Global Issue ~Frankenstein & Feminism~

The Fear of Femaleness: How Frankenstein Acts as a Feminist Platform

At first glance, Frankenstein does not seem ‘feminist’ in any way as the female characters in the story seem to be very passive, with roles that are more are insignificant in the larger scheme of the story.

The article above brings a new perspective to this idea and shows how Frankenstein may in fact be a feminist literature after all. Rather than the story outright being feminist in the sense that it has strong female leads. This novel is a little more subtle in showing that. For example, Victor treated Elizabeth like a trophy and when it came to making a female companion for the monster, Victor only got frightened when it occurred to him that the female monster could be powerful, and not docile like Elizabeth.

From the article: “All in all, by deliberately including subordinate female characters and highlighting their inferiority to men, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein brings to light this patriarchal desire and the effects this need for power has, shaping the novel into the feminist text that it is.”

I am not entirely sure if I would consider the novel a ‘feminist’ text, however, I do the see what effect it created. I think showing subordinate female characters brings up a great global issue in the novel relating to gender inequality.

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GENDER INEQUALITY

Global Issue: The dehumanization or expectation of females to be less ambitious and have docile interests.

Literary Examples:

page 37: “…all praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own.”

page 38: “…I was capable of a more intense application, and was more deeply. smitten with the thirst of knowledge… she found ample scope for admiration and delight.”

Non-literary Example:

Liza Donnelly Cartoons (BOW)

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

Global Issue: The unintentional negative consequences of advancement in science.

Literary Examples:

Victor falling ill after he created the monster (volume 1, chapter 5)

Non-literary Example:

George Monbiot Essays (BOW)

The Architects of Hell

Talks about scientists being unaware of the consequences of their work. It mentions how the discovery of Mars potentially becoming habitable and space tourism as a discovery will allow the rich to leave the Earth in the horrible state they have create.

Global Issues in ‘Parasite’; for Assessments

1) Wealth inequality (politics, power and justice):

The ignorance of rich people when it comes to life struggles like having enough money to eat.

2)  Wealth inequality (science, technology and environment):

The ignorance of rich people when it comes to the environment and the vulnerability of different classes to climate change.

3) Cultural Appropriation (culture, identity and communities):

Cultures are often misinterpreted and appropriated, especially marginalized or smaller cultures that have been treated badly or looked down on with pity.

4) Glamourizing the United States (culture, identity and communities):

The US is put on a pedestal from the outside world and perspective.

5) Education inequality (beliefs, values and education):

Wealth and social class play a role in the amount of education an individual can get despite their intelligence and talent. This leads to a cycle of poverty.

These are 5 issues I definitely could consider using for my Individual Oral if I can find them in literary texts.

Global Issue in WNNN and ‘Embarrassment of Riches’ Reflection

 Global Issues Document (w/ questions & annotations)

 

What did you find easy about this task? What did you do well?

I found it quite easy to find extracts from both texts that were in relation to my global issue. I think I did well with the overall larger ideas. I was able to formulate my thoughts and support my ideas through both the texts.

 

What did you find challenging about this task? 

The most challenging part for me in this task was to dig deeper, I know I answered the questions asked but I don’t think I went into as much depth as I should be aiming for. This is something I need to work on overall in this class, my analysing skills aren’t bad but I think they could use some improvement in terms “how” or “why” a text might have a certain feature. 

 

What do you need to practice more in order to overcome this challenge(s)?

To overcome this challenge, I need to focus on looking at the smaller details and really unpack every idea I think of. I honestly don’t know what practical steps I can take to reach this point but I think reading more texts and trying to really focus in on the “how” or the impact a text may have might help.

What are some new perspectives you gained after your close study of the extracts?

After studying Monbiot’s “Embarrassment of Riches”, I was quite intrigued to read about the psychological impacts of being rich and how that takes away people’s empathy. I am not a very money-driven person to begin with but reading that essay opened my eyes and actually see that having a lot of money and being wealthy means people can afford things doesn’t mean its the best for rich people either because it takes away their emotional connection with other people. We all always think about how the rich being rich affects the poor, but the essay shows how wealth is bad not only for the poor and the environment but also bad for the rich themselves. 

In what ways is the kind of knowledge we gain from the study of language and literature different from the kind we gain through the study of other disciplines?

I believe the subject of language and literature is one that is very subjective. Unlike sciences and mathematics, there isn’t one right answer and a specific or ‘correct’ way of doing things. The knowledge we gain in language and literature is more about context and communication. Using context, we can study the effect or impact of a piece of writing. But its also a subject where a person\’s identity influences what impact it has which one against shows that its a subjective subject. It is about how we communicate using words and how that has changed over time.

