A Walk in the Rain

“Money is the root of all evil.” Although this may have been written centuries ago, it still proves true today. Money, although important, can not buy us what we truly need in life: friends, love, happiness.

Money is usually viewed as the one aspect that determines if you have made it or not. But, what truly is money? Is it not just currency that we trade and bargain with? If it is only this, we can assume there are more important things in life. Before people used printed money, they used other objects to bargain with, but they were never slaves to it, it never meant more to them than their lives or their families. So shouldn’t that same thing be true today? Money should not run our lives.

It is said that money can’t buy us love, happiness, or any other emotion for that matter. Yet, there are the things that truly bring meaning to our lives. Money, although being the means to life, does not help us with the meaning to life.

If a person has money do they always have love? If they have numerous friends, are they truly happy? Just because money can buy you any tangible object in the world, that does not mean that you will be happy with everything in the world.

People always want more than what they have, and this includes money. You can not always assume that just because a person is wealthy that they have found nirvana. If anything the more money a person has the more stress a person has. They are always worrying about what happens if they some how lose it, what happens if the main contributor somehow gets cut of from the money. Their concerns significantly outweigh what benefits might come from an accumulation of wealth.

Money can be a great help in life, but it is not the only thing needed, nor is it the more important. As Ken Hakuta once stated “Lack of monkey is no obstacle.”

AP English, what a class.  We are being forced to compose a persuasive research paper within the next two weeks.  We were able, however, to pick the subject of our research paper.  Mine, after careful consideration, is on the topic of assisted suicide. 

As I am sitting here looking up information to go into my project I can’t help but become more opposed to the topic.  If a person is in the hospital dying of some terminal disease it is there own choice to take their life, but when they bring someone else into the matter it changes things.  It is no longer suicide it is now homicide.  No one person has the right to ‘play God’.

To think, if our country ever legalized this we would never be able to tell who was asking for help to die and who had no choice in the matter.  This would not only impede our justice system but also prevent the families of those people from ever knowing the truth.

I have a feeling that this assignment is going to be interesting, to say the least.  Hip hip horay for the eight page paper due in two weeks.

What Is Beauty?

In every society, past or present, there has been one characteristic that affects the average person’s outlook in life. From corsets in the 1800’s to pin-up girls in the 1950’s, beauty has been, and always will be, forefront in the minds of the population. No matter what background a person may come from their definition of beauty influences the way they perceive others. The Bluest Eye, a book by Toni Morrison, touches on many issues revolving around the subject of beauty. The book tells the tale of a girl who, because of other characters in the book, succumbs to society’s stance on beauty, which at the time was having blue eyes.

The Bluest Eye, a book about a young girl, Pecola, who desperately wishes to be indisputably beautiful, talks a great deal about the affects that words have on adolescent black girls. From birth, Pecola’s mother degraded her daughter by making remarks about her outward appearance. However, Pecola’s mother was not the only one to look down upon the girl and express it vocally. When in school the other children her age treated her as an outcast. The boys in the school would dance around her singing “Black e mo. Black e mo. Ya daddy sleeps nekked.” Black e mo was a term given to citizens whose skin was darker than that of other black people. At the time this book takes place, beauty was considered to be blonde, white girls with blue eyes. Granted, because of this, we come to the realization that there was no way that she would ever be considered beautiful by the people harassing her. But, we would like to think that people would understand that beauty is more than skin deep. If only one person had taken the time to tell her how beautiful her soul was, things might have turned out differently.

When this was written there was nothing more beautiful to people than the look of a white girl with blue eyes. This is apparent because when the narrator gets the gift of a baby doll she explains that the majority of people believe that that is exactly what a young girl wants as a gift. “Here, this is beautiful, and if you are on this day ‘worthy’ you may have it.” How downtrodden the young Pecola must have felt to be in a world where the only thing considered beautiful was the stereotypical young white child. She knew that in the eyes of people around her she would never have measured up because she would never have blue eyes.

In the book, Pecola thought that beauty meant love. She assumed that the reason everyone loathed her was because they thought she wasn’t pretty. She wished that she ‘looked different, beautiful.’ She had this idea that if she could change the way she looked then everyone around her would change the way they acted, including her father and mother. Beauty wasn’t just an outward appearance to her; it was a way of life. She never fully understood this but we as the reader saw that she wanted to be beautiful not only to look good but so that her life would be ‘beautiful’.

Beauty may be different for different people but this book helps us to see that it really shouldn’t be just skin deep. Hurtful words about a person’s appearance can have devastating affects on them, especially if they are young. In today’s society several people say that we have overcome the obstacle of being biased toward the beautiful, but have we really? Are we really any better than the people who ridiculed Pecola in this book?

An Indisputable Bond

Have you ever seen children play a game of patty cake? Could it be possible that the game meant more to them than just the words they where saying? The Color Purple, an award winning movie directed by Steven Spielberg, takes what would seem like a simple game and converts it into one of the most meaningful aspects of the film. From being a childish game played by two sisters to a symbolic bond that would last for over 30 years and would overcome numerous obstacles.

Although the words to the game where simple the symbolic meaning was not. In the beginning of the movie we see the sisters running through a field of purple flowers. They proceed to play the game and recite the lyrics, “Me and you, us never part. Makidada. Me and you, us have one heart. Makidada. Ain’t no ocean, ain’t no sea. Makidada. Keep my sister away from me.” These words provide us with a look into the future of the girls. The words represented a bond that would play out all the way through the movie. A bond that kept them together no matter the circumstance.

By the middle of the movie Celie and Nettie, the two sisters, are forced to separate physically. The bond, however, that was forged by playing the juvenile game is still present. By the time Celie and Nettie are reunited they are all too soon torn apart. The scene in which the sisters are torn apart once more is an intense element of the film. Nettie is being pushed away and stoned in to force her to leave the house in which she has been staying in with Celie. As Nettie was being sent away she turned and went on to play the game once more. Although, she and her sister where not close enough physically to clap their hands in enjoyment they both said the words and moved their hand as if they where still those children playing in the field of purple flowers. This is just a reminder that nothing would keep these sisters away from one another. A reminder that nothing could separate the bond that united them.

Celie and Nettie are separated for over 20 years. Yet, their bond never weakened. The last time we see them together is the last scene of the movie. Celie has been reunited not only with her sister but with the children that where taken away from her at birth. It is an emotional scene in which the sisters play the game for the last time. Although it is a slower rendition of the one that we watched in the beginning of the movie, it is still the same. The lyrics are the same and the motions are the same. The girls are older; their journeys are nearing their end, hence the slower performance. The bond that they shared, the promise that they made, lasted a lifetime. The last time we see them we see two women who are happy again.

They promised each other that they would never be apart. They promised each other that no ocean or sea would keep them away from one another. They promised each other that they would always share the same heart. These women went through more then most of us can imagine in their lives and yet, they kept the promises that where made when they where still young girls. They kept the promises made by that childish game. The bond that they shared never broke. “You and me, us never part”