New Voices - 2009 by Lander University

Lander University

New Voices Journal of Student Non-Fiction

Spring 2009

New Voices

New Voices is a publication of the College of Arts and Humanities Lander University 320 Stanley Avenue Greenwood, SC 29649 Student Editors: Paula Birch Lindsey Copeland Wendy Polk Faculty Advisors: Dr. Lillian Craton Dr. Misty Jameson Cover Photograph: Daniel Camak New Voices congratulates the winners of the 2008 & 2009 Dessie Dean Pitts Awards for excellence in non-fiction writing: Veronica Fuller & James Johnson newvoices@lander.edu

New Voices

Table of Contents Personal Memoir Category: •

Category Winner: Cynthia Patterson, “A Red Box”. . . . . . . . . . . .5

•

Official Selection: Ashley Rhodes, “This I Believe: Fatherhood Is Essential” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Creative Non-Fiction Category: •

Category Winner: Daniel Camak, “Brothers of Valor”. . . . . . . . . 14

•

Official Selection: Anonymous, “Confined, Branded and Released”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Research Essay Category: •

Category Winner: Jesse Timmons, “How Does Children’s Entertainment Prepare Children for a Global Society?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

•

Official Selection: Veronica Fuller, “The 'Special' Relationship between the U.S. and Britain”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Literary/Artistic Analysis Essay Category: •

Category Winner: Matt Falter, “Jazz: It's Not 1964 Anymore”. . 50 3

New Voices

Table of Contents, cont: Literary/Artistic Analysis Essay Category: •

Official Selection: James Johnson, “A Romantic Fight Club”. . .57

Social Issues Essay Category: •

Category Winner: Veronica Fuller, “It’s True: Real Women Have Curves . . . Yet the Media Denies It”. . . . . . . . . . 64

•

Official Selection: Tashinga Musonza, “We Shall Overcome— Executive Powers in the Wrong Hands” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Dessie Dean Pitts Award Winner 2008: Veronica Fuller A selection by Veronica, “The Philosophy of Kierkegaard in The Moviegoer”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Dessie Dean Pitts Award Winner 2009: James Johnson A selection by James, “See John Stereotype Jane: Gender Roles in the Classroom”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Meet the Editors & Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

New Voices “A Red Box” By Kaycie Patterson I walk into a house that is falling apart, yet several college guys happily live here. The ceiling is stained with water damage, and the floor is sticky with spilt beer. A game of pool is being played in the front of the house while someone in the back yells, “Who wants to play beer pong?!” I see many girls in brightly colored sun dresses trying their best to impress the guys that are too drunk to notice what they themselves are wearing. I make my way to the refrigerator, and after opening it I grab a beer. While looking for some people I feel comfortable around, I feel something collapse beneath my black stiletto high heel shoe. I lift my foot up, and there lies a flattened, red Marlboro cigarette box. This box alone makes me smile and then fight back a tear… or two. I pop open my beer and take a big gulp then sit down in an old recliner that does not seem to recline anymore. I am not worried about finding my friends now. All I can think about is my dad, or Deddy, according to my sister and me. I imagine my dad standing in his blue slacks and freshly pressed, white buttonup shirt. His gold watch on his left arm is glistening in the sunlight, and he is blowing smoke into the air while holding a Marlboro brand cigarette in his right hand. It is hard to imagine my dad without imagining him with a cigarette. I look around at all the people at the party and see many guys and girls holding the very thing that I know is killing my dad. They are all under

Personal Memoir Category Winner

New Voices the age of twenty-five and are confidently inhaling the nicotine while blowing the excess poison in the faces of their companions. I sit there, breathe in deeply through my nose, and smell the aroma of cheap cigarettes. It is almost the same smell of my dad’s rich, full-flavor Marlboro's, but not quite. Even so, it still reminds me of my childhood and the many incidents recently of having to witness my father slowly suffocate. As a little girl, I liked that my dad smoked. It meant extra playtime. Mama never let my dad smoke in the house, so when it was warm and clear, he would stand right off of our carport. My twin sister and I would follow him outside, hop on our bikes, and ride a few times up and down the drive way. We were young and could not be out after dark unless Deddy made a trip outside for a few drags. When it was raining, my dad would stay under the carport. My sister and I would grab our bucket full of different colored chalk and begin to draw our best pictures that we knew would fade after only a few days. Deddy would tell us stories while we sat there and drew aimlessly. “I use to love playing baseball in the abandoned lot behind the mill village,” he would say in between puffs. “We were just a bunch of boys in faded blue jeans and dusty white t-shirts trying to forget how poor our families were.” He told us about being a teenager in the 1950's. He wasted many nights going to pool halls with his older brothers to see them shoot games of pool and working as a carhop at the local diner. He talked about how fun the Daytona races were in the 70's and mountain trips with my mom in the 6

New Voices 80's. As my dad continued to reminisce, my sister and I would sit on the cold concrete floor of our carport while a thick fog of Marlboro smoke surrounded us. I sigh loudly at the thought of my dad's smoking being such a bittersweet thing. The girl sitting to my left looks at me and asks me if I am okay. I am surprised at how I forgot I was at a party, considering how loud the music is playing in the back ground. I just look at her, give her a poor excuse for a smile, and manage to say, “I'm fine.” The girl, Tiffany I believe is her name, begins to talk to me about how everything was going to work out just great: “Don't worry about him,” she said. The poor girl trying to make conversation believes I am upset about a recent break up. I wish that was all I was worried about right now. That is all I should be worried about . . . and maybe the class I have early in the morning. I tell her thanks for trying to cheer me up then walk outside, leaving my full, newly opened beer, minus one gulp. Outside I am alone. The night is warm, but I button my purple sweater over my red dress just to feel safe from the coldness of the light breeze. Cigarette butts litter the lawn in front of this party house. I am reminded of cigarette butts covering my family's yard. My dad flicked them there after finishing one after another. He has had this deadly habit since a young age, and now cigarettes have become a part of who he is. His skin is rough and dry, and his fingers and teeth are stained yellow. His voice is scratchy and accompanied by a hacking 7

New Voices cough whenever he speaks. He struggled the other day to talk to me while sitting in the pharmacy, waiting on his drugs to correct the damage caused by the other drug. “The doctor says I have got to quit smoking, but it is so hard. I'm going to try but sometimes I think that there isn't a point anymore since I'm already 75 years old.” Deddy paused for about five minutes. I sat there silently, trying to figure out what he was thinking about. He was staring at the floor and twiddling his thumbs. He then began to speak once again. “When you and your sister were born, I prayed to God every day that he would let me live to see the both of y'all graduate from high school. I never knew how fast that day would come.” I saw tears began to well up in his eyes, but I pretended not to notice. “Now I pray He'll let me be around for weddings and grandchildren, but with all the smoking I've done over the years, I don't think it's likely.” He shook his head. “I've heard people say that every time a person smokes a cigarette it takes fifteen minutes off their life. I'd hate to figure up how many minutes I've taken off my life.” I was hurting while sitting there beside him. I knew he was hurting too. We both had the doctor's news on our minds and knew that the time he has left may be very little. A car passes by, and I am brought back to my current location. It begins to lightly rain and now the weather seems to imitate my dismal mood. I love my dad as much as any girl loves her father, but sometimes I get so angry at him for not putting the 8

New Voices cigarettes down for the sake of living longer. I have to remind myself that cigarettes are an addictive drug that can take control of a man's life just like cocaine or heroin. Although the effects may not be as extreme, cigarettes still hurt the abuser and can hurt the abuser's family. My family is hurting right now due to the cancerous tumor growing inside my father's tar-filled lungs. I slowly turn around and begin walking towards the house to get out of the rain. My phone vibrates in my back pocket, so I pull it out and glance at the screen to see who is calling. “Deddy” it reads. I answer my pink Chocolate cell phone with a happy hello. My dad clears his throat a few times then says, “I wanted to let you know there is a bad storm headed your way. Don't stay out too late and call me when you get to your apartment.” Like he always does, he hangs up the phone without saying goodbye. I walk up the brick stairs to reenter the house full of cigarette smog. When I open the door, I am immediately smacked in the face with the scent of late night bike rides, long, painful talks in the pharmacy waiting room, and a tall, gray-headed man who is waiting on his daughter to call him when she makes it safely home.

New Voices “This I Believe: Fatherhood Is Essential” by Ashley Rhodes

Personal Memoir Official Selection

Note: This essay was written in response to the National Public Radio series This I Believe.

The one stuffed animal that I still sleep with is a beanfilled dog that my dad bought for me when I was ten. We were in Books-A-Million, and I wanted the dog so bad because it looked like my dog at home. Normally, this sort of thing would have been “nonsense” for daddy to spend his money on. However, for some reason, he decided to give in this time. I was ecstatic; I got my dad to break down and buy something for me that I know he would normally have never bought because it was a “waste of money.” The dog would be special to me. It still is. It has become something that makes me feel safe at night, that can soak up tears when I’m sad, and that can receive tight hugs when I’m excited. It replaces all the stuff my dad is supposed to do. This is why I believe in the importance of fatherhood. Dads are supposed to be there for their children in the good times and in the bad. A dad has to do more than pay child support: there are far more qualifications for the job of fatherhood. My mom raised me alone. She held all my birthday parties, managed all of my wild sleepovers, got me up and ready for school every morning, and worked two jobs, staying tired most of the time so that she could make sure I always had the best things she could afford. Don't get me wrong—my dad has always given me birthday presents, has always made sure I had my needs 10

New Voices met. I stayed with him on weekends until I was eleven. However, he was never there for the grunt work, like when my kindergarten class needed a parent to chaperon our zoo trip, when my boyfriend dumped me and I cried for three days, when I was having such a hard time with a math teacher that a parent-teacher conference was required, or when I was staying out too late and needed someone to draw the line. My mom dealt with all of that by herself. My dad never knew, and still doesn’t know, about any of that. I will never forget last year when my artwork was entered in our high school art show. It took me a little while to talk my dad into coming, but he finally gave in. He and my stepmom came together. I have loved to draw since I was little. My mom knows this very well and has always wanted me to take advanced art classes so that I could get even better. Anytime my art has ever been shown, my mom has always been the first in line to see it. My dad had never seen my artwork until last year’s art show. When the announcer said my name for the first place prize, the look on my dad's face was priceless. My mom was so excited that she was yelling: “I knew you would win!” All my friends’ parents congratulated my mom and dad for my win. All my dad could say was, “Why didn't you ever tell me you drew?” This sums up our whole relationship. At this moment, I realized just how much my dad has never known about his daughter and how much he has missed out on because he never

New Voices made an effort to know me. Dads are supposed to be role models for their families and all others around them. I have heard that fathers are supposed to be the earthly example of God, guiding their families and teaching their children a healthy way to live. So much for that. My parents got divorced when I was three and my brother was thirteen. They had been married for eighteen years. My mom said she just couldn’t take the relationship anymore. Daddy treated mama more like a maid than a wife. He told her that he didn’t like to hug and kiss or to say “I love you,” that those things made him uncomfortable. He developed a drinking problem and would frequently come home drunk or would not come home at all. My mom would go out looking for him at the local bars late at night. He later developed a gambling problem and got in a bad situation where some men were threatening to kill him if he didn’t get them their money. He and my mom had to give up their house to pay the men back. My brother was a baby at the time. I worry sometimes that the instability hurt his chances to grow up into a grounded adult. Sons and daughters who have close bonds with their fathers seem to be more successful, happier individuals. Each child has certain needs that can’t be met by the child’s mother alone. There are roles that a father plays in his child’s life, and these roles need to be fulfilled in order for the child to feel secure, confident, and supported. Fathers are more than a child support

New Voices check. Fathers are the foundation of a strong household and are the number one role model for their children. At least they should be. It is too bad that my dad could never understand how his decisions affected me and my brother. It is too late for my dad to take back the effect he has had on our family, my attitude towards men and my body, and the way my brother thinks about relationships and women. However, it is not too late for other dads. The opportunities are there. Dads can change the world by shaping who their children become, if only they decide that fatherhood is essential.

