Serious Drinking

“Can serious drinking be part of one’s cultural heritage?”

Alcohol relates differently to everyone. Between heritage, race, ethnicity, and family, alcohol can take a different path. Most nationalities have a relation to drinking. For example, Irish people are associated with drinking beer on special occasions, Italians like to sip a glass of wine during dinner, and many other cultures have customs like this too. 

Most countries today established a drinking age. In the United States the legal drinking age is 21. Albania, Armenia, Jamaica all do not have a legal drinking age. It is known a socially and legally acceptable to drink at very young ages. Germany, Greece, and Spain currently have 16 as their legal drinking age. Most commonly countries use 18 as their legal drinking age. 

Personally I believe that 21 is the most logical drinking age. As humans our brains are not fully developed until or around age 24. Drinking too much alcohol at a young age can be extremely harmful. Because of our drinking age that is set in the United States, I believe that it causes less of a chance to develop a serious drinking problem.

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

Oscar Wilde

Response to a reading

I Stand Here Ironing, written by Tillie Olsen, tells a story about a mother daughter relationship which I would never desire to have. 

Emily, the daughter of a careless mother, struggles in her day to day life. Emily has been sick with measles in her childhood and was not treated as she should have been on her return home. If I were ever sick in my home, my parents paid extra close attention to me. I would have felt extremely left out and unwanted if I were Emily.

Emily was eventually “sent” to a convalescent home. The care that she needed was promised to be available there. Unfortunately, when her family came to visit there was no real interaction. Emily stood on a balcony and had to shout down the speak to her loved ones. This would not be OK with me. It may be because I am incredibly close to my family, but if I were sent away for weeks on end, I would desperately need to have interaction with my family. 

School was not one of Emily’s strong points. Her mother allowed her to stay home even if there were nothing wrong. At the end of the short story, Emily mentions that she will not be going to her midterms. If my mother were aware of my lacking ability in school, she would motivate me to try harder. I would most likely be involved in a tutoring program due to my parents concern.

Emily’s future seems to be bright. She is performing at high schools and colleges, entertaining her audiences everywhere. Emily’s mother seems to think Emily no longer needs guidance. This is false. I will always need my mothers help throughout my life. Just because Emily is the same age as her mother was when she gave birth to Emily, does not mean that she can steadily take care of herself. 

Overall, I understand that Emily’s mother had her hands full while Emily was growing up, but there is no reason she could not step into her life now.

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. 

The Use of Force Themes

“The Use of Force”

William Carlos Williams

The short story, “The Use of Force”, written by William Carlos Williams, captures a family in distress from their young daughter, Mathilda’s, “sickness”. Her worried parents thought it would be reasonable to call in a doctor to examine their daughter. Although, the young girl fought back with rage when the doctor, Olson, tried to check for a deathly disease. The doctor became discouraged and started to bring out his forms of fury as well. It is arguable what the true theme of this story is; although, listed below are the themes I feel fit this short story the best. 

1. Children are capable of stubborn fury.
2. We should cooperate with doctors, even if they seem threatening to us.
3. Force against people is justified when it is used to halt disease.
4. All of us are “blind” in one way or another.
5. The cure may be worse than the disease.
6. People may secretly admire those who resist them.
7. Doctors should be especially sensitive when their patient is a child.
8. The desire to help may be met with resistance.
9. Though we like to think that doctors are kind, they may actually scorn us.
10. Working-class life is different from the life of middle-class professionals.

The theme which fits this short story best is “Children are capable of stubborn fury”. Mathilda demonstrates this in several ways. Hiding her illness from her parents for approximately three days, proves that she is being stubborn towards her parents. She was well aware, and old enough to understand the seriousness of her sickness and what it could have potentially led to. Towards her doctor Olson, her stubborn fury took action. When the doctor asked several times to examine her throat, Mathilda refused. Eventually, Mathilda resorted to “catlike movement” and almost clawed his eyes. obviously, Mathilda proves that children are in fact capable of stubborn fury. 

“We should cooperate with doctors, even if they seem threatening to us.” This statement directly relates to this story as well. As many people know, doctors are always there to help. Even if they seem threatening to us, everyone knows that they are just trying to help in the most effective way. Mathilda refused to let Olson examine her. It was apparent that Mathilda did not feel comfortable with a stranger looking into her mouth. When he started to become forceful her fury became even worse and all cooperation was lost. If Mathilda would have let Olson help her in the first place she would not have ended up with cuts and splinters in her mouth. This theme is very relevant to this short story and should serve as a lesson to all. 

Although doctors may seem threatening from time to time, “Force against people is justified when it is used to halt disease”. In Mathilda’s case, if she were to never let Olson pry her mouth open she could have potentially died. It did not phase the young girls parents when Olson started to use force against their daughter. For they knew it was necessary for this diagnosis. Clearly, this theme of using force for justified reasons directly relates to “The Use of Force”.

The following statement, has an obvious relation to the story. “All of us are blind in one way or another”. The speaker has mentioned blindness in two situations throughout the story. Once when talking about blind fury, and then again when Mathilda’s tears of defeat blinded her eyes. Mathilda was pretending to be blind to the fact of the seriousness of the disease, diphtheria. I feel that the parents were also experiencing a blind feeling when Olson completely took the situation over. This is how all of us are blind in one way or another directly relates to Williams’s short story. 

As the fifth most important theme, “The cure may be worse than the disease”. In Mathilda’s case this was completely true. Mathilda held in her secret of being sick for days, which could not have made the situation any better. Once her parents caught onto her secret, she refused to have the doctor complete his diagnosis. She fought back when he attempted to look down her throat and inspect the severity of her condition, causing splinters and cuts in her mouth. This experience must have been even worse than the actual disease. 

“People may secretly admire those who resist them”. Olson definitely felt compassion and admiration towards Mathilda. The more that she resisted him the more he felt the drive to help her. After her parents explained the severity of her condition the speaker says, “After all, I had already fallen in love with the savage brat...” (Williams 110). This is a similar quote to “playing hard to get”, which most people do believe is true. 

In most cases people would say that pediatricians are more compassionate towards children than regular physicians are to adults.” Doctors should be especially sensitive when their patient is a child.” In “The Use of Force” Olson does not seem to be extra sensitive towards Mathilda. This is why I do not believe that this theme is the top of the list. 

“The desire to help may be met with resistance” this theme does in fact relate to Williams story. Olson had a great desire to help Mathilda and she met him with a huge amount of resistance. Mathilda’s resistance though gave Olson a greater drive to help the young girl during her time of need. 

“Though we like to think that doctors are kind, they may actually scorn us.”  This theme has been ranked as number nine. I did not feel that Olson scorned the young girl or her family in anyway. He was there to help and did what it took to get through to her. Although, he was not super kind, he was there aid the family in their time of need.

“Working-class life is different from the life of middle-class professionals.” In no way shape or form does this theme relate to this short story. There is no mentioning of the working-class of middle-class throughout the course of the story. 

Many different themes could be applied to this story, although the top half of this list are the best ways to cover them overall.

"Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future"

September 10, 2012

Wishing everyone the best of luck this semester! 

Personally, I would like to succeed in all my classes and end the semester with a 3.5 GPA. Joining clubs and activities are a few other goals I have in mind.

 Enjoy the day!

 "It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness."