Beauty and The Beast

As I sat in the windowsill of my fabulous palace bedroom the smell of fragrant roses wafted through the open window. “Beauty, what can I bring you upon my return?” I thought. “Father, all I need is a rose plucked by your hand to make me happy.”

 I had been given the biggest, grandest room in the palace upon my arrival. However, the space made me feel even more confined in the Beast’s large palace. The smell of roses beckoned me down to the garden where I preferred to spend the majority of my time. The sun shone down on the myriad of flowers, refracting on the droplets of morning dew peppered on the brightly colored petals of the roses and daisies. I bent down to admire the patch of dark pink roses that lined the garden’s winding pathway. Their beauty was beyond compare and I reached out my hand selfishly to pluck one of the roses from its home in the soil. “Father bring me pearls! Bring me dresses and furs and ribbons! Father please!!” cried my sisters. “Father, all I need is a rose plucked by your hand to make me happy.” All I need is a rose. A rose.

  Late in the afternoon, I retreated back into the castle and took my post by the fireplace and began my sewing. The warmth of the fire and the familiar task of sewing made me feel more comfortable in this foreign stone place. Minutes later, Beast entered the sitting room, sitting into his plush armchair that directly faced my place by the hearth. He treated me with love and kindness but his beastly face was uninviting and still frightened me even after all this time. Silence filled the room, enhancing the sound of the ticking clock. Suddenly Beast interjected the clock’s ticking sound, “Beauty will you marry me and remain with me at the palace forever.”

“Beauty, I beg you take my hand in marriage.” “Beauty, marry me!” “No.” “No, I am too young. I will remain with my father.” “Father!” “Father, all I need is a rose plucked by your hand to make me happy.” “All I need is a rose.” A rose.

Find A Penny DON'T Pick it Up

In today's society, Americans are focused on moving forward; constantly creating innovative technology capable of conserving precious time. As shown in a study (Source B) the average person wastes about 4 hours per year all because of the pesky penny. In addition to devaluing the time of modern day Americans, "it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950" (Source C). "It is practically useless in everyday life!" (Source A). Abolishing the penny would keep Americans on an upward trajectory, for abolition would conserve time and benefit the economy.

Stereotyping Shorts

In modern society, the way a woman dresses serves as an outward reflection of who they on the inside. Clothes have become a statement. While fashion, with its beautiful cuts, colors, and trends, can often be a form of self-expression, these same cuts and colors can also serve as the basis for harsh stereotyping among the American public. As shown in the photograph above, many onlookers judge women by the hemline of their skirts and shorts, placing them into generalized categories. If a girl’s shorts are too short she is automatically a “whore,” however if her skirt is too long, she is instantly pegged as “prudish,” judgements made without taking into account who the girl actually is. How are women ever supposed to dress appropriately according to their peers if a judgement can be made about any hem length. These generalizations made by the public over one simple hemline chain women to stereotypes, prohibiting them from dressing freely, grouping them into categories where they do not belong.

The Bad Luck of the Impervious Shadow

They ain’t no luck on this place (20)

They ain’t no luck going be on no place where [two] of they own chillens name aint never spoke (20), [to save the compson] name from being a laughing stock in town (189)

[They] walked upon the belly of [their] shadow (61)

They aint no luck on this place (20)

Honey suckle was the saddest odor of all (107)

[And] The drowned man’s shadow was watching for him all the time (57)

Getting honeysuckle all mixed up in it as though it were not unbearable enough without that not unbearable enough (84)

Not unbearable enough (84)

They ain’t no luck in this place (20)

[They] walked upon the belly of [their] shadow (61) 

She smelled like trees (6) getting honeysuckle all mixed up in it (84)

They ain’t no luck in this place (20)

The Power of Photoshop

What happens when society’s standard of beauty is based on an illusion? In 2013, many magazine covers show stunningly beautiful women who each have perfect features, including big eyes, small waist, perfect nose, thick beautifully colored hair, sharply arched eyebrows, and full lips. This is what women and young girls should look like. These women have become society’s stereotypical idea of beauty. Not only do magazine editors manipulate faces, and necks, and hair, but they also edit body shape. These images do not reflect real people, but rather they are photo-shopped images of perfection; as displayed in the image above.

The right-hand side of the image shows a model before make-up and photo-shop are used to enhance the natural beauty that is already there. Contrastingly, on the left-hand side of the photo, her eyes have been widened, her neck has been lengthened, her lips have been filled, her skin has been airbrushed, her face has been made more oval, and her eyebrows have been darkened and the arch has been enhanced. The image on the left hand side is not a real person, but a distorted image of a person that only exists because of photo-shop.

