Category A – Family Dynamics

1. What is the significance of the relationship between Gregor and his sister?

2. How does the relationship between Gregor and his father affect his life as a bug?

3. When Gregor got accused of attacking his mother, was it because he had “anti-mom” tendencies in the past? What can be revealed about someone who accuses their child of something they didn’t do?

4. What is the significance of Gregor’s family leaving the house?

Logic for this order / grouping: We decided to group these four questions together because they were all related to Gregor’s familial relationships. We ordered the questions in this way because Gregor’s sister was the first person to have any real interaction with him after his transformation because she was the one who brought him food initially. We then put the next questions together (2 and 3) because both these questions address Gregor’s relationship with his parents who we learn more about after Grete is introduced. Finally, the last question addresses how the family functions after Gregor dies and what they become without Gregor.

Category B – Significance of Becoming a Bug and Importance of New Behaviors (The Group we chose to address)

1. What is the significance of Gregor becoming a bug (not any other creature or animal)?

2. What is the significance of Gregor straying away from his once favorite food of milk towards rotten food once he is transformed?

3. 3. What does the transition of the food that Gregor eats do to his personal feeling of self?

Logic for this order / grouping: We grouped these three questions together because they all addressed Gregor’s habits as a bug and the struggle he has with his human mind inside of his bug body. The significance of Gregor becoming a bug and not another creature was listed first because that is the base question of the group that caused us to address the other two questions. The next question regarding milk and rotten food was put in the middle because it addressed Gregor’s initial habits right after he was transformed where he still had most of his human mind in his new bug body. Finally, the last question builds upon the second question by scoping into how Gregor’s new behaviors affects his mindset and mental health.

Introduction: Metamorphosis by Kafka is clearly a story in which every action has some serious significance that proves something deep within the nature of interacting humans. Gregor becoming a bug has more significance than the fact than him just shrinking in size and growing more legs. Gregor diverting to different types of foods and developing changing tastes represents more than just changing taste buds. Gregor’s sense of self changes with the way the course of his life changes–and it’s due to the factors around him that give the extent to self worth that he has. This novel is all about how life was not only just changing, but how every change symbolized something more than just physical changes. Every physical change that occurred in Gregor’s life was put in the story for a reason that Kafka intended.

Question 1 Answer: Gregor’s family dynamics involve Gregor being the backbone of the family, in which everyone is weak and somehow dependent on him. Eventually though, when they don’t need him, they end up turning their backs on Gregor. “At that time Gregor’s sole desire was to do his utmost to help the family to forget as soon as possible the catastrophe that had overwhelmed the business and thrown them all into a state of complete despair.”  During hardship,  He had constantly lived his human life thinking that he had a family he needed to support, but his family never seemed to want to return the favor. The relationships he had with his family members were all relationships that were noteworthy. His father even accused him of the awful act of attacking his mother. Instead of treating his son like a part of the family, Gregor was alienated on multiple occasions. “He must go,” cried Gregor’s sister, “that’s the only solution, Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble.” His sister with his relationship was summed up quite shortly here. She is willing to blame all of her family’s problems on the fact that they had hope that Gregor’s presence was still around. It’s a shame that she associates negativity with the hope that her brother is still alive, well and in her presence. The dynamic of this family is clearly very skewed and Gregor doesn’t have anyone that he can rely on in the long run.

Question 2 Answer: There are two points of significance that we came away with regarding Gregor’s transition from his once favorite food of milk to rotten food. When Gregor first sees the Milk placed by his door by Grete, he is described as “laughing with joy” and “immediately dipping his head almost over his eyes down into the milk” (37). This is his natural instinct towards milk when he was still a human and showed that at this point of his transformation Gregor still had much of his human conscience and behaviors inside of him even though he was already one hundred percent a physical bug on the outside. After his initial instinctive positive approach towards the milk, he comes to a realization that the milk doesn’t appeal to him anymore physically. This is due to the fact that he is already a bug and that many of the things that once appealed to Gregor as a human no longer appeals to him anymore because of his new form. We can see throughout the story that Gregor shifts from his human behaviors to more and more bug behaviors such as crawling through spaces in his room and eating rotten food, but his mind never fully becomes one with his insect body because even at the end of the story Gregor still wants to protect the picture of the woman in fur in his room and is attracted to Grete’s violin music and desperately wants to tell her of his plan to send her to music school.

