Month: July 2019
Joy Luck Club and my Antonia
In The Joy Luck Club and My Antonia, Amy Tan and Willa Cather convey the hardships of immigrants faced and labeling of gender roles through characters and symbols, while at the same time demonstrating the changes and gradual maturity of the main characters using distinct narrative structures.
The setting of The Joy Luck Club was the immigration of Chinese to the United States during the Second Sino-Japanese War, a period of time when the Japanese invaded and occupied China, killing millions of Chinese people, destroying families and homes and filling people's lives with despair. All people wanted were shelters where they could be safe and stay away from the chaos. Many people wanted to leave China, but only a few got the chance.
The Joy Luck Club accurately portrays this time period by narrating stories that uncover the darkness of the war and emphasize how valuable the opportunity was to immigrate to the United States in the mothers' perspectives. On the other hand, My Antonia took place during Westward Expansion, the time when the western frontier was said to embody the American dream and offer the possibility of independence and upward mobility for all(History), which encouraged many people to immigrate to the United States with the hope for a new beginning. However, the reality was unlike their expectation. Upon their arrival, they experienced prejudices from Americans and struggled to survive. My Antonia represents the time period well by using the story of the Shimerdas, central characters who were Bohemian immigrants, to illustrate the challenges immigrants faced.
Not only do the books fit the time period well, they also contain prominent stylistic features that contribute to their overall message. In The Joy Luck Club, symbols were an important part of the stories. In the prologue, Tan introduces the first symbol: the swan in a golden line. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look! - it is too beautiful to eat I will give her this swan - a creature that becomes more than what was hoped for(Tan 3). Every mother wants their daughters to be successful and in Chinese culture, the success means more successful than their mothers. The swan symbolizes daughter's success and the change a duck undergoes hoping to become ?a goose symbolizes how mothers wish to see their daughters turn from ugly duckling to swan; in another word, to succeed in life.
Yet, as immigrants who were bounded by language barriers, the mothers were unable to express this expectation well. Moreover, this language barrier made it hard for the mothers to share their values and stories with their daughters, which ultimately contribute to the conflicts between them. The next prominent symbol that appears in the book is the red candle. In the main character Lindo Jong's eyes, that candle was a marriage bond that was worth more than a Catholic promise not to divorce. It meant [she] couldn't divorce and [she] couldn't ever remarry, even if Tyan-yu died.
That red candle was supposed to seal me forever with [her] husband and his family, no excuses afterward(Tan 55). The red candle is the symbol of gender role in Chinese culture, where women were seen as properties who carry no values on their own. Only when they are in a relationship with men do they matter. By lighting the red candle, wives are sealed forever with their husbands and their freedom is deprived. They came to see their husbands as god, someone whose opinions were worth much more than [their] own lives(Tan 51) and themselves as servants who are supposed to sacrifice their lives to make everyone happy. With the use of symbols like the swan and red candle, Amy Tan stresses the struggles Chinese immigrants experienced and explains the way gender roles were defined in Chinese culture.
Meanwhile, in My Antonia, Cather makes prevalent use of another stylistic device, imagery, to develop her story. One of which she used to describe the coyotes: they made me think of defeated armies, retreating; or of ghosts who were trying desperately to get in for shelter, and then went moaning on. Presently, in one of those sobbing intervals between the blasts, the coyotes turned up with their whining howl; one, two, three, then altogether - to tell us that winter was coming(Cather 36). By connecting the howling of coyotes with telling people that winter was coming, Cather paralleled the howling with immigrant experiences, foreshadowing the adversities they will face in winters, which contradicts the traditional mindset that America is always great, full of hope and promises a brighter future.
Going back to the beginning of the book, Cather also utilizes imagery to depict the landscape of the west in the main character Jim's perspective: I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of buffalo were galloping, galloping(Cather 26). In creating this image, Cather shows how the land in Jim's view was always alive. And with the last repeating word, galloping, she builds the picture that everything will keep going and nothing will seem to end. In turn, this ties back to her point on immigrants' struggles by connecting to the idea that winter will be followed by another winter; doesn't matter if you survived the hardships or not, doesn't matter if you like it or not, life will continue and trials will keep challenging your life.
The two books are not unrelated, however. When examining the two works side by side, similarities can be found. For example, both works have a setting of people from different cultures moving to the United States for a new start, described how cultures define and label gender roles and distinct narrative structures that emphasize the changes that happened to the character and their gradual maturation. In terms of immigration, both books describe the struggles immigrants encountered, like language barriers, misunderstandings and prejudice. However, despite similar settings of immigration, each book illustrates different struggles immigrants experienced. In The Joy Luck Club, the struggles were between mothers and daughters and specifically about how language barriers limited the communication and created gaps between them.
On the other hand, in My Antonia, the struggles illustrated were mainly on the immigrants' struggles with the new environment and the prejudice they faced, which was a result of the natives' lack of understanding for immigrants and the belief that the reason why immigrants came to the United States were to take advantage of the American people and the opportunities. In addition to immigrant struggles, both books talk about defining and labeling of gender roles, but they present totally different perspectives about it. Amy Tan approached the labeling of gender roles in Chinese perspectives because her whole book is centered around mothers who were Chinese immigrants. In her book, women were labeled as weak and unable to stand on their own.
They were given a few options and treated unequally. And even when the pains women had to endure in the Chinese culture were already hurting them, they were still passing it down, like what one of the character, A-Mei Hsu, explained you must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh(Tan 41). In contrast, in My Antonia, women were much more independent like the character, Lena, who doesn't want to be married because she doesn't want to have to ask life of anybody(Cather 105). Moreover, many women in the book were portrayed as not limiting themselves with the traditional gender roles: the girls out there usually got rough and mannish after they went to herding(Cather 107).
Other than gender roles, both authors also use different story structures to show the changes that happened to the characters which include their gradual realization and maturation. For instance, Willa Cather splits My Antonia into books to show Jim's maturation. One of the turning points of Jim happens in Book II, where Cather writes the wind sprang up afresh, with a kind of bitter song, as if said: ?This is reality, whether you like it or not. All those frivolities of summer, the light and shadow, the living mask of green that trembled over everything, they were lies, and this is what was underneath(Cather 112). This is the point when Jim realized that the frivolities of summer were only lies; more importantly, life is not about the fun and the easy days, but about the times you overcome the hardships and learn from them.
At this point, he made a jump in his life and thus became more mature. In comparison, Amy Tan divides her novel into sixteen stories and four parts to contrast the experiences and values of the mothers to those of the daughters. In doing so, she points out the conflict between Chinese immigrant mothers and American-born daughters. But, fortunately, as the stories progress, the daughters gradually realized their mother's intentions and understand their stories, so they started to embody their Chinese identity and worked together with their mothers. Just like Jim in My Antonia, they matured.
By telling these stories, the authors express their opinions on immigration struggles and gender roles. For Amy Tan, she doesn't seem to agree on the labeling of gender roles described in her book and having misunderstandings and disconnections between daughters and mothers. The reason is she was once like the daughters in her book: not listening to her mother, discarding Chinese beliefs and disconnecting in language. But in the end, she realized that she didn't have to choose from being Chinese or American and there shouldn't be any labelings, so she started to embody Chinese as her identity, learned to embrace Chinese culture again and tried to listen and understand her mother. Ultimately, she believes that there should not be any defining or labeling of things; we should all search for things that work best for us.
For Willa Cather, she tries to use the story of an immigrant family to correct the misunderstanding that most Americans have about immigrants: they came here to take advantage of everything. She believes that the reason why immigrants moved was that they desperately needed the opportunities and a new start. The ultimate message she wants to convey is that we shouldn't judge people from the surface, just like how Americans judge immigrants.
What is more important is the inside, the spirit, which goes beyond physical appearance. When you take everything away - immigrants or natives, poor or rich, female or male - everyone is the same and share the same path. For me personally, I disagree with the traditional ideas of Americans on the immigrants presented in My Antonia and the Chinese cultural labeling of gender roles presented in The Joy Luck Club, but I do agree with both authors' values because I also think that after taking everything off, we are all human beings who are trying to live and that's what binds us all together. Therefore, we should not try to define or label anyone by their appearance; what's inside is the most important.
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Joy Luck Club and My Antonia. (2019, Jul 19).
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https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
Symbolism in Amy Tan’s
Symbolism in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
Confucius once said, They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. Amy Tan used personal change in her characters in The Joy Luck Club to convey the transformation women go through in the Chinese culture, when faced with adversity. Centering around four women who form The Joy Luck Club to play mahjong and talk about their lives, the novel digs into the memories and pasts of these four women who pass along life lessons to their American daughters. The mothers' hope that their daughters can learn from those lessons and create a brighter future for themselves. Tan uses symbolism of a scar, pure gold, and a tiger to show the key moment in the mothers' lives that ignited a transformation within them that molded them into who they are today.
One of the most important symbols in the novel is a scar An-Mei Hsu has on her neck. When An-Mei was a young girl, her younger brother and her were raised by their grandmother Popo because their mother had left to be Wu Tsing's, a famous merchant's, fourth concubine. An-Mei's mother was shunned by her dead father's family because of the shame her mother had put on them as a result of her lowed status. One day An-Mei's mother comes back to their family's home unannounced which causes a fight to arise. The fighting between the adults of the family results in a pot of hot soup spilling on An-Mei causing a scar on her neck. Her mother rushes out the door soon after the incident, leaving An-Mei to reflect on the pain she felt both physically and emotionally, That is the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much.
And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath what started the pain (Tan 47). An-Mei realizes that the pain caused by her mother's appearance was only temporary, as was the scarring on her neck. She began to hide her pain beneath her skin and the pain her absent mother caused, an ache in her every time she were to think about her mother, as her scar aches when she touches it. The pain that was the hot soup represented the pain An-Mei wore on her sleeves before her mother's visit, while the pain of her scar represented An-Mei learning to hide her pain beneath her skin as her mother does.
Another important symbol in the novel is the pure gold worn by Lindo Jong, which represented her breaking free of the mold she was kept in as a wife and her obtained freedom. Lindo Jong, one of the four founders of the Joy Luck Club, was forced into an arranged marriage when she was two-years-old by her village's matchmaker. When her family's home was ruined in a flood, Lindo was forced to live with her in-laws and her future husband. Although Lindo was headstrong in her mission for independence before her marriage to Tyan-Yu, the promised child-like husband of Lindo Jong, Lindo began to lose her sense of self after the repeated and grueling training from her mother-in-law, I came to think of Tyan-Yu as a god, someone whose opinions were worth much more than my own life (Tan 56).
Lindo was trained by her mother-in-law to be a traditional Chinese wife, she was trained to be a mindless worshiper of her husband. She was given golden bracelets to showcase her new found wealth given to her through her marriage. The golden bracelets represented chains in her mind blocking her from leaving her marriage, They say this is what happens if you lack metal. You begin to think as an independent person (Tan 63). The golden bracelets were thought to be the cause of her infertility and were removed from her possession.
Once the bracelets were removed, Lindo devised a plan to escape her marriage by claiming that Tyan-Yu's ancestors have seen their marriage and it was doomed. This impending doom was prophesied through three signs: a mole on Tyan-Yu's back that would eat his flesh, a tooth missing in Lindo's mouth that had fallen out when she was young, and a pregnant servant who was Tyan-Yu's true soul mate. Tan used the golden bracelets to symbolize the change in Lindo from a mindless and obedient young girl to an independent and strong woman who was able to escape from a marriage that would have traditionally been life-long in the Chinese culture.
Aside from the symbols of pure gold and a scar used to describe two women's transformations in the novel, a tiger is used to signify the change in Ying-ying St. Clair from the orange side to the black side of her tiger. Ying-ying was a stubborn girl who was raised by a rich family in her home city of Wushi. When Ying-ying was sixteen, she went to her aunt's wedding where she met a bad man, and her future husband, who was unnamed in the novel because of the bad memories she has associated with him. Ying-ying, who was known to be able to predict events, predicted her marriage to the man and her pregnancy of a boy. After her marriage crumbled and her baby's death, Ying-ying learned to use her black side, It has two ways.
The gold side leaps with its fierce heart. The black side stands still with cunning, hiding its gold between trees, seeing and not being seen, waiting patiently for things to come (Tan 248). During her marriage, Ying-ying had her gold side facing the world. She did not think and wait before rushing into her marriage, she was too headstrong and stubborn to see the bad man for who he was until it was too late and she was married to him. After the man had left with another woman, Ying-ying learned to hide her gold side and use her black side to hide, wait, and think before acting hastily. The tiger in the novel symbolizes the transformation Ying-ying went through after her marriage to protect herself from others.
Tan uses the stories of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club to represent a transformation that was essential to their character development in their lives. The symbols in the novel convey messages and themes that are used as connections between the different characters in the novel, and as life lessons meant to be passed along to the children of the mothers in the novel. The scar, golden bracelets, and the tiger are not only important in their individual aspects as personal lessons, but can be related and taught to the modern generation. The themes in the novel, such as woman are strong and the pain of a mother's departure on a girl's life can have, are present in the lives of girls in every culture and every background.
Works Cited
"Confucius Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2018. Web. 5 Oct. 2018. .
Ebrey, Patricia. Women in Traditional China. Asia Society, Center for Global Education, asiasociety.org/education/women-traditional-china.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Penguin, 2016.
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Symbolism in Amy Tan's. (2019, Jul 19).
Retrieved November 6, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
Fictional Novel
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is a fictional novel that consists of sixteen-intertwined stories about the conflict between four Chinese immigrant mothers, and their four Chinese American-born daughters. Published in 1989, this book takes place in San Francisco, California, and parts of China.
