March: Good or Evil

One of the many questions people continually asks themselves is "am I a good person"?  In Christopher Marlowe's, Dr. Faustus, the main idea being discussed is that no one is fully good or fully evil.  Question 11, of the Dr. Faustus Socratic Seminar questions asks "How does Marlowe portray evil"?.  The fact that Faustus is willing to sell his soul to the devil is the most straight forward way to portray evil, but what if Faustus was unaware of what he was truly doing.  Upon making a deal with the demon, Mephistophilis, Faustus did not have an entire understanding of his actions.  So how can Faustus be labeled as an evil person for doing an "evil" act if he was unaware.  Also on the other hand with Mephistophilis, who we would automatically is evil since he is a demon.  However he attempts to dissuade Faustus from selling his soul.  Wouldn't we label that as something only a good person is capable of, not an evil demon.  Even in everyday life examples of good and evil are numerous.  It is interesting how human-beings must categorize everything they witness into being either all good or all evil.  There is no gray area or room for redemption.  We either want to see people succeed or fail, just as we want there to also be the answer that is good or the answer that is evil.  Humans want to room for interpretation.  An evil act must be done by and evil person and good acts only come from good people.

February Blog: Survival vs. Hope

One of the discussion questions of A Thousand Splendid Suns Socratic seminar questions asks if this was a story of survival or one of hope.  I feel that each of the protagonists, Laila and Mariam, live for either one of these reasons.  For Mariam, her entire life has been a struggle for survival and the main reason she is so submissive towards Rasheed, until the end, is strictly so he won't beat her to death.  Mariam never had an understanding of what life is like outside of poverty and tyranny.  For Laila she knew life was better than what her life was like for Rasheed.  It was the hope that things would get better that drove Laila to endure her life with Rasheed.  By stashing away money and planning an escape, Laila had hope and determination that somewhere life was better than her current situation.  Laila hoped to escape from this abusive relationship and Mariam did only what Nana told her she should do, endure.  For many women even in this country the struggle for survival and hope is a real part of their lives.  For most women being in an abusive relationship it is simple a struggle for survival not to be beat to death but also a struggle for hope that one day their situation might get better.  When you are in a struggle for survival you have to hope that you will survive.