

Beatrice: What pace is this that thy tongue keeps?

Margaret: Not a false gallop! (3.4. 90-91)

Also, like Beatrice, Margaret uses her wit to defend and keep her ground against the men of

society, as shown in this exchange with Benedick:

Benedick: Thy wit is quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.

Margaret: And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Benedick: A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman. (5.2.11-16)

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Ray L. Heffner, quoted in Friedman, sums up Margaret’s role perfectly, by saying that she has

become “an explicit surrogate for Beatrice” in her performance of wit (257). However, unlike

Beatrice, Margaret is punished for her display of these masculine qualities and eventually fades

out of the story. This punishment and exile from the play clearly imply that although

Shakespeare was willing to have strong-willed women such as Beatrice and Margaret in his

plays, he did not think that these qualities had a long-lasting place in society.

In Much Ado About Nothing, gender roles play a significant role in determining one’s

power in society. Women like Beatrice and Margaret are smart, witty, and powerful, and are just

the kind of women that the men in society are afraid of. Beatrice’s wit in the first half of the play

is second to none and helps her keep her ground with the men, in an unequal society. After

Beatrice marries and loses this witty power, her cousin, Margaret takes it over, again proving that

women are equally as smart and powerful as men, when they have the chance to show it.

Moreover, the men, such as Don John, will do anything to make sure that the woman will

continue to be seen as weak, frail, and unfaithful. His trick at the window, which paints Hero as

unfaithful to Claudio and ruins Hero and Claudio’s marriage, is a clear example of a man

knowing that women are gaining power in society and wanting to make the women look like

they are just abusing this power. Through the men’s anxieties in this play, we can clearly tell that

women were defying their traditional gender roles, gaining a more power and prominent place in

society than ever before and making their everlasting mark on history.

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 Works Cited

Berger, Harry, Jr. “Against the Sink-a-Pace: Sexual and Family Politics in Much Ado

about Nothing." Shakespeare Quarterly 33.3 (1982): 302-13. ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Cook, Carol. "'The Sign and Semblance of Her Honor': Reading Gender Difference in

Much Ado about Nothing." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of

America 101.2 (1986): 186-202. ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Deleyto, Celestino. "Men in Leather: Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing and

Romantic Comedy." Cinema Journal 36.3 (1997): 91-105. ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Friedman, Michael D. "'Hush'd on Purpose to Grace Harmony': Wives and Silence in

Much Ado about Nothing." Theatre Journal 42.3 (1990): 350-63. ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Howard, Jean E. "Renaissance Antitheatricality and the Politics of Gender and Rank in

Much Ado about Nothing." Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology. Eds.

Jean E. Howard, Marion F. O'Connor, and Margaret Ferguson. Methuen, 1987. 163-187. Univ.

Paperbacks~~974 ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Page, Nadine. "Beatrice: 'My Lady Disdain'." Modern Language Notes 50.8 (1935): 494-

99. ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

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Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Dana Aspinall

ENG-354: Shakespeare

11 April 2019

Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing: A Rebel With A Cause

In a society that favored men, one woman stood out and made her voice heard. That

woman was Beatrice, in Much Ado About Nothing. She is independent, knows what she wants,

and has been described by Michael D. Friedman as “talkative” and “aggressive.” Characters in

the play also realize Beatrice’s rebelliousness, as Don Pedro even describes Beatrice as “a

pleasant-spirited lady” (2.1. 334). According to Kari K. Eliason and Raychel A. Haugrud Reiff,

“Beatrice is a woman who knows what she wants and will speak her mind without apology or

fear as she seeks it; and amazingly, the men let her do this. In fact, they respect and love her for

her independence” (49). Beatrice is in almost complete rebellion against the Elizabethan Culture

of her time, knowing that women can think and do beyond just what men and the greater society

want them to do. Therefore, Beatrice has to be a representative of this independent, free-thinking,

and smart woman that nobody expected would emerge in this culture. According to G.K. Hunter,

as quoted by C.O. Gardner, “Beatrice is admirable ... as an independent person, whose high

spirits express an individual control over her own happiness” (4). Beatrice’s independence and

strong will are made clear many times throughout this play, through her use of wit, along with

her refusal to marry throughout most of the play, going against the gender norms of the time.

