Category: Senior Literary

Do All Cultures Have an Extrovert Ideal?

Soft Power

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

This section of Quiet by Susan Cain explores the different cultural outlook of the “perfect” or “ideal” boss.  Mainly looking into Asian countries ideals.

It seems that the extrovert ideal is not important at all to Asian countries.  Indulgence of sound is important to them, but it is opposite from Americans where the sound they should indulge in comes from.  Asian families would much rather instill a “listen before speaking” basis in their children.   Listening is much more important for finding information and making well rounded, well thought out decisions.

Personally, I think this is very important in the case of understanding Asian culture and people.  In fact, I think this rule is brilliant.  I do not find having grades for how much you speak in class, just to get a grade for being loud without understanding anything, is a good thing.  I think it is lazy teaching and shows that culture in America prizes loud and noisy people over well thought out and well aimed articulate people.  China and Japan prizes the quiet and well spoken people.  They are number one in industry for a reason, and I think this is a beautiful way of thinking because it prizes respect and thought over being spoken over and not thinking about things.  Obviously America prizes loud noisy people, our cabinet is full of them.  Our president is a perfect way to show this.  He is loud and intimidating, but as shown what has he to show he thinks?  Not much but his words.  His tweets sure don’t.

Back to the subject, the book gives examples of how surprised immigrants from Asian countries were to sit in an American classroom for the first time.  Susan Cain met and interviewed Hung Wei Chien, a mother in Cupertino, California who moved from Taiwan to the U.S. in 1979.

“I remember bring amazed.  It was linguistics class, and that’s not even linguistics the students are talking about!  I thought, ‘oh, in the U.S., as soon as you start talking, you’re fine.”   while as she reminisced about her time as a child growing up and attending school back in Taiwan, she commented “The teaching back home is very different from here.  There, you learn the subject, and they test you.  At least when I grew up, they don’t go off subject a lot, and they don’t allow the students to ramble.  If you stand up and talk nonsense, you’ll be reprimanded.”

This section of Quiet followed the differences in what the U.S. prided its students off of verses what Asian countries prided themselves off of.  It explains the importances they set on the basis of their counties and contributes to societal affairs and the economy of the country as a whole.

My take on this section of the book is that the United States puts too much importance on just talking instead of also talking to listen as well.  I believe there needs to be a balance between the two.  These are both incredible aspects to pride off of, but if there is not one to listen what is the point of talking and if there is no one to talk what is the point of listening?

“Is human nature such that, under certain conditions, stupidity can come to dominate, infecting the brighter quadrants, dragging everybody down with it?”(Saunders 7)

If you are interested in reading a good collection of essays, I have just the selection for you.

For my blog this week, I decided to do somewhat of an excerpt from a larger work. I’ve selected to review the first “chapter” of essays within the book written by George Saunders, which is a collection of essays. The book is entitled, The Braindead Megaphone and the layout of it itself is quite interesting. The essay themselves are separated as somewhat chapters; however, some of the essays have subtopics. The chapter my blog focuses mainly on is the first one, “The Braindead Megaphone”. The chapter is broken into individual subtext that are divided in numeric order from one to nine. The subtext itself is somewhat confusing when you first begin because at first glance, it doesn’t seem as though they correlate to each other than the fact that they are works based on hypotheticals and internal thoughts.

My two favorites would have to be number two and number six. They both link to each other, and the philosophy of the “Megaphone Man” is truly something brilliant. It is very difficult to explain the clever analysis of the situation within the writing without going in-depth and explaining the entire essay.

This first collection, in particular, does not necessarily lay out a full start to finish storyline; however, each does deliver a message that may or may not tie into another subtext within the essays. The works are written in what I can only explain as a thought process form. To elaborate on that, a few of them drift between thoughts, some follow a distinct line of ideas that drive the work to a specific conclusion, and in others, Saunders lays out information and plainly talks to the readers about a topic that interests him.

The positives I received reading these works are that the works each have some very interesting logic to them. After each of them, they left me with something to think about as I went into the next piece, and a thought-provoking essay is always a good thing. The only negatives I can give are that this book judging from the first chapter that it is not a collection of essays for the feeble-minded and that the layout of the book, taking the numbering and divided sections into consideration, can be somewhat confusing for the reader. However, I do not believe that a book being for an intellectual audience is negative. I am simply stating that the book follows a very complex and creative mind that dissects the boundaries of social living and an individuals purpose in life.

