The artist Cinthia Marcelle was born in Brazil and one of her installations named Project 105 brought my attention during my visit in MOMA . The work was filled with bricks and chalks, which conduct two sides of walls. Gaps between bricks are filled with white chalks and are in different shapes; some of them are even broken.

I saw the connection between this piece of art and human relations in modern society. Each individual represents pieces of bricks in the wall; white chalks are their connections or relationships among people. Both bricks and chalks are essential for the installation. The fragility and importance of chalks also reflected human relationships. The entire society consists different people as represented by unique shapes of bricks. In order to build a firm and stable wall, bricks have to stay together, which demonstrates that It is difficult to achieve success without cooperating with other people.

In addition, some human relations are based on mutual benefits and unstable when they do not need each other. People might think broken chalks look abrupt for a perfect installation; I think it is a different type of beauty. We can not require everyone in the world remain their innocence and have the kindest heart towards other people. There are bad sides of human beings and this wall reflects characteristics of human relations in the society.

I found there are reflections of Charlotte’s personal life and obstacles that she encountered. During that period of time, Bronte and her sisters were expected to live as all women in the society live. They were Just like the situation that Jane Eyre encountered in the book. She and her sisters are all passionate about writing; they understood that it was rare for women to express their opinion in public, so they used masculine names to publish their pieces. Although the reality did not provide both Bronte and Jane Eyre with choices, they tried their best to find ways to overcome these challenges and resistant against the societal flow.

Also, Bronte’s brother had relationship with his boss’s wife reflected Rochester’s marriage in the book as well. Her brother got fired because of the affair whereas Jane Eyre chose to leave Rochester and refused to run away with him. This showed that Bronte disagree with her brother’s behavior and showed it in the book. Although Jane loves Rochester very much, she still holds her dignity and leave him. I believe it is really difficult for her to make this decision, but she had to make that choice. Bronte’s brother always lives his life as he likes without having any considerations for his family and other people. Sometimes, lack of considerations or critical thinking can bring more happiness. However, we should always remember that we are humans and we are social animals. We can not live without considering other people at our community.

Freud stated that “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief” in Family Romance. Children have the most contacts with their parents, so it is normal that children admire their parents. Also, parents are their children’s first teachers; they have to establish authority in order to influence their children.

From my own experience, I agree with him. In Chinese culture, children are expected to be obedient. My friends were all afraid to go against their parents when they were little. In some extreme condition, children must listen to their parents because their parents think they are always right. However, my own experience is quite different. My parents provide me with more flexibility and freedom when I was a kid. My parents did not present their authority too often because they believe that they can not be right all the time and they should discuss and communicate with me together.

Freud also said that we might compare our parents to other people’s parents. I have done that before, but it makes me have more appreciation and gratitude of my parents. When I was in China, my friends’ parents gave them a lot pressure on schoolwork because they expect them to obtain good grades all the time. My parents is different because they believe that it is more important to develop a good mindset when children are young. They did not give pressure on me and always ask me to balance between schoolwork and entertainment.

From “Song of Myself”, Whitman tried to express the idea that everyone is equal in the world regardless of their identity. He stated, “You shall no longer take things at second or third hand…nor look through the eyes of dead, nor feed on the specters in books”. We should not devalue ourselves to take things that were used by other people. Also, we should not use different standards or evaluation when think about ourselves and on others. It does not matter if you are a slave or a poor, we deserve the same equality as other people do at this country.

In my opinion, Jane Eyre always has self-depreciation on herself due to her background, social status and gender. Whenever she was in front of Mr. Rochester, she began to doubt herself and everything. I believe if she has the same thought as Whitman does, she would be more confident and have less struggle. I feel bad for her when I read the scene that Jane told Mr. Rochester if she is wealthy as him, he will be the one who can not leave her. I can imagine how desperate and upset Jane was, so that she revealed the truth of the society –people who do not have power or wealth(Woman) can be given up at time time.

When Whitman talks about “untranslatable self”, I think he tried to highlight the uniqueness of humans. There is no simple way to express a person or “translate” oneself. Everyone is different from one another; they are the only one knows about themselves. After reading the book Jane Eyre, I believe I still did not entirely understand this person. Whitman tried to tell us that everyone is equal living in this world, but they are also different at the time. We do not need to tell other people who we are or “translate “ourselves to them.

As it is stated in the “hope” is the thing with feathers, “[Hope]That perches in the soul”, I found this poem reflected Jane Eyre’s life because she also has hope that stays deeply in her soul. Jane lost her parents, friends, love, and so on from her childhood to adulthood. For example, her only friend Helen, who encouraged and helped her ended up leaving her forever. It is not easy for a woman to overcome a lot terrible situations like Jane Eyre did. However, she was still able to have rational thinking and did not give up. I believe she has strong hopes: her hope of changing her life, gaining knowledge and being together with Mr. Rochester all motived her to take actions.

Even though the poem reflected that hope never asked a crumb or little return in the end, it actually plays a crucial role on a person’s life, on Jane’s life. If Jane does not live with hope, she might already give in to the society, in which women have submissive positions. She might lose her mind under Mrs. Reeds’ and classmates’ miserable treatments. She might be desperate after the truth of Mr. Rochester’s first marriage. Every time when Jane’s life becomes a little better, there is always another storm that will break her expectation. Because she has a hope for a change, she chose to resist and go against everything that cracks her down.

Hope does not only stay in Jane’s soul, it also exists in ours. Our hope and dream for a bright future will always motivate us to move forward and overcome challenges.

These two pieces of literature display two powerful women with strong motivations and determinations on achieving their goals. They have their own thoughts and perspectives on controversy during their times and they did fight against majorities’ beliefs in the society.

It was very easy for women living in Jane Eyre and Audre Lorde period to go with the societal flow and accept what the society defines them. For example, in Jane Eyre, the status and lives of women were pretty much determined by their family’s wealth and reputation. It was rare for women to change their lives and future by themselves. However, Jane Eyre has her own thoughts and decided to use education to achieve her independence and freedom. Her desperate school life did not stop her from getting knowledge and connecting to the rest of the world. The path to her independence has loneliness, discriminations, doubts and stress; she was so strong that was able to overcome all of these challenges. It was not easy for her and that’s the reason for a unique Jane Eyre

As for Lorde, she encountered a more tough situation due to the discrimination on her race and sexual orientation. These two issues are still existing nowadays and the latter one is controversial around the world. However, Lorde understood the difficulties, but she still chose to speak up. As it states in the article,” And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always seems fought with danger”.  It is hard to count how many people were sacrificed for liberation or civil rights movements. People who chose to go against the society flow deserve highest respects due to their courage and vision.