When society’s standard of beauty is based on an illusion, how are women affected? When young women strive for a caliber of beauty that cannot be naturally reached, their body image and self-esteem is negatively affected, causing monumental issues like anorexia and depression. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders states that “the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed by only 5% of American females.”

This ideal of what it means to be beautiful is not encouraging women and girls to be healthy and natural, but is taking a toll on their mental and physical health. Young girls cling to their copies of Vanity Fair and irrational dreams that one day they will look like the girl on the magazine.

The Bread Maker and the Bread Baker

Since society began, stereotypes have been created against men and women categorizing them into two different types of homemakers: the man, who makes the money to put the food on the table and the roof over their heads, and the woman who actually makes the home run by cooking the food, cleaning the house, and raising the children. As the feminist era began to ignite in American society, women found their place in the workforce and began to work side by side next to men. Now, in some cases, women took on the role of both types of homemakers. However as women began to break down societies stereotypical barriers, men remained “turkeys in the kitchen,” unable to transform into the kind of homemaker that had been previously characteristic of the woman. In his essay, “Turkeys in the Kitchen,” Dave Barry effectively acknowledges the behavior of men toward the role of women by providing relatable examples, by sharing real life experiences, and self mockery; allowing the reader to emotionally identify to his views on the stereotypes of men and women.

First Barry calls to mind the familiar scene of Thanksgiving Day. He summons to mind the typical scene of the wife “enshrouded in steam,” slaving away in the kitchen and pulling out “those repulsive organs” inside the turkey while the men can barely complete the simple task of watching their children since they are too engrossed in the football game on TV. This is a scene that most Americans have seen once or twice in their lifetime, giving a plausible example that highlights the said stereotypes. Now the reader is able to relate to the situation at hand, making the essay appeal emotionally to readers. The other thing that Barry does very effectively is put himself on a common ground with his readers, especially leveling himself with his fellow male Americans. He does this successfully by telling about his own “specialty dish,” and sharing his Thanksgiving experiences of finding it difficult to peel his eyes away from the football game to watch his children or offer help to his wife in the kitchen. Barry also makes himself seem more real by telling of the difficulty of a task that seems so trivial: cutting a turnip. He portrays himself as helpless by “rai[sing] many troubling questions” such as “which ones are the turnips?” and “do you have to wash them first?” This puts him on the level of the common people. Barry is able to mock and laugh at himself and his own mistakes which also makes him feel more human to his readers.

Barry is able to appeal to his readers emotions by admitting that he himself, an esteemed columnist and writer, is too “a turkey in the kitchen.” 

When You Wish Upon a Star

The classic Disney song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," is reflective of Willy Loman's mentality of how one may achieve success. The song says, "when you wish upon a star/ makes no difference who you are/ anything your heart desires/ will come to you." This is similar to Willy's thought that any man can "start off with the clothes on his back and end with diamonds." However it raises the question, does Willy's heart really desire success as a salesman? If he did, wouldn't success just come to him?

Forward

Americans look toward their president as a guiding figure, one who can pick them up from the problems of today and lead them into a brighter tomorrow. When his campaign began in 2008, Barack Obama promised America hope for a better future, he promised to pick up American society and move them forward. Though Americans are many different colors physically, they are all able to unite under three colors: red, white, and blue, the colors of the American flag. By showing Obama in these colors, he becomes more identifiable and real to the thousands of people he desires to represent because they are all working for a common cause: the betterment of their country. The red white and blue also symbolize his patriotism and love for his country making him more appealing to voters. Obama is shown looking off into the distance, not directly at his audience, a glint of hope is reflected in the matte colors in his eyes. His sight is directed toward the future of hope that he will bring to the country if he should be elected, leaving viewers interested to follow his stare and discover his hopes and dreams for this brighter tomorrow of hope. 

Wind in Dry Grass

“Shape without form, shade without colour,

Paralyzed force, gesture without meaning”

“[They are the hollow men/ [they] are the stuffed men/ leaning together/ headpiece filled with straw.” They are “stuffed men,” but they are filled with something as futile as straw. They are stuffed to the brim with meaningless material. The hollow men are afraid of the nothingness that they are composed of, however meaning is what they desire most in life.

The hollow men spend their lives “going ‘round the prickly pear,” in a monotonous circle afraid to fall out of line to find meaning. They are afraid that what they find might not be meaningful at all in reality, and none of them are brave enough to find out. They are trapped “between the idea/ and the reality,” and fall into the bleak emptiness that the shadow brings, and allow their lives to be as “quiet and meaningless/ As wind in dry grass/ Or rat’s feet over broken glass/ In our dry cellar.”