Although this review is only for the first “chapter” of essays, I do not doubt that the writing will be phenomenal. George Saunders has a very distinct voice within his writing that pulls you into a view of the world from an overview. In conclusion, the writing is most definitely worth a read.

After reading “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and writing a blog about it, I began looking more into the works of the author. I recently discovered another short story title “Regret” written by Kate Chopin, first published in a short story collection A Night in Acadia. This story is one of the most satisfying piece I’ve ever read.

“Regret” is a story of pure, ironic human nature. Humans often tell themselves what they don’t wont or will never do but when those things are presented to them, their entire perspective changes… and suddenly, you realize it’s exactly what you want. So, shortly, I would say the theme of this short story is chiefly realization.

The story begins introducing the main character, Mamzelle Aurlie (which I have no idea how to pronounce). This 50-year-old woman is introduced as an overall strong, sturdy woman who knows exactly what she does not want. “So, she was quite alone in the world, except for her dog Ponto, and the negroes who lived in her cabins and worked her crops, and the fowls, a few cows, a couple of mules, her gun (with which she shot chicken-hawks), and her religion.” Chopin created a visual, emotional, and literal description of Mamzelle in just one sentence, which is very impressive.

The story then transitions to a morning where Mamzelle is observing her new neighbors. Chopin uses the description to reveal how the main character feels about the family. Chopin uses the show don’t tell method very well, almost like it’s just second nature. I appreciate the functions of all the descriptions. None of them feel redundant or out of place. There’s just enough throughout the entire story. On this morning, Mamzelle is presented exactly what she didn’t want. This abrupt introduction changed her routine and at the end, her emotions.

Mamzelle realizes that she’s been missing out on something very special. Her entire life she believed this aspect didn’t belong in her life story, but she was wrong. The title acts as the last emotional element in the story. The main character doesn’t frankly say or describe how she feels, but the ending created a sort of somber. When you look back at the title, you know exactly what Mamzelle Aurlie is feeling while she sat at the table—regret. The ending stirred an emotion inside of me. I almost felt sorry for the main character. I believe that’s exactly what Chopin wanted her readers to feel.

Some interesting things I want to point out is the way Kate Chopin shows her character through her fictional character. Chopin was pro Confederate and obviously racist. Mamzelle describes the slaves working and living across the cotton field. The words negroes and mulatto are used, which was striking to the eye but not so much distracting. I feel I have a very complicated, interested relationship with this author. I know how she felt about my kind, but I can’t help but to appreciate the dynamics of her stories.

Overall, this was a great story. If you want to know what the ‘introduction’ was, click here to give the story a read. It’s very short!

This book was about a boy who went through a series of mental illness and didn’t feel like he fit in at any point. He also felt disassociated from the people around him, and he sees things differently than everyone else. We also see how some people around treat him differently than he sees himself. His friends considered him a “wallflower” and he thought after being so close to his friends that being a wallflower wasn’t all that bad. He however, fell in love with one of his friends and due to never believing in being outgoing, he never took action in loving that girl. He instead wrote a series of letters to no person in particular but rather to some person who would understand where he was coming from. We see that he really just wanted someone to understand him when he really didn’t even understand himself.

This book was written in a series of letters. At first the way it was written tripped me up because I never really get into stories that are written in letter format because I always felt that the letters took away from the real meaning of the story. However, this story never really lost my attention. It was formatted well in a way that didn’t lose me and each entry of the letters lead into the next entry well. We also got to get a lot more from the boy himself with it structured in the form of letters because his mind is directly reflected through the words. I felt the deconstruction of his mind and the way he started realizing what was really wrong with him. I see that before the end of the book he really didn’t understand what was wrong with him and he found it weird when his psychiatrist always asked him about his past, but later on he realized the full extent to why his past was so important.  It didn’t really feel like a “Dear Diary” thing but rather a reflection on events that made him realize how disassociated from the world around him.

