The art piece I chose is Lovers by Teiji Furuhashi.  It is a room in which images of the artist and members of his art group, Dumb Type, are projected on to the black wall.  The images are activated by motion sensors that are set off by viewers.  You can see the images, or “lovers”, run towards each other in slow motion, but they never meet; they simply run past each other.  Visual text is also displayed on the walls and the floor.  There are also whispers played with music in the background that gives a dream-like ambience. At the end of the piece, one figure stands with his arms open wide.  He does not have his arms open for a hug.  Instead, he falls away into the darkness and disappears, as if he was crucified.   At first this video art piece seemed to be about lovers unable to connect with each other.  However, this art piece tackles the issue with negative connotations.  Later in this piece, some figures simply disappear into the darkness.  Although there are other figures around, they all feel lonely and hopeless.

Sigmund Freud’s thesis in Family Romance is that certain children fantasize about being children of an aristocrat.  They tend to replace their real parents with an imaginary royal pair or with anyone who is higher in social standing.  In On Sexuality, Freud writes “[the child is merely] turning away from the father whom he knows today to the father in whom he believed in the earliest years of his childhood.”  Freud’s theory about this psychological complex can be seen in William Faulkner’s Barn Burning.  In Faulkner’s short story, the author illustrates Freud’s understanding of family, conflict, and maturation.

The main character, Satoris, has different moral values with his family, namely his father Abner Snopes. While Snopes perversely declares that one must be loyal to his or her family, no matter the circumstances.  Satoris is beset with this conflict.  He wants to obey the law but at the same time wants to please his father and family.  Ultimately, Satoris wishes for a father who follows through moral values; he desires for Snopes to be honest and not to resort to malice and violence.

In the end, Satoris rejects his father’s idea of family loyalty.  When Snopes obstinately plans to burn down a barn, Satoris rushes to tell the owner which leads to Snopes’ death.  This is Satoris’ maturation: that he becomes free from his father’s perverse belief, goes against his father, and conforms to his own morality.

In Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, there are many connections between certain characters even though some of them never interact.  The biggest connection lies between Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus.  Aside from the fact that Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus both have an interest in Shakespeare, they both are introspective relative to life and death.  In the novel, they both look deeper into their own lives.  At first, they are both hopeless.  Mrs. Dalloway wishes to restart her life as she is only recognized by Mr. Dalloway’s wife. Septimus has gone insane and refuses to accept himself and his society. In the end, Septimus commits suicide, but Mrs. Dalloway perseveres. Because of Septimus’ suicide, Mrs. Dalloway accepts life.

On Monday morning at 7:30 a.m., Andrew gets out of bed to get ready to leave for school. He lazily turns off his alarm and heads to the bathroom.  After washing up, he puts on clothes and gets ready to leave the house. Fortunately for him, Andrew’s mother is able to drop him off at Flushing Main St. Andrew closes his eyes to take a quick nap in the car.  His mother sees how tired he is, and says “he probably slept late again.” Once at Main St, he leaves the car and walks towards the train station.  As he is walking he says to himself, “it’s so cold outside.”  He puts his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, and tries to protect himself from the cold breeze.  Finally at the 7 train station, Andrew starts to walk faster, hoping to find a seat in the train.  The train is already packed with not a single seat available.  Forced to stand, Andrew hopes the train ride is not long. After 20 minutes, he transfers to the 6 train at Grand Central.  There is no point on looking for a seat in the 6 train. There is never an open seat at this time.  It is extremely crowded in the train, and Andrew can barely breathe. Luckily, his stop is only 3 stops away.  It won’t even take more than 8 minutes.  A flood of people leave at 33 st.  Thank goodness. Much more space in the train.  Without delay, the train arrives at 23st. Time for Andrew to get off. He now walks towards Baruch while hoping he can stay awake for his classes.

In the beginning of Frederick Douglass’ autobiography, readers see  how African-Americans were treated heinously.  Frederick Douglass witnessed the cruelty of Mr. Plummer and how he brutally whipped Douglass’ Aunt Hester.  As he saw her getting whipped, Douglass writes that he felt like the victim of the abuse.

The newspaper article touches on the idea of women’s lack of power that the film portrays.  In particular, the slave named Esther who was sexually assaulted had absolutely no power.  The article talks about how her silence in the film represents her utter absence of power.  She had no voice to act.