In Between
An interesting note about the book is how it does not follow chronological order. It is broken into four different sections. The story starts off with Jing-mei June Woo, daughter of Suyuan Woo who has just recently passed away, and then tells the mothers' stories. The second section jumps more to the present and talks about the daughter's lives. It continues like that, until the fourth and final section where it goes back to the mothers' narratives.
The novel is based upon mostly the story of a mother named Suyuan Woo and her daughter Jing-mei June Woo, and how Jing-mei travels back to China to meet her half sisters, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa. The reason her half-sister are still in China was due to the Japanese invasion of Kweilin during World War II, and her mother's sacrifice of leaving them on a roadside to flee to safety. Years later, Jing-mei is born in America to a different father.
However, she intended to return to China, but sadly dies before she gets the chance to find them.
Jing-mei is now taking her mother's spot in mahjong at the weekly gathering her mother had created back in China, and was brought to San Francisco when she moved to the United States. The weekly gathering included Suyuan's other friends and members-Lindo Jong, An-mei Hsu, and Ying Ying St. Clair. Just before Suyuan had died, she had been able to track down her other daughters. So the women give Jing-mei money to go and find them and tell them about their mother's life.
The middle part of the book is about the daughters- Waverly Jong, Rose Hsu Jordan, Lena St. Clair, and of course Jing-mei Woo, making connections of their childhood relationships with their mothers, and talking about their relationship with their mothers, and the struggles they are going through.
The last section of the book goes back to the Chinese mothers perspective, and their attempt to appease the divide between Chinese and American cultures by coming up with solutions that can solve both types of values and wants.
Thesis Statement:
This book does not just tell the stories of eight women, but rather the more complex relationship and misunderstandings that results in a division between Chinese born mothers and their American born daughters.
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Film Joy Luck Club
In the film Joy Luck Club a group of old Chinese women; Suyuan, An-mei, Lindo, Ying-ying and their daughters, June, Lena, Waverly, and Rose meet regularly to trade familial stories while playing Mahjong. The film is composed of four stories, each of which contains four separate narratives. In the first stories the mothers, speaking about their relationships with their own mothers, and they worry that their daughters' recollections of them will never possess the same value. In the second stories, the daughters Waverly, Jing-mei, Lena, and Rose relate their recollections of their childhood relationships with their mothers. In the third group of stories, the four daughters narrate their American adult troubles in marriage and with their careers. They learn from their mothers stories and their passed troubles and marriage too. In the final group of stories, the mother's struggle to offer solutions and support to their daughters in the process they learn more about themselves.
Lindo and Waverly. In China Lindo has a marriage arranged by her mother Xi Meijuan and the matchmaker, to be married to Mrs. Huang's son Tyan Hu when she grows up. Both have no interest in each other, so for years they have childless and loveless marriage, she is frequently abused by her frustrated mother-in-law because she thinks believes Lindo's childlessness is her own fault. Lindo eavesdrops on the servant girl telling her lover that she is pregnant and he willfully abandons her. Lindo soon leaves the marriage without dishonoring herself and her family.
She moves to America and has a daughter, Waverly who become a chess champion. Waverly gets mad Lindo using uses her to show off. Waverly shouts at her mother and decides to quit chess. When she tries to play it again, Waverly loses one chess round, and forced to stop playing chess forever. Years later, she has a white finance named Rich. In order to make Lindo like Rich, Waverly brings him to a family dinner, but he fails to impress them especially by improperly using chopsticks and tampering with Lindo's cooking dish with a sauce, humiliating Waverly. A while later at the hair salon, Lindo retells her moments with her own mother and declares that she likes Rich very much. She then gives marital blessings to Waverly and Rich.
Ying-Ying and Lena. In China, Ying-Ying was happily married to Lin-Xiao with a baby boy in China until Lin-Xiao abused her and abandoned her for an opera singer. She is later depressed and drowns her baby son in the bathtub. Years after, she immigrated to America, she struggled with her traumatic past, frightening her new family, including her daughter Lena.
Lena shows Ying-Ying around her new apartment with her husband Harold, who is also Lena's boss. Lena is uncomfortable with her financial arrangements with Harold. He insists that they split the costs of their life evenly with a list of things that they share. Lena feels her husband has no respect for her. Seeing that Lena is unhappy with her marriage, Ying-Ying advised Lena she should leave and not come back until he gives her what she wants.
An-Mei and Rose. An-Mei Hsu is reunited with her long-lost mother, who was disowned by her family due to her actions such as lingering with a wealthy middle aged man shortly after her husband's death. She finds that Wu-Tsing has another three wives Later, she learns that the Second Wife tricked An-Mei's mom into being raped and impregnated by Wu-Tsing. The relatives did not believe An-Mei's mom and kicked her out, she became Wu-Tsing's Fourth Wife as she had nowhere else to turn. After she gave birth to a boy, the Second Wife took him away from her and claimed him as her own.
Due to much pain in her life her mother commits suicide by eating sticky rice balls poisoned with opium. After the funeral of her mother An- Mei swears vengeance upon Wu-Tsing and his wives. Years later in America she has a child, Rose. Rose has been dating her boyfriend Ted since college. Rose agrees to marry him due to his persistence and willing to have her back. During the marriage Rose and Ted become distant from each other. She decides to have a baby but this does not resolve their marital problems. To make matters worse, Ted cheats on her with another woman. An-Mei compares Rose to her mother's marriage To avoid having the same fate, Rose stands up to Ted, causing Ted to take her not continue taking her for granted.
Suyuan and June. In World War II when the Japanese invaded China Suyuan fled with her children. She is soon unable to carry the babies to refuge due to illness, so she placed them at a tree hoping someone picks them up. Suyuan was taken in by someone, and survived her ill but was haunted by the loss of her daughters and never knew what happened to them.
After she remarried in America, Suyuan has high hopes for her new daughter June, but June constantly fails to meet her expectations out of a lack of interest. She performs badly during a piano session then Suyuan pushes her to continue training to be a concert pianist, June refuses The following day, June berates Suyuan for her remarks and admits she could never live up to her high expectations. June believes that Suyuan is disappointed in her because June dropped out of college, does not have a successful career, never married. June later received the news from the Club that the long lost twin sisters were alive, turns out they didn't know Suyuan was already dead so now she must go to China and explain.
A story I would like to analyze is the Jong's story, Waverly and her mother, Lindo. Both women were forced upon their mothers to have choices made for them. The story is interesting because they rise above the challenges of not being able to make their own decisions. The relation between both characters starts off a bit weird as Waverly believes that Lindo takes too much credit for her success in her chess competitions and later she accuses her mother of bragging to everyone through her, so she quits playing chess. Lindo believes Waverly is too stuck up on trying to live the American culture and may forget her Chinese heritage.
Both Lindo and Waverly fail to understand each other due to their differences but towards the end they confess each others feelings such as Waverly mentioning that she barely feels appreciated by Lindo and tries get reactions out of her, sometimes by being troubled. Also Waverly was starting to have trouble with trying to get her mother to accept that she is dating and soon to marry her fiance, a white man Rich. To try to fix ends she invites Rich to a family dinner but it makes matters worse because Rich does fails to acquire chinese manners, such as how to eat with chopsticks properly and not tamper with the foods given.
Towards the end Lindo is willing to compromise and mix both culture she says Waverly could have American circumstances but Chinese character and also accept Waverly choice of lifestyle. Overall this is a kind of relationship I been having with my parents where they migrated here from Cameroon and I was raised here. I was taught to embrace my culture but also been heavily influenced on the American culture. I faced similar problems where my parents thought I was losing the Cameroon culture values, but like Waverly I fought and fought to fix relations with my parents so we may understand each other. Now me and my parents are willing to incorporate both cultures in our households like the language, holidays and activities.
Both the article and the film mention the strictness of chinese mothers. In the article Amy Chua raises two American born daughters and makes sure they dedicate their time to either playing the piano or violin. This also happens in the film where June's mother Suyuan and Waverly's mother Lindo basically forces them and makes sure they spend their free time only playing either piano or chess. The article and the film relate also because chinese mothers tend to not worry too much about their children's self esteem. We see this happen when both Waverly and Lena tend to complain that their mothers, Lindo and Ying-Ying and their lack of getting them to react to their actions, when passionate about something to talk about they show little to no sympathy or reactions.
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Film Joy Luck Club. (2019, Jul 19).
Retrieved November 6, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
The Ancient Greeks were Polytheists
The ancient Greeks were polytheists (the worship of or belief in multiple deities) who viewed their gods as a family of immortals who intervened in the lives of human beings. There are many Greek gods, however there are 12 major Olympian gods. The reason for the name Olympian gods, is because of the mythical place Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus was the highest mountain in Greece and was so full of beauty and uniqueness which led the ancient Greeks to believe that that's where their gods are from and lived. The twelve gods consist of, Zeus- the king of the god and sky, Hera- the queen of the gods, Poseidon- the god of the sea, Demeter- the god of agriculture & grain, Athena- the god of war & wisdom, Ares- the god of war & strife, Apollo- the god of solar light, medicine & music, Artemis- the god of hunting, wildlife & the moon, Hermes- the male messenger of the gods, Aphrodite- god of love, beauty & protection and Hestia- the god of hearth and domestic life. It was important to the Greeks to please the gods because the happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you. People could pray in their homes or there were also public shrines where they could pray and leave gifts.
It is believed that Greek mythology might've developed from the religions of the people of Crete. Though there have been parts of Greek mythology beliefs around for a while, it wasn't until around 700 B.C that Greek mythology had become fully developed. The earliest Greek myths were part of an oral tradition that began in the Bronze Age. https://history-world.org states, Greek mythology emphasized the weakness of humans in contrast to the great and terrifying powers of nature.and In the Greek imagination, literature, and art, the gods were given human bodies and characters - both good and bad - and just as ordinary men and women, they married, had children The gods even became patrons of cities. The Greeks did look to their gods for guidance however, Greek mythology had unique characteristics.
Ancient religions such as Hinduism or Judaism, Greek mythology did not involve special revelations or spiritual teachings. It also varied widely in practice and belief, with no formal structure, such as a church government, and no written code, such as a sacred book. Some Gods were worshipped at sacred sites and temples in Greek communities in ceremonies carried out by priests and their attendants. Some of the rituals people did were to have animal sacrifices, libations, myths to explain the origins of mankind and give the gods a human face, temples which dominated the urban landscape, city festivals and national sporting and artistic competitions." Believe it or not, the Greeks did not believe that all the gods held power.
They believed that some did have special powers, but they were equally as flawed as humans were.
Though Greek mythology was fiction, the myths were viewed as true accounts. Greek mythology has had a great influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, thanks to the Greek culture. The influence of Greek mythology on our world today can be found in our science, arts and literature and our language. Most may not be familiar with Greek mythology, or at least that's what they think.
Taken from Impact of Greek Mythology on Western culture, they state, most people who have no formal knowledge of Greek mythology still know that Hercules was a strongman and that Venus (the Roman version of the Greek Aphrodite) is the goddess of love. Despite the fact that very few people still speak ancient Greek, the Greek mythology has shaped the way we speak on many levels. For example, in today's age an unpleasant woman may be called a "harpy" which comes from Greek mythology as a winged monster with a woman's torso and a bird's feet. Although we get many individual comparisons, we also received expressions, proverbs and cliches that are direct references to ancient Greek myths. For example, the expression "caught between a rock and a hard place" comes from the tale about sailors being caught between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis of Greek mythology.
Even many constellations are named after characters, beings or monsters from Greek myths, like Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Hercules and Gemini. Some parents or pet owners may choose to name their kid or pets after the Greek Gods or goddesses, some common names from the Greek Gods you might've heard before may be Zeus(God of thunder and the sky), Jason (a Greek hero famous for his role as the leader of the Argonaut), Athena (goddess of wisdom), or Helen (legendary beauty from Greek mythology). Greek mythology is around us more than we think of it to be.
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Write about is Greek Mythology
Greek Mythology
The topic I chose to research and write about is Greek Mythology. I chose Greek Mythology because I felt that there was more information and more to write about rather than writing about a specific topic from within Greek Mythology. I also have more interest with Greek Mythology than Greek History or Egyptian and Prehistoric Civilizations. I am choosing to use the website Encyclopedia Britannica, Greek Mythology article written by John Richard Thornhill Pollard and A.W.H. Adkins. I chose this website because it contains information about the majority of the different aspects that make up Greek Mythology, it also includes pictures of historical artifacts that help illustrate the culture involved in it. The URL for the website is: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-mythology .
Greek Mythology is a collection of “stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of ancient Greeks” (Pollard and Adkins). These stories range from how the earth was formed to the reasons that certain natural events happen. These stories included “Religious Myths, Folk tales, and Legends” (Pollard and Adkins). I believe that these stories were made to help the peoples of ancient Greece visualize in their minds why certain things like lightning, storms, and droughts happened.
As Pollard and Adkins wrote “Myths of origin represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms.” I also believe that it gave them something to believe in and worship so no bad things would happen to them. The folk tales were “told for amusement” and “inevitably found their way into Greek Mythology” (Pollard and Adkins). This shows that since the folk tales were told over and over again that they eventually were accepted as possibly true and became part of Greek Mythology. I could see this happening in today’s worlds because if something is said over and over again it will eventually be thought of a true and written down for future generations to see.
Greek Mythology is portrayed by a bunch of characters which included some well know characters from childhood stories that I was told as a young child. These characters included Zeus, Cupid, Athena, Poseidon, and Hercules. I learned that in Greek Mythology that the seasons came about because Hades “carried Persephone off to be his consort, causing her mother, Demeter, the goddess of grain, to allow the earth to grow barren out of her grief. Because of her mother’s grief, Zeus permitted Persephone to spend four months of the year in the house of Hades and eight in the light of day” (Pollard and Adkins). This is a really interesting view of how the seasons started and I could see how it would make sense to those ancient Greeks that believed it.
