In Virignia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, there is an interconnectivity that exists amongst all the characters that shape the picture of the story. There is an idea that each character is like a puzzle piece that plays both small and large roles in developing the whole picture.

At the center lies Mrs. Dalloway. She is the mediator between all the characters. It is through her perspective that we get a feel for the personalities of each character. Her closer relationships or the characters that she thinks about most are Richard her husband, Peter her ex-lover, Sally her childhood friend and Septimus a veteran of World War II. Through these main characters all the minor characters come in to play.

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In Sigmund Freuds “Family Romance, a discussion of conflict and individuality evident. He discusses how the parents of a child have such a high influence on the child. However, he begins to discuss the development of the child as he grows into different contradictory stages of life. These stages put him in conflict with his real surroundings and offer different internal attitudes towards his life. Throughout his work though he informs the reader that this conflict is an essential aspect to the child’s development. It is through this progress in the child’s life stages that enables him or her to reach a “Normal State”.

It is interesting to see how the role of sexuality persists and changes in different phases of the child’s life. Once he or she is at an age of personal recognition the child begins to attain a level of sexual conflict with his parents. This internal struggle could lead to hostility or other behaviors that are geared towards the child’s parents. As the child grows, this sexuality begins to grow into fantasy and imaginative scenarios. The child becomes involved in all sorts of thoughts including parents’ comparisons and the fulfillment of their wishes. The child grows far from the parents and begins to hold harsh feelings towards the parents until he moves past this stage of development. It is interesting to note how these inner struggles of children define their natures as they get older. These feelings begin to mold them as individuals. Although the same feeling will ultimately dull down, they will still have an internal belief system that will define their personalities as they age.

NourbeSe Phillips’ iteration of the poem “Discourse on the logic of language” shows the underlying theme of the power of speech to oppression. In her performance of the poem, she sets a tone that represents confusion and limitations. Each slave was brought from his or her mother language and forced into a life of a foreign situation. I think that when she speaks of the tongue, it represents more than just the speech in which they were forced into. It represents an oppression of a person’s ability to reach high heights. Every person is born with an innate ability to speak as the poem discusses the parts of the brain that are responsible for this action. It is through constant oppression and condemnation that puts down ones’ ability to speak. Thoughts lead to words and words lead to action. If you cut off a man’s words, you cut off his actions. You cut off his ability to communicate his goals and put them into reality. I think this is what the poem’s is intended to bring out. As well, I think that M. Phillips is putting the poem into perspective by reading it in a way that makes the listener feel like it is hard for her to communicate what the thoughts of the writer is.

To take this a step further, we can see the parallels between this poem and “The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”. Douglass has constantly pointed out how oppressive it was to learn. He understood what learning could do and understood the power of speech. Both pieces ultimately understood that is the power of language that will remove the barriers and the oppressors from themselves.

There is a large difference of the depiction of Frankenstein’s birth in Mary Shelley’s text versus the “It’s Alive” video version. The book portrays an anxious and fearful Victor. Afraid of the result, Victor is horrified by the being he created. Additionally the book depicts Victor as a one man operations. Where he isolates himself in order to create Frankenstein. This in itself sets a way different tone then the movie, providing a sense of scariness within the scene itself. The movie portrays a way different affect with a sense of excitement to the creation. Victor is thrilled to see that he has been able to create life inside of a dead being and even states “Now I know what it is like to be God”. The video creates a thriller effect, considering the purpose of entertaining its audience, I could understand why the director would set an entirely different tone to a classic story. As well the additional characters that participate in the role of creating Frankenstein, take that fear factor away from the story. It is no longer a story of a horrifying creation that should be undone, but rather an exciting experiment that is built up and captures the audiences’ attention. Although many differences, both pieces give a vivid way of understanding a classic work.

I find it interesting in Descartes “Discourse on the Method” to see the philosophy and reason that Descartes holds throughout the piece. I feel he holds certain “truths” to be inaccurate in my opinion. He mentions in the beginning of his piece “power of judging well and of telling the true from the false—which is what we properly call ‘good sense’ or ‘reason’—is naturally equal in all men. He follows this by saying that people opinions differ because they take their thoughts along “different paths”. I believe that people have natures and inclinations, which leads each individual to create his own judgements. There is no one route of “good sense” that may be skewed by the different paths. I think that peoples’ beliefs’ and natures’ are the products of their surroundings in their initial stages of life. This composes their mental framework in which they begin to make good sense of things. However, it’s not naturally equal as some people are born in the environments of poor moral fiber and ethical standard. So although given a cognitive ability to do so, it is far less likely that they will contribute to the “good sense” that Descartes is referring to.  If you look around the world it is obvious and clear that so many young and old people make seemingly abnormal decisions. Not only individually but as groups and societies. So I believe that when Descartes is referencing this sort of moral standard that is innate to each person, I think there is a deeper level that needs to be analyzed and it’s not necessarily the different individual paths that one takes rather it’s a combination of many different defining roles in ones’ life.

The choice we make is it ever clear? We run daily into the rhythm of life making significant and seemingly insignificant choices every minute. Every one building on the last, with no beginning an no end. What should I do, where should I work, who should I spend time with, never ending. The world goes round, I embrace it. In Walt Whitman’s poem “song of Myself” this acceptance is clear. “There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now.” These choices happen now for all of us and Walt Whitman realizes that and chooses to be in each one at that moment. “I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.” Walt lives in a world of now taking it slowly and embracing life as it comes.

Now I am in Baruch college looking to make the choices that will lead me to make better choices when they come. So many options but I am here now where I am. 3 years finding my way, making choices and mistakes to finally find my passion inside it all. A deep rooted love to learn endless and new information both in school and out of school. My focus in finance, a never ending subject that challenges the mind. Where will it take me? I can’t say, but when that choice comes along I’ll be prepared.