The other point of significance from the milk and rotten food is the symbolism they provide. When Grete noticed that Gregor didn’t touch the milk, she brings him a selection of new food. “To Test his taste, she brought him an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper” (39). “And out of her delicacy of feeling, since she knew that Gregor would not eat in front of her, she went away very quickly and even turned the key in the lock, so that Gregor could now know that he might make himself as comfortable as he wished” (39). These were two quotes that described Grete’s actions towards Gregor a few days after his transformation and shows that Grete still considers Gregor her caring brother regardless of his physical appearance. However, as time passes, Grete and Gregor’s parents get tired of taking care of him and no food is brought to him by his family members even though Gregor is hungry. The lack of food shows the attitude Gregor’s family members have towards him compared to their attitude when he first becomes a bug. Instead of treating Gregor as their son or brother, the family members see him more and more as the insect he actually becomes and becomes detached with Gregor with each passing day. The transition from milk to rotten food represents Gregor’s transition from his human mind into the new mind that will fit his new body while the presence of food symbolizes the care that Grete and his parents show towards him at the start of his transformation, but also represents their shifts in attitude once the food isn’t present anymore.

Question 3 Answer:  As Gregor’s shifts his likings towards rotten food, an internal transition occurs. There is the famous saying that, “you are what you eat”.  Gregor no longer indulges in the delicacies of humans, rather he prefers the raunchier stale items. The rotten food serves as a function towards Gregor’s feeling of self. Gregor’s new found preference of food dehumanizes him, essentially breaking any tie he has with humanity. Gregor describes, “the fresh food, by contrast, did not taste good to him. He could not even bear the smell and carried the things he wanted to eat a little distance away” (39). Gregor is so turned off by human food that he has to move away from it, which would be the normal reaction for a human to turn away from rotten smelly food. He has gone through a revolution in that now what he used to think is disgusting is now delectable, and vice versa. This shift in food preferences illustrates Gregor’s metamorphosis in a deeper way. Of course there is the physical side where Gregor is a bug, but what is more important is his conscious. Thoughts and the mind are systemic in that they are the root for all actions. Once Gregor attains this shift in his beliefs, his entire character changes as he finally actualizes himself as a bug.

Conclusion: There are subcategories to the metamorphosis that Gregor goes through. Each one acts as a segway to the next, and without the previous step, the next one cannot be attained. First Gregor physically becomes a bug. Even though he sees himself as such, he still feels human. Gregor still worries about going to work, amongst other things. But his psychological feeling of human self cannot last for very long. Eventually Gregor’s instinctive animalistic virtues grow within his subconscious as he begins to develop certain attributes of a bug. This can be seen when Gregor deters from his favorite drink in favor of rotten cheese. Though he may still have all the memories that make up Gregor, his values have taken a strong discourse. Gregor cannot control his newfound desires. As this happens, Gregor’s personality as a whole incurs a major shift. He is dehumanized by his new desires, which causes his psyche to also change. Gregor is no longer a human because he is physically a bug, but more importantly is also consciously a bug. Everything that makes up Gregor’s personality has changed, and therefore he now experiences life through the lens of a bug.

Category C – Remains of Human Characteristics and Significance

1. What is the significance for Gregor still wanting to catch the train after he wakes up as a bug?

2. When Gregor is listening to the violin music being played by Grete, what about the violin music drew him towards it? What can be concluded about the effect of music?

Logic for this order / grouping: We grouped these two questions together because they addressed the human habits that Gregor retained even after his physical transformation into a bug. The order for these two questions were based on the chronological order the events were introduced in the book with Gregor thinking about his missed train ride at the start of the story when he wakes up not feeling too well and with the violin music being played towards the end of the story when he reveals himself to the three borders.

