Author Archives: sarah russ

“Then Don Fernando and Dona Elvira adopted the little stranger as their own son; and when Don Fernando compared Felipe to Juan and thought of how he had acquired both, her felt almost as if he should rejoice.” (33)

The first part of the last line is self-explanatory as it can be easily discovered that Don Fernando and Dona Elvira adopt Felipe after his parents have died and their own child has met his premature end. It’s the second half of the last line that seems to bring about debate. Don Fernando compares the two boys, Felipe and Juan, and ponders how they both came into his life. Juan was Don Fernando’s biological son with his wife Dona Elvira who was murdered my Master Pedrillo in a mob of people and Felipe is the son of Jeronimo Rugera and Josefa Asteron. Both boys were entrusted to Don Fernando to keep them safe and sadly he only succeeded protecting one. Since he’d lost his own son quite tragically and Felipe had lost his parents, perhaps he thought that two would be kindred spirits who could find comfort in one another. Perhaps he thought the hole in his heart due to the loss of his own child could be filled by Felipe and for that reason, he should rejoice as at a time of loss he gained a son and an orphan gained another family who would care for him.

Since the dawn of the patriarch women have been misjudged, held back, held down, underestimated, and punished for trying to rise above their station. However, women have had a nasty history of pushing back and fighting for their rights. We know we can shatter that glass ceiling and break the stereotypes placed upon us by the so called ‘superior’ sex. The intellect of women is a power that has been supressed and shoved in a closet because, at least per Darwin’s writings, “the average standard of mental power in man must be above that of woman” (269) as men are larger and must therefore have a larger brain capacity. History will show us however that Darwin was wrong. Man is not superior to woman, but equal. Some major women who have shaped the modern world and inspired girls and women would be: Cleopatra, Gloria Steinman, Harriet Tubman, Jodie Wilson-Raybould, Eleanor Roosevelt, Indira Gandhi, Raicho Hiratsuka, Marie Curie, and Emmeline Pankhurst, just to name a few. These are the women that fought to be equal and for women to be equal to men. They are remembered by history because modern women are still looking to these legendary women for inspiration and strength, especially in times of hardship and struggle. If the world had followed Darwin’s way of thinking, that women are inferior intellectually and would therefore not have as great an impact on society, the worlds societies would not have progressed and work by the likes of Gloria Steinman for the feminist movement would be seen as gibberish women who should be in the kitchen were spewing; Indira Gandhi would not have become the first, and so far, only, female prime minister of India if the world had still thought women couldn’t be as intellectual as men; Emmeline Pankhurst would have been silenced had both men and women not believed she was fighting the good fight and without her, vital moments in Woman’s Suffrage in Britain would not have happened.

Further more, the fact that Darwin has said:

It is generally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man; but some, at least, of these faculties are characteristic of the lower races, and therefore of a past and lower state of civilization (269).

Saying women’s ability to perceive what is around them and act accordingly is inferior is not only insulting, but untrue. Stating that the practice of imitation is one that belongs to a lower race is also untrue as it is an effective way to survive in a world that can be, at times, dead set against you. The ability to see, understand, and react to an environment is an advantage as it has allowed women to know how to make peace and how to break it. The earliest suffragettes in England saw the discontent amongst their fellow women and reacted in a way that would change the course of history for the better. As for a woman imitating her environment to survive, look back at Elizabeth the First. She was a woman in a powerful position surrounded by men who wanted to control her. She learned early on that the only way to keep her power was to be just cunning and strong as those around her. In order for her to do that she imitated what was before her and became one of the most iconic women in history.

Women are not inferior to men intellectually, or in any way for that matter. Women are strong, intelligent, powerful, and we learn to survive and adapt in world riddled with injustice done unto us simply because of our sex. Women’s intelligence is growing and it is spreading. It’s been a hard battle to be seen as equal to men, and in many countries and in many situations we still aren’t, that doesn’t mean we are going to give up because us nasty women still aren’t nasty enough.

“I think that men and women, shoulder to shoulder, will work together to make this a better world. Just as I don’t think that men are the superior sex, neither do I think women are. I think that it is great that we are beginning to use the talents of all of the people, in all walks of life, and that we not longer have the closed doors that we once had.”