New Voices “Brothers of Valor” Creative NonFiction Category Winner

by Daniel Camak The relentless sun was beating down on the dry, sandy terrain during that hot Afghanistan morning. The rigid landscape was a desolate sea of mountains and small trees. The eighteenyear-old soldier felt beads of sweat trickle down from his brow in slow-moving streams. He felt his long-sleeved white and grayishgreen uniform drenched in sweat. His dark tinted Oakley’s shielded his eyes from the incessant glare. His camouflage Kevlar helmet shaded his head, and a thirty-pound vest full of ammunition tried to weigh him down while he and the rest of his unit marched along the dirt track road. The squad stomped their large, tan boots in firm melodic unison. They were divided into two lines parallel to one another on opposite sides of the small path. Keplen picked up the very end of the procession. He was a firing specialist, and it was his duty to cover the rear in case of an enemy ambush. He gripped an M-249 automatic machine gun. Across from Keplen, senior firing specialist Harding picked up the rear on the left. Harding was a bright-eyed young man with short, trimmed blonde hair. He looked to be around the age of twenty-four or twenty-five. He often acted quite jovial around base, but when it came to suiting up in that camouflage uniform and strapping an automatic weapon on his back, he was all business. He was the kind of guy you enjoyed being around but always listened to when he had something important to tell 14

New Voices you. Harding had experience with the war; he had been on active duty for at least three years and had been serving under the same regiment as Keplen for about six months. Keplen and Harding were best friends at the unit, and Keplen had great respect for the young veteran. Keplen had grown tired of walking. The unit got a tip from the C.I.A. about a possible weapons cache hidden somewhere within a village called Masham Ghar. Keplen didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand why they had to march to the village, but he followed the orders he was given. His legs felt like frail twigs ready to snap at any moment. His mouth felt like the desiccated sand they were trudging on. He reached for his canteen and guzzled the water as if he had just tasted it for the first time. It was warm and tasted like aged-old seawater, but it was the best thing he ever put in his mouth. After a three-mile trek through increasingly monotonous countryside, the small village of Masham Ghar came into a hazy focus. The houses were identical to the rest of Afghanistanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s simplistic architecture. They were circular-shaped mud huts that were made from the taupe colored sand that prevailed over the arid desert. The rudimentary structures seemed only to furnish one small hole used as a window. Thick low-lying mud walls surrounded most of the huts throughout the village. The unit approached the village from the north. There were adjacent mud huts southeast from where they entered. 15

New Voices Keplen and Harding were assigned to cover rear security. It was their duty to make sure no one ambushed the unit from outside the walls. The rest of the group moved inside the village in search of the cache. “There,”

said Harding. “We’ll go there.” He pointed to a

massive boulder near a three-foot high collapsed wall that bordered the city. The two soldiers marched across the open field and crouched down behind the large rock. “You take the left side and I’ll take the right,” directed Harding. “Okay,”

replied Keplen. He anticipated the day to be

relatively uneventful and wondered how long it would take them to find the cache. “Hey

Keplen,” said Harding while his eyes maintained

focus towards the open field. “Yeah?” Keplen’s “Would

eyes maintained similar focus.

you rather fuck Barbara Walters or Rosie

O’Donnell?” “Probably Barbara.” “That was “I’ve

a trick question, Keplen. You nasty fuck!”

been in this fucking war long enough that you’re

even starting to look good!” “I’d

hate to plug your ass out in the middle of the fucking

desert, Keplen!” The light-hearted moment was abruptly

New Voices interrupted when a loud, raspy voice was heard over Harding’s mm bitter radio. “Bulldog

4-3. This is Bulldog 5!” The voice was heard

with gunfire in the background. Harding grabbed his radio and held it up to his mouth, while Keplen glanced over for a second with a look of concern. “This is 4-3. Send it.” “We’re

making some contact here, Stay frosty!” yelled the

gruff voice over muddled static and gunshots. “Roger!

Holding position! 4-3 Out!” yelled Harding as he

situated his radio back on his belt. The two waited for a moment, looking at each other in silence. Shortly after that a loud, echoing bullet zoomed right past Keplen’s shoulder. He slowly eased his head around from behind the large boulder. Bullets started flying in his vicinity. He swiftly jumped back behind the boulder while they popped off the ground like firecrackers. Keplen waited for the anonymous gunfire to come to a sudden halt. The two soldiers looked at each other and nodded. Keplen and Harding both turned around in opposite directions and rapidly unleashed their bullets in the direction of an abandoned hut. The bullets made a thunderous clap. Keplen’s arms started vibrating while his index finger stayed firmly secure on the trigger. He lodged the butt stock of the quick-firing weapon 17

New Voices between his forearm and his shoulder. Sweat poured off his forehead like heavy rain. His face and uniform were covered in dirt. He heard Harding taking a few shots off to the right side of the enormous stone. “Keplen!

Mud hut on the left, second window!” shouted

Harding. “Roger!

Got him!” shouted Keplen as his gun rang out in

uncontrollable

frenzy.

The

two

soldiers

took

turns

consecutively firing their automatic weapons towards the large huts. Their shots were inaccurate, but they were only firing to suppress the unidentified gunmen. Harding slumped back behind the boulder, while bullets hit the right side of the rock. He pulled out his radio and turned it to the side near his mouth. “5 this is 4-3!” “4-3

this is 5 send your traffic,” replied the scratchy voice.

“We

got some guys taking pop shots over here,” said

Harding. “But I think we can handle it. There’s only ‘bout 3 or 4 of them. We got plenty of ammo.” “Roger

that! Hold your position! Give me a sit rep every

now and then!” yelled the stern voice through the radio. “Roger

that. 4-3 out,” replied Harding.

Keplen heard a severe amount of gunfire coming from inside the village and realized the intensity was escalating. He leaned his head out to confirm a visual on the distant gunmen. 18

New Voices A more extreme amount of gunfire was shot at the two men. Harding and Keplen both reached around and fired more shots back. Keplen pushed the trigger down once more and let the weapon do its work. The only thought in Keplen’s head was “just fire back.” There seemed to be more shooters coming from the north entrance of the village. The men dropped and crouched back down against the rock at the same time after they released the trigger. “It’s

really picking up out here. I think we need to call in

reinforcements,” said Harding. “Yeah!

It’s getting pretty damn bad out here!” Both men

started ducking as bullets grazed the top of the boulder. Harding called it in, but the sergeant clarified that there was too much enemy fire in the village for them to send a squad. He told them they needed to use their good judgment and fall back if necessary. Harding realized the gunfire was intensifying and they weren’t able to identify where it was coming from. He turned his head around and peered towards the village. He glanced at the crumbled wall and then looked at Keplen. “We’re

going to pull back to that wall. If they find out

there’s only two of us behind this rock, then they’re going to rush us,” said Harding. He gave Keplen a nod like a big brother looking after his younger sibling. “Otherwise, they’ll try to outflank us on the left.” They both knew they had to go one at a 19

New Voices time so one person could cover the other. “I’ll cover you while you make a run for the wall,” shouted Harding. Both men were crouched down in the dirt, covered in sweat and grime. “No!

I’ll cover you. You go first!” exclaimed Keplen.

“Look,

Keplen, you’re going first! Now move your ass!”

“Harding,

I’ll cover you! Now go!” The two sat there

arguing for a moment until Harding pulled out his senior rank on Keplen and ordered him to go. “You’re

a fucking stubborn son of a bitch, you know

that!” Keplen yelled. Harding smiled as if it were the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever said to him. “5

we’re going back. Keplen is going first!” yelled

Harding as he reported the message through the radio. He looked at Keplen and said, “Alright, on the count of three you’re going to haul ass behind that wall!” Keplen looked at Harding with complete admiration. He knew there was no braver man than the one crouched beside him. “1

. . .2 . . . 3! Go, Keplen!”

Harding finished the count, leaned up over the rock, and chaotically fired the weapon towards the mud huts. Shells were piling up on the ground, and smoke was coming out of the machine gun. Keplen sprinted full speed in zigzags across the scorching, sandy field. Thoughts raced through his head about 20

New Voices how he was never going to make it to the wall and how he was glad he might go out with dignity. It all happened in an instant, but, at the same time, it felt as if he were running in slow motion. A heavy line of fire kicked up sand right beside him like treacherous waves splashing against the shore. He heard bullets flying right past his shoulder, and he cried out several obscenities. He saw the wall up ahead. It was just in arm’s reach. He felt his mind and adrenaline racing like he was on some kind of narcotic. He ducked down behind the wall and realized the gunfire had stopped completely. An uneasy silence had fallen over the Afghani desert. Keplen stayed down for a minute and finally edged his head up over the collapsed wall and looked back towards the boulder. A hero had fallen. “Harding!”

screamed Keplen as he leaped over the wall

and sprinted with full speed back over behind the boulder—all while inaccurately firing his weapon from the hip. He crouched down over the wounded soldier. He grabbed Harding by the back of his collar and lifted him gently onto his back. At that moment, Keplen darted back towards the low-lying wall. He felt his heart drop and his stomach come up to his throat as the adrenaline flowed readily through his entire body. Not one shot was fired on him the entire time he raced back. He climbed over the wall and laid Harding down on the sandy soil. He examined the wounds. Harding had been hit on the 21

New Voices left thigh and the upper-left arm. His leg was dark-red as the blood started seeping through his uniform. Keplen suspected he had been hit in an artery and tried to staunch the wound with a black strap. He knew that even if Harding were to get out of here, he would definitely lose his leg. “We

need a medic down here stat! Harding’s been hit!”

shouted Keplen over Harding’s mm bitter radio. “We’re

on our way!” replied the medic. Keplen went

through the standard medical procedure the Army had taught him during basic training. Moments later, a helicopter flew overhead and landed beside the two soldiers. Keplen helped the medics lift Harding on board the chopper. He climbed in with them, and the helicopter slowly ascended over the Afghani landscape. He saw that Harding was weak from the blood loss and grabbed his hand. Keplen turned back and looked at the sandy whirlwind the chopper had kicked up. It was a cloudy pit of hell.

“It

was only when we got back to base that that they told

us he didn’t make it,” Keplen tells me in a soft voice. We are sitting across from each other in his kitchen. His knuckle is propped up against his chin, and he gazes down at his reflection in the marble countertop. I sit and watch him. His mind is like a transparent hull I can see right through.

New Voices “He

saved my life . . . I just wish I could have returned the

favor,” he says. I look at the way he squints his brown eyes and the way he slightly curls his lip. His face tells the story. War is war. There seems to be no easier way to describe it. There is no right or wrong, no good or bad; there are just two frightened kids somewhere in an Afghani desert. We all have a frightened kid inside of us. It is that frightened kid that lets us know we’re still human. . . . That lets us know we’re still sane. . . .

New Voices Creative NonFiction Official Selection

“Confined, Branded and Released” by Anonymous The thick, navy blue folder hidden in the lower drawer of the dresser beside my bed holds the skeletons of my past. I cautiously open this folder to find the contents just as I left them last year . . . As I shuffle through the various pages, I begin to sob. I try to prevent myself from doing so, but the emotion is too great to hold inside. This remnant reveals the horror of my experience. Poems, letters, packets of information, and a personal journal were all accumulated during my two and a half week hospital stay. On the very top of the pages in the right pocket is a poem I wrote while I was there. The poem speaks of my being victorious despite being “locked up like an animal.” The words are written in my large, cursive handwriting that many people across the years have said is “very beautiful.” The words are written in vibrant, purple marker. I, however, was anything but vibrant and beautiful during that turbulent time of my life. On Tuesday, March 7, 2006, two police officers delivered me to the Carolina Center for Behavioral Health in Greer, SC. At eighteen years old, I experienced the joy of being placed in handcuffs and forced into an officer’s vehicle. I made ridiculous conversation with the cops. For instance, I babbled on and on about how my aunt used to be a police officer herself. The cops talked politely with me, but they surely knew I was not in my right mind. While a counselor went through the paper work with me 24

New Voices at the hospital, I imagined that a male had passed by the room outside and said my grandmother had died. I started crying hysterically. I actually believed my grandmother had died that day; in reality, she was still alive and well in the National Healthcare nursing home in Greenwood. (It was only earlier this year that she passed away). All of that shit was going on in my mind, not in the real world. My imagination took me soaring into a universe of hallucinations and paranoia. . . . To sum it up, it was absolute insanity. Can you imagine how terrifying that was? Inside that confining environment, I had my worst experiences in life so far. I was losing my grip on reality. I believed some outrageous events were occurring. I thought I was living in a dream world where some guy I was infatuated with at college would come and rescue me. On one of my first days at the hospital, I sang like a fool. I bellowed out the tunes of “Eye of the Tiger” from the Rocky films and “I Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash. Looking back now, I cannot deny that I was completely and utterly . . . FUCKED UP. Everyone but me could see that I was not myself. I was acting out of character. This is why I ended up being placed in unit five of the hospital. Just to inform you, unit five is the psychiatric ward for those who are harmful to themselves and others. Essentially, it is the crazy ward. After a week and a half or so, I was moved to unit two where the people were much more mentally stable. I, too, was gaining my sanity back as well.

New Voices There were some incredibly interesting individuals in that institution. I met an older male patient who went by the name of Elvis. He liked me while I was there, and to my embarrassment, I even allowed him to kiss me (believing he was the guy from school that I liked). I met a woman named “Pam,” a member of the honorable unit two, who befriended me and treated me as if I were her daughter. We sat together at the required meetings. She wrote a three-page letter to me on the day I was discharged. She offered a lot of Christian advice and concluded the letter by saying that if I ever got married, to make sure I went to marriage counseling before and after the wedding. I met another woman who thought she could prophesy and made comments like she knew me. One night she said something that disturbed me. She told me I had my ears pierced when I was a young child. In fact, I did have them done when I was four years old. She said it with such conviction that it frightened me. How could she know something so personal about me? My friend “Vicki,” a patient of unit five, wrote an untitled poem for me on the back of a photocopy of a crossword puzzle. Some of her words are misspelled and her grammar is incorrect, but her words speak volumes: Back everyone show a dark past. It’s just. That some people go do extremes not to admit it, even if all our lives all threatened to buy it. But they figure, as long as we

New Voices don’t know it, then that’s ok. I think they call it living in a bubble. Those words fit me so well now. I have a dark past because I had pushed myself to the extreme. . . . I see the copy of the journal I kept while I was at the hospital. My name is written in cursive on the front with stars surrounding it. On the first page, “One Day at a Time,” the hospital’s motto, is printed in brown ink. In the first few pages, I rant about how students at Anderson University were out to get me, how tired I was of being at that damn hospital, and wondering when I would go back to school. My favorite hobby in the hospital was begging and pleading with “Dr. Cannon” to discharge me, release me from what felt like prison. I cried, explaining to him how I did not belong there and how much I needed to get back to school. He observed my intense anxiety and, as a result, kept me even longer. He continued to experiment by trying different medications on me. One medication he prescribed for me was Benztropine, which treats symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. That idiotic psychiatrist actually thought I had the early stages of Parkinson’s . . . In addition to the information sheet about Benztropine, there are two (yes two) identical guides about a certain taboo mental illness. The guides state the different stages of the disorder and how to cope with it. I remember how Dr. Cannon stamped 27

New Voices this label on me since no other seemed to fit as well. After a week and a half, he finally came to the conclusion that I must be bipolar. I roam through more of the documents. I find a packet on “Building Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence.” I remember that, on the day I was committed to that hell-hole, I was high on life, or so I thought. I had finally started to be confident in myself. In my classes at Anderson, I had started speaking up more. I wore clothes I had never dreamed of having the confidence to wear. On that monumental day when I was committed to a mental institution, I was on top of the world. It quickly came crashing down and burning rapidly, unapologetically. The week before my nervous breakdown, I broke up with my boyfriend. He grew angry at me, bad-mouthed about me around campus, and refused to hear why I broke up with him in the first place. This, in turn, made me angry. I left a message on his cell phone telling him this: “Do not fight fire with fire. You’ll only get burned.” Later on, he took that message and burned it to a CD for one of the college administrators to hear. The school officials thought I had threatened to kill the boy. When I left that message, I had been several days with only a couple hours of sleep and not eating enough to function properly. I was not taking care of myself and not making healthy choices. I had too much responsibility on my shoulders. I had sixteen credit hours, twenty or so work-study hours, and was involved in several clubs. I was

New Voices even elected to be the next President of the Anderson University Republicans. All of this was too much for a sensitive, troubled college freshman. Before my ordeal at Anderson and my stay in CCBH, I was an innocent young woman. When I left the hospital on Saturday, March 25, my world had been completely turned upside down. Now I am a twenty-year-old with many regrets . . . Yet I have learned so much about myself and those around me. I still battle some demons in my head, but I am much stronger now. I have learned to keep myself in check. I learned to never push myself to do more than I can handle. I realized I am not a superhero and cannot be everything to everybody. After the events of the past year and a half, I am finally finding who I really am. I have finally accepted responsibility for my actions, past and present, and am now working on having a positive outlook on life. I am no longer living in a dreamy, fantasy world. I have to take care of myself. These reflections bring to mind “I Walk the Line.” Cash sings the truth from experience: “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time . . .”