The website Encyclopedia Britannica contains overviews of different subjects not just Greek Mythology. Within the Greek Mythology article there is multiple sections that each have one or multiple paragraphs that give a brief explanation about the main point that make up Greek Mythology. It also included pictures that are relevant to the article, these pictures include artifacts from ancient Greece that were unearthed and each tell a different story of what was happening during this period of time.
The website is arranged in sections that can be scrolled through or clicked through on the table of contents on the left-hand side of the page. I would give this website a grade of B, I wish that it included a little more content for each section that is included in the article. I wanted to learn different things about Greek Mythology that I didn’t already know and this website did exactly that. I just wish that it had a little more content within the article.
Greek Mythology “represents an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms” (Pollard and Adkins). It is made up of a bunch of “folk tales, legends, and religious myths” (Pollard and Adkins). Greek Mythology is still being taught to us today even if we don’t take a college or high school course to learn it. It is taught to us as young children in cartoons, books, and movies. It is portrayed in art in museums across the world. To me Greek Mythology is just another way for a civilization to comprehend what is happening in our universe, this can be seen across the globe by different civilizations also trying to comprehend what is happening and how to interpret it.
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Greek Mythology Essay
She was perfect eternally young woman with a beautiful body. She was known of the goddess of love and beauty. Although her powerful sexual attractiveness and dazzling beauty she also had weaknesses. With a perfect face and body, she is a bit stuck on herself, it was the girdle that she wore that had magical powers to compel love. She was the daughter of Zeus, the king of gods and Dione, and early mother goddess. Although it was thought that she was born of zeus and dione or more commonly it was told that she was born of foam in the sea off the island of Cyprus.
First of all, my goddess is Aphrodite her powers are love,beauty. A weakness of Aphrodite is that every time she saw someone more beautiful or attractive then her she gave them a horrible life or killed them. Aphrodite was usually depicted as a highly attractive young woman who dressed elegantly and loved to wear jewellery. Her eyelashes were curled and she had a constant smile on her lovely face. Aphrodite had a tender neck and symbolized the feminine beauty. Scallop shell, seashells, mirrors, golden apples, the Evening Star (planet Venus), Number 5, the ocean, and the triangle.
Secondly, Aphrodite is thought to have been born near Paphos, on the island of Cyprus. According to Greek myth, Uranus and Gaia had a son named Cronus. The parents fought and Gaia created a stone sickle, which she gave to Cronus to attack his father. Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his father's testicles into the sea. They caused the sea to foam and out of that white foam rose Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite was married to the lame smith Hephaestus, the Olympian God of the Iron, but her heart was devoted to Ares, the God of War, with whom Aphrodite was having a passionate, but secret love affair. Aphrodite's transformative power--Love - transforming the ordinary, the mundane into something beautiful and special through Love. Aphrodite was known to become angry and cast revenge when mortals refused to honor the Goddess of Love or her sacred rites. She appears to have no mother.
Finally Aphrodite and Adonis is a classic myth about lust and rejection, enhanced with several spicy details about the Goddess of Love and Lust and the beautiful mortal Adonis. The first myth of Aphrodite and Adonis involves the man's parents and is a story about beauty, love and jealousy. Adonis' mother was the beautiful Myrrha or Smyrna and his father, King Cinyrus of Cyprus, who was actually the father of Myrrha. This strange parentage of Adonis came about because Goddess Aphrodite was jealous of Myrrha's beauty and caused the girl to unite with her own father.When Cinyrus found out that he had been tricked, he chased Myrrha with a sword, intending to kill both her and her unborn child. Aphrodite, repenting of her deed, quickly turned the girl into a myrrh tree.
In conclusion, the goddess had many affairs, but she never felt guilty, she liked being able to get whoever and whatever she wanted, but she was always ready to help deities and mortals get the love that they wanted. She was even said to be very generous and always very friendly. Aphrodite was one of the very well-known out of all Greek gods and goddesses, and even though she slept around a lot, she gave everyone something to talk about and made lots of babies.
Which I think many gods, goddesses, and mortals appreciated. Not only was this goddess famous for her various sexual activities, but also for starting the Trojan War. A wedding took place among the gods and goddesses for the union of King Peleus and Thetis. Eris the goddess of Chaos was not invited and in anger she tried to crash the wedding, when not let in she threw a golden apple in the middle of the floor for the fairest. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all believed themselves to be the fairest and began fighting over the apple. Zeus could not decide who was, so he left his son Paris (Prince of Troy) to decide.
In the end he chose Aphrodite because she had the best bribe for Paris, this was Helen of Troy who was abducted from the Greek King Menelaus. To get her back, the King declared war, and it was the Trojan War. During this war, her son Aeneas fought. Athena, who liked to meddle in lives just as Aphrodite did, gave Diomedes the power to see the immortals on the battlefield. She told him he should stay away from all the gods and goddesses but he could stab Aphrodite. When Aphrodite helped Aeneas by shielding him from all of Diomedes attacks, Diomede lunged at Aphrodite and cut her hand. She fled to Mt. Olympus where Zeus told her to stay away from warfare and only worry herself with matters or marriage and love and so on.
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One of the most Important Elements
In Greek Mythology, perhaps one of the most important elements are the Greek Gods and Goddesses. The ancient Greeks created the stories about the lives and journeys of the Greek Gods, known as myths, simply different information which were difficult to explain using modern science. These myths about the Gods were spread around the world by explorers and storytellers, and later merged with Greek culture. To this day, numerous myths survived through many writings. Each of these myths are very unique, and tells much about the Greek Gods. The Greek myths in particular show that Greek Gods and Goddesses looked and acted like humans, that they possessed powers, and that they interacted with humans mainly for personal purposes and sometimes to aid heroes.
Firstly, Greek gods and goddesses were viewed as being to a great extent similar to men and women. To start, it is very interesting that the ancient Greeks created their Gods and Goddesses to have features which are exactly the same to a regular mortal. The proper term for this is called anthropomorphism, which means, in the form of a human. Yet the gods were visualized as more gallant in physique, exceptional in beauty and proportion, and much more authoritative than humans.
An example of this comes from the fact that Athena, a statue from the Royal Ontario Museum, had a form of a regular mortal, and that she was envisioned as having a body of what most humans would desire. More intriguing however, is the fact that the ancient Greeks believed that the Gods created them. This comes from the myth of how Zeus gave the duty of populating the Earth to Epimetheus. Epimetheus therefore populated the world, but then created a useless creature that was to an image of the Gods, which explicates why Gods appear like humans.
Additionally, it is even more fascinating that not only do Greek Gods act like humans but they also behave like humans and are able to love, marry, produce children, and so on.
Therefore, whenever they act upon hatred, much of their acts were very bad and cruel. This being because there was such a large society of God's, this meant that much of the Gods lives were surrounded in chaos and revenge.
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Greek Gods in Mount Olympus
Zeus was the king of the Greek gods in Mount Olympus. He was the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the lightning bolt, the eagle, and the oak tree. Zeus was the son of the Titan Cronus and Rhea, Cronus' sister. His brothers were Hades and Poseidon. His sisters were Hestia, Demeter, and Hera who Zeus ended up marrying. Zeus's father would eat all of his children the moment they were born, but his mother Rhea Zeus from being eaten by Cronus.
Poseidon
Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea, earthquakes, storms and tidal waves. His symbols were the trident, the dolphin, the horse, the bull, and the fish. Poseidon was the son of Cronus and Rhea. His brothers were Zeus, and Hades. His sisters were Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Poseidon was married to Amphitrite. Poseidon was devoured by his father Cronus then later saved by his brother Zeus who was never eaten by his father.
Hades
Hades was the Greek god of the underworld, the dead, and the riches under earth. His symbols were the Scepter, the Cerberus, the drinking horn, and the cypress tree. His father an mother were Cronus and Rhea. Hades brothers were Zeus and Poseidon. His sister were Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. His spouse was Persephone. Like Poseidon, Hades was swallowed by his father Cronus, then saved later by his brother Zeus.
Apollo
Apollo was the Greek god of many things such as knowledge, light, prophecy, the arts, poetry, the sun, and manly beauty. His symbols include the lyre, the python, the bow and arrow, the raven, and the laurel wreath. He is the son of Zeus and the Titan Leto. Apollo had an older twin sister named Artemis. Apollo killed a serpent named Python with a single arrow.
Artemis
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, moon, virginity, archery, childbirth, and all animals. Her symbols were the bow, the arrows, the stags, the hunting dog, and the moon. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and the Titan Leto. She was also the older twin sister of Apollo. Artemis armed herself with a bow and arrows made by Hephaestus and Cyclops.
Hermes
Hermes was the messenger of the gods. He was the Greek god of travel, thieves, commerce, and games. Hermes symbols were the tortoise, the staff, the winged sandals, the winged cap, and the rooster. He was the son of Zeus and Maia. Hermes would disguise himself as a traveler in order to test the hospitality of mortals.
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Tuesdays with Morrie Summary
Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie captures the connection between a man and his college professor, Morrie Schwartz. Schwartz”a retired professor of sociology at Brandeis University”was once one of Mitch's most respected educators. Furthermore, Tuesdays with Morrie was very effective in enlightening me that there are some really amazing people in this world. I was very moved by the way Mitch presented Morrie. Also, I was inspired by the way that Mitch and Morrie were so quick to rekindle their relationship after sixteen years of no communication. I think that this is a very well written book. I was fascinated by the way the book jumped from past to present, showing how Mitch and Morrie connected when they were younger and how they connected while Morrie lay on his deathbed. I will inform you of the three life lessons that Morrie taught Mitch that spoke to me personally.
Albom takes a unique approach to his narrative” sometimes, he is focused on himself and the weight of Morrie's lessons and how they changed his existence and path; in other chapters, Albom shifts his tone so that the given lesson strikes the heart of the reader, jumping from the pages and becoming deeply personal to a wider audience. On the Fourth Tuesday, he talks about Death. Both Mitch and Morrie defined death in their own opinions. Morrie states, ""Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live (Albom 82). Morrie repeats this a few times in the chapter speaking directly to Mitch. I think Morrie was speaking with the intention to get Mitch to understand how important this phrase is. I believe this because Mitch says, He was making sure I absorbed this point, without embarrassing me by asking (Albom 82). Morrie wanted Mitch to fully understand his statement. Mitch, on the other hand, states that we kid ourselves about death (Albom 81). He also asks Morrie, How can you ever be prepared to die (Albom 81)? This leads me to believe that Morrie was not afraid of death and Mitch is still frightened at the thought of what's next in his life after a loved one dies. I know that Mitch loved Morrie so I can only imagine that Mitch had a tidal wave of emotions crashing inside his mind. Because Mitch does not portray his emotions very efficiently he seemed to be quite calm throughout Morrie's illness. It was only toward the end of the book that Mitch cracked and shed tears for his beloved professor. I felt the same after my grandmother died. I had very mixed emotions when I found out she had passed on. I was distraught, angry, and frightened but I had this eerie sense of clarity. Like Mitch, I was calm when I found out and I think that is because I also do not portray my emotions efficiently. I believe that this connection to the audience's lives was on purpose.
Additionally, on the Seventh Tuesday, he focuses on the fear of aging. Mitch reflected: ""At seventy-eight, he was giving as an adult and taking as a child"" (Albom 116). Morrie says this to Mitch describing how he went from being able to do everyday chores himself”such as taking out the trash, or checking the mail”to depending on other people. Most of humanity is afraid of dying, so we fill our lives with material items to try and mend the void in our hearts that fear gnaws at. Because we fear aging and withering into nothing we try to put our lives at the edge by doing dangerous acts while in our youth. Based on what I have read in the book, Morrie doesn't try to fill his life with material objects such as fancy cars, a big house, or the newest clothes. I, too, am pulled into the modern life of envying the people with fancy cars, a big house, and the newest clothes but as Morrie says, Forget what culture says (Albom 116). I believe I should not be afraid of aging because I am only as old as I feel.
Finally, on the Eighth Tuesday, they discussed the limitations of money. Morrie stresses, ""We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives"" (Albom 123-124). He refers to how money cannot buy the character traits that people value in others, such as humility, integrity, honesty, loyalty, and respect. Similarly, Morrie teaches that it is better to do something you love and make less money than it is to make more money and not enjoy what you are doing. Morrie weighs at the thought that our country thinks that more is good. In a deep conversation with Mitch, Morrie says Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good (Albom 124). It is a sad truth that humanity thinks more is better or as Morrie states more is good. I think that people do not need money to be happy. I believe that happiness can be anywhere, happiness is where home is the limitations of money. I believe that I chose these lessons because I have encountered dilemmas with them in my life. As I mentioned earlier, I have encountered death first hand when my grandmother passed on. Just as Mitch felt mournful when Morrie died I, felt sad but calm when my grandmother died. The fear of aging is common in the lives of my peers. I also used to be afraid of aging, but when Mitch asked Morrie how he kept from envying the young, Morrie explained that he is not envious because he has already been there and done that. I agree with Morrie and so I that age is just a number and I am only as old as I feel. My final lesson is the importance of money. I think that it is important to have money but I do not think that it is wise to dedicate an entire life to making money and never spending time with your family. I believe that happiness can be found anywhere happiness is where home is.
Works Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Broadway Books, 2017.