Before the Law is an eye opening story about how the law is almost untouchable by the common man. The man from the country comes to the gate–the entry to law–and tries to get in. There is a gatekeeper in the way, however. The gate keeper, no matter how much the man begs, sticks to his restricting words and orders. He threatens to send the man to higher authority; this scares the already rebellious man into just sticking with bothering the first guard, only. He wastes away his whole life at this gate, trying to get into the place that is so untouchable. He has faith in himself that he can get into this place, but sadly, it’ll always be out of reach. He stays wondering why no one else from the country is trying to rebel like he is–perhaps everyone else has just learned to live under the laws that dictate society without the thirst to be limitless.
The higher authority wants to dictate the lives of the civilians by imposing restrictions on them, without any care about the true wellbeing of the civilians. This guard was told to keep people out of the gate, and he did so, without caring about the fact that the man’s life basically wasted away while he was waiting and waiting for the freedom to walk into the law. The law, however is untouchable, and those who work under it cannot live for themselves. The guards waste their lives away guarding a gate, without any incentives. The only incentive they get is to have some power and authority–and for some reason, the power is worth it. All the man asks for is power over his own self. All the man wants is to be free and go wherever he desires, but power over others is much more common in this world, than a civilian’s freedom and power over his or her own journey.

2) “Wild Nights–Wild Nights” is a poem that I can picture as one of the best nights in a life without technology or social media. This poem is clearly about a night with a loved one, spent in the outdoors. Dickinson speaks about how she doesn’t want to follow a direction–she doesn’t believe in following a compass or a map. She wants to simply just ride with her feelings and experience joy without being told that there is a right way to do so, or that there are complications in love. She simply wants to put her heart above her feelings, as she is aimlessly rowing in the sea, but she is following the direction of her heart. This is very relatable–it’s exactly how those in love approach life. They put their feelings above their reasoning, and take risks without thinking of what may happen to their dismay. This risk taking occurs when people are blinded with what seems to be more beautiful and attractive to the eye, instead of what may actually keep one safe from getting hurt. Although wild nights are supposed to be a luxury, clearly a wild night of this sort is dangerous to the human heart– it is way to prone to getting hurt if it makes reasoning go away.

3) 1) I was extremely into “Manifesto of Futurist Women.” It was a refreshing difference from Wollstonecraft’s feminist, extreme views. It illustrated how men have no reason to think they are more superior than women, and it gives a special type of importance to women who are aggressive and sort of wild. It intrigues me how a prostitute is seen in a better light than a nurse, because a prostitute’s job is to be dominant, whereas a nurse provides a service for an injured man. I love this way of thought in this time period–it makes me really think about how women have always felt as though they are only worthy of a man’s approval, up until this point in time. I believe that anyone speaking out for women’s rights and the superior characteristics of a woman is noteworthy and a woman that is truly worth celebrating. I absolutely love how this passage ends off with the idealism of a woman who must be a dominating, aggressive leader. It is nice to hear someone say that women need to be followed, since from her, men are born. However, I am confused about the fact that she said, in the beginning, that men and women are created equal. Towards the end, she wants women to assert their dominance over men–this is contradictory but I believe that her topic change is just a human thought development. I believe that as people start to think that they deserve better treatment, their thought processes lead them to finally assert that they are even better than they thought. Power is overbearing and addictive.

3) 2) I believe that women should be able to get equal pay in the office. There is no reason that men and women should be paid differently for performing the same exact tasks. We live in 2017–there is not one thing that a man can do that a woman cannot do. We are fools to allow ourselves to live in a society in which men have dominated. We have been living with this glass ceiling for decades at the very least. Think about how women have to leave their children at home, along with motherly responsibilities in order to maintain a job. They are forced to sometimes leave their children with nannies who don’t truly care for their kids. Because of this sacrifice, They should be paid way more than men. They are much more deserving.

3) 3) My manifesto mirrors the image portrayed in “Manifesto of Futurist Women.” In this manifesto, I first analyze that women and men are created equally and capable of doing the same things. I dismiss equality by saying that the glass ceiling needs to end, and then I conclude that women should be paid more than men. I conclude that women are more superior and important than men. This is just like the manifesto I read and analyzed. A problem is pointed out, equality is acknowledged, and then eventually, it’s realized that equality isn’t enough–just superiority is.

