The S.C.U.M. Manifesto uses radical language that strengthens the emotional appeal to Valerie Solanas’ audience.  Solanas effectively utilizes ethos by using colloquial terminology and depicting scenarios that women could easily all relate to.  Solanas’ manifesto is like a stream of consciousness, as there is a lot of fragmented thoughts, .  In an almost rant-like structure and flow of consciousness, the radical language manages to be successful in its purpose of provoking thought and questioning the patriarchy.  While this manifesto’s radical scenarios are still relatable, there were times when the suggestions forced me to grimace.  For example, when Solanas mentions that a solution is to remove capitalism from the system, which will hinder progress in all aspects and all directions.  Quite frankly, to those struggling to make capital, that might have just tipped the scale in Solanas’ favor, as they would like to oppose and resist a system that has bounded them down for so long.  In my opinion, some radical expressions are okay, but radically expressing your ridiculously farfetched ideas is not.   While in The S.C.U.M. Manifesto the language is hip, informal and very thought-provoking, The Black Panther Party’s manifesto was formal, structured and contained reasonable suggestions for the conflicts.  The tone of this manifesto is clear, as there are certain problems that black-Americans have a problem with, and there are rather easy fixes that are suggested and left untouched.  The Black Panther Party’s manifesto repeated the phrase “We believe” very often, which stood out to me and showed their unity.  Their agenda is very streamlined and straightforward, with valid reasons for the changes or amendments.  While their language is not as radical, it is more sensible and will be understood and read by more of society, while Solanas’ manifesto is more appealing to certain groups in society and is almost a call to arms for political activism, as it moves you to make progress towards their agenda.

Mr. Akash woke up, ready to persevere against the weather and horrid commute for his prestigious education.  He drank his coffee, checked his email, got changed and brushed, and slammed the door on his way out.  Today was no ordinary day, as Mr. Akash was startled by his neighbor simultaneously leaving, catching both young men off guard.  After sharing a mutual head-nod, the two proceeded down the stairs with their headphones on, only changing pace to make sure Mr. Akash left before his neighbor.  While walking down the street to his train, Akash pulled out a spearmint gum stick and stuffed it in his mouth after peeling the wrapper and began the thwack-thwack of his jaw and the gum.  After reaching the escalator and sliding past people not walking up while riding, Akash faced a new obstacle.  Not only was the bluetooth on his headphone not picking up his phone’s signal, the lady in front of him was not moving, while the rumbling of an approaching train was felt and heard.  After finally getting on the platform, the young man encounters another dilemma.  No train for the direction he was headed in was in sight.  He looked and sighed at his misfortune. Why is the 7 train always late?  Having fixed his music and waited for the train, Mr. Akash sarcastically smiled as he boarded the wet, warm, smelly and crowded train.  The train was packed with people of all ethnicities:  smelly, sweaty, insane, and more.  Akash thought that his morning could not have started off any more absurd, as usually nothing happens before getting to campus.  Akash cringed at what he felt when he slid his hand down the pole a bit, as it was warm and wet, much like the train. What is wrong with people?  Closing his eyes and leaning on the door, Akash pondered about life until he had arrived at his transfer station.  After bustling past other backpackers, he slid right in through the doors as the 6 to Baruch was leaving the station.  That was a close one.  The flavor of the cigarette and the gum really meshed as Akash walked out the 23rd Street station.  On his short walk, he bumped into Vivak and Amber.  Is class cancelled?  Vivak and Amber say they are going to 7/11 and proceed on their way.  The two classmates laughed and walked away. That kid must have no clue what’s going on.  Akash steps on his cigarette, extinguishing the flame and igniting a new one- a passion for education.  He fades into the horizon that is the Baruch VC building.

Quite frankly, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed my trip to the museum.  On a sweltering afternoon, who would have thought that an unaccompanied tour of the museum by yourself could be entertaining?  Although I went to the museum as an assignment- as a mandatory task, I returned with a newfound interest in art and other people’s work in general, as the artists’ making graffiti art or photography art also had eye-catching and compelling pieces.  Unfortunately, at the museum my attention was drawn to the European works of the great Monet (attached), Picasso, Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh and Rousseau.