New Voices “How Does Children’s Entertainment Prepare Children for a Global Society?” Research Essay Category Winner

by Jesse Timmons In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman lays out a blueprint for the United States to prosper in a global economy. He not only looks at economic factors but also examines how cultures can adapt to give an advantage to future workers in this new economy. He argues that “the more you have a culture that naturally ‘glocalizes’—that is, the more your culture easily absorbs foreign ideas and global best practices and melds those with its own traditions—the greater advantage you will have in a flat world” (Friedman 422). It is difficult for adults to adapt to these ideas, since their attitudes towards other cultures have been established for many years. It is the same idea as “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” On the other hand, these attitudes can be easily taught to children as their views of the world are still being constructed. These attitudes are formed by exposing children to foreign cultures in a positive way and by showing them that there are values common to all cultures. One of the basic foundations for these attitudes is to teach children to be more accepting of people, no matter what those people look or sound like. Children have to rely on adults to provide this exposure. Many times, that exposure comes through the prejudices that their parents have towards other races or cultures. They also are exposed to diversity through the programs or movies that they watch on television. As educators and parents, we cannot ignore 30

New Voices the increasing influence that entertainment has on children. We cannot just look at these programs and movies as mere entertainment. They are educational even when they are not advertised as such (Cortes). One example of entertainment that is considered by many as non-educational is the work of Disney. Disney has produced movies that have entertained children for decades. It has also, according to many critics, helped perpetuate stereotypes through many of its characters. An alternative to Disney is Sesame Street. It has taught generations of children the basics that they need to be prepared to enter school. It has also taught children to be accepting of those who are different than themselves through its characters. We as educators—and when I say “educators” I am referring to parents as well as those who stand in front of a classroom—can use media to help prepare children for a global society, but we should be savvy and knowledgeable users who demand high-quality multicultural programming. Not only should children be exposed to positive portrayals of different cultures, but they should also be exposed to programming that encourages positive attitudes towards diversity. In this paper, I will present examples of how “non-educational” entertainment, such as Disney, and the educational programming of Sesame Street depict multiculturalism. I will also present methods that educators and parents can use to help cultivate the proper attitudes in children toward diversity. 31

New Voices The Disney Corporation is one of the major contributors to children’s entertainment. It has its hands in virtually every form of children’s entertainment. Nearly everyone in America has been exposed to some part of the Disney Empire through one means or another (Towbin 24). Through the years, Disney has drawn criticism from both conservatives and liberals. The religious right has criticized Disney for supporting homosexuals, especially at its theme parks, “which allow gay organizations to openly express their lifestyles and pride while on their property” (Brode 13). In defense of the company, Michael Eisner was quoted in Multiculturalism and the Mouse saying, “I think it would be a travesty for us to exclude anybody” (Brode 13). On the other hand, the left takes issue with many of the stereotypes portrayed in Disney films. Although both groups of extremists have problems with Disney, the majority of the public views their productions as wholesome entertainment (Brode 14). While Disney is guilty of depicting stereotypes, there are many positive messages that are taught beneath the disguise of entertainment. Two films that contain these conflicting messages are the films The Lion King and Dumbo. There are many positive lessons that children could learn from these films, but at the same time there are unfortunate reinforcements of racial stereotypes that are portrayed in them. The

Lion

King

teaches

lessons

about

personal

responsibility. Simba realizes that his past cannot determine his future, and he must right the wrongs of his uncle, Scar, to return 32

New Voices the Pride Lands to prosperity. The film shows many different species that normally would be competing for survival, living and working side-by-side in harmony. The only characters given a negative portrayal are the hyenas: “The Lion King’s portrayal of the hyenas mimics stereotypes of inner-city minorities: they are portrayed as sinister and thieving and they often complain that the lions maintain power in their society” (Towbin 36). The story of Dumbo is one of Disney’s classic films, and it includes more blatant racial stereotypes. One might ask, “What could possibly be wrong with Dumbo?” It teaches children that, just because someone has what appears to be a handicap, he or she can still have unique talents that make that person special. It also depicts the strength of the bond between a mother and child. The positive lessons of Dumbo are very strong. There are only two depictions of African-Americans in the film, and they are both stereotypically negative. One is more obvious than the other. The first appearance of African-Americans is very subtle; it occurs when the circus is being set up. The images reflect slavery: the only humans shown working side by side with the circus animals are faceless black men. They sing, “We work all day, we work all night, we have no life to read and write…we don’t know when we get our pay, and when we do, we throw our pay away” (Towbin 32). The second depiction is of the crows who help convince Dumbo that he can fly. The crows are an obvious representation of the negative stereotypes of AfricanAmericans, “being poor, unintelligent, and naïve” (Towbin 32). 33

New Voices They are an example of the minstrel show portrayals of AfricanAmericans. Disney’s main goals are to make a profit and to entertain, and many would say they should only be viewed in that manner. On the other hand, Sesame Street has the goal of educating through entertainment and has found a way to educate and celebrate cultural diversity. Sesame Street debuted on November 10, 1969, and was a result of the social reforms and civil rights struggles that took place in the 1960s (Mandel). The goal of the creators was to create a more tolerant community both on screen and in reality. They also wanted to give poor urban preschoolers the same educational opportunities as their middle-class peers so they would be on the same educational level when they entered school (Mandel). The set was designed to be familiar to inner-city children: “The Sesame Street set resembled a working class New York City block, bedecked with brownstone apartment buildings, locally owned shops, and a diversity of residents” (Mandel 7). The format of the show was to be a series of 40-50 sketches that taught the educational lessons of the day. They included studio takes, cartoons, and scenes with puppets. Many of the sketches focused on teaching children to read and write. They taught children how to recognize letters and numbers (Mandel). Every show focused on a few select numbers and letters and ended with the line, “Sesame Street was brought to you by the letter(s) ___ and the number(s) ___” (Mandel 7). The show also taught other basic skills that children needed before they entered 34

New Voices schools: shape recognition, relational concepts (big, bigger, and biggest), basic problem solving, and classification (“One of these things is not like the other”) (Mandel 8). But some of Sesame Street’s most important lessons are about diversity rather than academic material. The producers also wanted to expose inner-city children to things that they may not have an opportunity to see in their urban environments. They would “bring the zoo to the city as roosters, guinea pigs, llamas, chickens and many other animals visited the Sesame Street set” (Mandel 8). The producers also used actors from diverse backgrounds to teach multiculturalism. This was something that was unique to 1960s television, which “mostly showed a homogeneous group of characters in isolated settings” (Mandel 8). Gerald Lesser, one of the initial creators, explained that the show “adopts indirect teaching methods to display certain social attitudes, such as treating each other with kindness and courtesy, [and] respect for racial differences” (qtd. in Mandel 8). In the third season, the producers introduced the viewers to two new languages: Spanish and sign language. The characters “Maria” and “Luis” were created and introduced Spanish words to other characters and the viewers. In one episode, “Big Bird” kept asking when he could say adios. They kept telling him, “Not yet,” until the end of the show. The character “Linda” was deaf and introduced sign language to the viewers. Other segments featured songs in different languages. This brought more than just cultural diversity to the show; it also demonstrated acceptance of 35

New Voices people as individuals with unique skills and needs (Mandel). After almost four decades of teaching children the importance of the basic skills of reading and writing and, most importantly, how to live with each other peacefully, Sesame Street is still one of the most popular children’s shows on television. Key to its success is the ability of the producers to see changes in society and react to them. The basic needs are the same, but themes such as childhood obesity are more important than they were a few years ago. One character who has had to change with the times is “Cookie Monster.” Sherrie Rollins Westin, chief marketing officer at Sesame Workshop, explains how “Cookie” had to change his eating habits: “We want to teach preschoolers that they need to eat well. That is why we have taught Cookie about ‘sometimes foods’ like cookies and ‘anytime foods’ like an apple. That is a very appropriate lesson for a preschooler” (qtd. in Goff). Another example of how the producers have seen cultural trends and reacted is how they responded to “9/11.” They produced shows about inclusion and diversity. They also created a segment called “Global Grover,” in which “Grover” dresses in traditional clothing from a culture and introduces a short film showing children within that culture (Shattuck). Dr. Rosemarie T. Truglio, vice president for education and research for the show, explains how they keep Sesame Street on the cutting edge: “We look at each new year as an experimental season. The . . . formula has worked for 33 years and we feel no need to change. But children’s viewing 36

New Voices environment is changing. How parents are using television is changing. We have to reflect today’s environment” (Shattuck). Children will experience thousands of hours of television and movies in their lifetimes. With changes in technology, the amount of information received through the screens in homes and schools will increase. One thing will remain the same: “this programming will continue to be culture-bound and . . . will present mixed messages about race, ethnicity and social class” (Pohan and Mathison). Whether or not the creators of children’s entertainment have a desire to educate, children learn lessons about “good and evil, right and wrong, life and death . . . family values . . . physical disabilities . . . interpersonal, intergroup, and intercultural relations . . . and about gender relations” (Cortes 78). That is where teachers come into play. Teachers have the opportunity to use these forms of media to their advantage. A study was conducted by Professors Cathy Pohan and Carla Mathison from Texas A&M and San Diego State, respectively, on how messages of children’s programming could be used to teach multicultural lessons in the classroom. They created a program to help teachers develop media literacy. This program contained five key elements represented by the acronym M.E.D.I.A.: Monitor: Teachers must educate parents/educators on how to monitor the viewing habits of their children. Evaluate: Teachers must be taught how to help their

New Voices students evaluate the content of various programs. Design: Teachers need to be able to design meaningful assignments aimed at developing visual media and critical literacy skills among students. Instruction: Teach educators about the instructional potential of TV. Awareness: We must build teachers’ awareness regarding the role of television viewing in our culture today. Teachers must be in touch with what their students are watching and use this as an opportunity to teach about diversity and social justice. (Pohan and Mathison) This plan allows teachers to maximize the effect of positive messages. Carlos Cortes addresses the global effects of positive multicultural lessons. He says that even though the degree to which media instills cultural and racial stereotypes in children can be debated, “the fact that they contribute to the construction of beliefs and attitudes about diversity” cannot be debated (23). He goes on to say that this is not an issue limited to the United States, but is a global concern. He references a meeting in 1998 that included representatives from 18 African, European, and Latin American nations to develop a plan to mute the influence of Hollywood. One of the issues the representatives addressed “was how to stop the media from inflaming interethnic antagonisms” (23). From my research for this project, I have learned that

New Voices many messages are taught by childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s television shows and movies. Some are obvious, and some are not. The important thing to realize is that, as educators and parents, we have control over what is being viewed in our classrooms and homes. If we teach our children early in life that acceptance and respect for racial and cultural differences is important, they will have a good foundation to prepare them for the global society that is developing.

Works Cited Brode, Douglas. Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. Cortes, Carlos E. The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach About Diversity. New York: Teachers College Press, 2000. Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. New York: Picador, 2007. Goff, Karen. "Nostalgia Street DVDs of early 'Sesame' Carry Parental Warning.â&#x20AC;? (FAMILY TIMES). The Washington Times (Feb 24, 2008): D01. Custom Newspapers (InfoTrac- Gale).Gale. Lander University Library. 1 Apr. 2008. Mandel, Jennifer. "The Production of a Beloved Community: 39

New Voices Sesame Street's Answer to America's Inequalities." Journal of American Culture 29.1 (Mar. 2006): 3-13. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Jackson Library, Greenwood, SC. 31 Mar.2008. Pohan, Cathy A., and Carla Mathison.. "PART I: ADVANCING THE CONVERSATION: Television: Providing Powerful Multicultural Lessons Inside and Outside of School." Multicultural Perspectives 9.1 (2007):19-25. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Jackson Library, Greenwood, SC. 30 Mar. 2008. Shattuck, Kathryn. "It's Hard to Cut Corners on a Street That Circles the World." The New York Times (April 6, 2003): 59. Custom Newspapers (InfoTrac-Gale).Gale. Jackson Library, Lander University. 1 Apr. 2008.