-The notorious RBG

Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his most notable works during the Enlightenment period, but it would be his influence on the next era of artful thinkers which would earn him the title ‘the Father of Romanticism’. Romanticism was born after a time when satire, criticism, scientific thought, and conformity were the order of the day. It replaced the bitter thoughts of previous periods with ones of individualism, a love of nature, and of freedom. Rousseau’s influence on the coming era was most prominent with his autobiography titled Confessions. It told the story of his life starting at a young age until he reached the later years of his life. Rousseau wished to be wholly truthful in the retelling of his life’s history and left little out of his writing. He went to describe his behaviour as a mischievous child, and in his years following adolescence, his various sexual experiences. The description Rousseau gave of his life, and the little reservations he had about retelling it, would have influenced the Romantic period greatly as his autobiography did not follow the societal rules and constructs of the Enlightenment period. Rousseau’s works helped to pave the way for future Romantic period writers like Edgar Allen Poe, William Blake, John Keats, and Mary Shelly who without Rousseau may not have had the chance to free their own creative minds.

A new island was discovered in the Mediterranean by famed researcher Prospero and his daughter Miranda, who hail from Milan, and they are breaking headlines. A male, who calls himslef by the exotic name of Caliban, has been a prominent, and somewhat terrifying figure of this brave new world and is a native to the island. Initially there appeared to be the promise of a friendly relationship between the native and the explorers as he showed Prospero where to find food and water , but in a terrifying twist Caliban attempted to take Miranda by force! It is safe to say tensions have been raised ever since. Luckily there was a kind spirit, Ariel, who Prospero has befriended and they are working together. Hopefully not all chance for a friendly relationship is lost.

With the exploration going well, baring the incident with Caliban, more people will soon be arriving on the island. Alonso (who heads a museum in Italy), Sebastian (brother to Alonso and a famed archaeologist), Antonio (a fellow reasercher and Prospero’s brother. Do I smell some brothley competition?), Ferdinand (a young reasercher just getting his bearings at his father, Alonso’s, museum), and the joyful reporting duo of Trinculo and Stephano will join Prospero and Miranda on their exploration.

Until next time, us here are C.O.L.O.N.I.S.T.A.S.S. Hole International wish them all the best.

Mengzi argued and believed that all humans are filled with an innate sense of compassion, deference, disdain for evil, and the ability to tell what is right from what is wrong. I too believe that humans are born with these qualities; however, I would argue that not all people stay this way for their entire lives. This is where the argument for nature versus nurture comes into play. Although humans are innately good they can be corrupted by how they are raised and what they are told to believe in. Take for example a boy who was raised in a home that was filled with love and respect which began to reinforce the aforementioned qualities, but due to circumstances beyond his control, he is placed into the care of another family. This family treats him cruelly and without love and slowly the good qualities he was born with and that were further nurtured by his original family begin to crumble. His sense of compassion, deference, disdain for evil and his ability to tell what was right from wrong begins to decay resulting in a sentient being Mengzi would refer to inhuman. In conclusion, when people are born they are innately good, but how they are raised is what decides whether that goodness lasts them their whole lives.

The idea that children are told what they are going to do for the rest of their lives may seem oppressive and cruel to some and to others the best way to educate. In the Republic by Plato the idea that each child is predestined to fulfill a role in a ‘perfect’ society is not an uncommon subject. Socrates and his cohorts discuss how each person has either gold, silver, or bronze in their bodies which will help to determine what their role in society will be and how they should be educated. The concept of a predetermined future and education based on how you were as a child is a concept people may cringe at believing there is no freedom in it. However, there are countries in the modern world that do use a method similar to the early educational description Socrates and his contemporaries put forth. Countries like Germany have an educational system in place that is totally run by the state and after the age of 10 children are split into different schools based on their skills. The most popular and traditional streams of German education are Gymnasium, Hauptschule, and Realschule. Children who show great promise and success will move on to Gymnasium to complete their Abitur which qualifies them for a higher education; these children would possess gold in the Republics perfect society. Realschule tends to turn our children who pursue steady employment and would, therefore, contain silver in their bodies. Lastly, the children who show skill in a certain area will move on to Hauptschule to help nurture that skill, but after graduation stigma towards the lowest ranked secondary school will make it harder for children to find jobs; these children would contain bronze. The German school system may seem harsh from an outsiders point of view but because of the separation, there is a greater overall success compared to schools from other nations. Although the school system Socrates and his contemporaries described sounds oppressive and cruel there is solid proof that their form of education leads to a better country and society.