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Tuesday’s with Morrie: Understanding Dying and Death
There are so many different ways in which society and culture shape the death experience. Not every individual is the same in their beliefs therefore everyone's dying experience is different. In our American culture, today death is something that is typically feared. Michael Leming and George Dickson stated in their textbook titled, Understand Death, Dying and Bereavement, that many Americans, however, are afraid of death, violent other otherwise, and see to deny it (Leming, 1985, p. 59). American's attitudes towards death have changed throughout the years. That change can be attributed to historical events like the Hiroshima and September 11, 2001. Although some Americans may fear death because they are afraid of dying painfully and unexpected, there are some individuals who give death a positive meaning. Timothy Leary stated a few months before his death that he was looking forward to the most fascinating experience in life, which is dying. He said that dying must be approached the way that life is livedwith curiosity, hope, fascination, courage and the help of your friends (Leming, 1985, p. 64).
I feel like Morrie approached death the same way that Timothy Leary did. On the seventh Tuesday of Morrie and Mitch's meeting Morrie proclaimed to Mitch that as his disease first progressed he felt a little ashamed of having to depend on other people for help because that's how the culture tells us we should feel but then he stated forget what culture says. I have ignored the culture much of my life. I am not going to be ashamed. What's the big deal? (Albom, 1997, p.116). I feel that at this point in the novel Morrie is beginning to embrace death with arms wide open. He is no longer ashamed of having someone wipe his behind or massage his legs. Morrie stated that he began to enjoy his dependency, which is something that he had never done before.
I feel like our society and culture tell us that we should be fighters and not just become victims to the illness but sometimes that is not the way things turn out and people need to become accepting of living with a chronic illness and living out the rest of their days enjoying the time spent with family and friends. 2.) Death is not something that many people accept and are willing to embrace. Being on the last great journey can be one of two things, terrifying or promising. In K??bler-Ross's Five Stages of Dying the last stage, acceptance, is when the patient accepts death as a sure outcome and the patient is able to say, 'I have said all the words I have to say and am ready to go' (Leming, 1985, p.159). I think that being on the last great journey is being able to accept that you are dying and to live the rest of your life the best you can. I feel like the only way that people are able to talk about dying openly is if they accept it. It was clear throughout the novel that Morrie had accepted his chronic illness so it was easy for him to talk with Mitch about dying and the lessons he had learned throughout life to prepare him for his final days. Being able to openly discuss what he was going through was one way that Morrie served as a bridge. Morrie stated that people saw him as a bridge. I'm not as alive as I used to be, but I'm not yet dead. I'm sort of in-between (Albom, 1997, p. 32-33). Morrie was able to discuss with Mitch his early year struggles such as the death of his mother and his later life experience such as his career and his marriage. Being able to openly reminisce on the past and to discuss the lessons he learned that prepared him to accept his final moments is life is something that not many people are able to do. Another thing that may contribute to some people feeling more prepared for death in knowing what to pack on their last great journey is their religious beliefs. Christians view death as the entrance to eternal life and, therefore, is preferable to physical life (Leming, 1985, p. 126).
I believe that having such strong religious belief helps some people to cope with death therefore it makes it easier for them to talk about it because they feel that they are going to a place where they can have eternal life which is heaven. Morrie however did not identify with one specific religion instead he believed that when you are dying, you see it as everyone having the same beginning”birth”and having the same end”death (Albom, 1997, p. 157). 3.) Talking about dying is not something that I am particularly comfortable with. Because I am so young I cannot imagine myself leaving this world any time soon. I believe this is the case for younger individuals. Although death can be hard for some younger individuals to imagine, the textbook suggests that death is expected for the elderly person and death is seen as appropriate for very elderly persons who have lived their allotted span of life (Leming, 1985, p. 107). Although death is something that an older individual can often expect, there is no way of knowing how exactly someone is going to die. Death often comes on the doctor's watch and in high-tech surroundings, almost always following years of chronic illness, typically following decisions about additional medical interventions, often made on behalf of patient's incapable of making decisions for themselves by caregivers who do not always know how to honor those who have lost their most human qualities (Leming, 1985, p. 107). I feel like this is an accurate representation of how most older individuals think about dying especially in unexpected circumstances. Morrie on the other hand knew what he was up against. He mentioned to Mitch once you learn how to die, you learn how to live (Albom, 1997, p. 82).
It can be difficult for individuals and family members to think have there loved one passing away especially if that family member or loved one is making life altering medical decisions. In some cases, individuals do not prepare for death and so when it comes unexpectedly some may feel like they did not accomplish everything they wished to. Morrie stated that sometimes it is hard to think about dying because most of us walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do (Albom, 1997, p. 83). I think in some cases this holds true for some older adults. They may realize that towards the end of life they were so wrapped up in things such as work that they did not take time to step back and enjoy the little things in life. 4.) Throughout the novel Morrie emphasized how money cannot buy someone happiness. Other things such as family, friends, and other life experiences are what contribute to a person's happiness. One of life's greatest lessons that I took from reading this novel was when Morrie told Mitch the story of how he was in the mental health facility and one thing that he noticed about most of the individuals who were in the facility was that many of them were well-off, from rich families, so their wealth did not buy them happiness or contentment (Albom, 1997, p.111). Morrie mentioned that this was a lesson that he would never forget. I believe that this statement holds true because there can be people in this world who have all the money in the but are still unhappy. People need to surround themselves with healthy relationships, loving family members and individuals who encourage them to be the best they can be. I know that being a young college student, I was never able to just go out and buy whatever I wanted but I made the most of life during the past four years and I have been happier than ever.
Morrie also mentioned to Mitch how he believed that there was a form of brainwashing going on in our country (Albom, 1997, p. 124). What he meant by this statement was that people are encouraged to think that more money is good but Morrie seemed to believe the opposite. He stated, you can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship (Albom, 1997, p. 125). In all, I believe the most important lesson throughout this book is the fact that people should slow down and appreciate what life has to offer. People should not be so wrapped up in their jobs and trying to make more money. People should be taking time to appreciate their family members and their friends and they need to take time to experience all that life has to offer and I believe that is exactly what Morrie was trying to indicate to Mitch throughout the time that they spent together. 5.) Morrie mentioned to Mitch that he felt lucky although he knew he was dying (Albom, 1997, p. 118). There are a number of different reasons why Morrie could have said that. One reason that I believe the stated that he felt lucky was because even though he was dying he was still able to live his best life surrounded by the ones he loved. Many individuals who experience the dying process in the American Health System may feel a bit helpless. They are no longer human beings but rather patients. Death is also a difficult decision for some. Because of medical and technological advances some doctors are able to keep individuals alive on ventilators even if their heart is not beating. Many doctors are taught to desensitize death and many doctors may see death as a failure (Leming, 1985, p. 225).
These are some reasons why I believe Morrie felt lucky. Morrie was able to die peacefully in his own home surrounded by his loved ones. Not only was he able to die in his own home but also he knew months before his death that he was going to die so he was able to spend his final moments doing things he loved with the people that he loved. Many people do not get this opportunity. When some people are diagnosed with a terminal illness they are not given months to live so their death comes as a shock for those around them. It is known that many Americans today die in an institutional setting such as hospitals, and nursing homes (Leming, 1985, p. 231). 6.) I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. There were a lot of great lessons that Morrie taught Mitch throughout their time together. After finishing the novel is was difficult for me to decide which lesson stood out the most. There was a particular quote that I happened to highlight while reading. Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning (Albom, 1997, p. 127).
This was a powerful statement made by Morrie. I feel like this quote encompasses everything that a person should live by in their life. In today's time, it is important for us to love the people around us. With so much suffering going on in the world it is important for us to show light during the darkness. When it comes to dedicating yourself to your community, I feel like that is really important to me as a public health major because I am always looking for different ways that I can help others and I hope to make a future career out of caring for others. And lastly, it is extremely important to find something that gives you meaning in life whether it's a job or a hobby, everyone deserves to feel like they have a place in this world.
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Hinduism and the Seven Noahide Laws
On a recent trip to Baltimore, technical difficulties with my ticket prevented me from boarding until I was one of the final people waiting to board the Washington D.C. bound Megabus. During my struggle, an Indian man who looked like he was in his late twenties came off of the bus to ask if he was allowed to sit in the front row of the top deck, (seats with the best view, which are usually reserved for people willing to pay extra.) Because the bus was about to disembark on its journey and they had not yet been occupied; however, he was granted permission to take one of those seats. As the very last person boarding the very full bus, I was left with a very limited choice of viable seat partners, so I decided that taking the front seat next to this Indian man would be my best option. He seemed easygoing and pretty lowkey (especially in comparison to the other rather interesting characters on that very delayed Thursday night Baltimore/Washington D.C. bound bus.) In addition, it's not often that you get seats at the front of a double decker with a perfect view of the open road, so I took my seat at the front of the second level of the bus. Not long into the bus ride he told me that he came to America a few years prior for a high power job. He ended up quitting it to pursue a master's degree at Columbia, an action frowned upon by his family, as leaving this action contradicted their traditional value system.
This decision was fully supported by his high school sweetheart and fiance, another Columbia masters recipient whom he was commuting to visit, he did every week as was currently working in D.C. At some point my religious values became evident to him, and though by living and working in New York had exposed him to many Jews, religious and not, he had many unanswered questions about Judaism. Over the next five hours. He asked a lot of those questions about Judaism, which I answered to the best of my ability. As I answered his questions, he related what I said to his own life, telling me about Hinduism, the caste system and the Hindu religions many holidays and gods. Following this encounter, I was determined to find out what the most halachically acceptable way to act if such circumstances would ever befall me once again. In this paper I will explore the background of Hinduism, and use Jewish texts as a vehicle to answer the question, what is the Halachik view of Hinduism. To do so I will answer questions like what do Hindus believe, is it truly Avodah Zarah or just shittuf, and are they allowed to make a new religion, so I can get to the bottom of what Hindus believe and whether it is in line with some of the views of Yiddishkeit. Looking back at history, it is can be extrapolated that Hinduism has no definite starting point, like that of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Hindu traditions are, however still quite ancient they can be traced back several centuries, all the way back to before 2000 BCE at the Indus River Valley Civilization. Indus River Valley Civilization was one of the earliest civilizations. It was located along the river, Indus, near present-day Pakistan and northwest India. Religion there involved ritual bathing, evidenced at the great bath at Mohenjo-Daro. There were also figurines that are believed to be depicting gods (bbc).
After 1750 BCE it seems that the Indus River Valley Civilization declined and essentially disappeared. This region's strong ties to Hinduism begin Circa 1500-500 BCE, when there was a long period of Aryan migration of people from the Caucasus that migrated down to the Indo-Gangetic Plain. We know about these Aryans primarily because they left behind religious texts written in Sanskirt. This period of time know as the Vedic Period, as it was when the Vedas were composed by the Aryans. The Vedas are also the earliest text of what would come to be Hinduism, and it discusses several of their many gods as well as rituals and offerings brought to appease these gods. Some of these rituals are still involved in worship today, however several more enduring concepts and ideas were developed Circa 500 BCE-500 CE. It is at this time that Dharma, a central concept of Hinduism is expressed. It is later on during this period at around 500 CE when devotion to major deities like Vishnu, shiva ****and devi?***** became prevalent. During the medieval period Gurus and poets began to proliferate religious literature, and traveled debating the pious members of other religions of that time. (BBC)
Dharma holds a lot of significance to Hindus. it refers to their virtues and the duty of every person's specific role in life and society. It is the force upon which society as well as the entire universe is standing on. By adhering to a strict set of rules decided specifically for you and your group, you as an individual are keeping the universe in balance. The aforementioned groups are dictated by the Caste system. the Caste system has a divine explanation found in one of the vedas. It discusses how they divided Pourisha, the universe pervading spirit. Pourisha was divided into 4 parts: the mouth, the arms, the thighs, and the feet. Brahmuns, whom are at the top of the hierarchy are the mouth, as they are the pious and holy priests who speak to G-d. A rung lower are the kshatriyas, are represented by the arms as they are the warriors. Second to bottom are the Vaisyas, represented by the thighs; they are the merchants and artisans who provided money for priests and warriors. At the lowest level reside the Suras, the farmers and laborers they are the feet as well as the foundation of the social order. (Crash course) Dharma, which is dependent primarily on birth and caste may seem a little extreme at times, if faced with the option death or betray dharma, dying while staying faithful to your Dharma is the only correct answer. Dharma has not been rejected by the majority of mainstream Hindu society because of their views of the infinite soul and the afterlife. This belief is outlined in other major concepts of Hinduism, Samsara Moksha and Karma.
Hindus believe that all living organisms possess a soul, the Atman, and samsara is the cycle of rebirth. Hindus believe that when a person dies, their soul is transferred into another living being as its being born. Karma is defined very clearly in a later commentary on the Vedas that later became revered as sacred as well called tbe Aranyaka Upanishad, the doer of good becomes good, the doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action (Hume). If a person fulfills his dharma and has good karma, things improve, and you're born into a higher being. But the ultimate goal of a Hindu is Moksha, to be released from the cycle of endless reincarnations altogether and merge with the one G-d Brahman This state is also referred to as nirvana. Hindus acknowledge that achievement in the past life got you where you are today. Not abiding Dharma or straying from a given caste is guaranteed to result in a worse life when that person is reincarnated. The path to salvation is individualized and by abiding by it, a person is effectively keeping the world balanced. But the question still remains, what is it that Hindus believe in.