These actions prove that Beatrice is a radical woman for her day, making her a character to be

remembered for the ages.

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 So, what is the ideal woman like in Elizabethan Culture? According to Nadine Page, “Her

God-given privilege was to care for her husband and his home; and she was supposed to live

only for him and as part of his family” (494). However, as freedom for women grew in society,

likely much in part due to women like Beatrice, “the men, in theory at least, advocated and

popularized the conception that the ideal wife did not frequent ‘publick’ places but served her

husband silently and devotedly” (Page, 495). Poet Sir Thomas Overbury, who was writing during

this time, also expressed similar notions, saying that he had a fear of “learning and pregnant wit”

in a wife and that they endangered marriages by adding “not more ballast but more sail” (Page,

495). In other words, women had to be devoted to their husbands and completely quiet and

submissive to be an ideal part of this Elizabethan society. However, the traits “quiet” and

“submissive” are not two traits that describe the character of Beatrice.

Beatrice is the ideal image of the woman that many people in this society would love to

hate. “She comments in an adolescent manner on men's beards; she censures men rudely in the

presence of her elderly uncles; she does not even let Hero make her own answers; she is sarcastic

and occasionally even coarse” (Page, 496). Sometimes she even ‘speaks poniards and every

word stabs’” (2.1.211). According to Maggie Steed, who played Beatrice in the Royal

Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado, Beatrice “uses a rhythm almost characteristic

of the stand-up comic - setting up an idea, expanding on it, and then capping it, throwing it

away” (44). Steed gives the examples of “Lord I could not endure a husband with a beard on his

face” as the setting up of the idea, and then “I had rather lie in the woolen” as the punch line,

framing Beatrice as the comic (2.1.30-31). Steed continues, saying “Beatrice expands her jokes

imaginatively, leading her listeners into unexpected corners” (44). She goes on with this

argument, saying that Beatrice has essentially taken up the role of the “family entertainer”

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(Steed, 45). Being adopted into the family as an orphan “the role that she has found for herself is

that of the clown – still the outsider, ‘singing for her supper” (Steed, 45). Moreover, other

characters seem to realize this role of the entertainer for Beatrice as well when Leonato states

“There’s little of the melancholy element in her, my Lord” (2.1.335-336). However, Beatrice’s

role as the “clown” in a sense could also be her way to keep her power and her place in a

masculine society.

Beatrice’s wit plays a large part in her keeping equal ground with the men. Steed again

says, “Her ideas come quickly, with no time for reflection, and all of a piece into her mind. She

listens to other people very hard, picking up their word and throwing them back with another

shade of meaning immediately” (45). This passage with Don Pedro is an astute example of this

quality in Beatrice:

Beatrice: I may sit a corner and cry ‘Heigh-ho for a husband!’

Don Pedro: Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beatrice: I would rather have one of your father’s getting. Hath your grace ne’er a

brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them (2.1.

312-318).

Not only does Beatrice stand her ground to Don Pedro, but she also uses her wit and

insults him as well, proving that her ways adapt well to living in the entirely masculine world.

Her sense of humor is also shown in the scene before Hero’s wedding, in her exchanges with

Margaret, where she uses multiple puns such as “light of love” (3.4.36) and “Hey-ho for a

husband,” (2.1.270) along with joking about women’s honor, which, ironically, is about to be

lost in the next scene.

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 Looking at how wit plays out in Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship, also it seems like

they suit each other well. Despite that some may think that using wit against the other goes

against love, Andrew Chiappe, quoted by C.O. Gardner, says, “Benedick and Beatrice rail at

each other, which is proper for civilized people in love, because love implies the greatest of

indignities to be suffered: to give oneself” (3). Beatrice and Benedick are willing to take hits and

insults from each other because, in their minds, that is just the way that love is supposed to play

out. If there was not wit and snappy remarks, what really would there be? Even before they were

married, this wit would play out often between them, as shown in the passage:

Beatrice: I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick; nobody marks you.

Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?

Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as

Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence.

(1.1.114-120)

Through the fact that there is still wit in their relationship, even after marriage, it goes to show

that marriage did not really change either Beatrice or Benedick as people. This lack of immense

change proves how good of a match Beatrice and Benedick really are for each other.

However, despite her rebellion against society, Beatrice is never opposed to the idea of

marriage, as what it seems like on the surface. What might seem like opposition to marriage is

that Beatrice knows what she wants in a man and is extremely careful of who she chooses.

"Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make an

account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?" (2.1.60-62). Because she analyzes every man she

encounters, Beatrice ends up with the problem that no man has precisely all of the traits that she

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wants. She reveals this in a conversation with Leonato, as they talk about Count John, who had

joined them for supper:

Beatrice: He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and

Benedick. The one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady’s

eldest son, evermore tattling.

Leonato: Then half Signior Benedick’s tongue in Count John’s mouth, and half Count

John’s melancholy in Signior Benedick’s face—

Beatrice: With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a

man would win any woman in the world if he could get her goodwill (2.1.6-17).

After she meets Benedick, Beatrice continues with these analytics and comes to question

his loyalty after he refuses to kill Claudio after Claudio’s humiliation of Hero. Page states, “A

man ‘hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured’ her ‘kinswoman,’ and yet the suitor who swears he

loves her will not revenge the wrong” (498). From this line, it is obvious that the man who will

eventually capture Beatrice’s heart has to accept her dominant role, or she will not stay in the

relationship.

However, as with any character, not all of the traits of Beatrice are ideal. According to

Carl Dennis, both Beatrice and Benedick’s “bias towards reason deludes them into believing that

they have no emotional selves that require expression” (225). So, although Beatrice’s wit seems

like an okay thing on the surface, Dennis says that her wittiness “is used not so much to expose

foolishness in others but to disguise themselves the state of their own feelings” (226). One

example that Dennis uses is that much of Beatrice and Benedick’s humor is used to cover up

their true feelings about the opposite sex: “Their battles of wit take the form of insults because

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they want to show themselves as being under no idealistic delusions about the worth of the

opposite sex” (226). Taking this perspective, Beatrice is a bit less forceful, in a way. As witty

and smart as she is, she does not want to be disliked by those around her, so, by not expressing

her opinions on subjects such as the opposite sex, everyone around her likes her and respects her,

at least in terms of her opinions.

Another one of Beatrice’s significant problems is in her relationship and marriage to

Benedick. Beatrice’s relationship with Benedick only begins because their friends dupe them.

Most of the story, Beatrice gives the impression that she is very unlikely to marry unless she

finds her perfect man, as well, which makes the reader wonder how she is able to be duped so

easily when she is so hard set in her views. The success goes back to Beatrice’s want of

acceptance from those around her. Dennis gives the opinion that Beatrice and Benedick “are

duped successfully by their friends because neither wants to be thought hard-hearted and

disdainful by the people they most respect. They want to fulfill the values of their community”

(228). Even though Beatrice seems like a rebel throughout most of the story, she is an eventual

conformer to the ideals of what her society expects of her, proving her not that much unlike

many other women.

According to many critics, the female roles in Shakespeare’s plays are “invariably

qualified by Shakespeare’s overriding conviction that social harmony requires male control,”

which is what happens when Beatrice marries Benedick (Friedman, 351). She knows that she

will lose the little bit of control that she has had over her life, but she is willing to give up that

control to be with Benedick, showing that the male control was the dominant force once again.

Gardner states that Beatrice and Benedick are “conscious of each other’s powers and therefore

instinctively hostile through fear” (2). This statement proves how aware both of them are of what

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kind of impact the other could have on their life and power, forcing Beatrice and Benedick to do

anything to make sure that the other’s power does not overtake them (2). David Horowitz, as

quoted by C.O. Gardner, adds to this point, and says, “The very basis of their resistance to the

notion of human love was their precise knowledge of what was at stake,” which again proves

that Beatrice and Benedick know that through marriage, they will lose the power that they

treasure so deeply (3). Beatrice’s lines “If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee/To bind

our loves up in a holy band” (3.2.119-120) and “For others say I dost deserve, and I Believe it

better than reportingly” (3.2.121-122) prove how aware Beatrice indeed is about the risk she is

about to take by marrying Benedick, showing a much more vulnerable side of Beatrice than is

usually seen throughout the play.