New Voices “The 'Special' Relationship between the U.S. and Britain” by Veronica Fuller The relationship between the United States and Britain has always been one of love and hate. The two nations have struggled with one another, taken each other’s side when support was necessary, and collided on important issues. The relationship between the two used to be one of parent and child, but once the United States became a mature country and then became a superpower in the world, it was no longer viewed as Britain’s “child.” The two countries formed a close alliance during World Wars I and II, but today, during the War in Iraq, that alliance is being threatened. Britain is becoming frustrated with America’s global take-over and the country’s foreign policies. Despite this, Britain still cares about America. Britons are still interested in American culture, for example. The United States, on the other hand, has not been so interested in the “mother country.” There is, indeed, a special relationship between America and Britain due to history, politics, diplomacy, and culture, but the United States, for the most part, does not fully appreciate its strong ties to the British. America is sabotaging its alliance with Britain, and with it, the whole of Europe. The United States must nurture the relationship and appreciate it as much as Britain has. Britain and America started out with a relationship like that between “mother” and “child.” The American colonies wished to be an independent country, so they rebelled against 41

Research Essay Official Selection

New Voices their “mother country.” Britain fought hard to retain its control over the colonies. Despite its efforts, Britain could not defeat the colonies, and America became its own nation: “After Britain lost its American colonies in the eighteenth century, Horace Walpole lamented Britain’s reduction to 'a miserable little island' as insignificant as Denmark or Sardinia.”1 Once America became its own country, Britain did, in fact, lose some of its power in the world. Until the United States became the superpower of the world during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Britain was considered to be the strongest country in the world. Britain gave up its number one position in the world to the newly formed America. Rightfully so, Britons felt resentment due to this. Despite this resentment, the two countries still had strong bonds. In An Ocean Apart, David Dimbleby and David Reynolds state that: America had more in common with Britain than with the countries of continental Europe, similarities which were to help the two countries build a closer, more equal relationship as the twentieth century dawned and which laid the basis for their co-operation in two world wars.2 During World Wars I and II, Britain and America put their differences aside to help one another. However, America was neutral about entering both wars. America did not enter the wars until the country was directly affected. For example, the United States did not want to enter World War II until Pearl Harbor was 42

New Voices attacked on 7 December 1941. This was overlooked, though. Britain had the support of a powerful country in the world. Winston Churchill, who served as Prime Minister from October 1951 to April 1955, was so grateful for America’s help during the Second World War that he formed the “special relationship” phrase to describe Britain and America’s alliance. He first used this phrase in March 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, during his famous Iron Curtain speech. Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had a close relationship during this time. Essentially, the friendship between the two countries comes down to sharing the values of democracy and human rights. During the time of Churchill and Roosevelt, the alliance was at its best. The relationship between the two countries would never be that strong again. Britain suffered from World Wars I and II while America thrived from them. After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union were pitted against one another as the two superpowers in the world. This brought upon the Cold War, which lasted from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. After all of this conflict, America became the great superpower in the world. America’s relationship with Britain suffered due to the Cold War and the Vietnam War that occurred from 1959 to 1975. Britain refused to be directly involved in the Vietnam War. The relationship between the United States and Britain was revived when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher “forged a close personal relationship in the 1980s, based on their shared views on 43

New Voices government and freedom.”3 Following this alliance, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were also close due to their common values. In spite of these friendships, America has always been rather indifferent to the rest of the world. The massive country stands alone across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Since the United States is so large and so distant, the country has always been rather self-obsessive. When the country tries to turn its back on the rest of the world, it receives a wakeup call. Similar to Pearl Harbor, the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, forced the United States into action. Both attacks made America realize its global reputation. Both pulled the nation out of its “isolationism.” It is good for America to actually be concerned about the world, but 9/11 caused the United States to become too concerned with Afghanistan and later, Iraq. The events of September 11 led to the War in Iraq, which, according to President George W. Bush, is a war of “good vs. evil.” In his book Allies, William Shawcross writes that “[t]he Bush presidency has created almost unprecedented tensions between Europe and the United States.”4 With the Iraqi War, Bush has threatened the U.S.’s ties with Britain and the whole of Europe. Without Britain’s support in the Iraqi War, the United States would have faced being isolated from the rest of Europe. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair realized that the United States needed the support of Britain. Without Britain, the rest of Europe 44

New Voices would have turned its back on the United States. Despite Britain’s part in the Iraqi War, many Britons and Europeans in general have become upset with America’s involvement in Iraq. There is widespread anti-Americanism in Europe. Many Britons, for example, think Blair was wrong to support George W. Bush. They think America is trying to be the world police by punishing the “bad guys” like Saddam Hussein and remedying the problems in countries such as Iraq. Today in the United States, a resident rarely hears about Britain. Many Americans have never even heard of the “special relationship” that supposedly exists with Britain. America seems like a country too absorbed with its own affairs. In news coverage in the U.S., one does not hear much about Britain or any other foreign country. In Why Do People Hate America? Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies muse over America’s ignorance: Why, people around the world keep asking, is the American public, in a country with the world’s most advanced education system and institutions of learning, so exceedingly ignorant of world affairs? They don’t know the names of the leaders of other countries, even those of their allies in the West. They don’t know where other countries are located. They don’t know the history of the world. They apparently don’t care, either. They care about their cars, their second homes, about not paying taxes, about low gasoline prices. But why don’t they care about

New Voices the rest of the world? Why do Americans tend towards an insidious distrust of others, and show such neglect for the needs, desires and hopes of the rest of the world? Why?5 Americans are more concerned with domestic issues than with foreign ones. This is why most of the news in America has to do with America. Most Americans do not want to hear about the rest of the world. The BBC news in Britain, however, covers more world news because the country cares about how other nations are doing. Britain seems to be more concerned with America than America is concerned with Britain. For example, British newspapers have a lot of coverage of Hollywood films and American celebrities. When the film Sex and the City premièred in London, many newspapers contained articles about the four actresses, the fashion on the show and the reasons for the show’s popularity. In addition, the British newspapers were and are still closely following the Democratic primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Regardless of Britain’s interest in America, Britain’s culture is still very well intact. Kate Fox proudly declares in Watching the English that “[w]ithin Britain, despite obvious American cultural influences, there is far more evidence of increasing tribalization than of any reduction in cultural diversity.”6 Britons still maintain their own distinct culture, despite America’s influence throughout the world. Even during the 1960s when America greatly influenced Britain in regard to 46

New Voices industry, lifestyle, and music, Britain refused to become “Americanised.”

Should

Britain

maintain

this

“special

relationship” with the nation that seems to be obsessed with “Americanising” the globe? Having ties with the superpower of the world makes Britain look good and does have its advantages, but truthfully, Britain does not need America as much as America needs Britain. Without Britain, the United States would be a country isolated from the rest of the world. When the United States wants to enter a war, the country turns to Britain. Britain is America’s key to all of Europe. Without Britain’s alliance, the United States would lose the help of Europe. Other European countries such as France and Spain did not support America’s decision to initiate a war in Iraq. Britain, however, stood behind the United States, even though the war has proven to be such a disaster. America needed that support, and it seems the rest of Europe would not have easily given their help. Britain continues to be a friend to the United States, but for how long? How long will Britain put up with America’s “I-can-have-it-all” attitude? How long will Britain support the United States in its ridiculous military endeavours, such as the Iraqi War? In his article “After Blair: Will the Special Relationship Survive?,” Nile Gardiner asserts that “[t]here is growing public animosity in the U.K. toward the alliance, and widespread disillusionment with American global leadership, across all political parties, social classes, and age groups.”7 Britain is becoming frustrated with the United States. 47

New Voices The current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is following the close ties that Blair had with Bush regarding the Iraqi War, but how long will the prime ministers continue the historic alliance with the U.S. presidents? Whenever

Britain

decides

end

this

“special

relationship,” America will suffer, whether the country realizes it or not. The United States, no matter how great it is, needs the support of Britain and the rest of Europe. America cannot continue to have an “isolationist” attitude. The country must try to establish a better reputation in the world and decrease the amount of anti-Americanism. The country must value its special relationship with Britain much more than it is doing now. America must stop being indifferent to its role in the world. Once America does its part in healing the special relationship, Britons will be able to put aside their bad feelings for America and continue to cherish and benefit from the old alliance.

Notes 1Joseph

S. Nye, The Paradox of American Power: Why

the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 3. 2David

Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An Ocean Apart:

the Relationship Between Britain and America in the Twentieth Century (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988), p. 22. 48

New Voices 3“UK/US: A Special

Relationship?” BBC News / Talking

Point. 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1185891.stm (15 May 2008). 4William

Shawcross, Allies: The U.S., Britain, Europe

and the War in Iraq (London: Atlantic Books, 2003), p. 39. 5Ziauddin

Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, Why Do

People Hate America? (Cambridge: Icon Books, 2002), p. 200. 6Kate

Fox, Watching the English (London: Hodder &

Stoughton, 2004), p. 14. 7Nile

Gardiner. “After Blair: Will the Special Relationship

Survive?” The Heritage Foundation: Leadership for America. 2007. http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed062807b.cfm (15 May 2008).

New Voices “Jazz: It's Not 1964 Anymore” Literary/ Artistic Analysis Category Winner

by Matthew Falter Jazz is a living art, but historians and academics are turning it into an art of the past. Much of the argument surrounding the definition of jazz is deciding who gets to define it. Those who are in the know, who live jazz as an integral part of their culture whether musician or listener, know that jazz is a living art. They are in the streets, clubs, subways, etc. of New York and New Orleans, among other cities. They are the ones who make jazz a living art. It is unfortunate these people are far fewer in number than those who see jazz as an art form that cannot grow and evolve and be in the present moment and see jazz as akin to classical music in that it is an unchanging art that must always remind us of a certain era of the past. When jazz is alive, it is in the tradition, making sense of it in the present day. The “mainstream” (as represented in jazz magazines, text books on jazz history, and university jazz programs) puts jazz’s “glory days” on a pedestal and ignores all conditions and contexts of the present. It seems that, instead of carrying on the tradition as a living art, musicians are now being crushed by the tradition. As jazz critic Stuart Nicholson has stated, “American jazz is also beginning to appear like a series of never-to-be-forgotten experiences from a bygone age . . . the past is now beginning to overwhelm the present.”

New Voices Since jazz is no longer a part of mainstream American culture, jazz magazines and textbooks on jazz and its history are what define “the truth” to the public, who are mostly ignorant on the subject. In the 1970s, two things brought the demise of jazz’s “glory days.” First, jazz lost its importance as a uniting force for the African-American community, which was in the infancy of its freedom. Second, jazz studies programs were popping up all over, especially in prestigious schools. Of the latter, most of these universities have adopted the 1950s “west coast” jazz as their quintessential style of jazz, followed by the kind of “jazz” you hear when watching the fiveday forecast. West coast jazz represents the pinnacle of cultural appropriation in our society. The west coast musicians who suddenly flourished in the 1950s took a diversely developed art form—though mostly African-American in its nature—and conformed it to the middle class suburban aesthetic of their day. In short, they created white jazz for white people. The west coast sub-genre is not necessarily bad, but why does academia place such an emphasis on it? It is difficult to tell whether this shows racial prejudice on the part of academia as a whole or if it is simply indicative of how disconnected and isolated the university environment is from reality. Either way, academia is a major part of the cultural appropriation of jazz. The blossoming of jazz studies programs can be compared 51

New Voices to the world of visual art when Modernism gave way to Postmodernism in the ‘60s and ‘70s, according to art historian Catherine Buckley. The idea of a mainstream had collapsed, fragmenting into the present diversity of contemporary art. There are as many streams as there are artists, and change is not necessarily development. What is important now is determined by institutions: museums, galleries, universities, even to some extent the market. Art no longer claims to be progress. This relates to jazz in that, in its “glory days,” no one cared about a musician's pedigree so long as he had real talent; the pendulum seems to have swung in the other direction, so that without a pedigree one has little hope of finding entry into the elite club that jazz has become (academics having effectively fossilized it by removing it from its context), and yet with such a degree “squares” can make a living. Even geniuses are being stifled by the new rules governing membership. For jazz to remain exclusive—a kind of clique for those with good taste—it must remain stable, static, in a form those who do the excluding understand. More attention is given to the artists who are “legitimate,” who have degrees in jazz from expensive schools, who have mastered the art of imitating jazz artists of the past but have not developed their own “voice” as a musician or made a substantial contribution to the art. The musicians who are truly genius and soulful and innovative are largely ignored.