 

Connections to TOK:

In TOK, we focus a lot of what we know and how we know what we know. With language and literature, a lot of it has to do with our identities, what we take away from a subject like this (not taking into consideration the technical things like grammar) depends a lot of who we were, our values and cultures and etc. So how we know what we know is a difficult question to answer because it will differ depending on who is asked. In TOK, we have also looked at bias and perspective and I think that while studying language and literature, it is so important to distinguish our perspective from the author and characters\’ perspectives. One’s experiences and backgrounds can really impact how they understand a text and it might differ from the author\’s initial intent. This is quite similar to TOK in the sense that TOK follows the same idea but focusing on what knowledge is and how it is gained rather than actually focusing on specific content. Perspective is a common concept discussed in both L&L and TOK.   

 

 

Connections to CAS:

 

The main connection I can see between Monbiot\’s essays and CAS is the idea of advocacy. Monbiot\’s is an environmental and political activist so naturally, advocacy is something quite common in his writing. His opinions and ideas show that there is change that is necessary in different areas and many times he even goes on to give a \’solution\’ to the issue he mentions.

Global Issue in "We Need New Names" & "Embarrassment of Riches"

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo is a novel that follows the journey of a young Zimbabwean girl, Darling, through her childhood in Zimbabwe and America after she emigrates there to live with her aunt in hopes of a better life and captures her experiences and struggles.

“Embarrassment of Riches” by George Monbiot is an essay that talks about  how the people who become rich are only because of the poor and how a lot of the environmental issues present in our current world is because of the actions of the rich. Monbiot raises some negative traits about people who are rich and mentions his thought on the idea that money brings happiness.

Field of Inquiry: Politics, Power & Justice

Broad Global Issue: Wealth gap

From “Embarrassment of Riches”:

“…Even when they mean well, the ultrarich cannot help trashing the living world.

The disastrous effects of spending power are compounded by the psychological impacts of being wealthy. Plenty of studies show that the richer you are, the less you are able to connect with other people. Wealth suppresses empathy. One paper reveals that drivers in expensive cars are less likely to stop for people using pedestrian crossings than drivers in cheap cars. Another revealed that rich people were less able than poorer people to feel compassion towards children with cancer. Though they are disproportionately responsible for our environmental crises, the rich will be hurt least and last by planetary disaster, while the poor are hurt first and worst. The richer people are, the research suggests, the less such knowledge is likely to trouble them.

Another issue is that wealth limits the perspectives of even the best-intentioned people.”

From “We Need New Names”:

Pg 265 and Pg 268-269

 

In WNNN, the pages mentioned above contain the interaction and conversations between Kate, Darling and Eliot. In these pages, Darling\’s poverty even after moving to America is seen and it also shows the contrast of her life and Eliot and Kate’s life. We see what seems to be Eliot’s wealth and how it seems to talk away his ability to feel for Darling (like Monbiot mentions the richer you are, the less you\’re able to connect with people) as he misses his drink cap and leaves it where it is for Darling to pick up. He also wants to go hunt in Africa and wants to learn Darling’s language (which shows Monbiot\’s point of the rich can\’t help but thrash the world for their own good). Darling also mentions how Eliot has been all over Africa but has only ever seen the animals and parks which also supports Monbiot’s ideas being presented about rich people not being able to connect with others. In addition to that, although Darling invalidates Kate\’s struggles thinking her struggles have been significantly worse, the readers also see that Kate doesn’t really sympathize with Darling either.

Refined Global Issue: the unnoticed impact of wealth gap on the rich and the poor

Discussion on Monbiot’s Essays: Economic Justice & Climate Breakdown

in notebook

Global Issues

Global issues are issues that are common and relevant on the worldwide scale. They are more general issues however they are relevant on the smaller scale too as they impact and are felt by different people around the world regardless of cultural backgrounds and other distinguishing factors. Global issues play a big part in our course because it is the main basis of our individual oral. Our individual oral asks for us to pick two texts that we have studied and then we will talk about how they relate to a global issue. Although I am not 100% certain, I would say some \’positive\’ or non-threatening examples of global issues would be finding clean and affordable energy to use and being able to have sustainable cities and communities.  Although these may not necessarily seem positive because they are things we are trying to achieve, I would say these are positive because they are goals that we are trying to reach that ensure a better, more sustainable world for the future generations as well as the environment. Another positive global issue is access to technology and the internet. This helps everyone all over the world communicate and stay in touch, especially now in the midst of a pandemic.

Questions: 

• What are examples of positive global issues?
• Can we use a ‘positive’ global issues for our assessment?