So, why did Shakespeare choose to write such a strong woman into one of his plays?

Gardner says that Much Ado About Nothing represents “the Renaissance spirit at its most assured

and most splendid,” and that Beatrice is a great representation of an intelligent woman during

this time (4). Gardner quotes D.L. Stevenson, who says, “unlike the characters in Love's

Labour's Lost and in As You Like It, Beatrice and Benedick remain as shrewdly enlightened

creatures of the Renaissance after they have agreed to marry as they were before ... Benedick's

statement to Beatrice, 'Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably,' is a fitting summary of the

implications to be drawn from their particular courtship” (5). However, Lynda E. Boose has

taken a much more negative note on why Beatrice is included, saying that characters with power

such as Beatrice usually serve “to consolidate the status quo of male hierarchy” (721). Many of

Shakespeare’s female characters have to surrender to their husbands upon marriage, including

Beatrice, just proving again how masculine dominated the society that Shakespeare lived in was.

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 Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing is an amazingly strong, smart, and witty character.

She knows exactly what she desires in life and will go to any lengths to fulfill those desires. Her

wit is a large part of her character, as she uses this wit in conversations with everybody she

meets, even from the beginning of the play. However, many critics also see that this wit could be

covering up the fact that Beatrice wants to fit in and be accepted by her family and those in her

society. Therefore, she has to use wit to cover up her actual opinions to keep this acceptance.

After much contemplation about marriage, Beatrice marries Benedick, after being fooled by their

friends. Despite that both were hesitant about this idea, it seems to work out for both in the end,

as their personalities match almost perfectly. Beatrice is genuinely a revolutionary character for

her time, and a woman to be admired.

Works Cited

Boose, Lynda E. "The Family in Shakespeare Studies; Or-Studies in the Family of

Shakespeareans; Or-the Politics of Politics." Renaissance Quarterly 40.4 (1987): 707-

42. ProQuest. Web. 1 April 2019.

Dennis, Carl. "Wit and Wisdom in Much Ado about Nothing." SEL: Studies in English

Literature, 1500-1900 13.2 (1973): 223-37. ProQuest. Web. 20 March 2019.

Friedman, Michael D. "'Hush'd on Purpose to Grace Harmony': Wives and Silence in

Much Ado about Nothing." Theatre Journal 42.3 (1990): 350-63. ProQuest. Web. 27 March

2019.

Eliason, Kari K., and Raychel A. Haugrud Reiff. “Shakespeare’s Rebel Women.”

University of Wisconsin-Superior McNair Scholars Journal 4 (2003): 37-56. MINDS@UW.

Web. 30 March 2019.

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 Gardner, C. O. "Beatrice and Benedick." Theoria: A Journal of Studies in the Arts,

Humanities and Social Sciences 49 (1977): 1-17. ProQuest. Web. 20 March 2019.

Page, Nadine. "Beatrice: 'My Lady Disdain.’” Modern Language Notes 50.8 (1935): 494-

99. ProQuest. Web. 20 March 2019.

Steed, Maggie. "Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing." Players of Shakespeare 3:

Further Essays in Shakespearian Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare

Company. Eds. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood. Cambridge UP, 1993. 42-

51. ProQuest. Web. 20 March 2019.

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 The Morality of Same-Sex Sex