By the end of this book I was feeling so emotionally connected to the book that I really didn’t want it to end. I think that the idea of the book set on teenagers and a boy feeling the way he did about the people around him and himself made it so relateable. There is a lot of mental illness happening and different reasons as to why those mental diseases are caused. I love the idea behind this story and I believe that everyone should read this at some point in their lives. There is so much meaning behind the words that are written and it honestly changed the way i thought about mental illness and disassociation in general. The ending had me awestruck and wondering who those letters were written to and what they were meant to capture. I think that by the end of the book he reveals the reason he is the way he is but only in a way that he finally realizes it himself.

Looking for Alaska is a wonderful book by John Green. In this book, the characters are in a prestigious boarding school. The main characters are Miles “Pudge” Halter, Chip “The Colonel” Martin, Takumi Hikohito, Alaska Young, and Lara Buterskaya. The book is about these teenagers trying to understand life. The main character, Miles, tries to find out who he is and tries to experience new things in his life. When Alaska goes missing, he begins to try to understand what happened to her and misses her. When she goes missing, he thinks back to the fond memories that he has of her.

The story is told in a brilliant way. It manages to pull the reader along to whatever is going on in the story.  John Green does a good job at making ever character very relatable in some way, he wants to constantly make us emotionally invested with every character in the story. Even though the story is about the protagonist trying to get over his feelings for Alaska and us experiencing his incredible bond with her, it’s also a wonderful story about people learning new things constantly in their teenage years. Miles is an inexperienced nerdy kind of guy, and he is introduced to Chip who is a really cool person, almost the exactly the opposite of Miles. Miles goes through a journey of exploration of smoking, drinking, and other things with Chip who is also, in a way, trying to find out who he really is as well.

I believe that this book is very symbolic. Cigarettes are used as a symbol in this story. It is used as a sign of rebellion, but also it symbolizes time running out. One very popular quote from Alaska is, “Y’all smoke to enjoy it, I smoke to die.” I believe that cigarettes are used as a way to symbolize death and time running out. Alaska goes missing and it ultimately shows other people that time is very scarce. I think the book is a good way to show people that time matters in our life and we shouldn’t throw it away.  Instead of spending all of our time trying to understand life, it symbolizes that we should spend our life trying new things and not being scared. That we should always jump into everything head first because life is too short and valuable. The book represents a giant  example that we can literally die at any time.

Life is too short to dwell on mistakes we made in the past and worry about everything that will happen in the future. The book shows that we should not worry about the future, especially since we are young, because we could also die at any time. Time is valuable, but also the time for us to die does not have any limits to how old we are. I think that John Green made this book to get people out of their comfort zones and to just dive in all the way into life and not regret things that we do.

“— I done it for my own pure-D satisfaction.” (Welty 216)

The short story, “Where is the Voice Coming From?”, by the great Eudora Welty is by far a must read. It is personally my favorite story from Mrs. Eudora Welty. It is brutally honest in its writing from the mind of a white supremacist within the 1960’s. The story was written following the assassination of Medgar Evers, and is to have been written based on his assassination. For this review, I went back for a second time reading this story looking for understanding within the mindset of the narrator. Through my first read, I only found anger. I believe my first read did not give the work itself enough justice. I read the story and could not get past the language to find the beauty in the message. In this read, I searched for an understanding. By stating understanding I do not by any means refer to compassion for the narrator; my meaning is finding a comprehension as to what leads the man to take action. In this read, I found great detailing in his thought process, his own personal character flaws, as well as the character development throughout the story which I found a great interest in. The story as so many symbolic aspects to it, and I encourage others to challenge themselves to dig deep into the story and find the dark thoughts of what I can only label as a jealous and unrighteous man.

A disclaimer to potential readers that I can give, is that Eudora Welty does not under any means restrain language from this piece of work. It has a few demeaning words, as well as racial slurs, and it does a very adequate job of portraying the narrator. Some readers may become very uncomfortable reading the work; however, if you can look past the language and find the root purpose of the writing then you will definitely find the boldness in the writer herself.

The timing for when Eudora Welty released this work, in my opinion, only adds to the power of the piece itself. Within the era of civil rights, the African Americans were making a difference in the community. Not to mention that Ms. Eudora Welty was a Caucasian woman writing a work that slandered a white supremacist man, which were few men she grew up around. She gave a look through the eyes of a man that many people feared and fought against. For me, this work following a powerful leader’s death made the piece phenomenal.I encourage others if possible to visit Medgar Evers home where he was assassinated after reading this work. The setting that Ms. Eudora Welty describes is not the same as it was many years ago; however, the similarities to today’s view and the past is bone chilling. For me, the location mixed with the story gave me goosebumps.

