My first instinct with this project was to do the multimodal option. As I sat down with my canvas and materials to begin a collage, I had a strange burst of inspiration, opened my computer, and wrote this paper instead. It felt important. I needed to explain the vitality of the story of Adam and Eve and I wanted the trajectory of this paper to illuminate that for readers. Not only did I want this paper to explain the specifics of how Adam tried to claim Eve, but I also wanted it to clearly walk through this process that has occurred throughout history. We are all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve, we just may not realize that it is part of a bigger narrative. Of course women are taught to yield and be claimed. Because this story is in the Bible, in poem form, and has been told for centuries, it will be emulated over and over again. It unknowingly - or possibly knowingly - created a domino effect. This just goes to show that literature and storytelling have an immense amount of power over societal norms and roles. In order to undo the societal norms and roles that have been established, we need to reevaluate our literature and the message it communicates to the world. That is absolutely not to say that we should completely ditch all of the literature that has ever existed before us! That literature can teach us important lessons about how things came to be the way they are. In order to dismantle any system, we must know how and why it was built.
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Adam Attempts to Claim Eve: How the First Man and the First Woman Set the Tone for Society Today4/19/2020 The word ‘claim’ has a plethora of different definitions. It is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “an assertion of a right to something” and “a demand for something as due.” One of the examples the OED gives of something that can be claimed is a tract of land. While the definitions of the word clearly convey that an object or thing can be claimed, they say nothing about the claiming of a human being, or more specifically, the claiming of a woman. In Book Four of Paradise Lost, Milton presents the perspectives of Eve and Adam on their own creation. During his account of his creation, Adam declares “Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim/My other half” (4.387-388). With this single phrase, Adam claims Eve as his. This is arguably one of the most important moments in the entirety of Paradise Lost, as it is the first of many, many times a man would transform a woman into an object; a thing to be had, kept, or claimed.
Did Adam ask Eve if she’d like to be his? Did he say, “Eve, I’m thinking of claiming you, how do you feel about that?” Indeed, he did not. In fact, Eve recounts her creation before Adam even speaks in Book Four, and in her narrative, we see a young woman beginning to fashion herself. As Eve awakens in the shade lying atop a bed of flowers and wonders where and who she is, she is without Adam. She makes her first observation of her new world without Adam, stating that the bodies of water, caves, and rolling plains flourishing in front of her eyes are “pure as th’ expanse of heav’n” (4.456). It is not until Eve sees her reflection and “pine[s] with vain desire” into her own eyes that a voice appears, leading her to Adam (4.66). The moment Eve sees herself for the first time, the moment she begins to form her identity and opinions of the world, she is guided away from her solitude and towards Adam, who immediately states that she is “part of [his] soul.” Any semblance of her own soul that Eve had has now been merged with Adam’s before she has even had an opportunity to cultivate her sense of self. When Eve first sees Adam, she runs away from him, as she believes him to be “less fair” than she is (4.477). It is only when Adam calls her back, stating that she is “his flesh, his bone” that Eve “yielded” to Adam (4.488). In the Oxford English Dictionary, yield is defined as “to hand over, give up, relinquish possession of, surrender, resign.” In this moment, Eve considered submitting to Adam. She almost became his after having only minutes of her own independent life and acknowledged that her beauty could only be “excelled by manly grace/and wisdom” (4.490-491). It is interesting that it is only when Adam implies that Eve owes him something (he did give her life from his rib, after all) that she stayed. Adam leveraged the fact that Eve came from him in order to try to force her into submission. It was then easier for him to attempt to claim her. Eve listens when Satan persuades her to eat from the tree of knowledge, and she convinces Adam to do so with her. One could assert that Eve is more vulnerable to Satan than Adam throughout Paradise Lost, which was no mistake on Milton’s part. Was Milton trying to frame Eve as weak? It is a possibility, but in doing so, he consequently gave Eve an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Each time Satan whispers to Eve, it allows her to dream of knowing more. Adam has this longing for knowledge as well, as he practically demands more information from Raphael in Book Eight, but unlike Eve, Adam is not willing to break the rules in his pursuit. When Satan persuaded Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, reminding her to assert her independence and allow her eyes to be opened by the knowledge she will gain was all Satan needed to do in order to get Eve to break the rules and take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Eve’s quest for knowledge and independence can not be stifled. The dynamic that exists between Adam and Eve is one that exists in storybooks and in history. As women, we begin to see ourselves, to look into our own eyes and gain a sense of belonging in this world, and immediately afterward, if not sooner, someone tries to claim us. This is the way we have been raised, this is what we are taught, and this is what has been programmed into society. We can look to the first woman, Eve, for guidance as we dismantle this constructed paradigm that exists in all of our lives. No matter who tried to tame Eve, she thought for herself. She made the decision to eat the forbidden fruit on her own. She longed for the independence and knowledge that Satan presented to her, and she went after it, despite the consequences that ensued. Even with all of the messages Adam tries to send her, Eve never loses sight of herself, and she is all she really needs to never be claimed. After reconsidering the strongest overarching theme that connects A.O. Scott’s Better Living Through Criticism to Stephen Greenblatt’s Renaissance Self-Fashioning, I have come to the conclusion that it is self-betterment. Through aesthetic experiences and the knowledge that autonomous agency is out of our reach, we have the ability to change our lives. This understanding presents us with “an ineradicable principle of hope,” and directs us towards a more fulfilling existence.