Chapter 17 in Adam Bede is an interesting chapter indeed. It is a perplexing chapter in this novel that changes the perspective of what’s going on in the novel, instead of letting the novel advance further—the way it had been for the past sixteen chapters. This serves as a break from how the author had been going about telling this story, because it changed from a romanticized perspective to a realistic perspective. Instead of talking about the plot itself, it stops and analyzes the realistic truth about how the author, Eliot, reflects on the characters in a completely different time period. She goes off into a rant, practically, about how her characters are always demanded to fit perfectly within the lines of either a protagonist or an antagonist, and she decides to draw the line between realism and fantasy. She illustrates that in life, there’s a lot of grey area as opposed to this black vs. White mentality.

The idea of realism is also speculated in 19th Century British Critics of Realism. It starts off with the claim, “When a realist writer depicts a dressmaker, G.H. Lewes wrote, ‘she must be a young woman who makes dresses, not a sentimental “heroine”, evangelical and consumptive…” (Freedgood 1) On one hand there is a young woman in real life who has responsibilities and needs to work in order to support a herself. She is the opposite of a sentimental heroine because she has been forced to mature, instead of allowing herself to remain overdramatic and spoiled, like a child. She doesn’t look like a heroine, either—she looks like a normal girl with less than perfect features.

Eliot stresses how a real person isn’t someone who is beautiful, perfect and knows the right thing to do and say. She says, “I might select the most unexceptionable type of clergyman and put my own admirable opinions into his mouth on all occasions. But it happens, on the contrary, that my strongest effort is to avoid any such arbitrary picture, and to give a faithful account of men and things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind” (Eliot 1). A real person isn’t always admirable—and words certainly cannot always be put in the mouth of a real man. Fantasy and fiction is totally different from realism, in which real emotions come out at the wrong times and flaws are all over peoples’ faces. This chapter is all about realism being shown in a fiction story—for once. Showing that characters have flaws and have emotions and feelings like the rest of us makes us realize that we don’t have to be just like the people in the fiction world. We realize that we can be imperfect, instead of thinking that we are subject to a happy ending just like our favorite fairy tale.

Both Harriet Jacob’s Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl and Fredrick Douglass’s speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” illustrate a perspective that those who haven’t endured slavery cannot ever understand. This perspective is one that shows readers or listeners that they have never been through something as dehumanizing and traumatizing as those who have endured slavery–a way of life that doesn’t let a human feel like they will ever be treated as anything more than property. Slaves are people that are treated like they will never have the right to be a human, which illustrates a mentality that still kills thousands due to racism, discrimination and scapegoating. Both Harriet and Fredrick were strong enough to take a stand against these horrors by telling the truth as to what really went on, from their own perspectives that were painful to even hear or read. The Seneca Falls Declaration is a little different, as it is about women’s rights, predominantly, from a white woman’s perspective.

I have to say that even though it hurts to hear Fredrick’s perspective on an entirely different viewpoint of Independence Day, as a woman, I was much more outraged and touched by Harriet Jacob’s writings that emphasized how especially hard it was to be a female slave. Every single thing she did was a sacrifice–something she did to avoid something worse from happening, often just due to fear that her owner would sexually abuse her to a worse and worse extent than had occurred already. A woman who had to endure torturous labor, her story is touching because it also tells the terror that a woman has to go through in order to maintain her own dignity. This illustrates why The Seneca Falls Declaration is relevant, however, it is only from a white female’s perspective. These white women, although abolitionists, cannot relate to the horrors that slave women had to deal with–as they were women who were treated like nothing but property. The white women complain about things like, “He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns,” however that’s the least of the problems that enslaved women  have faced–they aren’t even entitled to earing!

The fact that Linda had to fabricate a love for her neighbor just to avoid further sexual abuse from her owner shows the extent an enslaved woman has to go through in order to avoid the worst. She had to put herself in a situation that made her uncomfortable, and made her use her body with another man in order to compensate for an abuse that was not consensual–the only thing worse at this point.

