Notice the Dates?

Well much has transpired and I never posted the last semesters work.

I did finish Coffeen's paper (B) but I also changed the image and it was a great experience.

I applied to Berkeley, Stanford, and Davis with unanimous rejections.

I recently applied to Mills, Sac State, U of P, San Diego State MA programs to have something to do while I wait to attend Stanford or UCLA....Yes I am going to apply to UCLA.....I hear the graduate program for higher ed is something I should have checked out long ago.

I am writing a couple of research papers and those will eventually be posted. I thought of writing them online so the process could be visible but then thought....nah....too much of a headache and I don't even know if anyone reads these things.

Well I know a few ppl read it because you have emailed me :-) but over all that does not constitute an audience that necessitates regular updates.

Blessed be

Uploading Essays this week

I will be uploading the work from the last couple of semesters this week if I manage to get my essay written for Coffeen and rework the paper for Wintroub.

Good reading. These papers have not gotten better. In fact, they are of lesser quality. Why? It is my fervent belief that the volume of reading is prohibitive of getting a good grasp of the material and therefore the ideas pull together only after digesting the work.

Meanwhile, I am sure they grade along those lines because I continue to stay at 3.5 overall. Which means Rhetorical skills are better than average but not stellar and conceptually I am exceptional. So what? So these essays can be used as an indicator of the types of material one would engage in a career at Berkeley (if you are in the humanities or social sciences). They can also be used to measure your own work against; the most significant failure of my papers is lack of organization and unsubstantiated claims. I tend to get personally involved with the text and discuss how I see it instead of what the text says. I wouldn't recommend plagiarizing work found on a blogspot. And frankly my grades aren't good enough to promote theft.

Finally, I am preparing for graduate school and I will post the Statement of Purpose written for Stanford and then ultimately report back if I got in or not. I will also discuss the critiques of said letter.

checkout seeingseeing.blogspot.com

Coffeen's class for which I am writing a mere two page paper about the above image. It has taken me a week to create the image and at least as long thinking about something clever to say. I am a viewer and artist...multiplicity....Home less feet, homeless feet, home less Feet....what multiplicity implied in the wood stages of each. though they are clearly separate they are joined by the language in the image and by the affect of each juxtaposed. Why are there four inset pictures of the homeless man's feet, well because there are four shoes...regardless they are women's shoes, who cares they are the right shoe only...they are right aren't they? Do you have home less feet. My feet have a home in fact multiple homes. The home changes with the outfit. is that a home ? His feet have no home literally and figuratively. No shoes, no house to hold those shoes and no where to go...I have to go. I feel a paper about feet coming on.

Graduate School

Articulate well your deepest desires in 500 words or less.

Tell us about your hardships but don't whine and show us how they have made you a better person.

Tell us why our school is a great fit for you...actually tell all 5-8 schools you are applying to why they and their staff fit your plans and why you fit our schools.

Get to know our professors who are busy this time of year so you should have started in your junior year.

Take the GRE so you will know words you should never have to use and prove that you can test in an unfriendly unnatural testing format and environment. Minorities we know you won't do as well on this test because you have never been exposed to adequate reading material much less the foreign words like insouciant.

But don't worry we use a holistic approach to evaluating you.

No matter how many times I see these directions I feel like applying to grad school is a process designed to weed me out not include me.

What drivel. The number of programs designed to help poor little minority me get into grad school are insulting. Teach me from 1st grade how to read and leave behind bush's no child left behind.

Teach me in high school the merits of education by recruiting teachers from the top not bottom of college classes and I may have had a more level playing field.

Allow me to use the language I know and exhibit the skills I have and THEN teach me new things. College has helped my intellectual development but life has made me interesting in the material I research. Let my life hold its own value without attempting to shape me into a researcher extraordinare.

I look forward to graduate school because I intend to change the rules, even if I have to create my own damn school to do it.

Professionalism and Service

Do you remember what those words used to mean? I remember when there were expectations of employees and you could fire their bums if they weren't in compliance. I remember when supervisors were required to have some people management skills or at least were versed in how to appropriately handle issues of performance. There was a time, I swear, when if you did something wrong on the job the boss actually TALKED to you about it and documented the interaction as training on a subject if necessary.

But then I am old.

I remember when tip meant gratuity, as in I am grateful for the EXTRA effort you put into your job so I feel you deserve a bit extra than your pay. I remember when the customer was right or you were ushered to a manager with apologies for your inconvenience. there really used to be a concept of comping an unhappy guest just to retain their business. I swear.

I remember when asking for someone's supervisor meant you got a name and number not the run around. But then, I also remember when I was miss not Ma'am.

Here's the thing. Good manners, service with a smile, a professional attitude, and simply polite behavior used to be a good thing. What is the world coming to when these things are mere memories of the archaic?

Full and Empty Speech by a layperson

Please kindly remember that I (sujbective) am a layperson and just trying to keep these theories straight as I (:-))learn them..



So "empty speech", in my humblest of understandings, is the "moi" of I, the ego that speaks but says little to nothing. It is when a patient is in a psychoanalysts office and talks incessantly about himself, as he sees his ideal self, but without the introspection.

This relates in my mind thusly, the Three Stooges "Who's on first?" skit.

The players involved (larry, moe, curly) are having a conversation in which the question is asked, "Who's on first?" This alludes to a baseball game and who is on the position of first base. However, the comedy comes in because the players name sounds like who's (whose). So though the question is answered a comedy of misunderstandings occurs. The players are all involved in the conversation but without common language they are unable to understand each other. They are not concerned with understanding each other apparently because noone asks for clarification. The "moi" or ego allows each to continue saying what they want but not hearing the other. I believe the common language is the language of negotiation between "moi" and "je". The miscommunication occurs because there is no meaning when there is no common language. The speech therefore says nothing.

Full speech then would be the speech of the "je" or the subject I. The association of "I" with language then becomes the common language because it is a "shifter" So if the players, at any point said. I am refering to..... then the epiphany needed to conclude the conversation would have been provided. So in the psychoanalytic discussion of full speech it is the speech of the patient who gets down to business with the psychoanalyst in reaching the problem which brings them together. It is both introspective and understanding of its relational position.

So Moi and Je.....


Two distinctions on the English word I. Moi or me represents the ego and the Je or I represents the subject (the person in relationship to the other)

PLEASE CRITIQUE OR ADD CLARIFICATIONS.

much love from her Freudian, Lacanian, fog.

What Greece Needs is a Woman

Penelope and Lysistrata: What Greece Needs is a Woman
One tale of a wise warrior woman born of a man's head, one epic poem that tells the tale of Odysseus' journey and his wife's loyalty during that journey, and one tale of an atypical female who fictionally stops a war through cunning: these are the women and salvation of two Greek countries Ithaca and Athens. These woman are not married off in resolution of their conflicts, they stand strong with traits deemed masculine because they notable in a patriarchal society. Though some traits are gendered masculine, it is precisely their gendering that strengthens the position of the women. Interestingly, another Homeric poem, The Iliad, portrays the epitome of Greek womanhood as Andromache, a woman known for her loyalty to her husband Hector as she prepares him to go off to war and her endurance of the pain and suffering that follows the defeat of his nation (Andromache). These women, Penelope and Lysistrata, invite comparison to the Greek ideal of womanhood in light of their virtues and wisdoms and scoff at silently suffering the defeat of their patriarchal countries. Like Andromache, Penelope is a good wife as she voraciously waits for word of Odysseus, offering hospitality for any inkling of his return or safety (Homer 2.153-159).

A level of disregard for masculine foibles is present in all three women and though the mortals allow for the faults and wickedness of men in their thinking, it is in concern for their countries continued existence their primary apprehensions take shape. Athena needs no mother, her mother was eaten and her understanding and kindness internalized inside the Goddess. Lysistrata is neither a girl, to be portrayed as silly and vapid, nor is she an old woman portrayed as a useless hag, yet she is still single when there are men still to be had. She is presented to the audience as above such trivialities. Lysistrata's close attention to Acropolis matter more than to her sexual nature, even though she saves Greece by ending the war so women will have men to marry. Penelope is a mother; her traits of long-suffering self-sacrifice and tolerance toward the suitors speak to her fragile female position. She could easily have married and secured her position as Queen, second only to her King, but instead she chooses to maintain the kingdom for Telemekas, while he is a child and while he is away in search of his father. Embodying Athena, and therefore an idealized Athens, in wisdom and cunning, both Lysistrata and Penelope save their countries, not with typical female traits, but with the arguably male traits of virtuosity, duty, and intellect.