The very title Better Living Through Criticism suggests that through the process of criticism, one can improve or change one’s life. The process of criticism involves something that was produced as a result of a certain experience or epiphany in its creator’s life and someone who views this creation. The viewer brings with them all of their life experiences, thus causing them to look at the creation through a lense of their own biases. It is through this practice of criticism that we learn more about ourselves and our predilections, better observe our surroundings, and ask more meaningful questions. Similarly, Greenblatt contests that “one man’s alien is another man’s authority,” meaning that due to the difference in our experience, what may be foreign and distorted to one could be familiar and comforting to another. By questioning why we see certain things as aliens, we can dig deeper into our biases and better understand why they exist, allowing for self discovery and a more inquisitive outlook. Scott’s concept of the aesthetic experience, which occurs when one has an experience with art that evokes an emotional response, is an important and vital part of the self betterment process. By analyzing and using Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo” as an example, Scott is able to explain the inner-workings of an aesthetic experience. He walks us through an imaginary experience of visiting the Torso of Apollo, and shows us that reading Rilke’s sonnet or viewing the work of art that it is focused on can make one feel seen, exposed, vulnerable, and, at the same time, powerful. This occurs, not because we are feeling validated by another person’s creation, but because we are able to look at this creation and see ourselves and our own experiences. In this moment of vulnerability that comes with viewing art and subsequently feeling something, one’s existence is more intensified, purposeful, and mindful than it is daily, or, perhaps, ever. Additionally, having the awareness that there is a greater power at play, that we will never be able to exercise complete autonomy over our own fates, makes life less of a tug of war. Greenblatt even includes his own personal experiences of grappling with the reality that “the dream of autonomous agency, though intensely experienced and tenaciously embraced, is only a dream” both in the preface, where he acknowledges that his “voice could not float free of a powerful set of institutional, intellectual, and historical forces,” and in the epilogue, where he finds himself on a plane wishing that he had the ability to be autonomous, but remembering that, alas, he did not. Because of this realization, Greenblatt was able to shift his focus from wanting and trying to achieve autonomy onto pondering “how we have become the way we are.” Releasing the idea of autonomous control allowed him to be elevated to a higher level of consciousness. This is a prime example of Greenblatt’s brilliant concept of “the force of submission.” However, this force of submission is not connotated by the defeat or passivity that one may assume, but rather by the empowerment and peace that comes with knowing that there will be no more struggle to gain control that will never be had. The growth that occurs due to self-reflection prompted by critical engagement with external things is undeniable. This is the central theme that is present in both Scott and Greenblatt’s work, and it is what ultimately leads to the long and winding but rewarding road to self betterment. While reading excerpts from Better Living Through Criticism by A.O. Scott, A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, and Renaissance Self-Fashioning by Stephen Greenblatt, I identified one overarching theme that each author yielded examples of in their writing: the impact of society and societal norms on perspective and opinion. The four examples of societal norms that appeared were criticism, stereotypes, the pressure of our culture to follow a certain life timeline, and the manner in which we find our identities.
