Culture

I define culture as: the lifestyle and attitude of a particular group
What makes up a person's culture: the way they interact with others, dress, spend their time, and express themselves
Culture is extrinsic. The way you act/think/dress is influenced by your surroundings and by the social standards you spend an extended amount of time living around

Sherpa Culture

Claim 1- Sherpas are sociable with the climbers
Support: When Krakauer tries to help Ang Dorje dig, but quits because he is too tired, the sirdar laughs and jokes, "Are you not feeling good, Jon? This is only Camp One, six thousand meters. The air here is still very thick."
Claim 2: Sherpas are bold and often reckless
Support: When the Sherpa was showing signs of altitude sickness, "Ngwang ignored Scott's instructions and, instead of going down, went up to Camp Two to spend the night. By the time he arrived at the tents...[he] was delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing  up pink, blood-laced froth..."
Claim 3: Sherpas are reverent
Support: "Sherpas venerate a tangled melange of deities and spirits...paying proper homage to this ensemble of deities is considered crucially important to ensure safe passage..."

Journal #1- "Runaway"

Facts: A police officer is present; two people are in a diner; a child is wearing a yellow t-shirt
Claims: The policeman is kind; the child is stubborn; the man behind the counter is friendly
Analytic claim: The painting means to express a child's ignorant defiance of adult authority 

Pygmalion 2

As mentioned in my first blog post about Pygmalion, there wasn’t much romance in the play, and there’s certainly not any between Mr. Higgins and the “Flower Girl”. Though many would expect, when the two adult main characters are a man and a woman, that there must be some chemistry between them—this is not the case. Henry and Eliza are only friends and I think that’s one thing that really makes the play stand out as a “classic”.

            George Bernard Shaw understood something very well about Eliza and Henry that I believe he wanted to teach his audience: to push them into love would be a hopeless-romantic’s destruction of the characters. Contrary to popular belief, men and women in novels, stories, and plays can just be friends. Actually, as Shaw helps bring us to understand, often times, it’s a better fit for the story if they remain apart.

            The author was well known to be a feminist, which I believe is why he wanted to show his audience a woman who did not need the love of Mr. Higgins. Some would argue that Eliza couldn’t have been a feminist character because she was, well, quite pathetic for much of the scenes, and constantly had emotional outbreaks (a common stereotype for a young woman). However, I think that she was ultimately fairly independent and self-dignifying. By refusing the idea of marrying Henry, Eliza was refusing to put up with the mistreatment of a rude and stone-hearted man, no matter his good intentions. And as for choosing to marry Freddy, it showed her doing the most responsible thing. She did not do it because she was weak, but rather because she set her standards to someone who would let her know she was appreciated, and because she knew he was weak and may need a person like her.

            The most significant reason that the author chose not to bring them together is that they just didn’t fit, no matter how much the audience might want them to. Had they fallen in love, it wouldn’t have worked with Higgins’s stoic behavior and careless self-absorption, or Eliza’s demand for respect and easily-offended nature. It would’ve soothed their need for balance, yes, but destroyed the carefully crafted conduct of the two characters. To make their relationship succeed, Shaw would’ve had to undermine the dysfunction that made the story so intriguing in the first place. To have them live happily ever after would’ve been too perfect, and that’s another thing the author wanted to show. I think with the ending, he wanted the audience to understand that friendships that aren’t perfect at all are sometimes the best relationships. 

Pygmalion 1

Many people would assume that My Fair Lady (the 60s movie that is based off of Pygmalion) is mainly a romantic tale, but that’s not entirely true. The story is more a comedy than anything else, and as for relationships, most of them involved are only friendships, and it would be a misunderstanding of the characters for one to think otherwise. Pygmalion, however, does contain some romance—that is, with language. While Eliza flirts with the idea of speaking like a duchess, Mr. Higgins shows the reader the beauty of the English language when spoken correctly. Reading this story helped the reader (myself included) to appreciate spoken word and embrace their stickler (as Lynne Truss would call it) side.

Throughout the story, Mr. Higgins calls Eliza a “creature with… kerbstone English,” a “squashed cabbage leaf,” an “unfortunate animal,” also says she’s “deliciously low—horribly dirty,” and names her “garbage”. All of these degrading terms; just because of the way she speaks! I fear what sort of names he would invent for me and my peers if he heard our pronunciation! Henry cries, “This is what we pay for elementary education… nine years in school at our expense to teach her… And the result is Ahyee, Bə-yee, Cə-yee, Dəyee.” I don’t have faultless English myself, but find this to be a fairly valid thing to be upset about.

 There are many students that go to school on the tax money of others that have only mispronunciation and slang to show for several years of English classes. Though I definitely don’t get as heated as he does, after reading the story, I can’t help but think maybe they should care a little more. There are many aspects that seem to define how others see a person: dress, attitude, actions, and yes: speech. Take, for instance, a politician. If a presidential candidate wants to be liked and respected, they know they must dress sharp and never attend an event in jeans, they have to watch what they do and say, and of course, how they say it. Poor speech, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the source of a lot of ridicule for celebrities and politicians. For example, take widely popular figures like “The Turtle Man”, who is mocked by non-supporters for having a thick southern accent.