Athena is embodied in both women both figuratively by means of having traits of wisdom and cunning and literally by virtue of acting through the women or upon the agency of the women by directing their thoughts or will. It is important to know a bit about the Patron Goddess Athena and her origins to understand her relationship to the masculine traits represented by our heroines in reflection of Athenian life. Athena was born in full armor, from the head of her father, the King of Gods, Zeus (Athena). The position as the full grown armored daughter of the king of Gods attests to the power attributed to this goddess. She is intelligent as a pure product of "the" male mind, the king of the Gods; she is brave, as any natural warrior must be, and unencumbered by maternal issues, as Zeus ate her mother earlier in the pregnancy. Her armor is emblematic of her military prowess; her aegis sports a Gorgon's head and the owl that usually attends her is indicative of her wisdom and cunning (Athena). Another trait of Athena represented, though not as clearly, is that of purity. Athena is a virgin Goddess (Athena). So too can these traits be found in various forms in our heroines.

Penelope, described by Homer as Penelope the Wise or prudent Penelope clearly is meant to reflect Athena's traits of wisdom and cunning (Homer 21.1). Athena 'casts sweet sleep upon her eyelids' in order to induce sleep and end Penelope's tears as she cries for Odysseus throughout the play (Homer 1.364), Athena endows Penelope with the traits of craftsmanship, strategy, and understanding, those traits which were her own (Homer 2.116). Athena also whispers into Penelope's unconscious that she should preen before the suitors to gain glory for Odysseus and then casts sleep on Penelope again to facilitate this venture by giving Penelope "immortal gifts", charms that could not be resisted by men (Homer 18.156-158). Again in through implanting the thought, Athena instructs Penelope to use the bow as a test to stall the suitors (Homer 21.1). These constitute physical embodiment; while Penelope is known to be conscious of her benefit from and generous in her supplication to Athena, Athena acts on and through Penelope though she talks directly to Telemekas and Odysseus in the tale. Even though, Penelope seems driven by Athena she is blessed with wisdom for her troubles. Examples of Penelope's cunning and intelligence are alive in her interactions with suitors, her meeting with Odysseus in verifying his identity, and in her maintenance of the country in Odysseus' absence.

Penelope's ability to stall the suitors first with her weaving and unweaving of the shroud for meant for Laertes, Odysseus' famed predecessor King and father and then with the bow contest were not inspired by genius by inspired by Athena, at least in the cased of the latter. This deception continued without suspicion until a servant girl told and is a testament to the cunning and trickery of Penelope as well as to her desire to stay in power. She would weave during the day (portrayed in the photograph to the right as weaving while being attended by suitors and servants). During the evening while others slept she would undo the work of her previous day. This would go on for three years.

Her next attempted stall did not need to last so long. Although this idea was implanted into Penelope's head by Athena, it was still Penelope's task to carry out; the contest of bows was designed with the thought in Penelope's mind that only Odysseus would be able to string the bow and make the shot and therefore she would be free of the impending encroachment of marriage, at least temporarily. It was a daring stall because if no one made the shot the suitors could have and probably would have protested Penelope's continued deceptions. She had already angered them with the shroud incident. The apparently unquestioning obedience by Penelope to Athena's telepathic godly suggestions would have presented to the other mortals as undue cunning and trickery on Penelope's part. Perhaps Penelope the Wise was more Penelope the Puppet; no matter the impetus, the tactics used to stall the suitors pale only in comparison to Penelope running the very rich country of Ithaca, as Queen, for almost 20 years.

Indeed, in the simplest formulation of saving the country, Penelope ran it unmarried for many years. Apparently, there was food for the suitors to eat after 20 years of the kingdom with no man at its head (Homer 2.107-115). Penelope ran the household, cared for and protected her son, and most importantly stayed faithful to Odysseus in all that time, even though most would have justly presumed him dead. It would have been perfectly acceptable for Penelope to marry one of the suitors but she does not marry, relinquishing the power of running a kingdom as rich as that of Odysseus. This quest for power is not usually portrayed in Greek women. Questing is the job of warrior kings like Odysseus. There is much that could be said in testament to Penelope's wisdom in running Ithaca but Homer does not say it. Instead the reader is left with simple facts of the state of affairs at the time the characters are engaged and forced to draw conclusions as to how exactly she accomplished this as Greek recognized men only in almost every business venture.

Penelope's business acumen could be attributed to Athenian gifts (Homer 2.116). Her intelligence helped her formulate a question only Odysseus would know, guarantying no trickery as to the identity of the man before her. The games of identification played between Penelope and Odysseus are both moving and reassuring. Penelope asks first for a description of her husband while Odysseus is pretending to be a stranger to his own home. Her request filled eloquently by Odysseus she begins to wonder at his knowledge of her husband. The reader is presented with the question, does Penelope realize, even on an unconscious level, that this is her husband? When the servant woman recognizes a scar on Odysseus, while washing his feet, it seems it would be an ideal time to reveal the plot to wreak vengeance upon the suitors but not only does Odysseus beckon the woman to be silent but Athena distracts Penelope, again indirectly, to obfuscate his identity (Homer 19.475-479). Athena is an agent for and against Penelope at different times in the story.

In Lysistrata, the embodiment of Athena is more direct; the heroine is portrayed as this leader of a tribe of women who go to war against men. The leader of the old women's chorus calls out to her, ""Oh Mistress of this venture and stratagem" (Henderson 66.157). This acknowledgement of Lysistrata's leadership is important. It is a public following that would never occur in Greece in the world of patriarchy. More important than her acknowledged position amongst women is her confrontation of the men as Lysistrata argues reason with the Magistrate; she takes him head on and becomes the aggressor when challenged. She describes the carrying of frightening shields by soldiers caustically, pointing out the absurdity of bearing such arms to the marketplace (Henderson 62.575). She is dismissive in her treatment of his because he is part of the corruption that causes war to continue. Speaking with condescension to the magistrate, Lysistrata, carefully and metaphorically, lays out the plot for woman led governance of the polis and berates the magistrate for his lack of action (Henderson 62. 599-610). Her superior intellect is present in her consistent deconstruction of her explanation from the metaphor of the woolen ball to that of a simpler yet more poignant metaphor of fleece just shorn. First, she talks of a finished product, separate from its origin, the ball of tangled yarn, which must be unraveled by patient manipulations in various directions. Implicit, in this metaphor, is a finished product that has simply been handled too much by human hands. Then, she talks of the problem as having a baser source, corruption of those with power, men, that allow the war to continue. Superimpose this on Greece and its current predicament; Lysistrata's example maps perfectly, the men have handled Greece and its wealth badly. The women challenge the masculine role model through their seizure of the Acropolis to preserve the traditional way of life of the community. When Lysistrata goes on to explain further, it is in a different but related metaphor. She continues beyond the "fleece just shorn" metaphor to explain the correlation between the wool, the sheep, as though it is still not evident, including and concluding with the authority of Zeus invoked as witness to the privileged status of the people the cities and the colonies of Greece (Henderson 2. 599-610).

"Hail manliest of all women", the male chorus leader blatantly greets Lysistrata as she exits the Acropolis (Henderson 80.1153). Her bravery in standing up to these men are arguing for the salvation of Greece speaks well of her loyalty to country. One question that bears on the mind is, whom did Lysistrata hope to marry after her humiliation of the men and her identification in the community as a masculine female?
Perhaps the answer is in the purity that our heroines share with their patron goddess, although Athena was physically a virgin, our heroine Penelope, clearly not a virgin because she has a child, she is portrayed in a virginal light because of her long stint of fidelity while Odysseus was gone. Because of her fidelity, it can be argued that Penelope was not seen as a woman in need of bedding but as a King's wife. Lysistrata gives us a sense of how important sexuality is portrayed in women and we know the suitors wanted Penelope as much for her "immortal gifts" as her money (Homer 18.156-158). Lysistrata shows a deeper side of purity, she is untouched by the acts of her rebellion, though she herself leads it. Lysistrata is the agency behind the action; she does not engage in the taking of the Acropolis but the defense of it. She does not have part of the silly lustful ways of the girls who withhold sexual favors from their husbands. Lysistrata is above the muck in her fidelity to the preservation of her country, her duty above her own desires. Fidelity segues nicely into the other decidedly male traits exhibited by Lysistrata and Penelope, honor.

In dire situations, both heroines act with a duty to home, hearth, and country at the pinnacle of their resemblances to Athena; remember, the wolves in the forms of suitors are at the bedchamber doors in The Odyssey and Greece is running out of men, due to unbridled war in Lysistrata. The women overcome the absence of men in tightly structured patriarchal society. Perhaps it is only in the absence of the traditional male hero of Greece can even the iconic likes of Aristophanes posit, "War shall be the business of womenfolk"(Henderson 61. 557).

Works Cited

The all and powerful Oz

Works Cited

"Andromache." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 16 Oct 2007, 22:34 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Nov 2007. .

"Athena." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Nov 2007, 19:24 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Nov 2007. .

Henderson, Jeffrey. Ed. "Lysistrata". Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women. New York: Routledge, 1996

Homer. The Odyssey. New York: Random House, 1992. 11th Edition.

Save the World

From hunger and learn something in the interim.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Freud consumes my writings

Because I have had several classes dealing with psychology I am on a Freud roll. So now all class material is being addressed through said lens. Sorry but enjoy for the entertainment value as I destroy perfectly good movies and music by examining their Oedipal content.