When looked at from the perspective of an uninformed outsider, Hinduism, as a religion with 33 million gods can seem like a quintessential example of Avodah Zarah. There is Brahma who creates and recreated the universe and everything in it periodically, Vishnu the peacemaker, restoring balance to the universe, Shiva who destroys the universe on a cyclical basis to that it can once again be restored by Brahma. Ganapati, the first son of Shiva has the head of the elephant and is renouned ad the remover of The Nasadiya Sukta of the Rig Veda is one of the first writings to talk about the metaphysical and posit what entity created the universe or question if that entity even knows how it completed such a feat. In this hymn it keeps talking about The One Truth and Reality which can be understood as monotheism (Werner), but at the same time it isn't denying the existence of any other gods. But what exactly is avodah zarah? Hindus It seems that they are an oxymoron. do believe in one infinite G- They Ultimately Hindus believe that there is one infinite, formless, limitless G-d that is superior to the other G-ds but they simultaneously acknowledge the existence of other possible deities who have separate but equal powers (Wilkins). They do believe in G-d, but the The question now can be asked, is this worship considered to be Avodah Zara Religion: Hinduism. BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/. Kane, P.V. (1953). History of Dharmastra: Ancient and Medieval Religious and Civil Law in India. https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfDharmasastraancientAndMediaevalReligiousAndCivilLawV.4/page/n899 CrashCourse. Buddha and Ashoka: Crash Course World History #6 YouTube, 1 Mar. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nn5uqE3C9w&list=PLhFpjatfwvpHQUsU4OGlXc0u2O1sXyPzn. Hume, Robert Ernest, and Georg C. O. Haas. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Oxford University Press, 1921. William Joseph Wilkins, Hindu Mythology: Vedic and Pur??nic, p. 8, at Google Books, London Missionary Society, Calcutta///// William Joseph Wilkins, Hindu Mythology: Vedic and Pur??nic, p. 8, at Google Books, London Missionary Society, Calcutta K Werner (1982), Men, gods and powers in the Vedic outlook, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, Volume 114, Issue 01, pages 14“24;/////// H Coward (1995), Book Review:"" The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Vedas"", Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Volume 8, Issue 1, pages 45“47, Quote: ""There is little doubt that the theo-monistic category is an appropriate one for viewing a wide variety of experiences in the Hindu tradition"".
There is this one truth which is monotheism but at the same time it isn't denying the existence of any other gods, and there are other G-ds too. The Rig Veda praises various deities, none superior nor inferior, in a henotheistic manner. Muller Without the word there are a bunch of gods and there all equal but henotheistic means focusing on one G-d but without denying the possible existence of many other G-ds - So there is one G-d that is superior to the other G-ds and they are focusting on that the one truth but the other possible deities that they aren't denying the existence of and speculating about those all are like, basically equal? - The other gods are actually equal to the one they're focusing on but they have other jobs or whatever but they could be equal? Tamar/wik/source but at the same time talks about many other gods that are all equal.
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Ancient Egyptian Jobs
Did you know that the Egyptians inherited their jobs? Your job often depended on your social class. Your social class was your rank in society. There were three classes; upper class, middle class, and lower class. Now let's explore the social scale and the jobs in each rank.
The upper class had the most important jobs. One example of these was scribes. Scribes wrote down trial data and trade deals. It took years of training to become a scribe. Scribes wrote on statues, coffins, and pyramids in their form of writing called Hieroglyphics. Another important job was being a priest. Priests had families, but they spent much of their time at the temple, where they lead ceremonies and the Daily Rite, a daily prayer. The most important job however, was the pharaoh. It was his/her job to make decisions. He/she was also the high priest.
The middle class was made up of people who performed some kind of task that involved an object. The majority of this population were craftspeople. Craftspeople included carpenters, jewelers, weavers, leather workers, and potters. People in the middle class were also doctors. Egyptian doctors set broken bones, gave medicine, and treated wounds. The medicine they used was made up of waste, blood, and urine. There were also merchants, who sold anything they could get their hands on.
The lower class made up somewhere between 80and90%of the population. One very important job was farming. Farmers grew foods such as barley, which they used to make beer wheat, which was used to bake bread vegetables such as onions and cucumbers and flax;which was used to make linen. They also grew figs, melons, pomegranates, and corn. Soldiers were also a very important job. When soldiers were not fighting foreign countries, they were helping with government projects. Some people had a job as a trader. Traders traded objects such as gold, papyrus, linen, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, lapis lazuli, and grain. They traded grain for seder wood.
Luckily, in America we can be anything we want as long as we work hard. As mentioned before, you inherited your job in ancient Egypt. In conclusion, the jobs in ancient Egypt were mostly designated by social class.
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Childhood in Ancient Egypt
When we think about childhood today, we tend to associate it with a sense of freedom and curiosity that encompasses all children no matter their background. We may even recall the times that we played with toys carelessly and were free to live out our lives as curious explorers of the world with no real responsibilities. However, times have certainly changed overtime. children today are regarded as immature beings that have yet to attain a certain level of intelligence and awareness that comes with age. In the ancient times of the past, such was not the case. So, what happened throughout time? It's hard to say; there really isn't one solid answer, but by studying the past we can get a better idea of what exactly was different for children and their upbringing. Especially in societies like Ancient Egypt, that was, during its time, considered the greatest and most powerful kingdom of all. So, this begs the question, What was childhood like in Ancient Egypt.
First off, let's begin from the start: how babies were viewed in Egypt. Back in ancient times, belief in a higher power was a very big part of Egyptian life and wound together all aspects of a person's life. Most of important of all, family. Egyptian women gave birth in what was known as a birth brick decorated with images of the gods that they believed would watch over their children. Most notable of all was Hathor who was [d]aughter of the Sun god Re, and was goddess of the sky and of love, mirth, and beauty. As the goddess of fertility as well, she personified the creative power of nature. Hathor would often be depicted as a cow painting on the birth stone. Egyptians would also invoke the name of many gods that would announce the destiny of the child after he/she was born. Unfortunately, however, back in ancient times the mortality rate was quite high. [D]espite this divine intervention complications at delivery and during confinement remained the main cause of mortality among young women, probably as many as one woman per 10 births. Infants too fell victim to accident and disease. An estimate of about 30% mortality during the first year of life probably reflects reality.
A much more positive picture shows begins to form however for those children and mothers that survived post-partum. Small children were very cherished in ancient Egypt precisely because of the high mortality rate. Even after kids were born many things such as disease or animals threatened their life. But from an early age children were placed in the hands of the gods by different spells and rituals. One of which was the name given to a child. [T]he names given to children also tell us of the affection parents had for their little ones: Nakht, which means strong, and Nefer, which means beautiful, were common names. Merit, which means beloved, was popular, too. These terms could be combined with the names of gods to give a child protection. The Egyptians also, much like us today, that were different stages that a child passed through in his life such as infant, toddler, and child.
A priest known as Bekenkhonsu that lived during the New Kingdom put it succinctly. [I] passed four years in extreme childhood. I passed twelve years as a youth, while I was chief of the training stable of King Menmare. I acted as priest of Amon, during four years. I acted as divine father of Amon, during twelve years. I acted as third prophet of Amon, during fifteen years. I acted as second prophet of Amon, during twelve years. He favored me, he distinguished me, because of my rare merit. He appointed me to be High Priest of Amon during twenty-seven years.
As children grew up, they slowly grew to occupy a greater role not only in the family but also in Egyptian society. The sons of noblemen and scribes would go on to receive a formal education while the majority of children would learn their father's trade. This created a system where the rich stayed rich and the poor remained poor. Those children who were able to receive an education would learn how to read and write, and do arithmetic among many other things.
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Ancient Egypt: the Old Kingdom and New Kingdom
From the moment of the Old Kingdom to the period of the New Kingdom, Ancient Egypt was a world dominated by forces. The history of Egypt is typically divided into four periods: pre-dynastic Egypt (6000- 3000 BCE), the Old Kingdom (2700-2130 BCE), the Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 BCE) and the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE). I'm going to talk about the main three and that's the kingdoms. The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom Period. The Egyptians had been preserving the remains of their dead long before the building of the great pyramids. They believed that a person's soul could live after the death of the body. Each Kingdom had some of the greatest tombs for their greatest kings.
The Old Kingdom: 2575-2130 BCE
The Old Kingdom, in ancient Egyptian history, is the period in the third millennium (c. 2575“2134 BC) also known as the 'Age of the Pyramids' or 'Age of the Pyramid Builders' as it includes the great 4th Dynasty when King Sneferu perfected the art of pyramid building and the pyramids of Giza were constructed under the kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilizationthe first of three so-called ""Kingdom"" periods (followed by the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom) which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley.
In ancient Egypt one of the most renowned statues, is the Great Sphinx (Kleiner, 63) which wasn't no regular statue but instead it was a religious Guardian and most frequently described as the person with the Pharaoh headdress”as is the Great Sphinx”and figures of these animals were frequently included in tomb and temple complexes. For example, the so-called Sphinx street at Upper Egypt is the two-mile street that links the synagogues of Luxor and Karnak and is lined with statues. This Great statue, which is located at Giza, the third largest city in empire. The Great statue of Giza is the large 4,500-year-old stone statue situated near the Sphinx monument in Giza, Egypt. Measuring 240 feet in length and 66 feet tall, this great statue is one of the earth's largest monuments. It is also one of the most identifiable relics of the ancient Egyptians, though the origins and history of this large system are even argued.
This statue is one of the unique statues, with the body of the cat and the head of the king, made around 4500 years ago. This Great statue was buried for most of it world, until King Thutmose IV, while even the aristocrat, had started hunting and fell asleep at the shadow of the Sphinx head. Within the dream, the statue talked to Thutmose and told him to take away the soil because it was choking the statue. But no one knows what occurred to this front. Hieroglyphic texts indicate Khafre's founder, ruler Khufu, made the Great Pyramid, the oldest and largest of these three pyramids at Giza.
When he turned into ruler, Khafre built his personal monument next to his dad's; though Khafre's monument equals 10 feet less than this Great monument, it is surrounded by a more elaborate complex that includes the Great Sphinx and other statues. Additionally, Mariette found remnants of the Causeway (processional route) that link the Valley building to the mortuary building next to Khafre's monument. In the early 1900s, French anthropologist Emile Baraize dug up another structure (the Sphinx Temple) immediately before the statue that's related in designing to this Valley Temple.
Middle Kingdom: 2040-1640 BCE
The Middle Kingdom of Egyptian empire lasted from 2055 to 1640 BC. During the period, the Osiris funerary religion grew to dominate Egyptian common belief. This point contains two stages: The 11th Dynasty, which reigned from Thebes and the 12th and thirteenth Dynasty centered on el-Lisht. The United country was previously believed to include the eleventh and twelfth Dynasty, but historians today at least partly consider the thirteenth Dynasty to belong to the Middle kingdom. Within this 2nd Intermediate Period, Ancient Egypt fell into confusion for the second Period, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the New country. It is best known for this Hyksos, whose period represented the fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties. These Hyksos first appeared in empire during the eleventh Dynasty, started their ascent to force in the thirteenth Dynasty, and emerged from this Second Intermediate point in power of Avaris and the Delta.
One of the most famous architecture in this era was the Tomb of Khnumhotep the 2nd. Beni Hasan, Egypt, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1900-1880 BCE (Kleiner, 68). It is a mudbrick pyramid and rock cut tomb, not only was it made in the Middle Kingdom but also made in the Old Kingdom and then replaced the mastaba as the normal Egyptian tomb style and it also has a unique story to it. Like the earliest account of a possible gay family in history is usually considered as Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, an old Egyptian male family, who lived in 2400 BCE. This two are depicted in the nose-kissing job, the most informal pose in Egyptian art, surrounded by what seem to be their heirs. These anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe reported that females at Lesotho employed in socially approved long term, sexy relationships named motsoalle. This anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard also showed that male Azande warriors at that North Zaire habitually had on teenage male fans between those ages of twelve and twenty, who served with household tasks and participated in intercultural sex with their older husbands.
Depiction of martial arts sporting at empire has started by the period of the fifth Dynasty mastaba tombs in Saqqara, circa 2400 BC. After the boat joust incident shown at the grave of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, who were manicurists to queen Nyuserre, six pairs of boy's wrestle at the near grave of Akhethotep and Ptahhotep. Another first piece of information for wrestling in empire looks in eleventh and twelfth Dynasty Beni Hasan (2000 BC). where wrestling pictures at several tombs are elaborated to cover much of a wall. During the end of the New land (1550-1070 BC), more Egyptian art (much on friezes), portrayed Egyptian and Nubian wrestlers competing. Carroll notices striking similarities between these old portrayals and those of these contemporary Nuba wrestlers. On the 406 wrestling pairs discovered in the midst Kingdom tombs in Beni Hasan in the river Valley, almost all of the techniques seen in contemporary race wrestling would be seen.
New Kingdom: 1550-1070 BCE
During the New Kingdom, Egypt had reach unprecedented power and prosperity. Basically, it was the golden age of Egypt because the country was flourishing, its influence and richness consistently overcome the achievements of the previous epoch and after the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt would have never reach such a level of the development. The achievements of the New Kingdom may be particularly obvious in the territory expansion of Egypt. It should be said that the country has traditionally quite aggressive foreign policy and attempted to establish control over neighboring territories and countries. At the same time, it is only during the New Egypt the territory of Egypt had been extended to Nubia and Near East.
One of the most famous architecture buildings in the New Kingdom was the Fa?§ade of the temple of Ramses the 2nd, Abu Simbel, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. (Kleiner,71) it is a vast temple that is rock-cut. Like in the book the author talks about In 1968, to save the Nubian monument from submersion in the Aswan High Dam reservoir, engineers cut the temple into sections and reassembled it nearly 700 feet away, resting against a new artificial mountain they had constructed- an amazing achievement in its own right (Kleiner,71)
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Mandela’s Violence: the Glamorization of Passive Resistance
Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa, a political prisoner, and a vastly known revolutionary. His advances to gain freedom in South Africa was and still is influential to many politicians, activists and revolutionaries throughout time. We will be taking a close look at the life of Mandela, analyzing his use of violence and comparing it to Frantz Fanon's k0 On Violence chapter from his widely known novel, The Wretched of the Earth, and critiquing the glamorization of passive resistance through Mandela.