So why shouldn’t I then hold myself to some kind of standard? If I’m going to some day have to do an interview for a job or make a formal presentation, I don’t want the interviewer or the audience to think I’m inadequate or uneducated. That realization, I think is the most important thing the reader gets out of Pygmalion. It makes the audience of the play want to watch themselves and in their minds, restores some form of value and respect in the correct usage of the English language.

The Pearl 2

Previously mentioned, reading “The Pearl” was not altogether pleasing, though it was insightful- but foreboding from start to finish. The largest lesson, in my opinion, that “The Pearl” teaches is the importance of listening to one’s sense of reason. The story is cliché: man runs into fortune (subsequently becoming stubborn and greedy) and just as quickly runs him (and a few close individuals) into the ground. But then, why is it that the reader doesn’t feel like they’re reading a cliché novel?

 I believe concepts of evil and forbearing give the tale a unique essence. Instead of greed (though this was clearly involved), the story circles around the ideas of universal balance, karma, luck, and inhuman forces that influence the lives of the people of La Paz. For instance, when Kino was just about to find “The Pearl of the World”, it was mentioned that you had to want it (“it” being a pearl- or anything of value found by chance) “just enough” but not “too much”.

Superstition is something almost everyone has a little bit of. We’ve all thrown salt over our left shoulders at one point or another, and many of us have our own little rules for when we’re expecting good luck or bad. Though most of us would recognize this practice as frivolous, anyone who has read this book has noticed the spooky authenticity in Juana’s cries for caution and frantic attempts to follow her instincts. It seems that after the pearl came into their lives, Kino and his family were perpetually haunted by an evil force. And perhaps if Kino had paid a little closer attention to his wife’s claims and to the ringing of “the Song of The Enemy”, then he would have spared the state of his family and the life of Coyotito.

I think the reason Kino did not receive the expected riches was because he wanted them too much; the events that transpired were the perfect examples of how a man testing fate with stubborn ambition would surely fail. Every reader knew that the moment he (Kino) turned down the offer from the pearl-buyers, his decline was imminent. His drive to see his dreams come true would lead to his peril. Some would say it was the noble thing to do, to keep going for the sake of his family’s quality of life, his child’s chance for education and the opportunity to be prosperous. I would generally agree, except I think that near the end, he was doing it more for himself than for his wife and child; the “Song of the Family” was slipping far into the background for much of the time. Though this is sad to say, it may have been best for Kino not to have gotten so focused on his fortune, and maybe he should have accepted the small pay for the pearl and gone back to the life in which he was previously comfortable, using the pearl-buyers’ money to officially marry Juana. 

The Pearl 1

Reading the pearl gave the reader (i.e., me) a sense of appreciation; not just for the benefits and luxuries that are widely overlooked in the current culture, but for the seemingly simple ways of natives and their lifestyle. It was interesting to let the story engross my mind in the culture of La Paz, discouraging as it was at times. Often times, the average, middle class students of public schools in America forget that every day they are living in luxury. It was insightful to meet a people who, spit on by the more privileged in their town, were genuinely appreciative to rest their heads on mats laid on the hard earth's surface and to wake up each morning covering their mouths from the harmful, polluted air.
However refreshing this thought is, there were certainly aspects of the natives' lives that felt condemning when experienced by the reader. In our culture, children are all generally given the opportunity to succeed and to rise above any initial standpoint. For example, even if a child in modern America were to be raised in an impoverished family, their parents could send them to school, where, if needed, clothes and supplies would almost always be provided. If the child did well, they could eventually get scholarships, then jobs, and then a decent salary. Thus, an individual coming from a home with a total yearly income of about 20,000 dollars could potentially earn a salary of 60,000 dollars or more on their own.
When the current-day American reader feels the restrictions of an uneducated society living without the aid of social programs, they start to perceive the hopelessness that traps the natives of La Paz, despite their peoples'- at least on the surface- tranquil states of mind. The audience starts to get an itch in their brains; the itch every human being experiences when faced with an issue as helpless as this. Their minds desperately scratch at thoughts and schemes of ways to get out- couldn't they just escape? why don't they try to leave?- only to find themselves unsatisfied.
 I, personally, am not one to cry during movies or while reading books, but I can't say that I wasn't a little bit disturbed after reading about Kino and his family. Not only was the story filled with evil, misfortune, and greed; but the setting was drenched in tragedy. And the most disconcerting thought is that Kino, Juana, and Coyotito may be real. I tend to push fictional readings away from my mind with a self-assurance that "it's fictional". However, this isn't (sadly) really the case for The Pearl. There are many a culture- while I am living in one where many of my peers have almost unlimited freedoms and advantages- that are just like this depressing cluster of natives in La Paz. They are unfortunate; disrespected; and worst of all, cut-off from all opportunities for better life. And while I wish so much that I could erase the haunting woe of Kino's life from my mind, reading The Pearl is one of those experiences that a kid like me can look back on and think, "life for me isn't half bad."