To come: Gendering Conquest: The New World as the Oedipal Child

Female Agency and Freud

Gender Identity: Female Agency Enters the Equation
The formation of gender in humans is a topic studied by many academic and professional fields. Psychology has done a lot of work toward theories on gender identity via personalities like Sigmund Freud and Jessica Benjamin. Freud looks at the formation of identity as the recognition of difference between the male and female child. In Freud’s Oedipal model, identification with the father and the recognition of physical similarities, by way of penis, creates a tension that results in a break with the mother and idealization of the father. The break with the mother is necessary because the mother is the source of a dependency for the child that will subvert the formation of identity, according to Freud. Benjamin claims, “difference is only truly established when it exists in tension with likeness, when we are able to recognize the other in ourselves.” (Benjamin 169) Benjamin criticizes Freud’s exclusion of the mother as a source of agency for the independence of the child. Benjamin articulates the mother’s role in the attainment of autonomy, adding a missing element to the Freudian Oedipal theories of gender formation, female agency or instrumentality in the mother. We will look at the theories of Freud and Benjamin as they relate to the development of gender identity in the heterosexual male and female child.
According to Freud there is a model of reality that contains 3 components: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id represents our most basic instincts or needs, which according to Freud are hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex. The id also represents our wishes and the difference between our wants and needs is called the primary process. The ego represents reality and our consciousness of it. The ego looks for possible ways to negotiate between the self-serving id and the realm of what is actually possible and within the scope of societal allowance. This is the secondary process. The superego is the place of deduction in our minds that store the information on proper behavior and existence based on the two most important people in the world of the child, its parents. There are two parts of the superego, the conscience, they way we punish ourselves, and the ego ideal, the way we reward ourselves. It is in the superego that we see the struggle of the Oedipal man. It is important to understand the stages of development as Freud lays them out to understand the Oedipal crisis.
The stages are oral (birth- approx. 18 months), the anal stage (18 months – four years), the phallic stage (3or 4 until 6 or 7 years), and the latent stage (5- approx. 12 y ears), and finally the genital stage, which represents our sex lives, after puberty. The Oedipal crisis occurs in the phallic stage. Sucking or biting represents the oral stage and the anal stage, by potty training joys and or woes. Masturbation or fascination with genitalia represents the phallic or Oedipal stage. In fact, Freud believes it is the recognition of the difference in genitalia, which comprise the point of tension that begins the process of individuation for the child.
The first love object is our mother because she is closely associated with the breast and the nurturing milk of the breast. The mother is also a love object of the male child specifically when he has realized he has a penis and the male child has identified with the father and seeks to possess the mother the same way the father does, sexually. This is one of the least like theories of Freud because it challenges our Western sensibilities to consciously consider sexual intimacy with a parent. The identification with father causes the break with mother and forms identity for the child. The mother becomes only a vessel for the child’s frustrations after this point; rather Freud would have us believe so. Freud assigns the character of the overbearing mother who would prefer not see her child reach autonomy. Freud asserts that women seek to nurture their children until the children are unwilling and unable to care for themselves because of their over-dependence on mother. Whereas mother is the monster no child wants to emulate, father is the idealized parent that all children wish they could be or be as like as they possibly can.
There are two types of father to be discussed when discussing the Oedipal crisis, the archaic father and the Oedipal father. The archaic father matches the mythical father in Oedipus the King insomuch that he sees the male child as a rival and seeks to have the child eliminated. In the Oedipus model this would serve for the fear of castration because that is the deterrent the father employs to prevent the child from attempting to have sex with the mother. Freud completely disregards this element opting instead for the Oedipal father whose primal tendencies are under control and is viewed more as a protector of free agency than protector of his property.
In the Oedipal model, difference is construed in respect to its binaries. Benjamin calls this gender polarity. The same phallus that stands for difference and reality also stands for power over and repudiation of women. By assuming the power to represent her sexuality as well as his, it denies women’s independent sexuality. Thus, masculinity is defined in opposition to woman; one gender is glorified in favor of vilification of the other (Benjamin 167). At the moment the male child realizes he has a penis and the female child has not, he realizes that he is different and has something, where she is lacking. Freud claims this is the point where the male assumes a superior posture. The male child can now begins to identify with his father. He has apparatus like his father and therefore his father’s power in some small measure.
The problem with the identification with the father is with the male child’s desire to be like the father entirely, just as when he was with the mother entirely in the pre-oedipal stage. In the male child’s eyes the father possesses the mother; the male child desires to possess the mother in the same way. The frustrations lie in the child’s realization that he cannot fully be with the mother in the same way the as the father. The child wants the mother for himself and this puts the child in a position of competition with the father he wants to be like.
This moment occurs in the female child as well. When the female child realizes she has no penis she becomes envious. With this recognition she assigns blame for her shortcomings onto her mother. She identifies with her mother’s condition of being merely female without the much-needed penis. The female feels she needs this penis to be powerful like her father. This need to be like her father is met by the fact that she is like her mother and the disillusionment is the moment of gender identity for the female. The female child has realized she is not male.
Sigmund Freud established psychoanalysis as a credible study with his conscientious pursuit for understanding the workings of the psyche; Freud is not alone is his diligence. Modern psychoanalyst and feminist Jessica Benjamin also seeks to understand the relationships between men, women, gender and identity. Benjamin agrees with the basic Oedipal model but finds it sorely lacking in its representation of the role of the mother in the independence of the child amongst other things.
Benjamin deviates from Freud in several specific areas. According to Benjamin, male subjugation is caused by fear of being reabsorbed into the “engulfing womb”. This means that men are scared if they do not keep their mother at bay she will swallow them whole and they will never become individuals but merely reflections of her all encompassing existence. Benjamin assures us that it is the intense male need to reconnect to the mother that the male feels “violated” by her existence and fears in weakness he will return to her ministrations (Benjamin 164). The male must always fight the desire for mother else he is plagued by feelings of dependency and helplessness. When he is able to displace this desire onto other women, he is able to feel powerful because he can have a mother substitute that both fulfills his sexual desire and his sense of autonomy because this female is not his mother. He retaliates with subjugation as a method of self-defense against the “regressive siren” that would re-engulf him in “female goodness”(Benjamin164).
Mother is the source of goodness for children, the source of life giving milk as well as the provider of every need. When the male repudiates mother for not being male, for not having a penis, he is excluded from his mother as the source of goodness. Whereas his source of goodness was once externally imposed he must now create goodness for himself, internally.
There is an immediate penalty for repudiating mother, more work for the male child who immediately begins to feel his loss.
The female child is no less susceptible to the repudiation of mother and its backlash. The female child maintains some semblance of connection to the mother in her physical similarity to mother but she resents it. This resentment is less traumatic than the male child’s complete denial of mother but it does occur. Because the connection is maintained the female child learns nurturance by virtue of her experience at the hands of the mother she resents. This creates a quandary for the female child; as the mother is both the love object and deficient object sufficient target for displaced feelings of inadequacy because she is not like the father.
Father represents power by virtue of having the penis and fulfills the male child’s fantasy of one day having similar power.
Benjamin asks us to look the relationship between the Oedipal man and his father in the myth of Oedipus the King, the source of the psychoanalytic term coined by Freud, the Oedipal man referring to a man’s desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus is first cast off to fend for himself when he could not; this begins the battle for survival between father and son. The prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother prompted the King (father) to cast Oedipus out in his instinctual desire to survive. Oedipus fled his home when he heard about the prophecy in an attempt to escape his destiny. This point to reluctance in Oedipus to take his father’s place and sleep with his mother, not desire. Oedipus also kills the King without knowing it is his father. This is not the intentional destruction of the father in jealous fever of Freud’s Totems and Taboos. This supports Benjamin’s assertion that the idea of “paternal intervention, in the most profound sense, is a projection of the child’s own desire.” (151) Apparently, Benjamin believes that it is the acceptance of the mother and father as a unit without the child that allows the child to see itself without the parents.
Theory claims father responsible for autonomy and he relegates the mother to the position of the anti-father. In a way Freud not only creates a negative image of the mother and her influence on the independence of her children but his treatment of the omission is suspect in its deliberateness. Benjamin points out the child recognizes he has a penis and the she does not; the child recognizes he is male and she is not, there is no mention of the vagina’s existence or acknowledgement of the female child as a female for its intrinsic value.
Benjamin offers that the mother plays a significant role in the formation of gender identity not just as the antihero but also as a catalyst for the establishment of independence in the recognition of difference in the “identity mirror”. It is the mother in our culture that promotes growth and independence in the child even though in Freud’s model our culture supports male superiority for which the child breaks with the mother.
Benjamin also offers another point of deviation from Freud’s Oedipal model she adds the concept of fecundity envy; this means the male is envious of female fertility. The female ability to feed the child via breast is also envied. The penis envy of the female child is seen as a critical aspect of female feelings of inferiority. Does fecund envy result in the critical aspect of male feelings of inferiority that are manifested in the subjugation of women?
For Freud the fear of physical castration by father is fathers attempt to deter the male child from copulating with the mother, and thereby replacing the father. Even though Freud seems to recognize there is danger for the male child he does not attribute it to an aggressive act by the father toward the child. Benjamin clearly challenges this omission. In the myth, the father was the initial aggressor and Oedipus the reluctant player.
Fear of castration for boys a metaphor in Benjamin’s eyes for fear of being “cut off” from the source of goodness, mother’s nurturing milk. Loosing the connection to the mother subverts the male child’s confidence. This could help explain the competitive nature of the male, as he is always trying to prove himself equal to the father and deserving of the mother.
Conclusion