New Voices Since the ‘60s, there have been no new developments in jazz style, except the underground avant-garde, which is excluded by the majority. Also, it is difficult to see that jazz has expanded and matured since that time because it is the perfect analogy that parallels the transition for the African-American from slave to citizen (Jones ix). Without the uniting force that it once had, and without its place in mainstream society, it is hard even to know what jazz is. Yet any of the key musicians of the 1960s still performing today can tell you of the new musicians who seem to keep coming out of nowhere. Their contributions to jazz, as a living art, are just as vital as anything from the 1960s and earlier. This is in stark contrast to the documentary, Jazz, by Ken Burns. The reader should note that the film aired on PBS in 2001 with ten two-hour episodes over the course of four weeks. The series became a cultural phenomenon as sales of Jazz related merchandise topped the estimated total domestic sales of all jazz albums for the year of 1999 (Pond 11). Seventeen-and-one-half of the nineteen hours of Jazz portray the first half of the century, while 1960-2000 are collapsed to less than a single episode. According to critic Ben Ratliff, “The film’s heroes of the last forty years are Dexter Gorden . . . and of course, Wynton Marsalis”—both of the mainstream. He continues, “The ‘avantgarde’ is summed up by bits . . . [and] is almost ridiculed by the process of editing” (qtd. in Pond 38). Roswell Rudd, original 53

New Voices trombonist of the groundbreaking New York Art Quartet and active in the New York scene today, explains his disapproval with Ken Burns: “The film suggests that there was no innovation from 1960 onward. This I know to be false based on what I heard, saw, and participated in” (qtd. in Pond 39). Jazz cannot be severed from its root, the blues. Jazz is a lower class phenomenon going all the way back to its roots in the oral tradition of blues, and further to the field hollers of the slaves and early church gospel music. Perhaps a better description is that it is a folk tradition. Could you imagine studying folk traditions such as Gullah or Geechi at a university? Certainly, but would it not lose its context, its culture, its meaning? Those are traditions that cannot be carried on by the upper class and academia, and neither can jazz be treated the same way and keep its authenticity. It’s not that it cannot be taught and learned in an academic setting; it’s that it cannot survive if the academics within a system dominated by an institutional art idea (Buckley) do not appreciate the importance of context. The beginning of the end for an art form is the loss of its roots. To study jazz as a past phenomenon without studying the role it played in the lives of its creators and their communities (its function: what it did, why it was worth making, how time and place contributed to its character) makes it into a past phenomenon. We must be very careful about extracting any art 54

New Voices form from its native environment, the same way we must when we do so with animals and plants. Environmental conservation is a vital element of historical, art historical, and musical preservation. But most of all, the way to understand jazz isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t to learn it, which necessarily entails mere imitation, but to do it, which is why so many programs in art history now demand that their students take art studio as well. The problem is that too many music professors and music appreciators are basically music historians more than musicians. So their love of the traditions of the past drives them to hate change, to stagnate and decay. Most of our American culture is imported, making it very diverse and, thus, beautiful. Jazz itself was created from the alchemy of French, Native-American, Cuban, Haitian, and Slave culture. It is one of the very few things that America can claim as its own and makes our diversity that much more beautiful. We should strive to keep jazz alive and in the present. For, as poet Amiri Baraka explains, jazz reveals â&#x20AC;&#x153;something about the essential nature of the Negro's existence . . . as well as something about the essential nature of this country, i.e., society as a wholeâ&#x20AC;? (Jones x). Certainly, jazz is alive and relevant to who we are.

Works Cited Buckley, Catherine W. Personal interview. 21 Sept. 2007.

New Voices Jones, LeRoi. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. New York: William Morrow and Co, 1963. Nicholson, Stuart. “The Past Is Better. (Jazz).” Spectator 290.9089 (19 Oct. 2002): 76(1). Pond, Steven F. “Jamming the Reception: Ken Burns, Jazz, and the Problem of ‘America's Music.’” Notes 60.1 (Sept. 2003): 11(35).

New Voices “A Romantic Fight Club” by James Johnson Romanticism was an early nineteenth-century literary period that continues to be an influence to this day. Novels and short stories from the Romantic period are often set in exotic locations with extreme characters and display a great interest in Nature and the Sublime. The characteristics of Romantic literature have carried over into many contemporary works, such as Life of Pi. The novel Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, contains many of the major themes of Romantic literature, following the characteristics so closely that it should be considered a modern Romantic novel. Much of the novel Fight Club takes place in a rundown industrial section of a major city. Though urban, this is an exotic setting today because inactive industrial districts in major cities– inactive due presumably to abandonment by failed companies– are not visited by most citizens. Exotic settings are commonplace among Romantic novels. Frankenstein, a Romantic novel by Mary Shelley, takes place in several exotic locations, such as Antarctica. Wuthering Heights, a Romantic novel by Emily Brontë, takes place on a rustic estate, and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a Romantic short story by Edgar Allan Poe, takes place in a decaying American mansion. Apparent in the last two examples, many novels or stories from the Romantic period are set in or around old buildings of a forgotten era, often in a dilapidated house—possibly a metaphor for the evolution of 57

Literary/ Artistic Analysis Official Selection

New Voices society. In Fight Club, the main character is trying to eliminate modern society in order to revert to a survival-of-the-fittest way of life in a natural environment (similar to primitive cultures like ancient Native Americans or Mongolians). Tyler Durden, the main character’s alternate personality, describes the future he imagines: Imagine . . . stalking elk past department store windows and stinking racks of beautiful rotting dresses and tuxedos on hangers; you'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life, and you'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. Jack and the beanstalk, you'll climb up through the dripping forest canopy and the air will be so clean you'll see tiny figures pounding corn and laying strips of venison to dry in the empty car pool lane of an abandoned superhighway stretching eightlanes-wide and August-hot for a thousand miles. (Palahniuk 125) This sample is a reference to the Sublime. The sublime is difficult to define, but Holmqvist and Pluciennik (2002) say that “it is common in English, Polish, and Swedish to equate qualities such as pathos, nobility, dignity, and gravity with the sublime” and that “in contemporary reflection on the subject, the sublime has many dimensions, not only aesthetic but also ethical, . . . general philosophical and psychological, . . . political, . . . linguistic and 58

New Voices rhetorical, . . . and sociological.” The respect and admiration for Nature seen here is a common theme in Romantic novels, and this is only one of several references to Nature in Fight Club. Jack— the name of the main character in the Fight Club movie—and Tyler Durden lead a gang that builds a Zen garden in the front of their complex (in the film version of Fight Club they create a home for all of the gang members using an old abandoned house) and a vegetable garden in the back. This gang’s purpose in Fight Club is to destroy the business world by enlisting every low-level worker and ultimately blowing up the buildings of major credit card companies; the gang also promotes their survival-of-the-fittest doctrine by organizing underground fighting clubs. This is directly relatable to the themes of revolution and social change evident in many Romantic novels. Frankenstein, it can be argued, takes a strong stance against the reliance of mankind on science and logic from the Enlightenment period. Fight Club takes a strong stance against the reliance of mankind on corporations to provide citizens with a livelihood–food, clothing, money, etc. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the house of Usher literally falls, signifying the destruction of the old ideals concerning noblemen and the aristocracy. Fight Club ends with the literal falling of buildings owned by credit card companies, signifying the (beginning of the) destruction of a corporate-focused society. Much like Fight Club, the revolutionary themes of the Romantic period are often associated with freedom. There was a large anti59

New Voices slavery movement and women’s rights movement during the Romantic period. “Contemporary slavery practices and debates inflect even texts that appear mostly unconcerned with them,” and women went so far as to impersonate other authors, stepping far away from the socially accepted norms for women at the time (Wiley). The view of freedom in Fight Club is equally as strong and revolutionary, emphasizing that an individual’s struggle for survival is a necessity for the human psyche to flourish and is ultimately beneficial for all of human society. Often during the Romantic period, revolutionary concepts associated with religious tradition and religious doctrine were raised by writers. This revolutionary theme commonly rejected organized religion and asked whether good and evil are simple concepts, such as in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake. In this book, Blake proposes that the concept of evil can be related to all human action—as opposed to inaction— and therefore seems to conclude that evil and sin are not necessarily bad for an individual or society. Similar concepts can be seen in Faust by Johann Goethe. This exact theme is translatable to themes in Fight Club. Tyler promotes a reversion to an era of primitive humans, when ethics were not as prevalent as they are in everyday life today and may not have existed at all. Fight Club continues concerning religious philosophy to introduce other revolutionary ideas. The mechanic in the novel relates God to an abusive parent, saying, “If you’re male and you’re Christian and living in America, your father is your model 60

New Voices for God. And if you never know your father, if your father bails out or dies or is never at home, what do you believe about God?” (Palahniuk 141). The suggestion that God does not care about humans could be approached from a Deist point of view. Deists believe that a being may have began the universe at some time and in some way, but that the universe no longer interests God and that, furthermore, God may not know we exist at all. Tyler goes on to suggest that God may not even like humans. This is a new concept to humanity, at least within the last hundred years. Blake also says that “the nakedness of woman is the work of God.” Blake was proposing that women are created by God to be beautiful and that nudity and sexual desire are a part of God’s grand scheme. Fight Club promotes these concepts as well. When Tyler Durden and Jack meet for the first time, they are on a nudist beach. Tyler builds a sand statue that looks like a penis when the sun moves to a certain point in the sky. Tyler also has a sexual relationship with a girl, Marla Singer. In this relationship, any interaction between them other than sex is completely meaningless to Tyler—and arguably to his multiple-personality counterpart, Jack. Another recurring theme in Romantic literature is the presence of mental instability in secondary or even main characters, and often these mental instabilities were used to further the author’s revolutionary ideas. In the short story “Diary of a Madman” by Nikolai Gogol, the main character slowly loses

New Voices his mind. In “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” the ancient mariner shows signs of insanity, and in “The Fall of the House of Usher” a brother and sister go insane until they have destroyed their house and themselves along with it. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the brother and sister have physical and mental deformities resulting from a tradition–the breeding of noblemen with noblewomen, even when they are related–that the author, Edgar Allan Poe, depicts as a flaw in society. This is very much like the multiple-personality disorder of Jack in Fight Club. In Fight Club, Jack’s multiple-personality and insomnia seem to stem from dissatisfaction with his life and the meaningless monotony of his job. Also, when the reader discovers near the end of the novel that Tyler Durden is another personality of Jack, the continuing presence of Tyler and Jack in the same room, as well as their conversations with each other, invokes a supernatural quality to the novel. Tyler and Jack interact physically despite the fact that Tyler does not exist separate from Jack. This interaction may be read as either psychological or supernatural, and of course the presence of the supernatural was also a common trait in Romantic fiction: the ghost of Cathy in Wuthering Heights, the main character’s ghost in “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol, and Mephistopheles in Faust. Fight Club shares many qualities with novels of the Romantic period: exotic settings, an appreciation for Nature and the Sublime, societal and religious revolution, and the presence of insanity and the supernatural. There are few, 62

any,

New Voices characteristics of Romantic literature that cannot be found in Fight Club. Though written more than a century and a half after the end of the Romantic Period, Fight Club is nonetheless a modern Romantic novel.

Works Cited Holmqvist, Kenneth, and Jaroslaw Pluciennik. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Short Guide to the Theory of the Sublime.â&#x20AC;? Style 36.4 (Winter 2002): 718(23). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 5 Dec. 2008. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: Norton, 1996. Wiley, Michael. "Debbie Lee, Slavery & the Romantic Imagination and Fair Exotics: Xenophobic Subjects in English Literature, 1720-1850." Wordsworth Circle 33.4 (Fall 2002): 147(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 5 Dec. 2008. Wiley, M. (Autumn 2006). Fictions and Fakes: Forging Romantic Authenticity, 1760-1845.(Romantic Liars: Obscure Women Who Became Impostors and Challenged an Empire)(Book review). Wordsworth Circle, 37, 4. p.241(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 5 Dec. 2008.

New Voices “It’s True: Real Women Have Curves . . . Yet the Media Denies It” Social Issues Category Winner

by Veronica Fuller Allow me to be unashamedly blunt: I am a big girl. According to the BMI (that damn aggravating BMI), I am “obese” since I weigh a whopping 185 at only 5’5” tall. I wear large to extra large blouses and comfortably fit a size 16 in jeans. This used to bother me, but I have come to accept it and even like it. I wasn’t always chunky, though. Back in elementary school, I was an average-sized kid. Once I reached middle school, however, I began to get plump. I remember my immature classmate, Richard, saying, “My God! Those are the biggest arms I have ever seen!” Comments like this one shattered my selfesteem. I felt fat and unattractive; I thought losing weight would make me feel beautiful inside as well as on the outside. Why do women labor so hard to be beautiful? What is beauty anyway? As the old saying declares, isn’t beauty supposedly in the “eye of the beholder”? The media serves the public with millions of superficial images. The media praises the female celebrities who are skinny while condemning those who have a little extra on their bones. Ordinary women like me feel pressured to be loved and accepted in society. The media, in addition to my classmates, made me feel inferior due to being overweight. During my three years of hell at middle school, I admired such female pop singers as the Spice 64

New Voices Girls and Britney Spears. I had their Barbie dolls to prove my loyalty. After watching the music video “…Baby One More Time,” I envied Britney. Oh, how flat her tummy was! She had small arms as well and could even perform backflips (something I could never pull off). These pop music divas helped contribute to my feelings of inadequacy. I thought if I looked more like them, my male classmates would think I was beautiful and like me. I thought I would like myself more as well. Due to these mistruths, I started to take action back in the sixth grade that continued throughout high school and on up to my first two years of college. I fasted, not really for spiritual purpose, but for the hope of shedding a couple of pounds. I sweated to the Oldies with Richard Simmons. I even joined the swim team and cross country team in high school in the hope of losing weight, but I failed miserably at both sports. I was involved in those activities for the wrong reasons. I tried eating healthier foods, yet I was very displeased. I was miserable eating foods I did not care for, so I gave up that weight-loss method. It seemed I was not meant to be happy with my body because I could not lose any weight. Weight loss was a big deal in the media when I was a teenager and still is even today. You turn on your television and are bombarded by the message of weight loss. There are reality television shows such as The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club. The Biggest Loser on NBC shows average American