I encourage others if possible to visit Medgar Evers home where he was assassinated after reading this work. The setting that Ms. Eudora Welty describes is not the same as it was many years ago; however, the similarities to today’s view and the past is bone chilling. For me, the location mixed with the story gave me goosebumps. Overall, the story is a great work of artistry, written by a well-respected writer that is worth a read.

 

The Overview: 

Holes is a 1998 young adult mystery comedy written by Louis Sachar featuring Stanley Yelnats IV, a 14-year old, overweight boy with no friends and terrible luck. After being wrongfully accused of stealing a pair of famous baseball shoes, Stanley is sent to Camp Crystal Lake, a juvenile work camp where “bad boys go to dig a hole and be add good”. Throughout the story, there are flashbacks to Stanley’s great- great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, supposedly the cause of the Yelnats’s family’s bad luck, and to the love story of Katherine Barlow and Sam the onion picker.

The Diction: 

Holes is a book of a sixth to eighth grade reading level, and although it is written with a more mature voice, it more or less comes off as such. The diction that is used is that of an average sixth grader, and the content deals with both teen-aged themes, such as bullying and obesity, and adult themes, like poverty.

A Potential Turn-off:

The book does tend to jump around and across three story lines: Stanley’s arc, Elya’s arc, and Katherine’s arc. The three arcs  eventually become one cohesive plot, but it takes quite a while. Now, for me, this was not especially a definite problem, so much as an irritation. For instance, while reading about Stanley, the story would jump back over fifty year to Elya’s story. Granted, none of the side-stories are boring, but it was a shock. I enjoyed Stanley’s arc the most, and thus, whenever the story arcs switched I found myself wishing I was back with Stanley.

Another small problem I had with the book is not the book’s fault. If the reader has seen the Disney adaptation of Holes, by the same name, it can become a little difficult separate the written word from the cinematic experience. This is because the movie is almost the book copied-pasted. Good for the movie, but bad for people who have some report to complete on  the book and have previously seen the movie.

An Appealing Factor:

Stanley Yelnats is one of the best protagonists to ever come out of a young adult’s book.  He is not the generic person who finds love with someone who would normally be out of his league. He is not a bombshell in appearance, and in fact, there isn’t even any indication that he is handsome at all. He is explicitly described as morbidly obese and very timid, due to past bullying encounters. On top of all of this, Stanley, and his entire father’s side of the family for that matter, have rotten luck. Therefore he get blamed for many things that aren’t his fault. Even better, Stanley works hard to improve his self-esteem, including dropping over 150 pounds with pure willpower. All of this makes Stanley a very relatable character to most teen ad he can easily gain sympathy and affection. Because he is such a three-dimensional character, the reader can easily slip into his skin and become him, become empathetic regarding his troubles, despise those who treat me unfair, love those he loves. I myself am very fond of Stanley and could see him as my younger brother.

My Rating:

I rate Holes nine of of ten stars. Find your nearest library. They should have it.

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It was first published as “The Dream of an Hour” in 1985. I was first introduced to this short story during sophomore year. It was recommended to me by my English teacher; however, I never found the time to read it. The title of this story is literal, referring to the exact time the events prolong (which I find to be very interesting). The length of the story is roughly 1000 words. Before reading, I decided to do some research on the author. In her early years, she was strongly pro-Confederate, mainly because of the loss of her brother in the Civil War, and she was also quite the rebel. Her work exemplified societal issues through her own interests, but she wasn’t renowned during her time. It wasn’t until the 20^th century that her work gained recognition.

This short story revolves around a woman who has a heart condition and her emotions during this hour. Immediately, the conflict is introduced; Mrs. Mallard has been informed of her husband’s death. Her sister and another character try to break the news in the gentlest way because of her medical condition. Her husband’s death isn’t the only tension. In a way, Chopin uses descriptions and moments that hint towards the disturbing emotion of the now widow. That is, she feels free that her husband has died. At first, the wife is overwhelmed with grief and locks herself in her bedroom. Then, she reveals that her husband wasn’t so great of a man through small, subtle details. Eventually, Mrs. Mallard begins repeating the phrase “Free! Body and soul free!” This made the story controversial during the time of the 1890s. Many people argue over if people were shocked because of a woman speaking her mind or a woman being liberated by the death of her husband. In my opinion, I think it’s both.

