So this week in class we talked about toys. I know, talking about toys in an AP English class sounds weird, but toys have a deeper meaning to them than I originally thought. Have you ever gone down the toy aisle in a store and noticed that Play-doh in the boys section is cheaper than Play-doh in the girl section? I believe this is because girls have a tendency to be more creative than boys between the ages of 3 and 10. Now I'm not saying that girls are more creative than boys all together, but at this age girls start getting into a habit of wanting to make things like little pies. The toy industry nowadays has changed to where it makes a lot of its toys more gender neutral, but there are still little differences that affect how girls and boys think that will ultimately lead them to be stereotypical men and women. For example, they could have two of the same toy but have one be in pink and purple and automatically it's a girl toy. It really grinds my gear that the toy industry is leading little boys and girls down a path that they might not even want to take.
All the blame doesn't belong to the toy industry either, but to the parents of these children as well. Parents often times lead their kids to believe a certain thing is better for them and not what their kid actually wants. For example, a little girl might be in a store and sees a remote control car that she really wants. Her mother tells her no because that's a boy toy. The little girl starts to whine to her mother. Her mother picks up a baby doll next to the toy car and says, "Here's a nice doll instead. This is what little girls play with. Trust me, I'm your mother and I know best." The little girl takes the doll trusting her mother and 25 years later she's married with a baby and takes care of her baby just like she did her baby doll. Does anybody else feel that when the little girl's mom gave her that baby doll she was preparing her for motherhood even though she was only a little kid? A lot of toys set kids up to be a certain type of person when they get older and children's parents enforce this idea when they force their child to play with certain toys. Parents limit their child's options when they take them down the aisle designated to their gender.
Ok, I know your probably tired of reading this but I just have one more thing to add and then my rant is over. In order for a person to become who they really are, they need to be free to make their own decisions about their toys; toys are a defining moment for a person, and gives you a glimpse into the future and tells you how a person will be when they get older.
On July 4, 1796, America's founding fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence. These white men envisioned a society in which "all men are created equal." After this document was released many different conflicts arose between men, women, and African Americans about whether or not they had actually gained full rights and liberty. Liberty is defined as "the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views," (OxfordDictionaries). It took decades for minority groups and women to get the freedom the Declaration of Independence promised them. Numerous individuals believed that women and blacks should have been granted those rights as soon as the Declaration was written, but what countless people fail to realize is that liberty is not determined by the government, but by society itself. Liberty is something that one person can grant another. If a law is passed saying that African Americans are free, how can this law be expected to be enforced when whites still are not accepting blacks into their society? Liberty it a personal matter for everyone. Everyone deserves the right to be free, but freedom is something that individuals in society give to one another. I know not everyone will agree with this, but when you think about it, it's true. For example, during the post Civil War era, the Northern American states accepted blacks as apart of their society and granted them most of the same rights and freedom as whites. On the other hand, the Southern American states still did not accept blacks as apart of the society and viewed them as property and not as human beings. I'm happy that women and African Americans eventually got the rights and liberites they deserve. Even though it took a long time to occur, I believe it needed to happen slowly in order for everyone to accept it. As stated before, Liberty is personal matter; only another person can give someone liberty.
In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the townspeople are hypocrites. They claimed to be Puritans and Puritans aren't supposed to judge people,clearly they are judging Hester because of the one sin she did. In the English Standard Version of the bible it states, "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned..." (Luke 6:37); do the townspeople not know that since they are judging Hester and condemning her to wear a scarlet letter on her chest that are condemning their souls to hell? They ultimate goal of the Puritan society is to create a city upon a hill in which everything is perfect and that their Utopia is a model society, but how is their society perfect if judge one person based off one sin? It is my belief that the townspeople of Boston decided to publicly shame Hester for her sin in order to get their mind off their own sins. Every person is born a sinner based off the original sin of Adam and Eve (ESV. Genesis 8:21) and I think it is because of this knowledge that the townspeople decide to humiliate Hester. I feel that since Hester had to wear a symbol of her sin, then every single person in that colony should have to wear one too! Every person in that town has sinned and they are all hypocrites for making Hester's sin public, but keeping their sins private. If you ask me, the townspeople of Boston need to be saved from each other. They should accept each other for who they are, sins and all. If they are truly Puritans, then they would know this already.
When I was a little girl, I used to get into a lot of trouble. The worse thing I ever did was hit my best friend with a basketball in the face and knocked her tooth out. After that we didn't talk for months. She would constantly ignore me whenever I said hi to her, or walk past me and stick her tongue out at me whenever I walked by her. I remember feeling so alone; but one day she started talking to me again like nothing ever happened. I realized she had forgiven me without really saying it; it was Unspoken Forgiveness. Just like I had been forgiven for me wrongdoing against my friend, the townspeople had forgiven Hester for her sin. I feel like unspoken forgiveness is something that comes with time and it shows that people can have a change of heart too. Sometimes in order to forgive someone you need to Let It Go. Sometimes forgiveness doesn't have to be verbal, it can be seen in the way you act and treat someone. Just like my friend started talking to me, the townspeople started to accept Hester because they saw all the good that she was doing. People saw that Hester was trying to make up for her sin and believed that God had finally found his way to her and was leading her toward the path of righteousness. To be honest, I think the townspeople were tired of being mean to Hester and realized that they were wrong to have judged her has harshly as they did. Now they're finally making up for it by being nice to her and not avoiding her like the plague. That is all, now goodnight!