New Voices citizens trying to lose weight. I browsed through some of the before and after photos on the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s web site. Some of the participants did not even seem to be that overweight. One woman started out at 175 lbs. (less than I weigh) and now weighs 150 or so. Some of the participants said they wanted to lose weight to feel better about themselves, but who are they kidding? I am sure some of them also wanted to look good for others. The Celebrity Fit Club, which airs on VH1, follows eight overweight celebrities as they try to shed pounds. They are divided into two teams. They create target weights for themselves and are weighed each week to see if they completed those goals. The members are also weighed together as teams to see which team is collectively losing more weight. I watched this show a few times, but quickly lost interest in it. I felt bad for the celebrities (some of whom did not need to lose any weight) since they are denied the foods they loved, are picked on occasionally, and are even in tears sometimes. It seems that if they lose weight they will be able to revive their washed-up careers. Many female celebrities lost weight in order to salvage their careers or to get good publicity. One of my former favorite actresses, Alicia Silverstone, was one of them. She used to be a little chubby. I remember the media ranting about how fat she was. She had to lose weight to play Batgirl in Batman and Robin. Of course, her career went downhill after she starred in that film. Sure, she lost a lot of weight. But where is she now? True, she

New Voices provided the voice for an animated series called Braceface, did a made-for-TV movie, and even starred in Beauty Shop, but it seems her acting career took a nose-dive. Did I mention she also got married? Speaking of marriage, Reese Witherspoon divorced Ryan Philippe last November, and lost a good bit of weight following the event. She is one of my current favorite actresses. The media thinks her new look is fabulous. I beg to differ. She looks almost anorexic now. I am not sure if her failed marriage made her lose weight or if she lost the weight to feel better about herself; all I do know is that she did not need to lose any pounds. She looked wonderful the way she was. It seems she is just like all the other thin female celebrities. She is being praised not only for her talent now, but for her â&#x20AC;&#x153;sexyâ&#x20AC;? body as well. Ah, at least I can turn to those few female celebrities who are bigger than all the rest, but still feel great about themselves. Queen Latifah is a big, beautiful, delicious (yes, delicious) black woman. She is comfortable with who she is. She seems so happy with her body and wants other women to be pleased with their body images as well. She recently created a clothing line for plussized women. Besides this, she plans to return to the world of rap music. I admire her for her achievements and her self-confidence. Another role model for larger body types is Tyra Banks. Banks has taken a lot of heat from the media. After she gained thirty pounds, tabloids insulted her by calling her â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thigh-ra 67

New Voices Banks,” “America’s Next Top Waddle,” and “Tyra Porkchops.” She is 5’10” and weighs on average 161 pounds, yet she looks fantastic. She told the media she is happy with her body. She is not going to lose weight to please others. She is satisfied with her appearance, and that is all that matters. Banks made the following statement: “If I had a lower self-esteem, I would probably be starving myself right now. That’s exactly what is happening to other women all over this country.” This is indeed occurring all across our great nation. If you need proof, just turn on your television. You will find women who seem never to be happy with themselves. They are always trying to look more attractive. It seems they are never skinny enough. Many of them have eating disorders. I look at celebrities Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and I am glad I am not their size. I am not trying to sound spiteful, but they are as thin as toothpicks. They look as if they don’t eat. Someone needs to get them some steaks and potatoes. They were cute and plump as children when they starred on the TV sitcom Full House. They, to me, were more beautiful then when they were so pure and innocent. What happened? Life is what happened. They arose to stardom. The media expects so much from them. The twins want to reflect a good image. They do not want to have bad publicity, yet it seems they get it anyway. For example, Mary-Kate had an eating disorder and went to rehab to treat it. This personal matter, unfortunately,

New Voices was featured all over the news. There is a movie that shows women being comfortable with their bodies, having the confidence to be themselves, and fulfilling their dreams. This 2005 film, Beauty Shop (as mentioned earlier), is one of my favorite comedies. The movie stars the curvy Queen Latifah, playing a hairstylist who opens her own beauty salon in Atlanta and competes with her former boss, who happens to be conniving and egotistical. Latifah’s character, Gina Norris, is confident in her abilities and her appearance. There is a quote in the movie that uplifts my spirit every time I hear it. The radio diva in the movie proclaims, “I got hips, thighs, and don’t discriminate against pies!” I, too, have these things, and lately, I have begun to appreciate my anatomy. I am beautiful despite having extra pounds around my waist, in my thighs, and hanging on my behind. Beauty flows through different shapes and sizes. The media usually fails to demonstrate this important concept. It is too concerned with screaming at us, “YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT OR YOU WILL NEVER BE ATTRACTIVE!” We live in an extremely superficial society. The media is evidence of this. Many of us do not see the inner beauty of those who are physically unattractive. We are more enthralled by those that catch our eyes. Outer beauty has become too important in our spoiled American way of life. This is why so many individuals seek breast augmentation (or reduction), plastic surgery, dieting, 69

New Voices and so many other potentially harmful procedures. We have lost sight of true beauty, which is found only within the soul. Earlier this year, a group of guys called me “thick” as I walked by them. They perceived me only as a piece of meat. It hurt my feelings at the time. Now I reflect on the comment and appreciate it. Yes, I am “thick.” I look good, though. I have curves like the Queen. I would rather have these smooth, luxurious curves that glide like the waves of the sea. Both are natural and perfect the way they are. They do not conform to unrealistic expectations. They are what they are. I am what I am. I was not created to be a model. I do not even have the bone structure to be one. Therefore, it is impossible for me to have the shape of one of those Olsen twins (not that I want to). Instead, I embrace how I was created and care for my body for me alone, not in order to please someone else. I am done with worrying over how my body looks to the world (a.k.a.: men). Plus, I do not envy smaller women now. For instance, I definitely don’t envy Britney any more. She lost her flat belly along with other treasures such as her mental well-being and custody of her children. My happiness is not contingent on my body size. Now I eat whatever I feel like eating and work out to make up for it. I no longer wish to lose any pounds, just maintain my weight. I am content with being larger than the average-sized woman. The media is ridiculous. It will not admit the truth that real women

New Voices have curves. Real women are proud of their bodies no matter what size they are. Real women do not care what others think of their bodies. Tyra Banks sure doesn’t. As she said on her talk show in response to the media’s attack: “Kiss my fat ass!”

New Voices “We Shall Overcome—Executive Powers in the Wrong Hands” Social Issues Official Selection

by Tashinga Musonza I am a Zimbabwean, and I carry the flag of my people within my heart. The sorrows and burdens of my people have become urgent, and silence is a luxury we cannot invest in at this moment. I stand as a trailblazer for the freedom of my countrymen, from the youngest to the oldest Zimbabwean. I stand here today as a freedom fighter. This very freedom is not mine alone; it also a birthright for our vulnerable parents, sisters, nephews, cousins, and kinsmen who reside across the ten provinces of Zimbabwe. Those are the people who are suffering day and night while President Mugabe turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the plight of the masses. HIV/AIDS has killed thousands, but President Robert Mugabe has slaughtered tens of thousands! Either way, the numbers are staggeringly horrendous. Brothers and sisters, there is tragedy in Zimbabwe. May the whole world hear me and hear me well: there is tragedy in Zimbabwe. Our beautiful country is at war with her President. President Mugabe, I carry the hope and light to the future for my people within my heart. I love my country, and “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again” (Mugabe’s favorite line!). However, you, Mr. Mugabe, have colonized my people. I hear the young and old crying, but you, Mr. Mugabe, have not given them a chance for their voices to be heard. My people spoke at the March 29th Presidential election, but you 72

New Voices hushed them, Mr. Mugabe. Shame on you! Their scars are evident. Their wounds are dripping of blood, and they need healingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but you have denied them any healing. Mr. Mugabe, you have stood as one of the most egocentric political leaders of all time. Behold, the broken bones of my people cannot be silent anymore! The children of Zimbabwe cannot be silent anymore! The women of Zimbabwe cannot be silent anymore! The dry bones of my persecuted people who lie in the bloated graveyards of Zimbabwe testify against you. I testify against you, Mr. Mugabe, and so do the bloated cemeteries of Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe, you have broken and obliterated the entirety of Chapter III of the Declaration of Rights under our Zimbabwean constitution: Protection of the right to life (12), Protection from Inhuman treatment (15), Protection of freedom of expression (20), Protection of freedom of movement (22), Provisions to secure protection of law (18), and Protection of freedom of assembly and association (21). Mr. Mugabe, you cannot deny these facts because the opposition leader Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai bears the above scars, as do millions of my countrymen. You let the police torture and imprison your own people. That was horrific! The Supreme law of Zimbabwe, which is the Constitution of the people of the Republic of Zimbabwe, testifies strongly against you, Mr. Mugabe. If justice does not rain upon the scarred Zimbabwe soil today, tomorrow we shall overcome. My country has seen the dawn of the deadâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;my brothers and sisters roam about hopeless, aimless, and jobless 73

New Voices through the streets of our once beloved Sunshine City, Harare. Our little girls have turned to prostitution because of the present impasse for which I hold you accountable, Mr. Mugabe. Mr. Mugabe, we shall defeat you! We shall overcome you and the Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, who once vowed never to salute anyone other than you as the President of Zimbabwe. Police Commissioner Mr. Chuhuri, we will defeat you as well! How dare you make such a claim right before a decisive Presidential election? The night might be dark, but when the new dawn comes, justice and the basic fundamentals of common sense shall prevail in Zimbabwe. At this day and time, hands refuse to either sleep or slumber because there is work do; Zimbabwe must be saved! Our eyes are watching our flagâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;We shall overcomeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;A letter to the World and Zimbabwe Dear citizens of the World and Zimbabwe: We are weary and down hearted, Oh, Zimbabweans, but our eyes are fixed on our flag. The government has failed us: we were promised bread, yet we received stones. Our flag displays the color white around our Zimbabwe bird (Hungwe). White is a symbolic color for peace, yet our own government has denied us peace. Our dreams have crumbled before us. It is devastating to hear of the deaths that should not have been, if only our economy had been on its feet. The damage has been done, and the same people who did the damage stand before us and hurl insults at us. 74

New Voices In all these hardships, our eyes are watching our flag and its meaning. When Mugabe received instruction from the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Ghana, his people were huddled together in prayer, and their eyes were watching the distant future. Mugabe spent ten years in prison, and, during that time, his son got sick and died, but the colonial regime did not have enough empathy to let him attend to the corpse of his son. Mr. Mugabe could not even visit his family during those trying times â&#x20AC;&#x201D;yet the world remained silent. And now he himself is willing to treat the less powerful with similar disrespect and cruelty. Mr Mugabe was deprived of his rights by the British colonialists, whom he associates with all Western countries, and, for this reason, he thinks that when we rise up and speak against him, especially on Western soil, we have joined the bandwagon of the enemy. No, we have not. In all due respect, I pay homage to the fallen heroes of my country. I pay tribute to the dry bones of our heroes in the valleys and hills of Zimbabwe as well our proud Heroesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Acre. The color red on our flag symbolizes the blood of our fallen heroes who died fighting for our freedom, and that is our heritage. We are the distant future seen by those who came before us. I acknowledge the good done by Mugabe, but today my eyes are watching the distant future. I have seen the vision of our country. We have to act lest there is no future for our nation tomorrow. My eyes are

New Voices fixed on our flag, the flag of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Wherever I go and wherever I am, my heart carries the flag of my people. The tears and sorrows of our people have come up before our Great God, and He has given us the strength to fight. We cannot stand aside and watch while the dictator squanders the futures of our little boys and girls in Zimbabwe. Every time I look at our flag, the black stripe, which is a symbol of the native people of Zimbabwe, cries before my eyes! My view of Mr. Mugabe and his government is clear. I have written articles objecting his ill-defined policies, but at this juncture I would like to fight against the sanctions imposed on our country. The Federal register (Vol. 73, No. 146, July 29 2008) of the United States of America bears witness to the following Executive Order(s): 13288, 13391, and 13469. These sanctions were authorized in the name of promoting the security of the United States because it recognized Zimbabwe as a threat. The idea that the situation in Zimbabwe posed an extra-ordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States of America was a misconception or a blunt lie. President Mugabe and his government should not be punished anymore at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a 390,750 KmÂ˛ country divided into ten major provinces and has about 13 million inhabitants. Currently my country is facing one of the worst financial, socio-economic, political, and humanitarian crises. Under the leadership of

New Voices President Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s government has broken the Declaration of Rights under the Zimbabwe Constitution. Mr. Mugabe has always been in defiance of hardball Western diplomacy. However, the outgoing President of the United States of America deemed it necessary to impose sanctions on individuals within the Zimbabwe government and other entities under direct or indirect control of the government. The problem arises here, for parastatals, which are government-controlled companies, contribute above 50% of Zimbabwe’s GDP. The imposed sanctions, even though done in the name of redeeming my people, were not thought through, nor were the consequences on Zimbabwe’s economy deeply considered. The sanctions have succeeded in severely weakening the fundamentals of an alreadycrippled economy. According to my father, a Zimbabwe resident, “The sanctions are hurting the common person on the street.” That is quite true, and today I shall testify on behalf of my people as I have always done. Nonetheless, I shall not say much because the word “tragedy” testifies more than I can say. My country is facing a historical hyperinflation hovering above 230,000,000%, and economic sanctions are not the smartest intervention warranted for an economically depressed country. The fateful decisions made on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have culminated into one of the most dreadful impasses of all time. The Zimbabwean Dream is at stake, and as much as I need to play hardball with Mr. Mugabe, the times and sufferings of a poverty-stricken Zimbabwe 77

New Voices warrants the withdrawal of the Executive Orders 13288, 13391, and 13469. May the fundamentals of common sense override political hardball at times like this because Zimbabweans are dying.

