I believe that what Whitman refers to as “untranslatable self” basically means is that because he is living he has ultimate freedom.  He is connected to all of nature including plants and animals because everything comes from the same higher power (whatever that is).  I think that the “untranslatable self” also refers to the fact that we can not fully explain anything.  At one point in the poem he mentions that I little kid asks him what grass is, his answer is roughly “you know just as much about it as I do”.  The end of part 2 is a prime example of this ending with “You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.”  At the end of the poem it sounds as thought he is saying that even after he dies he will still be free and a part of nature.  Walt says that when he dies he will nurture the dirt and things will grow from it.  It is like he is just being recycled into a different living thing.  No like reincarnation because he will not be fully there.  Only his spirit, his “untranslatable self”

-Robert Zink

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.

I kind of agree some points of Freud. He mentioned, children follows parents as the model when they grow up. That is totally true. When I was a kid, I learn what my parents taught me, I learned their words, their behaviors. My father is a policeman, I admire him a lot. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a strong man like him. Absolutely, when I grow up, I go to college, I come abroad, I know more and more about the world, the culture, and the education. Especially the culture shock of United States, compared to Chinese, I found some disadvantage of my family education, but that doesn’t mean that I should eliminate all the education from my parents, they taught how to be a good man. I may critize some methods they use to educate me, but I don’t hate them, I appreciate everything they did to me. Thus, I will keep what I know in mind, and use that method to teach my kids in future. That is how the society works, learn, do, and improve it. So I don’t agree Freud’s opinion about critizing the parents, because I love them, and I am the man they made.

—Can Wang

First of all, I don’t disagree with Freud’s thinking. According to my memories, I did not compare my parents to other parents. I didn’t hate my father even if I liked more my mother than him. (I am sorry dad. I still love more my mother than you) Also, I didn’t see my older brother as an enemy to get more affection from parents. I think it depends on how family treats each other. My parents tried to be fair between me and my brother. Sometimes my brother had a priority. Sometimes I got a chance to do something first. They told us, “we should love each other because you are brother and people who you absolutely believe in the world. Also, you will be the only family after parents gone.” I love my father, my mother, and my brother. I know my mother is a beautiful, strong, lovely, wise, and kind person. I can say that due to not she is my mother, but many people admit it. I still think like I should find my girl like my mother. My point is that I didn’t think like I had my mother’s love to myself from my father and my brother. When I was so young, my brother took care of me like parents. He gave up a lot for me. That’s why I would not be jealous of anyone among my family. I received enough loves from my family. One of the sentences I like is “The important things was to love rather than to be loved.” I absolutely agree on it. All my family already knew this meaning. Freud’s thinking is based on the only point of view of one person. It might be “selfish.” Don’t think about only yourself among the most beloved people in the world.

In working on this blog post, I had to first attempt to set aside my preconceived opinions about Freud. However, Freud’s ideas of sexuality being the driving factor behind family relations is both strange and problematic to me. Also, Freud carried many gendered ideas of family relations, such as boy children feeling more hostility towards fathers than mothers. We are too far into the age of understanding gender to accept this as fact. I think, though, that one can read this in an informative way if one moves past certain issues and thinks of these “sexual” impulses that Freud speaks of simply as those visceral, uncontrollable impulses that everyone feels in one way or another about things they care strongly about. So, choosing to completely disregard the area of the text in which one has secret sexual fantasies about a parent, I was able to recognize similarities to my life in the ideas of the changing views of parents and the “overvaluation of parents” which extends through life. I related a lot to the part where Freud writes, “the child’s imagination becomes engaged in a task of getting free from the parents of whom he now has a low opinion and of replacing them by others, who as a rule, are of higher social standing.” In that pubescent stages of my life, I began to think poorly of my parents and attempted to find other parental figures at school, church, and in any other extra curricular activity. It felt like a normal process, and reading this, it seems like it was. However, now, at an older age, I have returned to valuing my parents very highly, which I read when Freud wrote, “the child’s overvaluation of his parents survives as well in the dreams of normal adults.” So, perhaps, what I was able to get out of Freud’s writing is that there are normal stages of relations to parents to go through, and that I had, too, gone through them.

-Kelsey Luks

In the reading Freud’s Family Romance, explains what push some adult to act in certain ways toward their parent is due to what they learn from their childhood. I totally agree with Freud that as a child the only thing that you dream of is to be like your both parents in the future but as you grow up and started doing comparaison you started to have more ideas of what you really want and what to become in the future. I disagree with him for saying that as child when you compare your parents to other you begin to criticize your own parents. when you meet other people it expends your ideas and begin to dislike certain acts from your family that you don’t see on the other families, but it that’s not stop you to like your parent or judge them. Actually it teaches you some ethics  by doing comparaison. The most important is how and where a child grow up because even the surrounding can have an impact on anybody way of thinking or living life especially in big cities. children who developed neurosis since early age failed in many cases which can be true because of their personality disorder toward others. Growing up in a family with too much problems between both parents that always argue in front of their kids can causes neurosis to children which will later on have a big negative impact on his or her life. our behavior depends on what we see and the environment we live, so as adult we just developed what we learn from the earlier stage that’s why the childhood is very important because it is roof of your personality.