Mackenzie Brandel

Dr. Dixon

PHL-126-01: Introduction to Values

11 November 2019

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 Same-sex sex is a hot-button issue in today’s world. While some are all for the allowance

of same-sex sex, philosophers such as Timothy Hsaio presents a sound argument against the

idea. Hsiao relies on Natural Law Theory to justify his claim, saying that just by looking at the

purpose of something, you can say what is good for that thing. Something is good in this view if

it functions as it should, and only if it functions as it should. He also looks at the failures of

proper functioning, as failures of success and direction, looking at people who don’t even aim

towards the normal goal. Taking this view quite literally, Hsaio argues that same-sex sex is

wrong. If the body’s reproductive organs were made to be able to reproduce with someone of the

opposite sex, then Hsaio believes that having sex with someone of the same sex is a complete

waste of that functionality, making same-sex sex wrong. In terms of proper functioning, same-

sex sex completely defies the rules, as those who are having this sex are not trying to reproduce

at all, because it is biologically impossible for them to do so. This leads Hsaio to conclude that

the proper goal of sex is procreation and unity, in a sense to reproduce and to unify a couples’

relationship. He also argues that pleasure is not the goal of sex, but is merely a motivator for sex,

again, invalidating those who are having same-sex sex. While Hsaio makes a strong argument for

his case, there appears to be a stronger argument against his case, and for same-sex sex. Same-

sex sex couples know that they cannot reproduce together, and that having sex with each other is

not going to do more than give each other pleasure, but that shouldn’t even be taken into

consideration when dealing with this matter. Why does Hsaio only focus on bodily function,

when there is clearly so much more to the argument? Homosexual couples receive pleasure and

happiness from their sexual actions, so why should their actions, and their natural sexual

preference, be held against them?

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 First of all, the purpose argument. Hasio argues that we can find a purpose for something

just by looking at what it is supposed to do, such as using the bodily organs for reproduction.

However, there is so much more to things than just what they “properly” should do. And if

something has a “failure” of proper functioning, that does not necessarily make it wrong.

Looking at a blind eye, for example, is something that is not functioning properly, but that

cannot be controlled. So, Hsaio says that something is only wrong if someone can control it, such

as is the case with same-sex sex. But the people having this sex had no control over their sexual

preference, so in that case, doesn’t it make same-sex sex a proper function? And who has any

right to determine what is and isn’t a proper function of an object or someone’s body? There is

no supreme leader that gave everyone and everything a right or wrong purpose, so why should

the arbitrary rights and wrongs of functioning even play out here? Those rights are completely

objective and should be left to one’s own discretion and views, without imposing on the rights

and views of another person.

Hsaio also fails to mention the case of infertile heterosexuals and heterosexuals who just

have sex for pleasure. These cases are extremely similar to those of the same-sex couples, with

gender being the only difference. They know that they won’t be reproducing, but they have sex

anyway, just for the purpose of pleasure. Does that make their sex wrong as well? They are sill

having unity and are still making their relationship stronger, despite that there is no reproductive

purpose. However, with the infertile couples, Hsaio would simply reply that they are still going

in the right direction, despite that there is no way to reproduce. But he contradicts himself when

talking about the concept of couples who engage in non-procreative heterosexual sex. His

argument implies that this type of sex would be completely immoral, when, in fact, it is again,

almost the same thing in terms of reproduction, as both infertile and same-sex sex. These are

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done for pleasure and for making someone happy, and nothing more, which Hasio is obviously

against. But why doesn’t he take human happiness and pleasure into account? Sure, it goes

against the innate reproductive purpose of humans, but don’t humans also have a purpose to be

happy, and to live lives of pleasure? Hasio gives absolutely no thought to the fact that sex is

about more than just science and the ability to reproduce! Pleasure is an innate part of human life

and functioning, and, if this was taken into consideration, the Natural Law theory would be

completely open to all types of sex, no matter what the gender. Hasio derives all his facts from

his values, not taking into consideration views of sex beyond reproduction. By basing his

argument on only one side of the story, Hsaio’s argument is completely biased. Just because his

values say that same-sex sex is wrong, doesn’t mean that everybody’s values need to align with

that view. Giving moral weight to feelings in a moral argument such as Hsaio’s, ultimately

invalidates the argument. Feelings are the complete prejudice, as shown so often, especially with

homosexual couples. Some people may say that same-sex sex causes them disgust, but that in no

way means that sex-sex sex is wrong, on any level. Our childhoods and parents may condition us

to feel this way, but that does not mean that those feelings are absolute moral truths.

