Author: astowell1 (Page 2 of 3)

Quote:

“Knowledge truly is by far the most important part of happiness, but one must neglect nothing that the gods demand. Great words of the over-proud balanced by great falls taught us knowledge in our old age.” (Lines 1348-1353)

Comment:

            This is the last line of the play delivered by the chorus after Creon has exited the stage back into the palace. He has just been told by the chorus that he can only accept his fate and the repercussions of his actions. This is summed up well within the chorus’ line on lines 1337 and 1338: “What will be will be. We must act on what lies before us. The future is the gods’ concern.” The chorus then remains on the stage and addresses the audience to deliver the last line of the play.

            I chose this particular quote, because I felt as though it brings together the moral of the entire play. One cannot have happiness if they neglect to obey the gods. However, I would take this one step further by concluding that Sophocles is actually trying to tell his audience that people cannot live in peace and happiness if they do not obey the higher power, whatever that may be. For example, if laws are not obeyed there can be no moral order. I also believe that Sophocles is warning his audience against dismissing the ideas of societies youth. I would seem that he is trying to say that wisdom or knowledge does not necessarily come with age and that sometimes we must listen to our youth to stay true to our moral compass.

            These ideas relate directly back to what we had discussed in class. During our last meeting we discussed the topic of religious duties vs civic duties. Throughout the entire play Creon proclaims that civic duties should be valued most, whereas Antigone believes just the opposite. By the end of the play we see Creon finally take on the repercussions of his ways while the chorus explains that he should have listened to his advisors and Tiresias. Though I see the error in Creon’s ways, I believe that there are many people today who are just like this character. There are many leaders within society who lose sight of moral or religious duties while acting under the civic law. This will bring me to my question which I will pose below.

Question:

             Do you agree with the chorus? Are religious duties more important than civic duties?

Quote:

“Because it wasn’t Zeus who pronounced these things to me, not did Justice, companion of the gods below, establish such laws for humanity. I would never think your pronouncements had such strength that, being mortal, they could override the unwritten, ever-lasting prescriptions of the gods, for those aren’t something recently made, but live forever, and no one knows when they first appeared.” (Lines 459-468)

Comment:

            This quote is pulled from the conversation between Antigone and Creon who is both the king at the time and Antigone’s uncle. Creon has just been informed that Antigone has in fact buried her brother, Polynices, against his wishes. Creon had just asked Antigone why she had broken the law he had set forth as king. This quote is the beginning of her response explaining that she would rather break laws created by man than the laws created by the gods.

            When reading through the play, I was struck by this quote due to its direct connection to one of our recent class discussions. In this conversation we talked about who is allowed to make the laws our society follows and who gets to enforce them. The example was give that if a philosophy professor attempted to give a person a speeding ticket they would most likely refuse to take it. However, if a police officer did the same thing that same person would accept the ticket and pay the consequences. We as society have assigned roles and rules that we have all elected to follow. I believe Antigone would agree with this concept; in her eyes Creon is the philosophy professor and the gods are the police. She has decided for herself who’s laws will be followed and reinforced. It would seem that Antigone herself could represent our societal beliefs and morals.

            I would like to further the conversation by challenging concept of authority. It would seem that authority is a part of human nature. However, I would argue that authority is a humanized version on dominance which is a natural phenomenon found in all aspects of the natural world. To emphasize this, I turn to the definitions of the two words. Dominance is defined as “power and influence over others.” Whereas the definition of authority is “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” These two definitions are strikingly similar with just one main difference, the key word “right.” Rights are a social construct that do not exist in the natural world. I argue that authority is merely the way dominance, a natural element ingrained into us as mammals, is expressed in a humanized fashion.

Question:

             Can a society exist without moral or legal authority?  

Quote:

“Perhaps one person can make a change, but not the kind of change that would raise your body to equality with your countrymen” (Coates 96.)

Comment:

            This quote is set in a section of Coates’ work where he is discussing the concept of history. According to Coates history is in the hands of the story teller. Whoever is writing the history will automatically favor themselves and their triumphs. Shortly after this quote, Coates goes on to say that historical and societal change does not and cannot happen from the efforts of just one man. He uses examples such as the Revolutionary War as well as the Civil War to show that it takes events that are quite large to truly shift societal norms and views. He uses this argument to confirm his beliefs in the quote found on page 96, it is unreasonable to put the weight of change on one individual.

            After reading Coates’ beliefs about societal change, I could not but help think back to our in class discussion about the power of our vote. We discussed the common mindset in today’s society that sees voting pointless in such large elections, seeing as one vote is such a tiny percentage of total votes cast. I am curious to see what Coates would say to such a belief. Based on the reading it would seem that Coates believes it is not the responsibility of the individual to create change seeing as, in his opinion, it owes the world nothing. However, I think Coates would also argue that change does not happen without a collective effort, as we see when he discusses the major events in history that created social change. Taking this into account I think Coates would be in favor of encouraging people to vote. I believe Coates would say that it is not the job of one person to make the decisions rather a collective responsibility and effort. Though this is conjecture based on the writing of Coates, I would be interested to ask him where he believes the individual ends and the group begins. After all a group or society is made up of individuals.

Question:

Do you agree with Coates? Is change dependent on the individual or the collective society?

Quotes:

• “Fail to comprehend the streets and you gave up your body now. But fail to comprehend the schools and you gave up your body later” (Coates 25.)
• “Fully 60 percent of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail” (Coates 27.)