Rolihlahla Mandela was born 18 July 1918 into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo, South Africa. He was raised by his mother, Nonqaphi Nosekeni, and his father Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela. His father was the principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people. His name, Rolihlahla, means pulling the branch of a tree, but colloquially it means troublemaker. In 1925, he attends school in Qunu, South Africa and his teacher, Miss Mtingane, had asked him what his name was and he gave her his African name, and she refused and asked him again what his Christian name was and he had told her he does not have a Christian name. She had then told him from that day forward his name would be Nelson. In 1930, at just 12 years old, his father passed away from a lung illness.Shortly after, his mother let him go to attend a ritual where a boy becomes a man, this was also called initiation. The king takes him under his wing. Due to his father's status and living with the king, Nelson was given the best education a black South African could get. He attended middle school at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan high school. By 1939, Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete his degree due to being expelled for joining in on a student protest. On his arrival back to the Palace, the king was furious with him. The king had suggested he ought to be married, Mandela believed he was not ready to be married and so he ran away with his cousin Justice to Johannesburg where they worked as mine security officers. After meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, he was introduced to Lazer Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys Witkin, Eidelman and Sidelsky.Mandela then begins to informally attend ANC meetings. Finally, in 1943 Mandela completed his BA at the University of South Africa and had decided to go back to Fort Hare for his graduation. In 1944, he helped to form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). Later on in that year, Mandela fell in love and married Walter Sisulu's cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse. The couple had two sons, Madiba Thembekile "Thembi" and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. Evelyn and Mandela's marriage began to fall apart once he spent a lot of his time with the ANC. His wife believed he was neglecting his fatherly duties and their relationship became rocky. It has also been reported that Mandela had affairs with other women during their marriage and that he got physical with Evelyn at some point. He and his wife divorced in 1958. Later on in the year he meets Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela and they fall in love and get married. The couple have two daughters: Zenani and Zindzi.
On March 21, 1960, an incident in the black township of Sharpeville, South Africa, police fired on a crowd of black South Africans, killing or wounding some 250 of them. It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. A member of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the anti- apartheid protest. In order to reduce the possibility of violence, he wrote a letter to the Sharpeville police commissioner announcing the upcoming protest and emphasizing that its participants would be non-violent. Around 7,000 South Africans gathered at the Sharpeville police station. At the scene, there were about 300 police officers. A police officer was knocked down and protesters began moving forward to see what had happened. Police quickly began shooting at the protesters without a warning shot. 69 Africans were killed and 186 were wounded, with most shot in the back. Tensions between authorities and Black South Africans arose. The Sharpeville Massacre awakened the international community to the horrors of apartheid. The massacre also sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. On March 30, the South African government declared a state of emergency which made any protest illegal. The ban remained in effect until August 31, 1960. During those five months, roughly 25,000 people were arrested throughout the nation including Mandela.The South African government then created the Unlawful Organizations Act of 1960 which banned anti-apartheid groups such as the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) and the African National Congress (ANC). Days before the end of the Treason Trial, Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference. The conference resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution. He also warned the prime minister that if he did not agree there will be a national strike that would make South Africa a republic. After he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, Mandela was forced to go underground. No one knew of his whereabouts except his colleagues and wife Winnie. While Mandela was underground, he began planning a national strike for the 29th, 30th and 31st of March. The strike was called off in face of massive mobilization of state security. In June of 1961 Nelson Mandela was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on December 16th, 1961 with a series of explosions. Mandela adopted the name David Motsamayi and had secretly travelled all over Africa and also travelled to England to gain support for the armed struggle. On his trip, he had gained military training in Ethiopia and Morocco and finally returned back to South Africa in July of 1962. Mandela was in a car returning back from KwaZulu-Natal where he had met with ANC President Albert Luthuli to speak about his trip and inform them of new knowledge he had gained. Mandela was road blocked by police outside of Howick and arrested him for illegally leaving the country and attempting to incite a worker's strike on August 5th, 1962. He was sentenced to five years which he began to serve at Pretoria Local Prison. . He was then transferred to Robben Island on May 27th, 1963 and returned to Pretoria by June. Within that month the ANC hideout, Liliesleaf, in Rivonia, Johannesburg was raided and arrested ANC/ Communist party members, Walter Sisulu, Denis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel 'Rusty' Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.The trial is called the Rivonia trial and on December 3rd Mandela pleads not guilty in the accusation of attempting to overthrow the government. At the courthouse, he gives his famous Rivonia speech in which he states This then is what the ANC is fighting. Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.(Mandela, 1964). He and seven other men were sent to life imprisonment at Robben Island whereas, their white comrade Denis Goldberg was sent to a white prison.
During Mandela's imprisonment, his wife Winnie was being harassed by authorities. They would arrest her right before her two daughters would come home from school so they would come to an empty home. One of Winnie's arrests lasted longer than the others. She was in prison for a total of 491 days where she was tortured and treated inhumanely. Her husband on the other hand, was only allowed to visits a year and was allowed to also send two letters a year. He was not allowed to have any physical contact with his visitors until many years later. When Mandela was arrested his daughters were toddlers when he was arrested and were not allowed to visit him until they turned 16. Mandela's mother passed away in 1968, and his eldest son Thembekile was killed in a car accident along with ten others. He was not allowed to attend either of the funerals.In 1982, he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in later on in October. Mandela is offered to be released from prison by President PW Botha's if he renounces violence and he declines the offer through his daughter Zindzi. From 1985-1988 Mandela deals with a series of health issues from getting prostate surgery to being diagnosed with tuberculosis. He then is Moved to Victor Verster Prison in Paarl where he is held for 14 months in a cottage. He begin to meet with President de Klerk to resolve the race war taking place on the streets of South Africa. In 1990, the ANC is unbanned and shorty after on on February 11th, Mandela is finally free. In 1993, he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with President de Klerk. Mandela urges the people to vote in the upcoming election, he hoped it would be how the people would finally gain their freedom. On May 10th, 1994 Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first democratically elected President and Apartheid is finally banned.
In contrast, Mandela's politics leading up the Rivonia trial has been heavily critiqued. Mandela himself believes that his politics at the time were not very effective. He was described as violent but I believe otherwise and so would Fanon. We have seen how the government agent uses a language of pure violence. The agent does not alleviate oppression or mask domination. He displays and demonstrates the with the clear conscious of the law enforcer, and brings violence into the homes and minds of the colonized subject. (Fanon, 4). Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, philosopher, writer and revolutionary from the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean ocean. He analyzed the psychology of the colonized subject and endorsed armed resistance. Fanon believed that in order for violence to take place, it always comes from those in power. Apartheid was a violence act against the African people therefore, the African people are incapable of being violent it only makes sense to be armed in defense of the oppressed subject. Decolonization is always a violent event. (Fanon, 1). In this case, decolonization he speaks of is the walk to freedom from Apartheid. Mandela And his brethren were captured and put in prison for treason but was it truly treason? They were simply freeing themselves from the violent and oppressive system of Apartheid and reciprocating the energy as their oppressors. One must fight for his country. Because nonviolence worked so well as a tactic for effecting change and was demonstrably improving their lives, some black people chose to use weapons to defend the nonviolent Freedom Movement. (Cobbs, 1). After Mandela was released from prison he adopted the nonviolent love thy oppressors mentality. For the oppressed, it is nearly impossible to show love to those who have put your people through a living hell. Despite seeing potentiality in violence, Fanon does not think that violence should be used lightly or as an end unto itself. Fanon also documents the dangerous and negative effects of violence. The physical aspect of violence is obviously harmful to the the oppressed. Fanon is not saying that in order to free oneself, the oppressed should burn everything down, he is simply stating that the at of freeing the oppressed, there is always violence and it is a violent act.
In today's world, many non violent activists are overly glamorized. The oppressed adopt the love thy oppressor that will never bring them true freedom and liberation. Passive resistance has been overly glamorized by mainly white liberals. Civil Rights icons like Martin Luther King is seen as a true freedom fighter and an example of what activism should truly look like. Not everything is solved by holding hands and singing Kumbaya. Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people. This ideology does not makes sense because an evildoer is essentially, evil. We have seen that this violence throughout the colonial period, although constantly on edge, runs on empty. We have seen it channelled through the emotional release of dance or possession. We have seen it exhaust itself in fratricidal struggles. The challenge now is to seize this violence as it realigns itself. Whereas it once revealed in myths and contrived ways to commit collective suicide, a fresh set of circumstances will now enable it to change directions. (Fanon, 21).
Furthermore, Nelson Mandela has influenced thousands of marginalized and privileged people worldwide. His politics may be critiqued in whichever aspect of his life, whether he was violent or peaceful. He will always be the father of South Africa, a human rights advocate and the best of teachers. The life Mandela lead showed the world that he was our king. Our black, shining king that was willing to die for the liberation of his people because he loved them so much.
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Mandela's Violence: the Glamorization of Passive Resistance. (2019, Jul 19).
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Tell Tale Heart & Black Cat
In Tell Tale Heart, there is a man who is crazy but thinks he isn't and he insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye. He thinks his eye is evil because it has cataracts. The murder was carefully planned and covered up well. The murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. In The Black Cat, there is a man who is feeling guilty after the murder of his beloved black cat, Pluto, so he adopts another cat but he cannot escape his guilt or violent tendencies. He is a big alcoholic too and he is also really crazy. At the end the narrator hangs his beloved black cat Pluto. The Black Cat and The Tell Tale Heart share similar themes and characteristics about the main characters, and settings.
One major theme in Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat is violence. In Tell Tale Heart the man is so violent towards the old man, and the man in Black Cat is also violent towards his cats. Another theme is guilt. Both of the main characters felt so guilty after killing the man and the cat. They just had so much guilt and they tried to cover it up. They did a good job doing it too, but one thing slipped and they got caught. One more theme that they have in common is the darkness. Both of the story's have a lot of darkness and dramatic effect. They both talk about how they're going to kill their victim and hide it in gruesome details.
Both of the characters are actually really similar. Both of them think that they're not crazy even though they definitely are. They both kill something and try to cover it up. They also use a really creative way of covering up the bodies. In Tell Tale Heart, The narrator claims that he suffers from nervousness that causes an over-acuteness of the senses. This is the only explanation he gives for his motives and obsession with the old man's eye. The old man has a clouded, pale, blue eye, which is the only thing that the narrator describes about his appearance. The Black Cat is a story about a man who is in early life is known to be very peaceful and an animal loving person. The narrator is married and has many pets including birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits a small monkey and a cat. The location of the house is unknown but we do know that the narrator, wife and animals live in a large house with a servant. Pluto is said to be to be the narrator's favorite pet and he alone took care of him and couldn't prevent the cat from following him anywhere. After several years the narrator shows that his behaviors are deteriorating and says he grows more irritable and moody. The narrator tells us the reason he is worsening is because he has alcohol abuse problems.
The setting in Tell Tale Heart is the house the narrator shares with the old man where the murder takes place and the location from which the narrator tells his story, presumably a prison or an asylum for the criminally insane. It's also really dark and not really somewhere a reader would have wanted to be. The Black Cat setting is very similar, it's also dark, scary, and unpleasant. They both took place in a house that was creepy and weird.
The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat are more similar than different because they both have the same themes, which are violence, guilt, and darkness. Also both of the characters are really similar to each other. They are both crazy, have unique minds, and know how to cover up a murder. In the setting both of the houses are really dark, gloomy, and a place that someone wouldn't want to go.
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Tell Tale Heart & Black Cat. (2019, Jul 19).
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The Accessibility and Availability of Birth Control
Introduction
The accessibility and availability of Birth control is a growing concern. It is an issue that affects every adult of marriage age significantly. Away from its moral and ethical issues, birth control presents a practical and fertility control methods, a practical and cost effective health intervention practice. This research paper aims at understanding what birth control is an intensive and detailed coverage on birth control, the methods of birth control, its evolution, its advantages, disadvantages among other issues related to birth control.
What Is Birth Control?
Birth control is also known as contraception or fertility control. It is a device or a method used to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been practiced since time immemorial and has a very wide range. There are natural and artificial ways of practicing birth control. Artificial ways are either temporary on short term or long term basis or permanent. Since birth control is a timeless practice, it has evolved developed and changed over the years dating all the way back to the medieval ages.
Evolution of Birth Control
The idea of birth control is not modern. It also does not date back to the invention of the birth control pill in the 50s. In fact, a lot of modern-day birth control methods are a modification of what was invented many centuries ago. It has been in existence since time immemorial and dates back to the ancient ages. Research into some of these has revealed some astonishing and pretty bizarre facts. Research into the past has shown the use of elixirs and concoctions among other methods used. Some of these elixirs were made of very inedible things such as lead and leeches. Ancient Egyptians used a mixture of acacia leaves, honey, and lint to block the inside of the vagina. The Greek used a plant called silphium which became extinct due to its use. In India, the women fumigated their vagina with neem wood smoke or inserted rock salt dipped in oil. (History of the evolution of birth control by Carolyn Todd).
The condom was not used widely up until the 1900s, however, there was a condom made of animal gut that was used back in the 1700s. Apart from condoms, there are also pessaries used to block the cervix. There was also use of the contraceptive sponge which was inserted in the vagina and blocked the cervix preventing sperm from getting to the uterus. After many decades of this primitive, do it yourself kind of birth control, the condom was manufactured using latex and was much safer and of much higher quality than other birth control methods. Surprisingly, birth control for women in the United States was illegal and it took a fight and bravery by women like Margaret Sanger to legalize it.