The one non-European and non-American work of art that boldly stood out was David Alfaro Siqueiros’s 1936 painting “Collective Suicide.”  Similar to Edvard Munch’s “Scream,” much of the colors are distorted and heavily concentrated in areas.  The top half of the painting seems to be an ominous, dark, mountainous terrain, with fire, sunset or the sunrise in the horizon above the mountains.  My attention was immediately drawn to the enormity of the mural-like painting, as there was many contrast in colors, at times making it hard to focus on a specific section.  Reading from the attached sign, I concluded that Siqueiro’s political activism influenced the actions depicted, as the native people are committing suicide via different means or purging themselves in order to resist being conquered.  Siqueiro advances the notion of facing death and dying rather than having your freedom seized.  To be fair, I had to read the other sign that described it as an apocalyptic scene where the Mexicans are depicted killing their children and others, as I had only noticed the people jumping off the cliff.  This strengthens my hypothesis of Siqueiro’s influence, as to kill your children and then yourself is a very literal interpretation of “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Sigmund Freud raises valid as well as radically controversial points in Family Romances.  Freud begins with a relatable theory, that the “liberation of an individual … from the authority of his parents is one of the most necessary though one of the most painful results brought about by the course of his development” (237).  At a young age we dream of moving out, as teenagers we yell we’re running away daily, but then as adults we cherish every moment with our parents.  Maturing while moving physically away as well as being independent results in a metamorphosis of an adolescence or young adult into a full fledged, ready to combat the cold, working world and tackle responsibilities.  It’s rather necessary but it’s painful for both parties: parents and their offspring.  Freud’s assumption on parent archetypes and how it changes as you mature is also rather relatable, unfortunately, as personally I did hold my parents highest on the pedestal but as time would tell, they wouldn’t even get a participation trophy.  If this is normal and Freud is correct, it would make me feel much less guilty.  The next few theories are very debatable, as I highly doubt there’s any sexual rivalry between a parent and their offspring off the same sex (but I am not a renowned psychologist).  The sexual aspect aside, the favoritism of the mother and indifference to father is certainly relatable to all mama’s boys, like myself.  While his incest/sexual theories are rather absurd, Freud does wrap his piece up in a lighthearted fashion and yet again relatable fashion and claims that although there might be underlying weird grudges going on, the individual still holds their parents in the highest regard, overvaluation.  The idealized parents are also just the best memories and traits of the real, biological ones.  Also the Emperor and Empress dream sounds rather interesting and I await my day.

In the last “chapter” of Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself,” he describes himself as untranslatable.  “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,” (Whitman 52).  He mentions this after believing the hawk was mocking him for rambling on for so long about himself and his “poem.”  The fact that he uses the word “too” both times leads me to believe to believe the hawk is not a bit tamed and untranslatable.  In this scenario, Whitman felt the hawk understood what Whitman was saying and even responded in a mocking manner, all while not speaking the same language or even anything comprehendible.  Whitman responds with a “barbaric yawp,” something the hawk would not be able to literally translate but may or may not understand.  In the earlier “chapters,” Whitman believes to be close with nature but admits he wishes he could “translate” what the “hairs of the graves” and the bodies in graves were saying.  My interpretation of the “untranslatable self” is that although other beings/ nature might not be able to literally comprehend what you’re saying, they understand you.  In a broader aspect, you, as in everything that embodies you and makes up your being and identity, cannot be translated as a whole (literally comprehended or physically morphed), but that does not mean you are not understood or at least the embodiment of you (at one point or another).  I mention the latter in parenthesis because Whitman seems to have morphed with nature and become one with the grass similar to those in graves earlier in the poem.  Although it seems he is no longer his physical embodiment, Whitman awaits you.  I do not fully understand what this means but I do get the gist of it; the untranslatable self.

