The Ruin of Vanity

Connie, a typical female teenager, lives a life that revolves around two major facets, appearance and music. Although it is natural for young girls to be heavily concerned with their looks, Connie takes this concept to an extreme and becomes narcissistic, creating an overconfident and vain individual. The crux of Connie’s character circulates around the idea that she understands that her looks are paramount and truly her only worth as a person. Her confidence depends on the state of her appearance, forcing her to constantly keep an updated impression. Her need for being validated based on her looks creates a vulnerable psyche, leading to her ultimate ruin.

By acknowledging her beauty, Connie only drifts deeper into an unhealthy and egotistical lifestyle. The make-up of Connie’s character holds her own beauty as the definitive quality of her personality. This is evident when the narrator states, “she knew she was pretty and that was everything” (1¶). Connie is even arrogant enough to believe that her mother secretly favors her over June due to her better looks. While visiting the restaurant “shaped like a big bottle”, Connie’s vanity is exposed once again while walking through the parking lot with Eddie. As the narrator explains, “Connie couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over windshields and faces all around her” (8¶). The necessity to constantly remind herself of her good looks displays a clear lack of poise in her personality. She requires a gratifying glance in a reflection to once again reassure herself that she is indeed good looking.

Connie’s open exhibition of her beauty and arrogance is the main factor contributing to Arnold Friend’s creepy interest in Connie. This disturbing character first appears when Connie is walking away from the restaurant. He jeers at her and barks, “Gonna get you, baby” (8¶). From the get-go, he has clearly taken in interest in Connie from his blunt remark. Her arrogant behavior is furthered when she rejects the barbecue invitation presented by her mother. Connie rolls “her eyes to let her mother know just what she thought of it (13¶). By excluding herself from the barbecue, Connie creates a greater rift between herself and the rest of her family. It is natural for a teen to want to distance themselves from their family. Connie is clearly struggling to fit into her own skin and uses rebellious actions to ease the transition into womanhood. She is associated with a history of poor judgment that can be viewed as a stress outlet for Connie’s confusing stage of adolescent life. While unsure of her role in society, Connie’s mind is malleable and easily manipulated by a seductive influence. This unfortunately gives Arnold Friend an accessible path that he can follow right into Connie’s life.

From the initial moment that Arnold and Ellie pull up in the car, the reader is aware of their malicious intent. At first, Connie is enticed by Arnold. In her eyes, he is simply masculine teen boy, driving a golden jalopy convertible, with a radio playing Bobby King. The playing of Bobby King on Arnold’s part was a clever way to gain quick entry into Connie’s comfort level. Prior to Arnold’s arrival, Connie was singing along to a Bobby King song. How he knew that she enjoyed Bobby King is a mystery, but it is undeniable that his utilization of popular music was a sure way to influence her. The pivotal moment in their encounter occurs when she questions his age. Connie grows substantially more suspicious of the two figures who actually appear to be closer to middle aged men than their teen facades.

Connie’s depressing encounter with Arnold illustrates how the proper exploitations of the instabilities of a personality can strongly influence and even control the targeted individual. Arnold specifically preys on Connie because of his knowledge of her obsession over appearance. Her preoccupation with her looks generates the ideal mentality for Arnold's manipulation. As a willing victim by the story’s conclusion, her incapacity to draw strength from her hollow persona enables Arnold to direct her thoughts and actions.

(676)

Response to "Cathedral"

This week, I decided to write my blog about "Cathedral" because of its unique perspective on blindness.

The story starts off with the narrator describing how Robert, a blind friend of his wife, had recently lost his wife and is visiting. Right from the get-go, the narrator has formed an narrow-minded prejudice against Robert. The concept of blindness is very foreign to him a creates an unsettling feeling. He expresses this when he states, "And his being blind bothered me...A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (99). His only true observation of a blind individual was from a movie which clearly does not depict him/her in an accurate, personable manner. The narrator also feels threatened by the strong relationship that Robert shares with his wife. As though initially very cynical of the blind man, the narrator gradually learns to figuratively lifts his own blindness and accept Robert for who he really is. The narrator passed ignorant judgment on Robert before even meeting him when he found out that his wife's name was Beluah. According to the narrator, "That's a name for a colored women" (101). He is already making rash assumptions of Robert based on something barely related to Roberts personality.