In his text, Scott discussed how our opinions are largely influenced by those around us, and specifically, our decisions are largely influenced by the criticism we receive. Criticism is most closely defined as “the act of expressing disapproval and of noting the problems or faults of a person or thing.” In our society and in our culture, we are invited to give what we like to call “constructive criticism” to our counterparts. Many people consider themselves music critics, movie critics, or art critics. It is normal today for us to receive judgements on our work, our opinions, our perspectives, or our beliefs, however, these judgements will often alter our organic thinking process so we subconsciously cater to what the mass public considers to be beautiful. Scott adds that we often make the mistake of thinking that what is popular and well-liked is something of great quality. The illusion that popularity equals quality is perpetuated by the impact that others have on our opinions and our choices in life. In his text, Berger brings up stereotypes, another societal norm. In our history, generalizations made about one group of people are often regarded as truth by the greater population. Not only are these generalizations mostly untrue, but they also tend to objectify this one group of people, which can be offensive and cruel. Our culture, which is complex and sometimes corrupt, was built on the stereotyping of different groups of people, which has led to over-generalizations being accepted in society today. Additionally, Berger examines the pressure our society places on us to follow a certain life timeline. We are encouraged to establish careers, accomplish our goals, and live at a very fast pace, which does not allow time for us to slow down and question our intentions or why we are doing what we do. Less questioning and thinking only leads to more submission to societal norms. In his text, Greenblatt considers the process in which we find our identities today. It is widely believed that in our society, we have autonomy over our likes, dislikes, and life choices. However, if we actually pause to question why we like what we do, the answer is often because it is popular, because it meets society’s superficial standard of beauty, or because we think others will look down upon us if we state that we don’t like it. This is not always true, but it is often true, as the impact of criticism, stereotypes, the pressure of our culture to follow a certain life timeline, and the manner in which we find our identities regularly inform our perspectives and opinions. Throughout the process of reading Scott, Berger, and Greenblatt, I had many different ideas of what I would connect their writings back to. My initial thought was that each one of their excerpts kept coming back to how society ultimately influences our taste, opinions, perspectives, beliefs, and sense of self. I had this concept in my mind for a good amount of time before the other ideas came flooding in. I was re-reading A More Beautiful Question, and all of the sudden, something must have clicked, because my mind began rapid firing many other ideas that these three excerpts could connect to. At this point, it felt like I was solving a puzzle, only instead of having one correct way of everything fitting together, I had found multiple. Originally, this frustrated me, as my preference is to come up with one idea that, to me, is far superior than any other thought I could have dreamed up. However, I found that I would be equally happy walking any of the paths I had carved out. This led me to focus on which of my ideas were most original. I decided to go with my gut and remain true to my first idea. I combed back through all three texts and used the notes I had taken in my commonplace book to weave together my concept map. It was interesting to see not only how all three excerpts connected to and gave examples of the influence of societal norms, but also how they all also fit together and overlapped. This showed me that I chose the right idea for me, the one that was the most original, the most authentic to back with evidence, and felt most compelling. This process re-enforces something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: not everything is black and white. All or nothing thinking provides me no flexibility to explore, to be creative, and to actually immerse myself in curiosity and learn, which is always my goal in the first place. Because I was able to see that each idea I had could have worked equally as well, I could lean into the fact that I was truly choosing to dive deeper into a concept that felt the most enjoyable. Despite that initial discomfort, I was able to make my own choices, invent my own ideas, and create something that I am proud of.
After reading the sections we were given of Ovid, Lucretius, Genesis, the Dryden translation of Metamorphoses, and the books of Paradise Lost, I can highlight specific thematic patterns I noticed. First of all, each text is about creation, and each mentions chaos. All spend a significant amount of time detailing the creation of man. This could include how God took a rib out of Adam and used it to create Eve (I thought that was fascinating, as it was something I never knew and then the words man and woMAN were explained, which truly made me stop and think), how Jove destroyed the first human race and recreated a second one (this baffled me – why?), or how, in Genesis, the seven days of creation are explained. However, despite their similarities, each text differed from the next. Lucretius stood out to me, as it seems to me to be the most on par with what we think scientifically about the way the world came to be. It discusses molecules, atoms, and particles, and the creation of the earth, which seems more advanced and less outdated than some of the ideas presented in the other texts like the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha in Ovid.