After years of research, the pill was invented as doctors were searching for a cure for infertility. The pill was effective in that it suppressed ovulation and tricked the body into believing it was pregnant. Hence, a body cannot get pregnant twice so it was a much more favorable option to elixirs and fumigation. It was released into the market after years of experiments.
Types of Birth Control
Natural Birth Control
Withdrawal is one of the ways to control births naturally. This is a method where the penis is withdrawn from the vagina before ejaculation. This means that the ovary will not get fertilized. The risk for pregnancy is 22 out of 100 for this method. The basal body temperature involves taking the temperature of the woman every morning. This is because the body temperature drops around twenty-four hours before ovulation and that dropped maintained for the subsequent forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Intercourse should be avoided during this period. Breastfeeding is also one of these methods. It works only when you have not received your periods and are exclusively breastfeeding. A lady has to breastfeed for four hours during the day and six hours at night for it to work. It is not a certainty that it will work.
Artificial Birth Control
These are numerous. They are either temporary or permanent. They have long-term temporary and long-term temporary. They also have hormonal and non-hormonal methods that are either short term or long term. Below are some of these methods.
Hormonal Methods
The pill, which is taken eve day for twelve week reduces the frequency of pregnancy from one every month to one every three months. There is also the birth control patch that is worn for one week at a time and releases hormones that are absorbed into the bloodstream. It is worn on the upper outer arm, or on the upper torso or the buttocks.
There is also the Depo- Provera shot administered once every month by a health care provider. There are also barrier methods. They include male and female condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, and sponges. These are used each time during sex. In addition to these, there are intrauterine devices, otherwise, known as IUD's. They are used on long-term and last up to five to ten years. They are classified into copper IUD's and hormonal IUD's. They are inserted by a medic.
Permanent Birth Control
Tubal ligation for women is where the fallopian tubes are blocked or cut. The procedure is performed in hospital while the subject is asleep. Vasectomy for men where the vas deferens is burnt blocked or cut thus sperm is not transported from the testes.
Reasons for Birth Control Pill
It reduces menstrual cramps. It reduces the risk of anemia by reducing the frequency in which periods are received. It helps manage endometriosis, a condition in which the endometrium grows anywhere else except the in the uterus and bleeds any time you have your period no matter where it is. It helps control migraines caused by hormonal imbalance. Reduces risk of ovarian cysts by preventing ovulation hence the cysts do not form. It can banish hormonal acne caused by hormonal imbalance.
Disadvantaged of Birth Control Pill
It causes temporary side effects such as mood swings, breast tenderness, mood swings, and headaches. It may increase your blood pressure. It does not protect against sexually transmitted disease. Spotting and breakthrough bleeding is common in the first few months
Work Cited
Carolyn Todd, The Evolution and History of Birth control in America, Allure Magazine, July 13, 2018
Margret Sanger, The case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts,New York ,Modern Art Print.Co,1917
Barbara Kass- Annesse, R. N. ,C. N P. ,Hal C. Danzer, Natural Birth Control Made Simple, Oakland, Turner Publishing Company, May 26 2003,print
Gladys M. Cox, Clinical Contraceptives, Butterworth- Heinemann, 1937
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The Accessibility and Availability of Birth Control. (2019, Jul 19).
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Juvenile Justice Transfer Law of California
The case is eight-year-old Madyson Middleton murdered by fifteen-year-old Adrian Gonzalez. In Santa Cruz, at an apartment complex on the 26th of July, 2015, eight-year-old Madyson was lured by her fifteen-year-old neighbor Adrian with ice cream to his mothers apartment. Once he had her in the apartment he raped, duct taped her neck and stabbed her three times. After that he stuffed her body into three plastic bags and threw her in a recycling bin at the apartment complex. When the mass search for Madyson was going on Adrian repeatedly asked for updates and joined in the search for her. About twenty-four hours went by before the body was found. Adrian was around the body when the body was discovered. Adrian was arrested and placed in Santa Cruz County juvenile hall until further notice.
The apartment complex cameras caught Adrian dumping Madysons body in the recycling bin. Immediately right after dumping the body he played with his toy yoyo like nothing ever happened. The coroner said that Madyson died by positional Asphyxiation, and stabbing and not so much by the strangulation. It was the way she was positioned in the dumpster that killed her. He then ruled her death as a homicide.
Adrian was transferred to the adult court, for a couple of reasons. One his age, because he was fifteen. The transfer law works if the juvenile 14-16 and committed first or second-degree murder, and that means with the intent or personally killed the victim. Which he did. Another reason was the category and he did several assaults to her person. Adrian was charged with murder, forcible rape, lewd acts with a child under fourteen and rape by instrument. The offenses are to serious for a juvenile court. Adrians case was Statutory Exclusion transferred. Statutory Exclusion means the state law excludes some classes of cases involving juvenile age offenders from juvenile court, granting adult criminal court exclusive jurisdiction over some types of offenses. Murder and serious violent felony cases are most commonly excluded from juvenile court. The offense was murder and a violent felony Adrian was trialed as an adult.
The defense attorney did not want him to be tried as an adult or put in with the dangerous population in prison. He said that his client was an awkward and slightly autistic teen. Adrian ended up giving a confession:
Eventually Adrian gave a lengthy confession on how he murdered and tortured Madyson and it was read during the hearing. He said that he lured Madyson to his mothers apartment with ice cream, choked her until she lost consciousness, raped her and stabbed her in the neck. He also played loud music that way no one could hear them. While he was choking her, she asked him what are you doing? and she looked sad and confused.
After the confession it was difficult for him to be not guilty. The lead prosecutor mentioned that Adrian had a long life of issues that could not be helped with therapy. Adrian would also not be tracked if he left the juvenile justice system. Adrian showed signs of psychopathy. Adrian was sentenced to Santa Cruz prison.
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Juvenile Justice Transfer Law of California. (2019, Jul 19).
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Recidivism Rate Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
As our society continues to grow, so does the amount of youths who become involved in the Juvenile Justice System. It has become something that Americans are all too familiar with. Youth involved with the juvenile justice system often have substance abuse problems along with many other problems that include: mental health disorders, gang affiliation, poverty and much more. We know that while experimenting with drugs and alcohol could be a rite of passage from adolescence into early adulthood, it also could be a start of a path more and more teens are experiencing today (Broderick, 2012). The media tends to often cover news about all the negative things the youth are doing instead of focusing on how our society and the criminal justice system could work with youth to decrease recidivism and increase rehabilitation. This paper will cover the following topics: issues with the criminal justice system, why it has become a social justice issue, implications for micro, mezzo, macro practice, and reflections on my thoughts and feelings about this issue.
Substance use disorder among Americas' youth are national problem with tremendous consequences. It appears our society focuses more on the consequences than treatment but as time continues to pass and statistics show that treatment for youth outweigh the benefits than locking up a child in jail. Recidivism is a big problem that we face with our trouble youth. Recidivism is primarily known as when one person convicted of a criminal act get release from jail and then reoffends. We all know that high recidivism rate would mean more youths being placed in the juvenile justice system until they reach the age of 19. By everyone coming together, we could develop more programs that would help reduce the recidivism rate. This would have to mean instead of building or opening more correctional facilities, we focus our attention on facilities that handle substance abuse and/or co-occurring disorders. This could be anything from a youth with a diagnosis of conduct disorder that suffers from alcohol abuse to a youth who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that copes with this by using marijuana. What makes this a social justice issue is because it takes money, time, parents, counselors, and the state to all come together as a team and figure around the cost of opening these facilities and running them. Another social justice issue is that the correctional facilities are becoming more and more overcrowded which in turn, takes away from actual treatment that the youth may need to receive because they are spending most of the time trying to watch the youth in the facilities. On average, 23.5 million people over 12 need treatment for drug or alcohol abuse each year (NIDA, 2018). Studies have shown that treatment reduces drug-related crimes about 15 times more than incarceration. In 2005, a study of arrests that underwent drug treatment showed that 52% of those who did not enter treatment were rearrested but only 22% of those who completed treatment were rearrested (NIDA,2018).
When you become a social worker, you usually tend to divide your practice into three various categories: Macro, Mezzo, and Micro. Macro level social work is interventions provided on a large scale that affect the entire community and system of care (Erreger, 2014). To start at the Macro level is to decrease the recidivism rate among our youth. We could lobby within our court systems to allow the youth to enter a treatment center instead of sentencing them to several months in the juvenile justice department. I know sometimes this requires money that families do not have. If we could educate our communities about the different organization like The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, this could help us to lobby and provide data on why treatment is better than jail. Mezzo works on an intermediate scale, involving neighborhoods, institutions or other smaller groups (Erreger, 2014). If we want to make a difference on a Mezzo level then we could include our community with free workshops and training that provide information on teens and substance abuse. Our book talks about development of the Recovery Community Centers where the healing takes place within the community over a long-term period (Davis & Wormer, 2018). Micro social work is the most widespread practice and it happens directly with the individual client and/or family (Erreger, 2014). As with everything else, it is always best to try and start at the source of the problem. In this case, this would be with the actual youth and their family. As a social worker, we could help them find an appropriate social service that includes counseling. Youths tend to use some sort of substance because it is easier than dealing with the problem. By providing counseling, we can help reduce the number of youths returning to jail and help them to deal with problems that he/she might be facing that caused them to fall into the world of substance use. A good example of this would be
As a correctional officer and working in the Criminal Justice System for several years now, my thoughts have not changed about our youth when it comes to substance abuse. I believe we need to start working together as a community and to teach our kids about addiction at an early age. I also believe that being proactive instead of reactive is always the best solution and that we should start with the family system approach. Social workers use this system to work with the whole family because of the view that the illness is in the family dynamics (Davis & Wormer, 2018). Now, I am not saying youth use drugs or alcohol because of family but I do believe that family and the environment plays a significant factor in a youth developing a substance. Also, I agree our youth tend to go within the juvenile system before treatment for many assorted reasons that include but not limited to: lack of money, skills, and language to negotiate the treatment systems; illegal status; negative experiences; cultural or religious beliefs that conflict with mainstream treatment centers; and fear of bringing shame to family and friends (Davis & Wormer, 2018). Working with the juvenile correctional facility, I see these barriers day in and day out. For example, I know several Hispanics whose family members are illegal immigrants in the United States and therefore when their children went to court they had no support which then led them to Mart, Texas. I have also seen many African American youth who report that they are in jail because they had to step up and be the man of the house and support the family and by selling drugs, allowed them to support their family. I could go on and on with examples of why I feel that the system is failing and by placing our future in jail instead of treatment centers where they could change their life does not seem to be a hard task to accomplish if the necessary support was available.
Our youth in the criminal justice system have distinct needs that could either make them re-offend or become productive society members. Treating substance use disorders among juvenile offenders is complicated because of those many distinct needs (Chassin, 2008). In order for the scale to play in our favor of our youth becoming productive then we need to start all the way at the bottom of the level (Micro) to the top (Macro). Since the justice system is the largest referral source for adolescent's substance users, the court system must have a clean understanding of substance use, abuse, and dependence, the consequences of substance disorders, along with the latest research as to how to effectively deal with these issues (Broderick, 2012). The focus of this paper was to expand our knowledge on the data surrounding our youth and the criminal justice system with a substance problem to try instead of just focusing on punishment and jail. Areas like prevention, identification and treatment would reduce the amount of youth in the criminal justice system substantially.
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Recidivism Rate among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System. (2019, Jul 19).
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The Legalization of Marijuana: Ending Prohibition
Marijuana, one of the most commonly used substances in the world, is a psychoactive drug that comes from the Cannabis plant. There are many different nicknames that marijuana can be referred to as, including pot, weed, Mary Jane, ganja, flower, or bud; all of which describe portions of the Cannabis plant which likely originated in Asia. Marijuana is the psychoactive portion of the plant, and comes from the dried flowering buds, leaves, stems, and seeds of the plant (FNP, 2018). Marijuana can be consumed in numerous ways, such as smoking or eating it, and the main psychoactive ingredient of the plant is called Tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. Although marijuana remains an illegal, schedule 1 controlled substance in most states, there are multiple states that have, and are legalizing it due to the prolonged history it acquires, its numerous medicinal benefits that are continuing to be found today, and the many gains legalizing it can bring to the economy.
The Cannabis plant has been around for thousands of years, preceding recorded history. It likely originated in Asia, near the Central Asian steppe or the Altai and Tian Shian mountains. From the sites where prehistoric hunters and gatherers lived to ancient China and Viking ships, humans utilized every part and species of the plant. Cannabis Sativa L, commonly known as Hemp, dates all the way back to 8000 B.C. It is believed that China has the longest continuous history of Hemp cultivation, over 6000 years. Hemp fibers were likely the earliest plant cultivated, especially for its fibers, due to the fact that it preceded many other fibers and natural resources including linen and cotton. Hemp cultivation has been used in many different cultures for many different reasons. Hemp fibers were used to make bowstrings for Chinese Archers and were a lot stronger and durable than bowstrings created from bamboo. Hemp ropes were also very important because they helped make ocean voyages successful for thousands of years, even ancient rulers in Greece such as Hieron II used hemp for ships. Hemp paper, food and clothing were also discovered around the first century BC. Hemp seeds contain protein and amino acids, which are both essential in human health. Many cultures used hemp in their food. Healthy ancient hemp-seed deserts made by the Romans, or the natives of India who claimed that hemp was the favorite food of the God Shiva are examples (Earleywine, 2005). Humans have fashioned clothing from hemp for a very long time, and in many places including ancient parts of the world. Hemp fibers helped to minimize the need to use animal skin, and may have been a lot more comfortable to wear!
