Under the Sea vs. Land

Have you ever wondered what people think of American society? This week we read and analyzed "Nacirema." This is about a group of people with strange traditions, which we finally figured out was exactly what we take part in our everyday lives. Nacirema is American backwards. This essay was particular interesting because when I read it, it sounded like crazy people that lived when the Mayans or Incas were around. There are so many things that are strange to other cultures and when you list this things out of context they are strange to us.

Similar to Nacirema is The Little Mermaid. Ariel is a mermaid and is fascinated with humans and our "stuff." She goes up to the shore and asks Scuddles, a pelican, what all these items that hae finds in a boat are. Scuddles gives her answers but they are all wrong; he calls a fork a "doodle-hopper" and a smoking pipe a music instrument. This items that she finds are extremely random and mean nothing to her life "Under the Sea." (Spoiler alert) When Ariel turns into a human she makes a fool of herself with the "doodle-hopper," also known as a fork, she starts fixing her hair with the fork and Prince Eric looks at her with a confused look. If an alien or mermaid watched you brush your teeth it would look like you are putting horse hair in your mouth with blue goo.

On a daily basis we do some pretty weird stuff that is just apart of our routine. How do these routines look to a mermaid?

Critique

As I sit in the Detroit Metro Airport, I think about how much stressed is poured into traveling via airplane. Passengers flying have so many "taxing" tasks to do before being able to board the glorious airplane, or the flying bat-mobile as my little brother would call it. We have to bag all liquids in a quart size bag, make sure our bags are carry on size, even though there are so many people on my flight with bags the size of me. Why do we have to go through lol these specific procedures to fly on an airplane? Okay, yes, that might be a dumb question but whenever I fly on an airplane it is so I can get away fro my everyday routine and experience something crazy and adventurous. You might say there are bad people in the world that could blow up the airplane. Yes I agree. But why does my 4oz bottle of lotion have to do with that. Precautions are needed, definitely. I believe before a crazy adventure should be stress free.


The fact that most people fly on an airplane, on average, at least once is shocking. About 30 years ago people wouldn't have dreamed of flying that many times in a year. We have evolved into intelligent human beings, not saying that people weren't very smart 30 years ago. Why haven't we used our intelligence to make the airports and airplanes stress free? Also the people that work in the airports are probably the scariest people I have ever come in contact with. They are dressed in uniforms with shiny, gold badges that has writing I can't even read on it. They make you take off your shoes and stand in a tube thing that looks like I am about to get a spray tan. It might be just me that is very stressed and feels anxious whenever I step foot into an airport but why do we do all these silly things to go on a flying bat-mobile, when most people in the world are good people? This is why, because we let the bad people in the world ruin and take over our lives. And airports are a first hand experience of this idea. The entire system is so overrated but people feel it necessary so we keep going along with it.

Just remember, it's just a flying bat-mobile. No need to stress. As long as you are a good person.  

The Hours spent with Mrs. Dalloway

 The Hours was intense to watch but extremely honorary because of all of the different plot twists throughout the movie and how it is based it three different time periods. Although there were many plot twists and some concepts that have deeper meanings it still had traces of the story line from Mrs. Dalloway like the symbol of beauty through flowers and a man with a severe condition. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa was always doing something with flowers like getting them for her party. In The Hours, Clarissa is seen with flowers also which she gets herself in both the movie and the book. Another comparison of the book and the movie was how they both had a man with a severe condition. In the book it was Septimus and he had PTSD, which eventually led to him committing suicide. In the movie it was Richard, who was Clarissas husband in Mrs. Dalloway but not in The Hours, who had aids eventually causing his suicide.

 Throughout the movie many other traces of Mrs. Dalloway were shown, but the most impressive and honorary things I noticed was the timing of the movie and the settings. The Hours is shown from three different time periods. One period was when Virginia Woolf was writing Mrs. Dalloway. The next was Laura, Richards mother, living in her younger age in 1923. And the most recent time period of 2001, where Clarissa lived with Sally. The timing and setting of each period would have been really hard to film but also make it accurate to the time period and still connecting it with Mrs. Dalloway. In Mrs. Dalloway, time is one of the most reoccurring themes throughout the novel. Connecting that to the movie made it more complex in how everyone was acting. Time is a big part in all of our lives and it a force that is uncontrollable. We see how time affects everyone in Mrs. Dalloway and in The Hours in just one day. This uncontrollable object makes people do unexplainable things.

Pure Bliss

"They were perfectly happy now, she said, suddenly, putting the hat down. For she could say anything to him now. She could say whatever came into her head."(pg. 146: Mrs. Dalloway)

Rezia and Septimus become closer in this moment, even though it is as simple as sitting together. Rezia describes the mood as being "perfectly happy." Rezia finds trust in Septimus or else she wouldn't be saying "whatever came into her head." Also throughout Mrs. Dalloway, Rezia doesn't have a voice, or an opinion, in the book. She is always told what to think, especially when it comes to Septimus and his PTSD. The only person that will truly listen is Septimus. Rezia and Septimus are equal through out because Rezia is a women and Septimus has a disorder. Doctors don't listen to them at all, which is a mistake because all the doctors believed Septimus was fine after he said he wanted to kill himself and they didn't listen. Look where that got them.

I have a similar experience to Rezia. I can remember last summer in Colorado; I was laying under the stars in an open field at 10 o'clock at night with my best friends, whom I get to see once a year. I can recall exactly what was said in the moment, "pure bliss." I felt as if I could start talking about anything in my life and they would listen. I felt trust in them, as Rezia to Septimus.