Although Robert is blind, the narrator can understand that Robert can see into his wife's emotion better than himself. This is seen when Robert arrives and the narrators wife greets him on the curb. While walking to the house, both are laughing and apparently already sharing a joyous moment. This sort of happiness is not seen in the wife prior to Roberts visit. The wife and the narrator clearly don't share a very deep relationship when the narrator feels compromised by his wife's best friend. The narrator even goes as far as criticizing Robert for having a beard. This is expressed when the narrator state, "This blind man, feature this, he was wearing a beard!...Too much, I say" (101). Does Robert feel this need to belittle his beard because he knows that Robert has no way of seeing it?

The narrator begins to gain some respect for Robert at the conclusion of the meal By listening to Robert's various jobs and interesting tasks, the narrator starts to understand the depth of Robert's character. Initially, the narrator viewed Robert as a helpless handicapped blind man, but by the end of the story, the narrator grows truly connected to Robert and can see life with a fresher perspective. The narrator sees how Robert has had the experiences of a lifetime while at the same time faced the disadvantage of lacking eyesight. Robert seems to gain a great deal of satisfaction from his past full of exciting experiences specifically his work as a ham radio operator. While smoking marijuana on the living room couch, the narrator attempts and struggles to describe what a cathedral looks like to Robert. This is expressed when the narrator explains, "They reach way up...I'm not doing so god, am I?" (107). The narrator needs leaves his comfort zone, illustrating what a cathedral looks like by drawing it on paper and having Robert hold on to his hand. While drawing it, the narrator closes his eyes and begins to understand life through the eyes of Robert. This is the deepest connection between the two individual in the story and the point where the narrator lifts his veil of ignorance. He begins understanding that he has freed himself from a blinding barrier of ignorance.

(581)

Repsonse to "Interpreter of Maladies"

For this blog entry, I wanted to reflect on my favorite short story that we have read this unit, “Interpreter of Maladies”. The two characters that the narrator focuses on most are Mr. Kapasi, the tour guide, and Mina Das, the tourist. Although they both share a common Bengali background, there is a clear deviation in Mrs. Das’s strong Americanized culture and Mr. Kapasi’s Indian culture. Mrs. Das finds comfort in materialistic items such as her purse whereas Kapasi finds satisfaction in visiting one of his favorite places, the Sun Temple. There is another commonality that links the two characters: the difficulties of a failed marriage.

The origin of Mrs. Das’s marriages begins when both her and Mr. Das were proposed in high school and married by the time they were in college. I can infer by this that Indian society places its youth in a stressful position to marry early and without great contemplation in order to secure the social and financial success of two the two families. The level of devotion and mutual recognition of love in her relationship was apparently lacking from the beginning. She birthed a child at a very young age forcing her to cut off many of her social relations with her friends. Both Dases seemed to have lived perfunctory lives, not taking the necessary time to discuss their feelings and issues with each other. Mrs. Das also committed the adulterous action of having an affair with Mr. Das’s Punjabi friend while he was on a business trip. In that moment, Mrs. Das also conceived a child that Mr. Das never knew wasn’t his own. Mrs. Das views Kapasi as therapeutic source for this failing marriage because of her knowledge of his profession as a medical interpreter. This is evident when she states, “Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy” (591). Mrs. Das misunderstands Kapasi’s role as an interpreter for a doctor, believing that his task involves more than simply translation of Gujantari. She creates a exaggerated, idealized image of Kapasi making him a solution, curing her marriages issues. Mrs. Das gives Kapasi much more attention than she gives her own husband and appears to be very interested in his life and profession. Her deep desire to communicate with a male than can aid her in mending her broken love life is disappointed at the realization that Kapasi cannot emotionally satisfy her.

Reciprocally, Kapasi has grown deeply attracted to Mrs. Das ands is deeply interested in her. She provides Kapasi with female attention that he has evidently been lacking since his failed marriage with his own wife. Whereas Mrs. Das referred to his interpreter profession as “romantic”, Kapasi’s own wife displayed a lack of interest in his work life and over all existence (584). This is apparent when the narrator explains, “She never asked him about the patients who came to the doctor’s office, or said that his job was a big repsonnsibility” (585). This unusual interest that Kapasi receives from Mrs. Das sparks a feeling of infatuation. Having been emotionally starved for a while, this sudden female attention wisps him away into a delusional impression of Mrs. Das’s true reason for displaying affection. He creates an unhealthy fantasy version of his future relationship with Mrs. Das extending far into the future with the exchange of letters, full of his anecdotes that she enjoys. His strong feeling for her culminates at the conclusion of the story when the piece of paper containing his information is blown away by the wind. At this moment, he is grounded back into the reality of knowing that he will most likely never have a relationship with Mrs. Das. This also dispels his embellished idea that they both will continue share a strong relationship in the future.