Graven Images

Saul Bellow

 

Saul Bellow, a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner, was included in The Best American Essays of the Century, where he speaks of the good and evils of photography. Bellow wrote Graven Images, in order to show new generations, that have only known technology, that photography is not always the representation one sees of themself, and how photography can change the way one acts.

Bellow, uses the repetition and connotation of the phrase “Amoure Propre”, to reflect on the destruction of ones personal image through photography, and to show how photography can vastly change one’s authenticity. Amoure Propre, as defined by Merriam-Webster is self-esteem. However, Saul Bellow claims, “Broadly speaking, your amour propre is the territory invaded by the picture takers” (Bellow 564). In sharing a different view of the phrase, Bellow is suggesting that one’s dignity is chosen by how they are photographed. He included his own definition of the phrase so readers can fathom the power a photograph has on one’s self worth. Saul Bellow consistently wrote of “Amoure Propre”, to advise readers that photography can create a change in how one wants to be presented. Bellow wrote, “Amoure propre, with all its hypocritical tricks, is the product of your bourgeois outlook. Your aim is to gain general acceptance for your false self, to make propaganda, concealing your real motives- motives of personal advantage” (Bellow 565). Saul Bellow believes that photography has created an identity crisis in people, in that they wish to show someone whom they are not. Saul Bellow shares this perspective in an effort to show that photography, which is frequently present in society, presents a view that can be false representation of one, and it can create phoniness in one’s life due to the desire to be seen different.

Societies today only know of photography and the views an image can create. After reading Graven Images, by Saul Bellow, it is understandable that as humans, it is desired to be seen a certain way, but one single image does not always show this. Saul Bellow very much proved that photography is not the perfect representation of one’s self image, and that it can create falseness in one’s personality. Before viewing Bellow’s opinions, one from this current generation might find that photography does not have a destructive nature. However, Saul opens one’s eyes to see the downsides of photography, such as poor portrayal and acting differently to create a deceitful image.

 

 

“A photograph that made me look worse than the Ruins of Athens”

(Saul Bellow New York Times)

Heaven and Nature

Edward Hoagland

 

The Harvard educated war veteran, Edward Hoagland, who was included in The Best American Essays of the Century, shares his particular views on the causation of suicide in elders. In his essay, Heaven and Nature, Edward Hoagland tries to change the minds of those who believe all suicides are alike due to mental illness. In writing this essay, Hoagland analyses the contrast between suicide in men and women.

In supporting his beliefs that the motives of self-murder between genders are dissimilar, Hoagland uses the strategy of Hypophora, proposing a question to engage the reader and responding with a fulfilled answer. Edward Hoagland questions why the rate of suicide for men is three times as women. In asking this question, he first sets up readers to doubt their own beliefs that suicides are alike between genders because he provides that the rate vastly differs. He later succeeds in changing the readers’ minds by answering his inquiry. Hoagland states, “Men often compete with one another until the day they die... Men greet each other with a sock on the arm, women with a hug, and the hug wears better in the long run” (Hoagland 514). In being competitive and prideful, men do not want to show weakness, such as asking for help. Since women have less envy in their personality, they are able to seek guidance. The differing characteristics between men and women answers why men have a higher suicide rate. The stubborn and competitive drive in men can keep them from accepting that they cannot solve all their problems without help. The hopelessness and feeling of taking matters into their own hands leads to suicide. Women are less likely to commit suicide of this reason because they are not always trying to beat out to competition. The use of Hypophora in Hoagland’s essay is essential in persuading readers that suicide is different within genders.

After reading Heaven and Nature, readers are moved to believe that suicide does vary between genders. Before reading Hoagland’s essay, most will believe that desiring to kill oneself is a mental illness. However, Hoagland’s use of answering and providing reasoning to statistics changes one’s mind. It is now understandable that suicide is much deeper than a mental illness, and that personality traits that clash between male and female, often create suicidal thoughts. Hoagland has succeeded in writing Heaven and Nature, because his thoughts will change many people’s thoughts on suicide.

 

Only Similar in Name

Credits to : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082398/Surprise-Men-women-really-ARE-different-Sexes-share-just-10-cent-personality-traits.html

 

 

 

 

 

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch

Richard Wright

 

Richard Wright, a renowned African American author who is included in The Best American Essays of the Century, distinguishes what it is like to live in a world of racial indifference. In his essay, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch, Wright enables younger generations and unmoved readers to grasp the distress that African Americans had faced throughout the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.

In guiding readers to recognize the mistreatment of African Americans, Richard Wright incorporates several anecdotes. An anecdote is a short synopsis of a particular event in one’s life. As a young boy, Wright lived in Arkansas where the characteristics differing between the white and black sides of town were quite distinct. He reflected on an incident where a child from the other side of town had caused him pain. When he shared what had happened to his mother, she replied, “How come yuh didn’t hide?” (Wright 160). In addition, his mother had beat him because she was upset that he had even been involved. By bringing up a memory of his past, Wright proves to the audience the harsh treatment that African Americans received. The narrative not only shows what pain the white child had caused him, but the resulting pain he accepted from his mother. After being a victim, he had to welcome a wrong idea that it was his fault for standing up against the white children. His mother, out of fear from white people, had her son take blame for such an event. In sharing such personal details, Wright fulfills his desire to bring recognition to the suffrage of African Americans. Richard Wright faced physical pain, as well as emotional suffering which is clear when looking at this episode of his life.

Richard Wright successfully implemented a message to readers on the ill actions towards African Americans. Readers from a younger generation can identify how poorly African Americans were treated. Today it is a crime to discriminate based off of race, so to those who have never experienced discrimination it is eye opening. In reading of his first confrontation with a white child, readers feel for Wright. The vivid details of being hurt first by a white child, and then again by his mother for engaging with a white child, allows realization of how horrific this time in history was. Richard Wright had significantly achieved his purpose of bringing awareness as to how African Americans were treated.

 

The Other Side of Town (credits to Arthur S. Siegel)