In Freud’s Family Romance, although I do not agree with some of his ideas, but I agree his point that Children from birth to been an adult, in their growth process, many of their thoughts, behaviors, language and education are learned from their parents. Like he said,” For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief”. Newborn children are like a piece of paper, are blank, they do not know anything, they need some people to fill out the paper, and the first person to fill this paper is usually their parents, most of people live with their parents after they born, they learn from their parents’ behavior, learn how to speak, how to eat, how to wear clothes and so on.  the same, they will learn bad behavior from their parents. Therefore, many people think that parental education is very important, because it affects the child’s future behavior, cognitive. When children grow up to teenagers, Freud mention that children start often quarrel with their parents. “Small events in the child’s life which make him feel dissatisfied afford him provocation for beginning to criticize his parents.” In this stage, teenager self-awareness is growing up, they want to be independent and don’t want obey on their parents, which  lead too many children have rebellion in adolescence. They start have their own ideas, and believe their ideas are right. So, many teenagers oppose adults still put themselves as a “child,” they think they are already adults. In order to express they are grow up, for anything, they will hold opposing side. This is because they are worried that their parents will ignore their thoughts, so they use various methods to establish equal status with their parents.

— Pingsheng chen

In Frued’s family romance the writer discusses child development and the impacts of family towards the nature of an individual and his/her mindset. In my opinion, I feel as if the general idea of the influence of a mother and father on a child does apply pressure upon the thoughts and actions that the child will later follow upon. However, when Frued digs deeper into his analysis i find no relation to his words, i cannot help but disagree upon his ideas toward the family structure and effect. I do agree with the idea that children often deem to attempt to be reflections of their parents, and pursue on becoming images of what their parents were perceived as in their adult years due to the experiences they lived through as children. However, I can’t relate to the idea that I resented my parents when I was younger, or wished for a different means of upbringing. Frued’s ideas are not those that he can force upon an entire population, however, there are a chosen amount of people that may agree with his mindset and have experienced the same feelings of resent and urge for change.

Another idea of Frued’s that I don’t quit relate to is when he states “a child with siblings feels regrets at having to share parental love” (Freud 237). I have two siblings and I had never felt the need to be held at a level of  more importance than them. In a family with strict parents i’ve found myself wanting the opposite at times. In my culture females are more heavily protected and parents have stricter rules and regulations toward the women rather than the men. As a child I wasn’t allowed to go outdoors and explore as much as my brother or male cousins were, which led me to wish that my parents would care about what I do less than what my brother does. However, I never resented the parents I have as Frued implies. I am able to understand where Frued is coming from and why he believes in his theories but i am not able to relate them to my own childhood.

-Jyoti Bali

Signund Freuds, Family Romance, is very thought-provoking on how he interprets family relations amongst the household and the change of friendship and emotion that takes place over time with each other. However, I don’t completely agree with his ideology of “Family Romance”.  In his writing he does talk about the child that grows up and has only his parents to look at as idols, which in return influences the thoughts and actions that are performed by him. But as the child grows and begins to sprout out into the world, experiencing new things and even new people, the child then begins to compare his parents with what he sees as “better” parents. I agree with this concept of how children think and then change their thoughts about their parents because remembering back to stories from the news and even movies that I’ve heard of there would be parents that would restrict their children from ever leaving the house and seeing the outside world which in some cases would essentially brainwash the child and lead them to thinking their parents are the best and only ones that can really take care of them properly. I believe this was done because they were probably trying to keep their kids under their control without considering the child’s life and desires by holding them prisoner at home. The parents did not want their kids to see what they can actually gain and experience from the outside world and also see that there are “better” parents out there, which can lead the children to revolt or deny the parents wants. I personally do not find any benefit from this for my family relations nor does it help me understand my sibling or parents anymore than I already did.

In Freud’s Family Romance, Freud pointed out that a class of neurotics can be determined by children’s failure in the liberation of an individual. Then Freud analyzed the reason of this neurotics. First, Freud said, “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief. (Freud 237)” I completely agree with this idea. When we were little kids, our parents are the persons who we could always come into contact with. It can be said that our parents are the first teachers in our life. Our parents can influence children in many ways. The little kids wished to be like his father and mother. Freud thought that kids started to compare his parents with others and even to criticize them because of the small events in child’s life which dissatisfied him and make him feel unloved. Then, Freud stated that the estrangement between the neurotics and their parents lead to the beginning of ‘the neurotic’s family romance’. Child revenged parents through phantasies. I agree with Freud’s thinking. In my view, children are very sensitive to small event and easy to misunderstand their parent’s behaviors. So, I think Freud’s thinking is correct. It isn’t useful or helpful to understand my own family relations because I am the only child of my parents and my mother often talks with me about my problem. But, the point that the children wish to be big like him father or mother is useful. When I was a little girl, I wish to run a grocery store in the future because my mother ran a grocery store at that time.

—-Yu Qing Wu