Do not get me wrong, I thought it was lovely that people grew out of stones once they were thrown into the earth by either Deucalion or Pyrrha and I found it comforting that the Earth was the womb and incubator for the first humans. I simply think this idea sounds, at its root, more mythological than the concepts of Lucretius. Additionally, God was mentioned in Genesis, Dryden, and Paradise Lost, but not in Ovid or Lucretius at all, similarly to how Satan was mentioned in the former but not in the latter. I know there is likely a reason or a purpose for this, and it would be interesting to examine the roles that God and Satan play in each text to determine why some of them function well without God and Satan and some do not. I thought it was interesting that each text also referred to characters such as Sin, Chaos, Death, and others. This intrigued me because, for example, in order to personify Sin, Milton had to think to himself about what embodies sinning and wrongdoing and package that all into a person. In this way, Sin is a reflection of what Milton thought were the worst, most evil actions, allowing us to learn more about our author through his writing. This thought reminded me of Greenblatt and self-fashioning. Not only do Sin, Chaos, Death, Satan, etc. remind me somewhat of the Alien, Authority, and the Self, but they are the product of some self-fashioning done by Milton and cultural forces around him. I speculate that we will take a step back and zoom out in this season of class. With these texts, the topic is the original creation of the universe, which includes the initial creation of the self, but does not necessarily include finding ourselves as we do through self-fashioning. I predict we will be learning and talking more about the different theories of creation, dissecting them, and comprehending the uniqueness of each message. I was personally fascinated by the excerpts we read of Renaissance Self-Fashioning from the start. This text captured my attention almost immediately, and I could not quite comprehend why I was captivated by it until very recently. I realized that as readers, we do not often have the chance to directly read about the author's experience creating their work. In his preface, Greenblatt puts his relationship with writing Renaissance Self Fashioning on display. We are able to learn about how the process of Greenblatt’s own self fashioning through writing has made him a more conscious thinker and a more intentional human being. His ideas, though they are his own, were shaped and influenced by the places that he has been and the “local opportunities that happened to spring up at that early point in [his] career.” This window into Greenblatt’s own journey that appears both in the preface and in the epilogue is what I found so unique about this work. As I flipped through the Greenblatt section of our AP Lit course pack during the first few days of the school year, I came to understand the concept that is self-fashioning through the lense of a conversation I had two years ago with Mr. Allen, an art teacher who I loved and admired. One day at the beginning of class, Mr. Allen spent a considerable amount of time explaining the concepts of free will and determinism. He then proceeded to ask each student, as he called their names and marked them present, whether they believed that we as humans retain our own free will or if we live in a determinist world. In true Rose fashion, I never took a side. When it was my turn to answer Mr. Allen’s question, I stated that I wanted to believe that we have our own free will, but I was not entirely sure that was true or possible. Reading Greenblatt brought these old thoughts back to the forefront of my mind. Greenblatt’s staunch belief that our actions and choices are formed based on a blend of our own internal thoughts and desires and the outward forces of our culture shocked me initially. I was compelled to disagree with him because I wanted to be in complete control of my own self. In fact, his argument almost made me angry, as I am and have always been a very black and white, logical thinker (working on this!). I could not grasp the notion of having some autonomy over the formation of my identity, but not complete autonomy. I first began to make sense of this theory that inward forces and outward forces could be at both be present in identity formation when we drew Greenblatt’s argument, cut it out, and taped it to the ceiling. I replicated this green spiral in my common place book, as it helped me visualize the messiness of dialectics and stopped my brain from thinking in such straight lines. I predict that this concept of dialectical thinking is something that will appear in many, if not all, things we will think about in AP Lit in the future. In order to objectively and truly take advantage of the opportunities and new knowledge each text will bring me in this course, it will be important for me to retain a dialectical approach. I also anticipate that we will continue to work through different modes of self discovery and life improvement, as Scott’s A Better Life Through Criticism discusses changing our lives based on aesthetic experiences and learning why we like what we do, while Greenblatt’s Renaissance Self-Fashioning includes identity formation and the impact that cultural forces have on that process.
This is another thing that I wrote about in my common place book when answering a QTTA that I had for both Scott and Greenblatt. I chose to include this particular entry from my common place book in this blog post because I am proud of the way I was able to synthesize what I have learned from both Scott and Greenblatt. This is an example of me working towards one of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of this course: practice synthesizing information from texts. I am also excited that I was able to find a common thread through Better Living Through Criticism and Renaissance Self-Fashioning. I hope we will continue to explore other themes that occur in the literature that we read and examine the purpose of each narrative as we have with these two texts. I look forward to continuing to challenge and expand my thinking through writing, reading, and discussion in AP Lit. |
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