Frederick Douglas’s work is different because he speaks from the perspective of any slave–thirsting for freedom and the ability to feel like he is entitled to feel independence on Independence Day. He thirsts to feel like he lives in a nation that is seen as superior because of how much liberty it grants to its citizens. However, this is true for every single slave, whereas Harriet’s point was that slavery is a hundred times harder for a woman. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own,” she said in chapter XIV.

There are hundreds of things a woman has to deal with in addition to the problems that Fredrick spoke of. The fear of sexual abuse forced Harriet to tweak every single thing she did in her life– she had to live in an even more debilitating fear. She had to live in the fear of her children being unsafe without her, and her daughter one day being abused the way she has been.

It seemed as though Fredrick’s complaints as a slave were complaints of a system that was botched, however Harriet proved the same point through a heartbreaking story. She used her blood, sweat and tears to explain not just what she wishes she was entitled to, but she forced us to identify even further with details as to her pain and suffering. She didn’t tell us that her life was unfair, she showed us what she went through in order to paint the pictures of injustice in our heads. The way she told this story was absolutely remarkable, and it is no surprise to me that this book was so controversial and unbelievable to thousands.

Romanticism in both Tu Fu’s poem and in The Koran tell a story that directly portray images of what is serene in the world versus what is the destructive enemy. Romanticism in both of these works are able to tell us what is “good” versus what is “evil,” by looking toward nature for answers. Both works are in search of attaining peace from the world in its original state, not from something that emerged from humans on Earth that altered it. In Tu Fu’s work, The Spring Prospect, “The nation shattered, hills and streams remain,”(1) paints the picture of a world crafted by mankind that couldn’t stay permanent–an industrial world that interrupts land that is owned by mother nature. The only thing that can withstand all of human corruption is nature–the only thing that is truly meant to be here. After everything is destroyed, nature still remains, as the broken city is described as, “The city in spring grass and trees deep.”(2) It is as if the world, when it is stripped to its purest form, is the only form that will be permanent. The world is meant to be in its absolute God given state, and anything that tries to interfere will hurt nature, but still leave nature as the only permanently existing thing. Although this may not be Tu Fu’s predominant point, the point about nature’s superiority over the corruption of man relates heavily to The Opening [of the Koran]. This Arabic lyric, also a culturally centered poem, opens this holy book into the talk of how mankind is capable of nothing positive without God, the creator and origin of humanity. Muhammad begs, from the point of view of Muslims, that, “It is You whom we worship and You whom we ask for help,” (5-6) as if humans are incapable of finding the right path without the creator of this divine world that humans are living in. It is as if humanity and mankind are too vulnerable to deal with life that God has all the answers to–because God is the original creator of everything. Clearly, in Tu Fu’s work and The Koran, the way the Earth was created is the most superior form of the world. Nothing else that humans can alter the Earth with will be able to withstand life’s shackles by itself, and the original form of the world will always be what humans and nature are finding themselves longing to go back to. In Tu Fu’s work, untouched nature was the original form of the world, and in The Koran, the creator of the world is begged to help the vulnerable humans. No matter what humans do, they are constantly seeking for answers from what was there before them. Muhammed asks of God, “Show us the upright way: the way of those whom You have favored, not of those with whom You have been angry and those who have gone astray.” (7-10) Clearly, the ones who have gone astray are humans that are making their own rules. They are the ones who will suffer, because that is not the way life was meant to be lived. Life was meant to be lived in a way that nature was left untouched, and the way that God, the creator, left created.

Googling modern revisions of Frankenstein exposed me to hundreds of Frankenstein references–some that I wish I had never even come across. I even came across a television show that referred to a Frankenstein-like creature as its creator’s sexual partner, but the one that appealed to me was my old, fond memory of the story of “aggressive creations” in the book, Jurassic Park. In Jurassic Park, a park was built with manmade Dinosaurs, in which a diverse group of people came forth to this park and ended up fighting for survival; the dinosaurs were left roaming around the place like roaches.