The

poverty-stricken

people

Zimbabwe

need

humanitarian favor from Washington; the basics of Zimbabweâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy are severely weak, and the sanctions must be withdrawn. The people of Zimbabwe will not settle for anything second to that demand, and their God is watching from a distance. Not only have the sanctions weakened the economy of Zimbabwe, but they have also resulted in severe international isolation of my country. Apart from that, the sanctions have made Mr. Mugabe and his government more and more defiant because when he was imprisoned for ten years by the colonial British regime, 1964-1974, the world remained silent. The entire time President Lyndon Johnson was in officeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;until the time President Richard Nixon exited the White Houseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;President Mugabe was in prison, lonely and tormented because he had given an unfavorable speech to the oppressive colonial regime in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and yet the world remained silent. The people of Zimbabwe were denied civil and political rights by their colonial masters, and yet the world remained silent. The people of Zimbabwe were racially discriminated against in their own land, and yet the world remained silent. The sanctions are not going to work in Zimbabwe. The sense of American democracy may not necessarily work in a different culture. If Zimbabwe is to be 78

New Voices saved, may the whole world not remain silent. May the world act in favor of mankind; may Washington see the decisions made at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue through the eyes of an immigrant who, as much as the inhabitants of this land love the red, white, and blue flag, carries the flag of his people within his heart. The world cannot be silent anymore while people die and leave so many to cry. President Barack Obama, I appeal to your highest conscience and the conscience of the entire United States of America: the sanctions on Zimbabwe must be withdrawn with immediately. Even though this might not be politically correct, it is justifiable for the sake of the Zimbabwean Dream.

New Voices A selection by the 2008 Dessie Dean Pitts Award Winner

“The Philosophy of Kierkegaard in The Moviegoer” by Veronica Fuller Walker Percy was a Catholic Southern writer who wrote about the search for meaning in life through the characters of his novels and through his essays. Binx Bolling, the protagonist in Percy’s first novel, The Moviegoer, seeks meaning in his life. After fighting in the Korean War, he has fallen into a pattern of sleeping with attractive women and watching movies at the theater. When asked what he wants to do with his life, he replies that he does not know. The Moviegoer has references to Kierkegaard’s philosophy in that human beings search for meaning in their lives and go through cycles of rotation until they finally commit to one thing and find some type of direction and purpose. Percy uses the philosophy of Kierkegaard in his novel since he demonstrates the concepts of rotation and repetition, despair, the search for meaning, and the act of committing to a purpose, which leads to finding direction in one’s life. Percy was born on May 28, 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama. Both of Percy’s parents died when he was young. His father committed suicide in 1929, and his mother died in a car accident two years later (Hardy). Despite this tragedy in his life, Percy graduated from the University of North Carolina, and in 1941 he became a Doctor of Medicine at Columbia University. Percy did not practice medicine for long, though, because he contracted tuberculosis while serving a residency at a New York hospital in 1942 (Hardy). Due to this, Percy began reading and 80

New Voices studying existentialist authors, including Kierkegaard (Coles). These existentialist texts challenged him to accept his feelings of alienation as a part of being human. When Percy started to read Kierkegaard, he said the following: “I lived a strange life then. For weeks I saw no one, except the person who brought me food, on a tray, three times a day, and occasionally a doctor. I read and read. Sometimes I listened to the radio—programs from Montreal. Then back to reading” (Coles 66). Percy became absorbed in the philosopher’s writing because Percy related to his works. Percy began to question everything in his life. He was a physician who had learned a lot about man, but he did not know what man is. Percy was on his death bed and felt alone in the world, while there was a war going on. All of these factors led him to search for meaning in his own life. The quest he had undertaken is quite evident in his essays and novels, especially in The Moviegoer. Percy began his writing career with philosophical essays that ponder the make-up of the universe and the meaning of life. These essays are now compiled in two volumes, The Message in the Bottle and Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. Percy felt that readers were not responding to his essays, so he decided to write novels instead to influence them. After The Moviegoer, Percy wrote The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, Lancelot, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome. The protagonists of Percy’s novels are anti-heroes who are alienated and try to find their place in the world, usually seeking God. His 81

New Voices novel Lancelot, though, takes the opposing view of the search in that the anti-hero, Lancelot, is actually on a quest for evil. The Moviegoer, however, is Percy’s most original novel since all of the ones that followed seemed to imitate Binx’s story. The Moviegoer was published in the spring of 1961. At first, the book was mostly ignored and received only brief reviews. The novel was surprisingly awarded the 1962 National Book Award for Fiction for its truthfulness about the American way-of-life (Coles). In the book, Percy shows Binx Bolling, the anti-hero, trying to find meaning in his life. The twenty-nineyear-old, who is about to turn thirty, goes through the three stages of existentialism as described by Kierkegaard: the aesthetic stage of repetition and rotation, the ethical stage of committing to something good in life, and the religious stage of spiritual realization. Binx lives in Gentilly, a suburb of New Orleans, with Mrs. Schexnaydre, the landlady. Elysian Fields is a long street that leads to Gentilly and the University of New Orleans. Elysian Fields in mythology is the paradise of the underworld that one enters after death. The boulevard is supposed to be symbolic of paradise in New Orleans, but he says, “now it runs an undistinguished course from river to lake through shopping centers and blocks of duplexes and bungalows and raised cottages” (9). Elysian Fields, therefore, actually represents all of the people who are spiritually dead. Binx says, “For some time now the impression has been growing upon me that everyone is 82

New Voices dead” (99). He sees that people are in spiritual despair because they are too busy with their lives of commercialism. They rush around, seeking to get ahead; they do not stop to wonder and question the real meaning of life. During his period in Gentilly, Binx has lived a solitary life of wonder. He does not go a day without wonder. His life in Gentilly has prepared him for the search he will soon undertake: “The four years Binx has spent in Gentilly have been a period of ‘passive purgation,’ an emptying and preparation for his conversion” (Newkirk 194). Percy shows that Binx, at one time, had big aspirations in his life, but now he has settled into his ordinary life in Gentilly. Binx says that: I am a stock and bond broker. It is true that my family was somewhat disappointed in my choice of a profession. Once I thought of going into law or medicine or even pure science. I even dreamed of doing something great. But there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable, a life without the old longings. (9) Percy illustrates the concept of rotation in the novel through the various activities that Binx engages in during his search. Binx explains what a good rotation is in The Moviegoer: “A rotation I define as the experiencing of the new beyond the expectation of the experiencing of the new” (144). Binx says that he has no friends, but that he spends all of his time “working, making money, going to movies and seeking the company of 83

New Voices women” (Percy 41). Binx is bored with his life and seeks something to take him out of that boredom. He seeks something more than just the “everydayness” of life. He watches movies because he senses the filmmakers are on to the search in life. Binx says that “I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie” (7). Binx sees himself portrayed in the movies, and the movies also help him to forget about the real world. The movies, however, “screw it up” since the search always ends in despair with the film’s hero settling into everydayness similar to a spiritual death (13). Besides the movies, Binx tries to satisfy himself by having love affairs with the secretaries he works with. He says that “I have had three secretaries, girls named Marcia, Linda, and now Sharon” (7-8). Percy shows that Binx is so thoroughly bored with his life that he seeks sexual pleasure, entertainment through movies, and the obtainment of money to take his mind off his inner despair, the “malaise” that he continually mentions throughout the novel. Percy writes of the bored self in Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book when he asks, “Why is it no other species but man gets bored? Under the circumstances in which a man gets bored, a dog goes to sleep” (71). According to Kierkegaard, Binx is in the aesthetic stage of his life since he is restless and unsatisfied. Kierkegaard says in Either/Or Part One that “All who are bored cry out for change” (291). During this time, an individual is interested only in the things of the flesh, but he 84

New Voices wishes for much more than that. This is why Binx is consumed with sleeping around and watching so many movies. He is trying to escape from the expectations that society has placed on him. His aunt, for example, expects him to be a southern gentleman. He cries out for change, wanting to discover who he really is. Although he seeks something more, Binx is stuck in a pattern of rotation. Besides rotation, the aesthetic stage of life is also comprised of repetition. Percy directly mentions the concept of repetition in The Moviegoer when Binx says, “What is a repetition? A repetition is the re-enactment of past experience toward the end of isolating the time segment which has lapsed in order that it, the lapsed time, can be savored of itself and without the usual adulteration of events that clog time like peanuts in brittle” (80). Binx must examine his past in order to find some type of purpose in his life. This means he must examine what happened in the war and come to terms with his father’s and brother’s deaths. In his essay “Walker Percy: The Moviegoer,” Jacob Sloan writes that The Moviegoer is definitely a novel of ideas, and the ideas are existentialist; existentialist terms are sprinkled throughout the novel” (147). More specifically, Percy makes connections to Kierkegaard throughout the entire novel. In the epigraph of The Moviegoer, Percy placed a quote by Kierkegaard that sums up the work as a whole: “. . . the specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair.” 85

New Voices Kierkegaard means that human beings are in despair when they are not alive spiritually. They are already dead. Binx is unaware that he is in despair until he begins his search for meaning in life. He begins to stop being overwhelmed by the everydayness of life and just observe his surroundings. Binx first started his search for the meaning of life in 1951 when he was a soldier in Korea. As he lay injured on the ground, he did not think of the situation he was in, but focused on a dung beetle just six inches away. Watching the beetle, he realized he was onto a search in life (Sloan). Percy shows in the novel that Binx is doing well to know that he is in despair. At least he is trying to do something to remedy the problem. Binx observes that all of the people around him are in despair, but they are unaware of it and are not doing anything about it. In this way, it is an advantage to be in despair. In his essay, “That Despair Is the Sickness Unto Death,” Kierkegaard says that despair is a sickness, but “[t]he possibility of this sickness is man’s advantage over the beast; to be sharply observant of this sickness constitutes the Christian’s advantage over the natural man; to be healed of this sickness is the Christian’s bliss” (339). Binx is not a Christian, but a seeker. He wishes to be healed of his despair, but not necessarily through a relationship with Jesus Christ: “A despairing man wants despairingly to be himself. But if he despairingly wants to be himself, he will not want to get rid of himself” (Kierkegaard 345). 86

New Voices Binx wants to find himself; therefore, he does not want to end his life or be someone he is not meant to be. However, life seems very purposeless to Binx. In Either/Or Part One, Kierkegaard explains “[h]ow empty and meaningless life is” (29). Binx wonders why he is even alive. What is man supposed to do with his time on earth? Kierkegaard goes further with the meaning of life in Either/Or Part One: What, if anything, is the meaning of this life? If people are divided into two great classes, it may be said that one class works for a living and the other does not have that need. But to work for a living certainly cannot be the meaning of life, since it is indeed a contradiction that the continual production of the conditions is supposed to be the answer to the question of the meaning of that which is conditional upon their production. The lives of the rest of them generally have no meaning except to consume the conditions. To say that the meaning of life is to die seems to be a contradiction also. (31) Binx says in The Moviegoer, “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. . . . To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair” (Percy 13). According to Binx, he is onto something. By his own definition, he is a seeker while most Americans have already found and defined their religious beliefs. He says that “For, as everyone knows, the polls report that 98% of Americans 87

New Voices believe in God and the remaining 2% are atheists and agnostics– which leaves not a single percentage point for a seeker” (14). He is not ready to commit to a religion. He never even reveals that he is seeking God. He is on his own unique quest in life. Percy shows in the novel that he, too, was on to a search during the time he wrote the novel. Like Binx, Percy himself read to find some understanding of his own life. In The Moviegoer, Percy speaks through Binx when he says: During those years I stood outside the universe and sought to understand it. I lived in my room as an Anyone living Anywhere and read fundamental books and only for diversion took walks around the neighborhood and saw an occasional movie. . . . Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion. (69-70) In Either/Or Part Two, Kierkegaard describes the ethical view of life: “[it] places the meaning of life in living for the performance of one’s duties . . . the truly ethical person has an inner serenity and sense of security, for he does not have duty outside himself but within himself” (254). The universal, therefore, lies within the soul of the ethical man. Percy shows that Binx finally enters this ethical stage of his life when he commits to Kate and returns to medical school. He has finally realized that he cannot live a selfish life of just sensuous, escapist activities. To find some type of direction, he must make some type of commitment. The major commitment he makes is to Kate since he marries her. Going back to medical school is something 88

New Voices good for him to do with his life. He is finally making a contribution to his society. Terrye Newkirk says in his essay, “Via Negativa and the Little Way: The Hidden God of The Moviegoer” that “Binx’s momentary ‘loss’ of himself in Kate empowers him to undertake the life of self-sacrifice and service implied by his decisions to marry Kate and enter medical school” (193). Finally, Binx enters the third existentialist stage, the religious stage, when he discovers who he is spiritually. After he is lectured by his aunt, he realizes that he is just a common man. He cannot be a Southern gentleman as his aunt wants him to be. He is just meant to be an ordinary fellow, and that is fine with him. In addition to this, he knows he is still in despair, but at least he is aware of it. His aunt, however, is still in despair. Despite his aunt’s despair, he and Kate recognize the despair in their lives and try to live purposefully despite the “malaise.” Neither one of them has found the meaning of life; they have just committed to something in life: “[Binx and Kate] have become reconciled to, have acknowledged, their lost situation and will face it directly together” (Sloan 157). Binx has completely undergone a transformation in his life from the aesthetic stage to the religious stage. In his essay, “Basking in the Eye of the Storm: The Esthetics of Loss in Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer,” Richard Pindell makes the following observation: Brought alive by his search, and learning along the way in

New Voices trust and patience to practice the arts of openness and to promote kindness, [Binx] becomes by the book’s end a man like Kierkegaard’s knight of faith who is steadfastly involved in the need to radiate the truth of his relationship with the world and his connection with being. But, on the other hand, Binx, to an extraordinary degree, “has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily.” Clearly, as Percy tells us, Binx “enjoys his alienation.” (219) Percy never reveals to the reader that Binx finds God in his life. Rather, he finds himself. The author may have wanted readers to imply that Binx found God, as Percy had in his own life, but the reader is left to make his own interpretation. In The Moviegoer Binx says that “My unbelief was invincible from the beginning. I could never make head or tail of God. . . . If God himself had appeared to me, it would have changed nothing. In fact, I have only to hear the word God and a curtain comes down in my head” (Percy 145). Throughout the novel, Binx does not try to prove God’s existence, but he knows it is impossible to rule God out. Percy shows that each person should not try to live up to other’s expectations of him and that each individual should choose his own path in life. In The Moviegoer, Binx says that “I had discovered that a person does not have to be this or be that or be anything, not even oneself. One is free” (Percy 114). Binx

New Voices stops trying to please society with all its expectations of him. He has realized who he is spiritually and can now follow a meaningful direction in his life. Walker Percy wrote this book to show his love for the Christian existentialist philosophy of Kierkegaard by telling a story showing the three stages of existentialism—rotation and repetition, despair, the search for meaning—and the commitment to a purpose in life. After his search, Percy made a commitment in his life that led him to have a strong faith in the Catholic religion.