Salt of the Earth in One Shot

Section One-Summary

Salt of the Earth (1953), a self-described photoplay, is narrated in the accented voice of a Mexican mine worker's wife, Esperanza. The story is set in a fictional New Mexico mining community however it is based on real events. The movie handles topics of gender, exploring the role of women in union activities and the battle for equality in their own homes while preserving the value of family and community in the struggle for equality. Topics of racism are confronted by the unconquerable hope of the miners and their wives. Essentially, white International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers representative Jencks and Mexican labor organizer Ramon try to force the mining company to discuss wages, safety issues in the mine, and equity in housing with white miners. Local law enforcement participates in the violence against the miners at the bidding of the mining company officials. Esperanza, our main character, finds herself struggling with her husband for union rights, racial equity, and fighting against her husband and the status quo for gender equity. The shot chosen for analysis is situated midway through the film. Esperanza, who is pregnant with her third child, goes into labor at the strike site as her husband begins to chase down two strike breakers; she fears violence and the reprisals from the white officers who have been waiting for a reason to further humiliate and harass the striking miners and their families. This is the opening shot of Esperanza's husband, Ramon, being handcuffed after a confrontation with the strikebreaker. This shot occurs 34 minutes and 9 seconds into the 1:32 minute long, black and white film. It is the opening shot of a 30 shot sequence.



Section Two:Shot Breakdown-Ramon handcuffed by two white officers after scab chase
Angle:Eye-level
Distance:Medium
Depth of Field:Shallow Focus
Camera Movement: STationary
Transition:Jump Cut

Section Three-Analysis

In this analysis, the wardrobe selection, the music, and the landscape come alive in the talented hands of directors and producers of Salt of the Earth. In one shot, we are allied with the Mexican worker, even as we see him being arrested. The wardrobe assigns class level and the music immediately tells us whose side we are on. The landscape is used along with camera angles and lighting to portray hierarchy and struggle. A closer look at the details of this one shot shows the resistance rhetoric of the movie.

Shot1:

Da Da Da Dummmmmm goes the music as this shot opens with Ramon Quintero being handcuffed. We are ready to experience this dreaded situation the sound clip has prepared us for. As Ramon is the person being arrested in this shot the viewer sides with him because the music is ominous and creates the feeling something bad is going to happen to him. Through the previous 33 minutes of the film, the viewer has come to sympathize with Ramon so the music sets us up for the action to come. The music sets the tone for the scene but the camera angle tells us a lot about the message the producers hoped to convey.

The camera is approximately waist-level, a medium distance shot, and angled upward. It captures an image of the two officers and Ramon against the grayed sky and an upward angled hill. Every aspect of the mise-en-scene compliments the struggle inherent in the situation Ramon was in. The hill and the upward angle impresses upon the viewer the uphill battle against authority Ramon faced. The officer staged to the left of Ramon is higher on the hill than Ramon and Ramon even higher than the officer on the right. This implies that though the authorities or establishment have a higher position, the struggle is still worth fighting because you could gain some ground. This potential for improvement upon one's situation is a main theme in the movie.

The distance in the shot gives a view from the waist up on the men. This allows us to feel we are close enough to actually see what is going on between them. We are given a good view of the faces in a shot at this distance usually and any deviation from a face view indicates a motive to be analyzed. While we are close enough to see, we are also distanced enough to not feel embroiled in the danger. This seems like an important choice so the viewer does not feel overly connected to the action. In this shot, the connection the viewer has to the scene is one of equivalence without solidarity. The viewer is shown enough to make an informed decision on the action but not so much as to overwhelm.

The importance of the hill and the upward angle are subtle because everything behind Ramon and the officers is slightly out of focus. The use of shallow focusing helps the viewer to understand the struggle ahead is unclear. The important action right now is the immediate peril Ramon is in, or perhaps the world is in. The hill's presence indicates hope but the blurry viewpoint indicates a future possibility that may be a long hard way off. Salt of the Earth allies the viewer with the mine workers subtly; shooting from the waist level also gives a sense of correlation between the viewer and what is happening onscreen. The camera position is second only to the wardrobe choices for the establishment of hierarchy and class in the movie.

The sides are clearly marked with the everyday clothing of the worker, Ramon, compared to that of the officers. Visible are the two white officers struggling with Ramon to get his hands into the handcuffs. The two officers flank Ramon and their faces are partially covered by the wide brimmed hats they wear as part of their neutral colored uniforms. Although, the film is in black and white the shading of the colors is apparent. The choice of officer's dress could have simply been indicative of the standard uniform for officers in the 1950s however, the wide brims do much in this shot to obscure the officers' faces; the suggestion is present that their faces should be obscured in shame of their actions. The officers' hats are also shaded a bit darker than their uniforms. This is important because we expect the good guys to wear the white or light colored hats and in this shot Ramon's hat is lighter. The neutral color in the officers' uniforms blends into the scenery of the New Mexico desert. The neutrality of their uniforms juxtaposed against the neutrality law enforcement officers are expected to show, but do not in this case, highlights the corruption of the officers.

The workers are better dressed than one would expect in a mining situation. Ramon's clothing appear sturdy; the working mining family would have generally been very dirty and their clothing thread bare and tattered. Ramon has a pen in the pocket of his shirt. Even though these miners are portrayed as very impoverished, their clothing are only lightly soiled and it gives them an elevation in class, as if to say they are not as lowly as one may think. In fact, not only are they not as lowly but they are not just laborers, these people think, write, and perhaps have a just cause.

Although the officers and strikers are at the same sight all day, the officers are clean and the workers have a thin veneer of dust covering them. This costuming choice shows the director wanted to portray the officers as clean outside but dirtied by their corrupt actions and the workers as touched by their circumstance but not sullied. The music ends as this shot ends, abruptly and we cut to the next shot. This transition leaves the images of the final handcuffing and the beginning of the next step of the journey to the imagination of the viewer.

In one shot, Salt of the Earth, convinces the viewer to champion the cause of the working man. The power of resistance rhetoric in film production is evident in this shot analysis. The themes of social consciousness are woven into the fabric of the movie as the worker's portrayed are woven into the fabric of a society that equates race with class.

Home of the Brave and Freudian Concepts -the psyche version

Treating Psychosomatic Illness in Home of the Brave (1949)