Similarly in Douglass’ autobiography, readers see how only Black women are victims.  There are many cases in his narrative of female slaves getting victimized or beaten.  Unlike those women, Mr. Auld’s wife does not face punishment when she is caught teaching Frederick Douglass how to read.  Black women in Douglass’ autobiography had a lesser role than Black men.  In his story, Black women were always matched with suffering.  Instead of being shielded from danger, they were thrown into pain and were living in suffering.  It seems that for Frederick Douglass, the suffering of Black women gave him a greater hate towards slavery.

The monster that Frankenstein creates is utterly ruthless and extremely dangerous.  It seeks vengeance against Frankenstein because he created him.  Frankenstein’s monster most closely relates to the Tyger in William Blake’s The Tyger.  In the poem, the narrator questions who could have created the Tyger because of its violence and ferocity.  The Tyger also possesses beauty as well as destruction.  Under the facade of the Tyger’s beauty lies evilness.  Although the monster is ugly in physical appearance, he appears beautiful because he actually cares for the family he comes across as if he loved them.Even though he found himself to be hideous in appearance.  He even befriended the blind father.  However the rest of the family ran away and left their home in fear and disgust.  Because the monster was not loved or accepted by the family he approached to, he decided to burn their cottage.  The monster turns to rage and live in hate.  Even though the monster seemed beautiful because he cared for the family, its true characteristics is violence.  If the monster truly loved the family, it would not have burned their home.  Similarly to the Tyger’s violent nature, the monster also commits murders in order to ruin the life of his creator.  Just like his violent act earlier in the story, the monster murders Frankenstein’s loved ones.  In the end, the monster is a dangerous beast that only knows violence.  His ways are destruction like that of the Tyger.

Here I have a picture of a street light that I see everyday when I go home.  This street light is often overlooked because it is not appealing nor is the wooden pole beautiful at first glance.  This may not be a vast visa, but it can still be sublime.  By fixing our eyes on the street light and paying closer attention, we can see it’s inner beauty.  The light is very subtle.  It gives a sense of quietness; a feeling of peace.  The street light helps us to relax and slow down as if it represents a growing hope.  It is beautiful because of the feelings it gives us.

According to German philosopher Frederic Nietzsche, science can not explain the world, but only describe it.   Science can not fully explain this street light.  It can not explain why the light exists in the way that it does.  In the same way, we can not logically explain the beauty or sublime of the street light, yet it can give us a bundle of feelings.

In Words Without Borders, author Hasif Amini mentions that stories have been “a remarkable way to enlighten human minds in dark times full of mystery.”  Amini uses the stories used to explain the constellation to exemplify the need to feed our curiosity and fear of the unknown.  Stories that enthrall us the most are the ones that fill the holes of mystery.  We love telling stories that can explain phenomenons.  These stories capture us as we naturally and intuitively concur with them.  When sharing such stories, we want our friends and families to experience the captivating moment that we had.  All stories that charm us toward them, through the sequences of the story, bring us to realizations of things we would have never thought of on our own.

Similarly, Enlightenment thinkers gave a grand “story.”  Through their innovative reasonings about the state of the church and man, they told a story of how the church or even the government can not enslave us.  The story the Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers told freed us from the captivity of the church. And this is the story that changed the world forever.

Knowledge comes in many different ways.  Not only is it limited to direct teaching or school, but it is also stated through fiction.  The work of fiction serves as an agent to carry out knowledge.  And knowledge is not merely hard facts but ideas, theories, and beliefs.  Knowledge in these forms often come about through fiction.  Imaginary events and people in works of fiction serve as catalysts to give knowledge through the stories of fiction.

Living in the modern age, we can see how different people operate, think, or act now that they are no longer under the rule of the church.  The church enforced people to believe whatever it fed them; people’s minds were enslaved by the church.  Now we see how the Enlightenment has brought change and how we are greatly influenced by the enlightenment thinkers or moderns.  In this time, instead of conforming to one single idea or belief, we have opinions that differ from others.  And all of the opinions we have should be formed from reason.  The Enlightenment philosophers have brought reason to become our greatest tool, as the German philosopher Immanuel Kant states “There is nothing higher than reason.”

Rene Descartes in his Discourse on Method exemplifies a methodical way of reason.  Through his process of denying everything as true and trying to find what is in fact true, Descartes concludes that he must exist because he is doubting.  He can not doubt if he does not exist.  So comes forth the phrase Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am).  It is important to understand that we are beings that can think and reason.  Our way of life or how we choose to live should be rooted in reason.  Descartes’ way of thinking and questioning differs from some Enlightenment philosophers.  While Descartes concludes that he exists because he thinks and that God’s existence is most certain and true, others state that we can not be sure of anything.  Some say we that the only thing that we are certain of is that we think certain things exist.