Jurassic Park is clearly extremely inspired by Frankenstein because it’s about monsters that are created by humans that take over a world in which they are a threat to everyone that has significance to their creators. In Frankenstein, it was as if all of the creations’ family members had to be killed since they had some importance in his creator’s life. There seems to be a lot of jealousy involved, whether it’s made apparent or not. In Jurassic Park, everyone relevant to the dinosaurs’ creators seemed to be at risk of the dinosaur’s wrath. It’s apparent from analyzing both of these texts that authors love the idea of creations being so advanced that it poses a threat to more than just their creator; we seem to see a common trend here. We see that both the monster and the dinosaurs seem to want to take over something that existed before they did, and they feel the entitlement to ruin the lives of someone who gave them a chance at life. This entitlement makes it evident that they feel as though since they are out of the ordinary, they are supernatural. The way the scientists in Jurassic Park did their research in contaminated waters is the way that Victor Frankenstein found used body parts on many different occasions to find what would be perfect for this unethical and incredibly scary creation. Both Victor and the scientists are reasons why their loved ones are at risk, indirectly, because they end up creating these monsters that are granted with too much power for their own good. This clearly was no creator’s intention, which was made clear as Victor thought to himself, “Two years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which he first received life; and this was his first crime?” (77) It was so heartbreaking for Victor to accept this, the way it would be for a parent to accept that their child committed a murder. In Jurassic park, like Frankenstein, the dinosaur’s actions are absolutely unpredictable and beyond what a human can prevent or control. Clearly, when someone is granted so much power without having to work for it, it’s just creation-nature to take advantage of the fact that they can move mountains and cause havoc, somehow. Everyone just wants to make an impact in some way or another, but these creations are aware that their impact can be absolutely detrimental.

Victor Frankenstein has some bold goals. In a time period so far back, when people probably were still skeptical about the shape of the globe, Victor seems to consider himself somewhat like Christopher Columbus. He sees a lot of potential in himself, with the types of bold promises he makes in his letters, such as Letter I, on page 18, written to Mrs. Saville in England. He tells her that he wants to depart to a town on a boat, as if it’s easy to just leave life’s responsibilities and end up in a new place with no certainty of what the future holds. He said he would depart with the intention to hire a ship, with a cocky tone, implying that it is not a difficult feat for him to accomplish that. He claims that he can pay for the insurance for the owner, as if he is loaded with wealth, which he stresses with the word, “easily.” He talks about hiring a volume of sailors, based on however many he thinks are necessary. They also must be specialized sailors that are accustomed to whale-fishing. He sets in stone that he doesn’t want to sail during the month of June, even though it’s a quite specific desire for someone who doesn’t know if he’ll make it dead or alive.

This passage makes me think, what makes Frankenstein think that he is entitled to making his far fetched dreams come true? I wonder why he thinks that he, of all people, deserves to go on a voyage so intense and risky for someone living in the age he is living in. I wonder why he thinks that he can decide to leave at whatever time he pleases, with intentions to sail with sailors that he assumes to be waiting there right for him. What irks me even more is that he has specific types of sailors in mind, as if he is special enough to rent out a specific group of people that are specialized enough to do something as specific as wale-fish. I stay wondering what makes him think that he is worthy of doing something so unique. I wonder what makes him speak on par with Christopher Columbus, as he talks about his dreams heading to the unknown.

Clearly, since he received the fortune of his cousin, he believes that he is powerful enough to make all of his dreams come true. He believes that wealth is enough to make an uneducated person someone skilled enough to make far fetched dreams turn into reality. He believes that inheriting money, involving no work, can make him this powerful. Clearly, he thinks that money is the answer to all of the problems he has encountered. He believes that it is money that can make him feel like he is someone special enough to accomplish something that is impractical to the common man. He believes that money is powerful enough to give him confidence that he doesn’t deserve.

Photography isn’t something that just makes up my Instagram or my Facebook page, it’s something that gives a special meaning to my daily life when I look back at moments that made me smile, laugh, or even just think. Since Snapchat has come out, I’ve found myself taking pictures of every jaw dropping chocolate mousse cake, and every artsy scenery of a sea of people hustling through Times Square with the sun setting behind the NYC cityscape, blindingly bright.