A paralyzed African-American soldier, Private Peter Moss begins to walk again only when he confronts his fear of forever being an "outsider". The soldier's compatriots include his lifelong friend Finch, whose death leaves him racked with guilt, a racist loudmouth Corporal, and Sergeant Mingo, all white. In one of the film's crucial scenes, the camp doctor attempts to force Moss to overcome his paralysis by yelling a racial slur at him, in an attempt to recreate the traumatic event at the root of the paralysis. Moss suffers a somatic illness, paralysis of the legs. This occurs after he is forced to leave a wounded friend to save the maps they had come for. Complicating this was an argument, had moments before the friend was shot, where his friend almost used a racial epitaph. Though unsaid, the damage was done; Moss understood and was hurt and angry. When his friend is shot Moss suffers survivors guilt from different avenues. First, Moss felt guilty for leaving his friend behind and especially because he was awarded for the good work of retrieving the maps. He also felt guilty because he was glad he had survived but Moss does not immediately recognize this.
Treatment in Home of the Brave was considered successful because Moss could walk. Supposedly from this point on, Moss will never again kowtow to prejudice. The apex of the film is not the discovery that fears of not being accepted are at the root of Moss’ inability to walk, as the film would lead you to believe, but in the moment the character accepts that he is just like everyone else despite the way others may see him. It is in the final scene that this occurs. Sergeant Mingo and Moss are waiting for transport home; they discuss Moss’ treatment. Moss finds freedom from his neurosis with the epiphany that he is “just like everyone else.” Not only is the back-story of the somatic paralysis valuable for elucidations on Freud’s thoughts on repetition required in treating traumatic neuroses but also it provides a platform for examining the scene with the doctor where the evolution of 25 years of psychoanalytic practice takes place within the framework of one sequence (18).
Moss was sent to a psychiatric doctor because other doctors could find nothing physically wrong with him. The nature of somatic illness is a physical representation of a psychological problem. The Doctor knows he will only have Moss under his care for a short time so he attempts to give him tools to combat his “illness”. Moss’ illness is manifested rage at his own feelings of inferiority and of not belonging because he is black; Finch, his lifelong friend, called him Nigger. Somatic illness is the projection of internal threats outward; one is more vulnerable to internal threats because one has no means of fortifying against oneself as one could against an external threat. Moss was better able to deal with the loss of his walking ability it was an acceptable outward threat to replace the internal, more difficult internal threat of truly being inferior (30). The interaction between Moss and the Doctor is wrought with the tension of the memories being experienced by Moss as the internal threat touches upon the borderline between repression of his fears and acknowledgment of them.
This scene is just after the hypnosis where the Doctor discusses what Moss remembers. The Doctor questions Moss and corrects the answers when Moss recounts incorrectly. Early psychoanalysis consisted of interpretation according to Freud. This is clearly the Doctor having full control of the session, decoding for the patient the diagnosis as he sees it to be. “Do you remember how you got out?” the Doctor fires the question rapidly, Freud points out the “art” was to uncover resistances to the diagnosis as quickly as possible (18). “Mingo” answers Moss. “NO. Not Mingo it was TJ. TJ carried you”, the Doctor informs him. “Oh Yeah” Moss replies weakly. He continues to question Moss about his feelings when Finch used the racial slur and tells Moss this is the cause of the paralysis. He explains Moss was angry at Finch and was glad he was shot, but not in the way Moss feels so guilty about. Moss feels guilty because he thinks his feeling of gladness was because of what Finch said. He was glad it was Finch who was shot and not he. These mixed feelings of guilt and shame cause Moss to feel he should not have been able to leave Finch; the somatic conversion occurs and Moss could not physically leave due to paralysis. After explaining all this to Moss, the Doctor tells him that he is not so different in an attempt to bring the crux of the problem to the light for Moss, the objective being to bring what was unconscious into the conscious mind (18). He tells him many soldiers feel the same way when they see a buddy die or injured. He asks Moss to repeat the explanations and Moss does. Repeating is an important step in therapeutic success and it plays a number of roles in this film as discussed further on in this essay. The Doctor then asks him if he believes the explanation. Moss merely replies, “I want to”. He explains, “Sure I believe it up here (points to head) because you say so but I don’t really know if I really believe it up here (points to heart). I’m sorry Doc.” It is not enough, as early psychoanalysts did, to tell the patient what is wrong with them (18). The patient can only be cured when they have as Freud puts it “conviction of the correctness of the construction that has been communicated to him”; he believes and understands the diagnosis (19). Freud’s use of the word “construction” makes clear that the actual work of putting together the cause with the effect is still being done by the analyst. Now it is the patient’s work to understand the steps needed to free his conscious mind from the repressed desire building upon the initial work of the therapist.
This is where Hollywood movie making apparatus take creative license with the psychoanalytic process because the Doctor recreates the traumatic event by using a racial slur to anger Moss into walking, moments after explaining the diagnosis. This repetition is important but not exactly the impetus to making everything all better. Moss relives the moment of anger instead of remembering it. Because the patient did not believe his guilt was related to surviving but was related to his guilt over his anger, the traumatic event treated was the betrayal of his friend. The traumatic event of experiencing prejudice over ones ethnicity that results in feelings of shame and inferiority are deeply entwined with Moss’s desire to be like everyone else. War itself is another event that affects our main character and cannot be separate from the others because the natures of the traumas are the same, shame and guilt. The overlapping causes for Moss’ condition is another element of repetition. Because remembering places the traumatic event in the past, it is in remembering that healing begins to take place. Identifying the events causing the problem is, again, the “construction” work. Repeating the event in “real time” emotionally with enough force to generate movement in his limbs is in conflict with Freud’s view that the analyst must ensure the patient “maintains some aloofness” (19). There is no aloofness in this scene so Moss should not have been able to walk.
Not only should Moss continue to be unable to walk but also the act of transference needs to take its final steps, relinquishment of the doctor from his role as proxy. The treatment is only beginning although the movie cures Moss for entertainment purposes. The Doctor took on the roll of Finch, as aggressor, in using the racial term against Moss and a proxy for the justified anger Moss felt toward Finch but could not display because Finch was dead and he had left him there. This transference, as it is called when the doctor takes on the role of the “other” during treatment, is a tenuous line to walk because as these bonds are built to encourage abandonment of the resistances to treatment the patient may exhibit (18). Transference is another form of repetition needed to create a bond of trust between the analyzed and analyst. However, in order for treatment to be fully realized the patient must be able to de-realize the analyst.
When simply interpreting the diagnosis for Moss does not work, the Doctor then uses the next evolutionary step Freud outlines and asks the patient to confirm the doctor’s construction from his own memory (18). This repeating, alluded to earlier, is not as negative as the previous version where the patient is reliving a traumatic act. In this scene repetition is also used as a therapeutic tool. Moss is told repeatedly by the Doctor that he is “no different, no different at all.” This is said in a few ways but the message is the same and clear, the Doctor is trying to impress upon Moss that his problem lies within his ability to believe for himself that he is no different from others. Again, just telling him over and over that he is no different could only illicit the response that Moss “want[s] to” believe.
Litany is used, as a rhetorical tool several times throughout the film, to introduce the audience to the emotional intensity the character is experiencing. In the scene just before Moss encounters Finch, Moss cries woefully as he drops to his knees chanting “Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Nigger” pounding his legs with his fists. The film offers the audience the cause of his “illness” in this moment if they can see it without the onscreen explanation to come. When Moss cradles the dying Finch in his arms he rocks him back and forth whispering in despair, “No God” repeatedly. Moss presents for the audience yet another chance to experience his pain when he finds he cannot walk. His distress is palpable as he first says, “No, I can’t leave him” referring to leaving Finch so they can rendezvous with the rescue boat, then increasing as he realizes that he cannot physically leave. Moss utters excitedly, “I can’t move, NO! I can’t. I can’t walk. I can’t move, I can’t.” He is ultimately carried to safety. The litany of the Doctor is no different from that of Moss. The Doctor says to Moss, “Listen to me. You are no different” and that is submitted to the audience to understand and believe, thus curing society of the malady of racial classifications.
This brings us to the final step in the evolution of psychoanalytic practice covered in the movie and the final scene, the moment of conviction. In this scene Moss is talking with a liberal Sergeant Mingo about his treatment. Moss tells Mingo that treatment is an ongoing process and Mingo claims he understands just how Moss felt. He told him he has often felt grateful that it was the guy next to him that got shot or killed instead of him. This moment in the scene highlights the epiphany Moss experiences immediately. Excitedly, Moss asks Mingo to “ repeat what you just said Mingo.” Mingo repeats several lines and at insistent prompting from Moss, he finally repeats, “Sure I’ve felt like that, everyone has”; elaborating he repeats the sentiment that every soldier, in that situation, has a moment where he is glad it was not his turn to die. This above all the Doctor’s exaltations provides Moss with the “conviction” necessary for cure. His buddy Mingo had echoed the thoughts that had shamed Moss, causing him guilt. This single moment of solidarity released Moss from his guilt about surviving because other soldiers had the same experience and this proved he was like everyone else. The shame of feeling inferior is also relinquished because now Moss is able to absorb the rest of the doctor’s construction because of his newfound solidarity with humanity. Because Moss could believe he was no different than anyone else he can appropriately place his anger at Finch’s careless words in the past, in its safe position of remembering not reliving.
Psychoanalytic elements of repetition are replete in the film Home of the Brave. The use of litany in the characters dialogue supports the sense of work needed to combat traumatic neuroses. The audience participates in the therapy of Moss. The audience is reminded, as Moss is told repeatedly, that Moss is no different from any other soldier, black or white. In the time the film was produced, 1949, this message would have met an audience who lived segregation daily. The audience would have to work in viewing this film to combat the traumatic event of racism present in their own world. Moss is compelled into repetition of the initial trauma of recognizing his difference when his friend points it out; the audience is guided through repetition in order to liberate the repressed thoughts of racial inequalities in a safe manner, leading to healing for both. The guide, the Doctor for Moss, is also the psychoanalytic device of repetition in the form of litany for the audience. The evolution of psychoanalytic treatment follows the natural steps one takes to resolve repressed impulses. The interpretation of the neurosis by the analyst, the presentation of the diagnosis to the patient, and the final epiphany the patient must come to are paralleled by the occurrence of the initial traumatic event, recognizing the compounding, loosely related subsequent traumatic events, and finally the epiphany experience of understanding and believing the truth or falseness of the perceptions. Home of the Brave was billed as a “psychological thriller” and indeed it offers a wealth of Freudian concepts to explore.


Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: WW Norton, 1961.
Robson, Mark. Home of the Brave. Stanley Kramer Productions. 1949. University of California, Berkeley. Media Resource VHS: 999:3670.