Comment:

            In reference to my first quote, you can find it about mid-way through our reading of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I found it interesting that this quote can be found after a paragraph that Coates wrote to his son acknowledging that they grew up in two different Baltimore societies. His own was a place where he was in constant concern for his physical safety and focused on protecting his physical well-being. Whereas his son, he believes, is growing up in a society that not only knows of the injustice shown toward the black community, but wishes to take action against it. After this paragraph, Coates brings up my first quote opening a window to the mentality he adopted as a young boy.

            It was this mindset that blew me away. Working in the world of education and hoping to become a primary school teacher within the next year, I am very deeply invested in the power of education. This quote truly exemplifies its power. Young children growing up in similar situations at Coates, came of age with a defensive mindset. Their primary concern what to protect their physical wellbeing, according to Coates. However, I found it particularly interesting that Coates saw no way out at the time. In his mind his only choice was to give up his body now or later. Though I understand why growing up in such an environment can cultivate such a mindset, it pains me to think that not even a century ago and even to this day people are put in such situation.

            This brings me to my second quote of the reading. I chose to include it because this is a statistic I am very familiar with. The school to prison pipeline is a very real thing that many young black people see the ramifications of. I was glad that Coates brought it up following my first quote, because it gives his readers evidence that supports why young people growing up in such circumstances would grow to have mindsets similar to Coates as a young man. This fearful street life that did not foster an education focused view point often resulted in incarceration of thousands of young people across the country. However, if our society would have been able to assist these young people in finishing their high school education we would as a whole be better off as a society for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, incarceration is much more expensive than education. By focusing our resources on developing strong education systems we as a nation will save millions of dollars a year. Second, by assisting these people in acquiring a diploma we are raising our eligible work force therefore boosting our overall national economy. The benefits are endless when it comes to choosing education, therefore I was glad that Coates was able to share this with his readers and his son.

Question:

            Coates discusses the use of different disciplinary actions in his schools. Why do you think students of color are more likely to receive harsh punishments for misbehavior? What about children with special needs? If yes, how do we change this?

Quote:

“So they harassed me so they come out there and near about arrest me every day sometime they would arrest me and put me in Jail… Say I run a stop sign, that I had a taillight wasn’t right, just anything, you know, to lock me up” (Hall 20.)

Comment:

            This quote is pulled from page 20 of Gregory Hunter’s interview with James Hall. During this section of the interview Hall is discussing the experiences he had as a black man in Sylvester during the 1950s. At the time Hall was one of very few men who owned property in the south and was also was the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP. This placed him in a position that many white people of the time did not like. Hall explains that he would often be thrown in jail under false pretenses and was the victim of many hate crimes during this time.

            As I was reading this quote I could not help but think of how it related to what is going on today within our electoral process. Though voter suppression is not as blatant as burning a cross on someone’s farm land or throwing someone in jail for a broken break light, it still has very similar intentions. Both acts are meant to suppress others to allow those in power to remain in power. Much, if not all, of voter suppression is executed within the boundaries of our democratic laws. However, it still keeps thousands away from exercising their right to vote in elections. By operating under the law suppressors are able to justify their actions, just as officers in the 1950s justified incarceration with minor crimes.

            After making this connection, I couldn’t help but start to wonder if things like this happened in other nations around the world. Though I would not say that I am greatly educated in global politics, I had a hunch that it did. I took the liberty to do a bit of research around the topic of voter suppression and found my hunch was in fact correct. Voters are kept from the polls in many of the worlds superpowers. Nations such as Canada, Australia, Israel, and the United Kingdom are all known to have reports of voter suppression. Learning this information made me begin to question if such suppression is truly imbedded in us as humans? Will a group of power always try to suppress the “other” to remain in power? This is something that I would look forward to discussing in class.

Question:

In your opinion, do you think history will look back on our current elections that consist of voter suppression and see it in the same light as we see Jim Crow laws and behaviors today?

Quote:

“‘Minorities rarely come of age explicitly thinking about what we want and how to get it,’ [Stacey] writes …. By contrast, ‘people already in power almost never have to think about whether they belong in the room’… ‘For most people from the outside, every story you read, every narrative you’re told, except for a couple months out of the year, is about how you’re not supposed to be one of these people.’”

Comment:

            This quote sits within the first few pages of “Stacey Abrams’s Fight for a Fair Vote” by Jelani Cobb and is pulled from Abrams’s political memoir, “Lead from the Outside.” Cobb brings this particular quote into his writing to help exhibit the mindset and views Abrams takes on both politics and life. In addition, it helps to explain the stance she took in ten years preceding her run in the gubernatorial election of Georgia. This quote in particular stuck a cord with me because of my background in education and because of my current enrollment of Contemporary Feminist Theories here at UNE.

            As an educator it my goal to enrich students’ lives with knowledge and help them believe that they are able to reach their dreams. This quote first and foremost gave me an insight to how students may feel growing up as a minority. It is my job as a teacher to help students feel as though they do have a place in the room and do belong on any stage that they may wish to be on. I believe that this mentality needs to change and that the only way to really truly eradicate this way of thinking is to teach students from a young age that anyone can join the political arena or whatever field they may pursue. This means changing both the way minorities see themselves and how non-minorities see monitories. To say something and project a view point is very different from believing and embodying it. Many people may say that that minorities deserve and can do certain things but few truly embody that belief.

           This brings me to my connection to my feminist theory class. We are currently discussing the history of females being a minority in society. Some experts are saying part of the reason the female sex is still considered a minority because of their tendency to remain immanent. However, to make society change its true way of thinking and believe in equality between the sexes females are being called to become more transcendent. In theory, over time society will truly believe females to be equal to males. I believe is when this occurs the females as a minority group will no longer experience what Stacey Abrams describes in her quote above.

Question:

Does a democracy or a society such as our own rely on the presence of a minority group?