Look at that sunset

The colors make me feel warm

I need to snap it

We can vicariously live through pictures, in which we can forget the heartaches that are happening in the present, by looking back at heartwarming times. We rely on our baby pictures to imagine what we were like in our infantile years, because our memories can’t suffice to capture all of the remarkable things we’ve accomplished. Moments like taking our first steps after numerous falls and speaking our first words when we first learn to make sounds are things that we know we accomplished, yet things we can never remember. When I’m away from home for weeks at a time for college, seeing my baby sister making a funny face with her twinkling eyes on my phone wallpaper makes me forget about the stress that comes with being a college student. I know that one day my sister will look back and feel incredibly happy at the endless snapchats I have taken of her using dog filters so young, and the videos I have made of her first attempts at the ABCs. As a big sister of the cutest three year old and as a passionate photographer, you can imagine what my camera roll is filled with.

Turn around and smile

This moment is so precious

You’ll thank me one day

My sister is just one example of what makes me reach Matsuo Basho’s idea of escape, “Karumi,” as I look back at my photography for an escape from my burdens. I feel satisfaction, “Wabi,” when I look down to my pocket, take out my phone and go through my camera roll that is filled with the smiling faces of my happiest moments of me with my family and friends. Smiling ear to ear in pictures of Friday nights in NYC, I feel, “Sabi,” appreciation, for things as simple as incredible people in my life. We need to be happy with simplicity, which means being content with the moments in our lives that aren’t extraordinary, and photos remind me that there will be better days than today, if today doesn’t seem like a picture-worthy day.

Here is a photo

Of my happiest moment

Brooklyn bridge with you

When we are down, it’s important to think about the things that have made us beam with happiness, which are usually the people in our lives that have been there with us through our happiest moments. People make places, and photography lets us relive our experiences with incredible people.

Hi everyone! My name is Akrita Lungani. I’m a sophomore at Baruch, and I am majoring in Finance. I love to travel and I’m passionate about drawing.

Kant makes it clear that the key to enlightenment within oneself is the ability to end reliance on any outside forces for happiness. When you are enlightened, you don’t need anyone to give you self confidence—it’s present within you. He states that the enlightened man reaches this state as he lets go of immaturity, in which immaturity is defined as “lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another.” (Kant 1) Immaturity doesn’t originate from the lack of understanding—rather it comes from the lack of courage without encouragement. Once we learn to have faith in ourselves and live the way we please, we are bound to reach contentment. We reach this state of being content with ourselves once we stop looking for approval from others and embrace our own qualities, whether they’re deemed as acceptable by society or not.

Kant believes that people aren’t often motivated to be in charge of themselves, and that “It is so convenient to be immature!” (Kant 1) However, enlightenment is hard to achieve due to “laziness and cowardice.” (Kant 1) Humans are constantly running from their problems. Humans see independence as an obstacle—something to be cautious of. However if they didn’t shy away from this fear, they would be able to achieve enlightenment quite easily. People feel as though their actions need to have reasons that are understood by society, however reasoning our actions are what hinder us from enlightenment. Letting go of reasoning and justifying each action can easily steer one towards self enlightenment, however since childhood, people are conditioned to think that obedience leads to success, and that it’s vital for humans to overthink their actions in order to foresee the best result. However, the best result is never guaranteed—living life as a prisoner to a favorable outcome is ultimate cowardice.

I believe that Kant’s definition of enlightenment is correct. Humans constantly are seeking approval from others, and basing their confidences on the rest of society’s reactions. Self confidence is what allows us to be happy within ourselves, and those who lack it are often left debilitated. Without confidence, humans are constantly looking for approval from others in order to give them a temporary self of importance and belonging. I believe that Kant’s theory of enlightenment is essentially just about confidence. However, in today’s day and age, there are so many expectations about how one must look and act within society. With such a high rate of depression and self harm, it’s clear that too many people feel as though they don’t fall into society’s expectations, and they end up feeling lost.