Works Cited Coles, Robert. Walker Percy: An American Search. Boston: Little Brown, 1978. Hardy, John E. The Fiction of Walker Percy. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Kierkegaard, Soren. Either / Or: Part One. Trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987. ---. Either / Or: Part Two. Trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987. ---. “That Despair Is the Sickness Unto Death.” The Existential Mind: Documents and Fictions. Ed. Frederick R. Karl and Leo Hamalian. 1st ed.Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett, 1974. 337-46.

New Voices Lawson, Lewis A. “The Dream Screen in The Moviegoer.” Papers on Language and Literature 30.1 (Winter 1994): 25. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lander University, Greenwood, SC, Jackson Lib. 20 Nov. 2007. Newkirk, Terrye. “Via Negativa and the Little Way: the Hidden God of The Moviegoer.” Renascence 44.3 (Spring 1992): 183-202. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lander University, Greenwood, SC, Jackson Lib. 20 Nov. 2007. Percy, Walker. Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983. ---. The Moviegoer. New York: Vintage, 1960. Pindell, Richard. “Basking in the Eye of the Storm: The Esthetics of Loss in Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer.” boundary 2 4.1 (Fall 1975): 219-230. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lander University, Greenwood, SC, Jackson Lib. 20 Nov. 2007. Sloan, Jacob. “Walker Percy: The Moviegoer.” Existentialism in American Literature. Ed. Ruby Chatterji. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1983. 147-57.

New Voices “See John Stereotype Jane: Gender Roles in the Classroom” by James Johnson Because of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, it is illegal to discriminate based on gender in a classroom in the United States. Title IX has been just one step on the staircase in the attempt to reach complete equality of all races, sexes, and religions. Though many steps have been taken thus far, the education system is not yet to the second floor, where no student is seen as different from another: “Although gender stereotyped representations of men and women have improved over time, instances of bias in the way men and women are portrayed still exist” (Yanowitz and Weathers). Here, Yanowitz and Weathers are talking about college-level psychology textbooks in which gender stereotyping should already be removed. It is important that we eliminate gender roles in the classroom on every level, but it is especially crucial in early childhood because research has shown that an individual learns how to view the differences between genders at a very young age. History demonstrates that how a culture views gender will play a major role in its success, and to improve our view of gender roles, research must be explored concerning how best to teach what is appropriate and exactly what is appropriate in the classroom. A study by Maria Cole finds that, at the end of the nineteenth century, a power gap between men and women remained as a reinforced institution through the desire of men to 93

A selection by the 2009 Dessie Dean Pitts Award Winner

New Voices maintain power and the acceptance by women of a culture based on gender roles. During this time period, the middle-class could not afford care-takers (servants who cooked, cleaned, and raised children). A woman’s role as housewife became “more indispensable” (Cole). Out of this necessity, American culture became further defined by gender roles. Cole describes the mindset of housewives and their husbands during this time: It is assumed that the values [that housekeeping] represents are either internalized by women or, at the least, that women are familiar with these values . . . “A domestic ideology glorified the separation between the home and the world and extolled female qualities of nurturing, moral superiority,

maternity

and

subordination

.the

performance of domestic duties was elevated to a science by health reformers at the end of the nineteenth century.” The majority of men believed that a woman’s role as housewife was “incompatible with a professional career.” The amount of women participating in the work force was represented by only a small number of married women (Cole). Cole’s study describes how these gender roles were reinforced by placing political power in the hands of a select group. At one time, the economics of the United States allowed for the majority of middle-class males to provide their family with a “certain level of material comfort” along with necessities (Cole). To families of this period, it would have seemed 94

New Voices unnecessary for women to join the workforce. In addition to this fact, the political power in the United States was divided among men of all classes, the majority constituting the middle-class. This political connection between all males resulted in what Cole refers to as “male solidarity.” Males, in order to maintain their roles as the dominant force in politics, society, and work, easily used their political control over higher education to “channel women into a few fields of study and occupations” (Cole). Even businesses—run by men with male employees—opted not to hire female employees, despite the fact that female employees would work for significantly less pay. When men realized that their children were being given books by female librarians on a regular basis, local governments—controlled by men—recommended that a male figurehead be hired to oversee the libraries so that students would see an “authoritative [male] role model” and so that women were not “achieving too much public power” (Stauffer). Another significant example of this control occurred with “the professionalization of medicine... [and] the legal profession” (Cole). Regulations set by the male-dominated government restricted women from having access to schooling for these jobs. Unfortunately for the men, the choice to restrict women’s access to new jobs meant that other jobs must be made available to women. Men who may have become teachers at universities were instead becoming doctors and lawyers. A shortage of professors resulted in lax regulations that allowed more women to enter the 95

New Voices collegiate teaching profession. Though a breakthrough at the time, college educated women still had no choice but to become teachers, nurses, social workers, librarians, or secretaries (Cole). It has been almost a century since women were viewed simply as housewives and had to fight for the unequivocal right to vote on a national level. Through incorrect beliefs that the sexes have different strengths and weaknesses, an entire culture was molded in accordance with male dominance and female subordination.

This

flaw

constructive

separation

—“constructive” here meaning for the purpose of benefiting all parties—is enough to validate an in-depth examination of how genders differ and how best to teach different genders in the classroom (where individuals learn how to view gender). Frawley writes that “children develop their own ideas about gender at an early age.” First, it is important to note that gender differences do exist. Using brain scans—from positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—research has shown differences in the ways that males and females memorize, process, and learn information (Frawley). The question becomes whether these are genetic differences that cannot be overcome or the result of social interactions throughout the test subjects’ lifetime. According to Frawley, genetics does play some role, and certain stereotypes seem to hold true for a majority of a specific sex. For example, boys generally outperform girls in math and

New Voices science classes, but despite the differences, Frawley believes that, in the classroom setting, different genders should not be allowed to view themselves as different. Reading and writing skills develop faster in girls than boys, so a curriculum tailored to meet the needs of one sex causes a detriment to the other: “The aim should be to not only stop labeling children as such, but also accept and encourage androgynous behavior” (Frawley). This means that a classroom should not be tailored to gender needs, but to the needs of specific students. The perceptions that children gain concerning gender in schools comes from what Frawley, Marshall, and Reinhartz call the

“hidden

curriculum.”

Frawley

describes

the

hidden

curriculum as “the subtle lessons that children encounter every day

through

teachers’

behaviors,

feedback,

classroom

segregation, and instructional materials.” When a boy is not “outspoken, competitive, and autonomous,” his classmates will tease him. Boys often feel that they may not express their emotions. Research shows that boys are “more often labeled as socially disturbed, retained at grade level in elementary school, and identified for social services than girls,” while a teacher may depict girls as easier to manage because they respond in a calm, easy tone (Frawley). Furthermore, Marshall and Reinhartz state, Children as early as preschool segregate themselves by gender and that a child’s determination of appropriate role identity occurs through imitation of adults, praise and

New Voices encouragement of adults for perceived feminine or masculine behavior, and experimentation with roles with peers. So, in order to form a classroom that effectively teaches both sexes, teachers must eliminate their preconceived notions about gender differences. Through self-examination, teachers can move towards completely eliminating stereotypes (Frawley; Marshall and Reinhartz). Keeping a journal can help a teacher analyze him/ herself. Marshall and Reinhartz also suggest that teachers ask their colleagues to observe the classroom and to discuss potential changes concerning how the teacher interacts (teaches, speaks, and forms groups) with students. A common mistake is the support of male dominance by unconsciously focusing on the male students during instruction. Another example of class improvement is based on research showing that boys perform better when they are competing, while girls perform better when they work collaboratively (Frawley; Marshall and Reinhartz). Teachers should offer both types of group lessons, but a teacher should not force competition or promote gender roles in groups. Instead, a teacher should allow students to take what roles benefit them the most—based on the teacher’s prior experience with each student (Frawley). Teachers must know their students; based on each individual student, it is important that “a teacher’s instructional style matches a student’s learning style” (Marshall and Reinhartz).

New Voices Also, teachers should “encourage androgynous behavior” because it supports the concept that no person is defined by specific roles (Frawley). Most students have a home life that is as gender-based as the outside world. By supporting androgynous behavior, a teacher is showing all students that reaching outside their normal spectrum of skills will result in praise. If a girl becomes the leader of a group, which is against what research shows is stereotypical, then a teacher should support this decision. This is also beneficial to the student, who may gain selfconfidence and leadership abilities that would be difficult for a girl to obtain in a normal classroom (Frawley). Girls also get less effective feedback from teachers than boys, “receive fewer academic contacts, [and] are asked lower level questions” (Marshall and Reinhartz). According to the most recent AAUW report, “When girls have opportunities to take leadership roles, gender bias in the classroom and in society is reduced” (Marshall and Reinhartz). On the recent controversy concerning segregating classes into male and female sexes, Frawley states, “teachers should avoid separating boys and girls by desk grouping or by pitting the boys against the girls when forming teams. . . . Such practice sends the message that there is a difference between the groups.” Frawley also notes the importance of using textbooks and other materials that do not contain gender roles. Analyses have shown that “textbooks, basal readers, [award-winning] children’s literature, . . . and computer software” contain gender stereotypes: 99

New Voices “behaviors, emotions, and occupations” (Frawley). Everything from stories to music—and even pictures—creates the concept of gender within a child’s mind. Therefore, it is beneficial for the education of children to eliminate gender roles from the classroom because students gain a broader array of abilities—communication in boys and leadership in girls, for example—that will benefit them when they gain their independence. Frawley, Marshall, and Reinhartz all agree that great improvements have been made towards eliminating gender roles from the classroom; however, they also agree that, until gender roles have been eliminated completely, the classroom environment is still not perfect. As history shows, for the collective culture of our country—and the world—every individual should be given the opportunity to achieve goals, goals that he or she chooses.

Works Cited Cole, Maria. "Sex Segregation in American and Polish Higher Education." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 40.3 (August 1999): 351. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 27 Oct. 2008. Frawley, Timothy. "Gender Bias in the Classroom: Current Controversies and Implications for Teachers." Childhood Education 81.4 (Summer 2005): 221(7). Expanded 100

New Voices Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 27 Oct. 2008. Marshall, Carol Sue, and Judy Reinhartz. "Gender Issues in the Classroom." The Clearing House 70.n6 (July-August 1997): 333(5). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 27 Oct. 2008. Stauffer, Suzanne M. "Developing Children's Interest in Reading." Library Trends 56.2 (Fall 2007): 402(21). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 27 Oct. 2008. Yanowitz, Karen L., and Kevin J. Weathers. "Do Boys and Girls Act Differently in the Classroom? A Content Analysis of Student Characters in Educational Psychology Textbooks (1)." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 51.1-2 (July 2004): 101(7). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Lander University Library. 27 Oct. 2008.

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New Voices 2009 Who We Are . . . Student Editors:

Paula Birch is a sophomore English major (Professional Writing Emphasis) with a love of non-fiction. She plans to study in Winchester England next semester.

Lindsey Copeland is a sophomore English major who dreams of one day becoming a literary scholar.

Wendy Polk is a junior English major from Hampton, South Carolina. She plans to attend law school after her graduation in May 2010. Student Authors:

Daniel Camak is a graduating senior Mass Communications and Theatre major, with a minor in English (Creative Writing), from Ware Shoals, South Carolina. Because of his interests in photography and film, he would like to go to graduate school to pursue an MFA in filmmaking, film theory, or screenwriting.

Matt Falter is a senior, studying percussion performance in the music program. He plans to pursue graduate and/or doctoral studies

ethnomusicology

and

hopes

that,

ethnomusicologist, he can document the free jazz scene in New York City. Matt's ultimate goal is to contribute to the art of free jazz as a drummer and percussionist. 102

New Voices

Veronica Fuller is a senior English major from Greenwood, South Carolina, who will be graduating in May 2009. She recently studied abroad at the University of Winchester.

James Johnson is a graduating senior with both an English major and Philosophy minor. After law school, James plans on being made into a superhero with nanotechnologies and cyborg implants if the technology is available; otherwise, he'll settle for exposure to high levels of radiation.

Tashinga Musonza was born and raised in Zimbabwe (Africa) and came to the USA in June 2006. Currently, Tashinga is pursuing a pre-med nursing and biology degree. He hopes that, one day, the dream of democracy, quality health care, and respect for human rights will be a reality in Zimbabwe.

Cynthia "Kaycie" Patterson is an English secondary education major. She plans to teach high school English as she continues to further her education in hopes to become an English professor. She has loving parents, two older brothers, two older sisters and a twin sister. The relationship she has with her family is something she holds very dear to her heart.

Ashley Rhodes is a freshman nursing major from Laurens, South Carolina, with an interest in communication and creative writing.

Jesse Timmons is a rising junior majoring in English secondary education. He is also a married father of two little girls.

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New Voices is a publication of the College of Arts and Humanities Lander University 320 Stanley Avenue Greenwood, SC 29649