Medical use of marijuana began around 2737 BC, long after the plant's first use as fiber. Famous for discovering many other medicines, Chinese emperor Shen Neng was prescribing cannabis tea for gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and even poor memory (Earleywine, 2005). Cannabis's purpose as a medicine helped it expand from ancient Asia to all over the map. The plant appeared steadily in pharmacopoeia as well as folk and traditional medicine. Throughout ancient history, there have been records of using Cannabis medically, and not a single death reported. Although marijuana never hurt anyone, physical and psychoactive effects were eventually reported. The Chinese actually knew there were psychoactive effects. In fact, some physicians advised consumption in small amounts because it could result in seeing devils or communicating with spirits (Earleywine, 2005). Despite the fact that marijuana was primarily used as medicine, and most plants had little THC in them, there is history of recreational use, specifically in religious ceremonies or healing practices.
Cannabis use as medicine finally spread to the US when an Irish physician named William O'Shaughnessy with the British East India company discovered the medicinal benefits through Indian research (Earleywine, 2005). He discovered that it was used to treat ailments like rheumatism, nausea, and rabies in the 1840s and helped popularize these medicinal uses in the United States as well as Europe. By the 1850s, doctors in the US were using it to treat tons of disorders, including gout, depression, pain, hysteria, and nervous conditions (Wilson, 2014). Cannabis use rose extremely quickly, and fell even quicker. By the end of the 19th century, marijuana was starting to become outlawed. During the Mexican revolution, there was an influx of Mexican immigrants coming in to the US, many of whom brought marijuana with them. The roots of criminalizing marijuana fell back on racism, which unfortunately, is still being carried out today. There were those who wanted control over Mexican immigrants, and used marijuana as an excuse to detain and deport them. Propaganda about how marijuana caused people of color to become violent quickly followed, leading to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which banned the use and sales of marijuana (Wilson, 2014). It is ironic how decades ago, drugs have produced unequal outcomes across racial groups, and it is STILL happening today. Racism and lack of information helped make marijuana far more abusive than it actually was, and because of this, states began to make it illegal.
As a result of the drug prohibition movement, medicinal as well as recreational use was prohibited in the US for almost half a century. From the 1940s until now, there has been a lobby to legalize it in the US. One aspect was legalizing it as a medicine. Today marijuana is still federally illegal, however, there are many organizations and petitions trying to legalize it, such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) that formed in 1970 (Wilson, 2014). In recent years, there have been many efforts to legalize the drug, both medically and recreationally. Today, 20 states plus Washington D.C have passed marijuana-related laws medically, and 9 plus D.C have legalized it recreationally (CBD vs. THC...). The marijuana debate has become a key issue in all states, with its medical benefits being a major benefit. Nearly half of US states have legalized marijuana for medical use. As the demand for marijuana and other cannabis product grows, consumers can't help but wonder what exactly marijuana is, and what options they have.
There are two main components found in the Cannabis plant; Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD). Both of these compounds interact with the body's endocannabinoid system, which impacts the release of neurotransmitters, as well as having the same molecular structure. Although they have the same molecular structure, they have very different effects, due to many different reasons; the main one being it's psychoactive components (CBD vs. THC...). THC is the main psychoactive ingredient of the cannabis plant, which produces the stoned effect that is associated with smoking pot. This component of the plant can be found in the resin of the plant. THC binds with the cannabinoid 1 receptors in the brain which gives off that high effect (CBD vs. THC...). The other component of the plant, CBD, is a non-psychoactive compound and primarily comes from the hemp part of the plant. Although both compounds are similar in many ways and have many medical benefits, they do have differences, psychologically and physically.
THC and CBD both have many similarities and differences in how they affect the body. Both compounds can be consumed in many of the same ways which include being smoked or eaten. THC binds with CB1 receptors in the brain, reaching the pleasure centers in the brain, and can produce feelings of euphoria by letting a chemical loose called Dopamine. This is known as being high or body-high. The effects that THC can give off vary from person to person. Some psychological effects include heightened sensations and creativity, pleasant alterations of perceptions of time, and heightened sociability. These are just a few of the psychological benefits of marijuana. Legalizing it recreationally can help people in many ways. There are artists who smoke pot to help them paint and draw, or maybe some use cannabis to reduce many types of anxiety. Although CBD is non-psychoactive and cannot make someone high, it does have therapeutic effects such as being used as an anti-anxiety supplement, as well as many of the same physical effects as THC. THC and CBD both alleviate pain, reduce nausea, anxiety, insomnia, and can also stimulate appetite with none of the side effects that come with traditional medicine (Wilson, 2014). CBD is well tolerable, even if in high doses so it doesn't cause increased heart rate, dry mouth, or red eyes. Many of the symptoms that marijuana helps treat, can actually be side effects from disease and illnesses.
Many people today turn to marijuana to treat a variety of medical issues, including cancer, depression/anxiety disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and STD's. There have been many studies that show THC may actually work to kill cancer cells. Scientists have been starting to discover Cannabinoids such as CBD and THC may slow the growth and possibly kill certain cancer cells. Smoking marijuana has also been shown to help cancer patients who are going through chemotherapy, which can cause nausea and vomiting. Marijuana has been known to cause the munchies, and smoking it can help by giving the patient an appetite. Not only can legalizing marijuana ease the horrible side effects that come with cancer, it can also give scientists more access to run tests and possibly find permanent cures for life-threatening diseases like cancer. There are also animal studies suggesting that CBD can reduce behavioral and physiological measures of stress and anxiety. There have actually been studies done in Israel and Europe that have investigated the utility of THC to treat PTSD (Wilson, 2014).
Researchers are also testing marijuana in other areas as a treatment for diseases like epilepsy, Parkinson's, and Chron's. In June 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration actually approved a cannabidiol based drug called Epidiolex, which is a drug taken orally to treat seizures associated with certain types of epilepsy syndromes (CITE). Marijuana has also been shown to help symptoms of Parkinson's Disease such as tremor, stiffness, insomnia, weight loss and pain (APDAPARKINSONS). There have even been videos posted on social media that show what happens when someone with severe Parkinson's Disease as well as HIV/Aids tries marijuana for the first time. The dyskinesia immediately stopped after a man used marijuana for the first time as well as an AIDS patient who moved to a different states so he could use cannabis legally for his symptoms. The fact that there is physical evidence that marijuana can stop symptoms like these automatically be a reason for cannabis to be legal. Nobody should have to move to a different state so that they can live more comfortably. Not only that, marijuana should also be federally legal so doctors and scientists all over the united states can utilize the benefits that medical marijuana brings to people suffering from these types of illnesses. This will help the public health overall while creating many economic benefits.
The marijuana debate has become a key issue in all areas ranging from medicine to politics. Legalizing marijuana for economic reasons is one of the hottest topics debated today. There are many reasons why legalizing marijuana can help the economy, including the amount of money that can be generated through taxing it, the amount of jobs and investment opportunities it can create, and the corrupt implications of the legal system that can benefit from legal pot. Imagine if marijuana was legalized and taxed like alcohol and tobacco are. In 2015, state and local governments were able to collect 18 billion dollars from tobacco taxes as well as a whopping 16 billion in alcohol (urban.org). Keep in mind that alcohol and tobacco both kill millions of people every year. Now imagine if marijuana was legalized and taxed the same way are alcohol and tobacco. In Colorado, estimates that taxes on legal marijuana can range anywhere from 5 to 60 million a year. If marijuana was taxed, local and state governments could make millions of dollars from it! This money could benefit the US in so many different ways, such as schools and programs like Medicare. There are also so many homeless people in the world, so this money could even help get people off the streets. Not only will taxing cannabis provide tons of profit, there will also be more jobs and investment opportunities which will only make even more money. Once marijuana is legalized, there will be tons of marijuana dispensaries that need to be set up in order to keep the supply coming. This will create many jobs such as growing, trimming, and packaging it, as well as opportunities for second industries. Just because some industries are not directly related to cannabis, they can be involved with the production and distribution. Software developers, financing services and construction companies can all easily benefit from the legalization of marijuana. A study in Nevada says that legalizing recreational marijuana in the states could support over 41,000 jobs, also generating money in labor income (Krishna, The Economic Benefits...). Marijuana is already showing many economic benefits through the states that have legalized it, so prohibiting it is just stopping all of the other states from also benefiting.
When considering the economic benefits, it is also important to think of the time, money, and space that could be saved if marijuana was legal. Officers wouldn't have to worry about searching for, arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating a couple of stoners, they could instead focus more on other crimes such as murders and rape cases. There would be an overall lower cost of enforcement because there would be fewer court cases, and fewer incarcerations. This alone saves tons of time, money and jail space. Criminalization of minor drug offenses, such as marijuana, can actually increase crime. Because marijuana is the most popular recreational drug in the United States, legalizing it can decrease deadly trafficking activities, as well as help government corruption (Wilson, 2014). There will be less contributions to the black market because people will no longer need to break the law and go to that extent to get it. Doing so would help shift the focus from incarceration to rehabilitation, helping implications of the legal system. As stated earlier, the root of marijuana prohibition was racism, another hot topic of today. Marijuana is still being used today to detain, deport and incarcerate people just because of their skin color. Legalizing it is vital to ending the racist war on drugs. For example, if a white male and an African American male were both accused of having marijuana, the African American would automatically be accused first simply because of the color of his skin. There are many studies that state all races use marijuana at roughly the same rates. How is it that there are more people of color in jail for marijuana?
Although there are those who have their reasons for prohibition; whether it be for concerns about youth drug use to confusion among law enforcement to even those who just don't want change. More and more states are decriminalizing it and proving the many compelling reasons to consider nationwide legalization. There so many different reasons why prohibition needs to end. The Cannabis plant has done nothing but benefit the human population since the beginning of time. Drugs like alcohol and tobacco kill millions of people every year and can be bought everywhere. There has never been one case where marijuana alone has taken someone's life. It simply makes no sense for marijuana to be classified as a schedule 1 druga drug with no medical benefits and a high probability of abuse/addictionsuch as heroin. It is ironic that marijuana is safer than many drugs you can buy over the counter such as tobacco and alcohol, yet it still remains federally illegal. Although marijuana still remains federally illegal, it is important for people to understand how wonderful and beneficial the Cannabis plant can be. As more and more states continue to legalize and discover its history, medical, and economic benefits, it is only a matter of time until marijuana will be legalized across the nation.
References
CBD vs. THC: Properties, Benefits, and Side Effects. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/cbd-vs-thc
Earleywine, M., & Marlatt, G. A. (2005). Understanding marijuana: A new look at the scientific evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grinspoon, L. (1994). Marihuana reconsidered: The most thorough evaluation of the benefits and dangers of cannabis. San Francisco, CA: Quick American Archives.
Iversen, L. (2001). Science of Marijuana.
Krishna, M. (2018, October 22). The Economic Benefits of Legalizing Weed. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/110916/economic-benefits-legalizing-weed.asp
Cite this page
The Legalization of Marijuana: Ending Prohibition. (2019, Jul 19).
Retrieved November 6, 2025 , from
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The 18th Amendment and Prohibition
The 18th amendment divided the country and society into the dries and the wets: those who supported the amendment and those who did not. By 1916 over half the US had prohibited alcohol, with the exception of anti-Prohibition states such as New York and Maryland that refused to give in. Many states much like these did not want to spend any money toward the alcohol ban. Maryland never even enforced the law, and eventually earned a reputation as one of the most stubborn anti-Prohibition states in the Union. States that did such believed that even though the law was put into place, it never really had an actual effect. With differing states having different opinions on the law- the temperance movement sparked. This was a social movement against the consumption of alcohol that pressed for complete abstinence. Temperance followers were often made up of churches, women who felt their husbands spent all the family income on alcohol, and organized social groups such as the KKK who felt alcohol in the hands of African Americans lead to unwanted outbursts. This movement blamed alcohol for matters such as developing fetuses prone to disabilities, boosted crime, mental and physical health issues and much more.
With alcohol drying out from every brewery and business in the country, Americans turned to bootleggers to obtain their liquor. This became the pinnacle of organized crime. Speakeasies flourished, gangsters thrived by exploiting the profits that came with smuggling alcohol, and famous bootleggers such as Al Capone and William McCoy used this ban to their full advantage. McCoy was an American sea captain that made his fortune by smuggling whiskey into the US. He was captured on November 23rd, 1923 by a US coast guard. He plead guilty in court and was sentenced to nine months in a New Jersey jail. Around that same time, Al Capone established a multimillion-dollar bootlegging operation in Chicago, Illinois. He was later indicted for 22 counts of tax evasion and shortly after was charged with conspiracy to violate prohibition laws. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
On December 5th, 1933, the 21st amendment was ratified by Congress and signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, repealing the 18th amendment. With alcohol legalized once again, Americans everywhere poured their drinks and clinked their glasses in celebration of their regained freedom- though some weren't so free. Prisoners previously convicted of prohibition-related offenses such as Capone were not released following its repeal. Even after the 14-year drought, some states continued enforcing prohibition through statewide temperance laws. Mississippi became the last dry state in the union and later ended prohibition in 1966. Today, we tightly control our liquor utilization by enforcing licenses, drinking age limits, and operation hours for liquor sellers.
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The 18th Amendment and Prohibition. (2019, Jul 19).
Retrieved November 6, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
Transgender Rights under Bigotry and Ignorance
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Transgender Rights Under Bigotry And Ignorance. (2019, Jul 19).
Retrieved November 6, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
Healthcare and Transgender Individuals
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Healthcare And Transgender Individuals. (2019, Jul 19).
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https://studydriver.com/2019/07/page/19/
