Section 2:
Previous Writing Piece:
Stubbornness Creates Blindness
“There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.”
STUBBORNNESS CREATES BLINDNESS
by Gabrielle Hunter
One of the most piercing traits that has withstood the ages, is no other than stubbornness. Stubbornness is the root to all inactivity and lack of growth in our relationships. It is often the barrier between what is old and new, and sometimes it smothers clarity between what is bad and what is good. The famous playwright, Sophocles, keys in on the various types of stubborn behaviors that we are frequently blinded by throughout our everyday lives. He integrates them into his plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone. A small fraction our community is physically blind. We can point them out without hesitation, but can we do the same for those that are mentally and spiritually blind? It seems though, that that does not come so easily for the average bystander. Stubbornness is often a problem for peers in a constructive society that lack wisdom and similarly in the household between parent and child.
A First Look Through Literature: Stubbornness ↠ In the first and third plays of Oedipus the King, Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Sophocles presents an unmistakable theme of blindness. The first play, Oedipus Rex, exhibits the stubborn behavior that can coexist between peers. At this point in the story line, his wife Jocasta repeats to him several times the severity of dropping the investigation. Despite her wishes, he continues on in search of the truth. His plan wasn’t going to be interrupted by anyone’s opinions. He persists, “Listen to me, I beg you: do not do this thing! / I will not listen; the truth must be made known” (57). In our first world society, there is small portion of people that can still say they openly and genuinely worship their religions. Our fast paced society has moved us away from religions like Christianity, but several of us can still relate to many of its messages. The Serenity Prayer, a Christian prayer, is a mantra that speaks to the helpless, the sinners, and mentally weak; the passage asks for repentance and wisdom. We can all relate to this because as humans we are not invincible nor do we control the greater destiny around us. It is important to understand this, so that we do not go mentally derailed attempting to solve the unsolvable or to reach the untainable. As we learn that we may not change everything in our lives, we can consequently make life simpler.
A Second Look Through Literature: Stubbornness ↠ In the third play of Oedipus the King, Antigone, we are quickly exposed to stubbornness, except this time not in the case of blindness but more so in the case of familial relationships. King Creon has exempt anyone from giving a proper burial to the disloyal Polyneices and has bound anyone who attempts to be stoned to death. He vocalizes this throughout the kingdom repeatedly with each word holding more power than the last. Antigone, despite his requests, proceeds on to give her brother the burial that he deserves. She expresses, “Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way” (191). There is no accurate recording to when the first parent-child feud occurred, but it’s certainly a perpetual circumstance for many families still day. There has been and will always be a stubborn child and or a stubborn parent that is set in their ways. We won’t always be granted the privilege of compromise, so it is important to understand from scenarios such as these to keep an open mind. Having an open mind can save us from much conflict, especially in our 21st century American society; these days, people are quickly resorting to violence as their immediate form of rebuttal. In this play, the stubborn Antigone goes against her stubborn uncle’s wishes in order to fulfill her spiritual duties to her brother. Although being stubborn can usually be thought of in a negative way, being stubborn can be positive when it means that you are holding your ground on what you believe in. Traditional and cultural values are far more important than showing others the ability to compromise. It shows structure and self-respect.
The essence of this quality, stubbornness, can be both destructive and structural. We face blindness in society by fearing the truth and shying away from warnings. It creates blockages for collaboration. Although rightly deserved, most times stubbornness is referred to with a negative connotation, but that is not always justly so. A person that is right and confident in their ways is less likely to be easily persuaded by every seller on the venue, and is able to stay true to his core values. It is up to us how we decide to use stubbornness: to shield ourselves from others’ opinions or to develop identity by staying enriched in our traditional beliefs.
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link to blog post: https://healthyfamilyloverfriends.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/stubbornness-creates-blindness/
Reflecting Back—
Writing comes in many forms. AP Language, AP Literature, and Writing 5-Cultures of Places have taught me this over the past three years, respectively. I am a creative writer; I take pleasure in expressive writing and shy away from writing formally, because writing in this way has taken away that privilege for me. My AP Language class taught me how to write in a formulaic manner, while my AP Literature class gave me the opportunity to adapt the lessons and themes from popular literature pieces and allowed me to present my own take on them.
AP Literature allowed me to create my own ingenious realm rooted off of various pieces of literary work. After the Oedipus Trilogy, I was given the task of choosing and adapting one of the three plays’ major themes. Upon an earlier project assignment that catalyzed my blogging journey, I prepped this new assignment to fit the theme of my blogging site titled: “HealthyFamilyLoverFriends” — a site that also captures other works like Hamlet and Tess of the D’ubervilles.
Throughout the three plays of Oedipus, stubbornness was a blatant and reoccurring theme. I also often equated stubbornness to a for of blindness. I began my writing piece by defining stubbornness and by describing its affect on members in society. I then further divide the phenomena into two perspectives, analyzing the role of stubbornness in by two varied looks. In my first look, I acknowledge the drawbacks of persistence vocalizing that the peace that acceptance can bring to peace to one’s life. In plays Oedipus Rex, Oedipus the King, and Antigone, the wife of Oedipus, Jocasta, warns and forbids her husband from investigating the truth about his family, because it is a destructive truth. He persists in search of the truth despite her words of caution and he is fated with the shortcomings of the truth. The second look at stubbornness captures the basis of parent-child feuding through theses scenes of Antigone going against the wishes of King Creon. Finally, to encompass the form of the play and to translate for a more general audience, I incorporated images, colors, symbols and other quotes.
In retrospect, I’ve grown from a just a creative writer to a more strategic writer. Without the use of external quotes, symbols, and pictures (aside from project 3), I was able to express my message. The flexibility if my previous AP Literature course allowed me at times to be less structures, but with the guidance of the book Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace and teachings of Writing 5, I have gained more structure, composure, clarity and purpose in my writing. Although more work is to be done, I have grown in focus and in patience through my completion of Writing 5 this term.