Behind The Mask: The Awakening

In Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, she writes about a woman’s desire to find and live fully within her true self during the 1890s in Louisiana. The woman, Edna Pontellier, is trying to find herself in the masculine society of Louisiana, leading her to cause friction with friends, family and the Creole society. Edna begins to feel a change; she begins to feel like a whole person with wants, interests and desires. She learns that she is not comfortable with being a wife and mother. The imagery of the parrot in the cage in Chopin’s novel is being compared to Edna because it represents Edna’s unspoken feelings and imprisonment. The sense of unspoken feelings and imprisonment of Edna causes her to put her own needs before her family. As Edna finds herself trying to satisfy the Creole society, she begins to feel isolated and confused. Through Edna’s trace of freedom, she begins to undergo a transformation of self, slowly straying away from society, and taking control over her own actions and beliefs. Through obstacles to Edna’s freedom, she learns that she does have control of her own body. The symbolism of the birds and the sea is used to symbolize Edna’s struggle for independence.

What is slavery and where does it stem from. The Webster’s dictionary definition of slavery means “the condition of a slave; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another”. The African slave trade started way back in the 1400’s from the west coast of Africa1stAfrica entered into a unique relationship with Europe that led to the devastation and depopulation of Africa, but contributed to the wealth and development of Europe. From then until the end of the 19th century, Europeans began to establish a trade for African captives. Why would people do such a thing what were they to gain from such wickedness? Timothy 6:10”For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Every act of remembering is also, intrinsically, an act of forgetting. Giving preference to particular details of an event lessens the immediacy of others. Thus, memory is its own, unique narrative culled from an almost endless sea of details present, and sometimes not present, in the original event. Memory is the past, reformulated and interpreted through the lens of the present (Huyssen 1995). When an event is commemorated through a physical act of memory, the narrowing of possible details becomes even more finely tuned, limited by the physical scope of possibilities for bodies in a three-dimensional space.

Memories are a powerful force within people’s lives. They encourage, explain and expose the inner depths of an individual and the reason for who they are. Whether remembrances from past occurrences as children or teens or life altering decisions made regarding career and family, memories continue to have an influence on everyday life. They drive a person forward in current judgments and effects relationships with those surrounding. However, as time progresses memories alter. Either details are forgotten or translated differently than their original happening; memories are subjected to distortion. Consequently, the revision in which people remember recollections of their life’s history can influence the interpretation and their retellings. The correspondence between time and memories is often overlooked as parallel, but the interlocking connection contributes sustainably to everyday life, choices, behaviors and personal relationships. In her photographic series, Mutters Schuhe, Nina Röder explores how “subjectivity and perspective affect the retelling of memories” (Garrett, 2014) through the suggestion that emotions and time can trigger a rebirth of perspectives concerning memories.

It has been said that ignorance is bliss and if we do not know that something more exists, we do not yearn for it. It has also been said that the door to enlightenment and inner wisdom, once opened, can never be closed again. Many great philosophers and teachers have dealt with the idea of whether it is better to live a life of servitude and submission, or are we to pursue a life of personal happiness and emotional freedom.

In Whitman’s poem Out From Behind This Mask, the poem starts out by talking about the passion and excitement that to many, lies just out of reach. Whitman is trying to illustrate how this ecstasy is much closer than once thought, by comparing the barrier as a curtain or a mask. The wonders that lie beyond this mask range from “passionate teeming plays” to “the glaze of God’s serenest, purest sky.” To Whitman, the possibilities are endless. In the first line, “Out from behind this bending, rough-cut mask”, Walt Whitman establishes that this poem has a personalized message for each reader with the “rough-cut mask” symbolizing everyone’s outside appearance (or face). The third and

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory,” Dr. Seuss. Thought and emotions are items that will always last forever inside of humans through thick and thin. Not all the tangible objects given to people will forever withstand their life but the thoughts will always be there for eternity. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from an event and the different features of the situation but, people don’t realize the fact that the more they think about a situation the more the memory will change. The excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and the excerpt, “Hope, Despair and Memory,” from Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize lecture both portray the value of memory through the contradictory

In The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, the idea of the Veil is a dominant theme throughout the book. The Veil is a social phenomenon that describes the divide between black and white Americans through social and economic issues. To demonstrate these issues Du Bois utilizes vivid imagery to cement the abstract concept that is the Veil. He likens it by bringing together visions of the sea and land, exploring the parallels of John and John, personifying it into his own son and contrasting the city and rural village. Through this exploration of imagery, Du Bois creates a concrete image of the Veil and it’s warring sides.

In America, kids are taught to read by sounds, how “the” sound, how each syllable is supposed to sound like however I was though differently, since I was born in Canada. I am French Canadian and how we learned to read was by seeing the word and each word had a different picture of them, for example, “mama” ,the word for mom in french, looks totally different than “papa”,the word for dad. We were never forced to read anything however during our break, while in class, we did not have anything to do except strategy games or reading books, so we end up reading scary books or “go to a certain page ”books. Before coming to America, I had never ever had to write a book report in my life.

“A shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” We as humans try to preserve memories by building

From an early age, I wrote. It's what I did and could usually be found with a pencil and paper in hand. Though back then it was strictly for my eyes and mine alone. It was my much-needed escape when it wasn't a physical possibility, stuck in a small town where everyone knew who you were and what everyone else was up to. As a child, I didn't care if it made sense, if I was using proper syntax—after all, it was for me. I simply let whatever was in my head out, in whichever way it chose.

My journey began with this premise, although the path I thought I was following took me in an entirely different direction than expected. Amusing in what way something can start as one thing, and then suddenly before you can even grasp what’s going on, it’s something completely different by the time it’s concluded. That’s how I would describe Behind the Mask. A novel was not the expected end result; it most definitely shouldn’t have had over a 90,000-word count. Nor a cover, dedication, acknowledgment, et cetera. Nonetheless, it does, as well as being published for the world to see. How the hell did that happen?

Oscar Wilde famously stated “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” What happens to that diary, however, when our memories are forgotten. Is our diary forgotten too? The poem, “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, describes in vivid detail the nature of forgetting experiences and knowledge acquired over a lifetime. It is clear that the speaker is suffering from some form of memory loss, and throughout the poem, he portrays the emotions and experiences that go hand in hand with forgetting these memories, experiences, and his personal diary. The speaker uses excessive hyperbole, somber imagery, and a nostalgic, reflective tone to convey the pain associated with memory loss. These devices illuminate how memory loss slowly breaks down and tears apart someone’s personal experiences and emotions, leaving them in a painful, desolate solitude.

Naturally, life is a continuous cycle of experience and learning. Yet often times so much is buried in our lives that we fail to remember or recall what we have learned. Memories that range from miniscule facts to important emotions can often leave unknowingly from our mind. Billy Collin’s “Forgetfulness” shows how memories are delicate and fragile, and that the process of forgetting is one that is nonchalant. Billy Collins effectively blends subtle humor and irony with a dramatic tone shift to explain that ideas and facts that people think are important flee the mind, showing that nothing good can last. Although he refers to memories in a lighthearted, thoughtful manner, the poem gradually shifts (just

“I won, I really won.” But the thought of dancing in money was not filling my mind; it was a clear image of Rapier, drenched in his own blood. I had to focus though, on what happened in order for this dream to be fulfilled. I grabbed the bundles of money from the woman at the bank, and with a quick “thanks,” I was off, off to find The Masker.