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I dwell in Possibility,” is relatable for Jane Eyre.  Personally, I think Jane would have felt this similar sense of hope and wishful thinking when contemplating if she really heard Rochester’s voice prior to deciding to check in on him.  Not only could the physical descriptions of the grandeur in Dickinson’s poem be symbolic towards desires and dreams of grandeur, but also a description of Rochester’s Thornfield and potential life with him.  As Jane embarked on her six and a half hour journey from her cousins’ to the Rochester Arms, she was reflecting on how life has changed, all while thinking about Rochester and Thornfield.  Although Jane was not explicitly describing the manor, the feelings of comfort and desire of a loving, grand home Dickinson evokes in her poem could be what Jane was feeling as she rushed to Rochester’s Arms.  Even though I do believe this scene could be related to the poem, there are some aspects that I do think Jane did not explicitly expressed, such as the desire for fair guests and visitors and to gather paradise.  These are not things that Jane has expressed, but Jane does yearn for a comfortable and loving home.

Audre Lorde’s “The Transformation of Silence into Action” and “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” explain Jane’s struggle and oppression throughout Jane Eyre.  As a black, lesbian, feminist, “warrior” poet, Audre Lorde fought similar battles to those of Jane’s.  As an outspoken, unfortunate, poor, neglected girl, Jane was always being scolded or oppressed.  In “The Transformation of Silence into  Action,” Lorde moves one to speak up even if the message is misunderstood at first as we are all going to die and there are only regrets on things not said, especially for those who are being systemically oppressed, such as blacks, women, and homosexuals.  I interpret Lorde as pushing towards more Jane Lyres as opposed to Helen Burns, who would be a pacifist and not break the silence- and remain oppressed.  In chapter 12, Jane is reflecting upon her decisions as she begins to make herself at home at Thornfield:

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

It is apparent that the maturing Jane Lyre at Thornfield thinks similarly to the strongly worded and willed feminist Audre Lorde.  Women suffer at different degrees but they must break society’s boundaries and stereotypes and exercise their abilities as they are equal to men in almost all regards.  The best course of action is to make the suffering worth it and break the silence.

The sublime during the Romantic period was used at first to describe the landscapes and then adapted by poets of the era.  The sublime during this time was anything, usually nature related, that provoked great emotion that would be either fear of the unknown beyond rational thought or ecstasy from natural phenomena.  Personally, there are many things I feel that would encompass the “sublime” in my life, but the one most frequently on my mind is death.  Although I have suffered through the pain of losing someone close to you, I have yet to come to an understanding about or with death.  There is nothing more certain than the mortality of man- everybody dies.  Some people can easily accept death as something natural, but to me it is something that almost excites me, as I do not know what lies beyond, but also scares me, as I do not know what lies beyond.  It is nearly impossible to try to conceptualize or guess what happens as human beings only understand that it occurs; nothing more nothing less.  There are many things that human beings will strive to understand, but never will.  Death is one of these things.  The only way to find out what actually occurs during and after death is to go through the process.  When my mind wanders to death, it makes me think about the experiment where the human soul was weighed.  Where does this three-quarters of an ounce go?

The Enlightenment brought forth a rapid change in progression of how society thought and acted.  It led to the questioning of the social hierarchy in every regard, such as race, political position, religious position, and sex.  The Enlightenment thinkers paved the way for contemporary situations, events and movements which I believe is similar to the Enlightenment as things are being questioned and people are skeptical.  Currently, society is disorderly and in disarray, as the social hierarchy is changing in obvious and forceful ways due to politics, race and religion.  Although the future looks bleak, many advancements have been made.  While women during the Enlightenment were first coming out of their alleged “subordination,” the United States almost finally had a female president, after 44 consecutive male presidents, of which only the most recent one was not “white.”  In other parts of the world, deemed “third world countries,” there have been women in the highest political positions.  As progressive as the United States may claim to be, it (the Electoral College) did not elect a veteran female politician with an actual resume in various fields that show her strengths and qualifications to be the leader of the free world.  Whereas a celebrity who took politics as a hobby manages to be selected.  It makes me believe that although the Enlightenment era made many changes that are still seen today, it seems as if we are trying to reverse some of their thinking.  The “legacy” of the Enlightenment in terms of political, racial and religious viewpoint are all also taking a step backwards and have been completely tarnished.  In 2017 people are being denied access based on religious beliefs, while this nation’s first pilgrims were running from persecution due to their beliefs.  Although these are recent happenings, it just goes to show that society is ever-changing and adapting, but not always right.