“A great feast of language and the stolen scraps”:

“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name”, not only is it known what play this is from, most know the scene (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.33-49). The lines invoke memories of some high school production foisted upon us by some sadistic instructor. Shakespeare’s words are well known and often used in our modern society; is the intent of the writer, William Shakespeare clear in its usage today? Examination and speculation are the only chances at understanding what Shakespeare meant when he wrote some of his more remembered lines. Politics, religion, the belief of the super-natural, and recorded history, all form a context by which his original meaning could be shaped. What forms our understanding and use of Shakespeare’s phrasings is being formed as this paper is being written; it is our politics, beliefs, and current living conditions that dictate our interpretation. The language and expressions, in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, compose common phrases in our society, keeping forever young the plight of the doomed lovers and immortalizing the author.
Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are challenging works to analyze for scholars much less young people who are exposed in a compulsory systematic attempt to acquaint them with literature. The problem with teaching Shakespeare in high school is the plays were written to be enjoyed as theatre productions. The amateur performances of high school actors do not deliver the same vivid imagery and flow of language of a professional performance. Shakespearean study should begin earlier in the educational system; videos, if not live performances, should at least be shown by sixth grade. Familiarity with the language will assist a student greatly when it comes time to read the text and analyze the material in high school and college. The nuances, delivered by creative interpretation, form the full beauty of the language and images that students today could appreciate if seen, though are lost when only read.
Shakespeare’s words are well known and often used in our modern society; is the intent of writer, William Shakespeare clear in its usage today? There are some very popular lines in the most famous, oft quoted, Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet. Fashionable in his day, legendary in ours, William Shakespeare is often referred to as The Bard. Shakespeare is the benchmark by which other creators of epic poetry are measured. His words are as familiar to our daily speech as their meanings are a reflection of our lives.
There is a general lack of appreciation for language in America today. We use words but have no idea what they really mean or even where they originate. It is not necessary to know these details, one may think, but it provides the speaker with additional reference and context. Ancient poet and satirist, Horace reminds us, “Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all are weighed down in unending night, unwept and unknown, because they lacked a sacred bard” (bardquotes). Our experience is made richer by exposure to the writings of William Shakespeare. Though many not know or care from whence our phrases originate, we have an interpretation in our minds, formed the moment we heard the words uttered.
One very familiar phrase is used in a milder form today than the original language suggests. “A pair of star-crossed lovers”, is now a reference to any couple who seem fated not to be together by virtue of opposition of almost any nature (Romeo and Juliet, Prologue, 1-8). Usually quoted without the rest of the line it should read “…A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;” This changes the intensity and meaning of the words. The meanings are as fluid as time as generations and nations grow up and grow older. Whether the words generate thoughts of an “ill-fated” relationship sacrificing their love to warring familial factions or a pair of rebellious, sex obsessed, spoiled, rich teenagers, and their suicide pact, we are challenged to find ourselves and our own interpretations in the words of The Bard.
“A rose by any other word would still smell as sweet”; you would think there is nothing to be said about so simple a phrase(Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.44). There is some scholarly conversation about the word, word. Is the proper phrase, “A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet”? We don’t actually know which way it was originally written. The actual text is in question different interpretations exist. The meaning behind all the renditions have a common enough theme to surmise the overall concept was imparted to the audience.
One very popular saying has a very different concept than is intended in Shakespeare’s time. The term “wild goose chase” indicates a futile search, in our usage today. In the time of the Bard, it was a reference to a cross-country horse race of follow-the-leader (Holland). The term goose, as used in context, is also double-talk for a prostitute of Shakespeare’s day. We actually see some variation on that use of goose when women are referred to as “chicks” or the even less flattering term for crack addicted prostitutes “chicken-heads”. We can take liberty, as many have done before, in using a common fowl to replace the goose. Our language is ever changing in meaning as we expand our understanding of words and the human experience.
“A plague a both your houses” delivers the pragmatic Mercutio upon his death, not once but three times (3.1.90, 998-99,105). He is in the throws of death and curses the warring families in as strong and vile a manner as he can. The expression today simply means damn you. It is not as commonly used as other Shakespearean quotes but few will be unable to cite the author if queried. The original curse is far more sinister than damnation. In a time when the Plague, a horrific killing disease that frequently ravaged the world from the 14th to the 17th century, was prevalent, this curse takes on new meaning. It is a far viler and crueler curse when you examine the historical context.
Of course, no scholar or layman wordsmith can be certain the intent of Master Bard, William Shakespeare, so we content ourselves to quote him to express our deepest thoughts and emotions. If Shakespeare intended for us to examine the human condition, he accomplishes his purpose. His plays and sonnets have been performed and read for 400 years; their content, meaning, language have been a source for study and examination for as long a time. We take Shakespeare’s words and isolate them from their original context, changing the meaning in the name of academic, social, and cultural interpretation. Not stolen, but appropriated, many of Shakespeare’s words and expressions would not be recognizable if Shakespeare read them today.
We make assumptions on his choices and purpose for choosing the subject matter he does based on our knowledge of history, the compilation of bits of information from records of property, and letters and critiques by his contemporaries. There is a gift left to society, beyond the sheer poetry of the words; we have a generation of our own in which to interpret the meanings set against our cultural backdrop. We can infuse our interpretation with the historical archives to represent our politics, beliefs, and current living conditions. We have been given “a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps”, as paraphrased from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost (feast).

Theories of Socialization Defined

Modern education presents as a system of rites of passages from one class structure to another, causing the growth of the individual and the evolution of society (123). The traditional socialization theory in education is graphically displayed in a flowchart of sub-theories in John Meyer’s article “Education as an Institution”. Socialization theory indicates the existence of an organized set of socializing experiences, in this case school attendance (125). People who have education are thought to be more proficient and principled by virtue of their capacity to learn and follow through in academia. It is important to note attendance is the meter in this theory; quality of the school attended does not matter (123). Socialization theories address not only students but the impact of sub-theories on non-students as well. The theory of socialization is considered weak because it is hard to prove. While there is data to support education is “socially progressive”, there is little research to support the other two of the three basic principles of socialization. Also defined under the banner of socialization are such concepts as allocation and legitimation.
Allocation
Educational allocation speaks directly to the educational institution’s ability to confer status. A student is categorized by his academic achievement and allotted position and rank in society. Allocation is the set of rules by which this classification occurs; these are the most socializing property of education according to Meyers (128).
Within the structure of educational allocation are the implications. If students adopt social qualities based on the authority (chartering) of their schools to confer status (by virtue of degrees) then students without such conference are handicapped. There is also lagged socialization, which suggests that one will perform only to the standard that one is expected to perform (129). Degrees and certifications become the badges of social identity; they are totemic. The acknowledgement of the institution is indeed the acknowledgement and approval of society.
Legitimation
“Formalized educational systems are, in fact, theories of socialization institutionalized as rules at the collective level (132)”. Legitimation is discussed four-fold, as a theory of knowledge and theory of personnel and from the position of the elite and the citizen (133).
When looking at a theory of knowledge one considers the material measured in the world of academia. Those allotted this authority are responsible for the elevation of their field by virtue of their elite educations. This is where suggested models of societal growth and evolution have their circumstantial strength. Meyers explains it by saying, “the expansion of education expands the number of functions that are brought under social control”. It is this expansion of knowledge that should expand society through its diligent inquiry (134).
Another legitimating effect of education is in the certification process. Ceremonies like graduation and diplomas indicate competence. This is the sectioning portion of allocation theories. Teachers teach, therefore in order to learn we seek the authority of the educational system. Doctors heal, so we seek the authority of a physician when we are sick. This deference is inherent to our social structure and predicated upon educational credentialing. These are the elements of elite education. Because they have specialized education the citizenry confers on them a special status (135).
Juxtaposed is the education of the masses. For the general public, education is seen as a controlling mechanism, a cohesive bond of citizenry. Mass education assumes a commonality that is based on curriculum and common requirements. It assumes because everyone attends school, we all learn the same things. Meyers posits it does not matter what people learn about culture, mass education suggests a common culture (136). Finally, there are the privileges extended to the citizen by virtue of his membership in this common culture. Mass education redefines the individual as part of the citizenry (136).
Problematic
There are some problems in these theories; human agency is not considered. No societal influences outside of education looked at as potential causes for the correlation between education and adult success. The positions allotted by education, once determined and sanctioned to failure or success, can be altered by impetus.
Most jobs do not require the level of education the average applicant has however, the glut of educated citizens creates a competition, raising the level of education required to obtain a position. This maybe the origins of fears that over-education could destabilize society (139).
There is no direct evidence that individual competence leads to an improved society. It makes sense that increased knowledge would lead to improvements in society and there are technological advancements that support the suggestion. However, there is no measurable data that shows a one on one correlation.
Conclusion
Education has a purpose and power beyond imparting information to be learned in rote. Education can no longer be looked at as a form of socialization alone but as an institution with socializing effects of its own.

