Othello

The way in which a stage appears to the audience is critical to the performance. It's also necessary that the way a scene looks in a movie portrays the feelings and thoughts you want, to the audience. In the movie "Othello", we saw that the director wanted the lighting to be dim, very soft music if any, and a black, white, and red color palate. This helped set the mood for the dramatic scene in which four of the characters were going to die. When the light was focused on the faces, it drew attention to the character's feelings in a powerful way because the rest of the scene was dark. Because of lighting effects, we can see how upset Othello is right before he is about to kill Desdemona. We see him crying and the lighting really shines on his tears making him really seem like he is torn between killing her or letting her live. The soft music made the dialog more intense and the black and white allowed no visual distractions to take away from the scene. The only color was red, which signified the blood and that made the appearance of blood more intense. Having all of the characters die on the bed added more meaning to the scene. The three characters who have been decieved lie next to each other on the bed, while Iago lies at the foot of the bed. It signifies that this whole ordeal began because of Iago, and therefore, he doesn't get to lie next to his "friends". Overall, the direction was very good at creating a sense of drama and drawing attention to what deserved it.

Displacement

The formal definition of displace is "to move or put out of the usual or proper place." Unless you commute to school from home, we've all been displaced to South Bend for school. We've chosen to displace ourselves, but that doesn't always make living here any easier. Personally, I like going to school here, but I feel out of place at times. At home, our very coldest days might dip down to 35 degrees, but the average winter temperature is usually 45+. I have a family of 12 at home, but here I live by myself. I help to take care of 9 other kids at home, but here, I'm only responsible for myself. While that might be a relief to most, I extremely miss my siblings and caring for them. I miss constantly having my family around. I feel displaced here at Saint Mary's.

My mom, dad, and 9 siblings are the people that have formed my identity. Sure, I'm from GA, I'm a woman, I'm white, I have an Irish and Swedish and otherwise unknown background, but I FIRST identify with being "one of the 10 Catholic kids that lives in the house up the street" as my neighbors would put it. My gender, race, heritage, state of residence, and my interests that make up my identity take a back seat to how I identify with my family. Being Catholic makes up a huge part of how my family functions and how we interact with one another. Without my family, I would have nothing and I would be a completely different person.

After being here for three years, I've realized that those things that took 2nd place to my family have changed. I don't identify with the same things I did in high school. I still, and will always identify with that southern girl I wish I could be up here like I can at home, but most others from around here wouldn't understand the joy I find in 90+ degrees, off-roading, trucks, running through the creek with my brothers and dogs, and my obsession with coke and fried chicken. Things are different here, as I've learned, but I've learned to take on new things. My interests have expanded to becoming a teacher, the Army and my future career it holds, and learning to live without always having someone else around.

In conclusion, I wanted to point out that being displaced has helped reinforce my identity and broaden interests that change how I would describe myself. For me, My family and faith is #1, my interests are next. I'm not too interested in my heritage and I don't need to find things that help me feel more like a woman, and people of other races are more interesting to learn about than learning about myself as a Caucasian in society. I know that frustrates some people, but my interests lie in other places. Basically, displacement can help us remember who we are, where we come from, and where we are going.

The Power of Writing

While watching "Girl, Interrupted", I couldn't help but think about Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". Both of the main characters are very similar in that they help themselves cure their problems through writing. For Gilman, sharing her thoughts with her husband or doctor wasn't an option because they would label her as crazy. She had to turn to her journal to help her through her post partum depression. Susanna, the main character in "Girl, Interrupted" helped herself through her journal because that is where she was able to realize what was truly wrong with herself. The doctors could tell her, but until she wrote down what she felt, she was going to have a hard time healing.

The power of writing was what helped both characters. That was the best way that they knew to channel their feelings. It's almost as though they were thinking "If no one will listen, at least I can share my thoughts in writing". Letting our thoughts boil up inside of us will only cause more problems, and these characters teach that any available source to release that energy is critical to self-healing.

The article below, written by psychologist Karen A. Baikie and psychiatrist Kay Wilhelm gives a very detailed analysis of the benefits of writing for healing. They also produce the results of their clinical observations on patients. http://apt.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/11/5/338 They found that most patients found writing to be valuale and meaningful, which made me think that even if writing therapy doesn't work for all, if patients find meaning in what they are writing, then they should continue writing.

The Yellow Wallpaper

While reading "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Gilman, I felt that the woman behind the wallpaper was a description of herself. She made it clear in the end that it was, but while reading the passage, I thought she was being ridiculous. The ways that she described the woman behind the wallpaper helped make her case insane. To me, the woman she saw was her shadow. Her shadow was the woman who was stuck behind the wallpaper and couldn't get out, which was a metaphor for how Gilman was stuck behind her husband's words and couldn't escape. As a woman in the 1890's, she was almost a child to her husband. She couldn't do anything without his permission, his opinion was the only one that mattered, and all of her requests were met with him talking down to her like a child.. i.e. when he calls her a "little girl" and says "bless her little heart" (375). She is the woman stuck behind the bars, which could also be described as stuck in her husband's prison. She isn't even allowed to visit her cousins because John, her husband said no.

Her writing could easily be compared to the painting of the woman and the child that we talked about in class. The woman in the painting is tending to her womanly duties of sewing, caring for her child, and sitting. She is stuck in the prison which society has deemed appropriate for her. Gilman was to follow the "rest cure" which meant that she couldn't write, care for her child, and had to lie in bed most of the day, the prison created by her husband. Both woman appear to be suppressed by what others have chosen to be the correct things for them to be doing.