My favorite thing about this piece is the descriptions. Chopin uses sensory details to make the reader feel as if they were Mrs. Mallard. The sentence structure and order was smooth and very understandable. Words such as elixir, elusive, exalted, and importunities coincide with the setting, time, and tone. It also gave me the opportunity to learn because I didn’t know the meaning of a lot of words in the story, but that didn’t hinder me from enjoying the read. Overall, I find this story interesting because of its background and the author. In a time where women were supposedly created for certain purposes, this fiction piece challenged the ideas of the 1890s. It spoke of things women were never supposed to or expected to think or say aloud. I admire this story’s complicated internal conflict, adding depth and reason to the tone. The ending is the best part to me and was worth waiting for. I just really appreciate the way conflict is in the beginning, middle, and end. There isn’t a dull moment in this story.

If you want to know the ironic event that happens at the end, give the story a read here.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking is a factually powerful read.  The book itself is split into four parts. In this review, I will talk about the part entitled, “The Extrovert Ideal”.

“Strangers’ eyes, keen and critical.  Can you meet them- Confidently– without fear?” – Print Advertisement for Woodbury’s Soap, 1922

The section begins with a reflection on the creation of the ideal business man and the transition from a society based upon morals to a society based upon personality, or as historian Warren Susman put it a “Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality”.  It is pressed into the readers mind from the beginning a tone of biased among an introvert studying a simple fascination of the extroverted “ideals” and natural to learned traits and behaviors.

Quoted from Cane herself “In a Culture of Character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable.  What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private.  The word personality didn’t exist in English until the eighteenth century, and the idea of ‘having a good personality’ was not widespread until the twentieth.”

It was about the industrialistic new society that was being created that moved the discipline man out of the spotlight to platform a man meant for selling the spotlight.  The twentieth century brought on a less agricultural outlook and created today’s urban culture.  The extroverted businessman was a key part played in this development, because along with the big production belts came a need for someone to sell those products to ordinary people who didn’t simply leave their house with the intention to buy.  Thus the salesman was created.  Since business circulates business the best people to be in business was not the people who knew laws and philosophy and the real antics of things, but rather the people who knew how to talk and sway into other peoples wants.  They needed to be confident, loud, a natural improviser of charm, attractive, and an overall energetically open person.  The need for these people to sell and exist was what created the American idealistic personality/person.  Everyone wanted to be these people so that they could be something.

Since this bar in society was created, they noticed the difference in natural salesmen and their counterpart opposites.  The closed door operators were the people who simply were not this, and so they were not this “something” everyone wanted to be.  Introverts were not noticed out of praise, they were noticed to contrast the extroverted agenda society had created at the time.  Ads like the one that Cane began the book with, and I quoted to begin my article were used to entice sell factor from the need to become this type.

Parents taught haughtiness and over activity to perfect these introverted limps in the child’s personality.  This spiked the anxiety and insecurity in the average person, and continues to grow over time.  Ads and TV shows portray larger than life men and beautified perfect women.  No wonder the years that followed this transition created such a divide and objective to personify yourself as largely and widely as possible.

Crane does a wonderful job of telling the transition and the importance to stay in-tuned with your extroverted side as much as possible.  She does not leave the underlying pieces of opposition out though, as she sees and details the difference and the utmost importance that both extroverts and introverts are necessity to keep the ball rolling.

I found this book, or rather, this book found me at a bookstore in Seaside, FL.  I was staring at a book beside it when a man came up and pointed at it and told me, “I’m not an introvert, but my friends who’ve read it are telling me that it’s a great book.  Just thought I’d let you know.”  And I am a big believer in fate, so this book was mine the second that happened.  I find it reflective, a real penny for your thoughts kind of book.  Reflection to society and the society your grandparents grew up in and the similarities, showing the times aren’t that different after all.  Maybe a bit more or less extreme in some places, but the cracks and barriers in preferable personalities is a common strong suit that plays a roll in both.