When looking at some other examples based on Hsaio’s “facts,” his natural law view of

same-sex sex becomes even more far-fetched. There are many more times when we are not using

something in its proper function, but does that make the action wrong? Look at using blindfolds

and earplugs, for example. These objects prevent our eyes and ears from doing their normal

function, but nobody would consider these actions to be morally wrong in any sort of way. Also,

using body parts for purposes other than they were intended for, such as licking stamps and

flirting with your eyes, goes against Hsaio’s Natural Law argument. Again, nobody would be

able to argue that these actions are morally wrong. However, based on his argument, Hsaio

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seems like he would say that these actions are wrong, just because someone chose to use

something for a different “purpose” than what was supposedly intended. Sure, there is a

distinction between having sex and these ordinary, everyday actions, but if everyday actions

were to be deemed wrong just because they were supposedly “unnatural,” then how would we

even be able to live without breaking some moral code what was arbitrarily made up based on

one person’s view of the “purpose” of something was? Hsaio gives one single purpose to every

bodily organ, when, in reality, there are so many ways to use our body, beyond Hsaio’s limited

scope of knowledge. Due to his trying to tell us what strict purpose to give our bodies, going

against our individual freedoms and moral choices, Hsaio’s argument against same-sex sex is

completely invalid.

Hsaio also seems to miss the point that just because something is natural, does not mean

that it is good. For example, it seems as though rape would be considered natural in his view, if it

was between a heterosexual man and woman, and if the women got pregnant and has a child. But

rape has never been a “good” action just because it is natural. Beyond the scope of sex, though,

looking at natural disasters, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, for example. There is no world in

which those events would be considered “good” just because they are “natural.” So, what is so

bad about same-sex sex? Yes, it will not result in reproduction, and is not seen as “natural” by

many people, such as Hsaio, as already established. But it goes back to the pleasure argument.

Same-sex couples gain their happiness from being with each other and having sex with one

another, that they could not have if they were forced into a heterosexual relationship. Their

pleasure depends on being and having sex together, so why take that away? Just because some

see same-sex sex as “unnatural” does not mean that it is necessarily a bad thing, considering the

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pleasure and unity that it brings to the couples who engage in it, just like rape being “natural”

does not mean that it is necessarily a good thing.

Timothy Hsaio makes a well-versed argument against same-sex sex, using the Natural

Law Theory as his basis. Hsaio believes that you can find the purpose of something just by

simply looking at it and what its natural function should be. He brings in arguments about failure

of proper functioning, in when someone uses something towards an end that does not use its

natural purpose. His argument also makes it clear that the two functions of proper sex should be

procreation and unity, and nothing else. Pleasure should be a motivator for sex, not a goal,

according to Hsaio. Based on these arguments, Hsaio believes that same-sex sex is wrong.

Looking at what he believes to be the proper function of bodily organs, having any sex without

the purpose of reproduction is immoral and should not be allowed under any circumstances,

therefore making same-sex sex wrong. Same-sex sex may allow for unity, but the fact that there

is no chance of reproduction, invalidates it for Hsaio. Hsaio completely misses the mark with

these arguments, though. There is no set “purpose” for anything or anyone, first of all. And no

one can just look at something and define its purpose, and then say that everybody must follow

that purpose from now on. That is a complete bias and invalidates any argument that is

attempting to be made. The argument being made also seems that it would invalidate actions

such as using earplugs or blindfolds, just because those actions go against the natural bodily

purposes. This makes the Natural Law Theory look completely ridiculous when using Hsaio’s

angle, as nobody sees these actions as wrong, so why should same-sex sex be seen as wrong?

Hsaio falls into this bias trap. His paper is completely based on his values, not fact,

giving it this bias that invalidates the argument. He completely ignores the fact that same-sex

couples need pleasure and happiness to be able to thrive, and that they can only get this

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happiness by having sex with one another. And they had no choice in whether they were to be

homosexual or not! Also, just because something is considered “natural” does not mean that it is

a good thing, looking at severe weather, for example.