Sociology of Education

1. How does the idea of cultural capital extend our understanding of education and social mobility?
Cultural capital is a concept that draws on the work of Bourdieu which claims cultural experiences in the home setting create a pool of resources that form an atmosphere that enhances academic achievement (210). Studies show students whose parents participate in their education were more likely to do well (209). The factors affecting parent participation were parents’ belief in their ability (and consequently their right) to interact with teachers and resources available to the family for expenses like transportation, childcare, and time lost from work. Other factors are the amount of information the parent has about school by virtue of community socialization and the parent’s view of the roles between home and school. These factors comprise cultural resources which strengthen family-school ties (218). Parents in the working class community defer to the teachers on matters of education, rarely interfering because of a belief in their own educational inferiority. Teachers are seen as the professionals, not to be questioned, and consequently the division of labor is established in lower class educational settings (216). Parents in the middle class community felt equal to teachers in education and thus capable of participating in their child’s instruction. Finally, there is community socialization in middle-class neighborhood which leads to more information being shared amongst parents. In working class families more emphasis is on family relationships. There is less interaction with different class levels and therefore less opportunity to transverse class levels (219). The better a child does in school, the better the child’s chances for success in the occupational setting because education is the legitimizing system of our country.
2. Discuss how schools as organizations are loosely coupled systems.
Schools are considered loosely coupled systems because the organization is comprised of independently run parts linked under the basic goal of education. Teachers develop curriculum, students learn and produce work, administrators tend budgets and staffing; while each has a role that intersects with the other, they also have the “separateness” indicative of loosely coupled systems.
Looking at the entire educational system we can note that there is no federal curriculum but there is federal funding of education and a Department of Education. One of the problems of loosely coupled system is the lack of oversight; in the educational system this can be seen when looking at federally funded education. The government provides the money but individual schools control the distribution of those funds, in some cases resulting in gross mismanagement that can go unnoticed because of the disconnection of the federal benefactor with the local disbursing agency. The problems with loosely coupled systems are further magnified when looking at educational systems. While the problems of a loosely coupled educational system include lack of communication between systems, failure to notice when a part of the system no longer operates properly or is in need of adjustment, and vulnerability to small changes, the loose coupling allows the system as a whole to flourish because of its lack of interdependence. If one school, program, or curriculum fails it does not cause a breakdown in the entire system.


3. What are the costs and benefits of education as an industry versus education as a social institution?
Education is seen as an industry because of its tendency to change with the economic needs of the community. One cost of this shift is a loss of legitimacy because schools are being seen not in the original context of education, to produce individuals who are civic minded and well rounded, but as organizations “subject to market pressure” (439). Academic programs like art and music are replaced with technological or vocational programs. One of the “goods” provided by the educational industry is the classroom experience. Classes are offer based on popularity and interest not for providing a well rounded education. The more students in a class the more money the school makes. This is true of lower grades as well; the more students attend the more money the school generates. Schools are profit generating organizations and must be run as such. Students are seen as customers as books and supplies are sold and meals are offered by fast food chains that often pay for their presence on campuses. These costs may seem high but the benefits are significant. Due to the presence of corporations on campuses, there is increased funding for programs that may not have existed previously. The ability to shift focus in curriculum helps the student stay viable in the local job market because the school will most likely offer classes that are occupationally promising for the local area.
Education as a social institution focus’ on the original intent of education to create civic minded individuals who would uphold freedom and civility in our nation. This approach unifies the people of the nation but does not meet today’s modern day need for flexibility.



4. Discuss education in terms of contest mobility and sponsored mobility.
Movement from one social class to another roughly defines the term upward mobility. Education in America is seen as a system of contest mobility. Contest mobility is a bootstrap system where the strong excel and all have an equal and fair shot to attain elite status in society. Sponsored mobility, which is dominant in English culture but also present in American society, is when one is selected to join the ranks of the elite by an elite agent. The English select their elite early through testing and social factors to perpetuate their value system. Both English and American systems have aspects of both contest and sponsored mobility.
In the educational setting the mode of mobility makes suggestions about the values of the society which employs it. Sponsored mobility appears to value its perpetuation of elite culture as opposed to contest mobility which values achievement and education is merely a vehicle for that end. In the sponsored mobility model only those who are candidates for elite status receive elite education while, the contest system allows everyone a chance to excel on their own merit. There is a suggestion of equality in the contest system.
There are other less altruistic elements of the contest system. The contest system creates a sense that anyone can rise to the top; this false sense of anything is possible is often disillusioning to students. In the sponsored system there is a sense of once not selected for the elite track that one does not deserve to challenge the status quo. Each system has positive aspects as well as negative. The fact that both systems exist within each society creates a balance within the void that would otherwise exist if only one model existed.



5. Discuss school reform in the United States.
The impetus for reform in the United States falls into four primary aims that are cyclical in nature (278). Reforms are aimed at increasing efficiency in administration, and excellence in the process of teaching and learning, to create equity or a social equalizer, to enhance the learning experience with activities, not necessarily academic. These reform projects seem to revolve around liberal and conservative politics. Some years are decidedly liberal and equity and enhancement projects prosper; some years are conservative run and programs of streamlining or improving education prosper. Excellency reforms are the cause of the “No Child Left Behind Act”. This bill was overwhelmingly passed in both the House and the Senate. This act calls for high testing standards and significant credentialing of teachers.
The problem is the administrations of these standards are left up to individual states. An example of the loosely coupled educational system, the lack of consistency is both a boon and the very reason for inefficiency. Another current reform which may work better is the Comprehensive School reform. It allots federal money to poorer school districts who agree to make significant changes.
School reform is most effective in middle class school systems because parents are more involved and commit time as a resource. Poor schools do not fair as well in reform models because the underlying social problems are not addressed and the resources are not available.

Modern Apocalyptic Fears: Corruption and Possession in the Atomic and Cold War Age