In the end, with sex, isn’t the goal to gain pleasure from having an intimate time with

your partner, no matter what the gender of the partner? Hsaio overlooks this point completely by

only looking at the facts and science of what sex “should” be. But many couples do just have sex

to gain this pleasure and happiness into their lives. Why should this be denied to certain couples

just because they don’t fit what society defines as “normal?” All couples and all people deserve

the chance to have somebody to love and to live a happy, pleasurable life, no matter what gender

they take sexual interest in. If Hsaio were to remove his learned biases and present more facts

than personal views in his moral argument against same-sex sex, he could have a much stronger

argument.

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Found Poem: “Cows, Murder, and the Mechanics of Love”

“Do you want to start with death or sex?”

“These two chipmunks were wrestling on the deck yesterday…”
“Where’s my Times New Sweetness?”

“He loves boring titles.”

“I love the rhythm of the seasons.”
“That was just a trick! Ha ha ha!”

“This is a brilliant sentence about some stuff and I need to cite it.”
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get me some food, goddammit!”
“Have your relationship chat.”

“I was like, Oh God, my reality has collapsed here!”

“I shouldn’t call it evil, but it’s murder, it kills people.”
“Eww! Calibri! It’s ugly! Baahhh!”

“I could survive in that car … I have an axe and knives in there…”

“I’m arguing that everything’s an argument!”
“Go away, Siri! You’re evil! I hate you! You’re a spy!”

“What is the bulge?”

“He needs help with love … not just love, the mechanics of love.”
“What if you were surrounded by a group of knife-wielding thugs?”

“I’ve got to refrain from killing you.”

“That’s Word. It’s ugly! Stupid Word!”

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“He doesn’t have enough teeth to eat the jerky anymore.”

“I don’t know any cows, so leave me alone!”

“What’s been happening in their bedroom?”
“The baby is in the text.”

“Woah, that was a K workout!”

“During one of my classes, there is a sound that is like somebody is murdering a seal.”
“You’re too generous. I hate you!”

“Do we understand ourselves?”

“Something has gone wrong with this computer, and it is now working in intriguing ways.”
“He does look like a puppet guy. I don’t know why!”
“The organ meat is the richest meat.”

“This is our rock! Baahh!”

“Australian spiders are terrifying.”
“I hate everything right now!”

“As soon as she comes back, she finds a hot, young thing!”
“When it’s this stylized, I can’t penetrate it.”
“The official critical term for this is that it is fucked up!”

“Woah! No wonder they have such good sex!”

“Are you proud of me for being able to navigate the Google Machine?”
“It ends with her eating the heart.”

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Mackenzie Brandel

Mr. Dustin Bissell

ENG-294-01: Screenwriting I

11 February 2020

Story Structure Analysis:

Grey’s Anatomy: “A Hard Day’s Night”

I felt that this episode did a great job following the story paradigm sequence, especially

the “difficult task” paradigm. We are introduced to our two main characters right away, with

Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd waking up from their one-night stand. In hindsight, we know

that Meredith is going to find out that Derek works at the same place as her, and is her “boss,”

but Meredith actually has no idea about that yet in the episode’s story. We are then given a great

introduction to the rigors of the hospital and the internship program that Meredith, along with

Izzy Stevens, George O’Malley, Christina Yang, and Alex Karev, are about to immerse

themselves into. The Chief Surgeon says to the interns, “Welcome to the game. They say a

person either has what it takes to play, or they don’t. Look around. Say hello to your

competition” and the viewer immediately knows that it is going to be a difficult time for these

interns (A Hard Day’s Night). Due to the difficulty that the interns faced throughout the entire

episode, along with how well the story paradigm was followed, I say that this was great episode

for anybody to watch, especially those who want a great idea of how to structure a story in the

“difficult task” paradigm.

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 The main story starts right away, as the interns are all given different jobs and patients to

tend to. Izzy is faced with the wrath of the Chief Resident, Miranda Bailey, as Bailey gives Izzy

the job of doing rectal exams, which nobody really actually wanted to do. George is asked to

scrub in on a surgery because he has “promise,” and Karev is asked to diagnose a girl who has

been showing signs of possible pneumonia. Meredith is given a case of a girl, Katie, who has

been having seizures for seemingly no reason and is being a bit of a pain to Meredith. None of

these first jobs go as planned, as Izzy finds the rectal exams disgusting and cannot even eat her

lunch, while George’s patient ends up dying, giving him the title of “007” – license to kill. Karev

shows his clear incompetence, as he never knows exactly what he is doing and ends up giving a

girl the wrong medicine, since he gave a wrong diagnosis originally. Meanwhile, Meredith

discovers that Dr. Shepherd is Katie’s doctor and is not too happy about this information.

These plot lines continue throughout the episode, until Meredith finds Katie having

another unexplained seizure, and ends up saving Katie’s life. Dr. Shepherd puts the interns on a

quest to find out what is wrong with Katie, and Christina and Meredith figure out that Katie has

an aneurism in her brain, which Shepherd thought was maybe a one in a million chance of

happening. Earlier, Shepherd also promised that one of the interns would have the chance to

scrub into Katie’s surgery if they could find the right diagnosis. While Meredith and Christina

have a deal that Christina can do the surgery if they figure out the diagnosis, Derek chooses

Meredith, causing a rift between friends, but giving Meredith a chance to prove her skills as a

surgeon. Katie’s surgery ends up being a success and Derek and Meredith have a bit of a

friendship rekindling because of how great Meredith was in the surgery. The episode ends with

the interns successfully having completed their first 48-hour shift, with tired but happy looks on

their faces.

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 Overall, the story paradigm was followed very closely. We get an intro to the characters

right from the start, but in the face of that, we also get into to how difficult the job that they are

going into really is going to be. All of the other interns are introduced by Bailey giving them

their first jobs, and we really get to figure out their likes and dislikes from their reactions to their

jobs (e.g. Izzy and the rectal exams). But then all of the characters find a patient with a need or a

lack that needs to be solved by that character. They all attempt positive actions in the face of

their adversities, but George does fall flat on both occasions, as both of his patients die in the

end. Meredith, with the issue of Katie and her seizures, has the most difficult and complicated

job, as nobody knows why Katie is having these seizures, not even Dr. Shepherd, who is one of

the most prestigious doctors at the hospital. Shepherd then puts the characters on their mission to

figure out what is wrong with Katie and to prove themselves as competent surgeons and doctors.

Meredith ends up being the character who gets to prove her heroic qualities, not only

because she helped figure out what was wrong with Katie, but because she was the one who was

chosen to scrub into Katie’s surgery. She ends up proving herself tenfold in the surgery,

impressing Shepherd and solving Katie’s lack and misfortune. There is a bit of a “hero’s return”

sequence, as well, as Meredith and the other interns do get to go home and gets to get away from

the troubles of the OR for just a little while. Based on my viewing and how much I enjoyed this

episode, I think that it was very, very well done, and I can see why this show has been on the air

for the last almost 15 years, especially if all of the episodes are done as well as the first one was.

Works Cited

“A Hard Day’s Night.” Grey’s Anatomy. ABC. 27 March 2005. Television.

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Mackenzie Brandel
John Rybicki
ENG-290: Poetry Workshop II
10 February 2020

Silence
There’s nothing left that is beautiful in the world except silence.
The piercing sound of nothingness.
It envelops me, like the clouds taking over the sun on a rainy day.
I hear its mighty screams, like quiet whispers in the air.
But yet, it stays, as nothing, just like it should be.
Nothing at all. Just like the air I breathe, every second of every day.
I can’t see it, but oh, can I feel its powerful force, just waiting to be shattered.
Broken like miniscule pieces of glass
By the sounds of nearby shuffling, students screaming, and music turned up to unholy levels
But eventually, when all of the noise is gone, it will transform back
Back to nothing.
Just as it ever was. And ever will be.
Just me. Sitting alone. In the silence.
The only thing left that is beautiful in the world.

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