The apocalyptic is the story of impending doom or widespread devastation. Primarily characterized by stories of the end of the world by natural disaster, disease, invasion, or war, the modern apocalyptic narrative represents humanity’s fear of realizing he is his own worst enemy. Corruption and possession correspond to twin evils of humanity in the modern apocalyptic narrative, the internal and the external. The external is merely routine or innate: the desire to have things, to eat, to protect one’s self and kin. That which is external is not malicious but instinctive. External is the corporate greed displayed in the marketing of fallout shelters and home improvement items. The desire to possess is not limited to the corporate world. Materialism becomes a form of magical protection from nuclear harm. This profiteering behavior is the function of a corporation; profit, not public interests fuels the belly of the corporate beast. This same behavior is seen in the individual as he loses his sense of self in favor of survival. In the apocalyptic genre, self-possession is questioned, signifying the fear that humankind will not have the ability to maintain its wits or ethics in a crisis. The loss of self-possession leads to the final step in the ultimate destruction of the world, corruption. Corruption gives voice to the fear that man faces annihilation from within. Corruption represents itself through material and moral decay, a litter on the landscape of the devastated world, the proverbial insult to nuclear injury. The fear of the world’s end is only surpassed by the fear humankind will be the cause of that end. Possession, the external evil, is the lesser of the fears that motivate the apocalyptic echoes heard throughout the atomic and cold war age media and literature; it is corruption, the internal reflection of evil most feared by humanity.
Corporations use the fear of the nuclear family to profit by creating public service films, primarily intended to lend credibility to their advertisement claims that their products somehow contributed to civil defense goals. The House in the Middle, a 1954 documentary film produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration, is an example of the commercialization of civil defense. The companies were aware these products would not be very useful against nuclear attack. Corporations took the initiative to sooth public fears and the advantage to profit simultaneously. Corporations’ sponsorship of these projects also furthered the idea of the ability to defeat or defend against the dangers of nuclear use with good moral fiber and a fastidious ethic. These infomercials allied the behavior and habits of people to whether or not they deserved to survive nuclear bombardment. Those who had the means to purchase products for their homes or maintain a well kept home were deemed worthy of survival by virtue of their wealth. It seemed a total denial of reality but the apocalyptic does not require reality as a foundation. Mass hysteria created by fears of atomic destruction demanded action of any sort. "Beauty, cleanliness, health, and safety are the four basic doctrines that protect our homes, our cities," decries the documentary. The mere suggestion that a clean home, properly painted, would do anymore than minimize the destruction was enough to allow the affluent citizen to feel they could do something.
Peace of mind would not be available to those who could not afford to bomb proof their lives. For these people there would be chaos as they struggled to find lodging with sympathetic neighbors or public shelters that may have been ill stocked. The “haves” would be assaulted by the “have nots” simply for survival’s sake. A regular storyline in the apocalyptic tale is the loss of personal ethics and the loss of humanity in the face of impending doom. After the disaster, people would try to gain access to existing shelter; the owners of those shelters would be ready to protect them for their own survival. There are a few problems at this point. First, many people stocked only what supplies they felt they and their immediate family would need for a prescribed amount of time. Additional people would constitute a drain on resources and a danger to the family’s survival. Then, one must consider the perfect stranger who is destitute and willing to kill for his own shelter, in this time of unimaginable horrors. This person would have to be dealt with in a swift and possibly deadly manner to protect the dwelling and its inhabitants. Finally, there is the simple problem of logistics. Most shelters were rather small and could only accommodate a few. People would like to believe they would act with honor and courage in the face of disaster and are shocked to learn that they act with animalistic instinct to survive. This loss personal principle is a great human fear.
Fallout and bomb shelter advertisements of the atomic age expose fears of man’s own propensity for destruction Fallout scenarios force the one to face his own ability for brutality, not only in the protection of the shelter, for the sanctity of his family but also in his mad desire for possessions. A responsible shelter owner would plan for looters and crashers. Materials and food items necessary for survival would be horded and one’s fellow man would be the enemy of all enemies as his survival competes with those without. Some apocalyptic themes envision an utopist view where humanity would bond together for the benefit of all. Most reveal themes of the deeply embedded evils of men in the face of disaster. This is where the fear of loosing self-possession turns to the dreaded task of facing the truth of one’s situation. When humankind loses his moral and ethical ground, he loses his humanity and corrupts his soul.
Desolation is a component of apocalyptic corruption; the genre sees the earth as an eventual wasteland. In the popular novel by author Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles, this corruption of property and person, reverently handled through the character Spender, is poignantly portrayed. Spender empathizes with the Martians through his examination of the remains of their civilization. He sadly speaks of the inevitable defilement of the Martian landscape with human trash. Prophetically Spender says, “There’d be time for that later; time to throw condensed-milk cans in the proud Martian canals; time for copies of the New York times to blow and caper and rustle across the lone gray Martian sea bottoms; time for banana peels and picnic papers in the fluted, delicate ruins of the old Martian valley towns.” Spender is soon proven correct when Biggs, “…carried six empty bottles and dropped them one by one into the deep blue canal waters. They made empty, hollow, drowning sounds as they sank.” Litter may seem very different from desolation; it is the desecration of the formerly proud Martian landscape that demonstrates corruption. It is the carelessness of littering a new planet that proves the corrupting influence of man.
The theme of corruption is not limited to the physical land. It is feared, in its most heinous form, as the corruption of the human soul. The corruption of the soul happens when one allows their basest needs or desires to overrule their moral or ethical self. The soul is corrupted when one no longer reacts to atrocities or is silent in the face of obvious wrongdoing. The Martian population littered the landscape with their bodies decimated by chicken pox, from contact with an earlier crew. A member of the space crew, Hathaway, acknowledged the cause of this desolation was their arrival, though unintentional. The sense of the land being empty of living people is echoed in the moral emptiness at being the cause of the destruction. Desecration of what was once sacred, the party atmosphere in the face of obvious and overwhelming devastation, is the internal face of human evil. The next inhabitants of the now littered death-filled town are eulogizing the end of one civilization to inaugurate the beginning of their own. Corruption is the barrenness of the soul. When humans no longer acknowledge their culpability in the defilement of a people or a land, the existence of one’s humanity becomes questionable.
Ruthless pursuits of technology, the inability to protect ourselves from alien invasion, or nature’s revenge are a few of the vehicles that drive our truest fears; in the apocalyptic narrative, it is through greed, deficiency, or carelessness that the world is destroyed. The media, literature of the atomic, and cold war age deliver images reflecting the fears of this era’s population. Dropping the atomic bomb forced Americans to reevaluate their own ethical and moral ideology. Corporations have no ideology to uphold, save for profit. From commercial hawking of civil defense related products to the not so subtle messages of class espoused in the infomercials, corporate America used public fear to generate profits. Prevalent amongst those fears are those of the internal and external evil. Possession, the external, can be seen in two ways, self-possession or self-control and ownership. The desire to survive overwhelms the sensibilities of the individual and again man faces his own self as he deals with primal instinct to survive. Rioting, looting, hording, are all classical examples in the modern apocalyptic narrative denoting a lack of self-possession. Class dictates who deserves to survive and who does not; the person who can afford to paint the house he owns or buy a fall out shelter to protect his family is the one who deserves to live. The idea of possession being fearful enough, corruption is the greater concern of those of the atomic and cold war age. Most feared was the realization that they were the creators of the means of their own potential destruction. America manufactured and dropped the first bomb of titanic destruction. The fear of retribution was a major subconscious concern because now that this weapon of mass destruction had been created, the use of it against its creators was possible. The apocalyptic narrative did not start with the atomic age and its associated psychology yet it is in the literature and media of the atomic age that the fears of apocalypse are made palpable.

Identity

Unable to be assimilated, unable to pass unnoticed he consoles himself by association with the dead or at least the absent. -Fanon 65
Fanon writes from the unique perspective of a psychiatrist, a militant, and a black man. Black Skin, White Masks looks at the effects of colonization on the identity of the colonized. Fanon examines the formation of a new identity when one is subjected to consistent degradation and devaluation, as in a setting of colonization. Throughout his narrative Fanon shapes revolution as the only means of reestablishing a healthy self-image. For Fanon it is not enough to escape oppression; one must cast it off with violence to create a foundation of self-agency upon which a true identity can be built (11).
In chapter 3, Fanon discusses Jean Veneuse, a black man raised among whites. Veneuse has adopted a white mask. The mask Fanon refers to is one of imitated superiority. The black man imitates the colonizer’s language, mannerisms, and culture, to be considered of equal value. According to Fanon the Negro is made inferior when affixed by the gaze of the other. Fanon points out that not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man (110). The black man is so devalued in society that he seeks to be anything but black (74). The colonizer, the one in power, “the other”, is white. The black man identifies with the values and needs of the colonizer and looses his self. This part of the colonization process has long reaching effects for the colonized people. Veneuse is faced with a difficult challenge of being a black man in a society that sees his color as a negative trait. Friends tell him he is “not black but extremely brown”, meant as a compliment but more a proof of innate arrogance and superiority that Veneuse faced daily (69). Even in acceptance there is only tolerance of his blackness.
The need of the colonized is the need to exist as a legal and moral entity. The colonizer, a new element, must be reconciled into the reality of the colonized (97). Because the “gaze” is consistently negative, the Negro (colonized) attaches to himself, necessarily, the attributes of inferiority. It is necessary because he, the Negro, must exist in some form and because he is not the conqueror, he is by default the inferior. Fanon then brings us to the only moment he feels the Negro can redeem a sense of self outside of the mask of the colonizer, through revolution. Fanon says, “Since no agreement was possible on the level of reason I threw myself back toward unreason (123).” Clearly, he believes that no compromise can be made with the colonizer. It stands to reason that one would need to fight for their independence for it to hold real value within their lives.
The combining of two very different societies must meet with compromise or colonization. In the colonization model, the colonized are subjected to a myriad of degradations designed to create a superior and inferior class with the colonizer as the superior. The loss of culture under colonization creates a loss of identity. An individual creates an identity in relation to that of the colonizer. This assumed identity is never fulfilling because it is false. A black will never truly be white, nor will a Senegalese ever be French. The individual will eventually have to find his true self. The identity created from his experience as a man and a black and a member of a colonized society, is the true self.

Everyday Repair vs. Extraordinary Revolution

Two authors look at colonization as a traumatic event that destroys the identity of the colonized. Following this destruction comes a recreation of identity based on the interaction with the colonizer. Because this identity is built upon an oppressive relationship, it is unhealthy and creates feelings of loss. Frantz Fanon and Veena Das both write of the violence associated with colonization that shapes and reshapes the identity of the colonized. The question of whether identity can be repaired or resumed after a colonization experience outlines the theme of this essay.
Das speaks of the “knowledge of suffering” being a traumatic even in itself. She points out women who did not directly experience rape or displacement but were greatly affected because their sense of place and safety was violated where their bodies were not. We see in Das’ depiction of Asha the direct affect of displacement in her traditional societal position as a widowed sister (222). What cannot be seen is the change…... Asha’s external world changed but her traditional expectations did not. Her sense of self had to conform to her reality as a burden and a source of dishonor, as opposed to her expected status, as a treasured sister. Das claims it is Asha’s discovery of her tenuous position that is the traumatic event. Solidarity or the “knowledge of [Asha’s] suffering” is evident when her sister in law mutters aloud, “What is the life of a woman?” (220) The tradition of subjugation touches all women in this Punjab society.
Das believes this trauma can be repaired. She alludes to Asha’s recreation of identity through her passive “everyday work of repair” (208). Asha remarries and endures derision at the hands of her former family to establish new relationships with the “others” against whose viewpoints her own identity is measured and formed. This is the sense of everyday as something recovered [Wittgenstein] (208). The traumatic reformation of her position is mitigated by her acceptance of her new identity. This does not hold true as Fanon views the affects of colonization on identity.
For Fanon the trauma cannot be repaired without the violent re-appropriation of identity. He believes it takes an extraordinary rejection of the colonizer in order for self-agency to be reestablished. An overthrow of the subjugator reestablishes and reinforces the right of existence for the colonized.
Fanon’s treatment of the colonized woman is indicative of the patriarchal society and time in which Fanon writes. It appears he sees Mayotte’s desire to whiten as an acceptance along the lines of Das’ “everyday repair.” Mayotte’s story is told with tone of derision (57). This coexistence is not an option for Fanon.
Important, in both Das and Fanon’s view, is the concept that identity is repairable in the face of violent or traumatic events. The destruction, creation, and recreation of identity allude to the ever-evolving nature of mankind as he interacts in society.